Two Conclusions Regarding Human Nature Yesterday I concluded that consciousness resides in the physical part of a human's brain and is therefore under the sway of gravity; but that the unconscious, or if you prefer, the subconscious part of a human's brain is not under the sway of gravity because it resides in the spiritual realm. - This morning I concluded that the apparent existence of out-of-body experiences, though to my recollection I have never had one despite my having been close to death around thirty times, is proof of the spiritual component of a human's brain, and that it is akin to the angelic aspect and/or confirms the connection of humans to a Godhead. Blessings from Thinking Lizard, a wild and wily metal Dragon, but a poet who's physically subdued, being less than Keats in size. [ Note: Yes, I understand I have/ not really provided a proof here, and so must be seen as merely revealing a theory; and that some would say I ought to have/ written "mind" instead of "brain" or at least written something about mind. Yet, hey, such miniscules we are for all that we know or will ever know in our Earth-alive states. I simply consider my musings here worthy of your attention. You are of course welcome to deal with them as seems to you worthy of being attended to. ] Brian A. J. Salchert
Thinking Lizard
About Me
- brian (baj) salchert
- Rhodingeedaddee is my node blog. See my other blogs and recent posts.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
sw00257o-humannature
Saturday, March 10, 2007
sw00256t.test
Sprintedon Hollow Journal Test Entries 1234 wisdom - Author's Quirky Introduction - *
t e s t - - - - -
D - - ‚ § ° é
clowns
blarial
verdant
roman
pigeon
Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, March 9, 2007
sw00255tdp-poem
This Day's Poem tdp030907 24 Rising Another day Has come my way; I cannot say I know not how To reach that bough Wherein the now Remembers who Is there that you I thought I knew; But should I care To stretch to where All's dreams & air? [ Note: I am presently late at night randomly reading Harold Bloom's The Best Poems of the English Language. ] [ Further Notes: Visit Trevor Dodge's Wordpress site. - Visit commondreams.org and seek out Bloom's "Reflections in the Evening Land". - Visit twbookmark.com and seek out there the excerpt from Harold Bloom's Genius. ] Because of my having read A Map of Misreading, Harold Bloom is in one of my 1976 sonnets, but today I say: Harold the Bloom that cannot die. - 03.10.07 Note: Self-reliance is a goodly virtue; yet, if I had had to rely solely on myself for the better part of my now-going-on 67 years as an Earth-alive human, I would have long ago passed into another realm. The core of what I hold sacred is the Pauline definition of charity, from which for me flows compassion, empathy, wisdom, serenity, courage, persistence, and holy creativity. Within these abide faith and hope. I am not spiritually advanced enough to be even a mediocre example. Therefore, each of these is an ideal in my life. Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, March 8, 2007
sw00254rtj-shj.codes.center
RegardingThis Journal - E3 Journal Codes Center - [ last modified: 2008-10-15 ] R T J (links/contents) - 2007-03-16 insert: salcherts weblog code system - 2007-03-21 insert: journal codes center - Okay, I am in the midst of a personal code jungle at this date (03/08/07), but on this page I'm going to, hopefully, be able to provide a good overview of my progress so far and of the directions it will take. So, to recap the general idea: In my ep head I am leaning towards changing the code for the first entry/post/page in this journal from sw-p00001c to sw-p00001aqi because the latter more closely identifies what is at that location. The word name I gave it is Author's Quirky Introduction (aqi). Two members of the This Day's Poem series happen to be there, but the entry begins with a brief tic abduction scene, after which comes a seminal autobiographical segment. The two tdp pieces appear next. - About the numbers I use: Computers are extremely logical. Therefore, the Arabic number system in general use confuses a computer. You may know about what I am now going to make clear. That is fine. I first became aware of this when I--several years ago--began page 10 of my presently offline (though it may be in a search engine cache) Number Theory musings. At my site index 10 showed up after 1, not after 9. Why? Because, logically, 1 comes before 2; and so, even though 10 has two characters, it begins with a "1" and--. Pondering this, I realized that I would need to make all the single-digit numbers part of what I have come to term the "zero set": that if I used 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09/ then "10" would show after "9". I may never get to 10,000 entries in this journal, but I want to be logically set for it if I do. - About the letters I use: - prefixal letters - sw = salchert's weblog (still using despite journal name change) See R T J E12 about ( -p ) - - suffixal letters - j = journal-reflexive jc = Journal Recap entries jlctr = journal links center rtj =Regarding This Journal rtjc = Regarding This Journal series links/contents tlsh = Thinking Lizard Sprintedon Hollow t = tangential entry c = content information (will usually be preceded by a letter or letters indicating the what of the contents, e.g.: rsc) - a = autobiography or autobiographical aih = As It Happens (web log within this journal) d = diary (replaced Sprintedon Tracker as of 3-20-08) ekua = Edges of Knowledge - Unplanned Autobiography i = information math = mathematical nn = Notes to Nowhere o = opinion st = Sprintedon Tracker (replacement for aih as of 9-26-07) - - postsuffixal letters/numbers/words - -e1 (etc) -poem -letter -"whatever" - - sem = Seminary (1961/62 Jesuit Novitiate poems) fdl = Fond du Lac long poem jt = Justan Tamarind fantasy epic: Book 1 p = Postures 2007 book of poems pind = Prayers in December chapel book rs = Rooted Sky 2007 book of poems & 1 letter s = Sets in progress book of poems sgc = Sets general contents tdp = This Day's Poem chapbook usabys = 1976: in 2006 book of 352 sonnets ut = The Undulant Trees in progress book of poems/ditties/mutt objects v = Venturings in progress book of poems - bt = book thoughts olp = other literary persons omp = other mathematical persons opp= other philosophical persons orp = other religious persons otp = other theological persons piks = pictures sl = song lyrics xdspny = cross-disciplinary aqi = author's quirky introduction - 03 12 07 update: Now that I know how to insert workable links, and am beginning to learn how create better tags, I am considering providing a site index when I get caught up with all the changes I am yet making. Except internal details, November & December & March are in order. The code for the site index presently in my head is: swi though it could be--in the end: swsi / unless I get an idea I prefer to either of these. - It is 7:47 PM, and I just began a central site, but decided to name it Node Post, and to use those eight letters for its suffixal description, making it sw-p00260nodepost. One link awaits there. I am not sure when others will. - update 03 13 07- nodepost is now nodec -- Scratch that, I just changed it tojournal links center, i.e., jlctr * - Journal Links Center - - Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
sw00253rtj-archives.plus
