Short Story Found in Park!

This is the first story that will be posted here. It was written in the park yesterday and is being included because of it's length. It's short enough to post to the blog without being excessive and has some nice things in there. Well, enjoy this first one but remember it's not the last.

A Good Story

I picked my head up from the story to notice the man doing the Sudoku puzzle had got up and gone. He sat next to me with the puzzle for almost as long as it took me to read the story in the magazine. I felt cheated that I didn’t see if he solved it or not. The story was good. Better than I thought it would be. That always happened. Getting surprised by a story. It always started out like getting up for work in the morning. I had to force myself, dragging, but once I got going it was alright. I liked the surprise and I hated it too. I liked it because it was pleasantly unexpected, like getting a gift when it wasn’t your birthday or Christmas. It felt like that was the way stories should be. Something you didn’t expect but once you got, were thankful for and maybe a little fuller for having them. I hated it because it might have meant I had a poor sense of literary judgment. Like, what kind of writer couldn’t tell from the first paragraph if a story was inspired, profound and worthwhile?

I looked at my watch and realized I’d spent much longer reading that story than I had wanted. It was still early in the afternoon but if you didn’t watch out the day could slip out from under you. The sun was still bright under the shade of the trees. The shade was all over my bench like a thin blanket. The sun was poking through the leaves like the shade was a raggedy old blanket, holes and all. It was the light that made me look up from the story, the spots of light on the ground, from the sun knifing through the leaves. The story started slow but picked up later. It was about a man that was dying but didn’t want to live like he was dying, just live like he was alive. He didn’t tell his family or friends that he was dying and I think he didn’t even tell his wife. Towards the end, he walked in to his house to find his wife asleep in a chair and he stood and watched her dreaming and then felt badly for spying on her. He started thinking about his life and then realized that it wasn’t what he thought it was. He realized his life and his marriage weren’t filled with any truths or sharing, just expectations and routines. I stopped reading to think about her. I didn’t look up from the page but just looked through it. You know, to that place you can find by looking straight through anything, that holds your memories and thoughts and daydreams? That’s where I was looking and wondering about the dying man and his wife and how they didn’t have any truth or sharing. The sunlight coming through the raggedy blanket of tree shade was warm. Would she and I have truth or sharing? Did we have any now? I looked up at the trees and realized that they were planted apart just far enough that their branches met in almost perfect apexes. They were like the swords that touched high in royal weddings that the bride and groom would walk under. The sun was a little glow ball at the top of the apex, making me squint.

I noticed more and more people coming and going. Lunch breakers and stroll takers, all passing by, some men and some women. The women were young and pretty. Pretty enough to smile at or admire. Would they ever have truth or sharing? Could they give me either? Something told me that the way they strutted meant no. I smiled and looked anyway. Sometimes they would smile too, so I didn’t feel bad for looking at them. I realized that I hadn’t eaten since earlier this morning and I was ready for some food, a drink too. I thought it was funny that I hadn’t noticed that before. I’ll get something to eat with her, something to drink too. I’m meeting her soon anyway. I smiled to myself because I thought, if I hadn’t noticed how hungry or thirsty I was, or how good of a story it was going to be, than the dying man and his no truth, no sharing life must have been entertaining enough. The sun was shifting behind the buildings, taking the holes of light from the tree shade with it. It was cooler now and the late afternoon noises were creeping into the park. It was almost that time, and I didn’t want to make her wait. I got up and put the magazine with the dying, truth less man in my bag, and left.

Coincidence Pursued

I ran across a coincidence yesterday. Not too long ago, I began reading Friedrich Nietzsche and began to find many of his philosophies attractive. Currently, I am reading two books by two authors who conducted a seminar I attended. While reading passages from both books on the same day, I happened across references to Nietzsche.
I thought that was somewhat odd, and like all coincidences, I paid attention to it.
That led me to write this poem. Enjoy.

Over Goings

Thus began his down going,
Still going, extending
Forward, till today,
Speaking,
In a loud scriptural boom,
Of the ubermensch.

Abandon super-earthly hopes, he said.
I am only rope,
Something between ape
And ubermensch.
What have I done to surpass man?
How can I surpass my being?
Does it rhyme with “peachy”?
Or is it “meetchya”?
Like, “nice to meetchya”?
I never got it straight.

If I am the rope,
When will I know
I’ve been surpassed?
Maybe you never notice
It passing, like the awaited
transformation
After losing your virginity.
It comes and goes,
Sudden and silent,
Leaving you no note
Or souvenir of its passing.

Did he surpass man?
Can anyone really?
What was his over going?
In the end,
He died,
Like god,
But crazier.
Perhaps the ubermensch
Is attained through death,
Reaching immortality.
Isn’t that a super-earthly hope?

