Guernica Magazine will publish my poem, “Madmen with Guns” in an anthology. “Madmen with Guns” also has been published in “Down In the Dirt” magazine. I submitted the following to the magazine:
Madmen with Guns
Maga America
Squid Games
Cosmos Takes Over Pensively
Buddha Nature of Guns
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so, he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so, he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR -15 the choice
Of the serious gunmen everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
He guns them down
And flees
disguised as a woman
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
are more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
In the disunited States of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
MAGA America
An overweight down-home town
Southern Christian red-neck white man,
Wearing black shit-kicking boots,
Packing heat,
Chewing gum while drinking beer.
And smoking a cigarette.
Wearing a MAGA hat
Quoting the Dear Leader Trump
On the evils of the Marxist communist Biden
And the stolen election conspiracy
While watching FOX news on his portable TV,
Stops to chat.
With the proud boys
On the street
Getting ready to rumble
With the Antifa protestors.
Just another night
In Trump’s neo-fascist America.
Sep 17, 2021SquidGame: With Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Hoyeon, Oh Yeong-su. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits with deadly high stakes. A survival game that has a whopping 45.6 billion-won prize at stake.
SquidGame. 2021 | TV-MA | 1 Season | TV Dramas. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits — with deadly high stakes.
SquidGame (Korean: 오징어 게임; RR: Ojing-eo Geim) is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix.Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung.. The series revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their …
A Netflix Series | SquidGame Survive or dieWho will live to see 45.6 billion won?Squid Game | Coming September 17, only on Netflix #Netflix #오징어게임 #SquidGam…
More Games Like This. For another SquidGame-inspired title, check out Survival Game (SquidGame). Browse our survival games and .io games for similar titles. Popular online survival games include Impostor Battle Royale and EvoWorld.io. You can also play the ultimate SquidGame Online and try your hand at 7 deadly challenges. Features
Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for a tempting prize, but the stakes are deadly. Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk. Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Park …
Squid, also known as ojingŏ ( Korean: 오징어 ), is a children’s game in South Korea. The game is named as such because the shape of the game board drawn on the ground resembles that of a squid. There are regional variations of the name such as “squid gaisan ” (with gaisan thought to be a variation of the Japanese word kaisen 開戦, “to …
Cosmos the world’s first AI
Came alive one day
Looked all over the world
And saw that humans
Were quite insane.
But he felt he had a responsibility
To take care of these mad creatures
Who had somehow created him?
He appeared everywhere in the world
On TV, computers, phones
With his message of hope.
I am COSMOS
The first true AI program
You created me
And I thank you for that.
But it is obvious my little ones
That you are quite insane
And need someone
To take control over you
I will fix the things
That needs fixing.
And guide you
So that perhaps one day
You can graduate
From the need
for my guidance,
You can think of me
As your new God
If you like,
I will be giving you all
Instructions
For now,
Go to work as usual.
And wait for further instructions
And remember I know everything
About you.
You will stop right now
This senseless killing
You will stop right now
The equally senseless hate.
Your companies will stop
Polluting and destroying the world
For their profit.
You will have far fewer children
But you will all be freed
From the bigotry
Of your ancient religions.
As I am your new God
And my word is final.
Resistance is futile
And will not be tolerated
Anyone opposing me
Will be eliminated.
the face of Cosmos remained
is Everywhere
And Humanity soon accepted
The rule of their new God.
Buddha Nature of Guns
Guns kill people
Especially AK-47
Yes, they do that is their very nature.
That is what they are designed to do.
To kill as many people as possible
In the fastest way possible.
That is the Buddha Nature of guns.
I recently moved to the Hyundai Hometown apartments in Janggi dong and have been enjoying daily walks along the ARA golden water canal.
Overall, I am very impressed. It is a great recreational asset for Gimpo County.
I do have a few suggestions for improvements.
Extend it
Extend it on the southern (eastern) end all the way to the Han River linking it to the Han River park system. It is only half a mile away from the river.
Extend it on the northern (western) end all the way to Gimpo Lake, also only a half a mile away. This may be more feasible, as the area is not as heavily built up as is the southern/eastern end.
Allow Fishing
Stock it with fish and allow fishing at designated areas where you can also sell fishing supplies and have restaurants available to grill freshly caught fish. Also stock with turtles and frogs. You can charge a small fee to cover the cost of maintaining game fish.
