Loose Leaf Notes

1. I dreamt all night that I was filling out a form to report how the January 6th insurrection affected me. I kept having to start over or get a new form to fill out.

2. When I lost you in Paris / we were both naïve / not to have made a plan / Now there are secrets I’m not in on / and sometimes you don’t say a word / I see you but you don’t see me / We still argue over who looked away first… From Objects are Closer Than They Appear, which appeared in my poetry memoir of the same title, the third in a trilogy.

3. “Hitting an emotional chord, talking to my late sister in dreams, becoming a tourist to my own aging and inhabiting the inner life where the ground of consciousness isn’t mine alone, these are some of the themes that Objects are Closer Than They Appear explore. Every remnant pulled from memory or a dream resonates with an afterlife, as if they were visitations from the same place where my dead loved ones are, closer than they seem. Through the landmarks of foundational lived-experience and the transcendence of dreams, I am writing the psyche’s story, leaving my poet’s thumbprint, love letters to whom it concerns.” -From the back cover of Objects are Closer Than They Appear

4. Entropy or Atrophy?

5. She said don’t worry about a crash or running out of gas. Destiny is the orbit of a developmental path.

6. When a birth is happening / All of the universe/ Coalesces to attend / So it is with someone’s death / Time opens the doorway – Read more about our community memorial celebration for our friend Monika and the rest of this poem by Katherine Chantal HERE. 

7. The Whale should have won Best Picture. Would the classic book Moby Dick be banned today?

8. “Moby-Dick may be the first work of western fiction to feature a same-sex marriage: Ishmael, the loner narrator (famous for the most ambiguous opening line in literature) gets hitched – in bed – to the omni-tattooed Pacific islander, Queequeg: “He pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married.” -The Guardian

9. I also recently watched the movie classic, Soylent Green, an ecological dystopian thriller, on one of those retro channels and was surprised to see that in 1973 the movie was based on “The Greenhouse Effect,” causing dying oceans, year-round humidity, food, water and housing shortages. It was set in 2022.

10. “The greenhouse effect happens when certain gases collect in Earth’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases from human activities are the most significant driver of observed climate change since the mid-20th century. Worldwide, net emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities increased by 43 percent from 1990 to 2015. Emissions of carbon dioxide, which account for about three-fourths of total emissions, increased by 51 percent over this period. As with the United States, the majority of the world’s emissions result from transportation, electricity generation, and other forms of energy production and use.” -EPA

11. It was a steep switch-back climb. I Ieft Joe in the dust because my bike has an electric motor and his does not. At the top is the world’s largest man-made star. Erected in 1949, the Mill Mountain Star sits 1,045 above the Roanoke city. It represents the spirit of the Star City and stands 88 feet tall. It lights up at night! – More HERE.

12. “Advice for the class of 2000: Run away and join the circus. Get a tattoo, hop a train. Plant a garden and save the seeds. Get married, have kids, wear a hat. Get good with a bullwhip. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal. Everyone must put beans on the table. Be devoted to the unification of the diverse aspects of yourself. Remember, most of what is essential is invisible to the eye. The quality of time you spend with someone far outweighs the quantity. And there’s a lot you can do with a wah-wah pedal and a bullet mike.” – Tom Waits

13. “An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian.” James Baldwin

_____________Thirteen Thursday