Worthwhile Fiction and No Is For Wimps

First of all, anyone who enjoys fiction and new, talented voices, should read "The "Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao", by Junot Diaz. Its a great american novel for the new american.

Also, this week's edition of nifw is available here, www.noisforwimps.blogspot.com
and features one of my poems, "Puerto Rican Pride".

Blog Action Day 2007: Official Post

Ah, the environment. 2007’s trendiest cause, hands down. Only Darfur can compete in terms of media attention. The environment, climate change in particular, got two movies to champion its cause like Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour”. Officially, the United Nations declared next year, 2008, the “International Year of the Planet Earth. This period will extend from 2007 to 2009. This very Blog article is part of a coordinated effort to bring the environment into the spotlight. With all this attention, and everyone “thinking green” and being “Eco-friendly”, the earth must be looking towards a future filled with clear blue skies. Right? The environment may be the most talked about subject but it’s also the most ignored.

There are countless initiatives that have been implemented by cities across the United States and countries all over the world. Did you know that those great activists over at the United Nations, in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Program, declared 2007 the “International Year of the Dolphin"? Perhaps if there were still any Baiji left(the Yangtze river dolphin, which was declared extinct late in 2006 due to degraded habitat), they would be flattered by the attention. Despite this apparent mass coordinated effort that appears to be taking place, I can say one thing with complete confidence and virtually no chance whatsoever of being proven wrong. The environment, despite the effort of government organizations and activists, will continue to decline and most likely never be salvaged or returned to a state of relative balance.

I can say this and not feel misinformed or irresponsible because all the efforts that governments are putting forth are aimed at the refinement of old technologies and the creation of new ones, while activists efforts are geared towards giving the subject attention without necessarily providing some form of action. Governments and activists are focusing their time and energy trying to attend to symptoms, not attacking the problem.

This problem lies not with existing technologies or individual ignorance. The problem is you and I. You and I, who in our daily lives do nothing to alleviate the stresses we are putting on the planet. We fail consistently to take the time to evaluate the cost of our comforts and luxuries. This failure, only feeds the industries that cater to our comforts, striving to supply more of what we want or supposedly ‘need’, faster and cheaper. Of course we know intuitively that such a formula cannot be achieved without something or someone suffering. We cannot get everything faster and cheaper. A compromise must exist.

Compromise is something that the earth has been expecting from its inhabitants for a long time but has yet to receive. Like a stubborn spouse, offering cosmetic changes, humanity has failed to provide the earth with the compromise it so greatly deserves. For example, look over to the media’s latest environmental demon, China. Before we actually pour over the staggering statistics, which illicit outrage and furious calls to activism, consider for a moment that China is only doing what the United States and other world powers did before, except they are doing it faster and on a larger scale. The U.S. went through a rapid industrialization of it’s own with ‘dirty energy’ but given today’s new technology and the example of the U.S. to analyze; China is exceeding that industrial growth. The thing that people don’t realize is that China has more people, and more catching up to do which they are determined to do apparently, no matter the cost. Time plays a great role in China’s growth equation, because it is happening faster and on a larger scale than any growth has ever occurred, leaving the environment little to no chance for recuperation. Now, we can consider the gruesome facts.

China, if not currently the worst, then is one of the leading contributors to the environment’s decline. Their meteoric growth is responsible for their indiscriminate and irresponsible use of coal. This abundant form of dirty energy is also responsible for the perpetual haze, which blankets their country’s skies. This obscene amount of carbon emissions lingering above, make Cancer the leading cause of death in the country, with air pollution accounting for hundreds of thousand deaths a year. The sky is only clear after it rains, returning to its obscure state afterwards. 500 hundred million people are without sufficient drinking water. This degradation of water sources has recently resulted in the loss of the Lake Tai, located in the Yangtze Delta plain. The lake, which is surrounded by China’s largest grain producing regions, is no longer usable as a water source for the 2 million, which call the area home. The water has been turned a toxic- green and now emits a foul stench as a sign of its abuse. The Yangtze River itself used to be home to the Baiji, or river dolphin, which was mentioned above. After searching the waters for six weeks, using visual and sonar technology, scientists were unable to locate a single specimen. Most blame this loss of species on water contamination and over fishing.

These facts are startling and give the impression that all hope is lost but we must realize that is not so. The following quote from a New York Times article published this past August, shows how most people are thinking in terms of saving the environment. “Typically, industrial countries deal with green problems when they are rich,” said Ren Yong, a climate expert at the Center for Environment and Economy in Beijing. “We have to deal with them while we are still poor. There is no model for us to follow.” This statement, while essentially true, points to the real problem with environmental policy. People perceive that the solution to environmental protection lies somewhere with vast wealth or new technologies. In reality, it was this quest for wealth and the abuse of technology and resources, which put China in its current dilemma. So, while China races to clean up it’s air and reduce it’s emissions, not for the benefit of it’s people and the environment but for the profit that will come from successfully hosting the 2008 Olympic games, their skies will remain cloudy for the foreseeable future. Why? The search for an answer lies not in technology or the wealth needed to implement them but in the moderation, self-control and discipline that humanity on the whole, has failed to cultivate and maintain.

If you and I bring a cause to the attention of millions but then sit back and wait for government officials or programs to take care of it, how much will we have accomplished?This is the problem that comes from activism without action. A large portion of responsibility lies with individuals concerning the state of the environment.“But how can I save the environment?” Some might say. “I’m just one person. Anything I do is probably not even worth it.” Well, if you were suddenly stricken with a life threatening disease, and doctors were only able to offer you one treatment that might cure the disease and possibly save your life? Would you scoff at the doctors and the treatment simply because you felt that there should have been more? You most definitely would not.

This is why I stated previously that the environment would continue its decline regardless of our efforts. Our efforts are geared in the wrong direction. The planet was doing fine before we came along and it was still doing well after ward. It began to develop symptoms of sickness when we found the means to advance our society through industrialization and new technologies without an eye to reason. We live in excess and anything in excess is harmful to an organism. Humanity has lost the ability or the desire to moderate its excesses. Comfort and pleasure are the primary concerns of most societies and this fuels billion dollar industries. If the environment is to be saved, then we all need to stop looking outwards for the solution to our excesses and abuses. The self-control needed to moderate technology and conserve resources can only be found within ourselves.

The individual has great power in the environments fate. This power however, comes not from words. It comes from action. This action can come from many things you change throughout the course of your daily life. Isn’t over fishing a big problem that contributes to ocean pollution, and species endangerment, throwing a delicate balance in disarray? How can an individual better this situation? Stop eating so much fish. Sound too simple?Not if you think about it. Fishing industries are driven by the demand for seafood and the profit they make from its sale. They over fish because we are telling them to. Our excessive purchases of fish and shrimp and lobster and sushi tell the fishers and their owners that there is money to be made and fish that need to be caught. Why not make a conscious decision to eat less fish? This will force the people ordering the over fishing to respond to declining sales. Maybe the next time your out for dinner and in the mood for sushi you can exercise some self-control and try something else on the menu that doesn’t cost you and the environment so much.

While we are on the topic of food, we might discuss the excesses that we indulge in when we buy fruit and vegetables. In many societies we are used to eating strawberries whenever we want and expect to go the market regardless of the weather outside and find all our favorite fruits and veggies readily available. Again, this is an unreasonable way of thinking. The real world does not work this way. In nature, the seasons dictate what we have available to eat at a given time, not our desires. When you go to the market to do your shopping, think of the cost and energy needed to grow and transport produce, which is not regularly in season. Think of the stress it puts on the environment, the trucks full of not so fresh produce being transported from so far away, emitting those fumes, further mucking up the atmosphere. How can you help? Eat the seasons. Again, it sounds simple but its truth cannot be denied. Why not visit a great website like www.eattheseasons.co.uk and make a list of all the delicious and healthy fruit and vegetables which are in season in your neck of the woods? Then, with list in hand, firmly resolve to buy only these types of produce.

What about energy? Why not make efforts to moderate those areas of our individual expenditures? When the hot weather is around, air conditioners do make things much more bearable. However, how often do you need it on? All day? When you’re not home? Really? Why not make sure your windows are all closed and their frames properly insulated to prevent all that cool air from escaping, forcing you to turn on the A/C and keep it on? The same thing can be done during the winter to keep heating costs and energy down. What about light? Do you really need that light on in the room that you’re not currently in? Does the computer really need to be on standby even though you’re not home? What about all those city buildings that keep hundreds of lights on all night for no particular reason? Maybe you and a few others can start a petition to get city officials to turn them off.

While all this may sound fine in theory, it is much harder to actually accomplish.
A change in ourselves that will lead to a cleaner earth takes hard work but in the end, will do more for the environment than any wind or solar technologies or government funded PR initiatives ever will.

New Whisper

This poem came about from reading of the atrocities that are occurring in The Congo, spill overs from Rwanda and it's tragedies. May the people of The Congo, of Bukavu and Kivu, be helped and may they be given peace. May all people be given peace.

Congo 2007

A mini-marvel of a bird
flaps through Kahuzi-Biega
A Sun Bird,
rainbow on wings.
Emerald backed
and scythe-beaked
like a little girl
adorned with a necklace
of shimmering lavender,
fringes burnt in violet,
and running underneath,
a red river scar
on it's golden chest,
like the after
of a slit throat.

