Robert Lax – slow reads

There are those who say I have no culture or I have no [history] by which they mean [they believe] a lineage [begins] in the aftermath of war and not before It takes centuries for smoke [to clear] enough of an opening Ghosts return as night folds again The fragrance of laurel leaf interposes between one page and another You can barely discern which hand [wrote, erased, revised—] But everyone comes from somewhere Is coughed up from the damp belly of a ship onto shore Count the notches carved into wood One for each [departure or arrival] Lay your palms where children and adults shuffed down a gangplank holding in their hands pictures of their lungs The spore of a potato from the old country hidden in a trouser cuff Salt-smell clinging to each collar Every mouth holding on to syllables that once made the only sense Each one [from] [Read more...]

It Takes Dedication — and Luck

17 April 2021 - Loren

I think amateur photographers are often the biggest fans of great photographs because they, more than anyone else, know what dedication it takes to produce those great photographs. Dedication + Luck. And you have to be dedicated to your art to get lucky. Some people are put off by the high prices the best photographers demand, but if you consider the number of hours they spent learning their craft and the number of hours spent without getting a great shot, you wouldn’t begrudge them their fees —though, if you’re like me, you’re probably not going to have the money to buy those kinds of works because you spent all your ready cash on photo equipment. Bird photography, like fishing, is definitely variable. I’ve gotten a lot of great shots at both Theler Wetlands and Port Orchard marina, but that certainly wasn’t the case on my last visit. Birding was extremely slow except for the Canada Geese which were loud and ever-present. I don’t take many pictures of them anymore except when they first have goslings,… [Read more...]

ALL THE UNIVERSE

17 April 2021 - Tom

All the universebut one bubblein a swirling potbeyond us. So muchmore than we know,those other placeswe cannot reach.All the life and deathand resurrectionof endless others,we think it matters.This universe, too,this moment, matters,until it doesn't.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Hidden treasure and what comes next

17 April 2021 - rbarenblat@gmail.com (Velveteen Rabbi)

Last year at the start of the pandemic, my hevruta partners and I studied a text from the Piaceczyner (the rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto) about this week's Torah portion, Tazria-Metzora. His jumping-off point is a verse about houses contracting tzara'at -- some kind of contagion -- and the need to quarantine such a house for a period of time. The commentator Rashi explains that there's treasure hidden in the walls of the afflicted house, and when we knock down the walls, we'll find the treasure. But the Piaceczyner is puzzled: if there's treasure, then why does Torah tell us to wait for seven days before we can knock down the walls and find the treasures hidden therein? His first answer makes me laugh: well, we can't exactly know why Torah says what it says! But then he says, if we look deeply we can recognize that in everything that happens to us, there's a spark of God's intention for goodness. Even if the situation we're in is a difficult one, God intends goodness for… [Read more...]

READY FOR CLOSE-UP?

16 April 2021 - Unknown

Collected my prescription close-up glasses yesterday. Here they are. The frame is a shiny sort of cobalt blue but the photo doesn't show it. I couldn't find any frames that were....what was that word?...sprankzy? I didn't like any of them and don't like this one much. I can read with them but if I look in any direction other than reading distance everything is blurred and dizzy. Are reading glasses always like this? Going back to SpecSavers tomorrow to complain and collect my NHS hearing aids. I can't get used to this "elderly" category. Nobody asked my permission to put me in it. Read the rest at the main Blaugustine: http://www.nataliedarbeloff.com/blaugustine.html [Read more...]

Sacred hearts club

16 April 2021 - Dave Bonta

Up betimes, and to my Office, where we had a meeting extraordinary to consider of several things, among others the sum of money fit to be demanded ready money, to enable us to set out 27 ships, every body being now in pain for a fleete, and everybody endeavouring to excuse themselves for the not setting out of one, and our true excuse is lack of money. At it all the morning, and so at noon home to dinner with my clerks, my wife and Deb. being busy at work above in her chamber getting things ready and fine for her going into the country a week or two hence. I away by coach to White Hall, where we met to wait on the Duke of York, and, soon as prayers were done, it being Good Friday, he come to us, and we did a little business and presented him with our demand of money, and so broke up, and I thence by coach to Kate Joyce’s, being desirous and in pain to speak with… [Read more...]

