so, tell me why...

Saying we only need one language is like saying we only need one song.

a stack o' stuff

smallbits are tasty easy fun



after losing so many hours of years
to the deep low drone,
to the grey wet wool blanket
that sogs you sad
leaves you slow and cold
with the only flame burning
in the eating of your self
after all of that
all the more reason
to play.



20100414

it is a thing of strength and grace,
to never hide
any flaw
ever
to own up to it
with a voice and heart fearless
because after that
you
like all of us
are still
so wonderful



20100414

no caps
because we don't need to privilege the ego
the i is a small little hope of humility
mustered
to skew away
from the high and the low
from saying this center, our center
is anything different
from the else
from all that we survey
and cry to touch
and cry to hold
and cry to be held by



20100414

no titles, not usually
because maybe it doesn't need a head
a name
to reduce it
though an evoker is nice
i like the amoebic
reversability
of it all
and
again



20100414

our kitchen talk
is far from the ibāḍī calm
but we too are kind people
like you
we just love a bit too much
to howl at the moon
and chirp at the sun
and natter through our naps

and still,

from time to time

find our own

berry-picking quiet.

a bucket of water

I hate waste. Always have. Everything seems useful to me, and throwing things away seems to be downright disrespectful to the luck that brought you each thing. And here in Oman, waste of water is on my mind every day. My professorial salary means I don't really have to worry about the cost of water, but every time I look out on that dry landscape, where acacias fight goats for survival, and only a few other tough plants and animals can make it in this aridity, I can't help but think of how hard it is to get good clean water. And all those people in the world, not just in the past, but in the present still, too much of the present, who struggle to get even a bucket of good water.

So here's one small idea. It'll seem picky and obsessive, but again, think of its cumulative effect. As you adjust the temperature of the shower, it's running and running. And so much water runs in even a second of shower flow. So plop a bucket underneath to catch this unused water. Works best if you have non-fixed showerhead on a flexible tube, but it can be wrangled in various ways. Then you have this bucket of water. Which you can use to flush a toilet once, or for all those times a kitchen spill, a mopping, a soaking, or some other situation requires a bit of utility water. It can sit around, it can be added to till it accumulates to a useful level. It won't breed bacteria and mosquitoes if you use it frequently enough: that's your call.

And it's a small thing, yes, but it's a remembrance, a daily remembrance, of what water is, to us all.

where i come from

bitter humor, sweet sadness
and back again

all kinds of meta

So now a person can do a dance performance while wearing an iPad that's streaming a video of them doing the dance.

Well, I suppose it's not the first time digital technology let us get all recursive.

Here's to more wacky fun we can have with flat little portable holes for peering into the Internet. Yellow Submarine?

smack! ding! clack!

"Micro-waltes": what does it tell you about your life when you find expressions like that rolling right out as happy little boxcars in your train of thought?

corundum-like conundrum

So here is the conundrum: I want my life to be simple and peaceful. But when my life is simple, I get lazy and get nothing done. Which makes me crazy. When my life is busy and complicated and makes me crazy, I get things done.

So crazy, apparently, is unavoidable.

Unless of course, you have the magic [read: discipline] of still getting things done when you actually have lots of time to do them in.

These things are not a mystery to my mind, but they evidently really really are to my soul.