Eyes, pools of oblivion,
blacker than any gorilla.
Gorillas that the little
girl bird sees less and less.
The gorillas are less and
the guerrillas are more.
more and more
spilling from the border
like the Sun Bird's
red river scar.

They are Kahuzi-Biega now
they spill into Bukavu often
into Kivu
to do their own spilling...

When their work is done-
work of intimidation
of degradation
ruination-
Kivu's numbers are bolstered
everyday as sure as the sun
rises, their numbers rise too.
Everyday.
Ten more pairs of legs
forced wider than kingdoms
to be pillaged.
More men forced to watch

"If those eyes close..."

reluctant voyeurs
to the pillage of daughters,
their forced viewing ends
with rapid fire thunder.
Everyday.

The Kahuzi-Biega guerrillas
retreat to the green,
often with a souvenir
to tie to a tree
and remember the pillage.
Remember it over
and over.

They set the souvenir free
when memories become stale
so the souvenir returns home
neck rings of rope marks
the souvenirs of remembrance.

Guerrilla work finished
the work of others
just beginning.
The work of doctors
to mend and stitch
the daughters
mothers
and grandmothers
to try and salvage,
that which was ruined
by the guerrilla's manhood
and chunks of wood
and bayonets.

An epidemic
with no vaccine in a vial
no bottled solution
to a problem with
no clear solution.
Doctors become listeners
to battered bards
with the same sad story,

"...two held, three took turns..."
"...it lasted a few hours..."
"...it happened like last time..."

that the listener,
like a beast overburdened
cannot bear
but their work doesn't stop there.
The stories of the bards
lead to questions.

"What did they do?"
"Will everything work?"
"What of children?"

Then the listener tells a story.
A story of internal ruination,
where inner landscapes
are scarred by war,
leaving no place
for things to grow.
Maybe this is best,
that nothing can grow.
Maybe none will grow
and then there will
be no more little girls
or little boys.

Then the guerrillas
will not have new things
to pillage, to plunder
to use.

In the Congo there are men
on missions of peace.
Missions that enlist thousands
but the new guerrillas
of Kahuzi-Biega
still come in the night.

Only when the enlisted men
remain, with bright lights
of trucks,
do the guerrillas not come.
Like light houses in the trees
providing safety
and sending warning.
The people curl up
next to the lights
knowing safe sleep
for a short spell.

A Sun Bird watches
Kahuzi-Biega,
pools of oblivion
not seeing gorillas anymore,
it sees new guerrillas.
A very different animal.

The whisper before the thunder...

This whisper was inspired by the subject of Blog Action Day 2007, which is, the environment. The thunder will soon follow.



Failed Transmission

Somewhere in China,
where thick haze
hampers light's path,
a boy asks his mother,

Where is the sun?

His mother replies,

Don't worry if the sun
does not shine.
You've seen it before,
there's no need to worry.

In Australia,
where summer lingers
like a pleasant,
inconvenient guest,
analysts say,

The fall is fading.

Someone, staring at
their full closet responds,

What will become
of my beautiful,
fall fashions?

When these things occur
alongside the mystic,
mystery vanishings of

African rivers

Yangtze river dolphins

cool ocean currents

and goliath glaciers,

what does it mean?

If thousands die
a sun-stroked death,
while seas swell
and hurricanes
shatter the comfort
of precedents,
does one say,
coincidence?

Should one wonder
with the innocent
heart of a child,
if the Earth is speaking?

Can a collection
of ancient rock and stone
shake itself
with enough violence
to be noticed?

Do forgotten forests
whisper as their trees
sway in the winds?

Can clouds mass together
to form more than pictures
of fantasy and fable?

Is the ebb and flow
of the tides,
a rhythm,
laced with code?

No.

A rock of dust
and gas
cannot speak,
when there are none
who listen.

Blog Action Day 2007

This is an interesting concept, which will be featured here. On October 15 2007, there will be many whispers. Whispers, that could join to form the cracking, cacophony of thunder. On October 15 2007, there will be thunder here.

Inspiration From A Friend

This poem grew from a root, which called to be watered.
Many thanks to Jen Epting.

Ties

Histories tied to
personal possessions,
encapsulating remembrance,
extending the life
of a thought,
a moment.

Pieces of time
embedded in the essence
of a photograph of
someones essence.
History locked
and living in sepia,
constantly giving
the gift of
once more

the voice

the sea

the caress

once more.

It circulates,
feeling new hands,
new lives.
A memory
does not remain
unchanged but lives,
and for it
new histories are written.


The root can be found here: http://noisforwimps.blogspot.com/2007/09/classifying-my-memories.html

Contact

...Recieving...Transmitting...

...Connection Established.

Access Guide Lines...

Interface...Input...Frequently.