SONGS FROM ANOTHER TIME

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OLD FRIENDS ARE  THE BEST

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SONGS FROM ANOTHER TIME

James Taylor saved me from
the terminal darkness of depression
in a Colorado winter thirty nine years ago
and a haze of drunkenness

and a beautiful red haired girl
that was beyond my means
I gave her Sweet Baby James
 and some dumb ass poetry

I listen now
and relive the time
when my depression seemed
to be my only friend

and James said it all for me
cause what is life
without a song
to go to bed with

they say that music
is the only sensation
that affects
the whole brain

there is no sunrise this morning
we are into the grey
and expecting rain
today

and I don't really care
what is happening our there
sitting here in my gaunch
singing along

the transit system wants me
to record my trips today
but I really have no place to go
and all day to get there

they lured me with a promise of prizes
and as you know
there is a sucker born every
minute

must obey the
Lord of small tasks
something to
fill in the blanks

charging all the batteries
of my communication devices
and
cameras

now if I can charge my own batteries
and climb out of the psychic hole
I dug myself with
songs from another time

JWL ⓒ 16/09/2011

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LUCKY MAN

Old habits die hard, as usual I'm all packed up and ready to go, the hurry up and wait habit from my service days has reigned supreme. I have been on Montreal time for the last four days anally wearing two watches, one PST and the other EST. As usual I've packed far too much stuff and will probably sprain my back getting the whole mess to YVR.
Had a moment of panic over the arrangements for plane tickets and phoned Heather this morning and she quelled my fears. I was amazed at how good the phone reception was, very clear and lifelike. KOODO has recently localized all calls made in Canada so there are no roaming charges or long distance charges. I don't have a term contract with them and being as I'm not on the iPhone hook yet my phone bill is relatively inexpensive. I have Caller id and don't answer any call not stored in my address book. I also have extended night hours from 17:00 hrs. until 09:00 hrs. which are free as are all text and incoming. I never use text and another habit from my service days never spend much time on the phone.
I was reflecting on how good life has been to me lately, I have many things to be thankful for,
good friends, no trouble in my extended family. My health is only marred by the aging process,
my living space is adequate, and my days are interesting and entertaining while the rest of the world goes to hell in a hand basket.
Ciao, JWL

THE SYSTEM

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THE SYSTEM

    Over the years our system of democracy has become anything but. In Canada the PM has far too much power and the rigged first past the poll voting system ensures that even with as little as 26% of the registered voters a majority in Parliament is easily achieved and the PM becomes a dictator for the next four years.

    With a Conservative majority and the collusion of the large corporations and the banks deficits are run up so that hard won social programs can be attacked, pensions, medicare, unemployment insurance, labour legislation will be all changed for the benefit of the corporations and the banks who after all work the system with bribes to which ever party will do their bidding.

    Our current PM who hails from Dallas north (Calgary) and who wishes to be a Bush clone joining in the American war all the time while our countries go down the drain. Bailing out criminals in the banking system and maintaining  foreign wars for the theft of other countries energy assets for the voracious hunger for foreign oil.

    The estimate of the appetite for the resources of this finite planet is that it would take five worlds to supply it as well as rapidly turning the existing planet into something quite uninhabitable in a period of perhaps ten years.

    I'm not optimistic that we can stop the slide into entropy  even if we stopped all of our destructive behavior. I fear for my grandkids and as Leonard Cohen says in his poem the Future, I have seen the future and its murder.

    I think the people in the Occupy Wall Street movement have it right, the only thing that has to change is the whole system. Politics as usual will not solve anything because to indulge ourselves in that delusion reminds me of the addicted gambler who is told that the dealer is cheating him and says, "But its the only game in town."

    Capitalism  is the dealer and the game is fixed it was never engineered to support a democracy and the myth that it spawned democracy is the BS the MSM keeps feeding us. Capitalism main tenet  is when in doubt, cheat.


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JWL

 

NOTHING WORKS

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NOTHING WORKS

I was surprised
at how dependent
I'd become
on this block of electronic components

Then came the crash
and feverish attempts
to return my playmate
to some kind of electronic health

most of it will have to wait
until I can afford to replace
the hardware and software
the main signal is I'm now behind five OSs

I'll have to see what is available
on the used market
and upgrade that way
sigh

and like my body is
slowly but surely deteriorating  
I'm rapidly reaching the point where
nothing works

JWL © 14/10/2011

p.s. its very strange that when everything else crashed
special characters remembered the © symbol and
luckily I'd just made a backup DVD of my photos,
poetry and blogs

RUN ON SENTENCE

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    Stream of consciousness wondering where these thoughts are coming from. WWOZ on the sound track and coffee in my cup, take a sip and see where this part of my journey is going to take me. Life seems to be one long run on sentence and I haven't been out of my digs for two days, my attention is split between my feckless dreams and the internet following the goings at in New York City and the Occupy Wall Street protests. My Face Book looks like a factory for well meaning bumper stickers and it is comforting to know that most of my "friends" agree with the sentiments expressed but that may be misleading because I understand that the Face Book app spends a lot of time stroking you because as reassuring it is that your opinions mean something it is in a self defeating echo chamber.

