Closet Poet: Part II

Since I just posted about my sister’s 70^thbirthday, appropriate to share the poem I found on the occasion of her 60^th. Chester the cat is long gone, having reaching the bottom of the cat food tin.

MY SISTER TURNS SIXTY AND I FEED THE CAT

I keep the cat’s food in a large, purple tin.

Inside a red cup to scoop it out.

Each day, I put a cupful in his bowl

And he eats. 

Each day, the dry pellets in the tin

sink down

cup by cup 

toward the shiny bottom,

until one day, 

                                                                                                they’re gone. 

And so do our years descend in measured cups,

feeding some small creature who purrs with contentment

and rubs against our leg

in gratitude and affection.

Closet Poet

I have a folder on the computer titled: Songs, Raps and Poems. It’s a collection of my occasional poetic outbursts over all these years. While looking for a poem (coming soon in the next post or two), I browsed through some of my work and discovered —I like them! I can see a future publishing project gathering them all together. Meanwhile, here are four short ones from 10 to 13 years ago: 

 

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

56 years old, I step onto the bathroom scale.

Further proof that the universe is expanding.

CONFLICTING DESIRES

The blonde in front of me in line

is talking on some fancy new gadget.

Off to the side, four guys are staring.

Are they checking herout

Or her machine?

THE HUMANIZATION OF THE WORLD

“Attention, passengers. This train is stopping.”

In 1989, the voice on the Atlanta airport shuttle train

was robotic, a stuttered a-rhythmic monotone

without inflection.

In 2008, the voice has become almost cheery.

It could be the girl next door, your dental hygienist

or your 3^rdgrade teacher. 

That’s progress.

THE WISDOM OF CHILDREN

The hardest part of flying

is the five minutes after the seat belts are released

with their click of impatience

and the jetway crawls to the plane door.

This one is slower than usual and we weary adults,

sullen and travel-worn, stand in the aisle 

sighing, slumped and simpering.

Meanwhile, the four-year old girl

stands on her seat and aims the overhead air nozzle

at her face. Shrieks with delight as her hair blows behind her,

opens her mouth wide to swallow the wind. 

And we grumpy grown-ups think,

“What didn’t we think of that?”

Me and My i-Phone: Part II

Stumbled on a rap I wrote last year when I first got my i-Phone. Probably posted it back then, but hey, who remembers? Enjoy!

I’m settin’ it all up on my new i-Phone

Got me a password and a new ring tone

Downloading stuff from Ye Ole App Store

I got me ten apps and I want ten more.

Got me my Lyft, got me my Uber

Got my Google search to read up on Franz Gruber

You’re comin’ to my workshop and you need to pay?

Got my Venmo and my Paypal, you can pay me today!

I got me my flashlight to search in the dark,

I got me my Park and Pay that will pay when I park

I got my Google Map, I got my Ways app

So I can get around it when the traffic is crap

Now I’ll have my head down when I’m out for a walk

Checking all the ways that we can talk

I can send you a text , a video or call

Tell you where to meet me in the shopping Mall

And if you want to know more about who I am

I can show you now on Facebook or on Instagram

 I'll tell you what I think, I'll show you how I feel

I'll show you a cool photo of my last fancy meal

I can send you an emoji that’s angry and mad

Or choose the one that’s happy, confused or sad,

Yes, I can show you how I feel, I can tell you what I think

I can show you a photo of my new kitchen sink

Now I can be distracted when my life feels dreary

I got no friends, but hey! There’s always Siri!

I’ll never feel bored, I’ll never feel alone

Cause I am reconnected on my new i-Phone

I love my new machine, I'm flying' high in heaven

Cause now I am connected all 24/7

It will solve all my problems, it will cure climate change

It will… wait! I have no service, I’m getting’ out of range!

Me and my i-Phone

It was about one year ago that I capitulated to the i-phone culture. Reluctantly, but the tipping point was having it available to capture certain moments in the music class and having more storage space for videos and photos. I was determined to be in charge and not be enslaved by all its dazzling features. So how’s it going one year later?

On the pro side, here are some things I’ve enjoyed:

• The aforementioned photo and video moments, while still resisting the urge to document my meals and post them.

• Useful moments with the GPS.

• The occasional Uber or Lyft (though still trying to support the occasional taxicab ride).

• Occasional looking up a tune’s chords on the electronic Jazz Real Book (while still using the paper versions)

• The alarm clock.

• Getting paid through Venmo or Paypal and occasionally paying others

• Quick messages with groups through What’s Ap

• Occasional Facetimes with the grandchildren (still mostly use Skype on the computer)

• Texting people picking me up at airports

On the con side, a few things worry me or drive me crazy:

• The What’s Ap groups. While extremely useful for large group communication during the Jazz Course with all the uncertainty of the tropical storm, it quickly became, “Who’s going to Frenchman St.?” “I’ll meet you in the lobby.” “Hey, great food over at this restaurant!” etc. etc. Knowing that some messages might be actually important for all, I had to read all of them zipped back and forth between 45 people. Then again during the Orff Summer Course, now with Orff Interns. If everyone agrees that this is the way to communicate more than phone calls, e-mails or just arranging meetings and such ahead of time, it means you must be on 24/7. That’s precisely what I’m trying to resist.

• Already have the sensation that I can’t/ shouldn’t go anywhere—a walk, a bike ride, a drive in the car—without my phone (though I actually get very few phone calls). Which also means always being aware of having it charged. I can feel it creeping into the forefront of my life so that I might eventually join the mainstream opinion: “How did we live without it?”

• The more photos and videos I have, the more time I need to organize them, arrange them, figure out the best place to store them, etc. 