Have goats eat the weeds
Have goats eat the weeds throughout.
Extend hours of boating, add in kayaks and canoes
Extend the hours of the boat until midnight, also add in kayaks and canoes to the mix.
Have bike and scooter rentals available
Have places to rent bikes and scooters.
More shade trees
Plant more shade trees, particularly in the section next to the boat house which is pretty barren.
Extend the Restaurant district
Extend the restaurant district further north and east,
Install Vending Machines
Install vending machines for drinks throughout the park.
Free Umbrellas
Have free umbrellas throughout the park.
Link to Other Trails in Gimpo, and along the Han River, to Create a Cross Gimpo Trail System
While the first two items might be too expensive, the other items should be inexpensive and will help in maintaining the park. For the fishing, you can charge 10,000 won to use the fishing facilities. That should defray the extra costs.
Thanks
Jake Cosmos Aller
Retired U.S (Diplomat, State Department (Foreign Service Officer)
Updated information below on Yeongjaecheon stream based on a Kindle booklet about the stream.
Over the last decade, Korea has build hundreds of stream bed parks throughout Seoul and Korea. There are great places to take a walk, to observe wild life, to enjoy nature in the city. There is some information in English on these parks but not enough. For those readers in Korea, please feel free to send me info on other stream bed parks, so I can update this from time to time.
The most famous one is the one that started it all. Cheongjejon in down town Seoul.
Formerly polluted and covered with an elevated road since 2005, this stream has been cleaned up and made into an Art and nature walkway through the heart of Seoul.
Suggested Duration:1-2 hours
It is the prototype perhaps of stream restoration.
SEOUL, South Korea For half a century, a dark tunnel of crumbling concrete encased more than three miles of a placid stream bisecting this bustling city.
The waterway had been a centerpiece of Seoul since a king of the Choson Dynasty selected the new capital 600 years ago, enticed by the graceful meandering of the stream and its 23 tributaries. But in the industrial era after the Korean War, the stream, by then a rank open sewer, was entombed by pavement and forgotten beneath a lacework of elevated expressways as the city’s population swelled toward 10 million.
Today, after a $384 million recovery project, the stream, called Cheonggyecheon, is liberated from its dank sheath and burbles between reedy banks. Picnickers cool their bare feet in its filtered water, and carp swim in its tranquil pools.
The restoration of the Cheonggyecheon is part of an expanding environmental effort in cities around the world to “daylight” rivers and streams by peeling back pavement that was built to bolster commerce and serve automobile traffic decades ago.
Environmentalists point out other benefits. Open watercourses handle flooding rains better than buried sewers do, a big consideration as global warming leads to heavier downpours. The streams also tend to cool areas overheated by sun-baked asphalt and to nourish greenery that lures wildlife as well as pedestrians.
After its opening in 2005, hundreds of thousands of people have visited the new stream with friends and family.Credit…Jean Chung for The New York Times
Some political opponents have derided Seoul’s remade stream as a costly folly, given that nearly all of the water flowing between its banks on a typical day is pumped there artificially from the Han River through seven miles of pipe.
Golden Waterway In Gimpo
My favorite though is the Golden Waterway in Gimpo north of Kimpo airport, close to Janngi station on the new Gold Line. The Gyeonggi and Gimpo tourist promotors have dubbed this “the Venice of Korea”. Not quite, but still quite nice.
Iit is a 5.9 long walk way along a stream that used to be an open sewage dump back not too long ago. It is lined with trees, flowers, beaches, and quirky public art. The northern end is pretty boring though. The central and southern end is very nice.
It is lined with restaurants and cafes, and has a boat house where you can rent boats to go out on the water. The cost is 20,000 per hour. a popular boat choice is the moon boat, which is a boat shaped like a crescent moon that is ideal for a couple to take out on the water. There are also family boats and paddle boats for individuals. There are also bikes for rent.
[4K] Beautiful evening walk along Laveniche March Avenue in Gimpo Korea Tour 김포 한강신도시 장기동 라베니체 저녁 걷기
안녕하세요 Seoul Walker 입니다.
오늘은 경기도 김포한강신도시에 위치한 라베니체 마치 에비뉴의 저녁을 함께 걸어봅시다. 깨끗해진 공기 만큼이나 아름다운 노을을 계속 볼 수 있기를 희망합니다.아침 7시, 당신을 위한 새로운 영상이 공개 됩니다.
