Tuesday, December 31, 2013

32nd & Seagull






















32nd & Seagull

Along 32nd Street
there’s a little house
sometimes with a seagull
standing on the rooftop.
When it’s there it makes noise
turning and shaking its wings out.
Sometimes another gull appears.
I only see these things if I’m out
walking the dog, or going to the store.
With the whole town to nest on
it’s odd for a bird to land there.
There’s nothing about the place
to notice. Sometimes I forget
which house has the seagull on it.
One day as I walked past
a man was kneeling on the sidewalk.
He was digging dandelions.
I stopped and said hello.
He looked up and cupped his ear
as I asked, “What’s the story with
that seagull on top of your house?”
He didn’t mind telling me,
“It started showing up three years ago.”
“Do you feed it anything?” I asked.
I pictured him throwing fish up there.
At my bus stop once I saw a woman
wearing a bright pink bathrobe
tossing bread on the roof of her house.
Seagulls and crows were perched
all around, waiting for her to leave.
“No,” he said. “He just chose me.”

Monday, December 23, 2013

underwater frolix

  I'm the king of the tidepool!

This is my kingdom


I make the rules



 Hey Bub...



A fish!!



You might wish to reconsider...



 Okay! Okay!



......




  
Thanks for the compliment...



Friday, December 20, 2013

6:10 AM



















while I'm bumbling about in the kitchen at past 6
this is our noble beast, hard at work

Monday, December 16, 2013

my foolish heart movie


I finished rereading J. D Salinger's NINE STORIES 
a book I've forgotten how much I enjoyed. 
Today I watched the 1949 movie, MY FOOLISH HEART
from the story J.D Salinger wrote titled  
UNCLE WIGGILY IN CONNECTICUT. 
Trading rain for snow, after only fifteen minutes, the film 
suddenly veers away, off script. At first (knowing the author's 
furor) I didn't like it either and I even stopped the VCR 
and left it for a while. But soon I was back and watching 
again. Now, I've watched plenty of movies from that time 
and I love them though I understand how Salinger would 
have flown from the theater. Isn't that how Hollywood goes? 
From the words of Salinger's story, his characters have taken 
their own separate life on film. The movie is a bubble 
with Walt and Eloise that you know isn't going to last. 
"Poor Uncle Wiggly," he kisses her and goes off 
to war. 






















Monday, December 2, 2013

autographed book mystery


This weekend, I found this book
at a Goodwill. It's Burrough's infamous
Junky, English edition, Penguin Books.
It has this autograph inside.
Anybody have any idea who signed it?
This morning, I woke up out of dreams
at 5:47 AM convinced it was Pere Ubu.
It isn't...Who could it be??

Friday, November 22, 2013

salinger


























reading SALINGER a biography by
Shields and Salerno (2013). A big huge book
very hard to put down on the bus to work
or in bed at night. I also really like the
form of the book, placing his life on
a Buddhist path. Reminds me also to
reread his writing again and looking forward
to his books which will come to light.

spent all weekend with Salinger.
I had to see him through the second
world war horror. Now he's fighting
to get Catcher in the Rye published.
This book is such a good read it's
made me put everything else on hold
and I'm in the midst of publishing two
books too!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

charlie parker

























reading this new book
KANSAS CITY LIGHTNING
about Charlie Parker

Sunday, November 3, 2013


Friday, November 1, 2013

daydreams


from THE DALAI LAMAS ON TANTRA:

Regard all objects perceived during the daytime 
as things of a dream. One must think to oneself, 
‘These objects are but dream experiences and 
I must recognize this dream as a dream.’ 
Practicing this mindfulness during the day will 
have the effect that at night when a dream occurs 
one will automatically think, ‘This is but a dream 
experience.’ The stronger becomes the instinct 
of the training cultivated during the day, 
the stronger will become one’s ability 
to recognize the dream state when asleep.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

lester young

























Lately I've been reading books on Lester Young
getting ready to write my next novel, featuring
a jazz musician who appears briefly in
THE MERMAID TRANSLATION
and a couple of my other unpublished novels.
 



Friday, October 18, 2013

font faint


I got the library to order a copy of 
MY FLOATING GRANDMOTHER.
When it arrrived I noticed the book has 
the same cover font as one of my books! 



Sunday, October 13, 2013

the barn bug


for years I've been wanting
an old VW bug in our barn
I guess this will have to be it
on the windowsill


Monday, October 7, 2013

sky on sunday




photos taken yesterday by Rustle


Friday, October 4, 2013

paging Dr. Sleep



Well I stayed up too late last night starting in on 
Mr. King’s new book. It is excellent and once again 
so compelling it’s hard to put down. I think I’ll 
carry it around with me and read around every 
corner chance I get.

And by the way, Edgar Allan Poe is
mentioned on page 77: "All that we see
or seem is but a dream within a dream."