Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

My past-tense life, full of dangling participles, A closet full of un-done novels, waiting for their final edit. Shoe laces frayed from long gone hide and seeks. Again, again, I see it all, stinging the air in front of my eyes; Cracking, shattering, splitting, fading, Finally the here and now again. I see it all. I do from time to time, I conjure up an arrow, cat gut pulling— Don’t let me go! I see my flabbergasted sinews dangling loose, Their life swooshing toward some unknown target. No bulls eye here for me! Should I have stayed with that simple dartboard after all? Well, now here I am, a feather for a friend, Sinking into a spring-green branch. What time is it anyway? ‘63 in Paris? Or Milan in ‘71? Why drag that blackened coal-shoot past Into this sparkling, solar-driven day? It’s time to let those finite multi-sided polygons Leap for their circles at last!

I know I missed Easter and Wester, and You, Thanksgiving and Chrismas, Columbus Day too, but my Spirit was with you; I had to make do! I even discovered a secret or two: The seasons keep rolling the hour glass sifts, regardless of whether or not I exist. If I don’t pay attention the matter at hand continues along just as though it were planned, Not by me, Never mind! I’ve got plenty to do, without thinking about how to discuss it with you! Not that I wouldn’t enjoy the exchange, If it weren’t so totally hard to arrange. I think I’ll go look for a wish and a star. I found one! My gosh! And it isn’t that far! What a beauty, oh my! Has it always been there? In my eyes, in my care, It’s just too much to bear. Easter in Central Park ~ 2015

Along the Williamsberg Bridge to  Bedford Stuyvesant Entering Monroe Street Beautiful Woman Sitting on Staircase Upstairs

Almost finished! Next: Preliminary walk-through....

On the J-Train The J Train in Brookly, across the Williamsburg Bridge Arriving at Gates Avenue Beautification of Subway stops: Gates Avenue, Brooklyn One of 4.5 bathrooms (yes, I know!  It doesn't have a soap dish yet.  But one has to get exactly the Correct Soap Dish!  This bathroom is a beautiful grey and white, although it doesn't look like it here.  It also is a fairly large bathroom--I guess I have to spring for a wide-angle lens like all those other people! Oh yes.  Indoor plumbing!  What a gift, even without soap dishes and towel racks! Mission for the day (should you choose to accept it): 1.  Enter into a bathroom; one with tub or shower.  Avoid gas stations, for example. 2.  Revel in the beauty and convenience of Tile!  Think what a mess the average shower might make without it. 3.  Check out the very simplicityof a water repellent floor!  Nothing fancy, just tile, tile, showers, water, toilets with double flush, maybe a mirror!!!!  A mirror. 

Seriously?  This is more than I want to know about mechanicals!

I love this video on mute as well....also try full screen.

This piece of Urban Flora is a prime example of a Time Warp Tree.  Notice how it is confused and out of focus!  This specimen is carrying a whole forest of wilted fall leaves, and uncountable leaves that simply refused to fall.  Even the winter snow cannot discourage these soggy hangers on (or, if you like, hanger ons).  Looking carefully, we see greenish leaves still clinging on from last summer.  Notice as well the half enclosed trunk.  What is that about? And to completely sadden one,  this Time Warp Tree is trying to shelter not tulips, not boxwood, but ice-encrusted garbage bags!  How thankless, yet noble. Time Warp Tree also appears to be wearing a tree-sized friendship bracelet.  Sigh. Time Warp Tree with Red Tree-Friendship Bracelet

We are all breathing sighs of relief!!! Things are looking like beauty will prevail... Beautiful New Office--Work is Looking Good! Fellow Contractor Sam Admires the Beauty

