sw00794piks-spring.trees.2007

For a closer look, click photo.

          My mood today, as it often is, is a shade of grey,
          and though Spring is over a month distant, seeing
          this helps to invigorate me.  These trees proclaim
          the beauty of inner strength, for they survived a
          treacherous ice storm in January of 2007.

                                           Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00793olp-Jeremy.Prynne

   Last week a post on John Latta's blog introduced me to J. H. Prynne,
a somewhat hermetic British poet who nonetheless over the years--
in 2005 a third edition of his Poems was published--has gained a
substantial following, especially among post postmoderns in the U. S.
and among people in China (where 50,000+ copies of one of his books
were sold / and also because he has written poems in classical Chinese
under the pen name of Pu Ling-en).  [ Search  Jeremy Prynne ]  Latta's
post also led me to Simon DeDeo's 2005 blog post, and to other sites
where there were poems by him and reviews and essays about his work.
-
-
go to John Latta's Monday January 28, 2008 post
-
Simon DeDeo on Jeremy Prynne
-
J. H. Prynne at Wikipedia
-
Postmodernist Poets by John Holcombe
-
in Jacket Magazine:
                                    at      
http://jacketmagazine.com/07/prynne-jk-rm.html 
   Rod Mengham and John Kinsella
   "An Introduction to the Poetry of J. H. Prynne"
-
also       at
http://jacketmagazine.com/20/pt-chinese.html  
   J. H. Prynne and Chinese poets
-
a review of Prynne's Poems by Devin Johnston
-
Robert Potts on Jeremy Prynne: "Through the oval window"
-
-

[ 02-04-2008 note:  What I have linked to or pointed to above/ I
                            have read.  Each is educative and fascinating;
but, possibly due to my aesthetic openness, I remain ambivalent.
However, there are some more-settled thoughts from others.  Two
of those:  In an interview by Gopal Balakrishnan, Joshua Clover
centers on "totality"; in an essay in issue #1 of his new e-zine,
Simon DeDeo centers on "anarchy". ] 





-
Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00792st93-before.during.redesigns

   Five to eight times this year I have gone through the entries in this journal:
redesigning, correcting errors, and/or double-checking.  Daily life needs and
sanity diversions often interrupted those runs.  On one run I deleted my name
from most entries.  Then, within three hours after posting an entry which did
not reveal my name/ someone went to my archives, took a picture of it, and
shared it with a large site as though that someone had written it.  Somewhat
reluctantly/ I put my name on that entry.  A day later (best I could tell through
a Google search) that large site had either hidden or removed it.  Honestly,
what I posted wasn't to my mind all that special; but I would not care if some
other person or persons used it as the base for something better.  The main
point here is that: in putting my name back on my entries, I was led to make
other design changes.  Wherever I saw entry-specific redundancies, I deleted
what was redundant.  Example:  If in an entry's subject "poem15" appeared,
and in that entry's body "poem 15" appeared, I removed the "poem 15" in its
body because the subject matter is always boldly transferred to the top of 
that entry's body it relates to.  Another such concerns the name I have given
my journal (blog).  That name shows in archives; besides, I have concluded
it is just an added distraction; and, what if I one day decide to change this
journal's name.  That is not likely to happen, but having to remove the old
name from who-knows-how-many entries// would not be a pleasure.  What
is most important are the subject and the body text pertaining to the subject.
So, to the bottom of an entry go those journal-related bits of info I consider
useful: the link to the homepage, my name, the AOL-provided entry number.
Of course, these bits are not/ absolutes.
-
Have been thinking about it over lunch: am going on an entry-#-removal
tour/ because my rationale for posting them/ has lost what little validity it 
originally had.  That is why the crust of snow we got Thursday is melting.
.
10:49 PM - Unless I missed one (or more), my tour concluded at 10:48.
Actually did not expect to get done today.  Will need to go back and 
check links, a task which will take a long while.  There are also some 
other not-quite-right situations.




-
Brian A. J. Salchert     

sw00791st92-latest.redesign

   Last night I began another major redesign of this journal (blog).
This page will serve as an example of what I am doing, but here
are some details.  The number which had been in the upper left
corner/ will now be in the lower right corner.  That number aids
me in that it is the necessary Entry number AOL assigns to each
entry (post).  Every URI/URL in this environment--as I made note
of months ago--has a specific structure which must be adhered to.
The last partition of that structure contains the Entry number for the
URI/URL it pertains to.  The second last partition is for the subject
information.  It is the only place where changes can easily be made.
The words "Sprintedon Hollow" will only appear where needed.
The link to the homepage is being moved from its top right location
to the bottom center location.  Entry-specific information will now
be given immediate visibility.  Example: when an entry deals with
more than two topics, each topic will be revealed on that entry's
first body-text line unless in the subject space I have provided a  
general identity for its topics.  My "piks" entries are designed less
strictly.  What gets shown depends on the body text presented.
Still, somewhere on each photo entry the number for that entry
will be shown.  On occasion a photo or a scanned object will be on
a non-piks entry.   



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                     

sw00790v-37.poem35

Venturings
                    [ the following is an exhortation, but always use your best judgment ]


 Remember This


Unless one makes the most of each moment,
opportunities, experiences, one later/ wishes and wishes
one had had, will be lost in the bin of could-have-been;
and that person who/ lived a life parallel to yours/
but not as yours/ will have had the joys you let pass.

Stand.  Be bold those times when not being bold
does nothing more than confirm your impotence.
What use is a silence that engenders nothing.
Better an act, a voice, that engenders nothing
since from the latter/ empowerings might rise.

Often, often, an opportunity once only/ comes,
and you must not only be there for it, but
recognize it for what it is, and seize upon it.
There is no accounting for those signal mysteries
that occur/ as lightning occurs, but occur as blessings,

watch-God-moments, gifts from the universe;
yet I have witnessed them time after time,
and have many times/ said yes to them, and
too many other times/ said no.  Right into winter,
if positioned to, dandelions bloom.  Likewise rise.


                                                                    01-25/26-2008



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00789st91-food.gardens

   My father grew up on a small farm at the edge of the town
I, years later, was born in.  By that time, with help from some
of his friends, he'd built a brick house on two lots he'd bought.
It was a corner location less than a right-angled mile--along
the sidewalks--from the place where he was raised.  Behind
his house he planted a garden, and from him I learned (among
numerous other practical skills) how to construct a garden.
   Our garden, an Eden for us, seemed endlessly edible.  At
the back were raspberry bushes in front of which were rows
of strawberries.  Potatoes, tomatoes, string beans, heads of
lettuce and cabbage, and peas, carrots, beets, celery and/ 
even asparagus: all were there. 
   Why am I revealing this and revelling in it?  Two poet sites
I visit.  This nation, and much of this planet, is too dependent
on oil, a commodity which may have already peaked.  Some
are now saying oil is on its way to $200 a barrel for us, and
capitalism--as we know it--is ashing itself in the face of it.
Certain nations are already paying considerably more for a
barrel than $200.  Since so many of us live in cities where
we do not have enough space for decent food gardens, my
suggestion is: co-op gardens.  Cities, counties, and states
should set aside land for them.  If a commodity upon which
so much depends consistently rises in price, all those goods
which depend on it will consistently rise in price.  Getting
beyond the need for oil appears to be the only happy-ending
alternative.  Our dependence upon fossil fuels is the main
reason why this planet of conscious intelligent beings remains,
in Michio Kaku terms, a Type 0 civilization.  Civilizations which
are Type 0 and--for whatever reasons--cannot pass to being
Type 1 civilizations/ are candidates for extinction. 
   Those of you out there who have food gardens appreciate
the beauty of them.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                                

sw00788v-36.poem34

Venturings
                    [ The following may be a poem prose piece. ]


 Dead in Time


Emptiness surrounds my heart.
Emptiness pervades my mind.
It's as if/ I've passed beyond.
I feel as though I've ten times said
all I care to say.  Count me out.
For even though I intend to
ramble on, it will be about nothing.

Several mornings ago/ under/ a clear sky
frost clung in the grass, and on the roof
of the building directly north/ sparkled
as if studded with white gems.  A passing
passenger jet/ left only a/ brief trail.
A lone icicle/ from that building's eaves trough stretched.
This morning/ the sturdy bush's cardinal/ twice sang.

Recently I read/ every choice a human makes
is of no consequence because every human life
is of no consequence.  Emptiness, and not 
that kind some proclaim one ought to seek,
haunts and haunts and haunts and haunts;
for even though I cannot prove/ certain choices
I have made/ markedly trashed my life, I feel they did.

Therefore every move I make is just that:
a move I make.  My left thumb fiddling with
the telephone cord.  My right hand/ holding the pen
that scratches upon the legal pad/ these
nothing words.  Follow me?  What for?
Do morbid ghosts intrigue you?  My self-
hatred ought to end me, but it won't.  Change:

Time and circumstances I know not of
are what will end me.  Until then I,
by the force of my desires, will measure on.
No dark night, no vacancy, will sunder me.
Whate'er my errant choices, I/ will press ahead,
adrift in the nothings I have spun.  Accept,
accept, accept, accept, this leftover shall.

Peanut butter, a heaping/ tablespoon of,
I just had/ with a Calcium / K / D pill.
Earlier today, while flossing, part of/ another tooth
may have broken off.  Looking at the two pieces
placed on a section of toilet tissue, I could not tell.
Squeezing them, I could not tell.  Perhaps they were part
of an old filling, or a nut.  The tooth is too far back to inspect.