Ephemeroptera

16 April 2021 - Dave Bonta

Watch on Vimeo Driving home along the river, I have to turn on the windshield wipers every mile or two because of all the mayflies, the off-white inkblots of their anonymous deaths. Imagine living one’s life in a state of arrested development, and only on your last day undergoing not one, but two radical transformations, one after the other: growing wings, breathing air, and mating just once, having gained reproductive parts in exchange for the loss of a mouth. spring again scheduling my first Covid shot Process notes Placing two things in close proximity: that’s a poem. The shadbush and hepatica footage here came from a single walk down the hollow and back. But if only I’d had a dash cam on that drive home… Will this be the final post in the Pandemic Year series? Probably not, but it feels as if it could be. Pedants may think that COVID should still be written in all caps but that doesn’t seem to be how common usage has gone. In time, even the initial capital… [Read more...]

IN SOME LANGUAGE (37)

16 April 2021 - Tom

In some languagethe word for windalso means music.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

They Ask What Came First: The Hate Speech or the Attack

16 April 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

A woman walks to church the Monday after Easter. She's wearing a light sweater because at last it feels like it could truly be spring. But who even goes to church anymore on a weekday morning in New York? The immigrant healthcare workers will tell you. The nannies and short- order cooks, the 1 AM custodial workers; grandmothers who spent years polishing other people's floors on their knees as if before a god who only cares that every surface reflects his many countenances. See the figure that approaches her from left of camera, spitting words we know by now have the power to wrench visible what's usually invisible. Say scourge and it becomes scourge, say peril; say it must go or doesn't belong. See her fall beneath the weight of a boot. Imagine the crack of her pelvis on the pavement, a sound muffled by traffic in its banal passage. Tell me how a woman slight of build could save every last penny in a clean pickle jar to put children through college, then copper… [Read more...]

THIS TOO

16 April 2021 - Tom

This too shall pass,this day, this earth,this universe,a dust mote,light and light'sdisappearance.The star we sawlast night, was itthere as we looked,or was it onlyits memory.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Bedtime reading

15 April 2021 - Dave Bonta

Up, and betimes to the Old Swan, and by water to White Hall, and thence to W. Coventry’s, where stayed but a little to talk with him, and thence by water back again, it being a mighty fine, clear spring morning. Back to the Old Swan, and drank at Michell’s, whose house goes up apace, but I could not see Betty, and thence walked all along Thames Street, which I have not done since it was burned, as far as Billingsgate; and there do see a brave street likely to be, many brave houses being built, and of them a great many by Mr. Jaggard; but the raising of the street will make it mighty fine. So to the office, where busy all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and thence to the office, very busy till five o’clock, and then to ease my eyes I took my wife out and Deb. to the ’Change, and there bought them some things, and so home again and to the office, ended my letters, and so… [Read more...]

Night from the inside (3)

15 April 2021 - Dave Bonta

Dark enough to see in each black space between the stars a haze of light, soft as the fur of a cat. * dark of the moon if anything is going to go bump * Vividly imagining every kind of death has become my mental background noise. It’s not as if I’m even slightly suicidal. So why do I do it? Self-loathing? A deep need to keep my ego in check? This is the kind of everyday, ordinary darkness that fascinates me. Is it even correct to call negative feelings dark? I almost feel they stem from darkness deprivation. * the twilight of animals under my house * night rain on the roof my greed for poems * What if there were an ancient, possibly immortal, protector of the hollow? Or more than one? It certainly wouldn’t hurt to pour out an offering now and then, just to let them know we acknowledge their sovereignty. But otherwise don’t speak or even really think of them. Because that’s doubtless how they would prefer it, should they… [Read more...]