A blank page has nothing, no nothing at all, but it makes itself over with letters and scrawl, nevertheless it remains quite pristine on the edges and margins and spaces between all those letters and such that don’t matter much so if I recall it at all then one word in twenty is plenty. Early (really early) Magnolia buds in Conservancy Garden I've sped read through more books than I can count, and I am really and truly great at it. I have become so proficient that I need only drive by a bookstore to read a book, much like ConEd reads meters. (You may not be aware of the special radio-frequency chips inserted in the spines of most best sellers.) So of course I think you should try it! Here's How: Open your eyes wide, and focus on your smart phone (how do you think that phone got so smart? Downloads!) Anyway, focus, focus. Concomitantly, Flick the pages past with a suitable finger; I prefer the two middle finger method. Now, work hard at remembering a few

I am hardened by the unrelenting cold Scorched by winter, moribund with icy calm Burrs scratch and itch, puncturing the edges Cold dirt. Talking drum calls out for me A drop, a flake, a pinch at a time By the tip of a root I become me again. Untermyer Fountain /Three Dancing Maidens by Walter Schott, French Conservancy Garden, Central Park.

Dry leaves rattle and bones click against the soft satin, shredded by time, A coffin day. I don’t know what to do when it comes down to it; Nothing seems to say itself, It just all seems out of proportion, There is no spring back in the touch, no sap of life, My fingers are aching with the sadness of it. And there’s the stupid sun, spreading itself over the morning. Look at that. A tree down for the winter, Gone, gone. Gone, gone, gone. They say the sap is just below the surface, Sticky with life, rich, and waiting. Colorado, Winter 2014

Hello Linda Jo I will share my experience on creating or growing a house, as you requested from your friends. First of course, you must accept the fact that I'm a friend and that the request includes me. I built my first house when I was 13 with the help of my then best friend, Ludwig (Luddy). It was in the in the midst of a deeply wooded area, but actually about 40 yards from my parents's house (just in case). The sides were made from orange crate slats - or maybe Apple crates. I don't remember. The roof was cardboard, procured from the local grocery. We told the owner we needed them because our parents were moving. It was merely a white lie because it was The Great Depression and our parents moved often. But the roof was not water proof and was rather mushy after the first drizzle. To us, it was the precursor of Hurricane Sandy. But we were determined and sneaked into a junk yard and found some corrugated tin. It was not considered stealing since i

I’m dizzy and ditzy as a bee can be. Yet to be a bee is not for me, I am simply too busy to be a bee, IN fACT….I would like to know where all those behive engineers and botanists are! Where are the gardeners, the tree surgeons, the cultivators and the rose grafters?  It is time to unite behind the latest and greatest sustainable home design in the history of –well, the World.--  WE ARE GOING TO GROW A HOUSE . Why put up with all those joints and connections and what nots? Why not just manufacture a couple of seeds with a few house chromosomes? You know, a few plumbing stem cells, an electronic segment, a brick and mortar constructor? Sheet rock? What is a house but a few organs and an inner and outer skin? Of course, there’s some insulation for fat, a couple of entrances and egresses to manage maintenance, processing and waste. We just need a nice drainage system and some plumbing for circulation to carry the oxygenated water around. Can you experts not design a speci

 Around the corner there is a library full of centuries of words hanging onto the shelves. Winter encyclopedias, dark maroon, almost leather, indexed and waiting, full of photographs. Color photos carefully selected, positioned just exactly on the page, heart and soul of a thing. Maps, Charts, Physics in a nutshell, Rome in a fraction of an inch. Me in my blue coat feeling like a leftover good-will bargain table, crumpled up and left for last. Watch your posture, young lady.  The lady says she likes the hat I choose from the second hand bin. Maybe it will have time for a second coming.  I do not select a book right off, it is a sacred act all right. Maybe just a small one, maybe I can taste little bit sunny spring  carrying a spirit  into my upper chest--After all, they say the sap is just below the surface, sticky with life, rich, waiting-- A book! bound with dewy decimals holding its place. The light is on now in this magic space. Oiled wood, piles of golden incandes

