2 Christmas Poems

Christmas 2001 #1
"Jerusalem"

So you should shift your eyes a bit,
Just a bit to the right.
With a nod towards Christmas time
Which is just around the corner.
I can smell it like I smell
The Colorado evergreen.
In one winter breeze-wafted breath,
It comes and-sweet surrender!
It disarms all we fear
Like a pilgrimage kiss upon a sandstone wall
Riddled with bullet-hole scars and salvation.
They are many times the same.
Many times. The same.

So you should turn your beautiful face,
Just a bit to the right.
With a nod towards Christmas time
Which is just around the corner.
I can smell it like I smell
The cedars of Lebanon.
In one winter breeze-wafted breath,
It comes and-sweet surrender!
It disarms all we fear,
Like rose petals fallen to the ground.


Christmas 2001 #2
"Unity"

Like everyone here connected,
Shining and holding hands.
We string from the mailbox to the roof
To the tree
A metaphor of you and you and me.
And we string from the garden fence
To the gutters
A picture of this round world.
We sweetly lay from the skirt to the star
A golden symbol of all that we are.
And we share the wine from body to cup
Like a crimson glacier all splintered up
With the geologic time and motion
that is not unlike the
Shining and holding hands,
The kind of electricity that a smile
And a family can throw out in beams

To a not-so-shining world.

Christmas Wouldn't Be Complete Without...

http://www.angelfire.com/wa/zzaran/calvin.html
calvin and hobbs snowmen comics.

In-Flight Fear

My pervasive in-flight fear is not that we will crash into a mountain (I was flying from Denver to Dallas) or be accosted by terrorists with saline solution or fingernail clippers or even narcoleptic pilots (big cover-up, there!), but that we will be on our merry way, at a comfortable cruising altitude, and collide with a chevron of unwary, innocent geese or a flock of top-secret CIA carrier pigeons. No one comes out smiling of that one. So far, the skies immediately ahead are clear of any avian activity. Furthermore, the lady beside me had abandoned her seat for an empty row in front of me (leaving the equivalent amount of space as first class) and the beverage cart can be heard rolling up the aisle, in perfectly wonderful understated-while-still-being-intrusive style.

The light-footed, cap-tooth flight attendant looked at me suspiciously, as it was clear I had not purchased my set of zombie headphones, and asked for my choice of beverages. I chose coffee. He then set in my open tray table a small, condom-sized plastic/foil vacuum-pack with embossed repeated AA insignias promising “Premium Snack Mix-a blend of mini pretzels, honey roasted sesame stick, and cheddar corn bites. Net weight ½ oz. (14.2 grams)” Why wont the U.S. adapt the metric system Haven’t we made our point, already? Of my Premium Snack Mix, I enjoy the mini pretzels the most and don’t care so much for the cheddar corn bites.
Looking out the window, I swear I see an alien crop circle among the patchwork of eastern Colorado fields! Within its intricate and wholly indecipherable pattern of symbols, on sentence is carefully crafted, in both English and French: “Wouldn’t a set of in-flight headphones be nice right about now?” No, they wouldn’t. But I’d appreciate more of those Premium Snack Mixes.

In-Flight Movie, pt 2

Apparently, airlines show TV programs during flights now. They will sell you little headphone sets so you can hear the programs. They have a lot of commercials in these TV programs which, I believe, are the whole reason for the programs themselves—to facilitate the showing of the commercials. It’s like walking in order to put on shoes. And we’ve become as accustomed to their lied and half-truths as we have to steering wheels and carpeted floors. I propose the commercials cost more to produce than did the programs themselves. So that means the commercials are create so you buy stuff in order to make money to be used to pay for more commercials. Is it not the serpent feasting on its own tail? I didn’t buy headphones. Instead, I used the time to reflect, read a little Virginia Woolf, and write this commentary on what everyone else was doing. Most people bought headphones. Most people are being lied to right now. I’m looking at this great cumulus out the window.

In-Flight Movie, pt 1

Once the plane pulled away from the gate today, they were kind enough to show us a short little independent movie. It was a comedy, as far as I could tell, about (appropriately enough) a fictional airplane ride. Immediately, the plane had to make an emergency landing in a field. To be honest, the landing was uncreative and void of all suspense and tension. It was, instead, a splendidly negotiated landing by the pilots, and hats off to them, as both the plane and passengers were, as far as I could tell, completely undamaged. I had to admire the composure and almost non chalant manner with which the passengers went solidly about the business of administering oxygen masks to the children first, then to themselves, and leaning forward in textbook crash positions.

Later in the movie, the same plane and the same passengers were forced to make another emergency landing, this time over water, with the same results. At this point, I had to wonder whether the pilots deserved unmeasured praise…or a pink slip. Twice in one flight?! The movie ended abruptly with a blue screen and a watermark of the very airline on which I was traveling. I didn’t like the movie that much.
They showed the movie first in English then turned right around and showed it again in French which, on a flight from Denver to Dallas, was a little confusing.

Flying Alone.

I love flying alone. I love the whole process, beginning to end. The rituals of packing, getting to the airport, riding the shuttle train to the concourse, the double-checking of the gate and departure time, and then, finally, taking my seat and settling down, usually grabbing a short nap before take-off. It all boils down to a great time for me to reflect and consider, unencumbered by anything familiar or of responsible import. These days, it’s tough to get time alone, and even tougher to get blocks of time in which I can really just sit back and consider my life, my personal victories, challenges and their potential solutions, and the recapturing of my Purpose. Spend time thinking about the BIG existential Stuff. It’s definitely a healthy process for me…cleansing and focusing. It’s kind of like stepping into another world, like an extended meditation. I got to do that yesterday, flying home to see my family. I came up with some good ideas, a few new questions, and got a few things straight. I guess the old adage is true: “When in doubt, go higher.”

Time and Temp

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