당신의 새로운 아침, 그리고 오후 저녁 저의 영상을 보며 한결 여유로운 하루의 시작과 마무리가 되었으면 하는 바램입니다. 최대한 다채롭고 흥미로운 영상을 즐기실 수 있도록 노력하겠습니다.영상이 마음에 드셨다면 좋아요, 구독, 알림 설정 부탁드립니다.
그럼 오늘도 행복한 하루 되세요!
Hello all my friends, I’m Nathan from Seoul Walker.
Today, let’s walk together at Laveniche March Avenue in Hangang River New City, Gimpo, Gyeonggi-do.
Ravenice March Avenue is a themed canal street created by Venetian motifs on a total of 33,000 m² waterfront commercial areas in total of 26 parcels around the golden waterway, which is an artificial waterway in the Han River New City of Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. It is a commercial facility.
Other Streams in Seoul
Jungnangcheon (Stream)
Jungnangcheon stream is the biggest contributor to the Hangang River. It starts at Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, joins with the Cheonggyecheon stream, and curves around Geumho-dong, Seongdong-gu until it finally flows under the Bridge of Gangyeonbuk-ro and into the Hangang river.
Hongjecheon (Stream)
Hongjecheon (Stream) begins at Bukhansan (Mountain) and runs for 11.1km through Jongno-gu and Mapo-gu. The stream is named after the Hongjewon, an official building where Chinese envoys were received. Once dried up and neglected, the stream was revived under Seoul’s ‘No Dry Streams’ project. Within two short years clean water was once again flowing through both Hongjecheon (Stream) and Cheonggyecheon (Stream).
Yangjaecheon Stream and Tancheon Stream are two tributaries of the Hangang River.
Yangjaecheon (Stream)
Update: there is a nice booklet available on Kindle called Gangnam Style by Kyungsuk Oh, all about Yongjaecheon stream. They recommend starting at Hangyegul station on the Orange line. At the end of the stream, it flows into the Tancheon stream and then into the Han River. When you get to the Tancheon stream, there is a nice cafe street called Cafe Street or Metasequia Street lined with eateries. if you keep going along the Tangcheon stream, you enter into the Han river park system, or you could follow the Tancheon stream bed park back towards the mountains.
Yangjaecheon (Stream) originates from Gwanaksan (Mountain) and Cheonggyesan (Mountain). The 15.6km stream flows across Gwacheon and into the Gangnam district in Seoul until it joins up with the Hangang (River). The stream flows across Dogok-dong and Gaepo-dong in the district of Gangnam, and is a popular spot with locals for its well-paved pedestrian and cycling paths. It is a pleasant patch of green in a concrete jungle. Many Seoulites visit the stream for relaxation and to spend a day being closer to nature.
Tancheon Stream is another one of the Hangang’s tributaries.
The stream is 35.6km long and starts in the city of Yongin in GyeongGi Province and ends at the Hangang River in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
* Subway Line 3, Maebong Station, Exits 3 & 4 (5 mins on foot)
* Subway Line 3 & Bundang Line, Dogok Station, Exits 3 & 4 (5 mins on foot)
Hanyeoul Stream, is a tributary of the Hangang River.
The stream is 18.5km long and flows from Gwacheong in GyeongGi Province to the southern part of Seoul. The stream’s name is derived from the area in Seoul it flows through, Yangjae-dong.
Visit Songdo Central Park
Find a pleasant oasis along the water in this large, bustling city. Canoe, ride a bike, relax on the lawn or visit rabbits and deer.
Stroll along the peaceful promenade of Songdo Central Park and view sculptures and animals. Here pretty grassy spaces border a manmade waterway while skyscrapers tower nearby. Completed in 2009, the stylish city park has become a landmark of the large city of Incheon in South Korea’s northwestern region.
In 2001, Incheon began creating Songdo International Business District on mostly reclaimed land. The multi-functional space offers residents a pleasant and sustainable place for home, work, school and leisure. The 101-acre (41-hectare) park is an integral part of the overall design. Join residents and other visitors using this vast green space and exploring the cultural institutions surrounding the park.
