Happy Hanksgiving....

in my sweats before dressing for work...wondering if it's spring or Siberia outside today...mother nature is having a field day with us this autumn...taking time to breathe before a crazy week...Chanukah...my 25th wedding anniversary (yikes)...and Thanksgiving...which basically translates to latkes, chocolate, a nice dinner out, chocolate, turkey...and chocolate...I promise to burn my scale in anticipation...but you may wonder about the title of this post...it is a reference to my seeing "Captain Phillips" last night...I, personally, have never been a huge fan of Tom Hanks...I actually have preferred him in many of his less commercially successful films...this time, forgiving the somewhat confusing accent, he won me over...with his eyes...his face conveying everything to us...and this, by allowing himself, so far, to age naturally as opposed to like...I don't know 99.9% of Hollywood...but it is this true story that got me thinking...and as much as you root for Captain Phillips...there is such sadness in the plight of warlord control of the Somalian people...and the non-actors portraying the Somali pirates...so painfully thin...these pirates with nothing to lose...and nothing to live for...and here I am at Thanksgiving week and the crazed month leading up to Christmas...a season where much of the meaning is forgotten and society is driven to debt-frenzied excess...and I know I cannot cure the ills of much of the world...and the cruel circumstances of Somalis or even those without in my own backyard...so to speak...but I think I will be a bit more mindful of the Salvation Army bucket...food pantry collections...and a charity or two that will feed and keep those less fortunate warm this season...and if Tom's name is called Oscar-time next year I promise not to scream at my flat-screen in the warmth of my living room...Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

both sides now....

ah...joni mitchell is 70 today...i must admit, i was a little late in the game, as they say, in becoming a true fan...yes, joni's lyrics and haunting soprano formed much of the background noise of the 70's for me...but the true beauty and genius of her poetry didn't hit me till later...and maybe that's how it should have been...without sufficient life experience, love and loss how could any of the words resonate so deeply?...i also admire that joni is more than a musician, and poet, but also a painter...a renaissance woman, if you will...although as a poet, joni's lyrics have been painting pictures for me for years...haven't you heard "circle game" in your own head at some life event?...or "chelsea morning" in a brilliant summer sunrise?...and so when i am back at the game of writing today...poetry, that is...and i feel discouraged when buried in a sea of rejections for a new manuscript...like i keep banging my head in a wall hoping for a different result...i'll instead think of joni...and the longevity and legacy of her writing...and painting...and start again...the november sky will always be painted with her haunting lyric, "see the geese in chevron flight flapping and facing on before the snow, they've got the urge for going, they've got the wings to go"...as it should be...