Sympathetic Strings

July 15

Sympathetic Strings

A guitar with 28 strings generates much sympathy from the cords which were not strummed.  Pluck is contagious and inspires much harmony and verve in the vicinity in which it shows face.  Sympathetic strings vibrate in response to the jangling around them but are tuned to their own notes.  Much distortion adds to the depth of the sound created by this throng.  Can you hear my life?  How a disturbance in my life rings in the lives which surround me?  How I twitch and chime when things are twanged in the lives of my neighbors, my friends, my kin.  We make the music of care, the discord of reaction.  To every move there is a sound to every sympathy a harmony. 

Surprise yourself with the light in your own eyes

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THE LIVING DREAM

Throwing yourself into the river in pieces

Drowns you as crumbs.

Casting aside love and longing

makes you less in your heart

and your soul stops beating.

Pitching your tent with critics and complainers

Leaves you out in the cold on warm summer evenings.

Crest the hill to meet the rising sun

Orbit the constellations without hesitation.

Petit point the pictures in your mind

Then set them to music.

The world is your dream

Live it into reality.

Mail Fraud

November 18

MAIL FRAUD

The open envelope betrays the tampering I suspect.  Too bad my critics are snooping, not my supporters.  When they are finished tearing open my mail, they tear me apart as well.  Shredded, I feel unable to handle further correspondence.  I shut down communications.  There is no channel for benefactors to travel.  My champions are at a loss to defend me from my opponents; the struggle flounders.  Misunderstanding the meaning of messages, I have been mocked and enslaved.  I would love to vanquish my foes, but you see I am opening my own mail.

Ask often all the questions.

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The Story as a Stowaway

I want to tell you a story,

but I want to tell it to you quickly,

so I can give it to you and then you can carry it

on your way, for what good is my story to you

if you must leave it where it lay?

Your need to be elsewhere presses on us both

and I wish to give you what you can take rather than

to try to stall you here for an epic you might never lift

and certainly not dream of dragging along.

I want you to be on your way

and take a part of me with you.

I wish to sew myself in your mind;

tether my tale to your soul.

I believe in forward motion and the need to carry on.

Where you’re going I can’t go on my own

but I know that if I am funny, quick and lite,

part of me goes even to the end of your world

and my hope is to help you make it bright.

On a Half-shell in Front of Tiffany's

October 30

On a Half-shell in Front of Tiffany’s

Pretty petty pearls wait in oysters more perturbed than annoyed. I string my tears for the sake of posterity leaving the dreams to fend for themselves. I am nothing if not splendidly prepared for a life less steeped in wishes than realism. Opening volleys tell a tale of round irritation, but I am not finished just yet. Joy comes from surpassing obstacles and wearing healed grief as precious gems around my neck.

Pick a retirement home for your critics

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EIGHT MISTAKES CLOSER

I am eight mistakes closer to perfection.
As long as I fall forward, progress is being made.
I fail meticulously toward my goal
More cannot be asked.

Loss, pain, frustration are strong teachers and motivators.
I suck each splinter for knowledge,
Extracting juice from every fragment for information.
In spite of sprains and strains I have stretched
Attaining almost my full height.

Growth is a wonderful thing though cost is always involved.
Mistakes are an unavoidable price
But well worth the expense.
They are an expense which pays dividends
Dividends that move me towards perfection.