Dreamland, 08-13-2023

 

I am waiting to wake up

feeling 22 years old again,

morning dawning sunny

full of endless potential,

anything possible.

I no longer remember my dreams.

Do they remember me

somewhere in the Land of Dreams?

Do they say “Where did that young man

go? He’d better come back

and find his forgotten dreams”?

Thanks, Dreamland, I do recall

my early dreams, just can't

remember many recent ones.

I'm just trying to see clearly

what's right in front of me

Bob Loomis 

copyright 08-12-23

Today's Riff, 05-26-2023

 Two butterflies

doing the tiger-tail tango

in the garden.

Spring is indeed

busting out all over.

Bob Loomis,  May 2023

Sunday Funnies: 05-21-2023

Just a couple of quick 'toons done as I dip back into the inkwell of my comics dabblings, Da Boss and the probably politically incorrectly titled Miss Dish:

Copyright 2023, Robert Loomis

Today's Riff: 05-18-2023

Only memory's mirror 

resurrects
the sweet-singing violins
of lunches with Mom
at Clifton's Cafeteria.

Today's Riff: 05-11-2023

Cars backed up 

as far as the eye

can see.

How did we

arrive here?

TV news

all shootings

and mayhem. 

Overhead, the clatter

of a police chopper.

05-11-2023

Today's Riff: 05-06-2023

 My Music Bonanzas

Put 'em
on the list 
of things
that haven't quite
panned out.

More fun
than if
if they hadn't
happened
at all.

Enough
to keep 
me playing
my solo

back yard
house concerts.

So far
the neighbors
haven't
complained.

Occasional 

flashes
of gold
that feel like
Eureka!

Concord, 05-06-2023

Today's Riff, 05-05-2023

war     war     war
yet another war

even spring grasses

help hide

landmines

Today's Riff, 05-04-2023

two sparrows
hurry after tidbits
near the laundromat door
     a young couple
     flirts while folding clothes

By me, from a manuscript in progress titled "Concrete Seasons."

Today's Riff, 05-03-2023

More rain

expected this afternoon

as our drought
continues to end
at least for now.
Thank the weather gods
for long, hot showers
and flushing toilets
and geese honking
across the morning sky
and thank the universe

for another miraculous day.

Bob Loomia

Good-bye, Poetry Month, 04-30-2023

 It's the last day of poetry month, so I offer this tanka:

I miss my nightly wine

but it’s clear that I must 

be my own savior,

change it to water 

most evenings.

Robert Loomis, 09-09-2022

Keepin' On

Poetry Month is winding down, so here's a prose poem. I hope you enjoy it!

Keepin' On

It all came out better than might've been expected, blessed really, considering the constant squirming and mental chaffing against the reins of common sense. Could've been much worse. Now I pray for even more time outside the rat race. Vague guilt. What should I do to repay this sumptuous repast, this feast at life's vast table, this gathering of angels lost and found, this beast of all possible worlds, this many-versed blues ballad, this epiphany of joy and sorrow? Keep on singing, keep on playing, just keep on keepin' on!

By Bob Loomis, 2023

Poetry Month #2: Fan Man

Fan Man is a reference to a William Kotzwinkle novel that was very popular in the 1970s. More about that after this:

FAN MAN
By Bob Loomis
04-17-2023

I had a
good one
late
last night but
I let
it
get away.
Why do
I always
let ‘em get
away? OK
I confess:
a big streak
of yellow
do-nothingness
has always been
the spinal lack
in my
having done
so
little.
I tend to
drift away
into sleep
right when
The Muse
begins to whisper
in my ear.
I’m a regular
Fan Man
when it comes
to staying awake
long enough
to make
dream
reality.

From Wikipedia: The Fan Man is a cult comic novel published in 1974 by the American writer William Kotzwinkle. It is told in stream-of-consciousness style by the narrator, Horse Badorties (the titular "fan man"), a down-at-the-heels hippie living a life of drug-fueled befuddlement in New York City c. 1970. The book is written in a colorful, vernacular "hippie-speak" and tells the story of the main character's hapless attempts to put together a benefit concert featuring his own hand-picked choir of 15-year-old girls.

Horse is a somewhat tragic, though humorous, character with echoes of other famous characters in popular culture such as Reverend Jim Ignatowski of Taxi fame. In his inability to follow anything through to completion he displays symptoms of attention-deficit disorder though this could equally be drug-induced. His defining characteristic is his joy in renting or commandeering apartments which he fills with street-scavenged junk articles until, full to bursting, he moves on to his next "pad". The name "fan man" is a reference to another of his traits; the collecting and selling of fans of all shapes and sizes. The book's most memorably absurd section is the chapter titled "Dorky Day" which features the repetitive statement of the word "dorky" by Horse as a cathartic mantra to dispel the ennui of a dead-end day.

Poetry Month: My Tanka/Prose Piece

It's Poetry Month, so the following is my tanka/prose piece published in the Winter 2023 issue of Ribbons, the Tanka Society of America's quarterly magazine. I hope you enjoy it. And here's a link to information about Ribbons and TSA:

https://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/home

Saturday's Child Redux: The Oregon Coast And You

This is a redo of one of my Saturday's Child songs originally written in 2013. The chorus and a verse came to me while we were in Cannon Beach, OR. I hope you enjoy it!
https://soundcloud.com/bob-loomis/the-oregon-coast-and-you

Old Newsies Yakking

Friend Robin Mayer is doing a series of podcast interviews with old fart journalists by that title.  Here's her session with yours truly:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/old-newsies-yakking/id1672804008?i=1000601605863

Sunday Sermon, 03-05-2023: Just Asking

Wrote this the night of 03-04-2023 at Cannon Beach OR after rereading some of Gary Snyder’s “Riprap”:

JUST ASKING

Surf pounding Haystack Rock
Rushing over sand and
Up creek,
Cutting new channel
On the ebb and flow
The same symphony
And shifts
Our forebears heard
10,000 years ago.

What if we had not
Evolved/devolved
Beyond atlatls
And obsidian arrowheads
Beads and feathers
Animal skins
But remained just
Another mammal
In Mother Earth’s tapestry?
Would we really be
Much worse off
Than in this morass
Of self-made problems
Now devouring our planet?

Would a less clever,
Less rapacious pace
Have left more time
For our children
And theirs
And theirs?

Would our wilder lives
Have been less rewarding?
Would we have killed
One another and
Reproduced one another
In such overwhelming numbers
That even Nature cannot
Keep pace?
Would we still
Worship gods unknown,
Still rape and loot Mother Earth
Even as she unleashes
Countermeasures
And we try to possess
The unpossessable?

Thank whatever gods
There’s still music,
Storytelling,
Sounds of drums, flutes,
Strings, voices
To echo ancient songs,
Strands connecting
All to all
Whatever else may happen.


Copyright 03-05-2023

Happy New Year 2023!

This is a slightly revised version of last year's greeting since not much changed other than what we watched on TV via YouTube: A wonderful 1984 concert by the Dinosaurs and a 1980 Jerry Garcia Band show. It was a lovely evening! We even stayed awake past midnight. I hope your evening was fun, too. 

Copyright 2022 Robert Loomis