Small Boulder on Way to Final Resting Place Emerging from the Tombs of Darkness (Please tell me the Architect did not just say "Oops! I forgot the drains") Cellar Stairs, Backyard

Darkness recedes as we begin the final cellar clearing. Oh what fun to run your fingers through the cool, loose granules! Rich and loamy, untouched for 115 years! Cellar Incense

If, while rooting through the unconscious cellar of your soul, In order to expand your conscious awareness, And to relieve your self of the burdens of your childhood (for example), And if you happen to come across a very, very big obstacle, well, Some things are better off buried, so just dig down another few feet. Jan with a shovel attempts to remove one ton boulders from just beneath the cellar surface Brownstone Cellar Excavation -- Tons of Boulders! Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant Cellar revision near the Olde Coal Shoot

Did you ever wonder what lay beneath your unfinished basement? I'll tell you, because I know. Rocks. Lots of Huge Rocks. Dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. Coal dust from early 1900s. Lots and lots of coal dust. Other Old Things. Lots of other old things. Remember that song? "How many lips have ki-issed you.....I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.....but I really don't want to know. No, I really don't. Monroe Street Basement-to-Be

“Would you like the Eyeballs? They’re our special today Sticky or slimy or choose your own way” I thought the young waiter was kidding you see So I said I’d take breaded with crackers and brie (tee-hee-hee, tee-hee-hee, tee-hee-hee). When he served those round balls they were dark at one end and they looked so alive I began to pretend they were olives or something, and not what they seemed when off in the distance just then someone screamed! “They’re mine! They were mine! And now I can't see!" That's a terrible thing to tease someone like me! I’m a delicate person and sensitive, too, It’s clear you are steering away from what’s true, You’re veering away from the matter at hand! Hand? Oh my gosh what has happened to you? Is it gone? Are you sure? Is there nothing to do? And just then within reach was a terrible screech! “There’s a crunch in my lunch! It’s a long bendy thing... No it’s not just a thing, it’s a thing with a ring! Agha agh! Gag-agagh, j

Walking along on the wrong side of the sunny street, I took it upon myself to wonder, why does the world seem a little bit shallow; flat maybe, not up to my usual standards? It seemed as though I'd been on this very block before, once upon a time in the early autumn. So as last resort I took a walk. A walk! Oh, how I have missed my walks! Look! See that sunlit sky as blue as starch, edging over that limb? It’s pushing away the grey underbelly of the day. Is that a sparrow resting a minute on a colden rail? Wait! My Gosh, it’s Ounce! Our little Ounce, fluffed up and balanced as a ball. Ounce is off now, to sip from the edges of a late fountain fall. Oh dear, I was so excited I forgot to take a picture!  Don’t worry though, we made an appointment.

a  - b -  c -  d twiddle-dee-dum and twiddle-dee-dee it could be post and it could be pre- it's whatever you feel you want it to be! tee-hee-hee, tee-hee-hee, tee-hee-hee. Lights ! Pre-Lights ! believe it or not, but what's not to believe? it looks like a lot but what's hard to conceive is the other three dumpsters that preceeded these Post Lights !

Help!  Help!  There are doors everywhere!!

What happens when the singing brook slows to an alto winter, When fall dips into the frozen places? How do I fill the space between those temporary satisfactions, Those amorous sauces, dripping from fragrant cedars, How do I keep old reeking thoughts from sneaking into the intervals? Do not think back to the bygone days of ho ho ho’s and turkey! Do not go charging in between the status and the quid pro quos, Do not be trapped in that gnarled internal landscape, Bitten away from the valves of life,   Take care! When life is sailing along in the straits, When the winds sing out through the rigging, When honey flows in the pantry loaves, When today’s new ghosts haunt up the holds,   When the day is alive for the living, Abandon the helm and the charts and debates, Cast your bow to the wind and the fates, Take care! William Glackens, American, 1870-1938, wash and graphite on paper Fleet of Transports just before the start, Tampa Bay, June