21 posts tagged “books”
... here at Jay and Danielle's house, in my bedroom there's a window that faces out on part of the field out back and between the next house... it's mostly neglected by the owners of the area, and since no one owns the lots it just goes wild... tall grasses, scattered wildflowers... home to snakes and locusts and who knows what else, tho I often wonder... in the morning I like to sit on my bed and look out over the grass, especially when there's a strong wind and it moves like waves... the past few weeks there's been some stray cats coming around while the sun is rising, looking for an easy feast of mice... they are such patient hunters, I love watching them, trying to guess when they'll pounce, since I can usually see the mice as well from where I'm sitting... later this morning there have been several goldfinches flying around the field... I love how they fly, I remember first noticing it back in New Jersey, when they would come to the apartment balcony to feed on the sunflowers... you almost think they're going to drop to the ground in mid-flight before they catch themselves again with a few beats of their wings and carry on...
... I need to get back to writing poetry... I miss it tremendously... I've let my mind get carried away with other things, mostly music these days... I find myself often with my guitar in my hands going over scales and exercises like I once did when I was in my teens... but it's a good thing, I'm feeling the old strength and skill I used to have... my speed has come back, tho' my days of shredding for crowds are probably long gone, it still feels good to know it again... even working thru the exercises slowly still brings a benefit in precision and cleanliness in picking... and here a few years ago I thought I was done playing for good...
... we have a nice set of songs for the church service this Sunday, and I'm happy to say I have 2 excellent solos in two of the songs that I'm excited about... but I need to find time again for writing... and reading, since reading poetry always inspired me best to write poetry... and I miss my books back in NJ terribly... I keep remembering different ones I kept, and then I get depressed that they're so far away and I wonder if I'll ever see them again... I know they're just material things, but they mean a lot to me... I attach memories and times to certain books, when I bought them and read them... I tried to keep hold of the ones that matter the most to me since they hold a timeline of much of my life and where I've been...
... I'm looking forward to autumn here in North Carolina as well... wondering how the trees turn down here, and does the air and sky still get that frosty, hazy look it had back in NJ on fall mornings... I saw Orion creeping up in the east the other morning too, when I was up before dawn and took the dog outside... always good to see him striding up into the sky, a companion of mine for decades now... and I'll end my rambling here, with a dark sky full of stars, a small dog snuffling in the grass, and my neck craned upward in the hopes of catching one small shooting star before the Sun takes over the new day...
... I know it's been a long time since I've written or posted anything here but I've just kind of been caught up in the day to day routine and have let my blog go... things are still great here in North Carolina, I'm still living with Jay and Dani and Connor, and playing at the church every other weekend... we've got a full band again for this Sunday and a good list of songs, so I'm really looking forward to it...
... this week they've had some houseguests from NJ, Mike and Colleen and their son, Hunter, spending their vacation here... Mike and Jay are good friends and I know Mike also from the old hometown... so there've been daytrips and pool trips and fires in the firepit at night when the rain hasn't ended them early... we had a nice fire going last night, and the half-Moon was in the sky and a scattering of summer stars, but by 10:30 a storm rolled in quick and began raining heavily on us... so we beat a quick retreat inside and let the weather finish off the fire...
... I do have some poems to post and I will get them up there starting today... I had the place to myself for a while yesterday and sat outside for a bit and got some new ones too, which felt good after such a long spell of not writing much...
... I miss my books... tho' I'm glad for the ones I packed with me when I left NJ, but I've so many other ones I miss... reading other poetry is what usually kick-starts my own writing by getting my brain in that special frame of mind, so I miss having the whole variety of my library around me... hopefully someday I'm reunited with them all, I hate to think I'll never see them again, or any of the other things my friends are holding for me back in NJ...
... first, it's been very warm here, in fact, amazingly warm for me for February... up north this is usually the worst month, but it's been near 70 here in Flowery Branch... I took both of my friend Janis' dogs out for long walks yesterday, up and down the hilly roads, past the beautiful houses and still-bare trees, past other dogs barking either out of duty or jealousy... one neighbor had a trio of small dogs he was taking for a walk, and they went wild when they saw us walking by... the man waved and smiled, and I said, "You have a chorus there!", and he laughed... and hawks, there were hawks everywhere... at one time I counted 14 circling overhead... the other week I saw 6 and thought that was a lot... back in NJ, you might catch one, maybe two... made me worry tho, as during my walk I saw some small cats in the neighborhood, and I hoped they were keeping close to houses and watching the skies...
