Salut/Rencontres

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths you Can’t Avoid

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”  – Oscar Wilde

“We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what the are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.

– John Locke

“Language forces us to perceive the world as man presents it to us.”

– Julia Penelope

 

 

Salut/Rencontres

Antoine comes to the café

Each morning

A magazine in hand

Periodicals about small boats

Or great ships

The sea courses

Through his veins

Antoine skims le journal (newspaper)

Drinks his café

Diving deeper into

His nautical world

Pausing to acknowledge

Friends

Today he shows me

A new book “Milk Cows”

U boats of WWII – hardback

En anglais

In turn, I produce my

Latest paperback of French poems

On parting we raise les livres

And laugh

Bisous,

Léa

Red’s own story

“And whenever I’m in a situation where I’m wearing the same as 600 other people and doing the same thing as 600 other people, looking back, I always found ways to make myself different, whether it be having a red lining inside of my jacket, having red shoes, it hasn’t changed.”
– Jeremy Irons

“When in doubt wear RED.”
– Bill Blass

 

Red’s Own Story

 

She is the thick

Slick enamel

That covers my nails

A pointer when tracing

Concentric circles

On bare flesh

She is the sports car

Darting along the highway

Hugging the curves

Turning an eye

She is the ripe

Succulent strawberry

Her flesh firm

Yet yielding

Tantalizing dipped in dark chocolate

Suits her best

She is the

American beauty

Long stemmed, heady fragrance

Her tight buds unfurl

Exposing her inner delicacy

We forget the thorns

She is the creamy dark war paint

On my lips

A signature

When and where

I choose to leave my mark

She is fire

On the move

Churning inside

Rising up

Beckoning me on

She is

Passion

 

Bisous,

Léa

Night on the town

“People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are people without homes.”    – Sheila McKechnie

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” – Albert Einstein

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked, and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”    – Mother Teresa

 

Night on the town

 

Hunched slightly forward

He shuffles

From the steps

Of the coffee house

An old yarn cap

Pulled down

Hiding shaggy grey hair

Hands tremble

Clinging to a small paper cup

Hand out coffee

Black skin

Mingles with the night

His slight form

Hovers over

The un-cleared table

On the sidewalk

A ragged coat

Nearly swallows him

Turning cautiously

Side to side

He claims a half-eaten baguette

As his own

Huddled tightly

In a white plastic chair

He savors this feast

Morsel by morsel

Plucked from a hiding place

Beneath his arm

Tonight will be good

Without the pangs

Of hunger

He can brave the cold

 

Bisous,

Léa

Time

“But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.”  – Benjamin Disraeli

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

–  Steve Jobs

“You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.”

–  James M. Barrie

***

Time

The eternal stalker

Knows each of us

Intimately

Counts each breath

Every step you take

Is it an abacus

Or a calculator?

He uses to keep

Track

Saluting him with

The Bronx cheer

I burn the candle at

Both ends

Up early to walk

The sacred hills

Late nights counting

Stars

Dancing close to dawn

Whatever time is left

Use it up

Wear it down

Regardless how thin

The fabric becomes

It is rich with the sounds

Of laughter,

Salty with tears and

Friends

***

Bisous,

Léa

Uncle Jimmy

“When a society or a civilization perishes, one condition can always be found. They forgot where they came from.”

– Carl Sandburg

“You live as long as you are remembered.” – Russian proverb

“Why waste your money looking up the family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” – Mark Twain

“ If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” – George Bernard Shaw

***

Uncle Jimmy

His teeth are yellowed

Like the dark recesses

Of the candle’s glow

Eyes that lie about his age

Daring to sparkle with

 Diamonds of childhood

Perhaps a game

Of hide and seek

With 84 years of wrinkles

And lost hair

His weight has shifted

And reduced as the body

Slows to the ancient rhythms

Of the earth that waits

To hold him

The embrace of last night

Was the first one in over forty years

I know it will be the last

I can still feel his soft grasp

As if we both tried

To keep the sun from setting

Tenderly he welcomed

This lost niece home

***

Bisous,

Léa

She knows me so well…

“Long hair is considered bohemian, which may be why I grew it, but I keep it long because I love the way it feels, part cloak, part fan, part mane, part security blanket.”

– Marge Piercy

***

She knows me so well…

YES

She knows my hair

Knows me so well

The muddy colored tresses

Cloaks my fears

Hiding my shame

Soaking up

Tears and shields me

From un-approving stares

These locks cool me

As the wind blows her higher

In the past

Yanked, pulled

Cut against her will

or imprisoned in clips, bands

Tossing my head – exposing my face

The only sense of freedom

My only sense of glory

Imagined myself safe

Enveloped in her embrace

Today

Raising the flag of defiance

I set her free

***

Bisous,

Léa

malevolent

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that the automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”  – Bill Gates

“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal information.”  – Carl Sagan

“The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”  – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The most important and urgent problems of the technology of today are no longer the satisfactions of the primary needs or of archetypal wishes, but the reparation of the evils and damages by the technology of yesterday.”  – Dennis Gabor

malevolent

kindle

the name

evokes something

warm, fuzzy

huggable

yet there is nothing

comforting

about a hard

plastic case

which requires

batteries

frequent recharging

and ends its days

heaped among

other must haves

that litter the

planet

eroding

contaminating

all that nature

has placed in

trust

cannot be passed down

to subsequent

generations

or shared with

friends

kindle old

before his time

already outdated

before leaving

the manufacture

global footprint

nightmare

there will be no

used kindle shops

where poets linger

wistfully

over coffee

paperbacks

and HOWL

*

bisous,

léa

Red’s own story

“And whenever I’m in a situation where I’m wearing the same as 600 other people and doing the same thing as 600 other people, looking back, I always found ways to make myself different, whether it be having a red lining inside of my jacket, having red shoes, it hasn’t changed.”
– Jeremy Irons

“When in doubt wear RED.”
– Bill Blass

Red’s Own Story

 

She is the thick

Slick enamel

That covers my nails

A pointer when tracing

Concentric circles

On bare flesh

She is the sports car

Darting along the highway

Hugging the curves

Turning an eye

She is the ripe

Succulent strawberry

Her flesh firm

Yet yielding

Tantalizing dipped in dark chocolate

Suits her best

She is the

American beauty

Long stemmed, heady fragrance

Her tight buds unfurl

Exposing her inner delicacy

We forget the thorns

She is the creamy dark war paint

On my lips

A signature

When and where

I choose to leave my mark

She is fire

On the move

Churning inside

Rising up

Beckoning me on

She is

Passion

Bisous,

Léa

Night on the town

“People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are people without homes.”    – Sheila McKechnie

“Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.”

– Pras Michel

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”    – Mother Teresa

Night on the town

Hunched slightly forward

He shuffles

From the steps

Of the coffee house

An old yarn cap

Pulled down

Hiding shaggy grey hair

Hands tremble

Clinging to a small paper cup

Hand out coffee

Black skin

Mingles with the night

His slight form

Hovers over

The un-cleared table

On the sidewalk

A ragged coat

Nearly swallows him

Turning cautiously

Side to side

He claims a half eaten baguette

As his own
Huddled tightly

In a white plastic chair

He savors this feast

Morsel by morsel

Plucked from a hiding place

Beneath his arm

Tonight will be good

Without the pangs

Of hunger

He can brave the cold

Bisous,

Léa

self-help

“Anxiety is part of creativity, the need to get something out, the need to be rid of something or to get in touch with something within.”
– David Duchovny

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” – Steve Jobs

self-help

writing like painting

the machine at the boardwalk

pulling taffy

no matter the toughness

of the material

all is brought to the surface

to be examined

in the light

if I pause

stand back

reflect on my work

my interest is vested

before rendering

judgment

Bisous,

Léa