tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57650372024-03-27T14:57:02.490-07:00Radical ReadingsA space for poetry and other short literature, as well as the occasional opinion on the state of affairs today.Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.comBlogger1155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-56448187394662263252024-03-27T14:56:00.000-07:002024-03-27T14:56:24.271-07:00Weaponize The military is always on the lookout for new weapons;Various advanced drones and aircraft flit about in our skies,Beamed laser weapons have been tested for many years,apparently without any useful results. They should take a lesson from Marconi and Edison: Keep on trying!Perhaps better yet, weaponize peace and diplomacy.All human beings want pretty much the same things:Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-13372493122483765652024-03-15T08:48:00.000-07:002024-03-15T08:48:18.679-07:00Avoid Nuclear War
Ever since I’ve been alive,
all I’ve known is the nuclear sword poised,
hanging over us all, ready at any moment
to fall and send us all back to the stone age.
There was that brief decade of thaw,
whee the Soviet Union disintegrated,
we seemed the victors and that new world order
came about, for better or for worse.
Some mighty war toys got spent in smaller conflicts,
The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-80622562870921117762024-03-04T13:09:00.000-08:002024-03-04T13:09:39.782-08:00On the importance of important things
I like to post some poetry and the occasional mini-editorial on
this blog. But I view it as a place to get out my creativity at
times, and sometimes general impressions of things. But this is not
a bid for political power, or any kind of great importance. Rather
is it just as a way to make my small ‘scratch on the fabric of the
universe,’ a way of saying “I was here.” Just Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-600733252727822012024-02-29T09:15:00.000-08:002024-02-29T09:16:56.139-08:00Emotions Conveyed Through Time
Vibrant colors that ripple and shimmer from different times
through
history, emoting to us from the floor or a wall;
they
give us strong messages in a deep primal language,
the
impact more powerful than from mere words alone.
They
speak of war and misery, or love and joy;
routine
images of irises in a vase next to pears,
blooming
waterlilies in a pond in spring,
or
vast landscapes in a Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-66196609005257423482024-02-24T11:17:00.000-08:002024-02-24T11:17:21.445-08:00Viral Villanelle
Vacations can be such a wonderful thing,
abandon
your worries and enjoy many pleasures.
Those
sneaky viruses can spoil a weekend fling.
It
sure is fun to tour and gaze at all the residents bling,
then
relax in a nearby swim spa for good measure.
Vacations
can often be such a wonderful thing.
Stroll
pleasant avenues under festive light strings,
peer
into shops with some exotic local Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-36681452169032455462024-02-12T18:54:00.000-08:002024-02-12T18:54:09.648-08:00Getaway in February Sometimes the only thing to do is get away,escape the dreary winter scenes and undulating temps,flee to a world of palms, mountains and desert.Golf courses, swimming pools, tennis courtsall populated with happy tourists enjoying ajoyful vacation interlude, throwing their cares away.Hope that more can experience this fun and wonder.Hang in there, someday your Palm Springs moment will come.Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-16379758602692225352024-02-12T09:25:00.000-08:002024-02-12T09:25:03.502-08:00Wishes are Happy Things
Wish that all people would be accepted and get along,
we could work together to solve common problems,
respecting gender, racial or orientation differences,
Accepting the need to cooperate,
to solve serious common problems.
Wish that all corporations were ethical and altruistic,
workers were dedicated and hard working;
well paid and otherwise fairly compensated.
Wish that Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-55632537731352271832024-01-31T17:22:00.000-08:002024-01-31T17:22:17.323-08:00Hours Like Diamonds
“The hours are diamonds” - Time waits for no one by the Rolling
Stones.
Thanks
to the Internet and archives,
One
has the chance to take a deep dive
into
any past era, in text, video or songs.
You
can take your present self along
for
a ride into a past era of your life,
one
with different pleasure or strife.
Care
to revisit the roaring twenties,
the
depressed 30’s or wartime 40’s?
Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-64109641683007150822024-01-27T06:16:00.000-08:002024-01-27T06:16:27.713-08:00Interplanetary Innovator
In the past words like “helicopter” and “Mars”
were not commonly used in the same sentence.
But in the past three years they were, often.
An improbable rotorcraft flew over another world.
Stuff of pulp sci-fi, seemingly explained away
by recent science – “there’s no atmosphere there!”
Yet there was a minute one made of carbon dioxide,
dense enough to support blades spinning Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-57743794941907276502024-01-18T06:54:00.000-08:002024-01-18T06:54:53.137-08:00Memory Memorandum
I remember when
was hustling back and forth in front of some machine,
keeping it fed with paper and attention and commands.
I remember when
Was standing in front of another device, separating paper
stacks and removing carbons. For hours and hours.
I remember when
Was feeding paper into printers or slapping up tape reels,
studying screens, shelving tapes, Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-63932448616525824162024-01-13T18:09:00.000-08:002024-01-13T18:09:11.684-08:00Dumped on Again
We know it is not a matter of if, but when
nasty old winter will take a dump on us again.
Going along our daily routines in fair weather,
There is never any question of whether
we will make it to our destination on time.
Usually the sun comes out and it is fine.
However, past tornadoes and derechos remind
us that eventually we’ll face ugly climes…
But we are doughty stout Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-9785675882953231132023-12-22T16:26:00.000-08:002023-12-22T16:26:25.250-08:00One Direction One of a couple of sprigs I still remember from glancing through Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time" is the fact that time is a one-way arrow. He even had a big fat arrow to illustrate - one way only. There is no going back. We know that we will inevitably be going forward, and that it will pass faster than we realize, making us wonder where it all went.Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-75122675866285658802023-12-21T17:15:00.000-08:002023-12-21T17:15:30.640-08:00Limited Lines
A 700-page tome can garner much praise,
netting an author
fame and a big payday;.
Yet how many will
read every single page,
and be able to
recall the words conveyed.
A short-eight-line
poem pays no bills,
nor earns an
astounding commissions;
While it may lack
convoluted-plot thrills,
you can read and
comprehend it in seconds.
With enough time
left over for coffee and texting,
or if Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-89400791896276630312023-12-16T13:09:00.000-08:002023-12-17T13:56:53.419-08:00Perched Atop Many Years
Once way back when,
in
dim memories of elementary school
hallways,
with clumps of bodies exiting
classrooms,
I measured my progress.
The
groups of younger, smaller kids kept
increasing
with each passing year.
Our
class got taller, until we left entirely.
We
went to other schools, and
I
started at the bottom again,
gradually
moving up the chain.
Until
that sunny Graduation day,
wearing
Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-66811894553476326182023-12-10T14:30:00.000-08:002023-12-11T18:11:28.774-08:00Brooding December
The river is brooding and moody,
the woods quiet,
nestled in sleep.
Even the deer are
sheltering from
the blast of winters
fury or a hunter’s slugs.
But it is still warm
today…
So I hike through
dry brush and packed dirt,
or trudge along
sandy riverside temporarily thawed.
Not even many birds
are out and about.
At least no
fisher-peoples to trip over while snapping pics.
A silent, Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-28749147952387022042023-12-03T15:42:00.000-08:002023-12-11T18:14:21.855-08:00A Quantum Future
400 qubits are enough to take over humanity?
What
little value we have in the grand picture,
the
overarching sweep of history, on a galactic scale.
Other
civilizations may have been swallowed by their
artificial
constructs, and that is what is radiating in all
of
the spectrums of light throughout the universe.
Thirty
years more, and we’ll all be ordering things
ready-made
from factor Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-1646924494585685752023-11-27T14:18:00.000-08:002023-12-11T18:16:50.054-08:00No class like the old class
The class of ‘75 is still in touch,
those
disparate lives across the country.
We
are all 48 years and an email away;
so
many years and miles, places and times.
Vast
distance and murky memories crossedinstantly, made fresh and real again.
Grainy
mental images surface again.
