Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Codex Orange, Act I

Codex Orange

Dramatis Personae

Lillian Farmworth—school board chair
Rhea Smith—a school board member
Jon Tiosook—a school board member
Helmand Dostune—high school guidance counselor
Dr James Bourban—district 27 superintendent
Mary-Alice Springer—high school principal
Lou Vestral—high school teacher
Erin Kryzinski—high school teacher
Petra Green—school nurse

Sheriff Bohumil Slucha—Golden Valley Police Department
Duputy Phillip Porter—GVPD
Officer Sharon Simmons—GVPD
Officer Timothy Racine—GVPD
Officer Claude van Erdal—GVPD
Officer Gustavo Marrot—GVPD
Detective Soledad Bream--GVPD

Cole Barnadine—a local drunk
Terry Brandiwine—his girlfriend
Ted O’Shea—a locksmith
Father Faye—a priest
Antony Serentino—a basketball coach
Beth King—a standout player
Gavin Tate—a standout player
other players, standout or otherwise

Scene: Golden Valley, Minnesota

Ii—after a run
Iii—sizing up the school
Iiii—poking the drunks
Iiv—school board meeting
IIi—GVPD pre-brief
IIii—fight on the court
IIiii—Dostune’s office
IIiv—drunks poke back
IIIi—School Board at GVPD
IIIii—planning revenge
IIIiii—after midweek mass
IIIiv—after a run
IVi—sizing up the school
IVii—informing the school community
IViii—pub humor
IViv—Dostune held up
Vi—GVPD lock-down
Vii—Father Faye’s message
Viii—drunken plan at basketball
Viv—after all, said and done

Ii: A school gymnasium with un-pulled bleachers on one side and a curtained stage area on the other; walls are decked in old bunting and banners of conference and regional accolades. Eight adults merge together, slapping hands to cap the final game of pick-up. Lights high above illuminate the scene, windows equally as high are black with the night sky to the north and the second-floor corridor to the south. Nothing else fills the space.

TIOSOOK:  Getting too old for this—who called the win-by-two?

SERENTINO:  No one has to call it, dummy; your team threw away the lead.

TIOSOOK:  And then clung to desperation. We would have more wisely lost it by one, some seven points and fifteen minutes ago.

MARROT:  See, that’s your old guys’ problem, needing two minutes for each point—

SERENTINO:  Oh, and your academy youth did anything to help us tilt the balance? A dozen shots you took beyond the arc and how many actually landed? I thought you were a sharp-shooter! Next week bring your rifle site!

MARROT:  (sniffs out) Reminds me of something, not sure I’m supposed to say…

SERENTINO:  Say what?

MARROT:  Not authorized as yet. At least I think not, right Jon?

TIOSOOK:  What am I supposed to do with it? It’s not my call, really,… but might as well, seeing that it’s a closed circle at this point.

DOSTUNE:  (leaning in, quietly) Wait a second ‘til Gavin and Beth leave—you never know with new alums….

SERENTINO:  (contrastingly) Hey! See you two—good run tonight. Don’t shower together!

KING:  (offstage) You neither. Next week we’re on?

SERENTINO:  Next week!

MARROT:  Next week may be called off. That’s all.

SERENTINO:  Cut the cryptic, Gus: what’s going on?

MARROT:  Nothing cryptic when it comes to it, just a little hard to couch.

SERENTINO:  Man, I’ve got practices to run, games Tuesday and Friday—why not try to fill me in.

DOSTUNE: It’s a good point—I’ve been struggling with,… well, how all this might be received—

SERENTINO:  All what?

MARROT:  All the shooting and screaming and silence that will be going on—

TIOSOOK:  Hey, now, say it better—

SERENTINO:  Say it straight—you goons planning on doin’ something?

MARROT:  A terrorism simulation.

SERENTINO:  Get outta here—

MARROT:  Beslan, full blown. Just actors and us, a camera crew to take it all in, a school board review—the whole measure.

SERENTINO:  What? And we were supposed to know about this—when?

TIOSOOK:  Well, that was the tricky point. Monday is Presidents’ Day, kind of inconspicuous and we’ve always had a ‘spring cleaning’ crew come in to wax floors and such—they’ll still do that, only in the middle of the night, when the simulation is declared over.

DOSTUNE: What worries me isn’t actually the fake blood…

MARROT:  We’re going to have to run the whole gamut of a facility lock-down: when to crash in, when to shoot, how to negotiate through silence and noise. The whole gamut.

TIOSOOK:  The community will know what’s going on, but not too early—it’s decidedly not going to meet a debate—and the school campus will be cordoned off, off-limits completely. At least, I think that’s been established.

SERENTINO:  So, to be clear, you were eventually going to deign to tell… me, for instance, to stay clear of my own gym on Presidents’ Day so as to let paintball-by-grown-ups run amock?

TIOSOOK: Eventually, yeah. We were going to fill you in. Like, maybe now.

SERENTINO:  You sons of bitches—it’s gonna be a joke that turns on yourselves.

DOSTUNE:  No, no—there’s no joke or no turning—it’s nothing like that. It’s just a sensitive situation with all the annoying innuendo, y’know?

MARROT: Annoying: Al Qaida raids middle America—that’s hardly simulation stock. It’s more likely to be Columbine in most folks’ memories.

SERENTINO: So which is it? Which one are you simulating?

TIOSOOK: Well, that’s why we didn’t want to debate it. The fact is we can’t be reduced to the two prototypes. Terrorism defies any easy model.

SERENTINO:  Easy? No one said anything about ‘easy’.  I’ll just be god-damned if any of this is half as thought out as you think.

TIOSOOK:  C’mon, Tony, don’t get glazed over in this. It’s practical, it’s theoretical—but not the stuff of knee-jerk debate. It’ll be a tempest in a teapot, at best. It won’t involve students or teachers or anybody but actors and cops. It will be a troubleshooting exercise.

SERENTINO:  It will be whatever you don’t want it to be. It will define itself as an inchoate beast, lacking purpose and lapping up misgivings. You’re saying there wouldn’t be a place for debate, when time will tell and an arbitrary debate starts to unfold in colors you hadn’t contracted or comic-booked for. The stir of the night will not be the simulated fright of actors. The blood won’t be fake that courses through each cordon-buster, body and brain. You see, even if it goes without a hitch, the unannounced plan, when known, won’t ever be the same.

TIOSOOK: No, I s’pose not—now that you rhapsodized it. And you, good servant of the law, exposed it.

MARROT: As you allowed me to. No harm done: I said it only for the good.

SERENTINO:  (harrumphing) …only for the good…

TIOSOOK:  Good riddance—please keep in under your hat for a day or two, ‘til we figure out a disclosure method.

SERENTINO:  What hat? I’ll need to borrow goofy Gus’s and practice my DOOM.

DOSTUNE: That video game is long on the outs—a cyber-generation ago... Unfortunately, there’s a whole lot worse if you want to see a widening gyre—

SERENTINO: I want to see more of us putting this orange thing through a bushel basket, again and again and again and again…


Iii: The next morning, several members of the Golden Valley Police Department mill around the receptionist desk of the school. The first bell has rung and most students are in their classrooms, although some stragglers go to their lockers, cast glances toward the officers and shuffle toward the closed doors of their classrooms. When corridors are completely clear, the group walks slowly, loosely in a group, some jotting down particulars on clipboards. The pantomime starts and stops serendipitously, with random looks into trophy cases and pencil taps to the casings of fire alarms. The mumble of voices eventually defers to the principal’s attempt to gather them to a central spot on the stage, marked by the school’s coat of arms under their feet. None of them look that far down; instead, heads swivel mostly to the sky lights and the scribbles on their clipboards. 

SPRINGER:  And this is the junction between the academic wings and the ‘common area’—

PORTER:  ‘Common’ meaning what, exactly?

SPRINGER: Well, ‘common’. Not sure what else that can mean—

BOURBAN:  Kids would be prone to hang out here. We also might have informal gatherings and such.

PORTER:  But the big stuff happens in the gym…

BOURBAN:  Naturally. From the theatre platform—that’s right, isn’t it, Mary?

