Liam Pat wore his hat
all the way to the laundry mat
The only time he took it off
was when he went to the barber shop
Liam Pat wore his hat
seven days a week
The only time he took it off
was when he went to sleep
Liam Pat wore his hat
to make his brother laugh
The only time he took it off
was when he took a bath
Liam Pat wore his hat
for the fun of it
The only time he took it off
was when it didn’t fit!
_____Colleen Redman_______dVerse Poets Pub
A fog has rolled in and settled. A lone pumpkin, pecked by the chickens, is the only color in my view. The lack of birdsong is eerie. Occasionally a lamenting hen, who has all but given up laying, will disrupt the overcast hush. A distant gunshot means meat in someone’s freezer. The ring of wind chimes guides me to the present moment and, like a buoy, makes me feel like a sailor at sea. The leaves are all brown now and have floated to the surface. Mostly oak, they look like fallen stars.
I notice that the lawn chair cushion I’m sitting on is damp and has slowly soaked into my sweat pants. Inside, the house is warm, lit by artificial light. The faucet is dripping. Leftover spaghetti, made with frozen garden tomatoes and the last of the venison Joe hunted last year, sizzles in the skillet. The scent coming from the steamer tells me the scavenged turnip greens are tender. I’m thankful for how hearty they are.
It’s not too early to eat the marzipan stollen that we bought this week for the holidays. It goes so well with a pot of caramel puer tea. Maybe a piece of mint chocolate to top it all off will help to brighten a gray day.
__________Our World Tuesday
November’s First Friday Opening at Floyd’s Troika Gallery featured an exhibit of new work by Gibby Waitzkin.
Displayed through the month of November, the exhibit is a preview of Waitzkin’s upcoming solo show, Continuum of Being, at Martinsville’s Piedmont Arts Center in February.
Waitzkin’s new work features naturally framed creations, blending artist-made paper, photographs and dried flowers from her garden, along with handmade paper sculptures and vessels enhanced with nests, lichen, seed pods and other materials from the natural world.
That’s Waitzkin next to her larger-than-life piece titled “Shadows Falling Behind You.” Currently featured in the Troika Gallery front window, the piece is an accordion-like row of paper wings made of 25 different plant fibers. It took Waitzkin 2 ½ years to complete.
The above first appeared in the November 7th issue of The Floyd Press. See Gibby in action HERE. See close-up photos of some of her new work HERE. I also must mention that the pots pictured in photo #2 below Gibby’s pieces are those of my Asheville Potter Son, Josh Copus.
______________ Shadow Shot Sunday
~The following first appeared in the November 7th issue of The Floyd Press. Please note that this story gives details of the upcoming Biological Woodsmen Week in Floyd and Wendell Berry’s visit.
If you’re going to be a biological woodsman and practice restorative forestry, you embrace the concept that what you leave in the forest is more important than what you take. - Jason Rutledge
Students at Blue Mountain High School (BMHS) recently attended a talk by guest speaker Jason Rutledge, a Floyd farmer, forester and horseman who will soon be working on a Timber Stand Improvement operation at the Floyd EcoVillage, where the high school is located. Students learned about Rutledge’s process of horse logging and “worst first” single tree selection for timber extraction. Interested students will be documenting land changes as part of a botany class.
In his address to the students, Rutledge explained that he became disillusioned with modern forestry when he was a student at Virginia Tech, feeling that the forestry program focused on harvesting trees without regard for the living system of the forest, of which trees are a component. He spoke about the ecological services that trees provide, including shade, fresh air and cooling, which, due to the recent increase in climate temperature, is more important than ever.
“The strongest single way to absorb carbon out of the atmosphere is to grow trees. Trees inhale the carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in their plant bodies. We should grow every tree we can, as healthy and as big as possible, and stop cutting down trees all at one time because that leads to less forest overall, and we need more forest,” Rutledge said. He pointed out that animal logging is low impact and does not contribute to the burning of fossils fuels, which scientists have reported to be directly linked to climate change.
