The First Week of 2017

Here are some excerpts from the writing journal for this week.

1/1/2017

An auspicious start
Church
Trying a new cocktail
A long walk
Finishing laundry
Reading
Writing
Singing, too
Listening also
To the musician and poet
Whose work I chose as
Writing  inspiration
Reading for this year.

As I went about this day
I saw resolutions being worked on.
I did a 5+ mile walk
Saw a couple looping the streets on their bicycles
Saw a young man walking to the store instead of driving.
As we got out of the car at church this morning,
There was a man out jogging Downtown.

A Bunch Of Lonesome Heroes
Leonard Cohen Songs
This one is deep
But I have a hard time finding references
To bring out what it
Makes me see and feel.
I suppose the basic drift is that the urge
To tell your story before
It's too late is very
Strong in all humans -
Perhaps those "heroes" who
Run the risk of dying
Find it even stronger sometimes.

The line about no one really being able to hear the
one who wanted to tell his story
Sounds a lot like
Social Media to me.
So many can "hear " you,
So few, if any, will listen,

"I sing this for the crickets
I sing this for the army
I sing this for your children
and for all that do not need me."

Not sure exactly what he meant by that,
and I don't know about you,
but I often feel like I'm
"singing for the crickets"
Nobody responds.
But that's okay.
Not everything requires a response
often things must just
be released -
To go where they will-
and the words will
Eventually find
Those who need them.



January 2, 2017


A Singer Must Die
Song by L. Cohen
He has said it is "political in a certain way."

I believe it to be about the politics of a relationship between a man and a woman.

"I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline."

I hope it isn't about to be about our actual politics.
"A singer must die for the lie in his voice."
That SHOULD apply to those in power - but all too often, those who hold power accountable are the ones accused of the lie, when they do, in fact, speak the truth.


A pleasant day
Productive in its way
Though it was a holiday
A parade watched,
Exercise done
Bookkeeping chores dispatched
Practice begun.

The handwriting is part of
what I would practice.
And it is getting better

The piano is still quite rusty -
and I REALLY need to get it tuned.
Not trying to gain new skills,
Jut trying not to lose what
I already have.

My voice is still subject
To unexpected phlegm
Drops
Some scratchiness and cracking result.
But what works has SO much more depth and resonance!

Not taking sinus meds anymore.
Waiting to see if it helps the blood pressure if I don't take all that stuff.

January 3, 2017

Resolutions being kept -
But tomorrow is a true test
Work day -
Yesterday, it got warm,
Over 60 degrees F
Today it struggled to
Stay above freezing.

Gray and cloudy
The North Wind ripped
At the Trees
And any exposed skin
It could find.
It whipped
Wood smoke from fireplaces
And steam from dryer exhausts
Around the  neighborhood
Creating a bizarre
Winter Incense
To hallow the air.

So cold and dark
I craved to be able
To spend more of this day
Curled up here with
My books and my tea
Alas,
Errands,
Chores
Time not my own,

Today's Song:

A Thousand Kisses Deep

Helps to know that it was written for a fan Mr. Cohen corresponded with who had cancer.  She ended her own life, even though for the longest tine, she said Leonard's songs helped her hang on.

Line that struck me most:
 "You live your life as if it's real."
Don't we all?
And just how sure are we of our reality?
I guess we kinda have to agree on a concept of reality in order to function as a society,
and perhaps that's part of the cause of our electoral woes.
One chunk of the country believes one concept of reality, and another big chunk has a different concept.
How we can solve this conceptual dilemma, I have no clue.

But we better figure something out SOON.

 Also thought of the  Velveteen Rabbit
 and how it took being loved to make the rabbit "real".
I must be real,
For I am well loved!


And I wonder, if we loved each other more, maybe we could be more "real" to each other, and that would make it a lot easier to see both sides of an argument, and make decisions that really helped people, instead of dividing us even further.