... last evening was soft and warm, and before the sun set, the full Moon was already in the sky above the trees... I went out later, after dark and after dinner, to watch it for a while... the backyard here is so dark, but last night the lawn was laced with the shadows of trees and strips of moonlight... Venus was so bright that I would wager if the Moon were gone it would have cast some shadows of its own... Orion and Canis Major were climbing high in the south... it was so peaceful to just sit out there and take it all in... seeing Orion always takes me back to my hometown, and all those years ago when I first fell in love with astronomy... when I first recognized Orion from the charts in my books, and realized that, from there, the whole night sky was open to me... and now here I am looking at it from another state, so many years later...
... I've been reading a lot of short stories lately... some of my friend's upcoming assignments for her students involve short stories they've read throughout the school year, so the reading gets me acquainted and ready for when the grading begins... Janis also picked me up a book the last time she was at the Mall of Georgia, a collection of short stories by Carol Shields, an author completely new to me... so I've had a lot of reading on my plate between that and the usual poetry books I have stacked near where I nest to write...
... I'm also trying to break into doing some freelance work through Elance... it's a site where writers can sign up and bid on writing jobs of all kinds, and my friend helped me get setup there... so now it's a matter of getting my foot in the door, and building a reputation and some clients there... and hopefully, some money too... though I need to tack up my grammar skills even tighter, so I'm also studying up on that on the side so I can take some skills tests through the site...
... ok, music... here's what's been on my iPod the past few days...
"Trademark" - Eric Johnson
"November Rain" - Guns N Roses
"Fade to Black" - Metallica
"Dirty Movies" - Van Halen
"Lullabye" - Concrete Blonde
"Fall On Me" - REM
"Sorry Again" - Velocity Girl
"Take Me Away" - Blue Oyster Cult
"- Human" - Metallica
"Tier" - Rammstein
"Time's Up" - Saga
"When You Were Mine" - The Church
"Antenna" - The Church
"Turn It On Again" - Genesis
"The Rain Must Fall" - Yanni
(This last one is a must-hear, especially the live Acropolis version, with the long bass solo, the bassist just kills on it!)
... and now it's warm again today... lots of birds out back, and I'm trying to look around online and get to know the birds around here... tho I recognize the cardinals and blue jays and woodpeckers... it's nice to hear the birdsong this morning, during this lull in winter on this quiet weekend...
... can't sleep, so I figured I'd get up and blog... I haven't just blogged in a while...
... I haven't been writing much lately... either I'm going through one of my quiet spells, or I've just been immersed in other things... my friend, Janis, whose home I'm staying in, is a teacher... so one thing I've been doing to help out is grade papers for her... she's an English teacher, so I get to brush up on my grammar while I grade her students' papers... and it's been fun for me, she told me if I see an opportunity in a student's paper to teach or help them with something, then do it... so it's been nice to offer a little help or advice to the kids with their writing... so usually in the mornings I've been doing this kind of work, as my early bird routine still seems to be clinging to me...
... today I went with Janis and a few of her kids to the big Wal Mart nearby... I have to say I'm still impressed with the stores here in the South... they are so much cleaner and quieter than their counterparts up North... like the grocery stores... up North on a football Sunday, I always hated having to go in the grocery store because it would usually be a mob scene... but down here, they're quite empty and there's a calmness there that I'm not used to... and the Wal Mart today was amazing... just very quiet, even tho' there were a lot of customers in the store... it just had a whole different vibe than the ones I've been in up North... and at the checkout, I was helping to put thing on the belt, when the cashier laid her hand on my arm gently and said, "I need to go get some more bags, Sir, but I'll be right back"... and I was amazed, because up North the cashier would have just walked off and left you wondering if she was going on break or coming back or what... so it's been an experience just going to these places and people-watching, something I love to do...
... and I'm still amazed at the night sky here... tonight was cold but very clear, with a crescent Moon just above Venus a ways... Orion was blinding with all his stars, and the Pleiades and Hyades, and Cassiopeia... and I even caught a very bright meteor while I was out there for a few minutes, so I can only imagine what a full meteor shower would be like here... sad that I couldn't keep my telescope, because this place would be amazing for astronomy...
... I finished Stephen King's "Duma Key", and loved it from start to finish... it's classic King... and one of those books I hated to finish, because I wonder how long now til I find something that moves me as much... but I began reading "Heart of Darkness" by James Conrad, and it's pretty good... a short book, so I should be done it this weekend...