                                                                                    01-24-2008



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                              

sw00787st90-who.love.lyrics

Who Love


[ On Saturday, 12 January, I went to bed early (10:30).  Around 2 AM
I woke up.  An unfamiliar melody was coursing through my brain.  Alas,
I do not know how to write music or play an instrument.  My voice is a
weak voice, barely fit for speaking much less singing.  I sang the melody
to myself six or more times.  Then words began to appear.  Neither the
melody nor the words are anything special; so I will explain how I think
the melody goes for the words as they now are.  Note: the one who is
singing the words in this song and the one to whom the words are being
sung are fictional.  It is even possible no one is singing or being sung to. ]  
-
The words:

Oh love, there must be love,
there must be     love love love love,
there must be love.
Oh love, there must be love,
there must be     love love love love,
there must be love.

     See how the birds are free,
     how the trees can be,
     how the seas are we.
     See how the birds are free,
     how the trees can be,
     how the seas are we

Who love.  There must be love,
there must be     love love love love,
there must be love.
Oh love, there must be love,
there must be     love love love love,
there must be love.

     See how the birds are free,
     how the trees can be,
     how the seas are we.
     See how the birds are free,
     how the trees can be,
     how the seas are we

Who love.  There must be love,
there must be     love love love love,
there must be love.
Oh love, there must be love,
there must be     love love love love,
there must be love.

       There must be love.

              There must be love.

-

The melody:

Have been trying to learn a little about how music is written, and from
what I have so far learned, it might be best to assume this song is in the
key of C major.
-
The at-the-margin lines and the last two lines might be bass.
The indented lines are definitely treble.
Every word is a single syllable and a single note.
My sense of this song is that it is supposed to be bland.
-
I'm guessing here, but I think the   Oh love   and   Who love   are whole notes
  with the whole notes for   Oh   and   Who   one note higher
and the   there must be love   words are half notes  (all the same note)  
  Also/ it seems the   be   in the Who love lines is a higher note
-
the   there must be   words are eighth notes  (all the same note)
  followed by a half note or longer pause
the   love love love love   are quarter notes  (all the same note)
  but seem to be one note lower than the eighth-note words
-
See   is the highest note, but   See   and   how   in the 1st line 
  are half-note words
and all the other indented words are quarter-note words
-
The final two lines are  shown are they are  because it feels to me
  there should be at least a two quarter-beat pause
  before and after the second-last line.

                                     


Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00786st89-notices

    Through my window/ may be discontinued, or be weekly or monthly
or only occasionally; or become something different such as a series of
poems.

Topics in general 
- 
1) This Sprintedon Hollow journal 
2) Poetics and/or other poets 
3) Non-literary realms 
4) Autobio vignettes

RTJ (Regarding This Journal) group  -  Most of the 18 RTJ entries
were indentified by posting-date in their subject space.  Today I
replaced those dates with content-revealing words.  For one the
words are: why.aol. 

st entries  -  Just finished adding the place-in-series number after
each st in its subject space for the 2007 st entries/ and removing
the st# information in the body of each 2007 st.  Earlier I took out
the dates in the January 2008 st entries and put somewhat vague
but understandable information in.  After today I will be limiting, if
I can, a given st to one topic/ so that I can show that topic in the
subject space.

Surveys  -  Surveys annoy me.  Too many confusing questions
with allowed answers that exclude the answers I would give. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                               

sw00785st88-update.report

   Not totally finished, but all the major updates have been completed
and I've begun working on second-level updates.  Have opted to let
users know where to find certain entries in the archives, and reduce
the number of internal links.  Am also adding "whatz-there" info to st
entries, and I may yet have to provide links in the new st directory.
As you can see, I've kept the st #, but I'm in a quandary about it.  If
I decide in favor of the #, I will add a # to each of the older entries
in the st group.  If not, I will remove the numbers from January's st
entries.  Want to make this blog friendlier.  So, unless somebody
persuades me otherwise, tags and bold copyright notices on every
entry are history.  More descriptive Subject codes and what is at the
bottom of this page are the new norm.  It is 9:36 PM and I still am
seeking places to improve this Sprintedon Hollow.  May test all the
available fonts.  I like Verdana, but I wish there were a size between
2 and 3, or that 3 were smaller than it is.
-
Until I learn more about fonts, I will need to stay with Verdana 2 as
the fonts available to me are Arial / Arial Black / Arial Narrow / Comic
Sans MS / Courier New / New Times Roman / Verdana.  Do not know
why but true type fonts are weaker, i. e. they are lighter on an online
page and therefore are lighter on a printout.  The one advantage they
have is that they allot an equal amount of space for each character, 
a fact which has its uses.  I do use Courier New sometimes therefore.  



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00784st87-2topics

   Copyright Information -  My project this week centers on replacing
Copyright © 2007 Brian A. J. Salchert   Thinking Lizard   All rights reserved.
(and the like) from each of this journal's entries with the statement at
the bottom of this entry.  Am presently about halfway through June 2007. 

Through my window - This apartment building is lengthwise parallel with
the apartment building about 20 yards north, but this one (although the
same size) does not extend as far west.  The weed grass yard between
the two is not level, and at this time of the year about 30% light tan.  
A walkway of spaced hexagonal blocks runs at an eastward angle from
that building to this one, connecting two plank passthroughs between
apartments in each building.  That building is on lower ground, and a
scant open culvert runs parallel to the buildings about 15 feet out from
that building.  This morning when I looked straight out a squirrel was
moving along the walkway from there to here.  That/ near/ 8:30 AM.
Then 6 mourning doves/ closer to here were pecking in the grasses
near the hex blocks.  At 10:22, while I was seated on my computer
stool, I noted dark things to my right.  I went to the window and saw
at least 50 starlings on or near the other building.  At 12:51 PM in the
sturdy bush the usual cardinal sat, and juncos flitted around.  At 1 PM
several starlings momently swooped in.  Then I got seriously into re-
doing my blog.  More about the buildings another day.  Much of today
the sky was cloudy.  It is cold, and a sprinkling of snow has remained
on the grasses.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00783stc-general.locator

              [ last modified: 2008-03-25 ]

2008-02-07 Note:  Am inserting a link to that st in a given month
                                  I conclude is of the greatest value.


Where Sprintedon Tracker (st) entries can be found:
In September of 2007 there are 5.
   poetics w/link to an essay by Richard Jackson about sound in poems
In October of 2007 there are 23.
   read the poetry-related essays linked to
In November of 2007 there are 22.
   hard words: from me, Jon Anderson, and David Bromige
In December of 2007 there are 23.
   information about Jesus at site linked to is most interesting
In January of 2008 there are 19.  
   mostly information relating to this journal
In February of 2008 there are 7.   (93 through 99)
In March of 2008 there is 1.   After that entry I retired Sprintedon Tracker.

-

Note: this entry is an stc entry, meaning it would ordinarily provide links
 to all the st entries, but since there are likely to be so many, the simple
system begun above should suffice.  Just look for entries showing "st" in
their codes.  Though it may not be in each st, a little section now called
Through my window is likely to be an st's first section.  By the way, "st"
could stand for many things, one being "Salchert's Trivia" even though
there will be times when what is in one is not trivial.  It is a journal/diary
within S H.  I've had similar ventures online in other places since 2000. 
-
This is a new year, and st has already supplanted aih (As It Happens),
and will probably supplant a (Autobio) and o (Opinions), and maybe  
the rtj (Regarding This Journal) series.  I am still learning; so I can't be
sure what routines I will settle into.  More on that in the next st.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00782st86-2topics

 Through my window - at 8:36 AM it was frosty breezy with crows cawing
near the top of a semi-distant tree / It is now 10:43 AM and frostless clear.
-
If my writing about what I see through my window, however unimportant,
must be classed as spam, someone's algorithm needs to loosen up.  This
entry is one of many in a journal within a journal, and is supposed to be
a "your thoughts / your blog" space.  God bless Thoreau. 

Site Map - Have two months left to remove site map links from: February
and June.  After they are updated, I may make some further changes.  At
2:08 PM June 2007 no longer contained links to the site map.  Long 104-
entry February is next, but am first going to make some changes in jlctr.
Other than one page I have not been to get into to edit, February's site 
map links have been removed.  It is PM 8:45.  9:12 PM - Got into that
one page, though I had to wait a long while and give it a refresh. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00781st85-2topics

Through my window - overcast with a light chilly breeze at 9:44 AM
12:40 PM - Sky is becoming mostly cloudy.  PM 3:39 - hazy clear
4:33 PM - chilly clear

Site Map - On or near 11:33 AM I finished deleting August's site
map links, but I also deleted another internal link which I'd placed
on most of that month's entries.  I then put in Homepage links.  It
wasn't until 10-09-2007 that I had a homepage.  Made changes
besides these on certain entries.  Getting through the remaining 4
months is likely to take some time since I've been working from
months with fewer entries toward those with the most entries in
2007.  5:58 PM - April of 2007 is done.  9 PM - finished May 2007.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00780st84-3topics

Site Map               Poetry               Through my window


  Site Map -  Yesterday I began another tour through this blog
to remove site map links.  It is 1:22 PM and I just completed
removing them from the 2007 October entries.  It is 6:22 PM
and March 2007 is done.  8:58 PM - November 2007 is done.
So/ Feb Apr May June Aug of 2007 remain.  Will start on them
tomorrow.

Poetry - Over the years poetics and the making of poems have been
central to me, but not consistently so.  For a period in the 1990's an
interest in mathematics became central.  Since I began this journal I
have returned to poetry, and have been trying to catch up on all the
changes.  It may be too late, but I prefer to believe it is not.  I am on
a difficult learning curve, but I have been on such curves before, not
that I successfully negotiated all of them.  The one truth in my favor
is that I am aesthetically more open than most writers.  Therefore,
I am willing to experiment with styles I would otherwise ignore.  So
I have become acquainted with some poet bloggers, and have been
reading essays and books about poetics and other poets again.  I've
also been reading reviews and participating in comment streams.  At
the moment/ it appears that some of my thoughts are regarded more
highly than any of my poems, but then I have no proof how many of
those aware of me have read even ten of my poems, which would be
easy to do.  I know from early experience, my diversity is both a plus 
and a minus.  Only several times have I read poems of mine in a public
venue.  Hard as it might be, I may need to try/ reading publically again.

