1. Like a heartbeat keeps time / and a life leaves a sign / I make note of the landmarks / and count myself alive – From my poem The Moving Target HERE. 2. I just finished watching the memorial service for my friend singer/songwriter/actor Elizabeth McCommon on youtube and a slide show of memories […]
1. Over the years, our resident Santa has become part of the family. 2. We were so much younger then. 3. Our Santa is a swinger. 4. He doesn’t mind cold weather. 5. He knows if you’ve been bad or good. 6. He’s jolly good with kids. 6. Everyone likes to pose with him. 7. […]
1. “I used to tell students…the difference between poetry and you is that you look in the mirror and say, “I am getting old,” but Shakespeare looks in the mirror and says, “Devouring Time, blunt thou thy lion’s paws.” —Jim Harrison 2. Two red sheds. 3. They go well with a self-portrait of me in […]
1. About or a bout? 2. I’m an optimistic pessimist 3. Parody and reality are too close for comfort these days. 4. Sometimes you feel like you’ve lived too long / Days drip slowly on the page / You catch yourself / Pacing the cage -Bruce Cockburn 5. It’s been a long time. I was […]
1. My mantra today is ‘Just Live.’ 2. Stick or shtick? 3. Hanging by a thread or hanging in a web? 4. THIS is the soundtrack to this post. My sister Sherry and I saw them in concert in the ‘70s and I saw Jessie at the Harvester more recently. This song remains one of […]
1. Well… My friend Erika described Trump as an archetype, America’s Shadow. I responded that I sometimes see our story as myth, and we are all on the hero’s journey where there is always going to be monster giants around the corner, as well as magical amulets and potions with good power to be gifted […]
1. Dorothy meets Cinderella? 2. To paraphrase Alan Watts, known for interpreting and popularizing Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience: “wanting to change a want is also a want.” 3. I told Joe I was Wu Wei, referring to the Taoist practice of not making things happen but letting them unfold. And he said, “Are you […]
1. I write in my journal notebooks like a collage artist making mind maps. There are notes in every corner, and they’re not in order. Some are circled, some are highlighted with yellow and some are defined by doodles. It’s as if they were an untenable mess on a desk, but I know where everything […]
1. This time of year, when the neighborhood cows moo persistently at night they sound like Halloween ghouls. 2. Sometimes a pot of gold is red. 3. It was poetic justice that we road our bikes up the Parkway, came across the POETREE at the old Floydfest site and it was full of apples. 4. […]
1. Our grandson was here for a visit and playfully put Joe’s glasses on the little pumpkin that we grew in our garden. I saw him do it, but it didn’t fully register until I spotted the glasses the next day and after hours of looking for them and giving up. 2. According to my […]
1. The Hurricane Helene flooding of the French Broad River in Western North Carolina hit home in my son Josh Copus’ town of Marshall, 20 miles north of Asheville in Madison County. Josh is owner of the Old Marshall Jail hotel restaurant and bar, which he repurposed himself with hard work, heart and artfulness. Situated […]
1. I only have a window of opportunity when poetry breezes through. It’s like watching the clouds and seeing pictures in them, but if I look away for a minute, they’re changed or gone. 2. I currently have a gaping wound from a surgical excision of a skin cancer. Recovery has been harder than I […]