Regarding This Journal - E2 - [ last modified: 2007-05-30 ] AOL plus R T J (links/contents) - One aspect of AOL's journal-space configurations I appreciate is the availability of an entire month's entries when I go to an archive to view a specific entry for that month. So long as I do not do any updating of an entry/ the archive list for that month remains, allowing me to move from entry to entry. - It appears I may get into the habit of spacing in 1 space before beginning a line of text which would normally begin at the left margin since this will pre- vent the final word in one line from showing as a part of the first word in the succeeding line. This does mean, however, that when I want what is at the beginning of a line to abut the final character in the line above it/ I must let the second line be one which is at the left margin. See "pre-vent" above. - More on internal codes in Salchert's Weblog: Yesterday I went once again to the first entry in my journal, and was made aware of my having placed (among other things) a note about my This Day's Poem series there & also two poems from that series. I've since decided to change the code for each such poem from simply a 6-# date to that date preceded by tdp. Thus, were I to write a poem today I wanted to include in the TDP series, I would code it: tdp030707 I am also going to tag such codes. It is likely there will be similar codes for other projects/ as I am already planning to use AIH for "As It Happens". Obviously, I am being my always heuristic self, but not for nefarious reasons. I want my site to be as efficient as seems to me/ sufficient. Will I need a kind of Concordance for S's W? Yes. I will need several. If you go to sw-p00245c you will see there how I am beginning to construct my concordances. My entries/post/pages will interlock as needed/ by means of the codes pertinent to them in concert with the usual ways of describing content. - PM 9:38 - Things are happening on-the-fly, as it were. While updating my This Day's Poem pages,I decided to not only use "tdp" with the date on which the poem arrived but to also use it after my personal location number. So, when you see, e.g., sw-p00135tdp/ before AOL's location number for that entry/ you are at a TDP (This Day's Poem) site. I have also decided to append an "a" when a site is an autobiographical one. I did append "rs" at a site which contains informationrelating to my Rooted Sky book. Eventually I hope to get all my pages coded in fairly easy-to-understand ways. Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
sw00252rtj-url.uri.info
Regarding This Journal - E1 - [ last modified: 2007-10-20 ] continuity and URI brevity R T J (links/contents) - - Per the present AOL configuration, only the last 10 Entries (posts/pages) can be accessed directly by search engines such as Google and Technorati. - Late last night (which was Monday March 5, 2007, according to the time here and the common calendar) I (for the sake of continuity and URI brevity) began moving the titles of my posts into their respective body areas, inserting my personal codes in the Subject spaces. - This morning (2007 065 03 2 2 according to my personal calendar) I, in the process of thinking more closely about my codes, saw that there might be a need to supplement a code for a page which displays information of a special nature. So, if a page contains contents information, I am going to place a "c" (without the quotes) immediately after that page's post code, making it part of the code for that page. In this manner anyone coming upon a final letter in a page's post code will know that that page is significant in a particular way pertaining to the group of pages it is the primary page for. - As to an actual AOL Journal URL, here is an example: http://journals.aol.com/thinkinglizard/bajs/ entries/2007/02/28/sw-p00241/1208 The first line in this example is the present URL for my journal. The second line reveals how AOL indicates an Entry in an AOL Journal. The final number is always the one that AOL assigns. - In archives territory AOL places, again by way of example: archive/2007/2 immediately after a journal's URL I do not yet understand how to use the provided journal search space, but I do see that all the Entries for a given month are accessible once one is at that month's location, and that the number of Entries made that month is given in parentheses after that month's name. The AOL system also provides the initial words showing on a given page. I does not, however, placea space between the word at the end of one line and the word at the beginning of the next. Therefore, I amtrying an experiment here. - These are the results of my experiment: 1) The entry/post/page title can begin at the farleft. 2) No line after the title line can begin at the far left if you want a space to show between each line in the archives. 3) Further, if you want to separate the title you are using from the beginning of the first line in the body of your text, you must either indent the first line in the body of your text more than one space/ or in- sert there a non-alphanumeric character preceded by and followed by a space. If you wish to see what I did, scroll up. - The "j" in this Entry's code indicates that the information here is journal-reflexive. 2007-03-29: the immediately above is no longer relevant to R T J entries. Brian A. J. Salchert
Sunday, March 4, 2007
sw00251aih-thoughtnotes
5 As It Happens Thought Notes Each of the entries in this journal is going to be coded and tagged with a code specific to it. An example is: sw-p00251 which is to be the code for this entry/post/page. It is going to take me a long while to complete my code-specific updates. One further note: the "sw" refers to "Salchert's Weblog" and not to my actual full name. I realize that if others decide to adopt my method/ I may discover I will need to enhance mine in order to/ keep it unique. AOL, as you likely know, does assign a code to each entry. For this one that code is: "Entry1220". * I am a supporter of free speech, including speech which George Washington held was uncivilized, being crude, and so being unnecessary. I will be writing more on this at a later time. * I do not support--as I have already made clear in other places--political correctness, and that includes attitudes towards me. Each human is here for one central purpose: to learn the meanings of/ and uses of/ love, both as they relate to himself/herself and every other self. The knowledge that I have failed, and will yet fail, to love as I ought to/ is now causing tears to well through my eyes. T. S. Eliot, who has been an abiding influence on me because of his sonorous and intelligent/ use of language, wrote in his Burnt Norton: "The only wisdom we can hope to attain is the wisdom of humility." (Sorry, but I do not remember where the line break is, and may have made a word error. I will look into it, and update the above/ as I need to.) Eliot corrections: The quote is from near the end of Part II of East Coker and it is: The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless. Brian A. J. Salchert
Saturday, March 3, 2007
sw00250s-tq.6.poem
Sets: set 3 Thatah 6 "10-8-66: Human Condition" Before me sits a three-inch bust: a paperweight, or at most no more than a bookend. Entirely brown, though he was white, though he was sight long absent from this Carnivore (sometimes America), its crown bears/ one wide wave, whose furrows are light with time's must: diatoms of dust. This plaster image of renown, of the slight smile, whose glance turns bright in lamp glow, sun, recalls a trust few found before, and fewer store. A man is neither wrong nor right; a man is mixed: bread--sponge & crust; water; the skin, the flesh, the core/ though strangers frown; though strength goes down. - Brian A. J. Salchert set 3 contents/links - - - - - -
sw00249s-tq.5.poem
Sets: set 3 Thatah 5 "10-7-66: As Opposites Live" Praises, warnings, philosophy: the first will make a distance less, the second lengthen to dissuade; the last, either--as we breathe her. Such heat and rain in one night dress our planet in blue-green marmalade we're awed at how they wreathe her into a tree, into the sea. Such lightninged winds in one day braid, bruising the pear while fires seethe her, we question strength as we fight, flee, meeting duress; meeting a guess. The air is smog or pine; neither-- a matter of fate & choice: so we must take it in who/ endure that stress where life is made; where light tests shade. - Brian A. J. Salchert set 3 contents/links - - - - - -
sw00248s-tq.4.poem
Sets: set 3 Thatah 4 "10-6-66: Tropic of Dionysus" A quadrunelle at Miller's braves? whose teepees distend with cubes of ice, buttons for "Ike" and brandied pie, cobs of cancers; booby dancers? All right: they love/ a pot of spice, some spicy pot, the sound of "I". Would a troop/ of whitening lancers liven the waves; liven our graves? What mean they, sir, America's high, the heaven of the world? Fanciers. Around/ imagined fires, who craves/ the jazzy slice, a crazy vice, as they? I've seen how the stance whirrs/ into god-light, nothing; en/slaves the conscious body. Loaded dice? How will they die though? Will they try? - Brian A. J. Salchert set 3 contents/links - - - - - -
sw00247s-tq.3.poem
