Painting Words

"Forgotten Dream" see ARTIST'S PAGE

A Language I Cannot Speak Without You

--Zen Oleary

There are earthquakes in me,
shivers of anticipation,
that disorient the day and
send me stumbling to
the edge of tomorrow.

I shout your name
across this abyss I cannot see
and listen for incoming echoes.

I wait for you like a seed
waits for rain or
a leaf thirsts for sunlight
or a bird lusts for grubs.

My eyes paint you in my mind,
your image strung on banners
streamed out of sky-writing planes,
whorled in rising thunder clouds.

I hear you in the graveled roars
of truck engines, the growls of lions,
the whispered buzz of bees.

I feel you in my blood, my breath
and the longing in my bones.

You have infiltrated and overtaken me
even in your absence till
you've turned me into a language
I cannot speak without you.

Painting Words

"Flowers" see ARTIST'S PAGE

Comes the Dawn

--Virginia Shopstall

After awhile you learn the subtle difference
between holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn that love doesn’t mean possession
and company doesn’t mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
and presents aren’t promises
and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up
and your eyes ahead
with the grace of an adult not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build your roads today
because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
and futures have ways of falling down in mid-flight.

After awhile you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much
so you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure
that you really are strong
and you really do have worth
and you learn and you learn…with every goodbye you learn

Painting Words

"Butterfly" see ARTIST'S PAGE

Self-Improvement

--Tony Hoagland


Just before she flew off like a swan
to her wealthy parents' summer home,
Bruce's college girlfriend asked him
to improve his expertise at oral sex,
and offered him some technical advice:

Use nothing but his tonguetip
to flick the light switch in his room
on and off a hundred times a day
until he grew fluent at the nuances
of force and latitude.

Imagine him at practice every evening,
more inspired than he ever was at algebra,
beads of sweat sprouting on his brow,
thinking, thirty-seven, thirty-eight,
seeing, in the tunnel vision of his mind's eye,
the quadratic equation of her climax
yield to the logic
of his simple math.

Maybe he unscrewed
the bulb from his apartment ceiling
so that passersby would not believe
a giant firefly was pulsing
its electric abdomen in 13 B.

Maybe, as he stood
two inches from the wall,
in darkness, fogging the old plaster
with his breath, he visualized the future
as a mansion standing on the shore
that he was rowing to
with his tongue's exhausted oar.

Of course, the girlfriend dumped him:
met someone, apres-ski, who,
using nothing but his nose
could identify the vintage of a Cabernet.

Sometimes we are asked
to get good at something we have
no talent for,
or we excel at something we will never
have the opportunity to prove.

Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.

The climaxes of suffering are complex,
costly, beautiful, but secret.
Bruce never played the light switch again.

So the avenues we walk down,
full of bodies wearing faces,
are full of hidden talent:
enough to make pianos moan,
sidewalks split,
streetlights deliriously flicker.

Painting Words

"A Beautiful Mind" see ARTIST'S PAGE
Mad Girl's Love Song

--Sylvia Plath

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

Snuggie Wuggie

Coupl'a things the snuggie ads fail to mention:

1) Snuggie does not close in back and cannot be worn as clothing without violating public indecent exposure laws.

2) Snuggie's "one size fits all" actually limited to BFFs Oprah & Barack. If you're neither wide nor tall your snuggie sleeves are more hindrance than help...

Which leads me to conclude that not only am I unable to leave my house in a snuggie, but I can't even "wear" it at all without tripping over its ridiculous length or struggling to retrieve anything other than the inside of an enormous wizard sleeve.

Best for being immobile (when a blanket would work just as well), pretending to be a pink cuddle monster, or playing Mrs. to:

Bite Me

Oh, I'm sure with such a title as "Bite Me" you expect this post to be about vampires. But no...they'll come later. In the meantime, I'd like to pay homage to one of my favorite authors: Zadie Smith. My freshman year of high school I discovered her novel White Teeth on my sister's bookshelf (a treasure trove of literary jewels) and fell in love. It's a kaleidoscope of humanity that touches upon topics as old as racism, ancient as love, and relevant as religious fundamentalism. It's all over the place, woven from many threads, that one never quite knows from whence they came and where they might end up--you just have to trust Smith knows what she's doing and then hold on tightly. Not that I ever would have considered letting go in the first place.

Smith's novel was made into a four part television series for British television station Channel 4 in 2002, and I believe it was aired once or twice stateside through PBS, but was never released on DVD. I thought I'd never get to see it until I hauled my ass to the UK, but thank god I magically stumbled across the complete series on Hulu.

I seriously finished watching the last video about an hour ago, and it was just as brilliant viewing as it was reading White Teeth. I know Christmas is nearly upon us, but maybe you'll find some time after the holidays and before the new year to watch a video or two. The second half of the series gets especially interesting when the twins in the story finally grow up...into some very fit men. Also stars that James McAvoy kid from Atonement...aka Mr. Tumnus.

http://www.hulu.com/white-teeth

Deliciousness:

Sean Kingston is So Infectious

Ever since I heard "Take You There," I find his sunny hooks and silly words stuck in my head like nananana everyday...Even his music videos are super sweet. I mean, I can't be the only one who thinks this--kid gets hella airplay on the radio. His songs instantly call to mind blue skies, ice cream, and Tang--kinda like "Party in the USA," "Crazy in Love," or "These Words." Some songs serve no other purpose but to make you feel frivolous.

Dude's also responsible for discovering Iyaz & co-wrote Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say."