an attempt only

IN CASE I FAIL IN THE EFFORT, THIS IS AN ATTEMPT AT A COGENT ESSAY, RATHER THAN A POEM, A PROSE POEM,STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS ('STREAMY-DREAMY') WRITING, OR A NEWS ITEM OR PR SQUIB:

Last weekend I went to a writers' conference at College of the Redwoods, Del Norte--my first, I believe. There were about a dozen authors present with their books on display for sale, several readings (poetry, history, fiction, autobiography, travel and trail guides, children's lit, sci fi, mystery, etc.) by the authors, a panel on "process" comprising a half dozen authors. There were several seminars on marketing.

As well, there was an attractive continental breakfast and a delicious catered luncheon.

Unable to buy all the books that interested me, I restricted myself in my book buying.

To date I have read Dennis Powers' exhaustively researched story of the last voyage of the Brother Jonathon and Jean Hegland's "Into the Forest", as well as "The Zero".

"Into the Forest" pulls one deeply into the collective unconscious of bioneer consciousness, tapping into current collective responsibility 'mythology'; it is gripping.

Emily Fox Gordon's "Are You Happy" is a winner in ALL RESPECTS!

Ms. Fox Gordon, in prose as enchantingly chosen as any Bronte sister, describes her upbringing in a small college town in Massachusetts on a street called College Place (a mythical name, perhaps).

Anyway, I am back to reading the literature of dead guys (just for today): "Kidnapped" (R .L. Stevenson).

Still, it was fun reading the College of the Redwoods, Del Norte, poetry journal (the KERF)- A BEAUTIFUL VOLUME- and getting to meet 'cutting edge', LIVING writers at the College of the Redwoods, DEL NORTE WRITERS' CONFERENCE.

Kudos to the CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM at College of the Redwoods, Del Norte, and to their innovating STAFF and FACULTY.

sweet subliming ('sweet' pronounced "swate")

each day i fall
through the crack between the worlds--
into communes deep, and lofted
with dewy moss and lichens in pearls of water:
too pure of
scent for any breath
but
baby's
breath...

tumblimg out of the turbulent plumes
of waterfalls
of water falling
around me

i melt
and if
i melt into
some new beloved place

may i feel
the freedom of support
from ancestral loving presences
beyond the
interminable
bump and grinding
impulses
of the too-strong
pulse of living
in this sixty-something habit of

forever
dreaming of
sweet
subliming



~fini~

they said things their compatriots did not want to hear...

WHY DO THEY SAY "NO ONE LIKES A SMART-ASS"?

A FEW PEOPLE LIKE SMART-ASSES...OTHER SMART-ASSES DO.

WHY BE A SMART-ASS...(ALWAYS WHY, WHY...)

AS IN...I DARE YOU TO NOT LIKE ME...

BUT I AM TIRED OF THAT DARE. TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE 'CALLED MY BLUFF' !

"I DARE YOU TO LIKE ME?"
DOESN'T WORK...AND ISN'T IT PAST TIME TO GRADUATE SECOND GRADE?

I LIKE SMART-ASSES BECAUSE I AM ONE.

AND, BECAUSE I RECOGNIZE THE SO-CALLED "POPULARITY PROBLEM" ASSOCIATED WITH SMART 'ASSEDOSIS', I RESPECT AND USUALLY LIKE OTHER SMART-ASSES.

SMART-ASSES TEND TO POINT OUT SOCIAL INANITIES AND SOMETIMES, INSANITIES OF THE PROFOUNDLY ANTISOCIAL, YET SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE VARIETY-- LIKE TORTURE, WAR, OVERDRUGGING OF CHILDREN, AND OTHER 'MODERN SOCIAL CONVENIENCES'.

WHICH IS WHY "SMART-ASSES" LIKE GALILEO, JOAN OF ARC, ETHEL AND JULIUS ROSENBERG, DR. M.L. KING, ROBERT KENNEDY, MALCOLM X WERE "OFFED" BY THEIR SO-CALLED PATRIOTIC COMPATRIOTS...

THESE "SMART-ASSES" SAID THINGS THEIR COMPATRIOTS DID NOT WANT TO HEAR.

THEY PAID A HIGH PRICE FOR THEIR DECISION TO BE SMART-ASSES!