The Daily (W)Rite December 2o14 Wk o3

The Daily(W)Rite

wk o3

Monday 11:45 PM

 

I can't seem to go out on the weekend without getting sick. I was fine Friday night at ART WALK even though it was a bit cold outside. But as soon as I got up on Saturday morning I started feeling a little feverish. But I went out again in the cold and Sunday and today . . . UGH! I caught some kind of could cold, I think.

The picture above I shot at ART WALK. We walked into this gallery and BAM! There was this living art expos (four scantily clad young women in rather strange, primitive hairdos)  in the center of the floor! It was really grand. Lots of people were taking pics, so I just jump right in there. See the girl in the back, right hand side? She just really caught my eye. That's her in the picture above, hair comb down to cover her eyes! It was fantastically beautiful. Turns out the girls were a promotion for a new hair salon in Norman town.

My best friend from my Marine Corps days went in the hospital last week for abdominal surgery. I called him everyday . . . well, not true . . . almost everyday. He was really in bad shape when he got out of the surgery, which took four hours to perform. I was worried about him, yeah. We've been good friends since 1969.

I don't have a ton of things to say tonight. But I wanted to write something. I'm trying to get out of this staying up all night and sleeping all day routine. I want to be a day person again, walk around with the living for a while. I really need to get back to writing that poetry book I'm always talking about. Why? Because after all this heart checkup nonsense, and David being so ill that he can barely get out of bed, AND my good friend Moe being in the hospital for a week? I guess, I'm feeling my fragile mortality. I don't think I've got much time to be lazy about my writing. I have been writing a bit lately. Here's a new one. I think it may be good enough for the book of poetry I plan to create. Well, maybe after a few more rewrites.

Hawk and Sunlight

 

I can barely make you out. This Oklahoma sun

transforms your shape into a bright yellow shadow
floating across a sea of burnt grass.

 

I love watching the blur of your hips

as they bounce up and down
beneath the protective shield
of your cotton umbrella sail
that dances with your hair
in the warm summer breeze.

 

I also love the way you abruptly stop,

urn your head towards me and smile.

 

“What are you doing back there?”

 

Tiny dust devils blossom around my shoes

as I rush to catch up with you.

 

And I love talking to you about this and that

steering away from conversations concerning
the weather, the goings on in Ferguson, New York,
or those other terrible places that seem
so far away from where we are right now.

 

Yes, we can talk about important things some other time.

But not today? Not in this miserable heat
that makes your eyes glisten like rain drops,
makes my head ache and wish I had worn a hat.

 

For now let’s gossip a bit about that black hawk

silently gliding across the harsh sky
right above our heads. You can see him
if you shade your eyes with your hand.
Yes, let’s talk about him.
rrw 12-o5-14

Wednesday, December 17, 2o14

Guess what I got today? A Christmas card from Kimm! NO, not an "E-card," not a "Tweet," an actual Peter Paper Press, Inc. Christmas card sent through the regular U.S. mail! Had a stamp on it and everything! It's the first card I've gotten this year. Hmmm, come to think of it, it will probably be the only card I'll get this year {sad face}.  So, I went out To The WALL mart and  bought an even better card to send to Kimm. Why am I like that? Someone gives me a something and I just gotta reciprocate with a card that cost more? I'm a strange sort of person.

For the last two years, ever since I moved into this apartment, I've been taking pictures of the sky at sunset through my east window. Sometimes I go out on the front porch and click a few off. I'm getting some great shots, and every day it's the same two locations, either in the direction of the Facilities Maintenance Building or the Energy Center. The one on the left is the Energy Center. And man, each shot, each day is a different set of cloud formations. I'm thinking of trying to make a book of them.
If you want to see more, go to my Facebook page: 
https://www.facebook.com/robert.woods.35728/media_set?set=a.10152679233842394.1073741839.707757393&type=3

Sunday, December 21, 2o14
 

Well, here it is the last day in this third week of December. Yes, Christmas breathing down my neck. Not much to say about Christmas. Each year I get farther and farther away from celebrating it in any traditional way. Yes, family pretty much nonexistent. Father, mother, brother all dead. Do have one original sister and a half sis from my mom's second marriage, but sister number two lives in Cali. and me and my older sister . . . well, we've parted ways. I know, I should reconcile with her . . . but I don't think that's going to happen. My family now? You know, it's my friends. Really, it's just one friend, David. And he's a good friend too. I'm not going to write anymore tonight because I gotta feeling I'll just wind-up depressed. I'll leave you with the poem I wrote for Christmas:

 

December When

When the snow has come to nest

in giant drifts above my head,

when the wind blows softly

through the naked boughs

of the winter weary trees,

when the singers sing

along the snowy streets

those gentle songs of birth,

those jolly songs of

goodwill upon the earth,

when he arrives in his

rickety old sleigh drawn by

eight giant deer, I will not hear it.

I will not know.  And though this surely is

a special time of year, when it comes?

I’ll find no pleasure in the stories,

in the glories marking this most pleasant day

because, my friend ,your bold and

strident comments will be mute, your shadow

will be gone, your off pitch voice will not insult

another human’s ears. And I fear, in time,

I too will forget that you were ever here.

rrw 12-18-14