IN SOME LANGUAGE (36)

15 April 2021 - Tom

In some languagethe word for fatheralso means stranger.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Spring

15 April 2021 - rbarenblat@gmail.com (Velveteen Rabbi)

When twigs swell and begin to bud and leaves emergechartreuse and tender I'm proclaimingwhat I nurtured in secret silencethrough the long winter and sleep's cold blur.Golden light, I missed you so muchit hurt. I answer your beautywith my own, vulnerableand shivering. My yearning for youis prayer. I originally titled this draft "The tree speaks," but that felt pretentious. Who am I to imagine I know what a tree is thinking? When I sit at my desk in my study, there are several trees in view of my window. One, some kind of maple, has begun to leaf in deep red. Two others have begun to leaf in the implausible chartreuse that I think of as the truest sign of northern spring. New leaves seem so fragile and tender to me, especially knowing that there's a forecast of snow here tomorrow. The end of this poem bears the imprint of this week's Baal Shem Tov text study with my Bayit hevre. We studied a beautiful text from the Besht arising out of parashat Tazria, which… [Read more...]

El[ectr]ocution

15 April 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

Haven't we seen their eyes follow our mouths forming around words; then wait to hear how or when we might trip or break? This is the way we learn that to speak is always revelation of our sacred silences; the tongue making its way through mine- fields and graves, its care mistaken for deficiency or meaningless delay. [Read more...]

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

15 April 2021 - Loren

Although large flocks of ducks dominated the landscape, there was a considerable variety of birds, including the usual suspects, like this Great Blue Heron and several eagles, including this immature Bald Eagle, who willingly posed for me instead of merely flying overhead. Though I was disappointed not to spot an American Bittern, I was pleased to get some good photos of this Yellowlegs, though I’ll have to admit that I was surprised to see him running around the ground quite close to the Bald Eagle. Seeing this one was particularly welcome because I had seen one two days before on the way home from Ft. Flagler, but it was too far away to get a decent shot. I’ve taken a lot of pictures of Yellowlegs, but every time I examine a shot closely on my computer screen I’m amazed by those long, slender legs and those equally long toes. [Read more...]

STONES AND STARS

14 April 2021 - Tom

Stones left in the springfield by winter heave.Tough grass just greenand the budding leaveson trees. Mudded earth.The run of river.The wind, sun, and sky,and at night the stars.Of these we comeand to them go.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Garret dweller

14 April 2021 - Dave Bonta

Up betimes to Westminster, where met with cozen Roger and Creed and walked with them, and Roger do still continue of the mind that there is no other way of saving this nation but by dissolving this Parliament and calling another; but there are so many about the King that will not be able to stand, if a new Parliament come, that they will not persuade the King to it. I spent most of the morning walking with one or other, and anon met Doll Lane at the Dog tavern, and there yo did hazer what I did desire with her and did it backward, not having convenience to do it the other way. And I did give her as being my valentine, 20s. to buy what elle would. Thence away by coach to my bookseller’s, and to several places to pay my debts, and to Ducke Lane, and there bought Montaigne’s Essays, in English, and so away home to dinner, and after dinner with W. Pen to White Hall, where we and my Lord… [Read more...]

IN SOME LANGUAGE (35)

14 April 2021 - Tom

In some languagethe word for wordalso means lie.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Mainsprings

14 April 2021 - Dale

HazardsThe mainspring contains a lot of energy. Clocks and watches have to be disassembled periodically for maintenance and repair, and if precautions are not taken the spring can release suddenly, causing serious injury. Mainsprings are 'let down' gently before servicing, by pulling the click back while holding the winding key, allowing the spring to slowly unwind. However, even in their 'let down' state, mainsprings contain dangerous residual tension. Watchmakers and clockmakers use a tool called a "mainspring winder" to safely install and remove them. Large mainsprings in clocks are immobilized by "mainspring clamps" before removal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainspring"The mainspring is gone," I said. "Or I guess, to muddy the metaphor, the mainsprings are gone. My life still works, when I need it to. But the motive is gone."So what I'm hoping to understand -- to make -- is a new mainspring. And I thought, you know, I'm not proud, if there's a chemical shortcut I'm happy to take it. I think what I need, what I'm looking for, is a vision, an intense, clear vision, of..."Okay, let's leave… [Read more...]