SPRINGER: (nodding, mumbling) Alice… Mary-Alice, so that these gentlemen know…

PORTER:  Okay, so we’d want to know the various ways from this common area to the theatre—any secret passageways, Alice, in the basement, maybe?

SPRINGER:  No—Mary-Alice, together-like.

BOURBAN:  Didn’t we already send you blueprints of the facility?

PORTER: Apologies. Left them at the station. But I do recall something about…

SPRINGER: Yes, we do have a basement—generally locked.

BOURBAN:  From the inside, though? I thought they were lock-release…

SPRINGER: Well, why don’t we go check…

PORTER: We’ll do that, all in good time. For now, pace us through a typical school day. Let’s say kids are in the academic… ah… wings and they want to go common.  Or, wait, let’s pretend it’s a, what d’ya call it—assembly, or a basketball game, and kids are going from this common…

SPRINGER:  If it’s a basketball game, we lock the doors to the common area and the academic wings.

BOURBAN:  Mind you, they’re release-lock, from the inside—

SPRINGER:  A school assembly, however, is a very different occasion—day from night, literally. Which begs the question: what exactly is the premise of this simulation?

BOURBAN:  Mary, we’ve been over this time and again: we’re not here to debate the premise. The occasion could be anything, from a single lunatic to an orchestrated campaign—

MARROT:  Belsan, full blown.

SPRINGER:  That’s not what I meant—I get the purpose, but what exactly is the premise you want? A middle-of-day event, or something in the evening? When kids are coming, or going, spread out in classrooms or assembled in a large place?

PORTER:  Yes. All of the above.

SIMMONS:  With due respect, sir, Mary-Alice is asking a pertinent question. What are we imagining for our roles this Wednesday?

PORTER:  We’re imagining being caught off-guard. So, whatever happens, it’s ‘situation fluid’—and that means now, tomorrow, this Monday—every day thereafter.

BOURBAN:  Well put. That’s the premise and the purpose.

SIMMONS:  Here’s my idea, for sake of efficiency: one of us keeps an eye out for the small spaces—washrooms, classrooms, nooks and crannies—another sizes up the common areas—

PORTER: Just one common area, I thought—

SIMMONS:  Not if we include the gym, the cafeteria, the foyer...

MARROT: I’ll take them. I know the gym inside and out.

PORTER:  The point is we all gotta know what we don’t know. Everybody has to be ‘small space’ and ‘big space’, familiar and unfamiliar. Gus, you want gym duty ‘cause you imagine this will be some kinda Beslan? Sharon, you want classrooms ‘cause you got good grades in school? Hell, I almost dropped out—was looking for any chance to get high—so should I take one of these, what did’ya call ‘em, ‘crannies’?

SIMMONS:  Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying.

SPRINGER:  Listen, the bell is going to ring soon—I think we need to proceed with the tour and get relatively out-of-sight when kids pass to their next classes—

BOURBAN: They shouldn’t be affected by authorities checking out the school.

SPRINGER:  And our talking Beslan, lunatics, and crannies to get high?

PORTER: Now, Mary, that’s not fair.

SPRINGER: (sighing) I think I’ll leave you to sort that out. Dr Jim, I trust you know the ins and outs and how each lock releases.

BOURBAN: No room for sarcasm, Mary-Alice. This is supposed to be your chance to lead the school through a code-red scenario; there’s nothing more important than what we’re doing right now.

SPRINGER: I don’t disagree, but the bell will ring and students will see us in muddle-mode, not the picture of confidence in code-red.

MARROT: Maybe it’s ‘code orange’ anyway.

PORTER: I always wanted to keep it ‘code x’—neither black or white or any other set color… Fact is, most of these situations wouldn’t care if the code were anticipated or not. Code green is just a trip-wire away from code-red..,

SPRINGER:  I don’t understand what we’re discussing in the middle of the common area as students are about to tumble our way…

BOURBAN:  I can’t understand why you can’t understand.


Iiii Near the Golden Valley train station, under leafless trees. Though the sun is high, a women shuffles in with a sleeping bag over her shoulder and spreads it across a bench as a makeshift bed. Behind her, downstage, a man stops at a message-board pillar and reads what appears to be fine print. With some effort he pulls off a plank of posters—glued one over another—and holds it as a heavy, open newspaper.

BRANDIWINE:  C’mon, Cole, come and make me warm.

BARNADINE: The sun will do that by itself. Anyway, it’s noon, fer God’s sakes—why don’t you get up finally and get some exercise?

BRANDIWINE:  Come in here with me and exercise you’self.

BARNADINE:  There was a time, no foolin’, I was a damn decent spor’sman.  Look here at what’s coming to the Target Center—the Harlem Globetrowers…

BRANDIWINE: What kind of trousers?

BARNADINE:  I said Globetrowchers—trow..trollers—shit, you know what I mean.

BRANDIWINE:  No, what do you mean?

BARNADINE:  They’re trick ball-players that travel the globe—there: Globetrav’lers, no, trow… damn!—doesn’t matter.

BRANDIWINE: Well just read it, if you’re not too pissed.

BARNADINE: ‘Trotters’. Of course. ‘the One and Only’—that’s a sly cover for ‘the Original’!

BRANDIWINE:  Wha’s so special about ‘em?

BARNADINE: They beat every team they face, if all for show.  I saw them in Chicago at the ol’ Ampitheatre, big barn that was. Back before everything turned into ‘Target Centers’—

BRANDIWINE: They got Target in Chicago?

BARNADINE: Something more like a Delta Center or United Airlines—something in honor of ‘His Airness’.  I los’ interest before all that racket.

BRANDIWINE: No, they got Target stores in Chicago?

BARNADINE: Well who gives a damn? Target’s everywhere by now, I think.

BRANDIWINE: Tell me why you left again. Come snuggle in, ‘least lean agains’ my legs.

BARNADINE:  Well, I wasn’t no Clyde Marrow run outta town, but I wore out my welcome too many places. Hard to disappear anywhere, even midst millions o’ people. I worked Steinmetz High School on the near north side for a couple years—

BRANDIWINE: Janitor.

BARNADINE: yeah, but more to the point I sold pot. Lots, and the place became a bit’uva mecca.

BRANDIWINE: but you didn’t get rich.

BARNADINE: you can’t get rich like that—gotta go harder core, then you get killed more likely than get rich. Anyway, I didn’t care for that kinda life. I wanted to coach, y’know, or just even assist some team in city league. But I’m a janitor, right? Who’s that? Can’t know his X’s and O’s or how to lace up shoes, let alone jump to the moon. I got involved in a midnight league, pick-up all night long if kids showed up. Paid me nothin’ but a little room to sleep in, right next to the locker room. Drug trade there was worse than Steinmetz, and, y’know, reputation follows a guy and so I was kicked out, no questions about it. I’d been through a lot’a temp jobs and hoped to get hired back at a book warehouse, where I played three-on-three every lunch hour and coffee break.  Andre Battle, Derek Mays, Nikita Walker—good guys, y’know, who played at Simeon and King and Loyola Academy, some to go on to Division I, but most sputtering out, like me. So then there’s nowhere to go but stackin’ boxes o’ books, and selling dope to make a dent, and… fas’ forward to Golden Valley…

BRANDIWINE: Wha’s the song we like, ‘Erase an’ Rewind’?

BARNADINE: But there’s nothin’ to go back to. May’s well go to the frickin’ Globetrotters game at Target—

BRANDIWINE:  O, can we? I’d like us to see a sure win…

BARNADINE: all scripted out—not a game at all. More like a shopping trip, I guess, if you got the cash… Target gets its customers one way or ‘nother.

The two settle in to a slumber, with the plank of posters serving more a sun shield than a blanket. Two police officers come by.

VAN ERDAL:  What’dya say, Tim, now or next go’ round?

RACINE: Looks like they just settled in for a long winter’s nap—hard to argue against hibernation instinct, huh?

VAN ERDAL: Not hard at all. Especially since they’re three months late for bear behavior. Let’s rouse ‘em.

