May haiku

May peace follow you
and joy be your companion
on life's dancing road.

April haiku

Like an autumn leaf
you fell silent from my life;
leaving me alone.

Haiku

for M

Sometimes just the thought
of your smiling face is food
enough for supper.

seventeen syllables

In the haiku houses on Sweet-Meadowlark-Lane I heard your name whispered like rain falling in a faraway darkness. It was a holy name, an only name, to chant in silences of seventeen syllables.
Why didn't you call me? I wanted you to call me; it was Sunday and your mother was at church. I wanted you to call me; we could have fallen in love, danced in the rain, even written a long poem together.

13th March

for M

The rain pours from the sky in grey sheets of shook foil, washing across the carpark and rapping your name in gusts on the window-panes. And as the water swirls & whirls down pipes & drains I remember again your question: 'Do you believe in love, love at first sight?' Well, I might; if I believe in love at all. I'm passionate about passion & I like to be liked; I guess I also love to be loved~ but at first sight? Can it happen? Could it be real? To love; to feel; to joy, to fuse pleasure & pain; I struggle to answer as your question pours from the sky like rain.

It seems...

è Buddha was right about è pervasiveness of human suffering: on facebook right now one of my frendz is missing her cellphone, anotha hates life & a third has had all her stuff stolen. Is 2day a particularly bad day, or... hey 2day is a Sunday~ if religions r so gd 4 us why r people still hurting so much?

The Great Gig in è Sky

The news of Larry Norman's death (on Feb 24) has affected me far more than I could have imagined. He was one of è biggest influences in my life. As a long-haired faded-jeans non-conformist zest-4-life teenager, è church never welcomed me with open arms: itz organisation was rigid, itz creativity non-existent, & itz music quite likely è worst on è planet. Larry (è man) & his music exploded into my life & I'm major thankful 4 that. I don't know what inspired me è most, Larry (I met him 6 times) or his music (I still listen regularly to 4 of his albums). This weekend I was @ a prefect camp & told è teenagers abt role models & people being inspirations in yr life. Then I picked up a gtr & sang 'è Outlaw'. Thank u Larry; go in peace.

Oh yeah!

Her voice,
rich and deep,
with a croak in it
like a frog's,

is caught in my ears
like seaweed
between
the teeth
of a mermaid,

like grass
between
the toes
of an elephant,

like a man
discovered
between
the thighs
of his lover.

Oh yeah!

Early English Music (update)

This is not to say that melancholy music can't be beautiful~ listening to the CD transfer, most of it clearly is~ but the beauty is severe, as for example a statue of the Virgin is beautiful; it doesn't come across as a beauty of joy.

English Music 1600-1750

The title comes from a record that I recently transferred from tape to CD. I have no idea who the performers are, but the composers are the usual suspects: Purcell, Adison, Boyce, Brade and Handel. The tape was made from a record borrowed from Wimbledon library sometime in the early 1970s.
What strikes me most listening to this recording now, apart from the performing style (more about that later), is how minor-key, sombre, almost mournful, the music is~ even with dotted rhythms; even the 'dances'.
Of course, 'mournful' is my appellation; others might call this music 'serious and stately'.
Then again, it might be the performance that is the culprit. As a teenager I loved a recording of concerti by the Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante (1684-1741). It was an old recording and quite rare~ recordings of Durante are not common. Anyway, a few years ago a different, CD, recording that included a couple of the Durante concerti appeared and I bought it: but I recognised nothing! Contemporary period perfomance really makes these old works new...

world map of Facebook use

The article with this map showing how popular (and where) Facebook is "The who's who of social networks around the globe" by Scott Gilbertson [on Wired].

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