           Through my window - 11:42 AM    overcast and calm



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00779v-35.poem33

Venturings

  [ Originally written in 1973, the following poem is an imaginary
conversation I had with Walt Whitman.  It begins hyperbolically
but laugh at it if you are so moved.  It appears I felt a need to 
bolster my courage. ] 



 Words for Walt


1

Walt, I am thirty-two
and am making my charge at your supremacy.

I have passed through Eliot and Roethke
and have troubled Auden,  
and have read a thousand more,
and have learned and loved them all.
They have been to me
as the phases of the moon,
the vagaries of sunlight,
the challengings of caves.

It is time again to sum things up,
for transformation.
We have turned another century,
yet much much more;
we have entered the country of Hope--
all your dreams, sweet Walt, all your dreams!
They are past and ever present
but can not be changed,
and for all you felt and yearned,
you could not feel as I can,
you could not yearn as I.
It is time again for seeing,
and today, Walt, I am ready,
and so, Walt, is today.

If in the grasses of evil and good,
you in your grey beard stand,
sensible, attractive, gathering, giving,
all the more must I,
all the more our race.

It is time for transformation
to a life we can barely dream of,
or death;
it will not come again.

If we touch the soil rightly,
and the waters, the air,
what passages, what births!
what mastery of time!


2

Oh human ageless Walt,
how much we are alike,
words hanging on words, lists, parallel constructions;
and yet how different,
your rhythms not my rhythms,
your thoughts not my thoughts:
and yet again alike,
in our hearts.

Much that I have written, Walt, is dead;
the best that I have written is but preamble.
Sleep with me.

This woods we are approaching,
let us dance and greet it.
How much we are alike!


3

'uckin' root!
Thought I'd missed it!
Lift me.
Blast it, scraped my knee.
You'd think I lost my coordination!
Now why did I--
hey, Walt,
do you think--
beetled elm!
They're dying on us, you know.
Look, maybe we should sit a while.
There.
Huh, an oriole!
Where is it?
Again.  There!
And its elms--
will we miss its swinging nest,
its bright colors and bright song,
its special grace?
Walt--hmm, that breeze feels good--
I love the touch of your rough hand.


4

Inside,
most of this day,
this fifty-degree March 12th--
student union, office, library--
inside,
writing these words.
And now I am in my apartment.
It doesn't seem right.
For neither as I would want all buildingsdown,
should I want them foolishly lived in.
And I have done so.
Today, I think, I have done so.
The sun scattered its pleasures for my skin
and I ignored them--
the poet and his paper and his pen;
vain beyond the moment's need,
I stayed inside.

Is it no wonder I
wonder,
am surprised
at myself,
am a joker
full of sour puns.

Somewhere, on the proud stem of a rose,
sucking aphids rock;
somewhere, on the walkway to a mansion,
gray and yellow snow.

Inside--
the habits that block awareness,
the truths one tries to forget,
the images that enlighten.


5

And now I hear you asking me,
"What are you doing, young man?"
And again,
"What do you seek so pensive and silent?
What do you need, camerado?
Dear son, do you think it is love?
Listen, dear son. . . ."

And so I do:
to the early robin honoring his love and possessing his land,
to the thawing grass as it struggles back to green,
to the teenage girls giggling,
to the teenage boys yelling,
their leather oxfords rapidly beating the sidewalk,
to the hummings of cars and the grumbles of buses and trucks,
to the ticking ticking ticking of my wife's white plastic clock,
to the whispered ticks of my too-fast Timex watch.

But, nothing.
Yes, yes, it is love:
a falling away from one, or so it sometimes seems,
and a possible falling,
   unevenly, into another,
but always behind my primary love--what I am doing here, the love I have for
   words.

That, Walt, is why, at this uncanny juncture,
my body and my spirit speak to
   you.


6

An end.
I have come too close.

The clouds ride high, and thin, through the leaves;
where the sun has rested long, the air shimmers.
Sometimes, a butterfly passes;
sometimes, a bee;
sometimes--there's a--I--

oh hell, I am just . . . tired, pale tired.
Here it is, 1973, and people's thoughts
still haven't opened enough, haven't
   cleared enough.

So many of us
(though few by comparison), so many of us
must hide,
for fear of losing our jobs,
for fear of losing respect,
for fear of losing
our lives.

An end:
in the flowers at my feet,
in the stones of buildings,
in rivers of every description,
in the turning of every wheel,
from the mouth:
an end.

If I have gone too far,
I have gone too far,
I will go
farther
still.

It can not be helped.
The deaths I have suffered,
the deaths so many yet suffer--

John, Bill, Anne. . . .

oh the warped communications of loved ones,
the black ideas that have warped love,
have provided answers where answers can not yet be had.
An end.


7

A beginning:
a movement toward self, toward community,
where every man and woman can walk as is,
possessed of a sensibility the equal of light, the power and softness of light.


8

The oriole?
It is night, night, without
orange.


9

Settle.
The sounds of the woods invite us,
but we must not move,
not even toward
each other,
especially not toward
each other;
we must keep our energies pure;
the time is not yet right
to mingle them.
I leave you.

Star above me,
constantly changing,
in color, in brightness, in position, in strength,
probably dead,
a black space
or a great dark cloud,
what moments of what eon
of your boiling spirit
hold me?
What warmth,
what variousness,
traveled
their thousands of years
through static cold?
who else
this new moon night
enjoys you?
who else considers
the ultimate trip
of riding the conquering edge
of your revelation?
encourages you
to make a wish
on him?

Starlight,
imperceptibly present
on my palm,
ghost,
welcome.
What you tell me,
I rejoice in;
what you keep from me,
I rejoice in,
Where there is mystery,
there is wonder--
starlight,
I have just stepped back from myself,
and see me here,
sitting,
babbling like a fool,
and realize
I am often like this.
Foolishness
is such a pleasant vice:
games
for one,
fantasies;
renewed
through them,
I am given
depth,
am given
breadth.
The breeze 
awakens again;
and an oak leaf
becomes
a fluttering eyelid,
and you

what I do not want,
the eye
of a come-on girl.
What you tell me,
I lament;
what you keep from me,
I lament as well.


10

Midnight, and after, and after.
Knowing, and not knowing.
Waiting.

Sleep.  Dreams.

With the rubbing of my hands,
the orange sky and the orange
leaves separate,
the waves on Mystic Lake blossom and cry;
I touch
the nearest tree.


11

Snow.  Sleet.
All day, all day,
snow, sleet.

I had lived inside my cocoon, my cottage,
for nineteen years,
but now no longer.

The birds about are hardy ones.

In the streets of my self
I dance,
in the streets of others
I dance;
in the streets of others
I buckle
in
regret.

Seasons next to seasons,
poeple next to people,
gods next to gods,
I mix with what I am.

If you, Walt, blessed this earth,
I will bless it again.


=

3-19-73
Brian Salchert


     [ Since that date some minor revisions of "Words for Walt"
        have been made.
        It was originally published on the 2 center pages of the 
        May/June 1973 issue of Milwaukee's GPU News. ]



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00778st83-4topics

     Through my window     Health     Tech Note     Site Map


  Through my window - partly cloudy with rapidly eastward-moving
cirrus and jet stream clouds / the apartment buildings' rooftops are
lightly frosted.  (9:33 AM)   |   10:44 AM  -  The sky is clearing,
the frost is gone, the air is calm. 

Health - an article of interest coutesy of Men's Health is available
at   body.aol.com/health/cures-uncommon   If you choose to read
a section of this article, read it fully and carefully.

Tech Note - thanks to a suggestion from an AOL Live Help 
technician yesterday, I, after a lot of assurance checking, discovered
that indeed my security had blocked (for my protection) a program
I had recently downloaded and installed, a program AOL Journals
uses, especially for those of us who construct HTML entries.  So
I unblocked it.  What a markèd difference!

Site Map - Have begun removing Journal Links Center (site map) links
from all regular entries, leaving only a link to this journal's Homepage.
For a long while I did not have a homepage, but now that I do and it
is to me this journal's most important page, and there is a link to the
site map on it, there no longer is a need to have a site map link on a
regular page (entry).  Have so far removed the one's I found in the
2006 entries, and have begun removing those in January of 2007.
5 PM is near, and I need to take a break.  PM 7:31 - January's done.
PM 8:31 - December 2007 was mostly okay.  Made a few changes.
PM 8:55 - September 2007 has only 15 entries.  Besides the site map
links, I deleted two other links.  PM 10:13 - Got through July's 23.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00777v-34.poem32

Venturings



 End Around


Endevion dockittour
meteor ambit

erst effluvia
embryo san


so it was
where they were

when they were
where it was


escrewviiay hahbramahsh
ideo krahn

the invalid crash
the dollar-sign gong




-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00776st82-2topics

 Through my window - somewhat cloudy with a slight breeze at 10:07 AM
A weather report indicates strengthening winds and a chance of light rain.
Temperatures are in the mid to upper forties.  During the next five nights
they will be below freezing.  5:33 PM - Closed the drapes.  The grass is
wet.  Much of this day has been all clouds and little sun.

