SMITHEREENS



Best to be prudent with a computer virus
Macs are pretty immune to viruses
Not bullet-proof, but close

One doesn't want to start getting cocky
About viruses or one's machine
Any machine

Last night I watched a mega-ton monster truck
Hurdle itself after charging a ramp
And just about lift vertically in the air

All to smash a pumpkin grown over the last six months
(it grew 50 pounds a day)
Into smithereens

The pumpkin didn't stand a chance
It was something like 1600 pounds
Yes, a huge pumpkin maneuvered here and there by forklift

It was smashed with one downward thrust of Mr. Monster
But that wasn't enough
It never is

The truck went thrashing away
Always looking ridiculous with little body and all-wheels these things
Only to return to grind up the pumpkin more and more

The owner said each seed was worth $500
I've grown pumpkins and carved pumpkins out for Halloween —
There's lots of seeds!

Supposedly there's some magic genetics to these giant pumpkin seeds
I put down what I was reading, Wendell Berry's The Mad Farmer Poems
(no kidding)
To witness this gross exaggeration

I don't know why I haven't gone nuts yet



Bob Arnold says, or have I ?



image: http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=3896

MARIE PONSOT









ALONGSIDE THE POND



At the edge of vision

just short of sight

pond air shimmers pearly

unbroken ungated. Bright

mist engages me

silent unmediated.




When I turn

and look into it



I want birds.

Share a poem this morning from one of the skilled technicians, as she has been since her first book from City Lights True Minds, somewhat forgotten in the San Francisco publisher's legacy since Ponsot was and is no Beat, but she is thoroughly beatitude. Poetry of the fullest senses. This may be her most interesting book, published in her late eighties, and pushing pushing at the no-limit edges of the poem. Lyrical gems, tv program news, personal portraits, landscape art. The silence and small bigness of this poem alone had me in its aura. And aura is that instance when nothing else matters.