January 4, 2017

Still cold today.
Even colder than yesterday.
Didn't walk this morning.
Did elliptical instead.
Today's Cohen song:

Ain't No Cure For Love

The line that most struck me is
"I need to see you naked
In your body and your thoughts"

 How much more intimate
 is the sharing of the mind and soul
Than the sharing of the body?

True, for some of us,
The physical requires a more  visceral trust,
but
sharing thoughts can be even more visceral
if one wishes to truly be
"Naked in your thoughts".


January 5, 2017

Today the very air
Seems frozen
I could see my breath
Even in the insulated garage
Did my walking indoors
On the elliptical trainer
Afraid the air outside
Would freeze off my skin.
The sky looks leaden
And dark
The clouds perhaps harboring
Snow within.
The prognosticators keep changing
Their minds and disagreeing
About how much, where,
And when.

I really crave
My cozy home office,
My chair
And a cup of tea
But alas,
It is Thursday
So late day at work for me.

Today's song is

Alexandra Leaving


Cohen's take on a classic about being deserted by all the good things in life -
In this case,
A girlfriend.
He wrote a lot about lost loves.

"Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving.
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost."

Sounds like a refrain that could work
even if you changed the name.
Life is often a series of both joys and disappointments.

So many choices of creative things
To engage my mind
And my hands
But those things
Are at home
And I am here.


January 6, 2017

Today's song is Anthem

I've always liked the chorus
"Ring the bells that still will ring
Forget your perfect offering,
There's a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

 But reading the verses tonight, it seems to me this country needs to hear,
 really hear, this song right now.

"I can't run no more with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
A thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me."

"You can strike up the march
But there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
To love will come."

These verses just really spoke to me today.
We need to be the response to that thundercloud
of hate that has been summoned up -
We need to be out there, turning hearts to love.
How we do this, I am not sure, except that I intend
To show love in the face of hate,
To stand up for those who need me,
To not accept misbehavior from our government.
Do NOT be hateful in my name!

I awoke to a snow covered world
White and sparkly
Cold
Fitting for the day
We pack Christmas away
For another year.
Epiphany
The day the 3 kings found
The Baby Jesus
In Bethlehem.
The day Christmas officially ends.
But that joyful
Giving spirit
Is supposed to live in us,
In our hearts,
All year long.

January 7, 2017

Avalanche is today's song.

And I must say, it doesn't much speak to me.

It seems to contradict itself.-
Speaking of longing and not needing-

 "I have begun to long for you
I who have no greed.
I have begun to ask for you
I who have no need."

Maybe it speaks more than I thought -
makes me think of more than a few pairs of star-crossed lovers I have read about -

Another white-bright day -
But I cannot shelter here
I have to go and earn my pay
Time to library, my dear.
And will it be a quiet day
Except for the phone-
All wanting to renew, they say,
So they may remain snug
At home...

January 8, 2017

Today is Sunday
One full week in this
New Year.
The weather today is
 A little warmer
A lot breezier
More snow melted, evaporated,
Gone.

Church done for another week
Wednesday will hold a  rehearsal again
The Odd routine of Holidays
Ended.
We will miss the next
Great feast -
We will be away for Easter Day - traveling -
And will travel home on
The Bombing anniversary.
If our nation hasn't been destroyed
By then.
I know the idiot-elect will try.

 Today's song is Ballad of the Absent Mare

and a long and involved thing it is.
Much like the relationships it alludes to.
Man and woman
Man and Nature
Man and God
All these are difficult
Almost as impossible
As a human's relationship
To him- or her- self.

We all have our moments
Of loss, anger, seeking, finding, rejoicing, reveling, mourning,

This is what makes us human.
This is what can unite us
If we but let it.
Stories,
Stories of how we got to where we are,
Why we feel the way we feel,
What we learned about ourselves and others
Along the way.
If we but sit still and LISTEN
To one another,
We can finally, finally
SEE each other.
Know we are all so much the same.
In the same boat
Afloat in a scary
Universe.
We can comfort each other
We can help each other
We can build a BETTER world
If we can only learn to LISTEN
To each other.