Rutledge spoke about the term “restorative” forestry, as opposed to “sustainable” forestry, saying that the forests of today are in decline. “I don’t understand how we can sustain a decline. I’d like to switch the debate to what is restorative.” Students learned that clear cutting timber invites invasive species into the woods and that Floyd County and its region is one of the most botanically diverse places in the world. They learned that the forest product industry is the largest industry in Virginia and the second highest wage earner.
In 1999, with a Ford Foundation grant, Rutledge co-founded the Healing Harvest Forest Foundation (HHFF), a non-profit group that promotes restorative forestry. Rutledge describes restorative forestry as “imitating nature and identifying the very best trees on a site and cultivating them.” He is the owner of Draftwood, which produces green certified forest products using horse powered restorative forestry practices, and, along with his son Jagger and other biological woodsmen, he has been featured on the History Channel’s reality show Ax Men.
Raised by his grandparents, who were Virginia sharecroppers, Rutledge said he learned independence and dignity from his grandfather and that the most rewarding part of his work has been training apprentices to carry on the tradition of horse logging. “It’s not only important to teach them how to do it but to inspire them as to why to do it in a restorative way,” he said, adding that young people bring new skills to the practice.
Rutledge has also spoken to Floyd County High School students about restorative forestry and has recently participated in horse plowing the first 1/4 acre of the school’s new Farm School, off Route 221 North. He considers it an honor to share what he knows, especially with young people. “The kids are our only chance of a real future. They are so open-minded and curious. That’s why I keep doing what I do.” 
On a hike to the 10 acre piece of EcoVillage land that is slated to be restored, the first thing Rutledge pointed out to BMHS students was that the property was once a Christmas tree farm. “It’s hardly a forest,” he said, explaining that some pines would have to be logged to allow a diversity of trees to grow. A later hike to a 2 ½ acre tract on the property gave the students a chance to see a natural forest.
Rutledge is also co-founder of the Biological Woodsmen Week (BWW), an HHFF educational event, now in its 9th year. The week features onsite draft horse pulls, demonstrations, panel discussions and more. “We have held BWW’s in Fauquier, Augusta, Rockbridge, New Kent and Albemarle, and similar Draft Horse Events in Greenville, Tennessee, at the Blue Ridge Institute in Ferrum, Virginia and the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Virginia,” Rutledge said.
He explained that the HHFF, which acts as international network for horse loggers all over the world, has also sponsored several smaller “Open Woods Days” events in various counties throughout Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The Kentucky events took place at the invitation of Wendell Berry, the renowned author, environmental activist, farmer and English professor who writes novels, essays and poetry about agriculture, rural life and community.
This year the BWW – November 19th to the 23rd – will take place in Floyd for the first time. Based at the EcoVillage, the event will feature “A Conversation with Wendell Berry.” The Kentucky born native will conduct a book signing at the Floyd EcoVillage on Friday, November 22 at 4:00 pm. Berry will speak at the Floyd County High School auditorium at 7:00 pm and will participate in a panel of national experts on the topic of forests and community. A moderated question and answer period is also scheduled.
The week of Woodsmen activities will include restorative forestry operations happening at several locations, including the Timber Stand Improvement project at the EcoVillage. On the last day of the week long event, Saturday the 23rd, there will be a Woodsmen’s Play Day at the EcoVillage site, featuring a timber felling contest, draft horse demonstrations and a friendly draft horse pulling contest.
BWW activities are free. Advanced ticket sales for “A Conversation with Wendell Berry” are $10 (via floydecovillage.com). Tickets at the door will be $15. Proceeds from Berry’s talk will “go right back to the ground,” which Rutledge explains as supporting the participating Woodsmen who volunteer their time demonstrating the long term economic and environmental benefits of worst-first animal logging. Anything left over will go to benefit the work of HHFF.
