perpetual jam!!!!!!!!!

[sasha]

what matters to one
needn't matter to all -
does it matter
that I like a splash of hot sauce
with my poached egg?
does to me...
does it matter
that I can't abide autotune?
does to me...
does it matter
that I'm learning mathematics
I was never taught in school?
does to me...

does it matter
what message might lurk
in a song lyric?
not to me -
but if it does to you
that's what matters
that and the Jam

[saw]

the wind is howling outside
happy to be safe and warm
don't like walking when it's like this
it messes with my hearing aid....
of course I could take the aid out and be deaf
and I've actually tried that and it's pretty nice
but I felt I'd like to know if I was invading a bear's space
or a highwayman
Today I learned a new trick.....pull up your hoodie
works damn well....
I can still hear but the wind is dampened
and so on we go
when there is a will to walk
we get innovated and create solutions
thanking the stars that my brain is still
functioning enough to step outside the box
once in awhile
and go for an enjoyable walk into the woods
body isn't great, but it's ok as well, I think
The hoodie may be one of man's greatest inventions

[sasha]

no hearing aid
(yet)
but..
went exploring yesterday
cold, a bit breezy -
just enough to make my eyes water
constantly...
usually leave my glasses behind
on winter walks
easier to wipe my eyes one-handed...
this time had to juggle gloves, glasses, & camera...
but I got to stand in places
I've never stood before...
to see landscapes
I've never seen before...
to feel the undulations of the earth
beneath my feet...
to push myself up hills
and clamber over brush
all within a few miles of home...
a great afternoon -
leaky eyes and all

[saw]

any moron can fell a tree
but can you keep the tree
from killing you ?
trees don't always fall
exactly where you intend,
sometimes they bounce off
a neighboring branch, and
if you are standing too close
you could be injured, or much worse.
consider these three things
the wind, the lean, and the balance,
the tree will topple sometimes
before the saw cuts all the way through
this is quite imoortant !
if the kerf is closing up
instead of getting larger
you have misjudged the balance
do Not keep sawing
in the hope that the tree
will change it's mind
Trees, Never change their minds

[saw]

a new phenomenon has cropped up.....
poor white people are getting in line
at the food pantry and they are leaving
their red MAGA hat in the pickup truck

still unwilling to confess they fucked up,
too ashamed to deal with the truth of food scarcity
while The Don spends a few million
on a Great Gatsby themed party ay Mara Lago

might be time to wake up and smell the bullshit

[sasha]

rain dances on the skylight
filling the house with polyrhythms
and the woods with mist -
softening the edges,
muting the contrast,
rendering its blacks and whites
in diffuse grays -
a misty fantasy by Ravel...
on days such as this
I should catch up on my reading
I should write and test the code
I've just flowcharted
I should do a load of laundry,
scrub the toilet,
dust, vacuum the floors...
but ennui rules on days such as this
and who am I
to say No?

[saw]

the refrigerator cries, Feed Me
barren of nutrition and cooling nothing
I know it's time to make a trip to the market
but something has caused paralysis
yesterday I ran five errands
including the ghastly Dept.of Motor Vehicles
and that should suffice for this week
but what about the pangs of hunger,
can I quell them with cans of tomato soup
and couc cous
maybe I can stall just another day
tomorrow feels better to me
but what if I can't move then either
well there is more soup in the pantry
and one more box of mediteranean cous cous

[saw]

three cheers to the courageous citizens of minneapolis
who refuse to let vigilantes without legitimate training
run slipshod through their neighborhoods, all the while
demontrating remarkable restraint as first class obervers
we watch thugs, many pardoned by the don from Jan.6th
white nationalists, from the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers
criminals with ICE uniforms free to exert whatever force
they deem fit to old men wearing only a blanket ripped
from his home not allowed to dress, and 5 year children
kidnapped, windows smashed in vehicles with poeple trying to get home
or trying to get to a doctors appointment, beaten and sprayed
with tear gas at close range, permanently blinding one man,
while an adminisistratin is complicit and secretly cheers
the level of barbarity inside their gilded hideaways, and
there is Renee Nicole Good murdered while it was filmed
and the lowlife coward muttering on audio capture, " Fucking Bitch"
Sadly it seems like this is just the beginning.....but i have hope
watching those minnesotans and demonstrations all over globe
People saying NO

[winddance]

I always
close my eyes
when it gets to the
scary parts
please someone
tell me when
I can open
my eyes

[winddance]

as if the political madness
weren't enough
my nieghbor accidentally let his
three guinea hens go
they are up in the tree
next to my house
shrieking like
demented ghosts

[saw]

oh wireman of the stars
so glad you are missing the destruction
of our beloved country
when i look back at all the bickering
between the parties
especially at election time
it now seems so insignificant
so petty, so silly, so much of a nothing sandwich
the fascists paint it black
over top of the red, white, and blue
you would not be happy
it's like night and day
prior administrations, blue or red
still allowed a little daylight
the current one is nothing but criminals
simply enriching themselves
as their hatred tears apart the citizenry
their darkness allows very little light
but the reisistance will have a say
minnesota has 30,000 trained observers
looking over our country
not just because their neighbors are disapperaing
which is bad enough, but they feel a sense of duty
to try to protect the rule of law
and democracy itself
I'll get back to you soon my friend

[Doreen Peri]

Sometimes a few days go by
without a post. I can hear the wind
whistle past the window pane,
memories of familiar voices
bounce of the walls, the paintings
gone now and the shadows of
readers standing in line
near the mic
have mostly
disappeared

We have been told that this will happen
when we least expect it, though I
never believed it somehow

Sometimes some days go by
somehow so silent
that I cannot hear
anyone even breathing,

let alone a poem
or a heartbreaking song

[sasha]

A day doesn't go by
that I don't drive by this site
and that the desire to be heard
prompts me to open Notepad
and tappity-tap a few keys
to capture the notions within -
like setting out a bucket
to catch drips from a leaky ceiling...
but sometimes the leaks stop on their own
sometimes ideas dry up and die stillborn...
but when they don't
they can be pregnant with promise
gleaming like trees after an ice storm
sometimes they just feel right
and that with just the right words
they might matter...
sometimes it just takes time
to gather up those words
to sculpt that raw clay
into a faithful rendering of a notion...
and TIme
is a finite resource....

[saw]

eighteen years ago
I stumbled into studio eight
reeling from work as a shop steward
the constant battles with management
who were purposefully trying their best
to make worklife for decent hard working
employees as miserable as they could,
the big cheeses did not care about winning
the grievances I filed as long as the workers suffered some

And Studio 8 saved me
gave me a place to visit that was enlightening
and felt warm and fuzzy, unlike the cold gray
steely eyes of the postal service's vision,
a place I could always count on to lift my spirits
so I began to write poems in my head as I walked
my mail route, and when back to the truck scribble
ideas on bits and pieces of scraps of paper, oh man
so many scraps of paper, pocketfuls of notions
born in the ambling determination of a uniformed
outsider, who had found a slice of nirvana

though many have gone, the core stills tries
to connect with each other, knowing it isn't
really important to be brilliant, it's the effort
to keep something special alive and for as long
as possible.....many of us are long in the tooth
with many years of experiences in our pockets
and we refuse to be tossed out like the baby with the bath water
so we just keep writing and photographing
and touching base
may we all stay healthy and able in all the ways that matter

peace, love, and understanding