Loose Leaf Notes

1. The contrast between the thistle’s beauty and its untouchable prickliness reminds me of an oxymoron, like “terrible beauty.”

2. Waiting for my doctor in an examination room by myself always makes me feel like I’ve gotten in trouble and am in time-out.

3. Not only that, but I want my blankey cause it’s always cold in there.

4 My poetry book, Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife, is on Amazon now. Some of the poems are paradoxical. Informed by the past and grounded in the present, they draw from the inner life where humor and darkness intersect.   Like dreams, and like life lived with wakeful attention, they have more than one layer of meaning.  – See a further description and review quotes HERE.

5. Our Thirteen Thursday poet friend Ron from Scrambled Not Fried gave the book a vote of confidence.  I like to imagine his words as a back-cover blurb:  “ got my copy yesterday & devoured it instantly. I’ll be eating it again today, this time with an attempt to savor it more slowly. Then, I plan on having it for a late-night snack before I go to bed.  What I’ve had so far, though, is framiculously delicioso!!!”

6. THIS “Liquid Shard” art installation (now on my bucket list) is made from holographic mylar and monofilament and stretches 15,000 sq ft. across a Los Angeles park, rising and falling like a mystical giant, slithering through the wind.

7. I like art installations that stretch the limits of reality like I like good science fiction movies.

8. So I got my first CT scan. It felt like an alien abduction examination.  I had to hold back my laughter when a Hal-like piped in voice said, “Breathe Deep, Hold Breath and Breathe.

9. A picturesque old Rockport MA fishing shack, known as Motif No. 1, that I photographed while in Rockport may be the most painted building in the United States — if not the world. It has also appeared in movies, as an award-winning float, on magazine covers, on a postage stamp, in a 1960s Winston cigarette ad and as a Kentucky bourbon bottle. Rockport’s boosters shamelessly promote Motif No. 1 as a tourist attraction. Other coastal cities and towns shamelessly steal its image as their own… Why ‘Motif No. 1?’ Built around the time of the Civil War, its prominent position at the end of the pier made it a natural backdrop for artists painting harbor pictures. Finally in the early 1930s, while critiquing a group of students’ pictures, several of which featured the little red shack, Lester Hornby, using a term often employed by French students to describe frequently painted sites, exclaimed, “What – Motif No. 1 again!” His fateful words stuck and since then the little red shack has been referred to as “Motif No. 1.” – From the New England Historical Society.   See pictures of my visit there HERE.

10. Cotton Candy, screams from amusement park riders, bright flashing lights, a strong man hammer and bell strength tester and a “drown the clown” joker were all part of the classic Marshfield Fair scene. Someone wanted to guess my age, but I didn’t want to draw attention to it.  Some of the game barkers use recorded messages now. The big stuffed animal prizes are the same. – More from We Have a Winner Here! HERE.

11. Rockport, Manchester (where Manchester by the Sea was filmed) and Gloucester (where The Perfect Storm was filmed) are all in the same county, and Marshfield MA, where my sister lives and where I stayed during my vacation, has been the backdrop of several films and is home to a few stars, which makes me wonder if Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and actor Steve Carrel ever run into each other. They both live in Marshfield.

12. In the last fling of summer / bleeding hearts flutter / Ladybugs hug / and butterflies stutter / songbirds lament / the last rush of lush / while hummingbirds hover / over leftover nectar … Read this poem in its entirety HERE.

13. Retired is better than flat tired or tired.

______Thirteen Thursday