This Blog - I do not like belaboring the facts about Sprintedon Hollow,
but I want them to be understood: 
   1.  Nothing in this journal is for sale, but neither am I giving it away.
        Therefore, whatever you take from and/or do with an entry or
        entries here, reveal it or them (e.g., sw00776st82-10jan08) and
        sufficient copyright information (e.g., © 2008 Brian A. J. Salchert).
        Obviously, if you link to one of my entries, that entry's subject
        and copyright information will show.
   2.  Though the ultimate value of my thinking and imagining as they
        are manifested in this journal is not for me to say because it is
        not possible for me to be impartial, I do have a sense of that
        value.  Still, this sense of mine must ever be overshadowed by
        the judgments of others.  Whether something I have crafted is
        framed and hung on a wall or made a part of another creative
        work, or whether it is praised or ridiculed or ignored, until it is
        no more, it potentially has a use.
   3.  This blog's subject designations are not conventional; neither
        are they secret codes.  If you go to the All About Me sidebar
        section, you will see links to the Homepage, the Journal Links
        Center, and the Journal Codes Center.  Those three places, in 
        the order given here, are Sprintedon Hollow's most important.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                     

sw00775st81-4topics

Sidebar Notes     Internal Links     External Links     Through my window


    Sidebar Notes - This AOL/AIM journal's sidebar has four sections:
All About Me, Recent Entries, Other Journals, Favorite Sites.  The
information in the first was once more extensive, but I have moved
it to S H entries.  Although the most recent 10 entries are kept out
of archive space, and so can be scrolled to, AOL/AIM does provide
hyperlinks to them in the second Sidebar section.  Apparently a 50-
hyperlink maximum is allowed in each of the remaining two sections.
What is in mine is not stable.  That is, I do delete & replace.  Those
in the first of these are nearly all poetry blogs.  Those in the second
zip mostly to general sites, one of which is a help site for/ any who
use HTML and need to know the ASCII code for characters such
as the section sign (§).

Internal Links - Moments ago 53 of these were removed from the
links page for my 1976: in 2006 sonnet opus, and replaced by an
archive note.  3:57 PM

External Links - It wasn't until near the end of May that I began
in earnest to link to other sites, but most of them pertained to the
topic of my post (entry).  In all cases, as I've already said, I felt
that what I found there was worth reading, and therefore worth
sharing.  But sharing with whom?  From what I've been able to
determine so far, most of those who have encountered my blog
are not the kinds of visitors this blog is meant for.  So there are
a few who come here whose visits please me, and I do not see
a day when there will be more than a few.  That is okay.  This
is a blog of one person's ongoing, one person's investigations,
one person's thoughts, one person's creations.  Loneliness is
my milieu.  Reclusiveness is my penchant.  I take online trips
from here in order to learn and bring some joy into my life.  In
this blog are numerous autobiographical posts.  Do not assume
something about me from a few posts.  I am quite diverse.  If
I am such a hermit, I hear you ask, why am I revealing myself
as I am?  My answer is:  Whether or not what I reveal has a
value beyond my passage, I believe every human passage has
value.  Love me or hate me, what is here and will yet be here
is a partial record of who I am.  Because I'm a writer I, yes,
someways/ promote myself.  There are very few writers who
do not.  Writers also/ promote other writers, other creators.
The promoting I do is next to nothing compared to what some
others do.  Long ago I became dissatisfied with publishing in
the traditional way.  The Internet, for all its limitations, affords
me the freedom to follow my muses.  I am Brian A. J. Salchert,
and Sprintedon Hollow is not/ a fake blog.

Through my window - Generally hazy and calm with rising
temperatures, but at AM 8:17 frost still covers the grasses
of this complex's yards.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00774st80-5topics

Weather       Technorati tags       Links       Comments       Entries


   Weather - From about 5 PM yesterday until about 5 AM today/
the weather in southwest Missouri was dangerous.  Strong winds,
lightning, thunder.  There were numerous tornado warnings.  The
electricity here was briefly cut around a dozen times before and
after 3 AM.  As it nears 9:30, Springfield's temperature is 51.  It
is likely--since it will be getting colder--that later/ Kansas's snow
will enter Missouri.  Near 3:30 PM these apartments lost power.
It was fixed and back on at 4.  The weather report I go to says
there's a 30% chance of rain.  The temperature is 37 F. 

Technorati tags - Haven't double-checked all of this journal's
entries, but hopefully no entry has any Technorati tags.  Never
did learn how to use them properly, and at this time see no
reason (so far as this quiet blog is concerned) to use them.
I am not selling anything.

Links - I have already reverted to using fewer links, and may
revert further.  S H is essentially a poetry blog, and there are
nearly fifty poetry blogs I visit, several of them frequently; and  
I visit various poetry-related organizations.  I welcome visitors, 
but long ago ditched this journal's visitor counter.  Most links
in this journal relate to this journal.  No one is forced to click
on them.  They are for the convenience of visitors.  When I've
linked to other places, I have done so because what I found
there seemed worth reading.  If my poems and prose do not
seem to you worth reading, so be it.  My First Verses are/
just that.  I did not place them up for their value, but simply 
to add perspective.  Everyone starts somewhere, whatever
the endeavor.  I was 12 (maybe 11) when I wrote the Milky
Way verse.  At the time I thought I wanted to be an astro-
physicist.  That's why a link to astropix.html is in the sidebar
section: Favorite Sites.   

Comments - There are so few comments in this blog/ I may
turn off the comments option.  I know of two poetry blogs
I visit regularly which do not allow comments.

Entries - Just went to the 2006 ones to edit out information 
which is no longer relevant, and to make sure/ tags were gone. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00773st79-tags.removal

     8:25 AM - Have 3 months of Technorati tags to remove yet:
February, May, and June of 2007.  Will also be updating when I
am informed or/ I may try to see if I can do so now.  Not ready.
Hope they are before the expected storms arrive.  May's are gone.
10:55 - June's are gone.  1:31 PM - Amid 6 or so slow-to-respond
entries, I finally got through erasing the tags in February's 104.  If I
did not error along the way, my journal is devoid of Technorati tags. 
Really, I do not need them.  From this journal's site map, all but two
or three entries/ can be found.  The Sprintedon Tracker entries are
not presently listed on a central page, and probably will not ever be;
but they are numbered sequentially (variously), and I may add topic
information on each one.  May even change the URLs of last year's
st's to match how I am doing them this year.  



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00772st78-4topics

  scanning problems       photo files       MS updates       Technorati tags


   What a day!  Woke up after 7/ not feeling well.  Apparently my computer
wasn't feeling well either, and when it did get back to operating as it should/
I discovered changes in the Programs section of my security software.  I
started to make a few alterations, but then undid them, and ran a scan.  It 
went well but threw over 400 alerts at me.  The most interesting-to-me of
those alerts was one which had to do with 4 files I had mistakenly placed
into AOL 9.0 Security's folder last year.  I had tried to find that folder but
couldn't.  So, since alerts came up when a scan encountered those files, I
paid closer attention during today's scan.  After the scan, I went to that
folder and sent those files to the Recycle Bin.
-
Have been learning tech things so rapidly I am not even sure what it is I
am learning.  Dealing with photos, both offline and online was the 2-to-3-
hour venture next up.  The first photo I placed in my journal I mistakenly
chose the animation option for, but I let it be.  Yesterday, it died.  I did
not know what to do.  Also, yesterday I placed a clouds photo up as a
large photo.  It was fine, but not in archives space.  Today I edited out
the codes for each of those, putting the first one up as an image, and the
second one up as size medium image.  Did some messing around with the 
related cloud file offline, and while I did learn some things about how to use
Paint, I should not have done anything with that file.

2 PM - Found out yesterday from a message from one of ZA's guru guys/ 
that Microsoft will be making several important update patches available
this Tuesday.

5:04 PM - Am seriously considering eliminating all my Technorati tags.  The tags
in January 2008 and October 2007 are gone.  Those in July and September of 
2007, and the Decembers of 2007 and 2006 are gone.  Those in the Novembers 
of 2006 and 2007, and March of 2007 are gone.  9 PM - Won't finish tonight
but am going to remove some more.  Why?  Because Technorati cares naught
for me; so why should I pretend it does.  Also, after what I read about tags at
one site and after what I read about, seemingly, a few tags of mine in the notes
Google provided from another site I could have gone to, I decided   now is the
time.  Those in August, January, and April of 2007 are gone.  It is 11:26 PM. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00771piks-dispensers

sw00770piks-sturdybush

Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00769piks-yard

Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00768piks-clouds

Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00767st77-2topics

    through my window                    Roman Catholic


   10:55 AM - Sunlight's breaking through the clouds.  Days here
are getting warmer.  Monday we may get storms.  Heard a crow
caw caw caw.  Breezes are strengthening, so sayeth the pines.

Might attend a Mass service this afternoon at the nearest Roman
Catholic church.  Has been over 5 years since last I did.  That was
in Gainesville, Florida.  If I do, it will be for exploratory reasons,
though there is some pull to return to being what is known as a
practicing Catholic.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00766a-one.scifi1976sonnet

[ Note 1:  Below is a sonnet I wrote in 1976.
                I am one-quarter British, and I now  
                think it best/ to read it deliberately
                with an upper-crust British accent
                in a heavily-whispered supercilious tone. ]

[ Note 2:  Why?  Andromeda is a galaxy which is
                in time/ expected to devour our Milky Way
                galaxy, and "Starships to Andromeda" depicts
                Earthlings as an evil Borg-like super-race.  As
                such, its final two lines are its most difficult;
                and, if enunciated properly, its most acrid. ]

[ Note 3:  I copied and pasted it from sw00036usabys,
                which is from my 1976: in 2006; and can be
                found in the archives in November of 2006. ]

[ Note 4:  On this Saturday, August 2, 2008,
                I changed the title of my sonnet opus
                to 1976 Today. ] 




March: Year-day 74

Starships to Andromeda.  Warps of time.
Wherever there is emptiness, we fill
and fill.  Even black holes will learn the chill
of our intrusions.  Creatures/ so sublime,
we suck a planet dead with such deft tongues,
swarming through its airs, it's hardly awake
by the hour we've swallowed enough to slake
the top of our thirst, collapsing its lungs.

