Loose Leaf Notes

1. Now is Wow backwards.

2. A good way to get the attention at a loud café poetry reading is to say into the mic, “let’s talk about sex,” which I actually did once. A good way to get Facebook friends to watch a Yoga Jam dance video clip is to ask, “Is that Bernie Sanders dancing in the back corner?

3. Don’t pop my bubble.

4. I had a file called “New York” but thought it said “New Work” so I clicked on to work on a poem.

5. I don’t have the balm of little children / I don’t have an island to go to / I can’t hunt or lift heavy loads / I won’t drive on I-95 / I don’t have a garden that doesn’t die / that isn’t choked out by weeds / at the end of every season… Read my poem “I Don’t Have” in its entirety HERE.

6. “An old pal is locked up with COVID this week and another pal is dealing with QAnon relatives who think liberals are vampires and another pal is suffering anxiety about having ringworm infestation, which his doctor says he does not have but he lies awake at night worrying and has been put on antianxiety medication, which doesn’t help all that much. I’ve never suffered from anxiety, I don’t know any QAnon people and I don’t have COVID, so I am going to skip complaining today. I’m old and out of touch, and, as the old gospel song says, “This world is not my home, I’m only passing through” so what is the point of complaining, it’d be like going to Vladivostok and asking people to please speak English, or going to church and when the usher comes by with the collection plate, putting in a twenty and asking for a whiskey sour. Wrong time, wrong place.” Garrison Keillor

7. 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 – From The Hum of Summer 2013

8. “I will be retired one day. My last breath will be the clue.” – My friend Katherine

9. “I displace my need to change onto the other. It is not I who need to change, but you. As long as I remain fixed in this stance of demanding that the other changes, I am able to effectively displace and repress my own need to change. The obvious futility of this demand on the other can remain unconscious indefinitely, thereby rendering me permanently in a state of projection, “All will be well as soon as the other comes around and finally sees things as they are or should be.” Centre of Applied Jungian Studies

10. “When we speak for ourselves, this is sometimes called using ‘I statements’. This is where we own our statements and views about things but do not presume to be able to speak for others. We do not assume they hold the same views and so do not speak in a way that implies others agree with us. I-messages are often used with the intent to be assertive without putting the listener on the defensive. They are also used to take ownership for one’s feelings rather than implying that they are caused by another person. Here are some common examples of people speaking for others that are rarely acknowledged and assume the content to be almost ‘factual’ rather than just the individual’s subjective experience or view: Travelling on the underground is horrible. It will be miserable again today, it’s going to rain. Going to work is a burden we all have to suffer. The people who live in this town are not very sociable.”  – From Communication and Conflict HERE.

11. My focus is inner but I still need glasses.

12. THIS just happened.

13. “I’m not telling you it is going to be easy; I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams

_________Thirteen Thursday