Rutledge estimates that there are about five major Biological Woodsmen practitioners within a 100 mile radius. Four of them, some of whom Rutledge has trained, will be attending, camping with their horses at the EcoVillage and participating in the week’s events. He expects the week to be inspirational and educational, as well as good fun. ~ Colleen Redman
1. Last week’s most posted photo among Floydian Facebookers, which caused one friend to respond “I should get to town more often,” is HERE.
2. Virginia Governor elect Terry McAuliffe says he’d veto any bill to allow uranium mining: “I don’t support uranium mining,” he said. “First and foremost as governor, my job is to make sure that our communities and our citizenry are safe. I’m not comfortable with the science to the point that I can say that with uranium mining, we would be safe. I’m afraid it would get into the drinking water.” Moreover, McAuliffe said, he sees no point in developing regulations for mining: “Why would we be wasting our time and resources drafting regulations if we’re not going to lift the moratorium?” – The Virginian-Pilot
3. “There are no sacred and unsacred places. There are only sacred places and desecrated places.” Wendell Berry (who will be speaking in Floyd on November 22).
4. A new take on glass ceilings HERE.
5. My kind of exciting week: Not only did I cover local events from NASCAR to horse plowing, but I discovered the art of Dale Chihuly and the poetry of Delmore Shwartz, who strongly influence Lou Reed. I listened to an interview with Carl Jung, watched Bill Moyer interviewing Wendell Berry (who Moyers aptly described as a Poet and Prophet) and helped Joe save our chickens from a hungry raccoon.
6. “Lou and I played music together, became best friends and then soul mates, traveled, listened to and criticized each other’s work, studied things together (butterfly hunting, meditation, kayaking). We made up ridiculous jokes; stopped smoking 20 times; fought; learned to hold our breath underwater; went to Africa; sang opera in elevators; made friends with unlikely people; followed each other on tour when we could; got a sweet piano-playing dog; shared a house that was separate from our own places; protected and loved each other.” ~ Lou Reed’s wife Laurie Anderson’s Rolling Stone tribute to Lou. More HERE.
7. During a guest visit to the local high school a student asked me ‘what was your most interesting interview?’ The moonshine sipping potter and the tree climbing teacher who had gear all ready for me to climb came to mind. But I forgot to mention the humanitarian clown who said, “A red nose will get you anywhere,” or how much fun it was to cover the Primland Resort and Spa, last year’s Mardi Gras Ball, or the Obama for President Rally at the Sun Music Hall. I also didn’t mention to the students the possibility that I might cover their graduation next year for our local newspaper and that each blog entry posted is a published document that you should be able to stand behind. More HERE.
8. My blog is the driving force behind my writing. It’s the place where everything starts, the day to day marriage between my love of the written word and my love of record keeping. If my published writing was a theater film, my blog would be the DVD with special features, links to follow, and posted outtakes.
9. I am in the minority. As a rational thinker (INTJ) on the Myers Briggs Personality Type, I am greatly outnumbered by idealists, artists and especially the guardians, which make up 16, 27 and 46 percent of the population, compared to my measly 10%. But I’m in good company because most Jung analysts believe that Carl Jung was an INTJ.
10. I think books are like dreams. Many are entertaining and informative, but there are only a handful of big ones that come in a lifetime and actually provide life changing insight.
11. I’m reading one of my BIG books now. It’s Balancing Heaven and Earth, the memoir of Robert Johnson, the Jungian analyst that received personal dream analysis from Carl Jung. Here’s an excerpt: There is a constant pull back to the sense of unity from which we came, and in Jungian psychology that is called the mother complex. There is a regressive pull in each of us to quit this business of winning independence, to escape the painful human process of becoming a distinct, separate personality. Physical suicide is the ultimate expression of the mother complex, but it takes many other forms, such as the use of drugs and alcohol or mindless consumption of food or material goods … Many of the spiritual communities, monasteries and spiritual practices in this country are nothing more than institutional mother complexes.
12. So many of my well intended blog posts (that I don’t have time to write) turn into one or two sentences (like #10) and end up on this list.