"Bless us" we ask an eternalized God
to bolster our mad insecurity,
the fuel of our power, the reason no
sensible reason is needed to prod
our devastations of this deep orbed sea,
this Eden of the fish of fiery snow.




-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00765st76-2topics

          nature                              computer technology


   From what I read somewhere, the juncos that winter here in
Springfield, Missouri, are slant-eyed juncos.  Could be.  Flocks
of them continue to flit about, flaunting the white shafts on their
tails.  They seem to like using the bush I call Sturdy Bush as a 
place to sit while they look about.  Sturdy is back to being an
empty thing, its many wands curving tall-man up, laddered with
twigs for bird blossoms such as the lone cardinal one.

Got an answer to one of my questions at the ZoneAlarm forum.
Also, my AOL/AIM OpenID comment was allowed by the admin- 
istrator of the blog I entered it at.  Glad I put my first name and
the first letter of my surname in the text/ because the ID on
my comment is my screenname.  Google asserts using OpenID
will end spoofing.  There's a YouTube video I want to post.
Know a little about how to.  Guess I'll just have to ready a page,
sign in at YT, locate that video, paste its code, and attempt to
copy it on the page waiting for it.  On the WWW/Internet there
is just no end to learning for those who are willing to learn.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00764st75-3topics

  jet exhaust clouds       The Undulant Trees       AOL/AIM OpenID


   Busy day yesterday, both on this computer and out in Springfield.
Most of my online time was spent reading and watching.  Still trying
to figure out how to deal with several software programs.  May try
to learn about making and posting videos.  Do have some photos of 
clouds I intend to share.  Today the sky is clear// and all the clouds
are jet exhaust ones.  Took 4 photos of them through my bedroom
window.  Each of two of those caught a jet.  Won't know for some
while how they turned out.

Went to archives to count what's in The Undulant Trees, a not yet
complete book/ of mostly poems only incidentally about trees.  In
34 entries are 88 objects: 1 ditty, 5 muttobs, and 82 poems.  How
many objects this book will contain when I sense it is complete is--
to me at least--an unknown.  Given the variousness of what I am/
putting in it, its title is more metaphorical than descriptive.

9:15 PM - May have made my first AOL/AIM OpenID comment.
Encountered the blog which is using Open ID last night.  Tried to
make a comment as I usually do, using my Blogger account.  Did
not seem to work, though the blog owner could have decided he
did not want to allow it.  Spent many minutes learning about yo
Open ID, but never was quite able to understand it.  That is why
I went to give it another try.  The process is fairly simple, but
is more involved than the usual method.  Anyway, the message
stating that "your comment has been saved" did show tonight. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00763st74-this.journal

   Since Sprintedon Tracker (st)--the ongoing interior journal
in Sprintedon Hollow--often addresses more than one topic,
the subject format will be as it is here today.  The "sw" once
meant Salchert's Weblog (the original name for this journal),
but it now refers to the first and final letters in its new name.
The "00763" indicates this entry is the 763rd in this journal.
The "st74" indicates this is the 74th Sprintedon Tracker entry.
As to topics, I am undecided, but two ideas I'm considering
are:  1) having section topics (e.g. Weather)
       2) using topic tags (e.g. Weather)

Thinking Lizard is the name of my viable but dormant publishing
company.  It had been the center of my copyright line.  The word
"Copyright" I deleted a while back.  Am heading toward having
no copyright information on individual entries, but keeping what I
have in my All About Me section.  I know I do not need to show
any copyright information, but I probably won't get to that stage.

The one constant in Sprintedon Hollow is change.  In that it is a
microcosm of nature in general.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00762a-pdm.count3

  Before I begin this poems, ditties, muttobs count:
I have added 24 of my earliest verses (poems) to
the other poems in the autobiography (a) section;
and as there are now enough for e-chap status, I
am ending that project and naming it Autobio Poems.
This links to the main Autobio entry.  Yesterday when
I did a quick count, I found 11 in August, 11 in September, 
7 in October, 52 in November, and 13 in December.  Am
fairly certain this is accurate, but will be checking another
way today to be sure.  Miscounted.  December has 16.
Therefore, 97 (not 94) is correct.  So, 771 + 97 = 868 
pdm's from 03nov2006 through 31dec2007.  The others
are: 1 in Postures 2007, 6 in Seminary, 18 in Venturings,
and 48 in The Undulant Trees.  Zip over to the site map
(the Journal Links Center) for informative connections,
or browse through the Archives for hazy connections.

[ 2007-01-17 Note:  771 should be 768; so 868 should be 865 ]



Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00761st73-tagging

    For the moment/ things remain normal at S H.  Tomorrow
will be an end-of-the-year pdm-count day.  From the site map
originally known as Journal Links Center, there are major links
through which nearly every entry in this blog can be accessed.
The one exception being the Sprintedon Tracker series.  Since
this series is likely to be the permanent ongoing journal within
this journal, I have given each entry its own simple a/n code, 
but that is all.  -  5:17 PM  Changed st73 to 30dec2007st73
Brian and his crazy codes.  On 09sep2007, st1 was posted.
-
Added date/st# tags in all the Sprintedon Tracker entries.
-
Honestly, tagging confuses me.  Some bloggers use tag clouds,
some don't use any tags; some use simple tags.  My use of 
alpha/numeric tags and subjects might be daft, but the Google
robots care not.

Just did a quick count of poems posted since July 31:  94
If that count is correct, the number of my poems, ditties,
and muttobs in this journal through tomorrow will be 865.  



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00760st72-tech.forums

  I have long had an aversion to forum sites,
but the important experiences I have had
at two technology forums this week changed
my opinion about them.  Thought is needed
to use them effectively, but the best forums
reward such care.

It is after 5 PM, and though the sky is clear,
Earth's spin is deepening darkness.  The sun
sinks somewhere/ I cannot see.  Earth rising/
sunset is.

It is after 11 PM, and I am waiting for an
answer to a question.  I doubt one will be
posted tonight.  Am hoping my concern
is due to my lack of knowledge, and so 
is moot.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00759ut-34.poem

The Undulant Trees



The Ghost in the Dumpster


And there he was     weeping and weeping
and no one could     make him stop
who had tried so hard     but ever had failed
until even that     which he did well
seemed somehow     a failure
who wondered how     he could go on
knowing that     with each choice
he was slipping     further behind
and yet who had to     however ever
poorly he did.




-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00758st71-pop.song.favs

   Overcast day.  Overcast me.  Over at The Suburban Ecstasies is 
a 1967 video of The Moody Blues playing their "Tuesday Afternoon".
Knew about it yesterday, and it made me try to recall songs I like,
which is difficult for my fog-pocketed memory to do.  Have always
favored songs about wind and songs about loneliness, but I have
never analyzed my musical tastes.  Here are some titles:  "Dust in
the Wind"  "I Am, I Said"  "Baker Street"  "The Way It Is"  "Key
Largo"  "Smooth Operator"  "Pieces of April"  "Norwegian Wood"
"Turn the Page"  "Wild Horses"  "We Are the Champions"  "Don't
Fear the Reaper"  "Bridge Over Troubled Water"  "Ring of Fire"
"Some Velvet Morning"  "Free Bird"  "Down In a Hole"  "Imagine"
"The Rose"  "Magic Man"  "The Breeze and I"  "The Seventh Seal"
"Ghost of a Chance"  "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"  "Stairway to
Heaven"  "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)"  "Ride Like the Wind"
"Only the Lonely"  "Amazing"  "California Dreaming"  "Breathe"
"You've Got a Friend"  "MacArthur Park"  "Galileo"  "Teach Your
Children"  "Cat's in the Cradle"  "Me and Mrs. Jones"  "Suspicion"



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00757st70-tech.lessons

  Maybe all/ will be well/ but it's still too early to tell.
Was able to get some program questions answered.
Discovered www.neuber.com has an excellent forum.
Of course they also want to sell products.  When the
name of a program such as mantispm is searched at
Google, Neuber's site often comes up.  Take a look.

For my needs/ My Routine is not useful.  However,
the address bar is, especially now that it empties
each time I sign off AOL.  I use Go to get to AOL
Search, and the arrow to get to a session's history.
It is replacing my now deleted offline homepage/
which the house icon brought up when its file was
the current page in Internet Explorer.  One day I
may go back to that method of connecting.

Had been wondering why my firewall / anti-virus /
anti-spyware product stopped giving the number
of attempted intrusions.  Learned today that the 
NAT technology in my wireless product blocks
such intrusions before they get to the protections
provided by the fw/a-v/a-s product. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00756st69-Christman

  Because they had worked before--even if only for one day, I went back to
techagv's 12/16/2007 instructions.  Skipped instruction C because after I'd
completed instruction B/ I got a message stating my system was restored.
However, having recalled from somewhere that a slower mouse speed might
help, I lowered its speed one notch even though it passed the provided open/
close folder test where it was.  Earlier I had made a number of changes in my
browsers, my security, in AOL space; and I deleted my "offline" homepage.
All this constitutes my Internet Christmas present to me.  Took Community /
Journals route to S H.

Several days ago I sent the lyrics (along with suggestions for singing them)
of a Christian-centered lullaby I wrote/ to the Wisconsin Province Jesuits
headquarters in Milwaukee.  This is the season for those lyrics.  It would
please me endlessly if someone thought well enough of them to compose
music for them, and found a few people to sing them.  But that is minor
compared to what else I need to do outside the computer realm.  Peace /
Love / Community.

