The Song of the First Monday

Well, today was the first Monday of the New Year. I joked with my sister today - only 51 more to go! It is strange but, if you break most things done to component parts (including time) then you become aware of the speed with which things pass, or the speed at which things are accomplished.

Work was a pretty typical Monday. A couple of meetings, a bit of work, enough to keep the day flowing smoothly but not so much as to overwhelm the day. I battled a bit of stress when some automated process went off on my computer this morning and it basically locked the computer up. I suspect it is a virus scan, but it could be any one of many things. It is sort of a constant thorn in my side on my work laptop, but I've worked with the desktop support people and they haven't been able to resolve it. The worst kind of errors in the computing world are intermittent errors. They can be a real bear to trouble-shoot and resolve. Other than that though, it was a good day.

I got home tonight, read a bit of Frank O'Hara, had an egg salad sandwich for dinner, then loaded "Highlander" into the Blu-Ray player. Highlander is the definitive Christopher Lambert movie and it has what I have considered to be the second greatest soundtrack - in the case of Highlander, a full set of incredible songs by Queen. (The greatest movie soundtrack ever, in my opinion, is Walter Hill's "Streets of Fire".) But, as for Highlander - Immortals, with Swords and Sean Connery in a supporting role. How can you possibly go wrong!

My bit of Frank O'Hara today was "Gamin". For your reading enjoyment:

All the roofs are wet
and underneath smoke
that piles softly in
streets, tongues are
on top of each other
mulling over the night.

We lay against each other
like banks of violet
while the slate slips
off the roof into the
garden of the old lady
next door. She is my

enemy. She hates cats
airplanes and myself
as if we were memories
of war. Bah! When you
are close I thumb my
nose at her and laugh.

Introducing Frank O'Hara

One of the things I decided to do this year was to focus on poetry. Yes, poetry in general, but also a specific poet - and for that poet I've chosen the sublime Frank O'Hara. I've got "The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara" edited by Donald Allen from The University of California Press(www.ucpress.edu).

What I am planning on doing is working my way through the collection in its entirety and carefully read, consider and contemplate O'Hara's work. I'd like to reach the end of the year with a deep understanding of his work. I consider O'Hara's poetry to possess a startling and all encompassing intimacy. He writes with an immediacy, with the ability to transport the reader into the world of the specific poem. I'm looking forward to it and I will share some of that journey here.

(Special thanks to my beloved T.R., who shares her passion for O'Hara, which in turn feeds my passion.)
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Sun Breaks Free

The sun found it's way to freedom following our first winter storm of the year, which happened to be right on schedule with the first day of winter. After seven straight days of gray and rain it was nice to see the sun, nice to feel it on my skin, nice to walk underneath it. I made it a point on the drive home to stop and take a walk through San Tomas Aquino River park and watch the rainfall runoff splashing down the river, then came home to a simple dinner of a ham and cheese sandwich and a salad.

We've reached the still point at work, that point during the Christmas season when virtually everyone is on vacation and so our workload slows to a mere crawl. I think I got three email today, all about the same subject. I had one meeting and missed another because I got a doctor's appointment time wrong - I had written it down right, I just got it tangled in my mind - fortunately the tangle was that I showed up an hour early, so I took advantage of the mistake to head over and have a nice sushi lunch.

I am looking forward to a very quiet and very soft Christmas this year. With input from my beloved T.R. I've decorated my tree very simply this year, indeed, I've keep all my decorations to a minimum. I've got a string of lights on the patio. I've got the tree up with a single ornament (a Hallmark Eastern Bluebird). I've got a simple wreath on the front door. That is it, and it is also all I need or want this year. This is a very minimalist Christmas, with an remembrance of what the season is about, the birth of Christ, our savior.

I am starting to turn my mind toward my New Year's resolutions for 2011. I haven't carved anything in stone yet, but I have some ideas circulating inside my imagination. I managed to keep 2010 a simply year, focused on healing. Besides recovering from the amputation of my toe last November, a long and slow process, I also had the second toe surgery, to correct the hammer toe that developed on the same foot, so I spent my share of time limping and healing this year.

I also focused on other forms of healing, starting (and maintaining) counseling sessions for work stress, which were probably long overdue. The sessions have been very fruitful and I feel like I have most of my work stress under control. It's no longer a 500 pound gorilla knocking the crap out of me, but rather a handful of imaginary monkeys picking at things. Oh, every now and then something will happen that sets me off, but the recovery time from the stressful incident is far quicker. I don't dwell on it - I recognize it for what it is and am able to deal with it far more effectively than I could just a few months ago. I've still got a ways to go, but I am headed in the right direction and most importantly I feel as if I have the tools to continue on the path of healing and on a "return to the center", so to speak.

I am looking forward to the New Year and I think whatever my resolutions may be, one of the key components if a more focused internal journey and a more expansive external journey. One of the things I've been contemplating on the internal side of that journey is to focus and dedicate the year to poetry. I was discussing with T.R. and one of the things I thought about was spending the entire year with Frank O'Hara (one of the great American poets - if you are unfamiliar with his work run, don't walk, to the nearest book store and buy or order one of his works, or the complete and unabridged volume, which I have).

Daily Life: Luxurious Crickets

I have had a phrase spinning around in my brain since the weekend when I woke up with it in my mind. I want to write something about it, but my brain has yet to settle on what to write. The phrase is "luxurious crickets". There is a story or a poem in there percolating around that phrase.

I spent most of the day today in meetings, including a two hour virtual training session to get certified on a software upgrade to a product I don't actually use, so you can imagine how tough it was to stay alert. Fortunately, I had a copy of Frank O'Hara's "Meditations in an Emergency" with me, so it helped to pass the time. He is an astounding poet. If you are not familiar with him, then I would definitely encourage you to find a copy of some of his work and indulge yourself in the art of a master wordsmith.

Brilliant Ciphers

I paused the day
At a small diner
Where I ate apple pie
And vanilla ice cream
Read Frank O'Hara
And listened to "Duke of Earl"
I thought
That the sum total of all our experiences
Made us
Brilliant ciphers

Sent from my iPhone