One of my road conversations with Ned

[mnaz]

"I can't find a place to live," I say.
"You always run to the next place."
"I should know better by now."
"Some day you'll get tired."
"At least I found religion."
"And what is it?"
"I think it's a path."
"What kind?"
"A dirt one."
"Why is that?"
"Humble. No signs."
"Ah, the journey and such."
"It's not in a hurry to get anywhere."
"You don't get anywhere on pavement either."
"But it tries to get me somewhere."
"But isn't that why you take it?"
"Okay, maybe pavement is religion."
"Why do you say that?"
"It's too self-obsessed."
"Not like a dirt path?"
"A path is just a path."
"You never obsess on them?"
"God no; too lazy for off-roading stuff."
"Then how do you get anywhere?"
"I don't, if I'm already there."

[mtmynd]

That Ned..! Loves to toss out oddities and sublimities.

[sooZen]

Frankly Mnaz...I'm confused (part of my natural state of mind, I grant you) but I don't know which character is talking by reading this. I was okay until after the "I can't find a place to live, I say" and then I wondered...who is saying what? and then I thought..."It'sa POEM SooZ!" so perhaps I should just leave it at that. See, I'm not "there", I'm HERE. Hah!

[mnaz]

Ha. "Sublimaties" ... another Cecilism? Yes, this is snipped from a larger story without enough context perhaps...

The first line is me (from when I was on my endless wandering "search")-- and then it goes back and forth. My (many) conversations with Ned were actually more expansive and unhurried than this, but sometimes I take some of the things we talked about (or could have talked about) and see if I can write them out in this back and forth style...

[the mingo]

This made me think of blackjack

Hit me,
I'm due

[mtmynd]

Ha. "Sublimaties" ... another Cecilism?

[spelling corrected] no cecilism here.

Yes, this is snipped from a larger story without enough context perhaps...

The first line is me (from when I was on my endless wandering "search")-- and then it goes back and forth. My (many) conversations with Ned were actually more expansive and unhurried than this, but sometimes I take some of the things we talked about (or could have talked about) and see if I can write them out in this back and forth style...

I do recall a bit of those but in the long run, methinks you need to make this much clearer. I know you can, amigo.

[mnaz]

Yes I can. (But I do like sublimaties quite a bit)..

[mtmynd]

Yes I can. (But I do like sublimities quite a bit)..

it does have a touch of happiness to it...

[mnaz]

'Sublimities' with an 'I' is even better.
(I didn't know that word, sorry.)
Clarity, not always as easy as it seems..
I was riffing on 'journey v. destination',
or trying to, from some sort of oblique
angle.

Hit me. Yeah I agree,
it reads a little too much like 21.
I hate those 16s..

[sooZen]

You guys playing games again? Take out the trash instead... Hah!

"Clarity, not always as easy as it seems..." is pretty clear and simple but easy? Who wants easy? Writing, as you all know, takes a lot of work, i.e. editing, clarifying (yep), and looking at it (what you write) from above...in other words like someone else wrote it and you have never "seen" it before. Doing that may require what you/we are doing HERE with this riff of yours. I write using a lot of words and my best edit is to go back and remove as many as I can without losing the essence... taking out the trash...

Sometimes, when Cec and I are driving around Phar Lepht... I like to pretend I have never been here before and it is my first visit. I see things I never noticed when I am just going to a destination (Walgreens or lunch). I take that journey you speak of Mark. Now, to write/poet it down so you can see what I see and not add to any confusion on the reader's part is the mark (pun intended) of a good writer.

[mnaz]

That's how I (try to) write and edit, Soozen. Get it on the page (or screen), then take much of it off (the "too much" part), and see if anything is left. At least that's the idea.

I'm pretty sure this exchange really did occur, in some form, during one (or more) of my many long conversations with the title character-- probably somewhere circa 2005-- even if the actual dialogue was less choppy and more, uh, well, expansive ...

It was a time when I was definitely into the journey-- literally. On the road (and all those dirt roads) for most of an entire year...

[justwalt]

I really love your vision mnaz man,
and too, the way you interpret it.

I like this piece too, it reads like my
tarot card reading two days ago...
frighteningly accurate!!!

Things are cool, but scary too... Love it, rock on!

[mnaz]

latest take..
"I can't find my place."
"You keep moving."
"But I found religion."
"Religion's just a path."
"I think it's a dirt road."
"Why do you say that?"
"Not trying to get somewhere."
"Ah, the journey not the end . . ."
"Not at all like the highways."
"All trying to get somewhere."
"Ok, maybe they are religion."
"A path is just a path."
"Exactly."

[saw]

existential quips
as someone once said, Keep it simple stupid !

i was in a bar with this guy from the neighborhood that I let cut my grass and trim trees sometimes
His name was Randall, never knew his last name....he was three sheets to the wind as they say
so he chugs down his umpteenth beer, slams the glass down on the bar top, lets out a big roar through a mostly toothless grin
and says " Ha I've already outlived Elvis and Jesus !"

that really got me
Deep, man

[mnaz]

That's good! I'll have to remember that one.