g l i m p s e d
gainsaid are the scarlet scoffers
all chagrined and aloe tropicked
spillways make decanted offers
plump seditionists thus topicked
Here is play with the acrostic form to third-time “glimpsed” and so make of it a motif. That the text makes sense, with a sly, subversive message that invites reader participation, is a bonus; but the priority is the image and what it evokes.
My girlfriend Melony, known to her friends as Mel, was sitting next to me in my apartment’s tiny dining area, checking her phone. She looked Mellow.
Often her texts are accompanied by hearts. Mine too.
Words:
Methinks meknows a gal
Encryptically well. O
Let the Glow-wax flow
In the midst of reading ALL HIS JAZZ: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FOSSE by Martin Gottfried, and learning of the friendship between Fosse and Paddy Chayefsky, the acrostic “Show Folk” occurred. Flashy Fosse is Show; and who is more Folksy than the hero of Chayefsky’s MARTY? Off we went.
Here are the words of the double-acrostic sonnet:
Show Folk
SUCCESS: best taken with that grain of snuff
Seize moments, lest the dark steal like a thief
Some mama cats won’t tote us by the scruff
Some ships are built to f o u n d e r on a reef
Huge OPPORTUNITIES have trapdoors too
How quickly handshook YES becomes a No
How quickly sours the Love Nest bill & coo
Howbeit, STRIVE–you may Behold & Lo
Ovations never last. PERSISTENCE will
Obliterate frustration and will quell
Oy-Vehish dark despair. We must distill
Our spirits from beyond ephemeral
We’ll Break A Leg, yet rise above the murk
With Old School secret sauce: workworkWorkWORK
Five years ago today this blog began. My intention and goal was to do at least one blog post a week. One post a week would have made this Blog Post #261 or so. On the other hand, if I’d done a post a day, which quickly became my ambition, this would be Blog Post #1826.
But one thing I’ve learned, and relearned, in these five years: Quantity doesn’t mean much in blogging; QUALITY means much more. Post a thousand blogs, and the more you waste a viewer’s time, the bigger the crime you commit.
That said, the ability to draw, to sculpt, to compose poetry, to genuinely CREATE–generally, the more time spent doing creative things, the better we get at not wasting a viewer’s time. We become more creatively fit. We try things. Go down dead ends and beat ourselves against brick. Pull out something from our psyche with hard pliers, and hurt for it. Phone it in, and hurt for that too.
It is our job as creatives to be perpetually dissatisfied, to weep over the masterwork our efforts could have been but weren’t, to try, try again until we morph to some degree from tourist to native, and to not settle into a comfort zone of facile confidence. Ours is–must be–the most important job on Earth. Our job is to be a voice of the best that Civilization has to offer.
And so, both humbly and arrogantly, we must start with self-portraiture. We discover who we are, what we like, at what we excel, and at what we may never succeed. It is important, just as it is important for a hot fudge sundae to start out both hot and cold, that our focused seriousness be alloyed with relaxed, carefree play. This enables us to explore, and it gives our inner fire some motivation and Zing.
Today I started a page inspired by Billy Crystal’s “Fifteen Rounds,” which tells the life first of Cassius Clay and then of Muhammad Ali, from victory at the 1960 Olympics to defeat many years later at the hands of Leon Spinks. I have watched the two YouTube versions of this performance at least a dozen times. The theme is pure Ali: “It’s never too late to start all over again.” That mantra has helped me get through some tough times in these five years.
Near the end of “Fifteen Rounds” a determined Ali asserts that he wants to take on ol’ Leon again. “I’m old, I don’t like training, but I’m gonna do it. Gonna do my pushups, gonna do my situps. I’m gonna RUN WITH THE MOON!”
And so will we, Friends. When this work in progress is finished enough to be ready for your subsequent view, we will run with the moon!
Today Tracy M gave me a shirt and a growler, found in this odd ensemble:
Over a year ago I joined the walking program, managed by Tracy, at Devonshire Senior Center. Some of us walk indoors at the Center, in a room with a jukebox, a piano, and a stage with steps up and down on its sides. Some of us walk outdoors on the mileage-measured sidewalk at nearby Los Olivos Park. I often do both, as I did today: a measured mile (3 laps) at the Park, and at least three miles (I did 65 laps, and it takes at least 15 laps to do a mile in this room) indoors. Tracy took my numbers at her desk. Here she is, uncharacteristically without her glasses on:
She truly and literally walks the walk. And she is Fitness personified, ultra-lean yet not gaunt. She is a Perfect Fit for her job, and her encouragement and steadfastness enable many of us to step lively, whether we be 35, 63 or 90. Whenever I despair of the state of our country and its so-called “leadership,” a thought of what happens at the community level, with such as Tracy and her generously giving sistren and brethren helping us in good health, always cheers me up.
In August I again became a college student, enrolling at South Mountain Community College so that I could be in their 3D Design class. The third sculptural project for the class is due today, November 6, 2017, in less than nine hours. The assignment: Make ten gesture drawings, have the instructor approve one of them, and create a wire sculpture based on that drawing.
I had never worked with wire before. It is fantastically fun to be doing so now!
The Inktober prompt for October 31st is “Mask.” Here was my response:
I thought it fulfilled the requirement but that there was more to say. So here is another take:
Indeed–Happy Halloween, friends!
Coming into the home stretch. Tomorrow is Halloween, and the last prompt, “Mask,” will have a post all its own.
At the request of Nikki A. Holmes, a lively friend of mine, I also did a page with the prompt “Epic.” Here’s Epic Nikki:
It’s been fun, Inktober, but what with work and 3D Design class and the Senior Center’s walking program and the World Series, it’s sometimes been tough fun. I’ll be glad to be taking a break–HOLY MOLY!! November 1st starts National Novel Writing Month! It never ends!!! 🙂
Here they all are at once, Friends, with a bonus origami crane to boot. The prompts: Teeming, Mysterious, Fierce, Fat, Graceful, and Filthy. As to the last, the portrait is of you-know-who but is unlabeled and meant to be more generic, because there are SO MANY creeps like him out there, proving that not only does power Corrupt–it Engorges.
Here are another six days’ worth . . .