RACINE:  Claude, we don’t have Dorothy Day available ‘til 4; that’s a bunch of hours to push these two from bench to bench, in and out of the train station.

VAN ERDAL:  ‘s their problem more than mine. Simple law: no loitering. Nothing I need to interpret, really.

RACINE: Okay, but what if you had to negotiate? We’re supposed to go through that simulation next week, at the school…

VAN ERDAL: With a couple o’ drunks? That would be easy. I’d let my billy club do the talking. ‘Never talk to a drunk’, my grandpa used to say. Nothing you can do to squeeze out sobriety.

RACINE: Well that’s what we might encounter: the equivalent of drunks. Terrorists whipped up by their own witches’ brew, not looking to unvex the situation with methods of reason, much less with clear-and-simple adherence to rules, and much much less with billy clubs.

VAN ERDAL: Listen, I’ll let Monday unfold how it will: it’s training, for heaven’s sakes. Today is ‘trained’—cops on the beat, rousing drunks, ticketing cars, seeing and being seen. Shouldn’t second-guess what we’re here to do.

RACINE:  You’re Rambo, man, when it’s easy pickins’. I think you’ll shit your pants on Monday, the way they’re talking ‘realism’.

VAN ERDAL: Pardon my boredom, boy scout—Hey! You two, get up! Rise and shine and give God your story, story—just don’t tell me, and don’t let me see you lounging these benches again—they’re tax-payer property.

BARNADINE:  Huh? Whe—(coughs) Where we at now?

RACINE: Sir, you’re outside the Golden Valley railway stop. Do you have a residence you can return to for a more appropriate sleep?

BARNADINE:  We’re here with the Target Center show—

BRANDIWINE: We’re on the team that always get beat…

VAN ERDAL:  Don’t tempt me with that inviting sarcasm.

BRANDIWINE: Maybe I seys what’s true—you ain’t a judge and you can’t push us around like that. Rodney King—we all saw that police brutality.

VAN ERDAL: You got ten seconds to move your asses! Or maybe you want a couple nights in jail—I wouldn’t blame ya—but what you can’t do is loiter.
BARNADINE: Come on, girl, I got an idea anyway.

VAN ERDAL: What’re thinking of doing?

BARNADINE: None of you damned business—we’re leavin’ your ape-shit city furniture and you can’t do nothin’ more. Freedom o’ speech an’ assembly, and freedom to keep you out o’ ours.

RACINE: Sir, the Dorothy Day Center, down this road three blocks, opens at 4, if you need their services.

BRANDIWINE: And Target is open righ’ now—we gonna go an get beat.

VAN ERDAL: Whatever, just not on my beat, if you catch my drift.

BARNADINE:  I smell your pig methane…

RACINE: It’s enough.

BARNADINE:  More than enough. Girl, I done dreamed up an idea!

Iiv Evening, at the high school library, a meeting of the school board in a conspicuously small space between reference shelves and computer terminals.  Coats are still on, as the building is somewhat chilly. Lights are off except directly above. In the shadows are an array of books on display, student art, a mezzanine balcony and study carrels.

FARMWORTH:  Appreciate your attendance here tonight—extraordinary meetings may happen at the discretion of any board member, and—

TIOSOOK:  Point of semantics, Lillian: extraordinary or ‘extemporaneous’?

SMITH: Is there a difference?

TIOSOOK:  Sure—worlds, really. I mean with ‘extraordinary’ we’d still need to publish its taking place, its minutes—all in accordance with the by-laws: did you mean for that to happen tonight?

FARMWORTH:  No. Indeed this is an extraordinary extemporaneous meeting—really no reason to Roberts Rules it.

DOSTUNE:  Sorry, I don’t understand that reference—the ex’s I get, but who is Robert?

BOURBAN:  Before you Westernized, Helmand—a sometimes fuddy protocol that requires recognition from the chair, motions and seconds and other ‘Rules of Order’.

FARMWORTH:  Well, I wouldn’t say ‘fuddy’ or ‘duddy’ or anything disparaging—it keeps contentious issues civil.

SPRINGER: And sometimes ushers in a civil war.

BOURBAN: I wouldn’t say protocol does that any more than chaos theory.

SPRINGER: Energy can be channeled any which way, toward civility or corruption; entropy is your chaos theory, and those molecules just go their own way—don’t look to clash.

DOSTUNE: Okay, I get it. In honor of my remaining friends in Afghanistan, let’s hope for civil entropy.

TIOSOOK: The question remains, though: are we meeting in an official capacity? You called some of us, not all, and drew poor Helmand away from his…

DOSTUNE: Harem?

TIOSOOK: Don’t get me in trouble! I assume you have one lady friend that your courting…

DOSTUNE: One, and counting..

SMITH: Gentlemen! Can we get to business? The courted of us have kids at home being babysat by the TV.

FARMWORTH:  Indeed, I want this to be quick, candid, off-the-record, troubleshooting—

SPRINGER: How apropos. This will be a great opportunity to shoot our troubles away.

BOURBAN: I think we’re painting devils on a process that remains a training event, and that by the GVPD. It’s not really our business—not in our interest, I’d even suggest—to trouble-shoot anything. Monday comes, the actors assemble themselves as the police have pre-arranged, they do their thing, tape it for their internal use, share it for our internal use—maybe an ‘extraordinary meeting’  opens it up to comply with the Public Information Act—

SPRINGER: Maybe WikiLeaks beats us to it…

BOURBAN: Is that a threat? Mary-Alice, whose side are you on here?

SPRINGER: Is that a paraphrase of George W?

FARMWORTH:  Folks, listen. I think, civil or otherwise, these are exactly the questions that we are trying to troubleshoot. And… I’ve been scratching my head since last week… I don’t know exactly how this simulation is supposed to meet the public.

BOURBAN: I don’t think it needs to, exactly.

TIOSOOK: But Jim, the campus cordoned off, dozens of police cars and S.W.A.T personnel, I understand ambulances need to rush to and from—this isn’t something we can hide, Presidents’ Day or Fourth of July.

BOURBAN: We’re not hiding anything. We’re following the express mandate of the Golden Valley Police Department—that on the advice of Homeland Security—to have them put this event on and clean it all up. We don’t have to answer for anything.

DOSTUNE: But sir, all due respect to that point-of-view—and I assume this is the reason the board asked me to be here tonight—there will invariably be some counseling ramifications, kids painting chimeras, wondering if the hypothetical is more immanent…

SMITH: Yes, that is precisely the concern. And talking it through will definitely be your area of expertise, but in a way, we haven’t talked through anything for ourselves. I mean, this event never came to a vote—arguably, it’s not sanctioned, no matter who holds the guns.

BOURBAN: Again, I think you’re being too provocative—presumptuous, even.

FARMWORTH: Funny. I always hoped, from 5th grade student council ‘til now, for discussions like this.

TIOSOOK:  On the record, or off?

FARMWORTH: Well, that’s just it—no yes or no. It’s like this library. Some meetings I wish the whole place were filled, listeners swinging legs through the balcony railings, speakers sticking enough to an agenda but enough off the cuff to keep it interesting. Maybe someone fetches a book to ‘check the record’ or some words of wisdom—something Lincoln might say about houses divided or angels of our better nature. Lights would be on, passers-by would wonder what’s going on and perhaps envy, nostalgically: the school’s in healthy shape—it wants to be peopled off-hours. The learning doesn’t end in the classrooms, with any kind of final exam. There’s your extemporaneous, Jon—we have to maneuver as we go, a bit like Star Trek maybe.

SMITH: I think the kids understand The Matrix better…
DOSTUNE: I don’t know what they understand. There’s a scene from Bowling for Columbine where—

BOURBAN:  Oh, please!

FARMWORTH:  No, go on:

DOSTUNE: Well, not to be suggestive here, but… Michael Moore interviews Marilyn Manson

BOURBAN:  (mock-screeching) “I’m not a sl—ave to a g—od that doesn’t exist!”

SPRINGER: Jim, quit it! Helmand, say more.

