Passings

[BO]

Dan Folgelberg dies of prostrate cancer. 56 years old.

http://www.danfogelberg.com/news.html

I loved this guy--sappy music and all.

[Cal]

Merry Xmas Maisie & Mouse

And  y'all on RBC

[hannah j]

and to you, too!

[pan]

There is some irony in posting Christmas greetings on the obituary thread.....

We got snow last night that is continuing today so we are having a white Christmas.  Don't have a tree or decorations - got out of the habit when the cats (RIP - got the thread connection back!) would play with them.

Warm winter wishes to all of you in this Reality based community based in virtual space.  This is one of few places where I truly do feel some bonds of community and I very much appreciate each of you.

[hannah j]

i thought of that, but oh well!

i too feel a connection here.....at least we all seem to be honest enough to admit we don't have all the answers or all the questions.....

[Cal]

Only on RBC -:)    This gave me my first laugh of the new year.  It's the summer solstice in this hemisphere & Persephone has just headed off for her annual vacation in the underworld.

.

 

[pan]

Joe Cocker at age 70

[pan]

[BO]

A huge talent. Doin' Randy Newman a year before his death.

[stonefruit]

(still relating to the same recently passed high school poetry teacher; now a poem to another girl who loved him and was inspired by him too; we had a little fling many years ago; she spends some time of the year in zurich; this is a poem to her about our mentor, our fling, about love, life, horror, and the honest poetry it takes to stand, weep and wail with it all).

i dont

usually work in

epic verse

but extraordinary times

call for 

extraordinary measures

 

your poem

made me cry

and think again

about the loss we shared

and shared with many others

 

who knew

a guy

from decades ago

could continue to

reverberate

in precious private places

with the sound

of a 30.06

heard from the chill bluffs

of waipio valley

ricocheting around

at midnight

 

reverberating

wildly

but

merciful

a one shot kill

 

me?

i've done some things

some writing

some videos

helped run some schools and non-profits

made some art

 

but i look back

and think

i was a fair hand at many of these things

but my genius

was always

the road

 

when i die

maybe they will say

he was a fair hand at many things

but his genius

was always

the road

 

the list

of countries

i've been to

would be too long 

and boring 

 

and who gives 

a shit

about a

pissing contest

anyway

 

but i 

did make it through

zurich once

but 12 bucks

for a beer

seemed a little pricey

and i 

couldn't afford a bed

so i just camped in the park

 

and left the capital 

of finance

to go 

even further

into the heart of control

davos

a beautiful village 

of palpable evil

 

i walked

down the valley

from davos

when the morning snow

came to my altitude

 

racing against the flakes

barely beating them

staying between their descent

and the bright sunlight

below

i came to tiefenstahl

and a very old church

 

something about that church was 

very compelling

and i had some german

from my alpine junior year

and kalani

because punahou declined

my readmittance

 

the sexton and his wife

were very kind

we walked their grounds

i admired their garden

they gave me tea and buttered bread 

homemade

 

there was a huge pile of bones

against one of the church walls

on the outside

human bones

i think they were 

those of an affiliated convent nearby

accumulated over the years

centuries

the sexton said it the second 

oldest christian church

in all of switzerland

 

it was very old indeed

 

but it was humble

not a cathedral

just a village church

whitewashed with lime

 

i thought of the

grounds

the structure

their garden

their duties

and told them auf duetsch

"this is the place of my dreams"

they simply 

nodded

 

when it came time to

sack up for the 

night

i asked if i

could sleep in the

the church

itself

 

"sure"

 

i rolled out my pad and bag

in the 

middle of the aisle

and slept there

with 

candles and 

a thousand years of bones

in the second 

oldest christian church

in switzerland

in a little town

that i did not even know

existed 

24 hours before i arrived

 

years later

i would see other bones

different bones

scarier bones

bones still soaked with horror

shrieking still

cambodian bones

at the killing fields

 

i am

not sure 

why some people

do certain things

 

i think we all

just want to be happy

be basically nice

push the ball forward 

a little bit

so we can all evolve and

be good to our spaceship

it is the 

only one we've got

 

great teachers do that

even from decades ago

great flings do that

even from decades ago

even ones 

that only last 

a few weeks

 

life can get to be a 

grind

unless you are

rich or lucky

hell, maybe it's tougher

then

i don't know

 

but when you

get right down

to it

perserverance is the thing

 

i guess

so i'm told

 

i can't go on

i'll go on

 

i am glad to hear 

you are writing

[pan]

Thank you for sharing that with us.

[stonefruit]

is it totally mastrabatory or does it have any larger relevance?

on the one hand, i think its the best thing i've written in years. or the other, it may have been written for that girl alone; an audience of one.

[stonefruit]