older than my age
younger with rage
musty haze
sweeps all that's sane
from the page
now the idiot's words
are the words of the sage
come watch me rattle
the bars of my cage
trying to create beauty
in a place and time
with a race
of hollow eyes and ears
who savour destruction and
ugliness
who favour factories over
open fields
who slave for years
to buy a better coffin
than the man next door

come watch me rattle
in wide-eyed infant wonder...

JAMES BROWN
1933 - 2006

...rest in peace, Brother James...

Uncle Tug's Chirstmas Necktie

My Great Aunt Cleo was married to a fellow named Elmer Ray and being that he was never jazzed about the name 'Elmer' he aquired the nickname 'Tug' when he was a young man...Uncle Tug was an interesting character who made his living as a rare coin dealer and never had a 'day gig' as long as i knew him and he and Aunt Cleo always seemed to have a comfortable lifestyle, so he was obviously good at the coin biz and as i got older i came to find out that he was of international renown and a contributor to many coin collecting books...i always loved going to their house because it was like a trip to a museum...Uncle Tug would always break out the his latest aquisitions to show me...gold dubloons retrieved from sunken Spanish galions, Roman coins, carved pieces of amber that were used as currency in ancient Persia, one never new what new treasure would be pulled out of his safe...actually more of a vault i guess since you could in fact walk into the thing...his basement was like a fortress and the alarm system was wired directly to the police department since there were priceless pieces of history there...
...anyway...the whole family used to gather on Christmas Eve for the stereotypical Norman Rockwell sort of event...copious amounts of food and beverage would be consumed, including the famous Tom & Jerry's, which always was a laugh because my dad's brother, Uncle Walt, had two sons named (you guessed it) Tom and Jerry...and every year Uncle Tug would wear the same silver necktie with red reindeer and as fate would have it, i am wearing that very tie as i write this post and i will continue to sport this worn old piece of silk every Christmas Eve in memory of Tug and Cleo and the rest of my clan, most of whom have passed...i think of you all often...especially on this night...Happy Christmas all...

winter solstice
draws days short
brings quiet
and cerebral life
to the night
floating
rolling
sliding into dreams
dreaming nightsongs
sing silently
sing on
sounds soothe
wounds and weariness
bleary eyes peer
into the new year
year of the snake
enter the snake
singing
slide on strongly
bringing grace
to a clumsy world
tune inner space
and sound
to perfect pitch...

Happy Birthday, Pop...

...hold on to your noggins
the mixing of the Tom and Jerrys has begun...

When the mode of the music changes,
the walls of the city shake.
--PLATO

...was in one of my favorite eateries last night and was standing at the counter, having ordered my raspberry chicken salad, waiting for my change...much to the chagrin of the young man waiting on me, the cash drawer had run short on needed denominations...after apologising for the the delay, he slowly moved the last several crisp one dollar bills from the cash box up to his nose and inhaled deeply...this he did again...and again...i thought that his eyes were going to roll back in his head, so i broke his reverie and told him not to bogart the bills and give me a hit...
...nothing quite like that fresh printers ink...

...the flannel sheets have come out of the cedar chest which is my official first sign of winter...it has become way cold before the solstice...have some hot buttered rum and a wonderful weekend...