Category: Life

August 23 – Look for recognition

Look for recognition
Work any good? Measure up? Well,
Grapes were sour anyway

I entered a haiku contest hosted by Landmark Books in Traverse City, Michigan.

I hoped to win.

I looked for recognition that these often mindless scribblings might be considered, ‘good’.

I was downcast to learn that I had not won.

The winning Haiku,

High Murder of Crows
Scripture on Cloudscape unfolds
A thousand meanings

submitted by a Ellen Lord, is interesting and in my opinion, echos a reocurring theme about crows from the writer Jim Harrison.

I pass over that Ms. Lord lives in Charlevoix, Michigan and that Ms. Lord has now won twice in the 5 times this contest has been held.

I got away from the writing these just for the fun of it.

Well, this episode is over and I have learned my lesson.

Besides, those grapes were sour anyway.

ONE hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. “Just the things to quench my thirst,” quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: “I am sure they are sour.”

“IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT YOU CANNOT GET.”

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

August 22 – coming in tired

coming in tired
amazing simpatico
takes all sorts to start

Random words and phrases as I listen to the conversation during a rain delay in the 3rd test match.

Random words that describe my morning to a T.

Fog of fatigue.

Swamp of emotions in drive to work.

Things to do.

Things I have to do.

Things to get done.

If asked though, I just want to lay down for 10 minutes and close my eyes.

August 21 – searching for dark socks

searching for dark socks
in a dark drawer, dark room
each day, new result

Part of my preparing for bed routine is to grab underwear and socks out of the dresser for the next morning.

When I wake up I try to not bother my wife who gets to sleep a little longer.

On the days I forget, I find myself in a dark room, reaching into a dark drawer, for dark socks.

Socks by feel.

Dark socks feel just like light colored socks.

I am setting down the parameters of this analogy.

I leave to you to apply it to your day.

Your life.

For myself, I feel this is a sign to give up now and get back in bed.

August 20 – drip, drip? percolate?

drip, drip? percolate?
one cup at a time? which one
need coffee, not slops

FATHER FEELS STARVED

At breakfast, Father would put down his coffee-cup in disgust and roar: “Slops! Damn it, slops! Does she call this confounded mess coffee? Isn’t there a damned soul in Westchester County who knows how to make coffee but me? I swear to God I can’t even imagine how she concocts such atrocities. I come down to this room hungry every morning, and she tries to fill me with slops! Take it away, I tell you!” he would bellow to the waitress. “Take this accursed mess away!” And while she and Delia were frantically hurrying to make a fresh pot, he would savagely devour his omelet and bacon, and declare that his breakfast was ruined.

From the movie, ‘Life with Father’

in Life with Father (1936) by Clarence Day

Kitchen counter can look like a mad scientist’s laboratory and all I want is a decent cup of coffee in the morning.

CONSISTENTLY!

The drip coffee is reliable but the brew can be a bitter and soulless cup of ‘slops’.

The percolator has the body and richness but some days it doesn’t work right and it produces ‘slops’.

The less said about the keurig the better. One cup of ‘slops’ at a time is still a cup of ‘slops’.

Not saying I don’t like the keurig during the day but for breakfast, but for that wake up cup of HOT coffee?

No Sir.

You CAN say it is not a vacuum pump thermos of coffee that has been set out some time ago.

COME ON.

All I want is a rich, smooth cup of coffee that I can count on every morning.

Come down stairs, put it together and plug it in.

Back upstairs to shower.

Downstairs eager, hopeful to not being filled with ‘slops’.