13. Term seen on Facebook in response to the weather related tragedies: pray attention.
_____________Thirteen Thursday
Well-endowed moon
a sleepy slip of silk
lowers its gown
onto open armed limbs
Branches like fingers
hold its luminous curve
as it slowly reclines
on the hush of horizon
________Colleen Redman_______dVerse Poets Pub
When I’m searching for something to blog about and I’m feeling uninspired, I’m like a doctor with a hammer trying to get a reflex. When I finally land on an idea that has some kick to it, I know I’ve hit the right one. ~ Colleen
When I first started writing I didn’t know that I was a writer.
Occasionally when something of mine was published I would think, ‘Well that was a fun fluke. Now I’ll go back to my real life.’
Inevitably I’d start writing again and would soon have a new finished product. This happened often enough that I finally began to trust that I could write, that I would write, and that there was always more to say. But it took years for me to believe when I made a breakthrough with my writing that I could repeat it.
Sometimes something similar happens with blog writing. Usually I have more than enough ideas on what to post and have a number of drafts waiting to be worked on. Even so, occasionally I come to place when I finish a post, hit PUBLISH, and all my motivation and ideas just STOP. I push myself away from my desk like I do from the dinner table when I’m full. I get up and wander around the house deciding what to do next.
For a few hours I almost believe that my blogging days might be over. The thought of it makes me feel partly relieved and partly terrified. The kitchen needs cleaning and the cellar floor needs sweeping. But these tasks don’t hold my attention. If I didn’t write so much, what else would I do?
It doesn’t take long for my mind to start scanning for new material. But I feel like a car out of gas, planning for trips that I don’t have the energy to take. I’d like to enjoy being idle, but I’m intimidated by a looming sense of dead end. I’m tired and don’t want to write, but writing is what makes me feel better.
If my dilemma goes on long enough I break down and pick up a pen. I start writing about what it feels like not to be writing. And soon I really am.
-The above is a reprint from a 2007 post.
Flight of Fancy
Hangs by a Web
A Canvas for Black Walnut
The Other Red Carpet
____________Shadow Shot Sunday
~ The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on October 31, 2013.
NASCAR Night at Ray’s Restaurant was a big hit. The recent fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Nichols family packed the house for dinner and a live auction.
Floyd native, Charles Moles (pictured above) spends the majority of his time on the road with NASCAR. On a recent hometown visit, Moles met with Ray Hatcher, the owner of Ray’s Restaurant. Hatcher posed the possibility of doing something to benefit the Nichols family. Duane and April Nichols have two young daughters, Karlie (9) and Ella (4), who require ongoing treatment for Cystic Fibrosis (CF). An older daughter, Olivia, does not have CF. 
Moles, a tire expert who transports and hauls cars with Swan Racing, worked for the next two months, collecting prized NASCAR items and autographed memorabilia for the event’s live auction. Items included everything from hats and portraits autographed by drivers to a fender from the back of Danica Patrick’s racecar.
Cole Whitt’s #30 car was on display and drew attention. A helmet, autographed by a collection of well-known 
drivers, was auctioned for $430. A moonshine jug, representing a connection with the earliest days NASCAR, was donated for auction by Dean Atkins of Ferrum. Atkins, who, along with his wife, is a regular patron at Ray’s, said the jug belonged to his great-great-grandfather who ran a corn mill. “It has sentimental value but it’s for a good cause,” he said.
The auction was led by Dale Moran with the help of Moles and Duane Nichols. Nichols said people dropped off donated items at the Nichols brothers’ garage for the benefit auction. Donations included a Richard Petty telephone, Bill Elliot hats and a quarter panel from a car driven by Kevin Harvick.
“This was a bigger turnout than I expected,” said Joyce Howery, a longtime Ray’s employee
who put together the dinner buffet with the help of her crew. Karlie and Ella’s mother, April Nichols, was also surprised by the community outpouring. “This is the biggest thing we’ve done. I’ve never seen so many cars parked outside of Ray’s,” she said with wide eyes.
