Bits and pieces

I have an iPhone and as most smart phone users know there is usually some sort of notepad app that comes with the phone. I use mine quite a bit. I have usually a total of 15 or more notes. They range from the standard to-do lists and grocery lists to major project lists and lists of CDs, bands, authors and books I want to check out. The two most used notes aren't any of these though. They are eloquently titled "Random Thoughts" and the creative "More Thoughts."

These two notes are bits of poetry, song lyrics, story ideas of mine as well as quotes, movie lines, song lyrics and other odd bits that I've collected from others. I've been collecting quotes and such for years. Sometimes I look back at all the bits and scraps of paper, the notebooks and such and laugh at the things I wrote down, but I've managed to hang on to many of these gems.

Tonight I am going to share some of these:

"The Singularity Is Near" Ray Kurzweil. (This is actually the title of a book, but I love it as a quote.)

"Looking at my life hurts."

"God's been a real sport to me," Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone 

"It makes you feel lonely the way you do at a party in a room full of people. Smothered, suffocated by their closeness, but so far away, alone, separated by an incredible distance, a gulf, right next to you, so far . . . within your reach, but a touch feels like a ghost, like a faint breath of air across the skin, no more real than the plastic plants in the planter atop the ledge, alone."

"This ain't rock and roll, this is genocide." David Bowie

"Meanwhile the TV runs constantly in the background like Danny Elfman music played at 45 rpms and I KNOW I am going nuts!"

"Fuck this . . . " AC/DC intro to Problem Child

"My love is like a salted plain
Where flowers wither in pain,
My love is like a toxic rain
Where cancer thrives and tumors reign."

"I have become a silent movie" Elliott Smith

"There are times when the only time I feel real is when I've read something I've written."

"A sonic architect" Jimmy Page referring to U2's The Edge.

"God is anecdotal"

"I am an undercover rock star." Kelly Taylor

"Tie me to a cross and hang me high, its time for this tragedy to end."
 
"I realized today that I had forgotten who I was."
 

Begin the begin

Over the past year I became fascinated by the work of poet Wallace Stevens. While I have read his contemporaries, such as T.S. Eliot, I had not read Stevens before this.

I am moved by his ability to communicate, to create feelings and stir emotions through descriptive imagery. Stevens' use of descriptive nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as active verbs shows innovation. His skill at setting scenes is comparable to Eliot's. The reader can feel the tension, the pain, the regret or the beauty in each poem. He was a forerunner of Ginsberg and apparently influenced him greatly, as Ginsberg's street scenes show, though their styles are so different.

I had an interesting conversation with a couple of friends the other afternoon. We were discussing appearances. Primarily the discussion centered around people who appear to live perfect lives but who's real lives are hidden behind closed doors, either of the physical kind or of the metal kind. This lead me to thinking and that led me to writing.

The following poem is yet untitled. It is a study of one such couple. A look inside and out using a style based on Stevens.



A ring of keys lies on the table top dropped beside
the checkbook, bills, a laptop, the last apple
a creaking hinge, a sigh

An engine roars to a stop, vacuum ,
Odors waft toward the door, diner on the table
a pleasure now transformed into duty, obligation

Where do the obstacles come from
cold looks feed the soul a poor diet
The brief rat-a-tat of voices,
followed by silence served with emptiness

Evenings spent in separate rooms the tv a mediator
Sporadic exchanges echo down the hall

The phone rings, a caller, the doorbell, a visitor
A semblance of normalcy, conversation,
Hang up, say goodbye, close the door
Alone the clock ticks, it becomes a jailor
What now?

The distance is neither divided by rivers or mountains
But by a wad of blankets and a well placed pillow
a desert or deserted?
For lack of water a seed does not grow.

Sudden outbursts on an afternoon,
Squabbling birds are hushed and take flight
While others remain,
does the struggle sustain them

Outside the world moves and breaths, lives lived
Waiting . . .

Chasing rabbits

Hi, my name is dee moore, if you all don't already know me. I am a writer and was a journalist until I was laid off. But, the first description is more apt because I've been a writer since I was 12. What I want to do hasn't changed much since then. I don't think I have much either. The ideas are still pretty much the same, the only difference is that the person who is carrying those ideas around sort of finally grew up. I am a bit more colorful with my spoken language. I'm a bit more assertive. I am a lot more decisive and independent. But, still the same.
I started this blog off wanting to write essays about topical events and subjects hoping to kick start me back into writing because I hadn't in a while. By that I mean I haven't been writing for publication since October. I am always constantly scribbling. Unfortunately, the blog and the essays just didn't happen. I have two near completed essays in six months and neither one posted.
I recently decided to turn this blog into my scratch pad: making this is mostly notes, saved thoughts, bits of poetry, saved comments and quotes by other people, pieces of songs and such. Now and then I may post old newspaper stories that I wrote. Please realize that everything published to this blog is copyrighted, either by me or the paper which published it. Steal from me and I will open a can of whoop ass on you, no joke.
I will also make some journal-entry style posts. These will mainly be for me and my friends who want to stay "caught up" on what's going on in my life and in my head. So many of you guys are now spread out across the country, me included, and hopefully these posts will make it easier for us to all stay in touch.
I can't guarantee that I will post daily. I seriously doubt it. But, I am going to shoot for weekly and hope for better.
Oh, and this is important, I love to include song lyrics that apply to my posts or that may be playing in my head while I am writing. I have a virtual jukebox in my head and every minute is crowded with song. As you can see, next to writing, music is my life. I can't live without it. Right now I thinking about the movie "The Matrix" and hearing Jefferson Airplane's "Alice", "One pill makes you bigger and one pill makes you small." Red pill or blue pill? Or will this blog be like "the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all" for you! Either way, it'll be fun for me!