( Palpable and mute )

Two observations while walking today


Only one leaf like
a flame-feathered bird perches
in a dark green bush.

~

Crow cawing in flight;
crow on a wire cawing while
shrugging his shoulders.

November Cake

Also known as the Last Chance Banana Cake. I came up with this last night because I needed to immediately utilize a banana that was nearly beyond ripe. It had blotchy black skin and was too sloppy to eat monkey-wise or in my Cheerios. I couldn't find my mother's recipe for banana nut bread—which isn't really a bread but a cake baked in a loaf tin—so this is an adaptation of two carrot cake recipes. In my part of the world, a cake baked in a loaf tin qualifies it for the "tea cake" category, so you don't have to save it for dessert. You also don't have to save it for November, it's good for any cold day when the dark comes early. When it emerges from the oven redolent of cinnamon and ginger, the scent is reminiscent of all the autumn and winter holidays. We found the fragrance irresistible and we ate our first slices as crumbs because the warm cake fell apart at the touch of a knife. When it cools it slices neatly. Surprisingly, the banana does not overwhelm; there is a sweet balance between banana, carrot and spices.

Cream together:
1/4 cup "raw" sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/4 tsp vanilla

Add:
2 tsp baking powder
1 dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
2 dashes pumpkin pie spice
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1 very ripe banana (mushy)
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup broken walnuts

Beat briefly until dry ingredients are wet. Stop. Don't over-mix. Glop into a greased and floured 9" loaf pan. Smack on the floor to level batter. Into the oven pre-heated to 350. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Let cake sit in the pan for about 10 minutes, then rack it. Cool completely (at room temperature) before cutting or cake will fall apart in crumbs.

...my life is riddled with tesseracts and time is always folding when I'm not looking.

These are the prohecies of the Lorwolm, the three angels: Ga-ukogomen, Nihr Avna-attu and Tsitao-utna.

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( Finally an unequivocal season... )

I watched Robert Bly with Bill Moyers on TV a few nights ago...


Rainer Maria Rilke

I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.
I am circling around god, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.


Translated by Robert Bly, Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1981


...and while I was looking for the above text online, I also found this:


W.S. Merwin

The Horse

In a dead tree
there is the ghost of a horse
no horse
was ever seen near the tree
but the tree was born
of a mare
it rolled with long legs
in rustling meadows
it pricked its ears
it reared and tossed its head
and suddenly stood still
beginning to remember
as its leaves fell


The Compass Flower: Poems, 1977

Copyright © W.S. Merwin

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Wallace Stevens

Frogs Eat Butterflies, Snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs

It is true that the rivers went nosing like swine,
Tugging at banks, until they seemed
Bland belly–sounds in somnolent troughs,

That the air was heavy with the breath of these swine,
The breath of turgid summer, and
Heavy with thunder’s rattapallax,

That the man who erected this cabin, planted
This field, and tended it awhile,
Knew not the quirks of imagery,

That the hours of his indolent, arid days,
Grotesque with this nosing in banks,
This somnolence and rattapallax,

Seemed to suckle themselves on his arid being,
As the swine–like rivers suckled themselves
While they went seaward to the sea–mouths.


Harmonium, 1923

This poem is sometimes included as an extra in a set of Poetry
in an Unexpected Place.


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What is the real story behind the brittle replica cemented to the quilted gloves?


Caption from the cartoon Geranium Lake Prophecies by Wm. Yost for Sept. 19, 1987

How do simple hearts wait idle on blunt doughy feet for next year's minced surplus?


Caption from the cartoon Geranium Lake Prophecies by Wm. Yost for Oct. 4, 1989

Thirty brick waves rose to match the idle contempt of your encumbering glory.


Caption from the cartoon Geranium Lake Prophecies by Wm. Yost for Dec. 28, 1986

Consider the ruddy hours of June with her quaking ovens, her ignited orchids, and her young grapes thumping through the boondocks.


Caption from the cartoon Geranium Lake Prophecies by Wm. Yost for April 30, 1984