[ Imagine the following sung by at least 2 female & 2 male shepherds
   as their visit to Joseph, Mary, and their heaven-sent child ends. 
   The lines at the left margin should be sung in a rocking cradle song
   tempo, but slower on the final "Emmanuel Jesus" and on the two
   "sweet good night" words in the last two lines, with the first of 
   these in higher rising notes and the second in lower falling notes. 
   The indented lines can either be sung in a different melody with
   the highest note on the "we" words or simply spoken.  They do
   not need to be in the order shown.  God's gift to me/ to you. 
   PM 8:19 CST - Brian A J Salchert ]
-
"Emmanuel Jesus Lullaby"

A sweet good night,
a sweet good night,
Emmanuel Jesus,
a sweet good night.

A sweet good night,
a sweet good night,
Emmanuel Jesus,
a sweet good night.

   We wish for You
   as You wish for us;
   we tend by You
   as You tend by us:

A sweet good night,
a sweet good night,
Emmanuel Jesus,
a sweet good night.

A sweet good night,
a sweet good night,
Emmanuel Jesus,
a sweet good night.

   We live in You
   as You live in us;
   we pray with You
   as You pray with us:

A sweet good night,
a sweet good night,
Emmanuel Jesus,
a sweet good night.

A sweet good night,
a sweet good night,
Emmanuel Jesus,
a sweet good night.

Emmanuel Jesus

a sweet    good    night,

a sweet    good    night.


                                  12/12/2007
                                     Brian A. J. Salchert



Truth About Birth of Jesus Christ
-------

sw00755st68-travails

 *   *   *

Travails, travails.  Bethle is hemmed in.  There's no inn in the room.
The center has been sold.  Hither and Yon have wandered on.  Go.



-------
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00754st67-wish4you

  ~
   ~
 ~
 Pleasant holidays and blessed holy days.
                                                     ~
                                                  ~
                                                   ~
                                                        ~
                                                                 ~
                                                                                 ~




-------
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00753st66-3poets

 Have a Sprintedon winter.

Since I had other things to do, shortly after 3 PM I shut down 
this wicked machine.  Around 3:50, while I was eating, darkness
set in.  By 4:10 the outdoor airs where swoopin' and whoopin'.
Ten minutes later rains were streaming on the windows.  Though
I'd rather not toggle off the surge protector and unplug the two
wall socket connections, I did; and went back to reading Auden's
introduction to his selected Byron.  It is PM 6:38 and the temp's
heading toward 32, and gusts are again whoooushing.  Could get
an inch of snow tonight.

7:20 - Just returned from exploring the latest of John Latta's
twisted and tangled and ever delicious ruminations at his Isola.
However poorly I understand him, he is always a livening read,
and the photos top and bottom of each post/ with their curt 
captions. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00752st65-aol.live.help

   At 8:02 this morning there were 15 Mourning Doves at the apex of
the roof of the apartment building just north of this one/ and a single
Mourning Dove on a telephone wire between the buildings.  They
were having a foggy morning meeting.

Notes about my journal edit troubles:
-
As I indicated in st64, my situation has improved, for now at least.
-
Since a LIVE HELP tech wished to know how things were going
with me, I sent an email yesterday to one of them.  Do hope they
have read it because it contains useful information.  I have kept 
copies of it.  Still will be doing more investigating on my end.
-
Save button sometimes gets stuck.
Cancel key did not get stuck when I clicked it moments ago.
It is AM 9:28.
-
Well, made several security changes on my system.  Seems to
have made no difference.  Did chat with tech person about
blocking cookies from 2 ad locations.
-
2:15 PM
Need to know certain things it may be difficult to find out about.
Found a site via Google which answered a question concerning 
TopSpeed & Footprints.  I did 1 clearing action to find out more.
Doing so did not get rid of my edit annoyances.  Save button is 
back to sticking again on my first use of it.  Of course, the last
two times it didn't stick.  Maybe it saw what I wrote about it.
As I have 7 months of my blog to check, I'm returning to that
need.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00751st64-edit.problems

  Still having edit problems, but they are slightly diminished because of a 
change I made in IE/ and also because I have found a more general way
to stay connected to my blog.  Am not going to share the details here.
Want to continue my investigations for a while first.  If the malfunction
routine consistently stays as it now is, I can be assured that on my third
entry attempt I will get the error message by which I know my edit has
been saved.  This means that after the second malfunction I can safely
enter more characters.
-
Did a defragmentation which finished at AM 10:44.  Helped a smidgen.
Can't say whether it will last, but for now--though the error messages
have not gone away--the Save and Cancel keys are not getting stuck. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00750st63-ditzy

Hi.  Well?  And then again.  Maybe not so high.  Anyway.
In the course of remorse he fell off his horse.  Ney, ney.



-------
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00749st62-editing

 Did a lot of editing in spite of edit malfunctions.




-------
Brian A. J. Salchert                                                             

sw00748st61-blog.snags

Deleted S H link in F P.  Why?  A post from Joe I found on G said to.
Only 1 edit saved properly so far.  Usually getting J i u / J i u / P c b f.
J i u = AOL Journals is unavailable error message.  Erases HTML edits.
P c b f = Page cannot be found error message.  Untrue: saves HTML edits.
Homepage link saved properly.  Tags are not saving.  Went offline.
Set hover for links.  Returned here via Community.  Got a tag to save.
Still usually J i u / J i u / P c b f.  Read sw00747st below.  When a SAVE
gets an immediate Done but the page does not turn over, the page must
be closed out.  That Done = dead.  Yesterday, per instructions, I cleared
the AOL Utilities cache to 0 MB and rebuilt the Adapter.  PM 2:55 - I
just did an AOL ARTWORK PURGE as per instructions.  Sometimes when
I click SAVE// nothing happens.  Am going back to revising my journal.
8 PM  Removed the dates from the other 60 st entries.  It was not easy.
It did not cure my editing problems.  One entry kicked me out about 12
times before it went into the J / J / P routine.  9:27 PM  Was offline and
over at Google for several reasons.  Found one possibly useful item in IE:
days to keep pages in history feature.  I've known about it but can never
decide how many days to set it at.  400?  Something's amiss in javascript.
And it's been amiss since 11-27-07.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00747st60-caches.adapter

 Tunnelling is still off, but I printed the instructions sent to me 12/11/2007,
and followed them.  I've lost my IE hyperlink hover as a result, but that is
not as important as I felt it was.  Since I never had to concern myself with
footprint clearing before (especially on a daily basis), I do not get why I
have to now; but my SAVE button is working properly again.

Darn.  T on.  Tough day.  Sent status report at PM 6:06.
The Fates are snickering.

Got more info.  Cleared Utilities cache and rebuilt Adapter.  It's PM 8:26.
Will see how it goes.  Re-instated old special IE homepage.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00746st59-memory

Hazy day.   Had a RAM upgrade installed this morning.

Trying another fix idea.

Birds about: blue jay, mourning doves, juncos, cardinal,
and maybe a sparrow and a starling



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00745st58-2poets

PM 4:14   Overcast is becoming mostly cloudy.

Today has been a Bill Knott and Franz Wright day.
See my Rhodingeedaddee blog rho00029 post.



-------
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00744ut-33.3poems

The Undulant Trees
                              (Do not know when I first wrote the second two poems.)


Suddenly


we turned
the corner
and then
there was.


§



 A Spinner of Emptiness


Manifestations of Dionysus
sputtering from the deep fire:
blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, gulls

draw and draw him
to his bedroom window;
& even, maybe, to a tittering smile.

Still, as the sun tucks itself in,
his thinking ego, tossing his body
back & back, stands awake

and into the darkness spins a web
with which to snatch Eternity
only to--as the sun shakes--undo it again.

And yet, and yet, he cannot stop--
who dreams he is of Apollo--
trying to figure his being out--

or is of Dionysus,
or also, or neither.  Sunk in his rocker,
he'd clap from his head/ the incessant birds.


§



 Arthur Joe


All his life
the 12-foot wall
trapped his desires;
attracted him;
beat him down
whose salient gift
was a small stature;
yet, once again
(having thought, trained)
he presses through
the undergrowth
to try to leap
to grip its top
in the sharp sun,
only to have
reaffirmed--
on his scraped knees
& scraped arms--
the concrete's sealed
dominance,
and the two stones
sullen beneath
a film of water
where he sits/
dreaming of salmon.

=

Aurthur Joe     (most recent version)


All his life
the 12-foot wall
trapped his desires,
attracted him;
beat him down
whose salient gift
was a small stature;
yet, once again
(having thought, trained)
he presses through
the undergrowth
to try to leap
to grip its top
in the sharp sun,
only to have
reaffirmed--
on his scraped knees
& scraped arms--
the concrete's sealed
dominance
and the two stones
sullen behind
a film of water
where he sits,
teetering, tottering,
shadow against shadow,
dreaming of salmon.


                     (2006-10-08)




-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00743st57-save.button

My SAVE button problem was fixed by an online AOL technician.
I have sent a (no text) email to Joseph Manna about it.  All I had 
to do was follow his instructions, two of which involved clearing files
in Internet Explorer.  I requested that he email me his instructions.
He did.
-
For Live Help go to Settings.  Once there, scroll to bottom of page
and click on Contact Us.  Click the link to Live Help.  

The weather in SW Missouri is in a state of uncertainty, but it is
considerably warmer than it was yesterday.  That means/ if this
area gets anything, it will be rain.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00742v-33.poem31

Venturings



 April 18, 1970 (Saturday)


   1
Dreams?--we have them all,
Climbing into our deaths,
Rising through the roots of every tree.

Do I need to tell you something?
Do I need to touch you?
There is more; there is more than we.