... here's a little of what's been on my iPod this past week:
REO Speedwagon - "Out of Season"
The Church - "Paradox"
Thrice - "Melting Point of Wax"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Hello, It's Late"
Michael Schenker Group - "Desert Song"
Squeeze - "Another Nail For My Heart"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Higher Ground"
Anthrax - "Anyplace But Here"
The Smiths - "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others"
Suede - "Animal Nitrate"
Overkill - "Skull and Bones"
Rammstein - "Morgenstern"
The Toadies - "Possum Kingdom"
Catherine Wheel - "Tongue Tied Twisted"
Rainbow - "Stone Cold"
Slayer - "Skeltons of Society"
Soul Asylum - "To My Own Devices"
David Bowie - "Loving the Alien"
Otep - "Confrontation"
... you know, I think a lot about poetry and writing... the processes involved... the other day I wrote down a line, just a fragment, and usually that bothers me, when the rest isn't right there... so I'm left with this fragment that I want to use, that I really like, but it has to wait... and I'm reminded of something I read years back... see, I used to read a lot of sci fi, and that was my dream - to be a sci fi writer... but I never had the full patience to do a whole novel, or the belief in myself to do it... anyway, I loved to read articles and interviews by authors, to hear what they had to say about their own processes and thoughts on writing... and I remember an interview with Harlan Ellison, a famous writer... now, I'm paraphrasing, tho I do have the article still in a folder somewhere... but he basically said, Sometimes I have ideas, and I don't know what to do with them at the time... I'm not ready to write them yet... maybe there are things I still need to learn, or need to experience, before I can bring that idea to life... so I set that idea aside, until I know the time is right... until I know I'm ready and able to put the idea down the way it needs to be done... until I have the knowledge and tools to make it work... and I think Mr. Ellison is so right, and that fragment of a poem made me remember what he said... so it's sitting there in my notebook, a lost puzzle piece, waiting for me to find the other 499 pieces to go with it... I don't know what kind of picture it will create... but I do hope I will know when it's time to finish the picture the way it needs to be done... when it's time to give that fragment it's proper home...
This may sound odd, but Stephen King has been with me through my roughest times... I was reading Tommyknockers when my mother first was diagnosed with emphysema... I was reading The Stand when she passed from cancer... it almost seems as if when I pick up one of his books, something dramatic or traumatic is going to happen to me... yet his books are like a patch, to get me through it... and now this time it's Duma Key... I tried to start reading it on the bus down to Georgia, but couldn't focus with the not eating, not sleeping, panic thing going on... but the past week I've fallen into the story, and it's like, Yes... he's there for me again... this is just what I need... it even broke me when in a part of the book he quotes a poem from Garrison Keillor's "Good Poems"... and I was like, Yes, I know that book, I have that book, I love that book... it was just the twist I needed to help me release a bit... so it's more than just his brilliant work that makes me such a fan, it's the timing as well... he's seen me through some of my darkest times with his stories, and the little bits he adds to them, the flotsam and jetsam of trivia, music or poetry... he's such a big poetry fan, I don't think people realize that about him...he knows his stuff... anyway, this is just a shout to him that he'll probably never know about, but thank you for your stories and how they've been there for me... I know you have no control over that aspect of it, but the stories, the books have been there, and Someone has always brought one to me at the right time to keep me alive...
... let's see, where's my head been?... beside just writing bad poetry, I have been watching the Phillies, and it was frustrating last night that they had to call the game... but it was cold and rainy even here, and watching the game you could just see the rain getting worse and worse... I still believe Philly will win it tho...
... and I'm getting so tired of politics everywhere, I can't wait til this election is over... and for the first time in my life I actually want to follow the election night coverage, because I'm very anti-McCain/Palin... I just think he's more of the same that we've had for so many years already... I'm tired of these old rich white guys just doing what they want to do in office... so I'm for Obama, tho' I wonder if he'll get to do the job he wants to do, I feel he's going to be fought over everything he tries to do... but at least it will be a change away from all we've had, the men who have just devastated our country...
... the eviction is coming soon... I haven't been served any papers yet, but I was told it's in the works... I've already started packing some things, so that if the worst does happen I can save my papers and poetry books... I'm just in a bad state in my mind, over jobs and wasting my life... I've given a lot of years and aggravation to jobs that have used me, jobs that never helped me get ahead... 11 years at that bakery and at the end I was still basically making the same money I made when I started, because for every raise I would get, he would then cut down my hours... I really just wish I could do what I love, the only passion I have left in my life and in my soul - writing...
... the ironic thing in all this right now is, I was contacted by a great illustrator to work on my ideas for childrens books... I have four ideas that I've been poking at for months now, adding notes here and there... and this artist is helping to bring them to life, so who knows, maybe they will get to be published... I'm not saying this is Harry Potter, lol, they're small books for much younger kids, but they are little stories I've always wanted to see completed... so I'm trying to at least get one or two of the stories into this artists hands before anything happens with my living situation...