In short, I seem to be enjoying the benefits without being wholly overwhelmed by the dangers. I don’t take it out often in public, certainly not while walking down the street or in the park, not at airports or bus stops, I don’t feel compelled to immediately check it after the movie to see what I missed, etc. I don’t check e-mail on it or Facebook except occasionally (saving both for private time at home with the computer), but I can definitely feel the pull. I certainly will never testify “OMG, how did I live without it?! This has changed my life!!” My life was working just fine before I got it (just one short year ago) and to my knowledge, I never missed work opportunities, incredible discussions, vital information. 

I’ll check in again this time next year to see if I kept some sense of balance. 

And you? 

Question Authority

In my recent workshop, I developed a short music/ dance drama from the nursery rhyme: “I will not be my father’s Jack, I will not be my mother’s Jill. I will be the fiddler and have music when I will…” I then wanted to cleverly shame everyone by showing how they broke the first Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Except I later found out that that’s either number 4 or number 6. Oops!

But I was a little surprised how few of the Ten Commandments that 90 people in the workshop knew. Can you recite them all? 

If you do, it will be transparently clear how little we heed them these days. Our President, for example, has indisputably broken just about every single one. Check it out and connect the dots. 

But here I was reminded why I rejected the whole Judeo-Christian theology as a teenager and young (and old) adult. The Commandments are found in two place: Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy: 6-21 and really, didn’t the editor notice that the author is repeating himself? 

But the two things that struck me: 

You shall not make yourself a graven image…you shall not bow down to them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation…

Whoah, hold on! The spiritual Master of the Universe, who is here to inspire us to be our best selves, is jealous? Have you seen a therapist? Isn’t that a rather petty emotion for a Supreme Being? And the punishment! Not just reprimand the wrongdoer, but punish innocent children three or four generations hence. What kind of model behavior is that?

And then: you shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or his maidservant or his ox, or his ass (STAND-UP COMICS, TAKE NOTE!) or anything that is his neighbor’s.

 Lots of material here, but if you look up “manservant,” you see it translates to “slave.” So here is God condoning slavery, only asking that you’re not jealous of your neighbor’s slave. And wait? Jealous? Why can you be jealous but not us? Is this one of those “Do as I say, not as I do” commandments?

Well, I’m just warming up here. Check out Leviticus for more details than you would ever want (13: 2-59) for how to deal with leprosy and lepers. Then there’s 11:29 talking about all the unclean things that swarm upon the earth: the weasel, the mouse, the great lizard, the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard and the chameleon. Mr. God, why do you say “Every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth is an abomination?!” Who created them? Oh yeah, YOU!! Why would you do that? And don’t get me started on poison oak and mosquitoes.”

So yeah, lots of contradictions, lots of weirdness and really, how can anyone with half a brain cell accept this as the sacred text that guides their life? I think this was my first hint: “Question authority.” And I think you should too.

My Sister's Birthday

The engine thrumming beneath my feet, the wind tussling my paltry strands of hair, the spray of mist on my face. On the Larkspur Ferry to meet my sister on the occasion of her 70^thbirthday. Behind me the skyline of the city I have loved for so long, where we have shared so much of our adult life together. To my right, the span of the bridge we first crossed in a packed Volkswagen bug in 1971, oh, so many years ago. 

The ferry plunges forward, parting the waters like a modern Moses. Glides by Alcatraz and then Angel Island, each with their stories of told and untold suffering. One now offers a tourist’s delight, the other criss-crossed paths of hiking bliss. Surrounded on all sides by the bounteous Bay and its light-dazzled waters. All around and above and behind and below is the unfettered feeling of freedom, carrying this man with a bike and a book to lunch with the one person on the planet he has known longer than any other. 

I will order the Jacques Pepin eggplant sandwich at the Left Bank Restaurant, she will go with the fondue and we will pass a pleasant hour or so. Undoubtedly, one of us will toast to the memory of my father in this place where we used to ceremonially dine once a month or so and equally remember the lunch with my mother where she flirted so shamelessly (but fun!) with the waiter at 82 years old. We will talk of children and grandchildren and spouses, move on to the distant cousins and aunts and uncles and childhood friends, the long parade of our mutual life. 

The now mandatory selfie to mark the moment and then we each turn back—her to the north and me to the south—to our still unfolding lives, our next steps on our shared and separate lives. 

Happy birthday, sis!

8:42 Thursday Evening

It was a long day at school. Full day of classes and then an afterschool 90 minute first rehearsal with the 38 Middle School kids preparing for the Orff Conference Concert in November. The office told us we missed the deadline to order dinner with the rest of the staff, so had to drive off to a taqueria and get back by 7:20 for the Back to School Night with parents. We did and I finished my last presentation around 8:35. I was anxious to get home and thought, “Hey, it’s Thursday night. Shouldn’t be any traffic on the freeway.”

When there’s not—and when exactly is that again?— I can be home in 12 minutes. So I got on with high hopes that were immediately shattered by the long line of red brake lights ahead of me. Once you’re committed, nowhere to get off and take short-cuts that makes sense, so I sailed a long at a speedy 11 miles per hour for several miles before it finally opened up. 

So San Francisco, here’s my question. At 8:42 on a Thursday night, where the hell is everyone going?!!! I mean, really?!! Too late for post-work rush hour, no ball game or big concert downtown that I knew of, no one goes to the movies anymore and no one’s going out of town on a Thursday night. So again, who are you people and where are you going? Did you all do Back to School Nights?

Well, I’m home. Note to self: No more city freeway if you have a choice.