foggéd
this tucumcari’s scary when a fog has snuggled in
it has crept in while i slept to my somnambulist chagrin
and i amend intended liftoff till it’s lifted clear’d and brighten’d
for to drive unto arrival does require i not be frighten’d.
..
Fog has bedeviled my cross-country travel in three different cities in five days. ‘Tis the Season!
Here is where I landed after checking out of the Super 8 in O’Fallon, MO, and driving a couple of fairly stressful hours, more often ROAD WORK than not, featuring a swaying, loaded vehicle carrier/deathtrap fond of slopping over into the next lane. I needed gas, food, and non-driving downtime.
We have here a “Club Wrap” and “Caramel Frappuccino.” I may deserve a scolding, especially for the sugary drink. But I have been mostly good.
I was hoping to arrive in the Phoenix area in time to attend the First Friday Open Mic at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, but that can’t happen safely, not with 19 driving hours to go, so I console myself that I will be there in plenty of time for the Glendale High School multi-year mini-reunion at The Nest North. Odds are high that this will be the last time on Earth that I see many of my fellow Class of 1972 alumni.
Safe travels for us all, Friends.
I presented my driver’s license to the friendly volunteer at the polling place.
I was not listed.
They looked everywhere they could think of.
Nada.
“But Motor Vehicles said they had registered me to vote.”
“When was that?”
“August.” Eyes widened.
They said they could give me a provisional ballot but if I wasn’t registered to vote on Election Day it would be considered invalid.
So they registered me to vote, but I won’t be able to vote till the next election.
I should have followed up after I “registered.” Shame on me.
PLEASE VOTE today if you haven’t already, my fellow Americans!!
by your leaves
by your leaves we can tell it is autumn
in an early and savory season
and it’s two months till winter’s rock bottom
and for bundling there’s not much a reason
we can tell that it’s calm and unquizzical
and that seasonal changes abide
so we revel in that we are physical
with our senses along for the ride
a single tear escapes his eye.
some of it evaporates,
some is absorbed by his pillow, and the rest
is a thin encrustation of salt.
..
his grip on the bedrail is weak.
the rail feels like the javelin
he wielded and hurled 70 years ago.
he can still remember the moment of release,
that perfect throw with all his muscles in sync,
and the certainty in that moment that his javelin
would sail beyond all others.
his suffering is eased by that memory.
..
minutes later he is not suffering at all
as a telemetric line streams across a screen
like a javelin hurled into the Infinite.
Here We Are
Have some Awe
Etch a shwa
Rate it fair
Eh, we’re there
..
Random Setter
Recon jets
Aces ease
Nero wept
Donald kept
Own store
More moor
..
Safe T Ness
Seratonin
Aspertame
Fosters [Facilitates]
Ecstatics
..
Splish Splash
She seeks & grasps
Pads a lock @ the hasp
Leans on a Fella–well
If his mushroom’s portabella
Snuffs a candle w/a hiss
Hits the hay & makes a wish
..
Hey You
Hot & gooey
Eager too
Yesterday is dèja vu
..
Dive Vers
Danger is a ready shiv
If you want to pass the sieve
Visit Hell but do not linger
Escapades need tricky fingers
..
Club Glub
Casino G
Lets a heel
Ugh up you
Bye bye noob
..
We are on stage on Earth, mere players. In our life’s time we will play many parts. Enter; exit; enter again, changed. Some day we will play our final role.
William Shakespeare, paraphrased
A SAWING sound, and the flash of a tiny handsaw, come from the interior of a ripe PUMPKIN. With a PLUNK! sound the PUMPKIN’s SAWED-OUT RIGHT EYE hits the TABLE. More SAWING and PLUNK!s come as the PUMPKIN’s LEFT EYE, NOSE and MOUTH are carved. Lastly the PUMPKIN’s NOTCHED TOP is carved and pushed out.
A HARPY, modified from myth to fit inside the PUMPKIN and wied the SAW, jumps out of the PUMPKIN, strikes a LOUNGING POSE, and declaims the PUNCHLINE, which is “Harpy Halloween!”
..
Happy Halloween to all my READER FRIENDS, be they from CHINA, THE UNITED STATES, FINLAND, TRINIDAD and TOBAGO, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, ISRAEL*, SINGAPORE, or any other location OUTWARD.
..
*Make Peace! Free Palestine! Heal the wounds of War! Please!!
When I started this project I thought it would be enhancing to embed the numbers 1 through 8 in the individual acrostics. But I did the numbering top to bottom then left to right, and then I spelled out numbers in individual acrostics felt to right then top to bottom. I think I was trying to shake up reality a little. I know I was making it more of a challenge to throw in a bunch of numbers.
Paths 1 and 8 match the numerals and the alphas; the other, middling paths are mismatched. Many journeys are like this.
Right Concentration
Einstein changed our Fate–good chap
Goldened boy–Phi Beta Kappa
HEPA and filter–octal & eight
Th’ E equal’d MC² he saith
..
Curiously, a different sort of Concentration was required when assembling the atomic bomb. Only purified Uranium-235 works when preparing a critical mass. The chain reaction would not have worked otherwise.
“Namu amida butsu” is a mantra, a phrase that members is a special sect of Japanese Buddhism use to help with meditation. It roughly translates to “I take refuge in Amida Buddha.”
My college sweetheart wore a pendant with the wheel symbolizing the Eightfold Path on one side and I AM A BUDDHIST on the other. When we broke up she gave me a book of Buddhist chants. Somehow over the decades I lost that book. I do so regret that loss.
Right Attentiveness
Eigenvectors f l a p
Gladiators clap–a
Healthful sentiment
Takes hold on day the seventh
..
The first word of this acrostic is Eigenvector. It is from linear algebra, the land of matrices, determinants, Fournier transforms and the like. The Vector concept is fairly simple: a Vector is a force with Magnitude and Direction, represented by an arrow whose length is the Magnitude and whose arrowhead points in the Direction. An Eigenvector is a special vector whose direction is either unchanged or reversed when a matrix transformation is performed on it. This is somehow an essential component of facial recognition software.
Meanwhile, when Westerners use the interjection “Darn,” they are being polite and euphemising “Damn.” The Bad Punster in me has a character in my cartoon call this a “faux cuss,” and “faux cuss” is phonetically quite close to “focus,” and “focus’ is quite close conceptually to “attentiveness.”
Attentive readers may have noticed that this post, labeled “part 6,” is actually part 7, and the previous post, “part 7,” is actually part 6. And SUPER-attentive readers may have noticed that there has been some hanky-panky with numbers and numbering from the very beginning of this Eightfold Path sequence. All will be explained in the next and final Eightfold Path post.
I don’t know if Dwight Eisenhower played tennis. According to Conrad Hilton, he did play golf, sometimes badly. He also coordinated the most crucial troop effort of the Second World War.
Right Effort
Eisenhower lost a set. He Failed, was skunked six-zip
Got up kept serve & overcame despite a gimpy hip. A
Halt & lame guy wins the game lets ships lift troops to battle–it
Takes a chieftain rightly briefed and dice that luck’ly rattleth
..
To give an effort extra love
The trick’s to firmly push, not shove.
.