        The DJ at WWOZ has a cutesie  pie handle of Juke Box Jack but the music is excellent with a lot of Sarah Vaughan,  Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald and a lot of very nice lounge lizard bits which remind me of the nights at piano bars when I was the last dog hung at closing time. Just me and the bar tender before I stumbled home and either ralphed or slept in my clothes and tried to stop the bed from spinning. You knew you were in real trouble when the porcelain of the thunder bowl started to feel warm on your cheek.

    Now that's odd, waxing nostalgic for my days as a practicing drunk. Perhaps the inability to sleep was an excellent excuse to abuse alcohol. These days all I abuse is the English language at least as far as Microsoft Word is concerned. I once corrected a rather long but uncomplicated essay according to Word and by the time I finished Word had turned it into incomprehensible gibberish.

    My face itches but I'm too lazy to do the 4s routine. I prefer to do that when I intend to get my ass moving first thing in the morning when I banish the blues by obeying the Lord Of Small Tasks.

My problem lately is that I really have no place to go and all day to get there, and anyway if it only cost a nickel to go round the world I couldn't get out of sight.

JWL 11/10/2011

p.s. The DJ just put a word in for the kids in New Orleans doing their Occupy Wall street bit at city hall. I'm gong to be part of the occupation here in Vancouver sometime in the next week.

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LOST IMAGES

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a lost glove hitch hiking to the home of lost keys, umbrellas, and socks lost in the laundry, hoping to find the other glove.

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I finally found the image of dear friend and comrade Vic Tweedy from the 150th anniversary "meet and greet".

 

LOST

a good man
died yesterday
I searched for his image in my files
but couldn't find it

we had often talked
about life
whenever we met
which in retrospect was not often enough

we both struggled
with the concepts of religion and atheism
Vic preferring agnostic
never being an egotist who knew everything

he was kind and caring
and the regimental reunions
will never be the same
without him

I suppose all the questions
we had about life
will be answered
but not revealed

today this egotist
spent the last two hours
taking pictures
of himself

most were blurred
seemingly unfocused
but some how
masking my regret at Vic's passing

I can't make the memorial
another regret
can't tell anyone
how glad I was that we had met

I'll search some more
I know I have something from 2010
Rest in Peace
dear friend.

JWL 10/10/2010

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JOBS I HATE

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FOUR LOADS

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FOLDING UGGHH

 

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Folded and ready for ironing and being put away.

piss and moan, piss and moan, ha ha

 

JOBS I HATE

laundry
vacuuming
taking out the trash
shoveling snow

but to maintain
my sanity and get my ass in gear
I must obey the Lord Of Small tasks
to face my day without fear

and the place needs vacuuming
or my carpets will become  a gravel pit
covered with with crumbs
and other assorted bits of shit

the laundry and ironing
and the folding and putting away are done
so its only the endless fight of tangled electric cords
that fuck you up like invading hordes

these pissant jobs
are only suitable
if you are some kind of peasant
or, like me, a drooling slob

all this puts me into a simmering rage
like a gorilla throwing shit cause he's stuck in his cage
but I can relate
doing all these jobs I hate

JWL  ⓒ 09/10/2011

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if you can listen to this without getting up and dancing check your pulse you may be dead, ha ha.  

TODAY

 

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ANGEL OF MERCY

 

TODAY

paradise is only a
coffee, a bagel and cream cheese
with marmalade
away

time to put on my shirt and pants
instead of shivering here in my gaunch
I've already surfed the world
and asked myself the question

Is there anyone out there
and now in my orange hoodie
and sweat pants
I peek though my blinds

received two e mails
from dead men's web sites
Lowie dead now four years
and Joe going on two years

one who lived a long life
doing what he loved
and one who became
the articulate voice for us white trash

the kids at occupy wall street
bemoan the death of the middle class
to become working class heroes
or the homeless

people who have become
sick and tired
of being sick
and tired

road kill, collateral damage
in the class warfare
that until now 
 they didn't know they were in

the politicians and the mainstream media
 those  well paid scare crows
in the endless fields
of greed

mouth platitudes of eloquence
to run in the endless charade
of elections
as if the elections themselves
were some kind of democracy

ensuring the ascendence 
of the one percent
at the expense
of the rest

as  Gandhi said
first they ridicule you
then they seek to terrorize you
then you win

time for another coffee
and bagel
because there is no way to improve on
today

JWL ⓒ 07/10/2011 

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