Sets: set 3 Thatah 3 "10-5-66: As a Form Plays" The problem's one of tightness here: shoving full-blown balloons of words into this head-built quadrunelle, parted besides; parted like snides. Blessed with the press of roiling birds intent on/ escaping some cell as zoos may set near choo-choo rides, they twist & spear; they twist like fear. Dante and Vergil, walking Hell, turned from the demons' shagbark hides with not much more of a razor leer to wish them curds, to wish them turds. Yet, jostling words until each line glides (never allowed to disappear by wings or air) to fourths, not thirds, requires, yes, well: requires a spell. - Brian A. J. Salchert set 3 contents/links - - - - - -
sw00246s-tq.2.poem
Sets: set 3 Thatah 2 "10-4-66: Harvestings" This is a month for special prayer-- these primal days of decadence-- when matches crackle orange to black out from that smoke where elm twigs poke. This is the tenth of those twelve we fence to rule our planet's solar track and charge some seconds to waft a joke at the Future's lair, for future care. Hurricanes whirl until islands crack, shot squirrels plummet to roots of oak; dust tails whip up a thicker air: veined and intense; vain in expense. Apples, Jerusalem artichoke, acorns sprinkled through mums on a chair: the terminal winnings of bloom-and-chance to put in a sack, or bury back. - Brian A. J. Salchert set 3 contents/links -------
sw00245sc-set3.tq.links
Sets: set 3 Thatah (a set of 6 quadrunelles from 1966) Introductory Note: - Each of the 6 sections of this Thatah set is a quadrunelle. A quadrunelle--which I think is a poetic form I invented--is a poem consisting of four stanzas in which each stanza has four lines, the final line having a word midway which rhymes with the word at the end of that line. In this poetic form as a whole, the outer rhyme pattern is: abcd / bcda / cdab / dabc. - Here are the titles for the quadrunelle in each section, the first of which is on this page: ~ "10-3-66: The Dempsey Poplars" 1 "10-4-66: Harvestings" 2 - "10-5-66: As a Form Plays" 3 - "10-6-66: Tropic of Dionysus" 4 - "10-7-66: As Opposites Live" 5 - "10-8-66: Human Condition" 6 - - - - - - 1 "10-3-66: The Dempsey Poplars" Such adroitness! these spikes that leave, bear themselves from clay, enticing each eye to quest in their distinguished tips where green excites; where blue delights. Few minds could stand more sure, more high than they, and be as graceful. Ships? Not quite, perhaps. But maybe nights would have them there; have someone care. Still, ships or trees or spikes or whips, black-bottomed things, they strain our sights beyond a wish, building the air to flavor their sigh; confuse our why. So we, near youth more starched in rites than four as these could ever share, accept; and/ dreaming/ like the sky, draw brighter hips; draw softer lips. - [ last modified: 2008-10-16 ] Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00244aih-internal.news
4 As It Happens * The big news of this day for me is not the total eclipse of the moon, nor it is the discovery of several new bloggers I will shortly write about; it is that I have (partly through my persistent searching through my scattered files and also partly through a Google "quadrunelle" search I moments ago did which was aided by the exixtence of a Google cache I am !!! thankful for) finally found my Homer poems and my 6 quadrunelles entitled The Dempsey Poplars. This means I can continue placing my Sets book up in this journal space. * Okay, the new bloggers. - Somewhere recently I came across Tony Tost: his name, that is; but yesterday when I decided to do a "Springfield Missouri poets" search/ young Mr. Tost's name showed again. This was due to his having been born here in 1975. I then did some "Tony Tost" searches, and one of those led me to his site where I learned that his favorite contemporary poet is Allen Grossman. This fact stunned me in several ways: firstly, I had never heard of Allen Grossman; secondly, when I did an "Allen Grossman" search/ guess who one of the results was: Reginald Shepherd; thirdly, I had read a set of 12 poems by Tony Tost online, and so I had a wee sense of his "style"; fourthly, when I read Reginald's remarks about Allen Grossman and the three Allen Grossman poems he shared, my first impression of Tony Tost was shredded, for here is a young poet/musician I yet imagine traveling through a universe nearly the opposite of that universe the much older Mr. Grossman seemingly travels through. - Somewhere amid reading Reginald's "The Mirage We Call 'Poetry'" and his "On W. S. Merwin's The Lice" and a post at his partner's site, I read his "Why I Write" and the comments beneath it. It was there I was introduced to Mark Granier; but I did not go to his site until I was nudged to: to read what he wrote there concerning the major/minor quest and/or question, about which I am going to write zilch for the nonce. * Started posting The Dempsey Poplars and then because of a minor sidebar event along with my long unhappiness with usingthe word part of the title of the first quadrunelle for the title of the group/ I--but I think I will let you figure out why--changed the group title to: Thatah. - Also, since Teasings is being whittled into non- existence, I am going to move the poems in it which remain, alongwith other poems, such as my "At First to Poets" which is already in this weblog to a new book I have entitled: Venturings. Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, March 2, 2007
sw00243aih-poets.humans.dna
3 As It Happens - Yesterday evening I let myself get pulled into reading Part I of Seth Abramson's "The Sociology of Poetry" which was posted at his place in the noosphere: The Suburban Ecstasies in 2005. That choice led me to Reginald Shepherd, Slicker Chumway, Ron Silliman, and to sending an email to Seth. I didn't raise myself into bed until after midnight. This morning I continued my journey, and have so far been to Josh Corey's place after having gone back to the comments on Silliman's Blog pertaining to Seth's "rant". I may insert a part or
all of my email to Seth as that constitutes my short
response to what he wrote. Here:
-
Blessings Seth,
Your rant is amazing, but I think your background in
Sociology and Law seriously, and in many ways valuably,
provided you the wherewithal to construct that rant
as you did. I would not have thought to ask 1/5 of the
questions you did, and certainly not the way you did.
I recently turned 66. I presently have a web log at
AOL, most of which I--as certain other poets are--am
using to post poems I have written. Some of them are
in books. There is so much I want to say here, but I
am saying all that in my online space. I know few even
know I am online, though I've been online since early
April of 2000. Do I want to be read? Of course. Do I
want those who read what I write to be somehow
changed for the better? Yes. Yet, though I've been
the MFA route, and though, and though, I have long
been more a hermit poet than an aggressive poet. I
am an INFP who may be slowly becoming an ENFP, and
I am quite eclectic. I read Ron Silliman's Blog because
there is so much information there. There are others I
read, and soon there will be more; but if I spent all my
time reading the writings of others I would be forced
to stop doing any writing of my own. Why do I bother
anyway? I do what I do because I must, and because
I enjoy it, even when I may be dissatisfied with a
sentence I've penciled, penned, or typed years later,
and even when a re-visionI make is worse than the
vision I first or earlier had. Ashbery said in an interview
that we (meaning human beings) do not "know" any-
thing. I once wrote a poem to him. Itis in my online
Postures 2007 book. I'm sure he does not know about
it. As to posterity, who really knows if there is even
going to be such. This whole wondrous planet could
suddenly blow apart at any moment.
Thank you. I expect to be reading more at your place
in the noosphere.
Brian A. J. Salchert
*
Due to blogspot's first 6 Profile questions, I have put
similar information at the bottom of my "All About Me"
sidebar space. Their request for Zodiac Year infor-
mation seemed a bit odd to me, though I recently did
take the time to read a history of the Chinese Zodiac
Calendar. However, I did not at that time attempt
to ascertain what Zodiac Year I was born in. So, I
was initially shocked when I learned today that I was
born in the Year of the Dragon, and the metal Dragon
at that. The last time I was weighed, which was 3
days ago, I was a massive 101 lbs., and my height
that day was an amazing 4'11.75"; and I am a what?