DOSTUNE: Yeah, that song is in the background, but then there’s a quiet moment, when Moore asks Manson, who was scheduled to do a concert in Denver that spring, what would he say to kids wondering about all that happened at their school. And his response was, ‘I wouldn’t say anything, I’d just listen.’

BOURBAN: Pro-found. Is this a role model of yours?

TIOSOOK: It’s a reality of ours.

FARMWORTH: I feel like adjourning on that note.

SPRINGER: If only. For once I want us to keep going—

FARMWORTH: Of course, I’m being facetious. We haven’t hashed out anything yet.

SMITH: But a purpose to listen. And not just to the sirens on simulation day.

BOURBAN:  Okay, so. Brass tacks: we post on the schoolnet an innocent message that the campus will not be accessible Monday for—keeping it simple—a police-coordinated training exercise. Nothing about its scale or target, nothing even indicating that Tuesday will be any different for the activity that passed. We put the same brief message around the cordon—a firm-but-gentle ‘stay out’—and that’s that. The police will need to watch the cordon—

TIOSOOK:  Shouldn’t our school security do that? They’re all supposed to be present, but what are their responsibilities?

BOURBAN: I’ll find that out. Good point.

SPRINGER: And another thing that we’ll probably need to anticipate is—

Outside the library, but clearly inside the building, a tumbling of what sounds like stacked furniture.

TIOSOOK:  What was that?

FARMWORTH: No one’s supposed to be here, right? Speaking of security?

DOSTUNE:  I’ll check it out. Could be just said security.

BOURBAN:  or a Gremlin.

SMITH: one of us!...

SPRINGER: I was just about to say, at least it’s not one of us…


  

Act One

Hello, attached is the first 20% (I think) of the play I'm attempting. Jon has seen the opening scenes and was helpful in suggesting some clunky language--haven't yet found a replacement to the out-dated reference to the video game 'DOOM'. I think this play will not include any children, as they are implied in the mix and replaced by actors in the simulation. I'm not looking forward to scripting the simulation--it may be 'background noise'--and in fact I think the plot will begin to write itself by then. It's convenient to have a skeleton, but I'm positive certain characters will develop independent of that plan. And readers' response (i.e., yours) will greatly guide where this play might go.

As ever, and as film credits invariably include at the end, there is no biographical connections intended, and I'm not too concerned with verisimilitude. It was interesting to hear of the film debut of Vaclav Havel over the weekend, where he scripted an aging president of a fictional country who is unceremonially ousted from his post, then his villa, by an unscrupulous successor. Havel hasn't been the president of Czech Republic for some four or five years, but one must wonder if he has some hidden hurt. Hopefully there is nothing so connective to my own life in Codex Orange...

thanks, symposians!

Dan

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Argument

But what about this intellectual exercise of mine,
stirring up the dust and shifting with the wind?
If I can’t find my way to God unless God shows
the way, there can be no mindless praise,
but what about this praiseless mind of mine?

And what about intelligence? The premise of creation,
the covet of my soul is the core of my design,
yet it’s nothing but a word, only one of many spoken,
and it’s keeping me in place. I’m sworn to intelligence,
another soldier standing at the gate.

If love is perfected by love reciprocated,
why must my intelligence be tethered to the ground?
My mind, my very soul, is confounded and bewildered,
beholden to the mind over mine.

We Can't Let Everything Happen In Stillwater

I have had a busy week (busy is good), and even now I have to keep it short, but I am enjoying this exchange.

Mom, your reference to Psalm 77 is excellent. I knew as I wrote that last poem that I was following some sort of Psalmic lead, and you have confirmed it. Not that I've reached the caliber of Asaph, or whoever wrote #77, but I always find it refreshing to hear that God does not even expect us to have pat answers to the questions we (the child who challenges as well as the child within) may pose. For that matter, it is always amazing in each Lent season to be reminded of Jesus's humanness and despair.

A thought on websites: Dan had separately suggested using Facebook as our portal. I am very thrilled that we have complete consensus on the name of this endeavor, and in that spirit, let me voice my No! to f.b. and offer an alternative or two. I am probably just an old fart, but I do not want to give up on my resistance to Facebook, it being so overly social and time-consuming for my taste. But here are two other possibilities, both courtesy of Kirsten: 1. weebly.com allows a website to be created that can eventually be, but does not have to be, converted to an independent domain. There would be a fee for the conversion, but no fee to maintain the site with a weebly tag. 2. blogger.com allows creation of a blog portal. I don't know much more about this one, except that it is a free weblog publishing site through Google.

I am attaching another poem, following the last ponderings. This is part of my collection of a sequence of about 30 poems written last year, very loosely reflecting the poetry of Sanai's Hadiqa. I don't know what started me on this exercise, but while Dan works on his Codex Orange, this may be my own installment series.

Dan, I owe you a direct response to your Facebook broaching email, and I'll try to get this out soon. But to all, on the subject of Codex Orange I have to admit that I think I get Dan's use of Golden Valley. Lake Woebegone needs its St Cloud and Springfield needs its Shelbyville. We can't let everything happen in Stillwater.

Jon

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Ballad of Star-Crossed Lovers

Of lovers young and bold, belying all
Bid Rosaline her waylaid curtain call
Surviving Romeo (the pundits’ guess)
Is evidently common, more or less,
And solely plays to the sold out crowds of none;
Her stardom will start up when she’s said and done.

An Uzbek girl living in a Turkmen land
Crossed subtle lines and took a local hand—
No parents there to bless (or likely curse)
His serenade, her saraband made worse—
Too lithe for pomegranate plans to purely grow: 

They lay under shelter of dreams indigo.

A devil cut in and dangled scholarship
To Romeo, though Rose the better fit:
A solitary chance to up and flee
This figured Central Asian misery
The sandy, stranded shell of the Soviet Man:
His orphans, his widow, his catch as catch can.

So Rose worked for his win, pour’d over his books 

Estranged herself from her belly dance looks
Which hampered not his cause, the board agreed 

With all that he had, gallop this fair steed
Clear to America, where he never replied
To rosewater letters and dances that died.

A second, first sight Jule took him alive:
Their story fades, but Rosaline, now twenty five, 

Keeps dancing dour just to pay the rent,
Feigns efforts brave to fend off Uzbek men;
She will incinerate herself (statistics claim)
And love nothing more than that indigo flame.

Of lovers young and bold, belying all
Bid Rosaline her waylaid curtain call.
       

Maybe 'Walloped' for 'Wizened' and 'Sky' for 'Sere'

Greetings to Stan--we sent a letter about a month ago, hope it came to him.

Loving the poetry and--literarally--the symposium that localizes each 'thread' (that's blog speak--the forums that organically weave a wonderful tapestry). And while I'm on the technical side of things, please know I sighted/cited deviantART as the potential iceberg it is, but the home pages are rather tame; there are shields for 'mature content' and plenty of banality, but the point of the site is to share work through some filter regime, a la wikipedia. We'll steer clear of the dark sides of icebergs, I'm sure!

Some feedback: I'd like to call your poem, Mom, "the arms of the bay" or "beyond..."--like that line very much. I wonder if we can exploit the Spanish of Puerta Vallarta, which I think translates 'port fortress', begging questions about the protection of the land or sea. For the line "No respecter of aged or babes in the cradle", how would "Absconder" or "Marauder" fit to personify the tsunami wave even more--both betray a disdain or disinterest to any respect. Glad you found the barnacled rock, or it found you!

Jon, I love the launch of the 'wandering Jew', the 'Ancient Mariner' that must keep queries viable. You suggest that the poem is unfinished--did you want to fulfill a 12-11-11-12 scheme? If so, I played with these two lines to extend the 10 lines of the final stanza:

And whatever still waters the
wizened world, rainbows emerge in the sere.

Maybe 'walloped' for 'wizened' and 'sky' for 'sere', but anyway, that gives the dozen lines if quantity is what you were figuring. Otherwise, I don't know what necessarily is unfinished! Evocative poem--I imagined the soldiers flailing through the water, with split-second cognizance amidst the inevitable surge of adrenaline.