.. and I'm still reading too, keeps my mind off things... right now I'm reading "The Vampire Lestat" by Anne Rice, a book I read over 10 years ago so it was time for a reread... and I still have a few stacks of poetry books not packed away, to inspire me to keep writing... I know I've even been writing a lot of rhyme lately (at least a lot for me, ok?), because they're kind of easy to do when my mind is feeling anxious... I can focus on the structure and rhyme...
... anyone who knows me knows I'm always behind on movies... well, the other night I finally watched "30 Days of Night", and I have to say I really liked it... up until the end... I think it was one of the lamest endings I've ever seen in a movie, it just seemed to quick and tacked on... I would have liked it better if the vampires would have just escaped to their ship and got away, leaving the survivors... or if the sheriff had maybe followed them and found a way to destroy the ship... either way, the ending they went with to me was a bomb... it was like a book with a bad ending...
That last poem, the title was a little homage to one of my favorite astronomy books, "Starlight Nights" by Leslie C. Peltier... he was one of the most famous amateur astronomers in the last century, and the book is a biography of his beginnings and life in astronomy... it's a must-read for anyone with any interest in just what those people do in their backyards with their telescopes.
Some Books Grieve
Some books grieve on crowded shelves,
being passed by, day after day,
maybe years elapsed since last someone,
took them down and home to stay;
library aisles are full of speakers,
ones that seldom get the chance
to rest in a pair of interested hands,
and let their pages feel the glance
that they were purposefully made for,
their reason for being bound;
some books grieve on crowded shelves,
when they should be passed around.
I've been dealing with really bad sinus headaches for the past month or so... and last night was like the mother of them all, just incapacitated me for several hours until I finally dozed a bit on my bed... I woke up after midnight, feeling better but like I had been run over by a car... I really couldn't get to sleep after that, and even today I'm still achey and tired, but can't fall asleep... it's been frustrating because yesterday morning I got some good work done on a short story I have been writing - the story is done, now it's just in the rewrite/edit stage... I really hoped to have it done this morning, but I just couldn't focus... hopefully tomorrow I can get it done...
... oddly, the short story is a horror one... as are the other five stories I've been making notes and rough drafts on... guess all the years of King, Koontz, movies and music are finally working on me, hehe... I'm jazzed tho, because so far the ideas and work are going good, and I'm hoping to have some good stories to do something with... I've been researching some magazines to send them to, maybe I'll get lucky...
... I haven't been reading much with all the writing going on... right now I'm working my way thru a book of Edgar Allan Poe stories, along with the bunch of poetry books that always seem to follow me around the home...
... I saw Venus the other night, shining bright in the west after sunset... so I went and consulted my almanacs, and seems Venus is going to be real nice in the evening sky this season, and next week Mercury comes up to join it... so I'm hoping to catch some views of both planets together... last night some light clouds hovered around the west, making it hard to catch Venus, but higher up I could see the slender crescent Moon...
Kind of a scare this morning over Waldo the praying mantis... sitting out on the balcony, I was looking for him and couldn't find him among the many sunflower stalks in the pot he usually favors... I figured he was probably hiding so well I just couldn't see him... Moopy was out and walking around, and suddenly I noticed something hurrying between her steps... it was Waldo, walking around... well, Moopy's one foot kind of hit him, and he got scared so he ran to the edge of the balcony, and when I tried to get him back he fell... well, he survived the one story drop to the parking lot below, but then another fear arose - birds... some of the neighbors throw bread over for the birds, and the parking lot is usually very busy with them... I was afraid Waldo was gonna be snatched up for breakfast by some pesky sparrow... so I grabbed a plastic cup and lid and hurried down to retrieve him... got him back among his sunflowers safe and sound, and hopefully he'll stay put and not do any more roaming for a while...
It's a beautiful Sunday here in New Jersey... brilliant sunshine, deep blue skies and low humidity... makes it nice to sit outside... probably going to be a beautiful starlit night too... have to remember to look for the crescent Moon that should be visible... I believe I read Venus and Mercury are going to be in the West too after sunset... I'll have to recheck my sources to be sure...
Almost done reading Diane Ackerman's "The Moon by Whalelight", and I'm glad I reread it, it's a wonderful book... it's a collection of essays from her time spent travelling among whales, penguins, crocodiles and bats... a lot of good conversations with the people who study and work to conserve these animals, and a lot of surprising stories and facts about them too... it ranks high up there with her "Natural History of the Senses" too... next up to read, I'm not sure... might reread some Ray Bradbury short stories, tho I'm still in a Dan Simmons mood after reading "Lovedeath" last month... might pull out his "Hyperion" book for a reread too...
