The Desert Calls [Lyric Poem]

Posted on by
Reply 
The desert called; its tone silent.
 It asked me out, and so I went.

One patch of dune looked like the rest;
 so, I couldn't tell which place was best

to burn just like a slice of bread
 stuck in the slot, 'mid burning threads:

those glowing wires, exuding heat
 that burn the head and burn the feet.

And so, I marched across the sands
 in search of more temperate lands,

but I never reached such a place
 and vanished there, without a trace.

PROMPT: Online Search

Posted on by
3
Daily writing prompt
What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?
View all responses

I looked up what “Black Acid” is because it was mentioned in a Hunter S. Thompson book I was reading (i.e. “Kingdom of Fear”) and it sounded like a thing one should steer clear of if one doesn’t want to regain consciousness pantless in a ditch with no recollection of the last several hours. Well, you can’t avoid something if you don’t know what it is. Because “Knowledge is Power!”

Reclamation [Haiku]

Posted on by
Reply 
a mined gouge
 in the hilly, green landscape:
  reclaimed by trees.

DAILY PHOTO: Hungarian National Academy of Sciences

Posted on by
Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Wrath of the Dragon by John Little

Posted on by
1
Wrath of the Dragon: The Real Fights of Bruce LeeWrath of the Dragon: The Real Fights of Bruce Lee by John Little
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: September 5, 2023

There are many Bruce Lee biographies out there, from general bios (such as Matthew Polly’s Bruce Lee: A Life) to those that are much more narrowly focused (e.g. Rick Wing’s Showdown in Oakland about Lee’s fight with Wong Jack Man.) This book is somewhere in between in that it is theme-focused (Lee’s fights and matches,) but it does offer insights from Lee’s childhood through to his death as they pertain to these fights and sparring experiences. The book explores all of the known real-world scraps and matches, as well as some of the more telling sparring sessions. Fights range from Lee’s adolescent skirmishes as a punk kid through the challenge matches with extras on the set of Enter the Dragon as an astute (if still quick-tempered) master. When I say that the book includes sparring sessions, I’m not talking about every time Lee sparred, but rather those exchanges that offered particular insight into Lee’s prowess, such as his last ever sparring session with his old Wing Chun teacher, Wong Shun-Leung (a senior student of Ip Man’s) as well as those with athletes at the top of their respective combative sports.

The point of the book is to challenge a belief — widespread at times — that Lee was a blow-hard offering banal quasi-mystical Eastern philosophy and martial insights that were based only on a few Wing Chun lessons from Ip Man. In contrast, the book paints a picture of a broadly experienced fighter who was obsessive about his betterment as a martial artist. Lee was an innovator and trained with great endurance and intensity. The book portrays Lee as a martial artist of such speed and athleticism that even World Champion competitors were left in awe.

While reading, one does have to question how objectively the information is being presented. After all, Little is definitely a bit of a fanboy and he’s clearly taking a stance on Lee’s prowess. Furthermore, the fact that (at one point, I’m not sure about presently) Little was the only one with full access to Lee’s archived notes suggests his message was sufficiently on point for Lee’s family to feel comfortable with him. That said, I felt there was enough admission of Lee’s weaknesses and mistakes as well as a willingness to present competing statements when details were in question that I believe this is an honest attempt to get the details right (within the unavoidable constraints of memories of events being decades in the past and being seen from multiple perspectives — psychologically as well as geographically.)

I found this book to be fascinating from cover to cover, and well worth reading. In addition to the stories of the fights, the author discusses the lessons that Lee learned along the way. Even in winning, Lee was sometimes dissatisfied with his own performance, and this drove him to adapt and to develop new training methods. I’d highly recommend this book for those interested in the martial arts or who love a good biography.

View all my reviews

PROMPT: Television

Posted on by
5
Daily writing prompt
What TV shows did you watch as a kid?
View all responses

“A-Team,” “Knight Rider,” “Taxi,” “The Jeffersons,” “Three’s Company,” etc. With plenty of reruns of “Gilligan’s Island,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and “I Love Lucy.”

Deep cuts: “The Master” and “Airwolf”

Wildflower City [Haiku]

Posted on by
Reply 
gusty city breeze
 tousles the flowers; the
  city backdrop blurs.

DAILY PHOTO: Szabadság tér, Budapest [Liberty Square]

Posted on by
Reply

Proof of Life [Lyric Poem]

Posted on by
Reply 
Something shakes the high grass,
   what it is I can't say.
 I see flowers tremble,
    near a part-line splay.

I hear dry stems rattle
   to some darting moves.
 But a creature's existence
   still remains unproved.

Maybe it's delirium,
   or a trick of the wind.
 I catch no flash of fur
    on which my claim to pin.

Even from the watchtower,
   my grounds are circumstantial.
 I can't give proof of life --
    at least not that's substantial.

BOOK: Caged by Brandon Dean Lamson

Posted on by
Reply
Caged: A Teacher's Journey Through Rikers, or How I Beheaded the MinotaurCaged: A Teacher’s Journey Through Rikers, or How I Beheaded the Minotaur by Brandon Dean Lamson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

In Caged, Brandon Dean Lamson tells the story of his time teaching inmates on Rikers Island, finding himself in conflict both with students and with the guards. There is definitely a unique culture to the world of incarceration. I found myself thinking about the Stanford Prison Experiments in which ordinary people were randomly assigned to play either inmate or guard. The subjects’ behavior changed during the short period of the experiment, guards becoming more domineering and sadistic and inmates becoming more scheming and duplicitous than these people were in their regular lives. One sees evidence of this strange power dynamic and the resulting unusual behavior throughout the book. Lamson and the other teachers and staff involved with the school often saw the guards as vicious fascists, but – at the same time — they couldn’t trust the prisoners because learning was never an inmate’s top priority but rather was a combination of survival and maintenance of status.

As interesting as the story inside the wire is, it’s equally fascinating to learn what happens with Lamson outside his workday. The author is forthright about changes in his own psychology as he developed a need to work out his own violent tendencies as well as uncharacteristic sexual behavior. Lamson describes time spent in a boxing gym and S&M dungeon in service of these changes.

The book also offers some insight into what teaching methods worked or didn’t. Some of this pedagogical insight might be exclusively applicable to jails and prisons, but some would likely be of use to regular teachers, particularly in dealing with troubled or challenging kids. Lamson is also forthright about his own teaching missteps and failures, while offering the reader insight to what he learned from those teachers who seemed to be unusually effective.

I found this to be a fascinating book. It’s well-written and thought-provoking. I’d highly recommend it for readers of nonfiction.


View all my reviews