Emails sent

. . . to a brother who doesn't want me to sing "Happy Birthday".
    
Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 8:30 AM
    
Today is the birthday for Tav,
who every young chick he would have.
But when he grew old,
they started to scold:
Hey, on it your hand and more salve!

Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 8:27 AM

This day is a day to remember,
an event for one special member.
But I do not refer
to that thing in your fur!
Your sister's is in September.

Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 8:25 AM

The past is the past let it be,
for nothing's to be done you see.
Enjoy the moments this day--
A birthday say what? Hey!
Celebrate with us then we're three.

Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 8:24 AM

The future is not ours to see.
The wise wait and just let it be.
Now if fester you must,
you'll grow older and rust.
Shut the fuck up--with joy agree.

Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 8:24 AM

With my brother--like no other,
he worries he's like our mother.
But I can say with word firm,
(know I ain't like no weak worm!)
each is their own . . . want no druther.

---

and to my sister, and I also sang that silly song

How old you are (2019)

matters little after that last stage
when we embrace the day it comes--
thankful for this one more
when we rise, stretch
and greet the sun.

Miles and miles now:
full and empty,
triumphs and challenges,
sights seen and not . . .
people here now gone.

Know we had never imagined treasures,
along our ways in spite of wants
we wanted and futures we had to have.

With this date and day and age
and with these -stones,
we set all aside--
ah, much behind if less ahead.

These help us let go the grasp and grape--
For this day's sun and light.

Yes, as much a birth-day as another granted.
Count it too among thy expanding fullness.
Enjoy the life of smiles thus moments grateful.

We let go the rest
to die for the sun and light,
and time afforded.

Madness at the Movies

 Dr. James has writ a book.
Mad in movies is the hook.
Worth yer time--take good a look.

Fun to learn with care a read,
self and other see in deed.
First a trigger is a seed.

Plus art from artist divide.
Set intentions well aside.
Art and act as such betide.

There are worlds that hide a crook.
Psyche's realms'll show their nook.
Mere opinion we'll not brook.

Read this book 'nd you'd be wise.
And view the films with yer eyes.
Weigh the ills thru actors' guise.
Be ye but common​ like in size,
or take ​these things to scholarize.
Gems're here to mizerize.

Grab these and take, I su pose,
our dear doctor's friendly prose.
It's as with wine use yer nose.
He weaves the words as he goes--
film-world glitter, and our woes.
But for god, one's fate there flows.

Caution: context be your guide--
no facile fact Jim lets it slide.
Each chapter and end abide.
We come to calm with the tide.
Take the stock: we've had a ride.

Madness at the Movies--Go!
Now will Jim to write some mo?
Of course, with this we hope​ so.
Now at wit's end and our love,
whether not Jim says nope​.

​Ah.

Forgive, forget, forgo with a shove--
all the dog'ral like this above.

To Harold the hoarder

Jun 30, 2016, 10:49 AM, a missive to my dearest . . . oh, better not say.

[begin message]

Dearest Harold (the Hoarder),

Thank you for your message. I read it with compassion, but a pain in my heart. Compassion we need not dwell upon, mere sentimental and useless BS. But of pain must I speak, being a person of the cloth, your humble servant, bringing you ideas and words you, sadly, cast into the wasteland from which your materialism grows. My faith in your salvation continues, and so . . . 

I recall you once threw a dildo away. Blessings, my son, for therein is an evil material thing. Why, with dildos, what woman has use of a man and his member? Is it not better to cast the thing from you and use your own, Gypsy-given tool to satisfy yourself and your woman? Besides, dildos need batteries to work and they wear out and you have to buy more. With a dildo you now have more things to worry about. You performed a good deed by casting that thilthy thing aside.

I recall you once hoarded an empty box. Is it not so? Cast it also away. It is the occasion for sin, for you might put something in it and then where will you be? A man with a box now filled--you have two material things whereas before you had one. See how this error in your ways multiplies? And what if you put more than one thing in the box? You will forget all of what you have in there before nature takes your memory away from you naturally. What a tragedy! We need no stinking boxes.

Does not the scripture say that to enter the kingdom of heaven you must pass through the eye of a needle? It indeed does. In the Holy Book of Gypsy it says that the damned will swim in their belongings on the lowest level of hell, for there is where all human waste and material objects will sink and mire those who would not forsake and let go with their grubby little hands that which they could not part.

Ah, pain in my heart. Save thy self before it is too late. You don't wish after you part to be thrown into that infinite storage unit below with all that crap and all the crap that other hoarders and materialists have accumulated. Think of it. All that plastic and refuse and tools you can't use in the afterlife. You will be unable to grasp any of it with your immaterial hands. You will still, however, get a monthly bill for storage. Material hell is not a fair nor pleasant place.

Ponder and continue to pay until you are forced to yell, "Uncle!" or, "Pastor, help me. Help me. I'm drowning. I'm drowning."

So ends this message from Word-of-the-Day Salvation and Redemption services, a non-profit church for the overly burdened souls of color on this earth. You being a whitie of some pinkish color, not politically of course.

I.M. Free

PS Where did you throw that dildo? Is there any way of recovering that and having a quick . . . ?

 

[end message]

Same goes for mortals

The Writer's philosophy revolves around a deep love of knowledge characterized by careful, clear, systematic, rational, reflective, and critical thinking about fundamental ideas on any subject with the goal of understanding and wisdom. This philosophy emphasizes the highest expression as asking questions and proposing well-considered answers for right action.