Cycling through the winds of middle morning,
Anthologies in my briefcase in my basket,
The growing clouds devour me.


   2
We are old once only,
Climbing into our deaths,
Rising through the roots of every tree.

Do our differences divide us?
Do I need to touch you?
There is more; there is more than we.

Leaning over my desk,
Anthologies in my briefcase in my basket,
The growing clouds devour me.


   3
Leaning over my desk,
Cycling through the winds of middle morning,

Do I need to tell you something;
Do our differences divide us?

We are old once only.
Dreams?--we have them all.



                                        (1970)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00741ut-32.2poems

The Undulant Trees



 As the Eye Can See


at the flick of a thought
a chair moves
from here
to Saskatchewan

all the hairs on my head
were hay
for Pizarro's horses

the dreams of lettuce are heavy with stars

not even nothing holds its own
having a name


                                        (1972)


§



 Yes, Archibald MacLeish,


we who with words would
tease, please, deepen
minds, spirits, bodies, hearts--
Homers, Virgils, Dantes, Shakespeares--

will not be by Beauty stood
dumb in a corner, our behinds
to the world so the world's flicked darts
stick in them.


                                        (????)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00740st56-praise

PM 5 -- Praise to the techs!  My blog is back in Community / Journals.





-------
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00739st55-3poets

This afternoon while reading Eileen Myles's 
"The Sadness of Leaving" poem
it occurred to me that
people who commit suicide do so 
not because they want to be dead,  
but rather because they believe they are dead.

About the ways of making poems
I prefer not to say anything.
About the way a specific poem is made
I might have a word or two to say.
I have written "experimental" poems,
and Wallace Stevens has said that
all poems are experimental.
My tendency is to agree with him.
Still, some poems seem to me to be
nothing more than debris aloft in the air
as if in a tornado or a hurricane.
Other poems seem too simple, too stolid.
Warning:  If you have a weak bladder,
do not read a poem by Paul Violi.  



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00738ut-31.2poems

The Undulant Trees



 And Who Am I?

I am Tantalus, Sisyphus, Narcissus;
I am he who quests eternally,
and who eternally is/ frustrated.


                                        (1988)


§



 At 47


she feels like a bankrupt company;
or, if not bankrupt,
deeply in debt;

and doesn't know whether
a month from now,
a year,

will feel the same,
or worse,
or better;

but does know
arrogance
will not do,

nor condescension,
nor--even--
the need to prove

to those who might
invest in her
that she is good

(real good)
and can in time
turn

around,
for such abet
liquidation; yet,

would the genius in silk
laugh
at her,

the genius
with the flyaway hair
almost imperceptibly smile?

-

Scintillant green,
deep in the wood,

they tell me
not to talk to you.

Let them.
Many things

are pathetic,
cast against

cerulean.


                                        (1988)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00737st54-bad.night

Not a good night.  Didn't get to bed until around AM 12:20.
Wasn't in bed long when I thought it best to go to restroom.
Between 2:30 and 3 I awoke.  Not sure why, but I went to
restroom again.  Nothing.  Went back to sleep.  Was awake
early.  A black chihuahua lives with its owner in the apartment
left of mine.  Had a vision of it sitting off to the right of my 
bed near the desk my computer tower is on.  It barked at me
once.  I said to it: "What are you doing here?"  Then it faded.

Blustery out.  My furnace's response was to heat less well. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00736v-32.poem30

 

        Birth

 

 

 

 

Venturings              picture-poem              click pik to enlarge

 

 

(date of composition unknown:

 likely between 1965 and 1975)

 

 

 

 

 

 

-
Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00735st53-electoral.college

Our nation's forefathers were highly intelligent, but they created 
a structurally-flawed nation.  It is a democratic republic, and 
republic is the key word.  For many years I have maintained in
one-on-one conversations that this country may well be "the 
home of the brave" but it has never been "the land of the free".
"These United States"--see the morrisonhimself comment--need  
to be reconstructed.  However, this post will only address the
Electoral College issue because it is the core reason so many of
this nation's citizens do not vote.  The Maine-Nebraska method
is an insufficient improvement.  Inherently, the Electoral College
cannot be fixed.  The Electoral College idea subverts democracy.
(Of course, "democracy" is a dirty word; and "of the people, by
the people, and for the people" is a pile of doo-doo.)  "Politics
is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which
properly concern them."  Paul Valéry Tel Quel 2 (1943).  See
Quotation #163.  Before any other federally-mandated institution
is, the Electoral College must be garbaged.  There is not one
argument in its favor that stands up.  The distribution of US
citizens cannot be accurately accounted for by even a census
every year.  Circumstances, natural and otherwise, constantly
keep people on the move.  Giving a state to a candidate who
won by 70% is not the same as giving a state to a candidate
who won by 55%, even if the population in each is relatively
equal.  Red states, blue states, purple states: the conception
itself is anti-freedom.  Wyoming gets 2 senatorial votes and
California gets 2 senatorial votes: what kind of crock is that?
What I'm saying is not that California ought to have more than
2 senators, but that the supposed checks and balances the E C
provides is untenable.  There are other problems:  1) the voting
age     2) citizens who don't vote (for whatever reasons) are
automatically disenfranchised     3) balloting systems are too
diverse and unreliable     4) the ways in which campaigns are
conducted, to say nothing of the cost of them.  About point 1:
The age at which one is allowed to vote should be the same age 
in every state.  Sometimes states' rights = states' blights.  Maybe
each state should be its own country.  Wouldn't that be the cat's
diapers.  Have so far not founda state-by-state voting age chart.
Read this pertinent cogent argument for lowering the age to 16.
About point 2:  Say that in a general election 30% vote for Bluu,
25% vote for Redd, 5% vote for Purp, and 40% vote for Nota.  I
think every ballot should include a "None-of-the-above" option.
I think such an option would encourage more citizens to vote, 
especially if it were accorded its rightful power.  That is, if the
majority of citizens chose that option, then the election in which
it occurred should be considered null-and-void.  Well, do you or
don't you want a democracy?  & what about Americans who are
in prisons in this country?  About point 3:  Every ballot across the
land should have the same look.  None of this filling in an oval or
punching this or that with a machine.  A simple X to the right of a
name, of a yes, of a no would suffice.  Special assistance should
be given to those who are handicapped but are able to choose. 
About point 4:  We live in a capitalist society, a fate which is
both good/ and evil.  How/ many/ of our leaders are poor?  We
persist in a veritable oligarchy which, if it had its way, would
happily become a tyranny, if it hasn't already.  Alexis Tocqueville
saw this coming.  The birth of These United States was marked
by an undesired but necessary violence.  Nothing prevents it
from being reborn by a similar undesired but necessary violence.  
Our own Declaration of Independence recognizes that possibility.

         We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
     are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
     with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life,
     liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That, to secure these
     rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving 
     their just powers from the consent of the governed; that,
     whenever any form of government becomes destructive
     of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
     abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its
     foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers
     in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
     theirsafety and happiness.

And it goes on, though in a more cautionary tone.  Read it.
-
This is an annotated text of the Declaration.  Scroll down to it.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00734st52-cyril.wong

-------
Poetry Hut
-
item 7. Singapore poet, Cyril Wong

~
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00733ut-30.poem

The Undulant Trees



Funning with my imagination


suddenly the eagle come alive
                                             jerks
the Kleenex out of its 
bowels
                    white & frightened
                    like a dying fish

bits of ivory fluff
turning
          the colors of shadows
rush beneath my barely opened windows
invade my neck

my voice box
                    spits
                              screaming blue-black ropes

all the leaves
are               popped-out eyes

twisting away
i speed
through a rainbow maze
                   brown rows of mud
                   arcs of green corrosion
                   red plumes

stunned by a million grinding teeth
covered with cobwebs
the odor of crushed Gingko fruit
my body floats
like a cork in a spout /
catches
            on 
the tongues
of a whirlpool

                                        the teeth
                                        part

secluded spiders
crouch
at          my approach

                         *

staring
          at     the lowest orange disk
on the four-color windchimes

i center on
one pale rectangle

& find in it

valleys

hills

mountains

& every shade
from near-transparent
to triple orange

vibrating     vibrating

& the mountains
                         flow
                                   to the valleys
& the valleys
                    to the hills
slow          slow                         slow

& each shape
                                   resonates
a soft          squeezing
the juices of mandarin          of tangerine

& the beat
                    picks up
                               &
the smooth edges
          roughen

a cloud of exploding stars

     a cloud of exploding stars

          a cloud of
          exploding

                              exploding
                                                                      d       g
                                                                          in
                                                                  o                    

                                                              l                

                                                         p             


                              x
                                               e 


               slivers
                          of     orange-filled mirrors
                    whistling



-                                                                    
(1971-2007)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00732ut-29.poem

The Undulant Trees



 Blinks

Her eyelids snapping
the dandelion air
the photographed boy
is so simply
brilliant fuzz
that while she
wishes for clarity
her turning head
drifts him behind
a bridal wreath
and all at last
she recognizes
can not be held


               (1968-2007)




-
Brian A. J. Salchert

sw00731ut-28.4poems

The Undulant Trees



 Postscript to Doctor Zhivago


Rummaging among the shards
     of jugs and men
          or floating between the stars,

       we turn ourselves
       to whatever we find;

       to whatever we turn
       we find ourselves:

     leaves of a birch
          scratching the ground
or the consecrated wine;

          buds inhaling the bright wind,
opening,
     or broken shelves.



