"I was both scattered and stymied, surrounded by unfinished songs and abandoned poems. I would go as far as I could and hit a wall, my own imagined limitations. And then I met a fellow who gave me his secret, and it was pretty simple. When you hit a wall, just kick it in." Patti Smith, from Just Kids

"I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim." Frida Kahlo

Happy Trails, Etta.

Thanks
by W. S. Merwin


Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

From the new Tom Waits vinyl. Very good stuff. A shout out to some Raised Right Men!

In Dreams, I am never eating


Am I ever gonna get my Ferrell's burger? I am eating almonds
out of a can and dreaming of a bacon cheesebruger with Ferrell's
onions. But I have no friends to come and take me to get one.

Ahhhhhhh, but we must have our dreams.

I Had To Put Molly To Bed

Just because she would not stop looking at me.
It is unnerving at times. She had been fed,
taken out to potty, petted and loved on,
given a treat, looked at and praised. But, she
would not stop looking at me. I was trying
to watch a movie, Beginners or something
like that. I was very focused but could see
her watching me watch the screen, could
feel her intensity when the scene shifted
to the father's death. She did not attempt
to paw at me, as she so often does to get
my attention. She just simply kept looking
at me. So, I paused the film, got the treat
bag out, told her what a good girl she was,
led her to the crate--which she very willingly
entered--and gave her some of those fancy
organic things for dogs. She seemed happy
enough at the moment. She is there still.
The movie is not over. I feel as if I relegated
her to child who cannot understand
the emotion, who does not need to view
the dymanics of relationships, who must
certainly, above all, be spared such pain.

No one will watch you more or as intensely as your dog. A book I read last year (Inside A Dog, I think), discussed this "watching." Unless Molly is eating, romping, sleeping, or going to the bathroom, she is watching me. She watches me: cook (of course, hoping I will drop a morsel), watch a movie, talk on the phone, read, dance, clean the house, cry, laugh, smoke a cigarette, put something together, eat. When I turn out the lights to go to sleep, there she is--watching me as I pull the covers up and try to get comfortable. Always watching with those big brown eyes.