Dust Danced In The Sunlight 2012
06 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round reality Tags: dust as reality, things you can't get rid of
Dust Danced In The Sunlight*
Dust danced in the sunlight
Reminding me of things that
Are un-get-riddable,
E’en if you wanted to,
Dust would continue to dance
in the sunlight.
Dust Danced In the Sunlight 4.16.2012
Circling Round Reality; A Sense Of The Ridiculous;
*phrase from Jo Nesbo’s Smärtans Hus (House Of Pain)
Humility Or Humbug 2011
29 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in circling round vanities, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round reality, 2011, 2012 Tags: corruption, disrespect, downfall, everywhere
It’s a rainy, thund’ry day here in Härryda, Sweden (where Kent and I live in the country). The telephone is out. Somebody’s or somebodies have stolen the copper cables that have been hanging temptingly for months now (we live in a sad, corrupted conscience-free world). So here I was, doing the dishes, energized by coffee and wondering about the difference between humility and insecurity, they looking very much like each other.
Humility Or Humbug
It was a humdrum day.
Nothing on my mind,
I looked up humble
Where I found humdingers:
Humus
Humorous
For fingers.
Not a humph of sound,
For, humanized I pondered on
The difference ’tween
Low self-esteem
And lack of self-importance:
One, humility,
The other, well, -
Just plain old insecurities.
It is a fine line, hard to recognize.
The insecure seem often humble
And the humble insecure.
Good to analyze,
Who is the one to tell?
Then we come to arrogance.
Humility Or Humbug 7.5.2011
A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Circling Round Vanities; Circling Round Reality;
Arlene Corwin
-
No, the grass is never greener. Stay home and enjoy your Detroit could-be paradise. Help it along.
By the way, I worked in a wonderful jazz club in the 50′s! I don’t remember the name, but Detroit was the place then.
- Comment by Sue Shoemaker on Tuesday
- Delete Comment
In your intro, Arlene, you mention someone stealing copper cables. Being from MI … we have heard so much about the destruction of old homes and other properties due to the theft of copper lines in Detroit. It’s interesting to hear that this is not just a Detroit or even just a USA phenomena. Sometimes it is easy to think that the ‘grass is greener’ in other places in the world.
- Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on Monday
- Delete Comment
Pardon if this comes into your mail more than once.
Out this week -
Vaguely About Music
Arlene Corwin
The seventh in a series circling around some aspect of life: time, woman, the creative process, mysticism, vanity, our times and culture,Vaguely About Music deals with aspects of jazz, performance, criticism, celebration, mourning – all to do with music, the players, the performance.
Available on
Amazon.com, Xlibris.com, Barnes& Noble.
Also available as ebook
- Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on July 7, 2011 at 10:31
- Delete Comment
I forgot to mention, – as a starting point I was fooling around with the hum’s. So in the seriousness of the message is the fooling around-ness too. Even in the most serious matters there must be and is fun – and (conversely) and perhaps even more important, even in the fun and under the fun lies always the serious. Contiguous walls. (see next blog).
Fondly,
Arlene, Sweden
- Comment by Marian Van Eyk McCain on July 6, 2011 at 20:48
- Delete Comment
“…within the nowness of seconds, if you live in them, there is wisdom, and in that wisdom, security.” That’s a really profound statement, Arlene. I like it. And as Sue so rightly says, control is a total illusion.
Yes, that’s the beauty of poems. They are like Rorschach blots in the way they trigger associations, impressions, ideas, insights…
- Comment by Sue Shoemaker on July 6, 2011 at 19:01
- Delete Comment
Not sure where I first heard the phrase … THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL … but it seems to relate to the discussion here. When speaking of “security” and/or ”change” … as much as we would like to think that we have “control” over these things … the fact of the matter is that the idea of CONTROL is just an ILLUSION.
- Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on July 6, 2011 at 18:47
- Delete Comment
As the I Ching or Book of Changes says, there is nothing else but change. So, of course, all things being dynamic, there can’t be security (as we usually use the word) absolute. But within the nowness of seconds, if you live in them, there is wisdom, and in that wisdom, security.