A brief word about 'Codex Orange', which will definitely require a better title. I thought about setting this play in Stillwater, but wanted it in a more suburban locale (a Columbine corollary); Golden Valley gives some subtle remove from aquatic imagery, an 'Elysium Fields' that may belie the fateful turns of any odyssey. Of course I don't want Hummels as a point of reference (or my Concordia friends Heidi and Sue Licke, who attended Golden Valley Community College), but I at least can visualize this suburb better than, for instance, Blaine. And the GVPD for the police department conducting the terrorism simulation reminds us a bit of the ever-famous NYPD, so that has some intentionality. The hardest part so far is setting a style--Shakespeare's iambic pentameter may not reflect how common people talk, but it sure helps rhythm, pace and efficient diction; replicating how 'common people' talk--i.e., honoring verisimilitude--is both easy and empty-feeling. I don't want to non-fictionalize this idea, but the premise sort of forces a polemical or representational direction. I'm going to plow ahead without too much preoccupation, but early returns will inevitably disappoint. We'll see...

BBC will have a series next week on 'My Nation Speaks'--the poetry coming out of select countries. ISP will have a 'poetry slam' evening March 25, depending on how many students sign up to perform and attend. I'll certainly offer my 'Newtly Haiku' and perhaps the 'Ballad of Star-Crossed Lovers', i.e., Rosaline, the Uzbek girl living in Turkmenistan. Jon, you've seen this fledgling song--it still needs work, but is now entrenched in a guitar riff.

Kids are home from play-dates, so I'll hit send. Keep up the symposium (on the fitful tides of the Pacific) or the symposia (on any new thread).

love,
Dan

Monday, March 14, 2011

Someday We'll Know

I found your letter, Jon, so it's in the archive.

Psalm 77, today's Luther Sem devotional, doesn't answer the question either, but it does give a historical perspective of the Messianic thread, of the willful God of all creation deliberately setting apart a people through whom the Redeemer can become a mere man.  To make possible the redemption of all mankind.  And what about those swept away in a horrid flood yet "innocent"?  Don't have that answer.  Guess that's why Pastor Mark says ALL are saved; they've already been to hell and back in their present lifetime ("their" being all of us, I guess).  If this were God's plan, however, why have the great chunks of his word stress "belief", "faith", "be born again"...??  Someday we'll know.  

Mom

Wince and Pain

Jon, this is an achingly good poem.  It evokes a response, a thinking-Christian's wince and pain.


Beautiful.

Suddenly (Oh! Water Again!)

Jon - I lost your email and poem!  Oh please send again.  I find the poem complete, the best line being about "not having the answer but trying to answer anyway" or something like that - when I was trying to get the exact words was when it all went into outer space, and then I saw Dick had brought along the mouse which woulda made it a heck of a lot easier.

Can't even remember that banned-to-mom website but I had already looked.  Still in one piece.  Guess I didn't find the really shocker of it??

We're in Ventura, CA.  Since we thought seafood on the harbor sounded good, that's where we headed.  First I took off my shoes and walked down to the shore, watching surfers, and suddenly (oh!  water again!) I was inundated up to my knees.  We still went to find an outdoor restaurant and had our seafood, but it is a cold night and it wasn't much fun.  Fed the seagulls, though.  We'll stay with Karen tomorrow, and visit Stan tomorrow and the next day.  I'll take liberties to greet him from all of you....

Dan, I've got to spend more time of your drama precis.  Dick said "Why Golden Valley?  Why not Stillwater?"   Or are we overdoing it?  Funny that the Hummel aura is once again invoked (Harvey and Fran and Chad lived in Golden Valley.)  I wonder where Chad lives out here.  We zipped across the north edge of LA and environs today.

Love, Mom

Water, Water Everywhere

A child asked, where was God
when the Red Sea waters drowned
the Pharaoh’s men? Never mind
Moses and the Pharaoh,
where was God for the soldiers
who had no choice but to do
what they were told to do?
where was God for those
who didn’t know the rules
of Passover, whose children
were killed for the ignorance
of their parents?

This from the mouth of a baptized babe:
Where? Where was God
for the unchosen, those
who were drowned before they had
a chance to be baptized?
God leads his sheep to drink
from still waters, but sends
his enemies to drown in
a stormy sea,
but where was God for the soldiers
without a promised land?

This from a little lamb, carried
so long in the shepherd’s arms:
I do believe in God
who created all water
and quenches all thirst
and cleanses all impurities,
but where was God
in the desert and the dirt
of those who did not know
where to turn
when the impartial waters fell?

This from a child who turns to me,
and what am I to say?
My mouth, my faith is parched
and dry and without words,
except to admit how much
I do not know,
but I try to find words anyway:
Let it be said that in this house
we talk about God,
and every thought is a prayer.

In the "Wake"

Dear Symposians,

How ironic, Dan, that in the “wake” of Mom’s poem you were inspired to look beyond positivism to more unsettling conflicts. Me too! Mom, to be fair, the poem I started writing after reading your water poem was more directly inspired by other people and a different conversation, but your poem, and your reminder of the tsunami news, did make me think of how we should not just settle with our stillwater metaphor.

This is an unfinished poem, or at least one that I am not altogether satisfied with. It wants to end where it does and say nothing more, yet I present it defiantly as a challenge: how, symposians, would you end this water poem of mine?

Josh, you will note it does not rhyme, or rhymes only randomly, although this may be a case where rhyming would not work. Then again, maybe my lapses into trimeter don’t work either.

Anne, by the way, I agree with your take of Dan’s deviant art site. Mom, don’t look. As for Googledox, Dan, is this the same as “Google docs” requiring a gmail address? If so, I use this to have my bill-paying spreadsheet accessible wherever I am. It works nicely for this, but does that mean if we use this as a group platform everyone will see the bills I’m paying/not paying? Kinda detracts from the poetry.

A website would be nice, though. Meanwhile, here is my challenge poem, via pdf.

Love, Jon

A New Genre

Hi, getting slowly caught up and enjoying this inspiring season. Mom, your poem made me think of the drama that Kierkegaard suggests in the 'great leap of faith'--more than the 'positivism' that was trying to prevail in the 19th century (and, on technological fronts, seems to have prevailed in this day and age).

The combination of this XLibris self-publishing option--endorsed by Shakespeare!--and the rock-clinging and hymn singing compels me to try a new genre: drama. Everything so far is 'place-holder', but the working title, "Codex Orange" is going to stretch a week in the life of a school community setting itself up for a terrorist simulation. We had this at ISP, but I want to set the story in some middle-American town--thinking of Golden Valley, MN. The 'orange' plays on the particularities of a basketball/rim and the suggestion that any school, anywhere, needs to prepare itself for a 'Beslan catastrophe'. As I hope everyone knows, I am loathe to read let alone write gratuitous violence in fiction, and the key point here is that the conflict is in the plan and communication of the simulation of this event--on purpose cloistered to prevent a community debate. One arm of that debate would entail whether we (Golden Valley, as place-holder) are more apprehensive about Columbine or Al Qaida (or something else). Along the way, I hope to lighten the mood with some aesthetics on basketball and some very good people in the school and police department.

I'm thinking of doing this in gmail googledox installments, by the way--is anyone else on this wiki platform?

love to you all,

Dan

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Still Water Indeed

Marian my cousin and I took a trip
To Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific.
The hotel was nice, but I wanted a dip
So jumped in the bay - ah! terrific!

I lazed on my back looking up at blue sky
Chicago was murky smog distant.
I sang "water" hymns, not cognizant why
No one heard neither melody or descant.

"Here comes Jesus, walking on the water"
"Jesus, my Savior, oh pilot me"
"I've got peace, peace like a river"
"Just a closer (swim) with Thee"

I opened my eyes, then asked "where am I?"
Beyond the arms of the bay!
Oh no! When I stroke, the harder I try
The waves just pull me away.

Today I believe if it weren't for the hymns
My life on earth would'a been over.
To a barnacled rock I finally did cling.
God's Spirit my Rock and my cover.

This is a month, in two thousand eleven
My kids to "Stillwater" gave birth.
It is also a time Pacific land has been riven
By fright'ning quakes of the earth.