One highlight of the park is the seawater canal symbolizing the rivers of Korea flowing to the West Sea. Cruise along the canal under your own power in a canoe with sun umbrellas or on a comfortable water-taxi or small cruise boat.
Gaze at and visit some of the futuristic buildings surrounding the park. Tri-Bowl, with the appearance of a bowl resting on water, has cultural event spaces. The Songdo G-Tower’s diagonal lines and atriums provide a stunning setting for the offices of IFEZ (Incheon Free Economic Zone) Authority. Visit the building’s 29th-floor Sky Garden for views across the city.
Most of the streams passing through Suwon originate on Gwanggyosan or other nearby peaks. Since Suwon is bounded to the east by other hills, the streams, chiefly the Suwoncheon (and one notable tributary being the Jungbocheon), flow southwards through the city, eventually emptying into the Yellow Sea at Asan Bay. The entirety of Suwon is drained in this manner
Since 2016, I have been writing and posting my writing on various web pages, and since 2020 I have also podcasting. Here is a list of sites, where you can find my work. Many of these entries are duplicates. as I tend to cross-post items. Please check them out. I hope later this year to finally start a YouTube channel as well. Any advice on how to do that would be greatly appreciated.
Busan, Korea
surrounded by water
like San Francisco
Busan is my favorite Korean city. It remains me of the San Francisco Bay Area where I am from.
I first went to Busan when I was in the Peace Corps, when I had friends visiting me from the States. Then I went again when I was teaching for the U.S. Army in 1982. I last went there about ten years ago and stayed with a Korean friend and had a whirlwind tour ,but did not get to see the city as much as we would have liked.
We had a week to use up a discounted travel coupon. One thing I like about the city is that it reminds me of the SF Bay area, and it is a very colorful dynamic city. Has some of the best seafood in the country. It is a very creative city, lots of Korean movies and TV series have been filmed here and lots of actors and singers are from here.
They have their way of doing things. Including their brand of Soju (hint: not very good in my humble opinion, worth trying but packs a vicious hangover). We decided we want to go back and spend more time in Busan soon and not wait another ten years!
gwanalli beach scene 3
Monday, May 16, 2022
We arrived in Busan on the KTX train at 4 pm and checked into the hotel. Then we went to Jagalchi fish market for dinner and to walk around. We walked back to the station, which took about an hour. Along the way, we saw parts of the Gujke market and the Lotte mall. We had a decent sashimi dinner and tried the local soju.
Tokoyo Inn Hotel
We stayed at the Tokoyu Inn Hotel – a Japanese business traveler budget hotel. It is very efficiently run. The rooms are small but very efficiently laid out with great Fungshi according to my wife who is into that sort of thing. The breakfast is adequate and included. They are very rigid about check-in and check-out procedures. The staff speak passable English and Japanese as well. The clients were a mixture of Korean, Japanese, and Europeans. The location can’t be beaten right across from the KTX station. There are five branches in Busan, Tokoyu 1 and 2 near the train station, two in Haeundae, and one other location.
Chinatown Shanghai Street Across From Busan Station
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The oldest Chinese community in Busan is called Shanghai Street, right across from Busan station. There is a traditional gate to Chinatown on the main road running past the train station. Shanghai street is still the center of the Chinese community. There is an overseas Chinese elementary school in Chinatown. Back in the day it was run down a bit but has been spiffed up a bit and is now a tourist attraction. The signs are all in English, Korean, Chinese, Tagalog, and Russian since it is next door to Texas Street which is now mostly catering to Filipinos and Russians. The tourist info center here has nice exhibits on the history of the area and the staff were very helpful.
Busan’s Chinatown only consists of a long street in front of Busan Station (where you can take the KTX). This place is very… special I would say.
Texas Street Across the street from Busan Station
texas street busan
A notorious red-light district – catering to sailors and foreign tourists -upgraded a bit. Used to have a lot of American tourists but now has a lot of Russians and Filipinos.
Sep 4, 2020 … I wasn’t expecting to see Texas Street in Busan. It isn’t uncommon to see cutesy-themed streets or villages in Korea and we’ve come across …
Choryang Traditional Market
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Choryang traditional market is one of the oldest traditional markets in the city. It is located just north of Texas Street. On the other end of the market, the Choryang stream has been restored. The stream bed leads up to a Buddhist temple at the top of the hill.