The Writer reflects on the nature of self and consciousness, acknowledging the complexity of human experience and the importance of personal evolution through writing. Writing is seen as a form of self-therapy [sic] and exploration rather than for an audience, focusing on identifying and clarifying thoughts as they appear in consciousness.

There is also a recognition of the challenges posed by mechanical and staunch adherence to beliefs without awareness, which the Writer fears could hinder cultural progress and saner choices in society.

Ultimately, the Writer values shared humanity, hopefulness, and the potential for learning, growth, and creating a more just and equitable world despite the complexities and messiness of life.

If you believe all of that--about me, this voice--you will err. What do others, even AI in this instance, based on reading 50 posts to this blog, know? Not enough. Not the whole person. Not even what the Writer is hiding by not addressing, e.g., his/her dark side, and regrets (i.e., faults/errors).

So no, do not believe everything you read, and let not words represent the person you think you know.

"No other is privy to who I am," said God. Same goes for mortals.

So there

AI agrees, so stop using this erroneous phraseology. It's an infectious disease.

 

QUESTION: Is this phraseology correct? I like the way how it looks like (something).

ANSWER: No, that phraseology isn't quite correct. You have a redundancy with "the way how." 
You should use either:
- "I like the way it looks" 
- "I like how it looks"
Both express the same meaning, but using "the way how" together is redundant. The corrected sentence would be:
- "I like the way it looks like (something)" or
- "I like how it looks like (something)"
The "like" at the end is fine if you're comparing it to something specific.

[Caught--AI not thinking again. Humans are still better at it.]

QUESTION: Would this be another alternative? I like what it looks like.
ANSWER: Yes, "I like what it looks like" is definitely another correct alternative!
So you have three good options:
"I like the way it looks"
"I like how it looks"
"I like what it looks like"

All three are grammatically correct and natural-sounding. The choice between them is mostly a matter of personal preference or style. "What it looks like" emphasizes the appearance itself as a thing you like, while "the way it looks" and "how it looks" focus more on the manner of its appearance.

 

So there.

 

As is your sway

She sat swiping across the screen,
I stood behind, I think unseen.

Fashions flickered before her eyes,
no thing her peerage would despise.

Saw her off to catch her train . . .
hurtful to judge her un-arraigned.

I could wisely wax profound
that she was shallow unbound.

We just give seconds to know
one's unique whole self then go.

Most her moments are unseen,
never swiped on our mind's screen.

Oh, the impotent didact:
Ne'er a subject enacts our tack.

Imperfect is all our lot;
wise words out and there they rot.

Live and let live mantra be.
Yes that girl--she's . . . eye candy.

Just a blip along life's way,
enjoy or not as is your sway.

Hurt none now, they come and go . . .
loud and silent deeds we sow.

Hacker agonistes

from Jan. '23 

Short footnote to what I wrote about writing fiction and it's-really-about-the-writer: Recently I felt I should correspond with someone I have known for twenty plus years but have had little time to enjoy her company for almost that whole period. I didn't want to compose the email message. I resisted for some reason. I wanted just to say that I had gotten and felt much older and had retreated into myself and had regrets for times lost to us, to me. Would I get another chance in this life or the next?

So I had the idea of forwarding a link to a story I wrote last year. I felt that it reflected all the above and that I had taken refuge in writing and living in imaginary/better worlds. Upon careful reading, she could see who I am today and know basically what had become of me.

I made the case in another short piece I wrote some years ago that if you read a work, any work, and gave it deep and thorough reflection, you would find all the wisdom of the ages contained therein. I don't suppose anyone else feels or thinks that way about writing and worlds within worlds that are revealed, but no matter. Except to say that this idea or hypothesis was behind what I was thinking of doing, just sending a link to something I had written which I liked a lot and thought it told my story as I would like to be known and remembered.

On a very obvious level, everything written reveals what the writer is concerned with, had wondered about, etc. This is not the deep stuff but what everyone can see by reading and reflecting on who must have written that. Oh, he thinks there is an unseen world of ideal forms, or gosh, it's like that living in a racist community, etc.

The written is part of the newsy autobiography of the writer, and the reader can begin to construct the biography through careful and thoughtful reading. As to whether that matters or that we would have an insight into other, deeper stuff, well, that is for the critics and would-be bright ones, who really, most of the time, don't know what they are talking about. Or more accurately, one moves from what we know the writer knows and cares about to conjectures which go beyond the evidence of the text and known biographical details of the writer.

So in the end, the text shows itself and something of the writer, but we'd best leave it at that and avoid the error of conjectures, i.e., gossip, and stick with what we can be pretty sure about.

I don't know today, June '25, who the person was that I thought about contacting, and I am lost as to what I wrote that brought these (above) strings of words on. But the thesis and hypotheses continue to occupy my thoughts from time to time. 

As do some personal conclusions that I also deem universal.

Example: Take a quote from Rushdie's Satanic Verses, or any other book you find, and see if it doesn't lead you endlessly toward insights and revelations you thought were more properly a part of some sacred text you are more acquainted with. I think of the dictionary that way, one thing always leads to another.

While I wax thus, truths here discovered while you were unaware of me and all these endless words trying to sort out life and living:

1. All speech is political, even this that you are reading, as well as whatever you have not seen or heard, present, past or future.

2. If you get the girl by befriending her friend, the friend you will cast aside once you have attained your desire.

3. You can share your deepest and most intimate thoughts with an animal, dog in my case, and it will feel like you have earned forgiveness and reached understanding. People can't give you that.

4.

5. 

(Aside with sorrow as I ponder for more) I should have been a hack literary theorist at least and not this pussy faux-philo fragmatist.