And no, it isn’t what I meant in the poem, but your (Betty) and Marian’s response show what delicious things can come from a little poem.
Fondly,
Arlene
- Comment by Marian Van Eyk McCain on July 6, 2011 at 8:51
- Delete Comment
That is SO true, Betty. And I guess that’s why Voltaire called life “a daring adventure.” Facing that, square on, is what ‘radical aliveness’ is all about.
- Comment by Betty Taylor on July 5, 2011 at 23:24
- Delete Comment
There is no such thing as “security” in this life and it’s pursuit is a fruitless dead-end.
Think of all the empires built upon our fears and our pursuit of security–insurance businesses, financial markets, hospitals and health care businesses, nursing homes–the list goes on and on. We invest precious dollars in a futile attempt to ensure our safety. Life is not safe. Investing in these things out of fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. We end up creating the end we fear.
I know this may not be the road you were going down, but this is what your post stimulated in me.
Thanks,
Betty
Badge
Notes
Adding Photos
Created by Marian Van Eyk McCain Aug 12, 2009 at 1:25pm. Last updated by Marian Van Eyk McCain Nov 29, 2010.
Starting Point
Welcome to Elderwomanspace. This is YOUR network. If you are new here and/or are not already familiar with the way social networks operate,click here to read my note ‘Getting Started’. If you plan on inviting others into the network, be sure and click hereto read the ‘Invitations’ note first. There…Continue
Created by Marian Van Eyk McCain Mar 19, 2010 at 2:45pm. Last updated by
To Row Is Perverse 2012
23 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous Tags: a sense of the ridiculous, perversion, rowing, silly poems
To Row Is Perverse
Let’s row in reverse.
Why is the rowing
Always done backwards?
Why are we forced
To look over our shoulder
To get to the shore!
And what a hard way
To avoid hitting shoal,
Know where we’re going
To get to a goal.
To row is perverse.
To Row Is Perverse 4.23.2012
A Sense Of The Ridiculous;
Arlene Corwin
Specialist 2012
16 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round reality Tags: egghead, nerd, reality, specialists
Specialist
We used to call a specialist
A specialist.
Then egghead
(definitely 50’s out)
Now it’s nerd:
A focuser, dedicated expert – with
“I know a little bit
About a lot of things…”
Left to the quiz show whiz.
These days to ‘know
A lot about a little thing
And save the world’ with it
Is in in my small business
Not for show.
Specialist 3.6.2012
A Sense Of ‘the Ridiculous; Circling Round Reality;
Arlene Corwin
Tired Of Collecting 2012
08 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous, our times our cultureII Tags: acquisitiveness, our acquisitive nature, squirrels
Tired of Collecting
I know it’s wonderful to buy, amass.
Such fun!
So won-
derful!
The floor to ceiling shelves with books.
(and then and when you die. those left look
at those books and say,
“My God, we’ve got to give this stuff away –
It’ s just too much!”)
Who else will love their smell, their touch?
Clothes of different sizes, drawers full, folded
Smooth, all ironed, waiting
For that right occasion.
Oh, I’m sated.
Poet, artist, mate and human being
Tired of collecting
For the sake of vain, illusionary
Aspirations gobbled up by goblins.
But tomorrow, woebegone,
I’ll be back buying.
And acquiring
Squirrel to the marrowbone.
Tired Of Collecting 3.3.2012
A Sense Of ‘The Ridiculous; Our Times, Our Culture II;
Arlene Corwin
Holding On To January 2012
07 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round time II Tags: February, January, nostalgia, time
Holding On To January
I tried to hold on to January.
It didn’t function. Gone.
Surprise!
A February.
Tried to grab a ninety-three
Arbitrarily.
I’d found a piece
From eighty-three, and eighty-three
Touched yesterday.
I tried to hold on to last year,
Last month, last week.
They leak away into vacuum
And attempt at memory.
There is a sense of the ridiculous
In all of this.
Holding On To January 2.25.2012
Circling Round Time II; A Sense Of The Ridiulous;
Arlene Corwin
Thinking On A Couch 2012
02 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous, the processes II
Thinking On The Couch
Energy you well may be:
Feeling and perceiving;
Sentient, silent, needless;
Happy.