Back in the late 1970's I decided to start a press,
and I named it: Thinking Lizard. It still exists and I
have been using it online. I once had a book I gave
to someone else, but for a long time have wished I
hadn't. It is no longer in print, but its title is:
Maps of the Mind. There is one mind-map in that
book which illustrates the reptile/mammal/new-brain
structure of the human brain. It was the catalyst
for my Thinking Lizard idea. It now seems uncanny,
in light of the Zodiac Year revelation, how well my
Thinking Lizard decision fits me. Beyond all that, I
long ago read Pere Teilhard de Chardin's seminal book:
The Phenomenon of Man, and have ever since been
a disciple of his, especially of his prophetic envisioning
of our Earth wrapped in what he called a noosphere
(a sphere of knowledge), the very manifestation the
WWW/Internet--to me--is. If some disaster, either
natural or man-made, does not end it and/or end us, I
believe it will come to be seen as an evolutionary
advance, a fourth fold of thehuman brain, if you will.
There is one person whose name I'm no longer able to
recall who has predicted that by the year 2040 we will
be many thousands of times more intelligent than we
presently are. It brings phaneronoemikon to mind, that
mysterious occasional visitor to Silliman's Blog. I have
not yet visited
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/mmedia/hires/dna.jpg
but I am going to try to.
-
4:49 PM: I just did, and I read, and I saw, but I am not
going to tell you what my response was.
*
Almost fell into a laughing jag last night when the
following sprung into my above-ground (a-g) brain:
-
Look!
that wench
is waving
a white flag!
-
-
Why that struck me as funny I cannot say.
It does not now. Maybe it had to do with
the suddenness of its appearance and the
thought of a "street walker" waving a white
flag. Should I blame it on my epilepsy? I
should blame it on my unwillingness to
keep it to myself.
* Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, March 1, 2007
sw00242aih-eliot.storm.4poems
2 As It Happens - For all its grimness (and indeed in light of its necessary grimness) Eliot does conclude The Waste Land with four non-English words, the first three of which constitute a directive: be giving, be compassionate, maintain self- control; and the last of which approaches a mantric blessing in its being repeated three times and in its wish that the reader/hearer (upon following the directive) be thereby enabled to transcend to an incomprehensible exquisite peace. * About 4:30 this morning I was awakened by the whine of weather sirens, I did (indirectly) hear thunder and see lightning, and around 4:45 I did hear lashes of rain--and thought I heard several whaps of hail--slap my bedroom's outer window; but the storm passed to the northeast (?) and a little past 5:35 the whine of the sirens was overcome by the distance it had traversed from here. So now at 8:29 a brightness filters through the clouds, though as foretold, the winds remain blustery. * If you can find in a library somewhere, such as at The University of Florida, a copy of Studia Mystica Volume IX Number 4 Winter 1986, therein are four poems of mine, poems which were accepted by that periodical because they were so different from each other. On page 60 is an osteoporosis poem entitled: "Saying Good-bye". On page 61 is a sad nature-related poem entitled: "Pride". On page 62 is a poem about vocal expression entitled: "Axiom". On page 63 is an abecedarian entitled: "Then Millicent Said." I believe all four were written while I was studying under the late Donald Justice, which is not to say he thought they were excellent. Reading them, however, will provide further insights regarding my psyche, if you care to discover more about my psyche. Actually, the main reason I have decided to provide this information is that though I once did have at least two of them online and had the other two in my unpublished Teasings, I am going to keep them offline because of an unresolved question/ about publication rights. Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
sw00241aih-intro
1 Intro to Brian S's As It Happens
The two major ongoing autobiographical works
I have had online were: Edges of Knowledge:
An Unplanned Autobiography and Brian's
Brain. I may place what exists of those works
online again one day. I am not sure. However,
today I am starting Brian S's As It Happens.
Yes, numerous prose autobiographical postings
have appeared in this journal since the day I
began it, and each of those can now be placed
under my new title, but not a one needs to be.
*
This morning I was officially up at 5 because I had to be at a clinic by 6:40 for several hours of stress tests. As it happened, I was allowed to leave about 11. The tests I took did not involve using a treadmill, a fact which pleased me. My Springfield sister had taken me there and she took away from there. We went to a grocery where a could pay a city bill, and we could do some shopping. After that she drove me back to my apartment complex. In today's dawn hours the weather was cloudy and blustery, but by the time of my return it was less blustery and some clearing had put a lighter mood in the sky. Still, after dark tonight storminess is expected, and tomorrow is likely to be blustery as well. Doesn't this just makeyou want to dance on your toes!? - Yesterday I began reading a poem which I last read years ago: T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and time has allowed me to more easily appreciate why Hart Crane and others felt the need to counterbalance it. Not that itisalways so, butintellectual intensiveness tends to be more negative in the sense of being more somber and more prone to use language in dark ways. The mind ruminates. The senses titillate. It is the angle of vision chosen that determines the play. One can be exuberant. One can be dispirited. One can be both or somewhere between. I know this from the inside. Yes, my character is generally more introverted, melancholic; but sometimes I find myself observing an object or even an activity as if for the first time, and if that object or activity is of a pleasant nature, I am carried by it into a state of cloistered joy. - I used to be able to buy mint ice cream--PURE mint ice cream. Even restaurants had it, and served it to any who wanted it. It was a popular dessert. Now, the only way you can get it is/ littered with chocolate chips. I am a chocolate chip fanatic. I eat some every day, BUT/ I do not want them/ in my/ MINT ice cream. Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
sw00240tdp-poem
This Day's Poem tdp022707 color-poem 23
"Turn"
G R E E N
'n' B E R R Y it.
Brian A. J. Salchert
Monday, February 26, 2007
sw00239a-autobio
Intermission
Today is the first day of the third month
in my personal calendar. This morning I
chopped off my hair and put a new filter
in the place for one on top of my electric
furnace. 2007 057 03 1 1 is my date for
this day.
-
Yesterday morning I 911'd myself to an
Emergency Station. Wednesday morning
I need to go in for a stress test. There
is one medication I've decided to not use
anymore unless I get an okay from the
doctor I am to see tomorrow. I have the
feeling that most of my physical problems
are connected to my osteoporosis. Will
find out more about that tomorrow also.
-
The latest from the foreign-accent guy,
that alter-ego, who pops into my
above-ground brain
whenever the mood strikes him:
----------------------
"You can't win,
I tell you.
---
You try?
---
You silly goose."
Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00238s-br.d6.yellow
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons - Day Six
"1-16-77 yellow" This day I begin year 37 toward heaven though I'm someplaces told I'm a hell-caught fool: somewhy it seems/ we/ just drift purgatories, our left shoulders angled against door jambs, our eyes full of nothing-- their powers drawn back upon themselves as the energies of black-hole stars, our minds so lost in the mazes of loves it's likely we'll never consummate (despite desires) we have to ask that if they're seen somewhere they should please be led back, thank you: And today is Sunday & ice-age cold and bright only in the snap- ping wind, and the Sabbath commandment we are keeping here at home: and I still would celebrate to the riffs a fireplace warmth forgetful of the -60 wind chill & the charges to fill a mold: Crows bump through the bleak gusts while, snug in the poignant caves of their choosing, bears dream: As I celebrate, I celebrate: had I gone to church I would have celebrated thus: were I to make love, I would celebrate so: if I'd go early to the inn to talk & drink, to laugh, to relax, I/ must soon go to bed to celebrate: if I heat this chair tapping for riches, these acts will be my celebration: In the freezer waits ice cream; in the refrigerator, cherry pie: I am a man, a kid, a corpse, a spirit, an insatiable spy: if you try me, you will find my tolerance long, my patience lengthy, though I curse & spit: my need to be loved and to love a frozen grandiflora, a present forever, ribbons constantly loosened, bowed, & twirled & hurled in the blank air.