Classrooms
and teachers and lugging books,
prefects
and brothers and late-night parties.
Moments
happy and sad, Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-60802170795239769832023-11-27T10:26:00.000-08:002023-12-11T18:18:16.337-08:00The Right Pick
Booth or Table? is asked.
It used to be
Paper or Plastic?
That stopped me cold
at times
on a busy Saturday
morning,
when I had so many
more things
to decide than what
kind of bag to use.
A long time before
this it used to be
Beer or mixed drink?
Dance or sit and
talk?
Your place, or mine?
Bottom, or top?
The summation would
arrive through a
fog of anxiety, as
if by magic:
Whiskey Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-54788939582276654202023-11-23T06:31:00.000-08:002023-11-23T06:31:21.604-08:00Happy Thanks Day
So many things to be thankful for.
That my failures
haven’t landed me on the street,
living in a tent and
surviving on scraps and handouts.
Or in some prison or
six feet under the earth.
Thankful that I
stayed employed for many years,
built up retirement
funds and credits that keep me
housed, fed and
comfortable in my now older years.
Thankful that I
still have a car to get around in.
Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-9645498221866913492023-11-15T19:01:00.000-08:002023-12-11T18:19:58.893-08:00China
From rickshaws and dusty villages,
once conquered,
humiliated and abused,
barefoot and wearing
rags...
arose a new colossal
economic superpower,
practically on par
with the mighty USA.
Mao once said that
“they will sell us
the rope to hang
them with,” and
there is more truth
to that than not.
Cheap labor, central
planning and persistence
have transformed
them into a major force,
Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-29556200654681010322023-11-07T18:29:00.001-08:002023-11-07T18:29:47.864-08:00Haiku Play
out to eat today
an expected friend
not there
time to move on now
some things don’t
turn out
best laid plans fall
through on us
pack up and move it
road yonder beckons
new chances just
round the bend
there will be more
friends
later down the trail
who should show but
my old friend
renewed contact fun
it is not over yet
there will always be
chances
get that chin up now
(These Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-59710404165760486722023-11-03T08:42:00.004-07:002023-11-06T16:41:17.768-08:00Cursed or Blessed
Blessed are the communities that do the blessing,
feeding the hungry
and staffing hospitals and schools.
Doing the good and
necessary that needs doing,
helping humanity as
a whole while believing.
Omnipresent religion
sits everywhere one looks,
Catholic and
Lutheran, evangelical not forsook.
One can believe in
fairies, trolls and monsters,
Satan and Jesus and
Almighty God in His throne.Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-46534289538909588582023-10-30T08:45:00.003-07:002023-11-06T16:42:40.857-08:00Current Events
So the AI can’t write a decent poem?
good, gives us
humans a bit of hope.
Our technology is a
mere reflection of us.
Flawed and bumbling, yet
it sometimes reaches
new heights and
raises our morale.
Then failures follow
successes,
dashing the same
encouragement,
leaving us bereft,
and forced to start again.
Hasn’t that been
our story since we
came down from the
trees and stoodMikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-31392915967937654262023-10-29T18:22:00.002-07:002023-11-01T08:20:50.053-07:00Offline Hacks
When everything else is humming along fine,
plans unfolding as they should in real time.
Obstacles encountered are easily surmounted,
Frustrations endured or forgotten or flouted.
The blessings get counted and feelings are fine,
occasional good surprises are truly sublime.
Conversations with friends work out alright,
house and yard maintained to prevent blight.
Until allMikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5765037.post-84765204625549278272023-10-25T11:32:00.002-07:002023-11-01T08:21:56.938-07:00The Fall is Falling
Fall is falling like it promised,
trees dropping pretense and baring their souls.
Squirrels are scrambling and collecting food,
Preparing nests for the white bitterness ahead.
Temperatures tease us with warmth and breezes,
lure us into complacence before those inevitable drops.
No matter, we Midwesterners know to prepare;
and at times pause to take in the color and beauty.
Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10887758689429542877noreply@blogger.com0