This is just to say

The assignment was to change a famous work in form, style, or perspective. I normally hate creative writing assignments but this turned out to be more fun than I expected- I turned the classic William Carlos William poem into a Petrarchan Sonnet:

As I awoke I turned to see a sight-

you still asleep(and seemed so peaceful there).

Your lips, so soft, and curling amber hair-

eternal beauty framed within this light.

Entranced, I gazed upon your sun-filled face

until a new desire drew me away.

What could fulfill my hunger? I did pray,

How does one satisfy an empty space?

Inside the icebox I did find my prize-

A pair of juicy plums, so sweet and cold.

I beg you to forgive me for this crime,

as I have made you breakfast-less: deprived.

When I return, I hope you will not scold-

let me repay you with these words and rhymes.

This Is Just To Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

Thirteen Miles (or, Thirteen Ways of Listening to the Run)

A bird flies with 
  instinctive purpose, 
     but humans run with 
  determined will.

Rivers flow from beginning to end, 
  all at once.  
     Within every runner
  there is a river. 

The poem of the run 
  is one without words,
     won without words: 
  the run is the poem,

life’s rhythm exceeding 
  the sum of its beats:
     the drum of the run 
  becomes the rhyme

all at once:  it's the road
  speaking up to the feet, the heart 
     sending will to the legs, the soul
  circulating the blood,

all at once, the wind of the world 
  blowing into the lungs, 
     the breath keeping pace 
  (keeping pace, keeping pace)...

The race, says Qoheleth, 
  is not to the swift,
     but time and chance 
  are not what keep me going.

...it's the quiet salt rivers 
  that roll off the face,
     like lines of a poem 
  within a poem,

the descant chant
  of muscles in tune 
     with the length of the race
  and the time that it takes;

all at once, it’s the senses:
  the dry lips of thirst,
     the sight of the bend,
  the scent of the breeze,

the feel of the earth
  with the treadmills gone,
     the sound of the air
  without headphones on

and the mind memorizing 
  the song, but the song
     defies contemplation
  or singing along:

the song is the run,
  to be learned on the run,
     all will turning to purpose: 
  the run is a song.


           – JAV, 11/9/14

In advance

Josh, thank you for your latest list and the chance to listen to these songs.

Dan, I am going to read your last few posts, soon, but I have to start with an apology, for having no time these last few weeks.  And yet he has been listening to music?  And (next post) writing a poem?  Yes, and training for tomorrow’s half marathon, presiding over a church council saying goodbye to its pastor, plodding through another stage of my four year divorce, getting Andrew to all his fencing classes, attending parent-teacher conferences, working my regular job, keeping my regular monthly volunteer shifts at PADS and Feed My Starving Children.  But here is the plan: Monday I am taking some time off to read your latest story...  (and , p.s., next week going with Anne to see Kirsten's production of West Side Story!)

Meanwhile, in advance of Sunday’s race, here is my poem.

S2L2AAA-2014

Finally got the chance to get my list together and burn it onto a CD...had it over ad Jon's place Saturday night! The list has stood the test of time certainly long enough for me to know the songs are all absolutely appropriately dubbed 'songs to listen to agin 'n agin' So here goes:
Song   --  Singer/Group  --  Time

1. Hora Decubitus  --  Charles Mingus  --  4:42
2. My Old School   --  Steely Dan          --  5:46
3. I Feel Free           --  Cream                 --  2:54
4. Lake Shore Drive  --  Aliotta Haynes & Jeremiah --  3:55
5. Black Water  --The Doobie Brothers   --  4:20
6. Ten Years Gone  --  Led Zeppelin       --  6:33
7. Old Man              --  Neil Young          --  3:22
8. Big Brother         --  Stevie Wonder     --  3:34
9. Hole In My Life  --  The Police           --  4:55
10. Cancer               --  Joe Jackson          --  6:04
11. Life's Been Good --  Joe Walsh          --  8:04
12. Feel Good Inc.    --  Gorillaz               --  3:41
13. Doo Wop (That Thing) -- Lauyn Hill    --  5:20
14. Everybody Is A Star --  Sly & The Family Stone  -- 3:01
15. Martha My Dear   -- The Beatles         --  2:29
16. Success --  Josef Zawinul (poem by Erich Fried)  --  3:16
17. The Great Gig in the Sky  --  Pink Floyd -- 4:47

A-ight!  Now on to the Christmas compilation.  And then next years S2L2AAA list will come out a whole lot sooner than this--couldn't do it much earlier...circumstances, you know....  By the way, this current S2L2AAA compilation will be available upon request for your enjoyment!!!

Days of the Dead

You can name them, memorialize, live a

century and learn another, bless the dead.

Momento mori in hands of Hamlet—

you, me and all mere jesters put to bed—

may make universal sense. Bless the dead.

These days are most fecund, with fallen fruit

that mushes into earth, an Eden full.

We breathe in kind, inspire, expire, and melt—

Apollo eyes run their visions, then dull—

seeping into afterdeath. Eden full

of promise, then of liars, snakes in trees.

We’ve breathed in kind, inspiring clay to life,

and life to dreams, a little like our God—

may He and we forbid, to temper strife—

we’ve authored all kinds of plots. Clay to life

we fabricate and wonder where it goes.

From one month to the next, we mark them well.

Fyodor’s birthday, Mexican bankday—

Days of the Dead, dressed as heaven and hell—

more than mere calendar days. Mark them well.