After Work

AFTER WORK

The ringing in my ear
the desk clutter—
post-its, a pile of unreturned
messages, half finished report,
the missing file that haunted me
all the way home—

the stop and go traffic on I-70,
sloshed latte in my lap,
the SUV on my ass,
news of floods, more IEDs,
unemployment, casualties,
mosque, no mosque—

all dispersed in a floral medley
of gentle bath bubbles and oils
nibbling my toes.


© 2010 – Michael A. Wells



Part of Magpie Tales 28

Saturday Seven Recommended Posts

I have planned for a good part of the day to stop and post today but one delay seemed to lead to another and here I am at 9:30 typing this.  My wife and I did  take time to watch a couple of movies.... Leap Year and The Invention of Lying. They were both enjoyable - not award winners but something to relax to and share time together.

Over the past few days I've seen some really good posts around the blog world and I thought I'd point out a few that I'd recommend.

• Poet Mom continued a conversation on underrated poets and asked for other suggestions.
• Kelly Wantuch provides an interesting take on photo art.
• Terresa Wellborn's powerful words in A Different Leaving.
• Just found this cool site thanks to The Chocolate Chip Waffle.
• Poem by Polly McCann ADD MOM
• Poet Trading Cards at Poets United
• Susan Rich's poem Mohamud at the Mosque

Happy reading~

Thursday Thought

The modern artist is working with space and time and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating. - Jackson Pollock

Mid-day

Window view distracts
Progress on work seems jerky
Rather be outside

Confession Tuesday - better late then never edition...

Dear Reader- I was asleep at the switch. Tuesday came and went and I confess I did not once think about confession. Perhaps it’s because there seemed nothing nagging at my mind. Even now, it seems my confession omission is the most exciting thing to report.


Ah, but there is something people who know me would be surprised to know. The past two days I have actually pulled for the Chicago Cubs to win games. Not of course every game, or just any game, but specifically those in their series against the Padres. This I confess is revenge and preservation. The revenge is for the Padres taking 2 games of a 3 game series against the San Francisco Giants, and preservation for assuring the tightness of the division race in the NL west. This should surprise you because the Cubs are one of a few teams I normally always would root against. I don’t go as far as making voodoo team dolls and trying to render certain teams lame… If they are lame, they are just lame on their own.



I confess I had a really strange and intricate dream last night that I keep remembering bits and pieces of. Could this find its way into a future poem?



I confess that I truly believe that as many as a third of the people in this country have no clue about fundamental issues, history, geography and current events. I also believe that many of these same people comprise a very vocal part of society that tends to consider themselves infallible and anointed with absolute truth. I had this thought yesterday though a less refined part of this assessment has been in my mind for many years now. I do however believe that more of these people are becoming involved. They are drawn to and are easily persuadable by others that can roughly be described the same way. How did we get so lucky? That’s totally rhetorical and I’m not looking for a bunch of comments.



Thanks for hanging in with me. Maybe next week I can be on time.

They're Back!

Yesterday morning as I was leaving for work I was greeted by geese.  We have a baseball field directly across the street from us and during their migration - twice a year we are visited by geese. They are astonishing in flight and fascinating to watch when they stopover to rest on the ball field. There were some 20 birds yesterday. I never know what to expect. Several years ago my daughter and I counted over a hundred of them on the field.

 

If you haven't caught it, Kelli Agodon has a great post on The Art of the Blurb.  She has had so many good writing advise posts to questions that have been posed to her recently so if you haven't been to her blog recently or like ever, I recommend it. Book of Kells.  I'm a pretty avid reader of Kelli's blog and as summer arrives she usually announces that she will be somewhat sporadic in her posts. My first reaction is of course a sigh. But each summer she will field questions and do responses or offer some writerly wisdom on her own.  She may not post as frequently, but the posts are always insightful.  It's no wonder she generally receives so many comments to her posts. 

 

Well, it's hump day and I've sinned. I missed Confession Tuesday. How did that happen anyway?  Well, I will have to collect myself and head to the confessional later today.

 

 

Understanding

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.  -Carl Jung