                         (5-5-69)
-




 Because I Move


menageries
          wander
     about me

their cottony bodies
          catching on
     bricks, grasses, etc.

gyrating off
          into birds
     waves



                         (1971 ?)
-




 As I Said


one must

but then

there are times

oh

you know

don't you



                         (?)
-




 My Walking Stick


There is an evil in my bones
I cannot kill,

not even with a metaphor
made by God;

so just outside our metal door,
when I would sleep,

a black and black-&-white cat
yeowl and brawl.

There is an evil in my heart.
It eats my will.



                         (1990 ?)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00730st51-breakthroughs

Linh Dinh's Borderless Bodies book of poems was recently awarded.  

*

12.01.07     See Magic Smoke main message about journals.

*

Three important technology breakthroughs:

stem cells without the embryos
.
clean energy
.
printed silicon technologies

*

What comes out of a literary canon?
Nothing other than heavy word-balls
whose sole purpose is: to hurt people.
Someone needs to change the metaphor.
It just doesn't sound right: pun, pun, pun.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00729ut-27.3poems

The Undulant Trees



 Cherry Mars

      (for Stan Apps
       with a nod to Ed Dames)


I wonder what,

deep in their planet,
the Martian robots

think when they see

Cadbury chocolate
seeping into

their hoary caverns?



                    (11/28&30/07)


§


 Trussed Invader

      (for John Latta)


Latta, I love
the way you write
poems and prose
of spiked delight.

If only I had
a proper brain
with which to un-
derstand your rain.



                    (11-30-07)


§


 For

your chances are incredible,
cutting as diamonds, relentless as beets.
I'm almost afraid to finger them.
But, as you can see--well,
behind the scenes--my fingertips
are deeply red and freshly sliced
in the scars and scabs and
in between, you have to laugh,
possibly.  Still, I still favor your anteFitts
appearances despite "The Wheelchair Butterfly"
and "Poem to Some of My Recent Poems",
wanting (in my fingertips)
the soft coral color
and the tell-tale etches
to be more visible again
through the lightning scars.



                       (circa 1984)




-------------------------
-
Friday, November 30, 2007
-
"Success Comes to Cow Creek"


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00728v-31.poem29

Venturings



A Cardinal of Consciousness


So I, as Adam, am namer,
if I accept Adam,
as with so much else.

Yet what I name,
giving sound to percept,
a trope of a trope,

will never thereby
be yanked from the mystery
of its shining essence

however splendid
and human-catching
each name I choose.

Still, aware of my
intolerable solitude,
I eye and ay,

out of my brightnesss
drawn to a brightness
difficult to view,

praising and damning
it and my inadequacy
in my voiced need

to do in you
exactly what had
been done in me

in spite of how well
our differences
impoverish that.

Heliacal,
sun of a sun,
reality wrangler,

complexity of complexity,
paradox of paradox,
imager,

I scream "Rahg!";
thump my chest;
zee my name.


               (circa 1985)



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00727st50-followup

Sent an important email to the Social Media blogmaster.  If I do not
get a response, either directly or indirectly, I am going to post it.
-
4:32 PM -- Here's part of the response I got:
.
"Thanks, Brian.  We're working on a huge follow-up post
that addresses the many concerns and questions that people
have had."  . . . .  "Re: Journals page.  We know the lack of
Journals are there, but we're working on fixing it."
-
For me this is satisfactory, but every AOL user needs to be
aware of it.  This blog, being what it is, does not attract many
visitors.  Yet, this is top-now AOL news.

12.01.07 - See Magic Smoke main message about journals.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00726st49-gustaf.sobin

   an AOL blog          my other blog          poet Gustaf Sobin



In the Social Media Blog under "Welcome to the New People Connection"
the comments worth reading (in my opinion) are:  #6 from Joseph Manna /
#19 / #34 / #68 / #72 / #103 / #114.

§

I have a Blogger Blog (Rhodingeedaddee) I am using for special purposes.
None of my poems will be posted there.  Today I'm going to begin posting
an abridged version of old autobiographical pages which were in another
Internet space for about six years before I started my current blog here.
-
The first page is up.

§

On page 317 of Paul Hoover's Postmodern American Poetry is
information about a poet born in 1935, a poet I had never heard
of: Gustaf Sobin.  Was surprised to learn/ his poetry aesthetic is
at base the same as mine, but I prefer his description of it. 



-------------------------
Gustaf Sobin


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00725a-confusiondream

Autobio



Had another one of those dreams shortly before I last woke/
in which I am the main character, but in which things are all
in disarray and I am constantly frustrated; but the setting in
this dream was not some motel or hotel where I was night
auditing, it was the house in which I was raised, but during
a time some years after/ when it was going through another
renovation.  My vague at-a-distance wife made a minor
connection with me at a time I was supposed to be about
to leave Wisconsin and go to Idaho, but I was unprepared.
I had forgotten things I needed.  I therefore went back to
the house, where I immediately became lost.  At one point
several women, who seemed to be servants of some kind,
passed by me.  Then two tall men showed.  I felt threatened
by them; yet, every few moments they would kiss each other
deeply.  That's where the dream ended.



-------------------------
Stanley Kunitz and
-
illusions, delusions, hallucinations
-
Skanky Possum founders


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00724st48-blogging.notes

Found another interior way to get to my blog.  The steps are:
Click Community, then Journals.  If this takes you to the Blogs
page, enter one word in the Search Blogs space that relates 
directly to your blog.  My blog's name has two words.  The
first of those two is the most significant and unique.  Type in
your one word and proceed to search.  This will take you to
a page that--in my case at least--appears to be unhelpful.  Do
NOT read the search suggestions if this is what occurs.  Scroll
down to Journals in the box at the left and click it.  This should
get you to a link to your journal (blog).  That is the way I got
in moments ago.  Also, yesterday I placed a link to my blog in 
Favorite Places.  One other thing: though I do not know if it
matters, I decided to turn on Safe Search.
-
Regarding Chat:  Once you get to the general area, you need
to choose a topic, and so on from there.  I am not a chat user
so I cannot tell you more.
-
Regarding Profiles:  Put the screen name you use in the primary
search space, but do not search.  Beneath this space advanced
choices are given.  I chose to limit country to United States.
Beneath the choices is a gray search.  Use it.  That is how I 
got to my profile.  What I found there I liked. 



-------------------------
  Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00723v-30.poem28

Venturings



 Michelangelo,


your body
strong    taut
like the bodies
your hand
so deftly paints
fills my eyes
my heart
all the while
you concentrate
on the altar wall
with dreams
of creations
our bodies
together
speak of
the glories
of God
me
pubescent
you
mature
& the wind
full of rain
the wind
full of sun
the elements
the plants
the animals
living
dying
living again
until every woman
every man
accepts
& praises
the differences
that are
themselves
that are
each one




- - - - -
"Michelangelo," was originally published in "the fifth season"
Wisconsin Review  Vol. 14  No. 2 & 3  1980  p. 36
under my Alden St. Cloud pseudonym.


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00722st47-boppo

The following is a comment I made 25nov07 on Silliman's Blog.
It was an attempt to insert some levity into the comment stream
because all the comments were responses to Ron's comment-
control decision.  Since what I tried to do did not work, today
I suggested the removal of my comment.  Will check later.

     Change of direction, I think.
     -
     Took the link ride to Gatza's PDF.
     I have read The Chinese Notebook.
     This is about the pot holder called "boppo":
     If said pot holder had a loop sewn near its opening,
     a loop through which one finger could be slipped,
     then--and this may be from childhood memories of mine,
     if one does not place one's hand into the pot holder,
     but does place one's index finger through the loop
     and one's thumb inside the pot holder
     and one's other 3 fingers
     of whichever hand one is using/
     outside the pot holder,
     and whacks someone on the head with it,
     the pot holder instantly becomes a "boppo"--no?

Silliman posted my levity and remove comment, and///
did not remove my original comment.  So there you are. 

*
AOL changed things again without even a note on Magic Smoke,
and where they did have information it was insufficient.  Besides,
the feedback link takes one to an email connection which appears
to be fine but causes an error message which voids attempts to 
use it.  Users of products need instructions which are step-by-step/ 
simple and clear.  How did I get here?  I'm not going to tell you, 
but I did find a way.  It is not a way, however, I prefer to take.
-
Got a response from Joseph at socialmedia.aol.com.  He suggested
an alternative which is similar to the way I had found: bookmark
http://      peopleconnection.aol.com/blogs                    Also,
the last comment at the time I was there is by some Steven.  He
obviously understands and uses much of what AOL provides,
but he did say--which is true--the editors blog list needs to be
updated.  Even though I may never use most of what's available,
his comment was interesting.
-
About getting back to this blog:  I knew (as Joseph said) I had
to go from the Main page to the Blogs page.  I also knew about
clicking on the    update your blog   link       but that was getting
me nowhere.  In the upper right corner--which cannot be seen
unless the page is widened--is a Sign In/Sign Out box.  My screen
name was showing Logged in.  Now, if I have       remembered
this correctly, when I clicked on the   update your blog   link,
I was taken back to the Main page/ where, when I clicked on
the Blogs again, I was taken to my blog.  I will need to try this
circuitous routine again to make sure that is what I need to do.
-
Thank you.
-
Just checked the routine for getting to my blog.  It is correct.
One thing though:  When I left here, I just clicked the x box in
the upper right corner, which was the common way to leave.
When I returned via Community / Journals, my screen name
was still showing Logged in.  My sense is that that now exists
for security.  Therefore, it appears that after I leave via the x
box, I need to return to Community / Journals and Sign Out.
-
Well, my method for getting in stopped working.
-
Ended up placing a link to this journal in my Favorites.
* 


Brian A. J. Salchert