perpetual jam!!!!!!!!!

[winddance]

lift my little hatchet to the sky
music as a refuge
the ukulele a blessing
simple chords
huge potential for
songs of joy and pain
singalongs around a fire
bring alongs on a hike
mobile music
the one thing
the thing that makes life right
the rebel that lives
in the songs

[sasha]

music has no demonstrable effect
upon the aggressive behavior of indigent fauna
nor upon the rotational dynamics
of planetary bodies -
but it sure as hell
can bring a rainy day to life
or bust a writer's block
or turn tears of anger
into those of joy
or vice-versa -
it can fill silence with song
evict ennui
offer a troubled spirit
a mug of tea and warm slippers -
tasty nourishment for the soul
and it comes in so many flavors -
robust or delicate
tangy or smooth
light, dark roast, even decaf -
choose - or make your own
it's there for the taking

[sasha]

the music plays -
schuman's 8th symphony
dark, yearning, a heart in crisis -
so unlike the sunlight
pouring in through the windows -
splashing off the kitchen counter
painting oblongs on my bedroom wall -
snow fell last night
only a dusting
just enough to paint my car white
and hide the mud from view
my eyes delight in the blue sky
the benevolence of the morning light
warming the exhausted woods -
yet my ears mournfully respond
to angry brass and frantic strings -
the darkness lurking within stirs
and rolls over
in its sleep
better that it slumber
on a morning with such promise

[saw]

I paint to distract myself
from the iconoclasts....
I uncap tubes of contained acrylics
and squeeze colors onto a blank palette
and begin to mix a dash of this with that
to embolden sections of my canvases
and bring cathartic healing to my heart....
to help me forget about the death
and the destruction, the monsters, and to open
my eyes so wide they can see beyond the obvious
discord and turn my attention to bringing that canvas to life
and urging me to remember how beautiful life can truly be
when the barren is relegated to the back forty.
It's a magic trick, a sleight of paintbrush,
of mind, of memory, and even though it's a balm
of temporary relief, it serves its purpose
to not wait for another shoe to drop,
but initiate engagement with the world of imagination

[sasha]

I walk to lose myself
if only for a while...
to step back from the glitter -
the flashing lights, the fanfares, the self-promotion
of those telling us
what to feel and what to believe
posturing like so many children
playing Pretend:
I'm a fireman!
I'm a teacher!
I'm a rock star! an influencer!
a big important politician
and you'd better listen to me!

take a walk in the woods sometime
and look around you -
really LOOK...
at how Function defines Form
and not the other way around...
there are no slogans out here -
no verbal legerdemain,
no litany of lecturing & lies -
just chemistry
electrons hopping from one orbital to another
seeking neither adulation nor authority,
yet deserving of them far more
than those demanding attention
unaware
that quiet efficiency speaks louder
than false bravado

[saw]

lost in images than spin around
in my head, ideas of what to create
an endless slot machine of pictures
rotating around and around, and around
fragments often misaligned until
they finally turn up like three cherries

then I go to work, but more accurately
I go to Fun....and the process is always
morphing as shapes and colors present
themselves unexpectedly to me in what
becomes a conglomeration of flickers of light
and when this is happening the painting

is all I can think about as it asserts its identity
of course I have to multi-task with things
like eating and sleeping, but it's always there
and that it pretty much exactly what hiking used to be
I would read and look at photographs, and check the the week's weather
and put together a plan to to explore the unknown

[sasha]

there shall be no hiking today:
so sayeth the rain spattering overhead
on the skylight -
the fog-enshrouded woods nod in assent -
the muse within me is silent,
the blank page before me remains so -
and like Holmes
reaching for his syringe
of seven-percent solution
I click on the YouTube icon
and behold the usual parade
of noxious diversions -

political commentators asserting "ain't it awful"...
10 things never to say to your boss...
secrets that NASA doesn't want you to know...
and one outlier -
a mathematical equation
daring me to solve it...
so I try
and before hitting Play,
I brute-force my way to a solution...

his approach is smoother
more elegant
cleaner, definitive, rigorous
with a surprise twist at the end
that elicits from me a laugh of delight
and leaves me a bit sheepish
that I hadn't thought of it...
the Algorithm takes note -
suggests I tackle a Diophantine equation -
something I've never mastered -
so I dip my toes into the chilly waters
of modular arithmetic, along the shore
of Number Theory Sea...
and for a while I lose myself
like a child wandering through an art museum
not really understanding what he sees
but awed by its power
and loving its austere beauty