Poem of the Day

"A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me"
(The Poem I'd Like My Future Wife to Read When I Finally Crap Out)
by Derrick C. Brown


Lying together in the park on Seventh,
our backs smoosh grass and I say
I will love you till I become a child again,
when feeding me and bathing me is no longer romantic,
but rather necessary.

I will love you till there is no till.
Till I die.
And when that electroencephalogram shuts down, baby
that's when the real lovin' kicks in.

Forgive me for sounding selfish
but I won't be able to wait under the earth for you
(albeit a romantic thought for groundhogs,
gophers and the gooey worms).
I will not be able to wait for you...

but I will meet up with you
and here's where you will find me:
get a pen--

Hold your finger up
(two fingers if your hands are frail by now)
and count two stars directly to the left
of the North American moon.
You will find me there.
You will find me darting behind amazing quasars
Behind flirtatious winks
of bright and blasting boom stars!

Sometimes charging so far into space
the darkness goes blue.
I will be there chasing sound waves
riding them like two-dollar pony ride horses
that have finally broken free and wild.
I will be facing backwards, lying sideways,
no hands, sidesaddle, sometimes standing
sometimes screaming zip zang zowie!
My God, it's good to be back in space... Where is everybody?

You will recognize my voice.
You will see the flash of a fire trail
burning off the back of me
burning like a gasoline comet kerosene sapphire.
This is my voice.
Don't look for my body or a ghost.
I'll resemble more a pilot light than a man now.

I'm sure some will see
this cobalt star white light from earth
and cast me a wish like a wonder bomb.
And I'll think "Hmmph. people still do that?"

I'm sure I'll take the light wonder bombs
to the point in the universe
where sound does end.
The back porch of God's summer home.

It's so quiet here, you float.
It feels the way cotton candy tastes.

I say to him... why do I call you God?
He says 'Because Grand Poobah sounds ridiculous.'
(Who knew he was so witty?)
I ask him 'Lord, so many poets have tried to nail it and missed, what is holy?'

At that moment,
the planets begin to spin and awaken
and large movie screens appear on Mars, Saturn and Venus
each bearing images I have witnessed
and over each and every clip flashes the word holy.

armadillos--holy
magic tricks--holy
cows' tongues--holy
snowballs upside the head--holy
clumsy first kisses--holy
sneaking into movies--holy
your mother teaching you to slow dance
the fear returning
the fear overcome--holy
eating top ramen on upside-down frisbees
cause it was either plates or more beer--holy
drunk beach cruiser nights--holy
the $5.00 you made in vegas
and the $450.00 you lost--holy
the last time you were nervous holding hands--holy
feeling God at a pool hall but not church--holy
sleeping during your uncle's memorized dinner prayer--holy
losing your watch in the waves and all that signifies--holy
the day you got to really speak to your father cause the television broke--holy
the day your grandmother told you something meaningful
cause she was dying--holy
the medicine
the hope
the blood
the fear
the trust
the crush
the work
the loss
the love
the test
the birth
the end
the finale
the design
in the stars
is the same
in our hearts
the design
in the stars
is the same
in our hearts
in the rebuilt machinery of our hearts

So love, you should know what to look for
and exactly where to go...

Take your time and don't worry about getting lost.
You'll find me.
Up there, a finger and two dots away.
If you're wondering if I'll still be able to hold you
...I honestly don't know

But I do know that I could still fall for
a swish of light that comes barreling
and cascading towards me.

It will resemble your sweet definite hands.
The universe will bend.
The planets will bow.
And I will say "Oh, there you are. I been waitin' for ya. Now we can go."

And the two pilot lights go zoooooooom
into the black construction paper night

as somewhere else
two other lovers lie down on their backs and say
"What the hell was that?"

PS 22

PS 22 singing Cure's Pictures of You.

Community and Choir

Music Memories - A Tribute To Jim Keller & Ron Revier from Kevin Heinz on Vimeo.

I had the incredible good fortune to participate in the Fairview High Shool Choir Program while I was sorting things out and screwing things up and, occasionally, doing things right between the ages of 14 and 18. I'm still in the process of composing a thank-you letter to the two men who created Fairview choir, Jim Keller and Ron Revier.

What programs and teachers shaped your formative years? What did you learn through sport, choir, drama, or otherwise? Is this when you got good at something that has stayed with you? What did you learn through having fun that helps you now?

This is a post from the Etsy series No Place Like Here. Essentially a group of friends got together in what I'm guessing was the 70s (Check out that hair! And those glasses!) and bought a piece of property above Monterey Bay and over time built individual homes and a shared great house - and a small, supportive community.

I think community is lacking for a lot of us - humans developed living in closely interwoven tribes and then had shared activities like quilting and barn raising and cattle wrassling etc. But now so many of us now live fairly isolated lives where we cook for ourselves or a few others and spend time alone in cars on commutes. Seems somewhat unhealthy and unnatural, for us and the world!

I'm not sure this much shared space would suit me -the showers are a particular concern- but I've always loved neighborhoods that incorporate some of the tenets of co-housing, such as a reservable guest house, catering kitchen, shared garden space, etc.

What do you think about shared spaces and community buildings? Do you livesomewhere with shared spaces? How small do you think it needs to be to generate reall community ties (ie. 150 apartments with a shared clubhouse may not be community-creating without shared values and goals). Think back to when you were a kid and imagining the kind of house or neighborhood you wished you lived in - how has that changed? What would you choose now, if anything were possible?