Author Archives: threadfollower

Notes from 2020 – 2

It is nice...

...To get a real pair of shoes on
       and move around.
...To choose life-projects that require the fewest number of swear words,
       then, when the hammer hits the thumb, smile.
...To realize that bubblegum named after a weapon of war
       comes wrapped in a comic for a reason.
...To wonder if the ending of substance abuse is the result of 
       God's time or of having one's head in the toilet too many times?
...To watch her surf genealogically through the waves and waves
       of generations before her.
...To affirm, it still is not biblical to pray
       before eating the food.
...To not worry about proper approval, 
       but learn to work them first and worry later.
...To thank God, for Ecclesiastes has already collected 
       all our whines, worries and reflections.
...To rejoice, we all may come from away
       but here we all are.

Notes from 2020 – 1

Can it get any more bizarre?
     Answer: Yes.
Workouts, though, are much kinder 
     when nobody counts.
A fitting year to preach the hellfire and brimstone sermon 
     tentatively titled, Let's Get Horny.
For a sermon arrives in its own time.
     Sometimes right on time.
A dichotomy appears, Proper and Earthy, on either end,
     and, for a brief moment, arousing.
Maybe this time?
     Nope.  Next time, perhaps.

On Odilon Redon’s “The Mysterious Boat”

“My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined.  They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined.” – Odilon Redon

A blue boat
with gold sail
rocks across 
the white-capped,
rough, green sea.
Her clasped hands
on her lap.
His one hand
holds the tiller;
moves in the
opposite
direction
of where they
are heading.
Behind them,
the fiery,
gold mountain,
they escaped
with treasure,
burns.

10 Things Needed to Fuck Up a Country……or The Constant Project of the Powerful

(from a day with Padraig O’Tuama, April 27, 2020)

Take the land.
Introduce new gods.
Eradicate language.
Murder.
Create internal tensions.
Question the integrity of the culture.
Deepen shame in cultural expressions.
Define progress by dominant standards.
Establish dependency to create benevolence.
Project imagined hostility upon them.

How Many Prayerful Questions in 2020?

How many eyes closed in prayer this year?
How many heads bowed over clasped hands?
How many fell to their knees, even when it hurt?
How many raised hands and tentative lifts of the arms?
How many "Give us" prayers were asked this year?
How many "Let us" prayers?
How many "Make us" prayers?
How many requests that began, "Jesus, we just"?
How many more started, "God, if you just..."?
How many turns, returns and promises lifted to the heavens?
How many beads clicked moving on to the next prayer request?
How many sorrows, sadnesses and sicknesses placed in the hands of God?
How many prayers to find a way for a blessing to be given?
How many more prayers for blessings to be received?
How many prayers were obligatory, routine and ritualed?
How many virus cells were eradicated by prayer?
How many prayers heard by prayer-voyuers?
How many prayers were surrounded by the smoke of incense?
How many daughters would still be alive if their fathers 
     had said their bedtime prayers?
How many prayers sung over glowing grandfathers?
How many times worse would life have been if no prayers were said?
How many years did prayer add to lives in 2020?
How many prayers cried for just one more year?
How many prayers said in unison?
How many angels carried all the prayers to heaven?
     Were there enough?

Starry Night Questions

Who turned the swirling brushstrokes of Van Gogh's 
Starry Night into pieces of a puzzle?

How long did Vincent puzzle, staring at 
the night sky, before his first brushstroke?

Did Van Gogh paint brushstrokes when clouds
puzzled the moon and the stars with cover?

Puzzling, why do the straight brushstrokes of the 
cypress not stop the winding howl of the wind?

Where did the asylum staff allow Vincent
to puzzle out the brushstrokes needed for the stars?

On Chagall’s “Green Violinist”

“If people read the words of the prophets with closer attention, they would find the keys to life.” – Marc Chagall

Imagine waking to the racket of Chagall's
green violinist dancing on the rooftops.

What tune does a purple-coated fiddler play
in the winter to wake the neighbors?

Every woke fiddler is green-skinned
and wears one black shoe and one white shoe.

Awaken from one-footed dreams 
of flying in purple pajamas.

Christmas Day, 2020

“God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” – Mary

Could it be?  The chance once again 
to reject our expensive 
attachment to sharing pieces 
of pious piffle, poop and pablum?
The rich and wealthy imprisoned 
gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh
behind barcodes long, long ago.
Every year's Christmas list asks
for the impossible: a time
where a daughter does not dwell with
those who have gone before us
into the wonder wonderland.