~ Brian A. J. Salchert
Sunday, February 25, 2007
sw00237s-br.d5.blue
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons - Day Five
"1-15-77 blue" And the Arctic Tern flies farther to nest than any other bird because I need it to: and lives in sunlight more than any creature on this Earth: as far as 10,000 miles & 8 solid months of day: Today Janice & I drove north northwest 32 miles to celebrate my 36th year with her mother & father & 1st sister: Edie, Kenny, Julie: spaghetti 'n' sauce by Julie; banana cream & cherry pies by Edie; when Kenny got home, a wish for a happy birthday with: "May you live forever and I never die." Here & there swirling across the highway home, smoke of snow: the mailman brought card #3: a greeting from Janice's brother, David, and his wife & boys: the Lamplighter called: our lamps are fixed:
~ Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00236s-br.d4.teal
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons - Day Four
"1-14-77 teal" How I could run & skate, tease the winds, yet not until competing was a lie test my gift 100 yards! How confess & confess until ears scream, yet breathe so little of who I am! born into Fond du Lac (unfit to smile) to godly parents, even if to a mom too gentle & a dad too firm: Take me for a conservative guy: often enough a demanding encounter closes me though I want to say I love you love love you with ringing arms & deep-tongued eyes, hold you with entrancing kisses, though I surge inside: the arms so slightly rising, the half- smile, the corny phrase: And we climbed with Bobby's kite, climbed & climbed, until it seemed our climbing would never end though we knew how tense the strain on the curved string: the exalting & exalted kite finally found by the railroad tracks over half-a-mile away:
~ Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00235s-br.d3.red
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons - Day Three
"1-13-77 red" From the spools of memory, vignettes appear: me with my father in our garage mixing cement, sawing a 2-by-4, storing screens; out in our lot digging postholes, trimming a bush, planting, mowing, raking, chopping a head off a chicken; in a rocking boat listlessly waiting for some tricked perch to liven us; in our basement-- with 15 kids from the neighborhood-- mesmerized by "No Indians, Please" & World War II news flickering on the projector screen portion of the east wall, or the Lionel (oh, my 2 sisters were also there) as it clattered on its well-governed track, or --with other boys only-- the keyhole ladies in the frosted bar glasses; in our living room rollicked by Milton Berle, or sombered by a Graf Zeppelin stamp he will sell: with my mom in our kitchen working a rolling pin, pressing cookie cutters for santas, bells, gingerbread men; drawing maps; on the stairs picking up forgotten toys, vacuuming-- I day- dreaming, playing with sound-- yet that whirring by the moss phlox! the dwarf hyacinths! that larger than bumblebee! that-- I whisper to my mother to quietly come closer as, carefully, I crouch on my toes-- that ruby, yes, male, yes, Ruby- throated Hummingbird, ah! windmill of the Lord!: with whomever snatching tadpoles, those wriggly wriggly out of Hadley's inlet!: and those long evening walks with Gary, Ron, Tom and the radio, listening to the Braves' games (through crickets/ nighthawks/ revvings of cars) when the Braves rode Milwaukee's hills chieftain tall!
~ Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00234s-br.d2.white
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons - Day Two
"1-12-77 white" Such things to choose, let ricochet, dodge!: cornucopias tumble at us!: anyone's Gobis Urals, Niles: anyone's riddles: anyone's mines: the ticking, creaking, sputtering of time: loves / terrors, angers / delights, rots / fruitions-- of the globed & bright & juicy Snow, of the dandy civilized yam, of a roseate star: Such cor- nu- copias, ka- lei- doscopes, skies!: in the root web of an oak, cantatas of droplets of water, strength-laden insects of soil, dreams for the deep choreography of leaves: we are axial & galactic, expecting to die: The ribbons of our commitments, frayed, faded: we can only replace & replace: the presents of our caring, borrowed, taken: we can only return & return: Aphrodite out of the sea, Artemis out of the moon, Apollo out of the sun: Crawl, walk, run, jump to fly, excitation to excitation tingling our spirits, our spines, mad, foolish, blindingly divine: At the gate, the sagging splintering gate, we meet, say hello, enter where mists from the ocean touch & sway; and the curve of our communions, speeding to the peaks of who we are in our hearts & bones: gentle, fierce, ancient: as the blossoms of the void: obliterates adagio: atoms in me shivering atoms in you & atoms in you shivering atoms in me: In the measure of this quack stem I chew on, in the hazel penetration of your eyes, Florida & oranges, California cliffs, the marshes of a child's warm Wisconsin, someone rummaging garbage in an alley, someone who has made the bedding clean:
~ Brian A. J. Salchert
Saturday, February 24, 2007
sw00233s-br.d1.violet
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons - Day One
with an infinite thank you to George Starbuck, A. R. Ammons, Donald Justice, and Marvin Bell
"1-11-77 violet" And the wrapped presents: dimensions, horizons, trajectories? Violet
white red teal blue yellow, the anxiously freed birthday ribbons swirl & cork- screw through the silly air as I, drowsy in the pinched light, compose: ~ Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00232a-old.poem
an old poem - I have several unpublished books of poems, 2 of which are Seminary and Naked Exerciser. Today I found in the latter/ a piece I was a shade surprised to see there because most of the poems in that book are homoerotic, and this piece fits in with those in only an extremely off-to-the-side way. It is a con- versation poem, probably between a father and a son of his. If so, it's a fictive one that somewhat speaks to the psychological differences between me and my father. I do not know when I wrote it, but the typed copy I have of it is from the time Janice & I were living in an apartment on Forest Avenue in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. * * * "The Trouble Between Us" you heard what i said gut it but no buts about it get going o- kay maybe if you'd stop your daydreaming once you'd learn something i i now what you muttering it won't bite where do i start what haven't i shown you often enough i guess so you guess so don't you know yes well then what you waiting for n- nothing oh scram i'll do it myself ------- 2007 055 02 4 6 2-24-07 I so easily make typos I sometimes elide anger and begin laughing at myself. Just moments ago that happened, and-- as often also happens at such times--a voice with a foreign accent broke/ into my consciousness: "You are not a perfect being. Do you not understand? Sometimes, it seems, you just don't get it. You are not a perfect being." Brian A. J. Salchert -
sw00231a-calm.b4.storm
Weather Lull - but not for long
This afternoon the worst of the rough weather will be
whipping through. Some 60 mph gusts could occur.
Hard rains definitely will. So, I am going to be un-
plugging my system again soon. It is now near AM
10:30. I did have to plug my surge protector into
a socket on the north wall. Do not know why, but
the socket on the west wall and the light switch and
the socket on the south wall quit working. Even
flipping the breaker toggle back on did not help.
Have a gentle day. - - - - - - - - - - - Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, February 23, 2007
sw00230sc-set2.br.links
Sets: set 2 - Birthday Ribbons Introduction - Birthday Ribbons is a ribbon-like birthday-of-mine poem in 6 imagined colors, each representing a day in a set of consecutive days in January of 1977. The colors are: violet, white, red, teal, blue, yellow. ~ violet is at Day One - Day One - white is at Day Two - Day Two - red is at Day Three - Day Three - teal is at Day Four - Day Four - blue is at Day Five - Day Five - yellow is at Day Six - Day Six - Tape for the Turn of the Year by A. R. Ammons inspired the narrow structure of my poem, and that structure in turn inspired me to choose the the birthday ribbons (with the "ribbings" pun on "ribbons" intended) structure, my ribbons narrower than his tape. That this poem came in the wake of my 366 sonnets, 1976, which actually were/ not yet/ 366, only serves to show how eclectic I was. I am still so. - In the mid 1980's, having the "bad" idea of seeking a PhD in English, but having taken-- and done well on--the GRE, and desiring to study under the late Donald Justice, who was then teaching Creative Writing: Poetry at The University of Florida, a bicycle ride of moderate distance from where I was living, I got myself accepted into the program. I am glad and thankful I did. Near the end of that semester, in spite of having 4 of my poems chosen by a single periodical/ in part because they were so different from each other, I, feeling I had neither done enough nor well enough, and honestly needing help with a poem I had not intended to show to Mr. Justice as it had not been written in that semester, namely my ribbons poem, turned Birthday Ribbons in to him. In going through it with me, passing on to me his revision suggestions while praising those images of mine he considered effective, he said it seemed to him to be the most American poem of mine he had seen. Now/ that remark might seem puzzling; so let me demystify it for you. My heritage is 3 parts German and 1 part English, but the English in me is quite (mysteriously) entrenched. However, I was born in Wisconsin, and therefore am supposedly totally American. There. So, at Florida Birthday Ribbons did for me what my lyric narrative, Fond du Lac, had done for me at Iowa. [ last modified: 2008-10-16 ] Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00229olp-poets
See Bill Knott's February 17, 2007, and February 21, 2007, entries at his typepad.com place. - In one of those entries/ his pointing to Jorie Graham led me to poets.org/ where I read 3 of her poems and a 1996 interview of her I found enriching. Also, I became aware of Earth Took of Earth: 100 Great Poems of the English Language, an anthology she edited. I am going to seek it out at the library. - - All of this has led me to consider once again my own situation as a poet, and it moved me to reconfirm what I have long held: I am going to continue to write because I need to; and whether I write superbly or poorly when what I write is compared to what others write is not and cannot/ be an imprisoning concern to me. I am unique, just as each other is, and I have a story to tell; and, yes, I am going to try to tell it as well as I can; but the important points are: I must attend my need to tell it and I must pursue--in the best ways I deem appropriate--the answers to (even if such answers cannot be found) who I am and who each other is and what each dot and ripple is in the mystical warps of space and time and dimensions beyond. Woh! Am I a fool, or what? Something of both. No matter though. I know, as Bill Knott knows--though he is more certain about it than I yet am, Homo sapiens may well be a dead manifestation. Years ago in one of my sonnets I/ recognized that possibility, and made my peace with it. So, though I have/ dozens of times been at the edge of death, I have been/ allowed to go on, and go on I shall, learning, celebrating, treasuring. Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00228a-weather
Nasty Weather
will be blustering in later today and into Saturday/
afterwhich there will be a short lull, and then even
more severe rains (with the possibility of large hail)
will be swiping through Saturday afternoon. There
also is an off-chance of a tornado somewhere in
the Missouri Ozarks. Therefore, this system will
be unplugged later today and likely will not be up
again until Sunday. Given the wind strengths that
we'll be experiencing, I will not be surprised if my
electricity goes out again. Wuooooooooo ooooo
swish swash heewwwwwwww youuuuuuu pit pit
pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit pit at
wuooooooooo youuuuuuu
- - - - -
for copyright information see homepage
} } }
~ Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, February 22, 2007
sw00227a-sexuality
Sexuality "The Salchertian Scale" There's a good chance I have already written about this somewhere herein, but my view is based solely on what I have learned about myself in my going on 67 years of being Earth-alive. It could not, honestly, be any other view of sexuality. However deeply we as humans inter- connect with each other, the fact of the each other can not go away so long as we are allowed to exist as an each. When I emerged from my mother's womb, I became a separate being physically; and I have lived and expect to die as a separate being. Is it a lonely trek? Yes it is. Yet that is not all it is. - So, what have I learned about my sexuality? The first truth is: I cannot be exact about it. The second is that there is a position I maintain which many others do not share: One's sexuality is determined more by how one feels (by what excites one) than by what one does. As I passed through my childhood, I discovered--partly due to a certain incident about which I wrote in veiled terms in one of my poems--I was attracted to my own body, wimpy body that it was and is; and that I was attracted to other males more than to females; but, mostly, that in the end, I actually wasn't much interested in physical sexual activities. That being so, I recently attempted to determine to what degree I was each of these. Here is a possible rating: 60% a sexual non-participant; 25% an autoerotic; 12% a homoerotic; 3% a heteroerotic. Such a rating of myself--what I "know" about myself notwith- standing--may be quite not right, just as I am quite not right*. It is, however, an honest attempt. - During my elementary and high school years I had, roughly, 12 puppy love attachments to males, none of whom were--to my knowledge--ever aware of my desire. During that same period of my existence, I was attracted to 3 different females, one of whom I eventually married. There is a semi-tragic story at the core of that union, but I do not wish to reveal it at this time. Besides, I have written and spoken of it often enough, and it will come to light again when some of my diary entries appear in this weblog. In the meanwhile, certain aspects of it can be gleaned from a number of the sonnets in my 1976: in 2006 work online here. About my encounters with myself, I'll say only this: There were times I nearly did things that could have ended this physical existence I yet have or damaged it and other realms of my being in ways I do not care to dwell on. About my encounters with other males, there were not that many, though a few of them had mystical qualities I have never understood. What I consider to be my "coming out" experience was the first such, and I did years later write a poem about it. I will say that my being easy to fend off while I was young was a blessing. When I was older, there was no need to fend me off because I was never the aggressor. Even when I was in my thirties, I was still a twink; and that was when I became visible. However, I do suspect classmates of mine, especially when I was in high school, had already determined how to label me. - To those of you who have read this far I now suggest: Go read D. H. Lawrence's "The Ship of Death". You should also read James Weldon Johnson's "The Creation". - - - - - * I have frontal lobe and generalized epilepsy which a certain medicine has been keeping under control. Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
sw00226tdp-poem
This Day's Poem tdp022107 22
Epitaph My greatest poems are among the missing. They knew better than I/ what to do.
------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
sw00225t-tech
Sprintedon Hollow Technorati Claim Technorati Favorites - I have not, and do not intend to, use this feature. See Technorati if you are interested in it. § Technorati Profile - When I joined/ this blog was known as Sawlcurt's Weblog. Copyright © 2007 Brian A. J. Salchert Thinkiing Lizard - All rights reserved.
sw00224a-twonotes
Two Personal Notes Now 66, I am a retired widower and a gregarious heuristic hermit with sundry interests. I presently reside in Missouri's SW sector, but I was born and raised in Wisconsin; and, until recently, I had long resided in Florida. Poets&Writers Directory * Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00223a-tags
Title Tags and Names
When I had many of my writings in two non-AOL
places, the name for my autobiographical work
(my current "daily" diary/journal musings) in one
place was Brian's Brain, and in the other place:
Edges of Knowledge. I do have a dozen or
more journals which have never been published
although I have published excerpts online such
as my "At First to Poets" poem which is in my
Donald Duck Journal because that is where I
originally wrote it.
-
In one of those places I also had pages devoted
to my current heuristic number theory meanders.
Number Theory Investigations was its title. I had
in the 1990's penned a work entitled Meanderings
of an Amateur Mathematician which I then took
to a store where I was able to make 10 copies and
get them bound in plastic ring binders. There are
several heuristic mathematical papers I've written
which deal with problems not related to Number
Theory. Most of those were in my first journal in
AOL space, but IE messaged a concern about the
publisher, and I finally decided to delete that AOL
journal.
