The Book of the Irish Bulls – On Sale Now
Two brief poems. Glad Putin appears to be mostly losing.
“Off” by yours truly
“I consider anything a loss.” –St. Paul from today’s Mass reading. I consider Paul holy but a bit too severe.
“Life is a casting off,” — wife/mother in “Death of a Salesman”
Getting rid of possessions, book collections.
“Warmer” by yours truly
Lent: weather getting warmer.
Improve your karma.;
End the drama.
Gone is Mama.
Just a poem today (for better or verse)
“Sashimi” by yours truly
Sashimi. Don’t come near me.
But please hear me:
Punctured skin, begin again.
Raw fish, sometimes deiish.
She saw me and seems not to like what she saw (of) me.
You may want to outlaw me.
Primal flaw.
“You don’t care at all about me;
So I will flee.”
She saw me. She see me. Sashimi.
What’s four times for? Four poems
Investment advisor:
“Invest in silver. And not just because I have been sleeping with a prostitute named Silver for several months. She is a good person, quite strong. Made payments to her in silver dimes. The police consider these crimes.”
“Hi ho, Silver!” –The Lone Ranger
2) “April 1″ by yours truly
” Fool’s Day or cool’s day?
Holy fools.
Sometimes confusion is the best orientation to life.”
“I don’t understand.”
3) “Loan” by yours truly
“You are alone,
And we would like you to pay your student loan.”
“How much?”
“As much as we say.”
“Oh, the humanity!”
“Yes, humanity degrees aren’t cheap.
So, know you owe .”
4 )”Clouds” by yours truly
Puffy, white clouds above hills
Seen outdoors or through window sills.
Sometimes the clouds darken
But still don’t rain.
Please explain.
On media and a joke/poem
From The Irish Times:
“The purchasing power of Irish households will fall this year for the first time since the period after the 2008 financial crash.
Back then, the fall in purchasing power between 2008 and 2012 was due largely to a drop in disposable incomes as unemployment soared, earnings fell for many and taxes rose sharply.
Now the cause is different. Incomes will rise this year, but this will be outstripped by a big jump in the rate of inflation.”
The term cost of living interested me today partly because I have been affected like almost everyone by rising costs but maybe especially because I have been self-employed and had no regular paycheck for several years.
But art is what most interests me in life (at least so far), and the issue of painfully rising costs reminds me of a Twilight Zone-like short film that I saw in adolescence made in about 1988 called “The Price of Life.”‘ You can find about it on IMDB, but it appears difficult to watch it now.
From the plot summary of it on Wikipedia: “The basic premise of the film is that a time account is physically linked to every infant at birth, with death automatic when the balance drops to zero. An elite upper-class is portrayed as living hundreds of years or more.” Though fantastic, the story seems an allegory for the very real issue of cost of living: if you don’t have enough money to keep up with growing costs, you will suffer and die early.
On lighter notes…
“”Madame” by yours truly
“Pardonne moi, Madame.”
“Are you calling me mad ham?
A crazy pig?
You’ve lost your hair,
So get a wig.”
“Zut alors, non Madame..”
“You’ve done it again!”
On a media article and two new joke/poems
On Bruce Willis (from MarketWatch)
“Willis, well known for his roles in movies like ‘Die Hard,’ ‘The Fifth Element’ and ’12 Monkeys,’ was diagnosed with aphasia, a cognitive disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak, write or understand language. The 67-year-old actor rose to fame in the ’80s as a co-star with Cybill Shepherd of the TV series ‘Moonlighting.’”
A few thoughts. I have always been impressed by actors’ ability to remember lots of dialogue, so it is understandable that someone losing facility with language would quit acting. (and almost no one wants to be a mime. Haha). I like Willis as an actor because he has been good at action, also could be funny, and smirk without being annoying.
The other is almost everyone has memory problems by his age. My own problem is mainly short-term and especially the organizational problem of where I have placed things. Acting never appealed to me because, after 13, I had problems with both memorization and stage fright.
“Pop” by yours truly
“Jalapeno poppers.”
