Some levity
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Monthly Archives: September 2015
Do Not Ask for Permission
Take a sledgehammer
to the statue
they have erected of you
fashioned by their own fancies
of how you should look,
who should be.
Do not
ask for permission.
Smash it
into a thousand shoulds
you sweep into the dustpan.
Then stand naked
in front of your own mirror
and dress
in your softest words
of wisdom
whispering from within.
Written by Kaveri Patel
(2012 copyright) used without permission mea culpa
Labour Day weekend
I’m feeling quite melancholy this Labour Day weekend. Writing can be good medicine. Not to mention there is nothing like a banyan tree to make you feel small! Here I am about a month ago on vacation in Hawaii. Charlie played hooky from his conference and we visited the Honolulu Zoo. It was a lovely grounds. Too bad we visited during the heat of the day. Many of the animals were resting. It was a nice visit anyway. Aren’t these banyan trees just magnificent? Double click on the image to get the full impact of this picture….it’s beautiful and captures the pensiveness of the moment and the emotional landscape today. You might be drawn to read the poem below by Steven Ratiner Poet in Residence at Massachusetts Cultural Council. 
“Drowned Syrian Toddler Washes Up On
Turkish Resort Beach Near Bodrum”
It looks as if he’s listening.
Ear pressed against wet sand, this
three-year-old Odysseus:
‘What sings? What is taking place
beneath sea beneath earth which
no one told me about? Where
were they taking me? Who
will I be once I get there?’
This is where the Aegean left him –
red tee unveiling the swollen belly,
sodden blue shorts barely shielding his knees.
What should have been school shoes
will crack now and bleach from brine and sun.
Already, a salt halo drying atop his crown.
Half-listening to the evening news –
latest war, latest disaster, refugees
swept from one misery to another,
as regular as the tides. Did I just
mishear the reporter’s question:
‘Whose child isn’t this?’
— Steven Ratiner
(used with permission)
Dear Tabby 