Tsunami! we cried, oh power so fatal
As water-wall pushed hard into land.
No respecter of aged or babes in the cradle
Heedless of nations, families, life that was planned.

From Noah to Moses to Jesus at Sychar
How much water flows in our creed:
Living! Fountain! Cleansing! Tears! Power!
And Stillwater Symposia, to water we heed.


Jesus, Savior, pilot me
Over life's tempestuous sea.
Unknown waves before me roll
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Chart and compass came from Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Pray Always. Words Optional.

Once upon a time (okay, in high school!) I was president of five organizations simultaneously. It has hung over me my whole life, that IF I joined such and such a group eventually I knew I had it in me to rise to PRESIDENCY (of that group, that is!) It now consciously keeps me from being a joiner. Maybe I just enjoy retirement and being this age too much. Maybe I was stung enough in being forced out of NCCAP. But it's intriguing hearing this discussion from my wise and insightful kids - thank you Anne, Jon. I'm thankful that you go back to, or yea, even start with, the Word of God in seeking your definition of these words or this phrase of "greed of ambition". For some reason this week, I was apprised of the truth that one doesn't need an advice columnist if one consciously seeks the answer in His Word. 

So speaking of "word", our priest started Sunday's homily with "Pray always. Words optional" and sat down. For quite a long time! We were ready for more, and using our word-addiction (texting, multi-tasking, etc) he wove a smooth picture of words. Now I wish I could remember more - based on II Peter 1:16-21 - "words like a lamp shining in a dark place." 

I gave a speech to a group in Maddock; had been invited back for that purpose after we had returned to New Hope for the last year of seminary. Subject was Language and Words. I gave it my all. But aterward, a neighboring pastor came up and started talking about Word made flesh, and he lost me almost immediately. It should have propelled me to dig deeper but it didn't. Nevertheless, that sense of shallowness in me has remained. Now what that has to do with greed and ambition I don't know, but I throw it out there. 

We had a great supper at an Irish cafe Sunday night - Dick and Jack had gone to the White Sox game and Reeni and I went to the Heard museum which is all native American and could prompt a separate discussion but won' at this point. Then we came together for supper, with Ted, Tommie and Anna, exchange student from Como, Italy living with Ted's, joining us. It was delightfull to share and contrast outlooks of those three generations, and those different cultures, on whatever topic came up - education, participation in government, church and service (Ted is in charge of a yearly trip to Mexico, southern Baja, where they build a house - and Intel is growing, so he's overwhelmed work-wise and church-service-wise at the moment). Look forward to getting together again Friday night when Reeni and Jack come down for the opera but they first want to get together for supper (okay, so we'll ignore their formal wear! But that might get me into "conspicuous consumption" which I think my sister is guilty of. Does that hit on the above-named topic at all??) 

I withdraw my Ben's-birthday-ode as being a poem. 

Love, Mom

A Waterfall Behind A Receptionist's Desk Is Of The Devil

Good discussion! No, I haven't heard the term "greed of ambition" anywhere, so I guess I coined it.

I would argue that "ambition" is the self side of "work." I think that it is your work ethic that motivates you to slog through hours of work, and a work ethic, developed by good parents, etc. is the nature in us that reflects our Creator, a God who never takes the easy route to accomplish his plans.

I started thinking about this concept awhile ago because the more I pursue an enterprise outside of the home, the more I imagine greater plans, exciting prospects and endless opportunities. But then a gluttonous, sick feeling creeps in to turn my stomache a bit. It wasn't the bright feeling of doing the work God equipped me to do, it was a greedy, "Mine, All Mine!" feeling: pursuing something for the wrong reason. So then I started a spiritual struggle as I tried to define this balance of opportunity v.greed and stay on the Godly side of it.

In the Bible, God repeatedly (maybe exclusively) called the humble for his greatest roles: foreigners, stutterers, shepherds, harlots, bald-heads (2 Kings 2:23 - that's a shout-out to you, Josh :), and a poor Jewish baby born in a barn. If God consistently employs the humble, then why would I selfishly strive for my own station; isn't God's plan the perfect one?

I finally found a biblical response to my struggle as I was doing a Bible study awhile back. I was reading James 3 and landed on a tidy passage that addresses works and demarcates the holy from the unholy therein. 13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

So, I guess what I'm really saying is that: Jon, you're doing good work, wrought in humility, but a waterfall behind a receptionist's desk is of the devil.

Love to everyone,

Annie

On the Greed of Ambition

Dear Symposians,

Here I go, googling again, this time intrigued by Anne’s term, “greed of ambition.” Nothing came up, so I guess that’s an original term, Anne. There are quite a few references to greed and ambition, and Macbeth seems to be the prevalent literary resource on the parallel subject. But I could not find greed of ambition.

But the phrase resonates, and I’m not sure why. I do not believe that all ambition is a product of greed, but this of course is turning the words upside down. Ambition is not the subject, it’s the object here, just as the love of money, being the root of all evil, does not make money a product of love. Nor do I believe that ambition is bad, and yet, like money, it can remain just a word away from evil.

And yet ambition, like money, is a necessary thing.

No, Mom, I am not going down the road of your Republican reference a few weeks ago. Although someone stop me please if I start to sound too much like Ayn Rand. Then agin, I have never been compelled to read any Ayn Rand, so I may be missing the mark completely.

So ambition is what we should not get greedy about, and yet we need ambition to succeed. I suppose the only other way to succeed is by dumb luck, or simple providence, but I do think waiting on luck is dumb, and as for providence, God doesn’t want us wants us to just sit around waiting for his grace. So that leaves us, again, with ambition. And more specifically, not the greed but the succeed of ambition.

And yet greed, like love (or more properly lust) of money, is always looming.

I suspect, though, that you, Anne, are not in danger. In fact, I hope you do not let the fear of greed turn you the other way from a chance to succeed.

I am not always the most ambitious person, and I sometimes wonder if this isn’t something of a shortcoming. Am I too satisfied with my 300 sf rented lawyer office? Do I scoff too much at the more lavish offices with fake waterfalls behind the reception desk? I may never need a waterfall, but I don’t even have a receptionist. Heck, I don’t even have a second desk.

But the phrase resonates, because I know I need ambition to work extra hours or impress my clients with a quick return of their phone calls, or go out to lunch with referral sources or advertise. I want my practice to not only survive the recessions (so far, so good) but pay for my kids’ needs and get me to retirement. There are, by the way, a lot of attorneys out there that seem reluctant to retire, and I suspect it is because they did not have enough ambition to provide for retirement. Either that or too much spent on waterfalls. Either way, by greed or a shortage of ambition, I may end up being one of them.

Meanwhile, back at the Symposium.... Someone please give me a connection!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Excellent Interview, Good Save

Excellent interview Annie! I see that she didn't respond at all to your follow-up to the first question as to where she comes from, which she answers "Rancagua, Chile" with some pride in her heritage and at some length... "I’m sure Rancagua isn’t Spanish for Rank Water, is it? Probably not." (Ouch!) "I bet it’s just beautiful there!" (Good Save!)

I hope you were both laughing at that point as much as I was!

But through the whole thing, it was really engaging! Well done! You've got a great style! And sharp-looking website too!

Josh

Meet Carolina Grant

March 3, 2011 by handmadebyannepotter

I think it’s so exciting to talk with other artists about what they make and why.  I always assume another artist has an artistic trajectory similar to mine, but I’m never right.  Art is diverse because artists are diverse.   So I thought it would be interesting to talk with my friend Carolina Grant about her vida arte.  Carolina is a stay-at-home mom and we met each other through our children, probably while sitting on a bench by the playground.  She is a dear friend and a terribly gifted (and prolific!) artist.  Meet Carolina Grant. 
Anne Potter: Where are you from originally?
Carolina Grant: I’m from Rancagua, Chile, country of poets, writers, soccer and good wine. Rancagua is a colonial city just 45 minutes south of Santiago, the city is surrounded by beautiful mountains, Alamos and Eucalyptus trees, and a lot of people that I love.