-
Speaking of IE, the reason I am no longer at the
places where I had had 6 years worth of efforts
online is because IE indicated suchdispleasure
with them it literally forced me out. I tried two
other places, one of which I had been briefly at
several years before, but internal difficulties at
those places necessitated I leave them. Why
am I back here in AOL journal space? One day
an AOL representative talked me into trying it
again, and so far her thumbs-up attitude has
proven to be warranted. Although I am doing
this page in the "Text" mode, I normally prefer
doing my own simple "HTML". As you can see,
the lines here are not single-spaced. With the
help given at on online site I do not recall the
URL for/ I was able to learn how to get single-
spaced lines in the "HTML" mode. So while it may
not be best to be here, I am content.
-
If you have perused my weblog you already know
what is here, but some of my major projects here
I want to write about again. This is centrally a
poem journal which so far has only poems written
by me. There is a natural number summation
sequence entry. There are weather entries. I
have written about certain other poets. Links to
pages of interest can be found here. Here and
there I have written about my personal calendar.
I did place my "Notes to Nowhere" pages here as
they originally were composed in a 123 Publish
space. Being somewhat an eclectic, I can never
be sure what I might write. Back to the poems:
in and after 1976 I wrote a 366-sonnet work for
which I used that national bicentennial year for
that work's title. In this journal is a 352-sonnet
2006 version of it. As a writer, I have long been
an outsider, but late in 1972 when I was yet in
the academic sphere my first book, a book which
had one letter in it but was otherwise all poems,
was published. The 2007 version of that book is
in this journal. Most of my working years I was a
night auditor in the hospitality industry, a time
during which I became more an outsider. I began
my own "company" and for a while used various
pen names. Such was the case in 1980 when one
of the books I published in the cassette medium,
a book of poems in which each poem evidences a
different posture, made its Thinking Lizard way into
the world and into the Library of Congress. In this
journal there is a 2007 version of that collection of
postures. I do have ongoing here a "This Day's
Poem" series, and yesterday I began placing a work
of poem sets online here. Both of these ventures
are unclosed in that neither is already a completed
work. There are other complete books of poems I
intend to place here, but I do know when any one
of them will show.
Brian A. J. Salchert
Monday, February 19, 2007
sw00222s-set1.tc7.cat.ditty
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty [ The cat ditty below was published online about six years ago, but I don't at this moment-- 10:19pm 2006-05-12-- know where, though I do recall it being Google-accessible for a time. I have sent an e-mail query to/ the company I think/ might be able to find out, but I doubt I will get a response. 05/15/06: The date on the letter-size sheet I found it typed on/ is June 13, 1979, and it is signed: Alden St. Cloud. 2007 050 02 4 1 As it happens, I did get a reply; but the woman who sent it said they were not able to find it in their archives. ] - - - "Where'd the Cat Go?" Who knows, who knows where the kitty-kat goes, following her nose through the rains & snows; or, how the sun rose between her toes. Who knows. Who knows. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00221s-set1.tc6.cat.poem
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty "The Chair" The platform rocker, a long while around-- its wood: maple, its upholstery: aged/ rough olive-green patterned with fanciful blossoms of rusty green & rusty orange-- that I use when I read, and often leave a book on, is also the chair Tillie sometimes uses when she is tuckered. She approaches it with a quick mew, then locates where her body displaces the dull indoor air, & ignores my book with a mild disdain, giving it merely a why-is-this-thing-still-here glance/ as she settles beyond it. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00220s-set1.tc5.cat.poem
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty "Tillie Dreams" The rocker moves. It is Tillie changing position: sniffing grass / tearing, licking choice blades & spikes of seeds while she saves a corner of her eye-- the left one / the right one-- for a sudden bug to chase; then changing position: doing a hump stretch to loosen up/ for a leap to the roof of a garage to nip a pecking pigeon / & sail in a gentle curve back to the lawn as she circles down to the faded-olive seat; then changing position: capturing a cloud. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00219s-set1.tc4.cat.poem
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty "In a Favored Place" Curled in the chair as if in air on her left side so her whites hide for the most part as her slow heart visible in her pulsing skin while legs stretch out & her tail's stout & almost goes to her tired toes, our Tillie rests from moods & guests, and/ keeps her grace. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00218s-set1.tc3.cat.poem
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty "Thief" Entering the kitchen, she fills time bathing herself while I am making my cheese & cold meat sandwich; then, beyond the table, hops the less than 18 inches onto the windowsill, & shifting her head from behind the open curtain, springs to the cupboard while I am easing the jar of salad dressing into its place in the refrigerator door; and, just as I turn, looking up, jumps down with the red tie for the bread wrapper dangling from her beelining mouth. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00217s-set1.tc2.cat.poem
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty "2 Visions" Early one morning, though I knew she was passing the foot of our bed-- I could hear her mewing, and see the end half of her tail gliding above the static waves of our covers-- I hallucinated Tillie sitting in the doorway, the spirit of her in the doorway, silent & proper; and while I tried several times to shake it away, it wouldn't disappear, but stayed what seemed an unusually long while, until I thought "Oh no!-- as cheering as she often is, I don't think I could handle two "Tillies"; and once more/ shook my head. And that dream the other night!-- the white paws, white breast, white triangle (mini-pick beauty mark) to the left of her black nose, & the otherwise dominant medium gray & those amber eyes snuggling the solid lighter gray of another cat, the two of them impishly sitting toward me between the closet door & the bed as if they both belonged there. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00216sc-set1.tc.links
Sets: set 1 - Tillie 6 cat poems and 1 cat ditty "Amusement" On the other side of the bed where an extra blanket's crumpled in the corner, meowings & thumpings: Tillie's clawless front paws stuffing the injured 3-inch wire covered & flanged with red paper (the bread wrapper tie) under the worn old rose hump; then backing off, leading her crouched body, waiting for the right moment/ to attack, bat the viper, snatch it from its shelter, raising it to the top of her stretch & collapsing backwards, snapping it/ out of her mouth to bat, twist, hide it again . . ./ and again. ----------------------------------------- links to rest of set: - 2 Visions - Thief - In a Favored Place - Tillie Dreams - The Chair - Where'd the Cat Go? - - [ last modified: 2008-10-16 ] ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00215sgc-links4sets
Sets: a rather amorphous book of poems sgc = Sets general contents 77 poems in 5 sets [ last modified: 2008-10-15 ] 02/19/07 Due to an impasse with Teasings, I've decided to begin revealing a book that is not yet a book, and may never be a completed book. The only reason for its existence at all is that it contains definable groups of poems, which is why I've entitled it: Sets. The first of these sets is going to be my cat poem set, all but one of which center on the first cat Janice and I acquired. Of the three cats we lived with, it was the largest and most enjoyable. We never did have more than one cat at a time. - first set: Tillie - in which are 6 poems related to a once real cat, and 1 cat ditty related to no real cat. See sw00216sc-links through sw00222s-ditty - Tillie - - second set: Birthday Ribbons - which is a poem to myself: 6 ribbons, with each a different color and each on a different day See sw00230sc-links - Birthday Ribbons - - third set: Thatah - a set of 6 formalistic poems written in October of 1966. See swp00245sc-links - Thatah - - fourth set: Accompaniments: Where There Is Room are 37 poems I wrote for W. S. Merwin on pages 3-15; 17-28; 30, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 49, 51, and 65 of my copy of W. S. Merwin's Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment in and around 1973. One I had to revise extensively. - Accompaniments: Where There Is Room - - fifth set: String of Days - 21 poems of 4 lines each for the 21 days from 27Dec82 to 16Jan83 - String of Days - - Brian A. J. Salchert