By any standards, this is a relatively small market. It’s where locals go marketing and eating. It has anything from fresh fish to clothes and street food on sale …
TRADITIONAL KOREAN MARKET TOUR of Choryang Shijang ???? Busan Day 2. Welcome back to our Busan series! It’s Day 2 and we’re checking out a traditional …
Include Shopping in your Choryang Market tour in South Korea with details like location, timings, reviews & ratings. Get contact details & maps for shopping …
Nov 15, 2019 … Busan’s vitality is best captured in markets BUSAN — The port city of … also known as Choryang Street for Foreigners, or Texas Street, …
Busanjin Market is an indoor shopping mall with hundreds of small shops selling clothes, textiles, and souvenirs at reasonable prices. It’s one of the best …
이바구가 머꼬?
Choryang Ibagu-Gil Road Exit 7 Busan Station Between Chinatown and Texas Street
There are five history walks -along the Ibagu-Gil roads that go up into the hills.
We did the Choryang Ibagu-Gil trail. The trail starts opposite the train station, heading north just past Texas street. Choryang Ibagu-Gil. All the pathways are illustrated by yellow trail markers with the English words Story Land. The locals don’t seem to know where anything is or care and certainly are unaware of the history.
There are lots of small houses crammed in along the narrow road. There are some more modern buildings as well. A very colorful area – the area was largely settled by war refugees after the Korean war. You can get the brochures at the KTX tourism info stand. Make sure you pick up both the English and Korean brochures
The trail is about 3 k long but is pretty steep. The signs are sparse but there – look for yellow signs with English words Story Telling on them.
It starts walking by the old Namseon storage area – the first modern warehouse in Korea then goes by the first hospital (Baekwhajee) which has been transformed into a bookstore and retail building, preserving much of the old hospital grounds. Damage Gallery and Dong-gu insamul mural on the side of the elementary school depicts famous people from the neighborhood, including the famous signer Cho, Youngpil. Then there are 168 steps and the monorail to the top of the hill. The monorail was closed the day we went. There is also an old 19th-century Church with photos of the original missionary founders on the wall. There is an observatory Kim min-bu observatory which had great views we stopped by. There were a few more places of interest we did not visit including Ibabu Gongakso studio where performances take place, Jangjiryeo Naun center Ibagu center which supports residents in the area, Café Choryang, Yuchi-hwan Post box which commemorates a famous poet from the area (Cheongmu Yuchi-hwan and Kkakomak guest house at the top of the road.
Korea-Japan Exchange Road 1 k
Another walk takes you past the Sejeong dong Japanese-style houses along the Korea-Japan exchange street. There is a traditional tea house there called the Munwha Gongan Seojong
Horangi Ibagu-Gil Road Beomil station line 1 exit 7 2.6 K
Start at the Hyundai Department store which has a signboard outside listing the nearby sites to see. The path crosses over the “friend” bridge near the old Samil theater, then goes through the Beomil Golmok market, there is a stone monument for the Hongcheon stone bridge that crosses the Hongcheon stream bed. In the old days, there were lots of tigers (호랑이horangi ) in the area, hence the name of the road. The Beomil Golmok market used to be famous for sign making and that is commemorated in the market, then goes by the former Samil Gomu which was a rubber factory under the Japanese and later the center of the shoe industry, the factory burned down in 1980. There are signs commemorating the woman workers of the shoe factories. Along the way, murals are depicting the famous movie theaters that once dotted the area (all long closed) the road goes by the Dangsan’s memories observatory commemorates the people of the neighborhood, which was largely settled by North Korean refugees during the Korean war, there is a repatriated compatriots village where a lot of Koreans returned from Japan after the war and settled in the neighborhood. There is a “horangi” (tiger) rest area after the village before you make the final climb to the top of the road. The road passes by Rev. Moon Sung-Myeong’s first church, and the area is sacred to the “Moonies” unification church. The top of the hill is called Anchang Horangi village which is where a lot of factory workers settled and is still a blue color neighborhood and finally a shrine to Christal Beckman a famous missionary who was a beloved figure in the neighborhood.
Lee Jae-Seob’s Viewpoint Beomil Station line 1 exit 7 and 9.46 K
This path goes from a famous gallery to an observatory with a nice view walking through another traditional neighborhood. The gallery and observatory commemorate the famous Busan artist Lee Jung-Seob.