If you were that energy,
Your me, would it be
Conscious?
Daily this of mystic bliss?
Questioning ad nauseum,
Pessimism underneath?
Writing volumes, leaving tantrumed
Anthem poems
In chasms of un-wisdom balsam
In the humdrum, valium of days?
Columned volumes all in rhythm,
Not an inkling of the outcome,
In the nestled bosom of unknown
For gleesome freedom
We all long for
In a system most succumb to?
Never victim,
Playing possum,
The sum total in a prism,
(Most a prison) of atomic bottoms,
Chasms of a ho-hum flotsam, trashy jetsam,
Plumbing problems of existence’
Schisms, crumbs of wisdom now and then,
Fathoming the truth in
Threads of theorem,
Hokum, totem, parting saint-dom,
From the void of venom, Sodom,
Sum, and question, rostrum’s podium
A systemlessness system
Aim@knowing.com company
The day eventual?
It’s probable.
Thinking On The Couch 1.30.2012
Sense Of The Ridiculous; Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II;
Circling Round Reality;
Arlene Corwin
Thoughts 2012
14 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2012, a sense of the ridiculous
Thoughts 1.14.2012
Spiritually oriented, integrative, pragmatic, concrete actively participating in the world around according to my limitations and boundaries, I see without having to look.
It is impossible to avoid watching the world as it acts. Not that there are those who don’t try, numbing themselves with drugs and entertainment while Rome burns.
Living is painful, I admit.
A ship sinks, the stock market falls, an extraordinary storm, a quake, a tsunami, a flood, terrorist acts on holy days in places marked for holy visits, simultaneous revolutions, wars, corruption high and low, a nuclear catastrophe.
Everywhere.
And in the list mood, species wiped out daily, starvation, oil spills, amazons eroded, cut down, the human sperm rate weaker, foods, boobs, faces, bottoms, calves and chins not real, technologic speed, postponing and producing death.
Expansion/contraction. The names no longer do. Adjectives like cruel, greedy, vain and foolish: inadequate. In fact, the words for our times and culture cannot describe our time, our culture. Reality is so much more.
Yes here I am, words the weapon and personal savior; senses, mind and words, groping as they do.
In the negative sits the positive. Every force has an equal and opposite energy.
Suffering hurts. Observing it fosters compassion. Anger is uncomfortable. One can’t stay angry forever – not without longing and reaching for balance and calm. Resentment is unsustainable. There is hope.
Who Cares But Me? 2011
05 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in 2011, a sense of the ridiculous, I Is Always You is We
Who Cares But Me?
Some good,
Some bad,
Some short, some long,
Some mediocre -
Open to refinement’s future
For/to/in one’s glossary
Internal kernel
(that’s a joke –
of course a kernel is internal).
Who cares but me?
Who Cares But Me? 12.5.2011(found on a scrap dated 10.28.2008)
A Sense Of The Ridiculous; I Is Always You Is We;
Arlene Corwin
Caught In The Clutches 2011
03 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in 2011, a sense of the ridiculous, the processes II
Caught In The Clutches
Silly, weak and superficial:
Yup, that’s me.
Miss Marple holds me in her clutches:
Courtesy, mentality,
Five hundred other charm bewitchers –
While I watch and write a poem,
The moment hers, completely.
Puerile, silly, running from
The chores that call,
The tasks that bore,
Responsibilities or
Whatsoever one may call them –
I avoid them.
℘
Am I editing or not?
Putting book together?
What?
Writing verse, a robot?
What?
Love the murders.
Love the plot. Who cares
That victim never bleeds?
Ms Marple and I share a twinkle.
Looking through our Sherlock glass,
We’re wrinkled both.
No Marple yet, I try to separate the false
And true, distinguish clues
Relieve your blues.
I have a sense of the ridiculous
Not silly, weak nor superficial.
Imp, that’s me.
Caught In The Clutches 8.2.2011
A Sense Of The Ridiculous; The Processes: Creative, Thinking Meditative II;
Arlene Corwin