“Yes, peppers are good for you,
But your jokes are still floppers.”
“Jalapenos have fallen on the ground:
Call the moppers.
Or someone may call coppers.”
“Windows” by yours truly
Computer windows.
Please no more dates with hos.
Heaven knows.
Comes and goes.
Violent throes,
Regain repose.
Just two jokes today
“Statement” by yours truly
As the agency’s official spokesperson, I have an important pubic statement to make: please lay off my private parts… unless we become consensually intimate.
“Air Con” by yours truly
“Air conditioning in Hell.
Still a sulfur smell.”
“Oh well.
Ring the bell.”
“Pell-mell.”
“Do tell.”
“Rose, then fell.”
“That’s swell.”
On writing and a media article
Sometimes writing, especially creating fictional stories, can be plodding and tedious.
I have decent momentum and structure with my current novella. It may just be under 100 pages printed and probably rather inexpensive. It will be an action story in its center but also psychological about its main character. It may be out as soon as this summer.
On a The Irish Times column by Trish Murphy:
“I’m female and in my 40s. I’m single, so maybe friendships are more important to me than to people in couples or with families. I find I feel disrespected a lot by a variety of people in my life and am often hurt, disappointed and left feeling drained by the way I’m treated. I realise I’m the common denominator in all these failed friendships and familial relationships.
I wonder sometimes if I expect too much from people, but surely if I’m upset, there’s something wrong. How do I know if I’m just overly sensitive? I do have two exceptionally good friends, so it’s not everyone in my life. But life is very quiet.”
A few thoughts. Respect is difficult. You have to earn it, but if you don’t get it for no good reason, you tend not to want to show it in return to the person showing disrespect. I brought up the idea in a blog post a while back about what it is we are expecting from other people: some type of gratification on various levels? The more important thing is to respect yourself.
“I tell ya: I get no respect.”– Rodney Dangerfield
A Mass and some new poems
The Mass today was mainly about The Old Testament story of the prodigal son. “He was lost and now has been found.,” it goes. Lent is meant to be a time of repentance but also acceptance.
Mortification, but also joy comes in Cross between literalism and irony.
Some poems
“We should not let them have unclear energy
And instead strive for synergy.”
2) “Harvest” by yours truly
A single bright star
And a a harvest moon in the sky, early morning.
Mourning.
Multi-colored sky over winter foothills.
People’s wills. Angers and ills.
A comment on politics and new poems
Was watching US President Biden’s speech in Warsaw today. I thought it was strong and coherent. But I think the US should help deliver fighter planes to Ukraine as long as the Ukrainians agree to only let them stay in their own air space.
Some poems
“Crazy Eight”
I have a mind of a kind,
But be sure to eat the pulp (gulp),
Not the rind.
It could make you go blind.
Cautious, or that you’ll find.
By me signed. ——–J.-J, J, Schmidt.
2) “Release” by yours truly
Ohh, Jesus
Please release us
From the madness
And the sadness.
I’ll just add this…
3) “Cant” by yours truly
I can’t:
My cant.
4) “Nihilism Part Two” by yours truly
I am adopting nihilism
Because I like kneeling on Sundays.
5) “ISBNs” by yours truly
ISBNs:
Needles and pins,
Almost-forgotten /forgiven sins.
Death of a 1,000 cuts.
My words may make me nuts.
“Make more sense,
Or just use more pens.”
6) “Positive” by yours truly
“Be positive!”
“Dad, my blood type will probably
Never be B+ no matter how much you want it to be.
It is what it is.”
7) “Hup Part Two” by yours truly
Hup, two, three, four.
Please don’t eat another s’more.
It might make you poor
And make us sore.
Time to leave; there’s the door,
8) “Crazy” by yours truly
“You’re crazy.”
“I bet you say it to all the boys.”
On patience
Patience can be difficult in the modern world because technology makes a lot of things possible but not always really attainable or at least not for a long time, whether from security snarls or your own ineptitude.
“This is a modern world,” went a refrain by the 1980s rock group The Jam.
How do you balance patience with passions? One of my foreign buddies overseas had a saying, “how, ehh?”