Farewell

Because of recent difficulties logging in to this blog, I have decided to discontinue it.

Please connect with me at: www.jolightfoot.com. 

Thanks.

Update

* * *

This is just a quick hello.

I'm still alive and still writing . . . and I'm reviewing how and where to share that.

* * *

Buzzards

"Start anywhere, but begin." This discussion begins with those words, because it's otherwise so difficult to find a starting place for a message about buzzards and poetry.

I am an everyday poet. For several years, I have written a poem a day (on average). Poems are my diary, my therapy, and my primary creative outlet. You could say that poetry has become my vocation. I truly feel called to be in service to communication this way; in service to words. I also feel called to communicate about and to serve buzzards. That calling is entwined with my poetry.

Buzzards have changed my life. That happened with a small simple start--noticing one night where my town's buzzard population preferred to roost. Today, buzzards will start changing your life in a small simple way. After reading my words, if there are buzzards in your outdoor environment, you will be begin to notice them more. You will observe how graceful and beautiful they are in flight, notice where and when and how they appear, and realize the role they play in your life.

I have the great good fortune to have encountered and married an unusual person of Native American heritage. Ethan has helped increase my awareness and appreciation of all life, animals in particular. Each animal has lessons to teach, exemplified in their most distinctive characteristics.

Before exploring buzzard characteristics, I want to suggest you do a short visualization exercise:

Let your mind bring up an image of a buzzard that becomes so clear you can describe: how near you are to the image or how far away... whether you see the whole bird or just the head area or other parts... whether the image is more like a photo or a video or a sculpture or a living being. Next, think of the person you know who is most buzzard-like... doing that may take a minute, but someone will come to mind; just notice who that person is. Next, think of a job or occupation that seems buzzard-like to you... who does work that's similar to buzzard work? Now, one last thing, just for fun... visualize a buzzard nest... and then a buzzard egg. Okay, now... a buzzard baby... and finally, open your eyes.

Some of the images you visualized may make the rest of this information more interesting or more meaningful. So, let's discover more about buzzards together through my research and my poetry.

It's a whole 'nuther story how my poetry got started. But what daily poem writing does to a person is cause them to pay attention to what's going on inside their brain and outside in the world. Otherwise, all those thoughts and sensations just stream on by and get lost.

AERIAL SALUTE

Something happened;
it was nice—
something happened slow.

Some big buzzard
buzzed me thrice—
or three buzzed in a row.

About four years ago, this daily poet moved to Texas, with some interesting results. Compared to Arkansas, Texas seems to have much more sky. So, although there are buzzards all over Arkansas, I didn't really notice them till I got to Texas. One winter's evening, I happened to see a horde of buzzards collecting for the night in an ideal roosting spot: the pipe handrail that circled the town's water tower. For the buzzards, it provided a great lookout, foothold, and social setting.

COLLECTIVE SIGH

Crows gang up in
murders.

Buzzards congregate
in a collective
wake.

For both, it seems,
death is fun.

Every interaction with buzzards after that was more intense and precipitated more.

HAIL, FELLOW

Every day, a buzzard
comes into my view—
flying solo overhead
or swooping down, quite low,
or stationed in some untoward place.
It seems to say, “Hey, you!”

There’s nothing that I dread
or worry I should know.
I simply view it as a grace
and I reply, “Hey!” too.

One day, as I was driving home from a meeting, I saw a buzzard on the road ahead of me. It didn't fly off as my car got close. Surprisingly, it hopped away, apparently injured. As I pulled over, I realized a few unusual things. The elegant clothes I was wearing included a red winter cape I was reluctant to soil, but there happened to be a clean sheet in the trunk of my car (I had just used it to keep some food warm enroute to a meeting). Once I managed to cover the buzzard with the sheet, he calmed down completely and I took him home. He stayed in our bathtub while I made arrangements to take him to a vet.

RENDEZVOUS

Buzzard,
when you came to die—
somehow summoned,
there came I.

On the road as cars drove by,
you made no attempt to fly
till I slowed—
then you showed
your battered body,
broken wing.

Without protest,
you acquiesced
to all my role would bring:
the vet exam,
the verdict,
the needle in the vein.

Buzzard,
when you came to die—
you and I looked eye to eye.
Somehow, I don’t wonder why.

After that, my relationship with buzzards deepened. So did my research into their biology, history, and social stature. One key step in this journey accounts for why I am bringing this information to you today.

