Riff
What is a riff? Jazz swing distilled to an absolute coolness short repeatable ‘nuff said!
Voo doo Hoo doo Who dat
Dis here is Nawlins in all its funk and jive and stink and rhythm, pulsing endlessly from bars, cafes and corner joints, calling without cease to seduce you, my underprivileged out of towner, into the den of Easy. Every smile, every come-on every to-go cup bids you throw your societal prudishness to the gutter and […]
Swanset
Brilliant white floats amid dusky reflections, grays billowing above, darkest green of lake below. The last orange fixes one cloud in nature’s spotlight, the last throbbing color of the day. And still the swan moves silently with no apparent effort, neck in a perfect curve. A dozen geese form a line like an escort and […]
Who is the prey?
The shock of birds of prey came home to roost this week on our suburban lake. The still patience of the Great Blue Heron has been superceded by the instantaneous swoop of the osprey, and that a hawk that has discovered our Purple Martin house as an easy meal. Noticing that we only have seen […]
Seeing in the Dark
In the 1960’s, my father would take me to visit his workplace, which, as an air traffic controller at Philadelphia International Airport, was pretty cool to a young kid. In the darkness of the Radar Room, I was fascinated by the blips representing airplanes with many passengers, which were briefly illuminated as the green line […]
A poetic answer to a question
This poem was sparked by an interviewer asking a guy beside me at the Moral Monday protest, “What is the issue that brings you here?” Blaise Kielar, 30 June 2013 Requiem for Democracy The forefathers did not foresee this Gerrymandering with such precise computer-gleaned data that a party in power can rig elections to remain […]
My first protest
I have never felt attracted to political protest. There is some feeling of tilting at windmills – lots of activity for little tangible result. What I came to understand after the Moral Monday protest at the NC Legislature is that, just by showing up, you are sending a message of solidarity with the millions of […]
Father’s Day, Now
My 90 year old Dad called this morning, to express his wonderment at getting my FedEx envelope with his card, including copies of my blog post about him as an air traffic controller, and a bunch of jewelry bits that he will enjoy making into bolos. Yes, I had forgotten to send him a card(!), […]
Home is Where Your Heart Opens
Home is not just a physical place – where you hang your hat or cook a meal. Not just where years of love and relationships have built a place that glows with warmth. A recent experience in an airport showed me that even on a plane full of strangers, I can feel fully at home. […]
Give your Spirit something to do and it will rise to the occasion!
After three unrelentingly cold and rainy Spring days in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, even attending the Adventures in Sound Play workshop with Paul Winter could not shake my gloomy mood. At Kripalu, where this workshop was held, breakfast is held in silence, so on this last morning, my only social contact as I entered […]