Sunday, February 18, 2007
sw00214i-calendars
Calendars February 18, 2007, is/was the first day of the Chinese New Year. If calendars interest you, and if you haven't already been there, go to http://webexhibits.org/calendars/ I read about the history of both the Chinese calendar and the calendars the Mayas used. Brian A. J. Salchert
Saturday, February 17, 2007
sw00213usabys-note
Regarding sonnet opus 1976: in 2006 as of February 17, 2007 As I am able to I am going to replace the fifteen sonnets I deleted, inserting each revised/new sonnet in the location it was deleted from. Doing this may take a long time. I may not even live long enough. - The first of these is for year-day two. There is a chance I will insert it today. - I did. There are now 352 sonnets. - - - - - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00212a-outage
Power Outage and Gusty Winds
At some time between AM 3:17 and 4:10 a power outage, which may have been caused by the gusty winds lashing through Springfield, occurred. At AM 4:10 I was awakened by noises from my computer system. I extricated myself by tossing the comforter over me toward my feet. Then I slipped from my bed and into my sandals. I had some trouble keeping my balance, but I unplugged and turned off my system's surge protector, stumbled to the bathroom for a few moments, & upon returning--because the high-speed modem was still beeping--disconnected the phone jack. At AM 11:12 I felt the gusts had subsided enough. I have been online since, though there still are gusts billowing about. The power returned at AM 4:50. It is PM 1:06, and sunlight is back. What was an all-gray sky has given way to a partly cloudy sky. Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, February 16, 2007
sw00211a-summary
A Summary of Sorts
2007 047 02 3 5 Summary - In this journal, among various other pages, are three books of my poems and another (This Day's Poem) which is being written in an inspirational manner. 1976: in 2006, a work of 351 sonnets, is the first book. The second book is Rooted Sky 2007, which was originally published in November of 1972. The third book is Postures 2007, which was originally published in 1980. At the moment I am not certain which book will be the fourth, but I am leaning toward letting it be a late 1980's 18-poem chapbook entitled Teasings because in it is an unusual significant-to-me lengthy poem I feel this is a good moment for it to appear again. - 2007 048 02 3 6 Update: There now are 352 sonnets in 1976: in 2006. Whether there will ever be more I cannot say, but my intention is to fill all the gaps. I am not concerned about when the revised or new sonnets are written. 1976 was a work of 366 sonnets, and I want the current version to also contain 366 sonnets. - - - - - [ Other than the automated number each entry is given, I may devise my own identification system for the entries in this journal. ] Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
sw00210a-hmmm
3 Hmmm Moments -
Just downloaded and installed 17 updates. The present time is PM 11:17. Several days ago I got a $13.15 refund check. Today I paid $13.15 for a box of film for my Polaroid 600. Recently at the pharmacy I use, I needed 58 cents. I dumped out the coins in my coin purse: one quarter, three dimes, and three pennies. - - - - - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00209a-blessings
So even if there isn't any viable St. Valentine, and even if no birds mate on this winter day, if the colors about and about delighted your molecules, good. Blessings on everyone. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
sw00208a-atj
02 11 08 Some information on this page is no longer true. 04 09 07 atj = about this journal - The claim immediately below is no longer valid because the name of this journal no longer is Salchert's Weblog: It is Sprintedon Hollow. - - Brian A. J. Salchert Claims Salchert's Weblog I, Brian A. J. Salchert, hereby claim Salchert's Weblog as properly mine. I also thank AOL for the space and the technology I use to manifest my journal: Salchert's Weblog. If my doing this here seems a touch goofy, then it does. - See Technorati Profile and Directory at www.pw.org - - My email address is: thinkinglizard@aol.com - My journal's address is: http://journals.aol.com/thinkinglizard/bajs/ - When you see a 5-number string such as 2007 044 02 3 2 you are seeing my personal date for the 13-month calendar I created last year. Each month in my calendar, except for month 13, has 28 days. Today's date in the calendar in use is: 2007 02 13. My date above equals today's date. The second number in my date is the day of the year. The fourth number is the week of the month. The fifth number is the day of week. If you add 13 to 31 you get 44. If you add 2 to 14 to 28 you also get 44. Any date in my calendar which at year's end will be a number containing more digits than it presently does will have one or two zeros in front of it. That is why "044" and "02" for today. Month 13 will always have one free day which I have decided to name "Happy Day"; but, in a leap year, it will always have a second free day which I have decided to call "Love Day". I want each year and each month of each year to begin on a Monday, even though I am using numbers in place of day names. I do not think I am the first to envision this, but I want day 7 to always be Sunday. - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00207tdp-poem
This Day's Poem tdp021307 21
As the Desk Lamp Flickers All day yesterday mists of rain, and late in the day heavier rain; and this morning who he 'ou who he 'ou from before sunrise and after sunrise between the buildings: the north side of this one and the south side of that one merely a red zone away: gusts of wind modulating wave after wave after wave like a rush of demons or ghosts of the dead or the end of the known world who you who you who youuuuuu beeeee be you be you be you whoooooo heeee who he who he who he hyouuuuuuu whoooooo And I here-- knees up under half a comforter-- my back, neck, head resting against pillows four deep, listening: who you youuu weee hyewww-ew-'ou hwitcha-ah-ahhhhhh: deciding then to get up again, squinting at the 7:30 in the glare from my cell widget: whooooooooo hewwwwwwwwww hewwwwwwwwww hew-ee-ew you it you it you it youuuuuuu
- - - - - Brian A. J. Salchert
Monday, February 12, 2007
sw00206p-overview
Postures 2007 - Overview 2007 043 02 3 1 All 57 of the poems which are presently in Postures 2007 are now up. They are a strange lot. Yet among them are 2 sestinas and 2 odes. Yes, there are sonnets; but there is also an edgy ballad and a sly selection spoken by an animal housed in a museum. That piece has three-line stanzas in which the final words in each line in a given stanza rhyme. Oh, there are, of course, numerous free verse poems. Also, there is one villanelle, and several short pieces which are for children; but the only way the volume coheres is in the variety of stances which can be found in it. Even each of the poems about death has its own posture. [ 2008-06-12 belated note: For familial reasons, a poem I found among my papers was added as #23 of Side 1. This book now has 58 poems. ] - - - - - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00205p-poem35s2
Postures 2007: #35 from Side Two "Francis Grey Owl, Walking" Tumbleweed, skeleton of earth, what warriors dance in the airy circlings of your bones? what squaws & maidens cry? - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00204p-poem34s2
Postures 2007: #34 from Side Two "Epiphanies" [ "Epiphanies" is a poem based on a true story told to me by a high school bow-and-arrow deer hunter in 1973. It is an attempt by me to vicariously experience his experience. ] Dreaming the blood of deer as the sun dies redder & redder, I kneel with the wind in the corn, set my bow, listen. The leaves barely whisper, my spine knots from the cold; the spaces before me grow small. Crackles! A doe! Her fawn. Fingers, eyes/ tighten; the deer sink in the stalks. What sun I inhaled turns shadow. Then, just to my side, a buck! in this Indian day's last light; & I see him gutted & hanging, his wildness beguiling my tongue, but can only look/ wonder, caught where I can't let go. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert