My friend Laurie Jameson printed these privately, only 100 copies, and she’s not advertising or selling them, or, that is, making any effort to sell them, but she sent me a copy and they are wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She writes; “A Word About In-the-Moment Poetry

“Poems written the same day that the events occurred, with an attempt to capture the essence of experience, then allowing it to rest on the page without alteration. The words remain as they first appeared with the exception of editing for spelling and grammar.”

Some quotes; from ‘Qi Gong–Chi Kung‘

‘Boil it all down to this;

we embrace the cliches

we shy away from the truth

we worship self-indulgence

we worry ourselves sick we hate what we don’t understand

and still the sun sets, rises again.’

And from ‘Long Before Day’s Rising’

‘Behind my eyes, coming up

out of the sandstorm,shaking

off the dirt and detritus of

dune-laden sleep, I see myself

floating on  the moon’s imagined

lake, the mirage of expectation, the explosion of disappointment.

“Nothing gold can stay”. Nothing.

The birds will never sing the

exact same notes in the exact

same way ever again. My love

for another constantly changes,

blowing first this way and then that,

adapting in order to go on living.

 

The crescent moon and Venus are particularly beautiful tonight. Great composite photo by Greg Hogan, a really gifted photographer.

A remembrance of my brother.

 

 

 

 

 

There are better pictures of him but I can’t find them right now. Here he’s dancing with Bobbie Ann, Jim’s sister, at our wedding picnic/celebration/barbecue at Arrow Rock. She’s trying to teach him to two-step. She was a great dancer and Ken wasn’t bad.

He told tales and fables that came right out of his head without the least hesitation or mental editing and did so all his life, an impulsive and charming storytelling that may or may not have had some relation to the truth but that didn’t matter because they were riveting from beginning to end.

My mother used to reprimand him severely for ‘making things up’ but I suppose he was a born storyteller and sometimes the stories were believable and other times they were like science-fiction or fantasy. I remember once ( and I told this story at the funeral service) when I was in third grade and he in fifth, in Marshall, Missouri, he came running into the house crying out that there were zebras and camels and elephants walking around the streets!!!

Mother became very exasperated with him (she was ironing at the time) and told him to just stop it, but there really were camels and zebras and elephants walking around the streets, the circus had come to Marshall on the railroad, and they paraded the animals through the towns they came to to drum up interest in the circus. I ran outside and saw them, and with a lot of other kids followed them as far as I dared. They were beautiful and magical. It was as if Kenneth had invented them and they came true.

He kept steady jobs all his life and raised five kids, adopted a sixth, wrote poems, played guitar, all of his with a houseful of kids and a factory job. Finally in his old age got the solitude he wanted and had always needed. Solitude right up to the end. Raised wonderful kids, I have the deepest affection for every one of them. Here they are at the Peninsula Burial Ground, where he was laid to rest.

 

 

Ron Charles of the Washington Post did an interview this morning for the Wash Post Book Club and emailed that he would like to link the files of us playing, the ones that are on the audiobook. Frantic call to Mark: ‘Mark can you send him the files?’ Mark was on a hilltop somewhere building. He is a builder, making houses rise up out of airy nothing and he is also a whiz with computer things as I am not. So he’s walking around here and there on the hilltop trying to get a good connection, but we finally got through and he’ll link the files for Ron Charles. This is so cool. All I can think of, of course, is the three or four notes I flubbed badly on ‘Red River Valley’.

Tom commiserated; ‘A person never gets it perfect, never.’

And so Lowe’s grocery store in Bandera scored on a huge load of toilet paper from Mexico! I should have gone to the manager to ask how they pulled off this amazing feat but I’m not a reporter and I was tired and had a forty-mile drive home but there was plenty for all and no kidding. Two packages per customer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was at about four in the afternoon. What a weird place the world has become when I write an excited blog post about toilet paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best of luck Simon and Doris and thank you to everybody at William Morrow and HC who worked hard on this book! And a tribute to two really good fiddlers, may your roads all lead to magical places.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesse Milnes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Bomer

 

Palm Sunday today and Passover starts on the 8th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And not much to offer on the news front except babies keep getting born no matter what, and no cases yet in the surrounding three or four counties although that may change soon .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Human babies getting born too although I don’t have any pictures from my grand-niece yet but will add as soon as I get them.

Interesting article from Breitbart on the toilet paper shortage, best I’ve read so far;

1.) People are staying home and using the TP at home rather than at work, so use up more personal, household TP.

2.) There are two kinds of TP, commercial and home consumption kinds. The commercial kind is of course more utilitarian and in larger rolls that don’t fit home holders. These are not being sold at WalMart etc., they are sold to hotels, offices in big lots. So people can’t buy them, they are sold in case lots to large business and government organizations.

3.) They come from different paper mills, with different machinery, and are a different supply chain. The paper mills have not yet switched over from one to the other and it might be difficult for them to do so.

So there you go.

My friend April, whose mare just had the baby pictured above, (and another on the way, Easter maybe) had ordered a case of the commercial TP for the big kid’s recreational camp she works for — she heads up the equestrian side of it — and the case is just sitting there as everything is shut down. She is just keeping it dry and safe.  She is wondering if she still has a job, given that no kids can come to the camp, but on the other hand there are 60 horses that need care and feeding so not likely she will be let go. It is the most beautiful camp I’ve ever seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s just the old cabin on the camp lands. The kids accommodations are gorgeous.

The churches here in this little community are doing what they can. Women got together to sew masks and hand them out free, people donated money and material, Living Waters church is making up boxes with TP, bottled water etc. but as Evelyn said, “We don’t know who to give them out to.”

No need for them yet apparently. The feed store is open and receiving re-supply, the General Store is open and by tomorrow, Monday, will require all patrons to wear masks and stand outside in a line and come in a few at a time.

So I had my birthday party — a surprise. All riding friends came to bring presents and have a social distancing party on the front porch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very grateful for my friends and relatives; opened my cousin’s box as well, she sent some home-made scarves in leopard pattern and a hammock. It was a great day!

Such silences, no jet trails overhead, very few cars or trucks moving, an economy coming to a halt. Kids at home, no school. Perhaps they are learning about the supply chain, a good thing to know.

Have a peaceful and blessed Palm Sunday/Passover week!