Saturday, February 25, 2006

This is the first poem I wrote after Hurricane Katrina changed my life.

The Next Day? (A Storm Poem)

FOR ALL MY TRUE TEACHERS

By yielding overcome

By bending remain straight

By emptying be filled

By breaking become whole

By losing gain…

…Therefore

Choose emptiness to find fullness

Embrace the formless to master form

Practice humility to attain greatness

Claim nothing to receive the bounty of the world

--Lao Tzu, from Tao Te Ching, #22 (traditional numbering)--

1.

for Madame Katrina & for Gertrude Stein

What did I lose?

What?

Did I lose?

Did I loose.

What did I loose?

What did.

I lose.

What did I?

Lose loose.

What did I loose lose?

What did I lose?

Loose

I did

what

Did I lose.

2.

for Michael Stipe/R.E.M. & Adrian Belew/King Crimson

A way not to look at it

& a way to look at it.

A way not to think about it

& a way to think about it.

A way not to talk about it

& a way to talk about it.

3.

for Liz Waldner & Dylan Thomas

Did I gain? Could

I have gained?

Would I do it? Who

could do it? Pained

I

did it.

Did what? Painted

what picture of hell?

Descent into water?

Fall into what well?

Did I

swell.

Lucky. Lucky? Was

who lucky now storm

is over. Past blows

are over. That form-/

-er

flowed.

Flowered? Not yet; soon,

I think. I swooned yes, yes-/

-terday. Who is someone

(within, without, with none), yes

no one no

wonder?

4.

for Emily Dickinson

A something happened. It

happened to me. I saw

it, felt it enlarge my

horizon. My eyes &

ears filled to brimming of

a monumental size.

5.

for Miles & Tiffany & Robert

The next day, the next day,

The next day, the next day,

The next day, the next day,

The next day, the next day;

The next day, the next day,

The next day. The next day

The next day I awoke

to amazement on the

faces looking into

mine. The funny thing was

I was looking at them

with the same amazement.

6.

for John Berryman & Liz Waldner

“Huffy Henry hid….”

From me. From him. –From Hen-

ry. My writing is rife

with quest(ion)ings, on(i-

on)/r/ings, goings on, on-

going abstractionisms.

–Keep it up; see what hap-

pens. See what hap ends; how.

--gtmeek--

Moss Point, Mississippi

days 9-10 a.k. (after Katrina)

(September 7-8, 2005)

Note: Lao Tzu lines adapted from Ray Grigg, page 89, The New Lao Tzu:

A Contemporary Tao Te Ching, 1995, Charles E. Tuttle, Boston.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

2nd entry, short on time

Here I am extemporizing again. You see, the problem is that I do not own a computer, have never owned one, but I have been fortunate enough to have frequent access to one or another Internet-connected PC over the last decade or two. Only, not right now, so that I find myself a fortunate citizen of a fortunate nation who is able to avail himself of public access to the Internet at my local library, the Ina Thompson Moss Point Library (www.jgrl.lib.ms.us). Only, that access is limited to one-hour sessions, which drastically reduces my capacity to blog at much length, inexperienced as I am in this particular realm. Plus, without even word-processing capability at my post-Katrina home, I must pre-write my blog entries longhand--oh my god! It's a pure wonder I can scratch up & peck out some few letters & symbols that may have a chance to cohere into a semblance of thought.

Let me see whether I can scratch up a link to my band, Triage, in which I play percussion & drums. Our website is www.triagemusicgroup.com. I am afraid the links to our music may not be working now, but if you are on the Mississippi coast, please give us a listen if you get the opportunity. We play & sing acoustic versions of a variety of "baby-boomer" music & some original songs of our own. Our name describes our desire to use music to help heal ourselves & our community of fellow Katrina Survivors.







Here's a photo of me from the Triage website:



One more note for today: I don't like "meek of the week" for the name of my blog. I'm thinking of changing it to "belowgorising" or "words from the belowgosphere".

Saturday, February 18, 2006

my debut on the blogosphere?

In the oft-repeated words of the late Bill Hicks, "Who'd'a thunk it?" Here am I, a good modern boy, typing my ass--I mean my mind--onto the world wide wonder web thingy, out there...somewhere.

Where Am I Exactly? Where am I on the Web, & what does that mean? Also, what does it mean that I am alive doing this now, with both my sons & both my granddaughters & my mother & aunt all alive & well after The Storm, Hurricane Katrina, when I could have so easily died rather than lived when my apartment came apart around me just north of the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi on that August morning?

These & other Great Questions about my Great Life past & future will be the beginning content of my 'blog, this 'blog, this writing I'll be doing. We shall see what we see.