Nichols explained that half of the night’s proceeds will 
go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the other half is slated for the Floyd Medical Charities in Karlie and Ella’s names. (The girls are pictured above.) Those funds will go towards treatments, medications and travel expenses to and from UVA, where the girls go for health care.
“Ninety cents of every dollar donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation goes for research,” said Nichols. She expressed her hopefulness about the recent progress the foundation has made on CF treatment outcomes.
1. This weekend I went to a Quaker meeting, celebrated a friend’s 87th birthday, attended a draft horse plowing at a school farm and found out I’m an INTJ (introverted/intuitive/thinking/judging Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) personality.
2. I’m not so sure I like being an INTJ. The only writers listed in the group of nerdy scientists and masterminds, like Issac Newton, Nikola Tesla and Steven Hawking, are Ayn Rand and Jane Austen.
3. Speaking of Jane, HERE you go.
4. In the last decade or so, I’ve accepted the nutty professor in me. So much so that I wrote in a blog bio that reads: Blogging brings out my nutty professor side and appeals to the record keeper in me. I consider my blog to be my writer’s petrie dish, my lab where new work is developed and sometimes launched from.
5. I’ve also nicknamed my computer station (a wrap around 3 piece desk) “the bridge,” after the Starship Enterprise.
6. As a native Bostonian I was interested to read former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s poem about the Red Sox winning the 2013 World Series: Our F*****g City deserves a celebration: A proper improper Time, for this Occasion. Our F*****g City didn’t pay top dollar to any weak-in-the-clutch theology scholar, this year, to shrug off losses as “what God wrote. No, this was a year to take Fate by the throat. – Pinsky, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, incorporated the words of team member David Ortiz on the Boston bombing when he said, “This is our f**king city. And nobody is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong.”
7. One of my most important writer’s disciplines: I drop everything to take notes when an idea is coming through. Inspiration is hard to recreate, and a phrase or line may never be as pure as when it first comes to you (even if it need editing).
8. “I didn’t understand his erratic behavior or the intensity of his moods, which shifted, like his speech patterns, from speedy to laconic. But I understood his devotion to poetry and the transporting quality of his performances. He had black eyes, black T-shirt, pale skin. He was curious, sometimes suspicious, a voracious reader, and a sonic explorer. An obscure guitar pedal was for him another kind of poem. He was our connection to the infamous air of the Factory. He had made Edie Sedgwick dance. Andy Warhol whispered in his ear. Lou brought the sensibilities of art and literature into his music. He was our generation’s New York poet, championing its misfits as Whitman had championed its workingman and Lorca its persecuted. Patti Smith on Lou Reed.Reed died last week.
9. I’m pretty sure my grandson is happy that I won’t be asking him till next year, “Do you want to hear my witches laugh?”
10. My take on “When I’m Older I Shall Wear Purple” HERE.
11. I think the Red Sox winning World Series in 2004, for the first time in 80 something years, had something to do with the majority of players growing their hair long hair. This year they won again and hair factored in via beards. And no one made the Samson comparison? According to the Bible, Samson had supernatural strength and lost it after his hair was cut.
12. I don’t know if it’s true but I have read that hair is an extension of the nervous system, a type of highly evolved ‘feelers’ or ‘antennae’ that can transmit important information to the brain, and that Native Americans lost their super tracking powers when their long hair was cut short.
13. The simple man on his way home after work is wondering what is for dinner. The complex man on his way home from work is debating the complexities and the imponderables of life. The enlightened man on his way home from work is wondering what is for dinner. – An excerpt that I recently underlined in Jungian Analyst Robert Johnson’s memoir, Balancing Heaven and Earth.
_________Thirteen Thursday
Poetry and the muse
Sitting in a tree
K-i-s-s-i-n-g
First comes love
Then inspiration
Then comes a poem
in a publication
_______Colleen Redman___dVerse Poets Pub
- The following appeared in The Floyd Press in two parts, on October 24 and the 31st.
