In the clouds, a leaf . . .
It's the Moon's day . . . while it's silver sliver-like presence waxes toward full, ten days away, we won't see it today in TulseyTown as the Spring storms continue to cloud the skies . . .
The mailbox this morning held a welcome surprise I am glad to share with you:
“I got saved by the beauty of the world.” – Mary Oliver in an interview with Krista Tippett's On Being. Very much worth the time.
FYI: Stevie Wonder turns 74 today. The twenty-five-times Grammy Award recipient for his song writing and vocal recording was born on this day in 1950, Saginaw, Michigan. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he's also the recipient of the Gershwin Award, a Kennedy Center honoree, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and an Academy Award among many.
Your brain on art – Ted Gioia
From “Flare”
Nothing lasts.
There is a graveyard where everything I talk about is.
I stood there once, one the green grass, scattering flowers.
… The poem is not the world. It isn't even
the first page of the world.
The poem wants to be a flower.
Like a flower, it knows that much.
It wants to open itself so that you might step
inside like the door of a little temple
and be cooled and refreshed
and less yourself
than part of everything.
– Mary Oliver, in The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem, Da Capo Press, 2000.
Her kind, dreams . . .
It's Sol's day . . . and she's taking a rest from the flare-up's of the past few days to celebrate a bit more quietly. After all, it's Mother's Day.
Motherhood festivities have historically been in spring, the season of fertility, celebrated in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and England before coming to the U.S. “Mothers' Day” was introduced to America in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, who wanted to set aside a day to protest their sons killing other mothers' sons in the civil war. Well, you can guess how long that lasted. It was reintroduced and quickly commercialized in 1908 as “Mother's Day” – moving the collective to the singular possessive. Heather Cox Richardson reflected on the original U.S. Mothers' day.
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
Mothers of America
let your kids go to the movies!
get them out of the house
so they won’t know what you’re up to.
– Frank O'Hara, “Ave Maria” from Lunch Poems. City Lights Books, 1964
Beauty is all about loving who you are. And if you have a problem with that, may I suggest you try loving who I am? I don’t care what you think of me, unless you think I’m awesome. – Miss Piggy
The Dream That I Told My Mother-in-Law
… She began to dream
of childhood flowers, her long-gone parents.
I told her my dream in a waiting room
… Mamma loved that dream so I told it again.
And soon she crossed over
… Daughter, she said, when her journey began,
You are a mother now,
and you have to take care of the world.
– Elizabeth Alexander From Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010, Graywolf Press, 2010.
“Surreal” means real . . . really.
It's a Satyr's day . . . and solar flares are taking aim at the mailbox here in TulseyTown.
A series of the strongest solar storms in 20 years are creating aurora's as far south as Texas and potentially disrupt communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations. The solar flares are expected to continue throughout the weekend. The weather forecasts for Okieland indicate night time clear sky viewing conditions. DO NOT try looking at the sun without those eclipse glasses you surely saved from last month.
As surreal as the solar flares, today just happens to be the birth date of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. He was born on this day in 1904, Figueras, Spain.
It’s Time to Treat Sugar Like Cigarettes – Mark Hyman, M.D. in Time Magazine, May 1, 2024.
The double-edged sword of AI companions... Randy Travis and post-stroke AI construction of new songs …
In case you missed it … The U.S. Air Force is flying F-16's with AI … and no its not a conspiracy theory.
“Jus' sayin” – Assuming Trump won't be able to keep his mouth shut, it won't do to put him behind bars with his cell phone. And it needs be that he's placed in a real jail. And over a weekend at minimum.
Trading
The last time
I traded reality
For the Truth
I looked at the road in front of me
And realized it was yesterday.
– jb (Early Saturday morning, 1 June 2007)