COACHING SESSION

“Depend upon your higher power,”
my guru/coach suggested.
“Assign one dream-goal upward.
Let your uptight self be rested.
Use intuition to set that goal.”

Well, that’s how I got flustered.
My inner-whisper told my soul—
“Go, ye. Speak of buzzards.”

Although my higher power's job is to bring a speaking event about, my part is to respond to impulses in this direction. Thankfully, I had recently made a list of things that people with an interest in buzzards might want to know.

BUZZARD INQUIRY LIST:

• How do they keep clean?
• Where are their nests?
• Why are they colored like that?
• Why are they so quiet?
• How much do they weigh?
• How long do they live?
• How many of them are there?
• What kinds are there?
• Is there a difference between a buzzard and a vulture?
• How are they different from other birds; how the same?
• Do they only eat dead animals?
• How do they find their food?
• Do they live in groups?
• What do their babies look like?
• Are they protected by law?
• Where do they live; are they all over the world?
• Do they fly in all kinds of weather?
• Do they have enemies?
• Do they migrate?
• Why are some called "turkey" vultures?
• Are they mean? shy?
• Do they fight among themselves?
• What other birds are they most like?
• What are some myths about them that are incorrect?
• Are there any famous buzzards in history, literature, or the general culture?
  (poems, legends, cartoons, movies, etc.)
• Are all buzzards dark in color?
• Do most buzzards live in the desert?
• What do buzzard eggs look like?
• How big are they?
• Are babies hatched all year around?
• How do buzzards die?
• What are they most susceptible to?
• Where can I see a living buzzard up close?
• Are buzzards and hawks in competition?
• What should I do if I find an injured buzzard?
• Where can I find good information about buzzards?
• Where do buzzards go at night?
• Where do buzzards go when it rains or snows?
• How do they fly/float/glide/soar like they do?
• How do they hunt or find food?
• How well can they smell? see? taste?
• Are they monogamous?
• Who raises the babies? both parents?

People who say, “What could I possibly learn from a buzzard?” are likely to be people who say, “What could I possibly learn from a child, or a bug, or a cloud?” The answer for them would be, “Not much!” Fortunately, there are not overwhelming numbers of these people.

BUZZARDS

“Unclean!” they’re seen—

“Untouchable!
Gnarly-headed grotesques. Fearsome
underlings. Awful offal-eaters.
Horrid things on wings!”

Of this, buzzards are oblivious—
as they are of praise from students of their ways,
who say, “It’s official.
Buzzards are good to us. Beneficial.”

They recycle and renew.

Like morticians, beauticians, mothers,
menials, and multitudes of others
(maintenance workers, trash collectors,
hazardous waste operators, plumbers,
and sanitation crews, to name a few)—
discretely and with daily diligence,
they efface life’s ugliness.

They lift in air like dreams.

For those with eyes to see—
such elegance, such grace!

* * *

Reading, Reading, Reading

Beyond writing a poem a day, I do little writing.

That seems okay. Instead, I read and read and read, unconcerned. Could be, I'm a very slow-ripening fruit. . . or nothing matters except what actually happens or following my inclinations.

Here are the books that attracted me in February and March:

• The Bird : A Natural History of Who Birds Are, Where They Came From, and How They Live Tudge, Colin
• Animal / editors-in-chief, David Burnie & Don E. Wilson.
• No country for old men [large print]/ Cormac McCarthy.
• Animal life / editor in chief, Charlotte Uhlenbroek.
• The case for books : past, present, future / Robert Darnton.
• The eco diary of Kirin Singer / by Sue Ann Alderson ; illustrated by Millie Ballance.
• The road / Cormac McCarthy.
• Poetry speaks expanded : hear poets from Tennyson to Plath read their own work / Elise Paschen & Rebekah Presson Mosby, editors ; Charles Osgood, narrator.
• Ten poems to open your heart / Roger Housden.
• I can't keep my own secrets : six-word memoirs by teens famous & obscure : from Smith magazine / edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith.
• Knockout : interviews with doctors who are curing cancer-- and how to prevent getting it in the first place / Suzanne Somers.
• Mirrors : stories of almost everyone / Eduardo Galeano ; English translation by Mark Fried.
• Origami tessellations : awe-inspiring geometric designs / by Eric Gjerde. Gjerde, Eric, 1978-
• Poems, prose, and letters / Elizabeth Bishop.
• Tao te ching : a new English version / with foreword and notes by Stephen Mitchell. Laozi.
• Native American wisdom : a spiritual tradition at one with nature / edited by Alan Jacobs ; introduction by Mick Gidley.
• The gift : poems by the great Sufi master / Hafiz ; translated by Daniel James Ladinsky.
• The winged energy of delight : selected translations / [translated by] Robert Bly.
• Unexpected miracles : hope and holistic healing for pets / Shawn Messonnier.
• The glance : songs of soul-meeting / Rumi ; translated by Coleman Barks with Nevit Ergin.
• Tao te ching : the new translation from tao te ching : the definative edition / Lao Tzu ; translation by Jonathan Star.
• On writing / Eudora Welty ; introduction by Richard Bausch.
• The Duke encyclopedia of new medicine : conventional and alternative medicine for all ages / foreword by Tracy W. Gaudet ; [chief medical editors, Richard Leibowitz, Linda Smith].
• Making & keeping creative journals / Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott.
• Speak to win : how to present with power in any situation / Brian Tracy.
• The house of wisdom : how the Arabs transformed Western civilization / Jonathan
• Green barbarians : how to live bravely on your home planet / Ellen Sandbeck.
• Zero : the biography of a dangerous idea / Charles Seife.
  You've got to read this book! : 55 people tell the story of the book that changed their life / [compiled by] Jack Canfield, Gay Hendricks, with Carol Kline.
• 77 love sonnets / by Garrison Keillor.

I highly recommend Mirrors and Knockout as explorations of non-mainstream perspectives on history, culture and medicine. I can't keep my own secrets actually opens up some very poignant secrets. And The gift made my heart sing. I learned later that the translator took great liberties with the original text, but for my purposes that may have been all to the good.

The house of wisdom greatly expanded my understanding of political and religious history and my appreciation of science and math. Garrison Keillor's sonnets didn't let me down; in fact their artistry, depth and humor did the opposite.

I was disappointed that A case for books seemed hastily thrown together (though it probably had to be, to captialize on recent Google news). Native American wisdom, for my tastes, did not focus enough on what I consider more traditional sources or viewpoints. Cormack McCarthy's books intrigued me with their mostly spare style of letting the action tell the story; but for me this was spoiled by some overt insertions of political/moral commentary. I have not yet read the Green barbarians or Zero, or Speak to win.

*

Books and Buzzards

.

I need a place to set down thoughts;

I'm weary of carrying so many.

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."
A quotation of that variety appeared in my life this week. For me, it meant to quit forever-postponing ay progress with sharing my writing through books. The nature and proliferation of books is advancing at such a rate that my creations may not find a home in the marketplace soon. But that is a worry not worth worrying about; that will take care of itself.

Who else reads books at a rate like mine? My business and social friends say, generally, that they read few. Of course, they have other information channels, many of which are visual.

My favorite book of the moment is The Gift, a translation of Kabir poems. With any poetry book, I am always delighted to find 2 or 3 poems between the covers that I thrill to. In this case, it was almost all, and I have begun a full re-read of the texts.

Tomorrow, March 15, is Buzzard Day. I think it was chosen to coincide with the Ides of March. But, being a self-appointed Buzzard Lady, I intend to read some of my buzzard poems at tomorrow's Professional Wordsmiths meeting.

I tried to insert a picture of a buzzard and had great difficulty getting size and placement right. Then I realized that I should probably be using a creative commons pic. But I can't figure out how to upload one of those.

I talked my WORDS for Hard Times book possibilities over with a friend on Friday morning. I want to set some of Ron's ideas down here as a way to remember them and refer to them later. He suggests that I print off the version that I have now and begin selling it and/or showing it to people and organizations I already work with now. Offer it to non-profit groups as a fundraising opportunity for them. Follow my own best guesses about when and whether to use a publishing service like Wisdom House. That applies to every other step of the process, including cover design.

.

Potpourri

***


090630

WONDER OF WONDERS (for Ginnie)

Here’s a long story;
I’ll see if I can gather all the pieces.

I was upstairs when I heard something
plunk against glass downstairs.
Ethan, mowing, had flung a rock
against our patio door,
knocking a small hole in the outer pane.

I was upstairs the next night
when the sounds of hail startled me awake.
It was a cloudless night.
The outer glass was disintegrating.

I was upstairs today
when Ethan called me down
to see something remarkable:
a spider chandelier.
Spider had attached its web
to the broken bits of glass
that still rimmed the doorframe.
One of these had fallen away,
but not from the web-thread.
It dangled and sparkled,
eerily suspended in mid-air.

