Today’s report
1 Wet and wet and cool weather. Gray skies. Nothing I’ve not seen before. I’m happy with it.
2 Got splint made for joint in right thumb problem. I’m right-handed in a big way so it’s cramping my style some.

3. Have made many YouTube playlists of live music of my favorite artists and covers too…watching them on big screen. Nice way to pass time and think and write and relax.

4. Had nice call from Pennsylvania… my younger sister Cindee. So good to hear from her again. I want to keep up with my family even while so far away. It’s easier now with technology.

5. Quick thought– I don’t miss AT ALL controversies that I used to have to deal with as a school or social services administrator. I survived them all but many were unpleasant.

6. I’m still addicted to my Twitter feed…. countless pundits, reporters, politicians, celebrities I admire, and just down home folk, tweeting about lots of stuff, but mainly the White House mess.
7. Hammered out a longer poem. Stretching out from haiku land. Similar theme though …zigzagging from point a to point b in geography and chronology. Space and time…I’m definitely plowing through both. As cheerfully as possible.

MIND WANDERS
This is here
and now
and trying to focus
Because it’s loud and real
and bright here,
and fascinating enough
in this brassy
here
and now.
But then it goes…
lifts off on whatever air
there is
turning away from
this here
and now
Brain travels
silently drifts
and wanders
down that long road eastward,
meandering
over old rivers and peaks
and jagged deserts
and long, sighing plains
crossing boundaries
Back and back
to sweet times
back there
in that far and wide,
in that peace and lying in the dark
and breathing in the shade,
counting beats but losing track
shrugging it off
in a fleeting moment
of sweet nonchalance.
Listening to hearts and
the wind and rain out of nowhere
like recollections appear
or pieces of ideas
or nervous birds
adding some raw, primeval music to it
looking for something while they do,
sparking me too
to start looking
for something
that is precious
that is true.
Time moving forward then
and there,
but no hurt involved
that I remember
or regrets…
Just a quiet, tender
ticking away to the next moment
and one slow pace,
then even a leap,
and fall and climb,
striving while
somehow unaware of it,
and moving on to the next connection
like stepping up onto a train
and venturing
down that long rail
outward and away.

Or brain wanders back
to harsher moments
in a different there
and then
of scratching things out
in little battles
Wounds getting inflicted
regrettably,
but time smoothing off
some of the sharper edges
by now
like glass worn down by waves
so it no longer cuts.

Weaving my way back
to other faces
And other places
intensely inhabited
through those minutes and decades
Quiet celebrations revived
in the imagination cut free,
holding time and place
tightly
with those
dear to my heart
back there
back then,
missing them in the here
and now,
but thankful for all progress
and for the chance
and know-how
to find these magic roads
and wander them both ways
wander them richly.
February 21, 2017
Renton, Washington