Poem - Learning to Waiting to Learn

Learning to Waiting to Learn

All those bad relationships

were just unripe peaches

eaten too soon

hard and dry

where they should be

soft and juicy

yet we get seduced

by the how sweet it could be

missing altogether the how

sweet it is

or isn’t

My friend says the difference

between a restaurant

and cooking at home

is that you have to eat

your mistakes at home

No one bites into a not perfect peach

and tosses it. We don’t waste like that.

We do waste, but not like that.

They’ll keep biting and biting

hoping for that one perfect bite

down to the pit. The hard thing

in the middle that offers nothing

unless placed in fertile soil.

We are creatures of optimism

even the pessimists

as we are creatures of evolution

even the creationists

We will keep going and going

thinking it will get better. It will.

Toss the peach. Let it decay

compost the soil. Let the pit split emit
seeds of sweet juicy futures

for generations marveling at a peach tree

on the sidewalk of a Brooklyn street

wondering where did that come from

then wait

as long as it takes

for the ripe one

in the meantime

there are other things to eat

kale and collards

books and songs

wait for the right one

you can know it by its scent

the velour of its touch

when it comes

be gentle

it is soft, sweet

and contains an

elixir you won’t want to spill

not even a drop.

c. 2014

e. amato

#np Jonathan Wilson

Quote of the Week - Miller

"Man builds on the ruins of his former selves. When we are reduced to nothingness, we come alive again. To season one’s destiny with the dust of one’s folly, that is the trick.” 

~ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch

This book was the best birthday present!

Each sentence is like it's own book - Miller's paragraphs are their own worlds.

No other writer, except Bukowski, seems as alive to me on the page, as if you are right there with them.

Just finished it today and ready to start it over. Thank you, again, Henry Miller.

Quote of the Week - Oberst

“Don’t look down
just cross the bridge

And when you get there
you’ll know why you did.

There’s a better life
on the other side

It’s your double life
on the other side

It’s your second life
on the side.”

~ Conor Oberst, “Double Life,” Upside Down Mountain

I was so scared of bridges when I was little, I'd crouch down in the back seat so as not to see. I wasn't too crazy about tunnels, either. (Which is bad, now I think about it since I was definitely part of the B&T set.)

I'd not thought about bridges as parts of life, not in this way…some things are just to be crossed - not processed or feared or anticipated. Just keep moving.

It's definitely the moment for some new Oberst. This is feeling like a good companion to Beck's Morning Phase. You're listening to that, right?

Quote of the Week - Rosoff

"I was coming around to the belief that whether you liked it or not, Things Happen and once they start happening you pretty much just have to hold on for dear life and see where they drop you when they stop." 

~Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now

I found How I LIve Now when I was browsing library ebooks and it felt like someone had written pages right from my life. I'm not a big YA reader, but I had to read it. It took about 2 days to finish it - I just fell in.

People like to think they're in control - especially American people. Truth is, you are only in control if you insulate yourself completely - and that's not life - and even that will only work for so long.

And that's ok. It's not about control. It's all about the letting go. Following the river.

Quote of the Week - Keats

"Health is my expected heaven" 

~ Keats

I'm having a Keats moment.  He seems to be appearing everywhere.  This is from a letter to his beloved, Fanny Brawne. He did not get his expected heaven, at least not in his life - perhaps on the other side.

He lived so briefly, yet left so much art, work and love when he left.  I can only marvel at how he achieved so much of this through ill-health. And at the strange and cruel irony that he had studied medicine before choosing poetry.

For some fictional Keats, check out Bright Star - Jane Campion's rumination on creative fertility with the always interesting Ben Whishaw as Keats. Or some historical fiction - Passion by Jude Morgan.