AP: I’m sure Rancagua isn’t Spanish for Rank Water, is it? Probably not. I bet it’s just beautiful there!
So Carolina, what do you make and what do you sell in your etsy shop, Pavalu?
CG: I make one-of-a-kind hand-woven shawls, organic purses, knitted clothes and so much more. I use the best yarn that I can find; most of it comes from Chile and Peru.
AP: I love the yarn that you use – the colors are electric! And they work so beautifully with your designs. How would you describe your style/aesthetic?
CG: I think it is very simple, but elegant, with a lot of attention given to the texture and color of my pieces.
AP: When did you learn to knit?
CG: I learned when I was about 11 years old.
AP: And who taught you?
CG: I think I had the greatest teachers: my mom (an amazing artist), my grandmother, and a friend also taught me how to weave.
AP: Don’t you love how a simple thing like knitting can connect people across oceans and generations? OK, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time: you knit South American style and I knit continental; whose method is better?
CG: I think that South American style is just easier for me, I do have to say that my grandmother is part Swiss, and that is how she learned and taught my mom (who then taught me). You do a fabulous job knitting and I think any method is fantastic if it works.
AP: Well, that settles it: Continental is best.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
CG: I think as a designer I get inspiration from a lot of things, a lot of inspiration comes when I’m talking to another artist, but if have to pick one, I would say the yarn itself: the texture, the color gives me an idea right away. It is very important for me to touch and feel the texture, and think, “what would I wear if I make something with this?” And yarns can be so different, too! For example, I found out that one woven shawl is different from another when woven with a different yarn; the drape changes tremendously.
AP: I agree! Do you have the fantasy of being locked in a yarn store overnight? Maybe that’s just me. So you’re inspired very much by yarn, but do you ever have Designer’s Block? How do you pull yourself out of a design rut?
CG: I pull out my oil paints, good music and a glass of red wine, and it helps me every time, (I do this when my wonderful husband is home watching a war movie and the girls are asleep), and if everybody is around me I surrender and don’t think about it until one of my three girls want to play “fashion” – then it comes slowly.
AP: Oh, I love to combine red wine with design! And Keats loved his red wine, too. Maybe red wine is an artistic catalyst …?
Now, besides opening a gorgeous boutique with me, where do you see your brand in five years?
CG: Well, besides having a super-successful boutique with you, I would be happy if my brand was very well-known and I could see people in cafes and little chic restaurants wearing my purses and my pieces :) .
AP: I wear the shawl you made for me all the time! And my mom gets compliments on hers all the time, too – your pieces are amazing – so chic and the colors are arresting! So last question, (and there is a right answer): what is your favorite fiber this season?
CG: I have to say Alpaca is my all time favorite, but right know I’m obsessed with this flame wool/silk blend that I brought back from Chile, and this season I’m also ready for organic cotton.
AP: Oh, I’m sorry! The right answer was “single-ply wool/mohair!” Oh, shucks. But thanks for playing, Carolina.  But seriously, I’m so glad you took the time to visit with me and thank you for giving us a peek into your artistic world.  Your work is incredible and I’m so inspired by gifted artists like you! And I always love “talking shop” with you.  Blessings on you and your work.

Anne's Pretty New Site

I just now tried to write a clever limerick in response to the symposium's poems that I've been reading all week, but I'm better with prose. I've been busy (stressed!) trying to create a fake online image of myself that looks pulled-together and polished. Things are falling into place and soon: I'll be popular! No seriously, I've had a great wrestle with God as I try to use the gifts that he's given me without succumbing the American greed of ambition.

Here's an "vida arte" interview that I posted: http://handmadebyannepotter.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/meet-carolina-grant/

and here's my pretty new site that could someday be a hot spot for people like me: http://www.handmadebyannepotter.com/

Love to you all, and give a great big hug to my favorite nieces and nephews.

Have a blessed Sunday,

Annie


PS DAN, of all the nicely designed websites in the world: why did you choose DeviantArt's? Mom shouldn't be seeing that stuff!

A Newtly Haiku

My newts—mere babes at
eight months old—are making new
newts, tucked in the back

of the literature
classroom. My students, now sea-
soned and wise, cheer on

their procreative
ways: their manner of making
waves in their quiet,

tall, hexagon tank.
They wrestle (the newts, not the
students) lock arms and

dance desperately—
a tarantella of sorts,
a rigor vitas…

and little egg sacs
trail from their backs, then attach
to a stone below.

“They’ll eat them” I’m told
(the newts, not the students) so
I’ve dutifully set

up another tank,
leaving the egg sacs in peace.
The newts still take arms,

and little egg sacs
have attached to the stones of
this second fake pond…

and so on and so
on and so my poor students
read life in the round.

Internal Rhymes?

I'ambs not very
able to haiku like you--
internal rhymes count?

but seriously, folks...
 

this is seriously great stuff! and fun. I was already thinking of a poem about my fecund & amorous newts in the back of my classroom, but I think I needed the inspiration of the still water visual (and what lurks beneath), the limerick-pub humor, the form of haiku, and so I've revised my newt poem accordingly, below.

We had a very nice dinner yesterday after the Masopust festivities. A couple of students who graduated in 2006 came by--they're very interesting: Asen Geshakov is my all-time best Model UN 'product', having done wonderful things for Warwick University along those lines, and Andrei Tolstoi, great-great-grand nephew of Lev, is beginning a comparative lit and film doctoral program at Yale--and in the serendipity of our conversation I brought up Still Water Symposia. They had good things to ask and say, and while I didn't take 'minutes' exactly, I appreciated hearing their perspective.

We might look at how deviantART organizes their site (www.deviantart.com, or hit the hyperlink) , probably more apropos for our purposes than Yahoo's popular photo exchange at www.flickr.com. Neither of these sites use the free and aesthetic-minded website-creator at wordpress.org which, I think, would be as easy as my Lamken's Philology Central blogsite was to create and maintain, a big difference being my eBlogger was only 100 subscriptions by my invite, and Wordpress, from what I understand, is far less limited. I'll leave that to the techo-minded. For now, let's hear from our newts and those who spy in:

Rhyming Haiku

A rhyming haiku?
I wonder if you can do
it with iambs too.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Humor Me, A Symposia Limerick

My $.02...

Our family, we started symposia
Reluctantly, some said "I s'pose, yah"
But the seeds that were sown
From this nest have flown
Now have much out of which to compose fer ya!

This symposia's name is Still Water
Of Lamken, Vold, Jaeger, and Potter
And as the sun sets
Hope no one forgets
The source of creation, our fodder!

Ironically, some pen a spate
While others, to table come late
But let no one here doubt
The source all throughout
Our Father, by Whom we create!

So let this symposia inspire
Both still water and cleansing fire
To this we have come
Our Journeys, in sum
Like the voice of a heavenly choir!



See, it can be done... Is it too much to ask that our poems at least rhyme?

;-D OK, working on some haiku!

Peace... Emmanuel!!!

Josh

FLUID

I'm loving your poetry. It expands us yet speaks to OUR family. Here's mine for today:

FLUID
Three three six
Eight eight nine ten
Eleven eleven
Fourteen (Tilo)
Fifteen fifteen twenty
Twenty three twenty five.
Brain teaser?
But no more in this sequence!
For you see
Today is Ben L's birtday.
He's eight. Whoops! So is Lia.
And two elevens? Only for two weeks,
Then Joe turns twelve, Andrew.
Fifteen? Brian quickly tells Kirsten
"I'm almost sixteen."
And the fluidity goes on.
Grandchildren, like motionless water
Continually move and change.


God bless the cycle of life, generations, regenerating.
Protect these fifteen
Raise each to be Your child
Years without end. Amen.

Grandma M

This Too

This too I write for the symposia, 
inspired by blue winged teal 
gliding on a river surface 
and becoming one with the water. 

I do give credit to those a' ya 
who do not show their busy feet 
or the power of the carrying current, 
who offer poems without words 
like faith without argument. 

We would be symposians, 
but you are the better Siddhartas 
showing us the river for what it is.

