An Earth Day Verse

By chance of birth
We’re here on Earth,
More lucky than we know
With such a brain
As can explain
The way these things must go

That life began
Not with a man
Named Adam, and his Eve
But molecules
In tidal pools
That replicate and cleave

To replicate
It is their fate
And thus to reproduce
The Earth revolves
And life evolves
And all this, we deduce

Recycled star
Is what we are
With everything we see
This view of things
Amazement brings
At least, it does to me

Some future day
I know we may
Be swallowed by the sun
For what it’s worth
Protect the Earth–
We’ve only got the one.

(First posted on Earth Day 2008)

Goodbye, Levon

Levon Helm has died. On PBS.org’s “Sound Tracks”, there is an interview and a couple of videos from earlier this year. Makes me happy to see such music, and such happiness, so close to the end of his life; I have seen people his age (and younger) who seemingly lost any sort of enjoyment many years before death caught up with them.

Video of The Weight, after the jump, so you can see what I mean: [Read more…]

They Love My Design!

Well, that’s what the email said, anyway.

Ah, automated letters.

First, it’s not my design; it was designed by Michael McRae. Second, although I myself love it, I really wonder if the good people at CafePress really love it as much as they say. I was just tooling around on their designer software, and made an iphone cover–I don’t even own an iphone–just to check out its sheer awesomeness. Image, after the jump: [Read more…]

Poems For Sale

I love this story (on NPR)

Zach Houston runs his Poem Store (on any given sidewalk) with these items: a manual typewriter, a wooden folding chair, scraps of paper, and a white poster board that reads: “POEMS — Your Topic, Your Price.”

For five years now, this has been his main source of income. Not that it’s necessarily a steady income, mind you.

I don’t think I could do what he’s doing. There are a few times when my verses flow out as fast as I can type them, but when you work in rhyme and meter, a typewriter is a bit intimidating. Give me a delete button, or better yet, an eraser. Actually, I don’t generally erase–I cross out, and put arrows on the page to move things around. Once in a while, I re-write something I have crossed out, which suddenly fits two stanzas later than I thought it would. But a typewriter? I’d need two drafts, and Zach Houston is putting out poems in mere minutes (at least, the examples in the story).

But he’s not starving, which is nice.

Ironically, I got a payment from Lulu today–two people bought my book last month! That brings the number of books sold in 4 years to 161. (Greta Christina broke a thousand in a few hours; PZ will probably have a few thousand pre-orders already.) But hey, Zach Houston shows that hope springs eternal, perhaps particularly during poetry month. So…

Take a look! (And if that doesn’t work, just look to the “Cuttlestuff” tab at the top of this page, or go to Lulu and look for “Cuttlefish Omnibus” if all my methods fail.)

Cuttlefishism II

Some of you may remember the discovery of the Cuttlefishism religion; I am happy to report that the founders have noticed our attempts at exploring their delightful playground. In a comment here, the original admin says:

I’m the original admin for the site. If there’s enough interest I’ll go in and redo the site to make it more modern. It’ll be in free time, so it may take a while though.

A kind and generous offer, and probably a bit of work, so I am asking here whether there is enough interest. I’d hate for someone to put in some effort, even on free time, if no one is interested. So, let me (or rather, them) know in the comments here.

As for me, I think it’s pretty cool, but that’s all I have to say right now. I have a stack of papers in front of me that should already be done, but for a surprise conference last Friday (which I found out about on Thursday, but which was worth every moment). So it’s radio silence for me for a bit. The comments are yours.