FootprintsintheWind.com

And Moses said, “I don’t need to raise no stinking stick. God will part the waters.” And Jonah said, “I don’t need to preach to Ninevah. God will turn their hearts.” And Noah said, “I don’t need to build an arc. God will provide.”

:- Doug.

I set before you death and life. Choose. Choose well, for you choose for the generations.

:- Doug.

Do more not-done-ing.

:- Doug.

I want to be conscious in my dying.

:- Doug.

You have the gift of having seen this long-term care thing in many guises and appearances. You can see long view over their case, over their needs, and the outlines of where this will come out the other side. You recognize the fog they are in, and how it can keep them feeling lost and confined. So you have a gift you can give them to share: that this is fog in the valley, nothing more, that the fog will lift, and when and how it might burn off as the day goes on. This is the gift of reflection.

:- Doug.

Last October, I was in the observation car of The Capitol Limited train, as it came around the mountain. There, for the space of few ticks of the clock, I was witness. The early sun just caught the tops of the forest on the distant side. There below were the brilliant white tops of the fog, covering the valley. This is a view to remember…and to reflect upon. Why do I yet recall this moment? What does it say about me? If you have had such a passing moment, what does it say about you?

:- Doug.

Today: What did you give yourself? What did you give the generations?

:- Doug.

Poetry is not about
the making of it
but the living of it

:- Doug.

God as starter dough!

:- Doug.

Write about a minor event from yesterday: pick one other that or who was involved: what did you notice about that other? Why did you do what you did or didn’t do? Why again? Why again? What does this say about you? Why did you pick that event? What question are you avoiding?

:- Doug.

Make a list of 29 things and events from yesterday, just to limber up your writing exploring side.

:- Doug.

I will not talk about poetry
I will talk in poetry

:- Doug.

Move beyond thought
to think

:- Doug.

Your most creative time might be when you feel least creative.

:- Doug.

Poetry making is about your relationship to your meaning-finding, to humanity and these humans, to the largest you can conceive, in this writing day.

:- Doug.

Be reflexive—ask why you noticed this, wrote about that, used these characteristic words.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1969

I started off in life very young.

Please pass it on.

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Slow your thinking
In the twitch of an eye
thoughts carry you away
from thinking
Dead and stinking
memories thoughts are
moving too fast
to see what they did to you
Know: thinking is the work
you do not want to do
laborious, sweaty, and slow, slow

:- Doug.

Reflecting often goes like this for me: My mind is sound, and full of sound. It hops around, a hundred jumping fleas, each making me itch, each carrying a word, a task, an idea. I shush the words. A picture of a still lake surface at dawn helps. Fog on the meadow. I tell the images, no thanks. If all goes well, I can float in the clear for a bit. I am again a nine year old, lying on the cool grass, watching the clouds, not caring about anything but the clouds morphing. Maybe I glimpse something significant. So shush the words, shush the images, find the clear. Then I remember that I do this for bubble gum: I look for what sticks us one to the other.

:- Doug.

Poetry making might help you with something as surface as marketing or as deepening as your relationship to humanity and all mystery.

:- Doug.

Seek Old English, body, concresence.

:- Doug.

What do poets make?
Meaning?
Intention? Purpose?
Certainly not merely rhyme
Gatherings of mystery?

:- Doug.

How subtle can you be?
Specifically
How subtle can you perceive?

:- Doug.