“This is not a game,” said Dawn Barnes, the Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) coordinator who led a Poverty Simulation training at the Floyd EcoVillage on Sunday. “13.5% of the Floyd population is living in poverty, according to a 2011 statistic,” she continued.
Barnes, who has been leading the trainings on and off for nearly two decades, described the interactive role play and kit materials to participating attendees, consisting of Radford University’s (RU) Social Work professor Dr. Kerry Vandergrift, RU social work students, members of local human services organizations and community members.
The simulation is a tool that can provide participants with insight into what it’s like to walk in the shoes of someone experiencing the stress of living in poverty. It was hosted by the Floyd Multi-Disciplinary (MD) Team, a non-profit group of individuals representing agencies and organizations engaged in community health planning for vulnerable children and adults. 
The event format was divided into four 15 minute weeks, in which participants assumed the identities of low income individuals or family members that had to access services, pay bills, obtain transport passes and more. Family homes were represented by a circle of four chairs and were surrounded by community resource stations – a bank, an employer, a social services office, a pawn shop, a church shelter, a grocery store, a jail and more. Stations were staffed by volunteers portraying community workers.
Participants were assigned varying amounts of resources and had to balance them with living expenses. Some participants were employed and others were laid off. Michele Morris assumed the role of an 82-year-old senior citizen who was initially homeless. By accessing the right services, she was able to receive a housing voucher, but was targeted by a participant who was playing the role of a criminal intent on gaining her possessions, under the guise of helping her.
Some played the roles of children going to school. Five dollars for a field trip had to be incorporated into the family’s existing budget. One truant teenager was eventually approached by a school teacher participant who helped her access an after school job, which changed the trajectory of her simulation. 
A debriefing at the end of the simulation gave participants an opportunity to give feedback about their experiences. Elaine Martinez, who staffed the community health care station, said she had no business throughout the simulation. “Nobody pays for health care when they are poor.”
One participant said that being sick was part of her fictional scenario but that she was so busy trying to provide the necessities of life before the whistle blew (representing the end of one day and start of another) that she did not seek help. “There was no time!”
Ann Shank, who assumed the role of a social worker, spoke of her frustration at having to pass some people on to other agencies. “I was frustrated by how little I could offer when more substantial help was needed,” she said. Another social work participant said she was amazed by the survival instincts of the players and their perseverance to continue trying to get by with so little.
During a follow-up dialogue participants explored what currently needs to be addressed in the county. “Money is shrinking daily with budget cuts. Every year our program is on the chopping block,” said a New River Community Action (NRCA) worker.
Another NRCA worker said that money was needed to provide food, heat and rent, or to put someone up in a 
hotel in emergency situations. “We’re very low on food right now and are worried because the holidays are coming up,” she said.
“If you belong to a church, bring your church members to this conversation,” suggested one participant.
Floyd’s Economic Development Director Lydeana Martin, who assumed the role of a childcare worker for the simulation, spoke of the need for more training and job opportunities, noting that wages earned by those who work inside the county continue to be among the lowest in the state.
Someone described the training as “eye-opening.” Another said it cultivated her sense of empathy for others and made her feel grateful for what she has. “I think this workshop should be required for every freshman member of Congress,” said Mark Schonbeck, a sustainable agriculture consultant who noted that there was enough land in the country to grow food for everyone. 
“Start the conversation from where we all agree,” said MD team member Kamala Bauers. “Should every child in Floyd have enough to eat? I think we can agree on that.” Bauers added that she believes the problem is solvable in Floyd “because the county is small enough to have relationships. In a larger setting it’s hard to make those personal connections.”
Barnes, the simulation facilitator, concluded the training by thanking everyone for coming and saying, “I hope the experience will be a motivation in making a difference.” 
Attendees were invited to share a meal of beans, coleslaw and cornbread. Participating groups received a gift of $1,000 towards their programs, given by an anonymous donor. “There will be more dialogues like this at the EcoVillage,” said EcoVillage co-founder, Bauers.
