The one I remember most at the moment is the most recent one, South Korea and Hong Kong. Beyond that, everything is in a slow fade.
PROMPT: Memorable Vacation
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Dance, Dance, Dance, Surrender [Free Verse]
Moving through the Great Spontaneous,
Blender blades barely missing --
In fact, sometimes nicking.
The accumulation of those nicks
Is aging.
It takes an ever-defter dance to keep
The damage buildup to a constant pace --
Not letting it blitz one,
Or pull one into the turbine:
Like a goose through
The turbofans of a 787.
A goose may kill a plane,
But becomes dust in the process.
When one surrenders to the choppers
One will not have the satisfaction
Of killing the vehicle,
Of bringing it all down.
The Universe will go on,
And one's molecules will become
Something new.
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DAILY PHOTO: Incheon Chinatown Gates
“America” by Claude McKay [w/ Audio]
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate,
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet, as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.
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“America” by Walt Whitman
Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
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PROMPT: Authority
Absolutely nothing. I’m more of a mile-wide-inch-deep type than a mile-deep-inch-wide type, which is to say a generalist rather than a specialist. So, I do have some insight into how to think about thinking about matters diverse and sundry.
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Springfall [Haiku]
mountain springtime:
dust cleared by falling water,
climbers swell & green.
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DAILY PHOTO: Seoul, the New & the Old
BOOK: “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark TwainMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Available Online – Project Gutenberg
This is Twain’s best-known and probably most beloved work — though arguably neither his best nor most impactful piece. It tells the tale of a mischievous but warmhearted boy, Tom Sawyer, and a series of formative events in Sawyer’s youth from learning how to trick other kids into doing his chores to being trapped deep in a cave with his sweetheart. While there is a plot throughline involving the closest thing the novel has to a villain, Injun Joe, for the most part the story is episodic. That’s for the best because if too much weight were placed on that throughline, it’s resolution would feel flat. As it is, we see Sawyer and his friends, particularly Huck Finn, subjected to trials and challenges (often of their own making) that present moral dilemmas and the need to steel themselves for the occasion.
It’s often been said that this book isn’t as powerful or influential as its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which this book sets up nicely I should point out. It is probably true that Huck Finn is more profound. That said, Tom Sawyer could be said to be a cleaner read in that Huck Finn gets a bit muddled, particularly toward its end.
I’d highly recommend this book for all readers.
View all my reviews
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“Sundown” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [w/ Audio]
The summer sun is sinking low;
Only the tree-tops redden and glow:
Only the weathercock on the spire
Of the neighboring church is a flame of fire;
All is in shadow below.
O beautiful, awful summer day,
What hast thou given, what taken away?
Life and death, and love and hate,
Homes made happy or desolate,
Hearts made sad or gay!
On the road of life one mile-stone more!
In the book of life one leaf turned o'er!
Like a red seal is the setting sun
On the good and the evil men have done,--
Naught can to-day restore!
Tiger Riding for Beginners 