I’m upstairs now,
writing this on the very notepad
where earlier in the day I’d set down
an affirmation suggested by a friend:

“I expect wonderful things in my life.”


RE-SEARCH

That guy! Must have come
from off the planet.
Went looking for religious truth.
In books. At the library.
Nonfiction section.
Shows how much he knows!

[Aside: This poem is a mystery to me:
I don’t quite know what it’s trying to say.
Remember, these are drafts.]


STATELY

Kansas is so quiet.
Oaks. Grass. Little more.

Smoke-signal clouds say silent Hi ’s.
Very little more.


PROXIMITY OF HAZARDS

When chemicals travel on the road,
trucks and tankers announce, in code,
those of most concern
(each substance and its danger).

By code-book, I investigate.
Here comes 2-0-7-8: toluene diisocyanate.
Scary what you can learn!
(Might oughta kept that one a stranger.)


090629

OPPORTUNITY

Now it comes;
comes too late—
alas, because
we could not wait.


090628

RECEIVING-LINE BLUNDERS

My friends forgive me
my verbal stumbles;
my fumbled garbles
and garbled fumbles.

My friends forgive me
my inane bumbles
and faux-pas tumbles.
This keeps me humble.


090627

THINE OWN SELF

There's a better, deeper free
than any imposed-ocracy.


090626

MEN AT PLAY

things that go KaPOW!
things that go KaBOOM!
master-blaster gizmo-gadgets
things that threaten doom
things that spew out fire
things that chill to bone

—super-charged expressions
of male toy-stosterone.


090625

ANY WAY OUT

Let me die of heat.
Let me die of chill.

Let this little pill I take
take me over the hill.


[ASIDE: Dunno where that came from,
but I love the "take take" bit.]


090624

CLAIMING MY KIN (for Neda)

Some choose to prey, oppress, and betray,
imposing on others the "right" to obey.
I choose to side with those who say, "Nay!
No one deserves to be treated that way.”


090623

EVIDENTLY

Sought,
at last sighting-places,
stray cat and hurt duck.

Neither at either;
so, bad or good luck.


090622

UNMUFFLED

Until I took pen in hand,
poised over paper,
until I paused with expectant focus,
I did not hear this computer humming,
clock ticking, motorboat thrumming,
bird chirping, or cat softly snoring;
I did not notice my own breathing.


090621

IT COMES IN THREES (for Jarrod)

Buzzards! Buzzards!
One, two, three—
circle downward over me.


090620

TIME TRACKING

Seems I'm always busy;
always hard at work.

I tracked my time, so now I know—
it's mostly busywork.


090619

A SOUL’S DREAM

In the land of fantasy,
I would be a manna tree.

Come all ye and feed of me.


090618

CONTENTIOUS

Clouds,
knuckled into fists,
spoil for a summer
showdown.


090617

EXODUS

My breaths come tight.
My heart grows sore.
Where and how I’ve lived,
I’ll live no more.


090616

ON BORROWED TIME

Repayment is owed,
on everything;
soon I will not have a computer,
organic or otherwise.


090615

NO HARM, NO FOUL

I am forgiven:

the mallards
rush shoreward this morning
quacking an eager greeting,
the vet-tended one most boldly of all.


090615

PSYCHO SYNOPSIS (for Linda)

Hurt people
hurt people.


090614

ROUSED

A poem comes,
like foe or friend,
so desperately at 4 a.m.


090613

CALCULATING LIFE

while I ponder

sand
hourglass
time and
change

time runs out


090612

FOUR FIFTEEN A.M.

"Go to bed! Go to bed!"
That is what my body said.

"You’re so tired,
your brain is dead.
Get some sleep! Get to bed!"


090611

DAILY SPECIAL

Life is a banquet—
an all-invited, pot-luck,
come-when-able!

Life is a banquet—
welcome, guest:
what do you bring
to the table?


***

SHORT AND SOUR

***


090610

INTERROGATED

What do you do with them;
your guts, once spilled?

Or with yourself,
raw from being grilled?


090609

AT A LOSS

Where the error,
the wrong turn, the mistake—
that I should come to die
and not have come awake?


090608

YE WHO ENTER

There is no cure
for the "pome du jour."


090607

WEBBED FEAT

followed, following
selecting, selected

hyper-kinetically
cyber-connected


***