Loose Leaf Notes

1. The birds are my angels. Their old songs are new. I tell time through the windows by the flowers that are in bloom.

2. I carry my pen / like a lonely heart / ready for a love letter / Ready to be won over / and swept off my feet / by the desire to meet / the poem of my dreams.

3. Words are the vases that hold the blooms when thoughts are arranged.

4. Haikus are like poems for people with ADHD.

5. What is your mythology, as in a story that you identify with that may not be true but tells a deeper truth? Often, mythologies are about cultural heroes, or big questions like how death came to be or how the world was created, such as the Hopi creation myth that Spider Woman, a powerful earth goddess and creator, sang the first magic song and brought the earth, light and life into being.

6. I don’t have a religious mythology as much as I have a Jungian mythology, as in belief in the soul and a collective unconsciousness that can inform personal consciousness indirectly through myths and dreams. THIS poem draws on my mythology, which also includes Quantum Physics as it applies to space and time in ways that don’t fit with perceived reality.

7. I don’t like that toys talk. I think we should play in our own words.

8. Is Russia’s Z the new swastika?

9. HERE is the official video for ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, Pink Floyd’s new Ukraine fundraiser featuring Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox, who ended his U.S. tour to return to his home country.

10. “Blacksburg Lacrosse Team Told to Remove ‘Pray for Peace’ Shirts; Too Religious & Political, Says School Board… The girl’s lacrosse team at Blacksburg High School in Virginia wanted to honor their coach, who had spent ten summers volunteering in Ukrainian orphanages. So, t-shirts were designed and created – adorned with a simple message: “Pray for Peace…” Montgomery County Public Schools sent every team member an email ordering them to never again wear the shirts… the shirts were too religious and too political. Parent Clare Levison said the girls offered to replace the word “pray” with the word “play.” However, that compromise was rejected…

11. “…What is the peace from?” interim superintendent Annie Whitaker told The Roanoke Times. “A war. And a war is rooted in what? It’s a political war, from people who have differing views…” Mrs. Levison, a parent responded, “Could someone please let the Jews know that Hitler just had a different view than they had. Could someone please let the Buddhists know that Pol Pot just had a different view than they had? And could someone please let the Russians who were sent to the Gulags know that Stalin just had a different view than they had?”  Read more HERE.

12. Julian Lennon performs Imagine to benefit Ukraine: “The War on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy… As a human, and as an artist, I felt compelled to respond in the most significant way I could. So today, for the first time ever, I publicly performed my Dad’s song, IMAGINE. Why now, after all these years? – I had always said, that the only time I would ever consider singing ‘IMAGINE’ would be if it was the ‘End of the World’… But also because his lyrics reflect our collective desire for peace worldwide. Because within this song, we’re transported to a space, where love and togetherness become our reality, if but for a moment in time… The song reflects the light at the end of the tunnel, that we are all hoping for… As a result of the ongoing murderous violence, millions of innocent families, have been forced to leave the comfort of their homes, to seek asylum elsewhere. I’m calling on world leaders and everyone who believes in the sentiment of IMAGINE, to stand up for refugees everywhere! Please advocate and donate from the heart.  Listen HERE.

13. “Three little birds / Pitch by my doorstep /  Singin’ sweet songs of melodies pure and true, / Sayin’, “This is my message to you-ou-ou” – Bob Marley

____________Thirteen Thursday