A Lesser Effort

Dear family (all) -

Yes, Dick, you are part of the family. My (and our) apologies for implying any exclusion, but if it is any consolation, brothers also initially left out sister (sorry sis) and still haven't properly improved on Mom's relegation to archival secretary (sorry mom).

I am right now in Columbus Ohio. No, not seeking out America's hotbed political capitals, although I did go to Madison last weekend and we did also drive through Indianapolis on the way here. Our reason for being here is the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic, a pretty big regional event with boxing, bodybuilding, wrestling and more, including, for our purposes, fencing. We will not dwell on the victory percentages today. Andrew did win one best of three match to feel good about his efforts, but the whole thing was pretty thrilling. Today Andrew's event was Y12 mixed, i.e foil fencing for 11 and 12 year old boys and girls combined. Tomorrow he has Y12 Men's Foil, i.e, 11 and 12 year old boys ("men") only, We were forewarned that we'd see another caliber at the larger regional events, but frankly I think the best kid that beat Andrew looked about 15 years old with maybe 10 years of experience. But we will not dwell. Andrew was told, by the way, that by attending this regional, he would automatically qualify for nationals this summer --- in Reno. I will slowly break it to him that a drive to Columbus will have to be our limit, especially if I'm skipping the Oregon reunion. I think he'll understand, just as I think he already has figured out that when the kids here were told that they may even get to see Arnold, it doesn't go much beyond "maybe."

Meanwhile, Kirsten is left home alone - or with friends for most of the weekend. She had school today (Andrew had a day off for parent teacher conferences, which I attended yesterday), and she also is on the tech crew for her school's talent show tonight and tomorrow night. I tried to talk her into joining us, but tech crew is apparently a bigger deal than driving 13 hours to watch a brother fence for 10 hours.

And meanwhile tonight I'm here in our Ohio hotel, rediscovering what my priorities ought to be. First, I had bought a Nook a month ago and intended to read Hamlet this weekend (in order to better understand a recent Dan poem), but I ended up leaving the Nook on the kitchen counter this morning. And now, we got to the hotel and found out that the TV isn't working, this on a night when, thanks to Arnold, hotel rooms are scarce. Oh well, at least we brought the laptop and have Wifi here. Andrew didn't stay awake long anyway, and I had this letter to write, and on top of that a "humor me" invitation to try another poem.

Mom, your latest water notes, following Dan's reminder of the 23rd Psalm tie-in, add to why I really like our Stillwater nomenclature. This is a rich metaphor. I had been thinking also about Herman Hesse's Siddharata - a very quick read if any of you haven't read it before.

Anyway, here's a lesser effort to caption Dick's photo.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Two Quotes on a Fountain

I'm so glad Dick figured out how to send his contributions - as he said,quoting Marvin's sentiment, "I'm not part of the family so I don't belong (in the picture)!" ("nor in the Symposia") Marvin's comment didn't bother Dick a whit - he immediately forgot about it, as you can tell! Anyway, biking at the Riparian Park the other day he wanted to capture a number of still water shots, and did. And then on the way home, through Gilbert Park, two different quotes were on one large fountain:

"We forget, the water cycle and the life cycle are the same." Jacques Cousteau
"Thousands have lived without love, but not one without water." W. H. Auden

With that, we say a hearty "Happy Birthday Benjamin Lucas!!" to an 8-year-old who is well loved. Hope your joint Carneval/birthday celebration is exciting.
Cubs lost yesterday while we were there - we biked to Hohokam. Today just got back from our usual 20 mile - we found a Panera-like restaurant far east that is a great destination because salads and sandwiches are so good.  

And so is the biking. Love, Mom and Dick

To whit, I love...

Hi all--in a wonderful mood on Ben's Birthday Eve and the day before the Czech version of pre-Lenten Carneval that we call Masopust (literally, 'meat fast'). This busy week had a lot of assessments to grade and an IB symposium (really! not kidding) across town for teachers of English and literature, but I most enjoyed reading the March 1 poem and news about the Cubs et al, and this aesthetic view of countless elements. To whit, I love

the dynamic duck serenely cutting across his azure surface
the probable husband nosing the shallower water
the longer-legged birds in reedier waters
the sand bar that evokes a hundred memories of Charjou, Turkmenistan
the 'to each to his own' in the company of care, reminding me of my favorite poem:

l(a

le
af

fa
ll

s)
one
l

iness


Yes, I overuse e.e. cummings, but that doesn't mean the guy who shows up with the ever-apropos "John 3:16" placard at NFL games should give it a rest. Al contrar! Cummings is by no means gospel, but the collection of fallen leaves (at the bottom of the vertical journey) always makes me sentimental and thankful for our post-autumnal salvation.

Keep the visual, poetic, homiletic, and otherwise aesthetic contributions rolling! We're working on some songs to GarageBand and eventually YouTube (though performance penchant is not a Norwegian instinct), so we'll add to the music of the still water birds.

love,
Dan

Humor Me

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

God Pause for Wednesday

I didn't intend this whole devotional from Luther Seminary to be forwarded, but I was caught by the "Is there any semblance of a rising star in your heart today?" To which I refer you, good readers; today the Stillwater Symposia is my rising star and God's shining light and majesty brought to earth in his little ones (we could spend some time on your names, too, you know, such as "God saves little one" which one of your names means... Love Mom

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Luther Seminary <communic@luthersem.edu>

God Pause for Wednesday, 3/2/2011

Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21

Once again, God's people are captivated by the majesty of God. We live in a day and age when things are often explained and are understood; when science and technology allow us to peer into the world with massive amounts of information and insight, and to do so in a blink. I wonder if our capacity to appreciate majesty, awe and wonder has been reduced? I suspect we must work more ardently at acquiring a sense of majesty these days.

Can we see God's light shining in the dark places of our lives? Is there any semblance of a rising star in your heart today? I hope we each can experience the Holy Spirit carrying us along life's way so that we move with confidence and hope into the marvelous future which God lays before us. Oh if only our lives and worship would also be fully engulfed in God's majesty.

To you, O God of wonders and majesty, we offer ourselves-wholly and completely. Help us to be captured by your gracious love that has empowered and encouraged the faithful throughout the generations. Rise once again in our hearts, and shine brightly in our dark places. Amen.

Rick Nelson
Board Chair, Lutheran World Relief and Sr. Pastor, Central Lutheran, Minneapolis, Minn.
Master of Divinity, 1980
------------------------------------------------------------

2 Peter 1:16-21 (NRSV)

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,

21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

The Dinghy's Christened

Love it!!!  And so the dinghy's christened for its first journey?

March 1

This I write for the symposia
inspired by stillwater dreams
and turtle songs and prayer requests
and trappist breweries.

I raise my glass to those a’ ya
who have known the wilder seas
but are still led to restfulness
along God’s peaceful streams,

and as the quiet river flows
with more movement than the
     surface shows,
let these odd words be for those a’ ya
who celebrate such things
but would convive to bring to life
your erstwhile hidden dreams.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Small Room in Tripoli

When Fatwick turned forty he busted a chair— 

he leveled his weight and, with nobody there, 
stomped the thin top and splintered the frame; 
only the rope would stymie his fall, the same 
broken thread that coiled in the crash, the same 
foolish prop that besmirched the endgame: 
‘the fatness prevailed once again,’ said the chair, 
which rolled with the groan in the sullen air. 

But Fatwick was hardly a mountainous man; 
he wasn’t real thin or infirm—then again… 
all he assumed in the course of his veins 
made him a ghoul, gnarled hands on the reigns, 
pulling a whelp-ass toward dubious gains. 
Ozymandias of fruitless demesne: 
A colonel of nothing but hourglass sand, 
he wasn’t as fat as his desert command. 
                                                                                   

SWS

SWS council,

Sylvia Plath purportedly wrote a poem every day--she had what Virginia Woolf would hope for any poet, "A Room of One's Own" and the necessary time. I'm glad to have this space--this room--and will aspire to the necessary time.

Attached today is what I thought would be a failed poem, but the more I read it...

We'll figure out a way to categorize, edit, vett, package and open to the blogosphere. For now, it's great to have a few loving readers.

Dan