19th & 20th February, 2005
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Rod in “The Best is Yet to Come” 11/6/04
Photo by Shira Greenburg ©2004 by Broadway.com. Used by Permission
A Thought for Today
We all live in two worlds, reality and
imagination. It’s not a bad idea to plant a foot firmly in each of them.
THREE POEMS FROM FOLIO
Boy Scout Manual
I owned a Boy Scout Manual once
that told me I’d go blind
from jacking-off.
And I thank God that I learned early
not to trust other people’s printed words
or I’d have no right-handed strength
to see me through tough times.
But truth lurks everywhere.
My eyes grow weaker in proportion
to the strength of elbow into arm
and arm to hand.
Hooray for handshakes one-to-one.
Goodbye to handbooks and predictions.
Simon
He was a smallish man
of no uncertain age
his eyes aglint of wonder.
A middle-European accent
made each word he could not utter
fast enough
difficult to understand,
as I bent close
then closer to listen.
He had come to America
alone, afraid
untrusting and unsure
with only worn Rimbaud
Verlaine and one collection
of old Pushkin as companions.
Then slowly, as America works
for those who seek to learn it,
he began to widen as the land does.
He read the papers.
He learned a brand new mother tongue.
He sought and found a job
and with it, friends.
As I listened to this ordinary story
from this not so ordinary man,
I realized that he was more American
than some who’d never gone
beyond the shores of these United States.
I suppose it was that wonder
that willingness to chance adventure,
adventure into chance
that made this man stand out for me.
Each time I worry that we’ll lose
our most important native trait,
the use of building blocks
that we once stacked
from the nursery to the stars,
another Simon says hello to me
and I feel better.
To all the Simons coming
to the continent
and those home-grown
a hello back
you are that one essential part
no high rise and no pyramid
can stand without.
-from Folio No.42 - Autumn 1983
Have a safe and happy weekend and I hope yours is dryer than the one
expected here in Southern California. So far this winter we’ve had two
feet of rain. That’s not a misprint; TWO FEET. Two to three inches more
are expected in the next few days and spring, usually our wettest time
of the year, is still a month away.
Sleep warm.
RM 2/19/2005
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