Loose Leaf Notes

1. I went to put on some chap stick in the dark when going to bed and it turned out to be a glue stick.

2. I told my friend Holly that and she said, “does that mean your lips are sealed?’”

3. I just call it a face mask, but when I posted this pic of me in single digit weather on Facebook someone commented that I was wearing a balaclava, not to be confused with the honey nut Greek pastry that my neighbor left in my mailbox for Christmas.

4. “The name comes from their use at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War of 1854, referring to the town near Sevastopol in the Crimea, where British troops there wore knitted headgear to keep warm. Handmade balaclavas were sent over to the British troops to help protect them from the bitter cold weather. British troops required this aid, as their own supplies (warm clothing, weatherproof quarters, and food) never arrived in time. According to Richard Rutt in his History of Handknitting, the name “balaclava helmet” was not used during the war but appears much later, in 1881.” – Wikipedia

5. “Opening the Christmas presence.” My Dharmacratic friend Will on Christmas Day

6. The day after Christmas I came across a review announcing that Bono of U2 had a new memoir (which he calls a wemoir). I read a chapter on Amazon, loved it and told Joe how good it was. He laughed and said ‘I got that for you for Christmas.’ Turned out he ordered one, it was delivered but he forgot about it and forgot where he stashed it. After a good look, he found it, so I have Bono’s new book for Christmas after all.

7. Looks like my poetry is selling at Walmart.

8. A lost and found letter / returned to its sender / Dream delivered / Truth unsealed…From my new book Poems From The Darkroom

9. I’ve been waiting for the muse to land on something sweet in the hopeful chance it will pollinate me.

10. My friend Luke said I dance like a pollinating bee looking for nectar.

11. “We Are All Poets Now: Poets use words (and silence) to change things. They care about form and function and most of all, about making an impact on those that they connect with. Every word counts. Every breath as well. In a world filled with empty noise, the most important slots are reserved for the poets we seek to listen to, and the poet we seek to become.” -Seth Godin on poetic priorities

12. Joe was the Christmas Yankee Swap referee, but Santa is the ultimate referee. He says ‘everybody won!” See HERE.

13. “Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration. I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced… that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet. This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable.” William Shatner

________Thirteen Thursday