The poem this title is named for is HERE. More Halloween fools and ghouls are HERE. __________Shadow Shot Sunday
Before I left the Dogtown Halloween Party last night, I approached a stranger and confessed, “I like my costume more than my real life,” which is funny because I love my real life.
I also went up to a presumed stranger (who knows when everyone is masked) and screamed, telling him I was already having nightmares.
My friend Dan was dressed as Jesus, complete with a long haired wig and a thorny crown. There was a white robe and red sash involved, which made me guess he was the Ghost of Christmas Past. “Kinda the same thing,” he joked.
Shamama ditched her regular tutu for some voodoo style make-up and was barely recognized.
Ruth explained what she was, but I can’t remember what it was. She was with a doctor handing out prescriptions for medical marijuana, if that helps.
Elvis was in the house serenading girls that were really boys and others.
There were two bands scheduled to play and when I first arrived I asked a couple of the musicians “Who’s on first?” I couldn’t remember the rest of the routine and neither musician knew their lines. It was sort of like saying “Knock, knock,” and no one answers, “Who’s there?”
My witch’s hat has such a wide brim that I was thinking I should wear it on the beach on next year. The only problem is that it kept hitting the roof of the car as I drove.
Some of my friends wore tie dye and farmer’s overalls and called themselves Deadnecks. Others wore what I like to call get-ups.
I missed the second band and the costume contest, but I think this ghostly apparition should have gotten something. Really, I zoomed in and still can’t figure out what it is.
141 pictures later, I have to rest up my costume now for Saturday night’s Halloween with the Kind at the Pine Tavern. Watch a video clip of the band Spoon Fight and some ghoulish dancers HERE.
1. October is the red carpet celebrity of autumn.
2. My friend Gene posted on Facebook about hearing James Taylor sing at Fenway Park. He wrote, “JT singing the national anthem at the World Series = awesome.” His daughter responded, “JT= Justin Timberlake.”
3. Funny Facebook post from my niece Liza about her 3 year old son: So, we have been recently having trouble with Joshua getting up multiple times, before he settles in for the night. Well, tonight while kissing him goodnight, I explain that if there is a reason, he can come get us, otherwise please stay in bed. Minutes later her scurries into the living room and immediately states, he is here for a reason. When I ask the reason, he looks at me and says “what’s a reason”?
4. I recently got a crash course on NASCAR, pun intended.
5. I knew so little about the race car sport that, after I was asked to cover a NASCAR-themed benefit for the local paper, I had to google the correct way to spell NASCAR.
6. I just read the Wikipedia biography of Janis Joplin (one of my favorites back in the day) after her name showed up in one of my poems. Among other things, I leaned that she had a tattoo of a women’s lib symbol on her wrist and a heart over her breast, her ashes were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean, she bought a tombstone for her idol blues singer Bessie Smith who was buried in an unmarked grave and if you wanted to see her perform at Woodstock it would cost you $8.
7. Joe and I literally danced our socks off HERE because it was too hot to keep them on.
8. On Floyd: “You can’t do it all. It’s like the Disney World of music.” Mike Mitchell
9. More on Floyd: “There’s 15,000 people in the county of Floyd and 430 people in town. And one stoplight. We’re starting to have ‘rush minute’ at 4:30. It’s terrifying.” Dave Fason
10. My idea of F-U is FUN.
11. How Floyd’s Dogtwon Roadhouse was saved HERE. And Potter Son Who Loves the Red Sox HERE.
12. Pumpkin carbon: That’s what my grandson Liam calls pumpkin carving.
13. To report a cougar sighting, contact Linzey at wclinzd@wcc.vccs.edu.
______Thirteen Thursday
Poetry went to Woodstock
It hitchhiked to Yasgur’s Farm
Got an autograph from Mickey Hart
But marched to its own drum
Poetry drank Southern Comfort
with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix
It evaded the draft
Got a backstage pass
went to college but flunked middle class
_______Colleen Redman______dVerse Poets Pub
Read another poem from The Autobiography of Poetry series HERE.