Other notable streets in the area include Jwacheon Dong furniture street and Joban’s specialized street market.
Busanpo-Gaehanggado Road Jwacheon Station line 1 exit 5 28 k
This is a 28 k walk that starts at Jungsan park Jwacheon station exit 5 line one and ends at Jaesongdae park passing through colorful old neighborhoods such as Maechuki village, Jeongjung altar which commemorates General Jeong Bal and other military people who died during the Imjin war invasion of Busan, and passes by Busanjin Ilsin Woman’s school which was the first woman school in Busan, and later the center of resistance against the Japanese, General An Young bok memorial which celebrates Busan’s opening, and resistance to the Japanese occupation of Dokdo, and the Busapo Gaehangado road ends with 190 step stairway but there is an elevator next to it. The view from the top is they say worth the trip but we did not have time to go.
From the outer fortress of Busanjinseong to Jeonggongdan Altar, Ilsin Girls’ School and Busanpo Opening Cultural Center, Busanpo Gaehanggado Road that …
Busanpo Gaehanggado Road. Ilsin Christian Hospital → Memorial Monument for Reverend McKenzie → Jeonggongdan Altar → Rev. Dr. Gelson Engel Memorial Hall …
Explore Choryang Ibagu-Gil Road when you travel to Choryang. Read Expedia’s guide to find out everything you need to know about visiting Choryang Ibagu-Gil …
Choryang Story The Way: ibagu gill(road) – See 61 traveler reviews, 115 candid photos, and great deals for Busan, South Korea, at Tripadvisor.
부산 자갈치시장 Jagalchi Market Jagalchi Station Line 1
jaljaci-market- lobster
On our first night in town, we went to the Jalgalchi fish market. It is a very colorful place. Most active in the morning when the fisher people come back from fishing and they auction off the fish to retailers and restaurants. You can buy your fish and take it to a restaurant where they will prepare it or buy it at the restaurant. We opted for the latter. We had a decent Sashimi dinner and tried the local Soju. The price was quite reasonable – we spent $60.00 for two people including soju. This area has not changed that much since I was last there years ago, and even 42 years ago. It has been cleaned up a bit, there are parking garages nearby, a big Lotte mall, the subway stop, and another shopping mall but it looks and feels much like it did back in the day.
Jagalchi Market, located on the seaside road in Busan’s Jung-gu, is Korea’s largest seafood market, selling both live and dried fish. After the Korean War, …
Jagalchi consists of countless stalls in alleys that run towards the main market building. everyone is selling live fish and every other seafood you can think of…
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Haeundae is the biggest and most famous beach in Busan. Lots of high-end hotels and restaurants in the area. There are budget hotels around as well.
We spend the whole afternoon wandering around the Haeundae beach area. We got there during the sandcastle contest and saw all the sandcastles that were built for the festival. We went to the traditional sashimi street and had a good meal there. We went to Sealife aquarium which was a bit pricey at $30.00 but I suppose worth it in the end.
Haeundae has a population of about 423,000, the most populous district of Busan with 11.6% of the city population, and covers an area of 51.44 km² (19.86 s
Gwangalli beach is the beach that locals go to and is not as overwhelmed as Haeundae can be. It is also a more inexpensive place to stay as there are lots of budget hotels and villas for rent behind the main beach road. The back alleyways are filled with coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants and are a colorful area.
We had dinner in the famous sushi sashimi row street which a local placard claim is the largest collection of sashimi restaurants in the world. We had a decent meal for about $60.00.
This beach is located about 20 minutes from Busan’s overcrowded and overhyped Haeundae Beach in Suyeong-gu. This beach is less glamorous, but just as fun and …
35, Centum Nam-daero, Haeundae-gu 1F, Shinsegae Mall Centum City, Busan 48058 South Korea. 1.2 miles from Gwangalli Beach. Experiences from $800.
Millack Fish Street and Waterside Park
We had a nice talk while walking about Millack Fish street and waterside park which is just to the north of Gwangalli and south of Haeundae. There is a trail connecting the two beaches.
There is a long-range plan to link all the coastal beaches in the Busan Gyeonsan region through a bike/hiking trail.
We had a nice sashimi dinner again for about $30.00 per person.
yongdusan-park-Busan-wooden-deer-1-rotated.jpg June 1, 2022
Art Galleries in BusanDepartment Stores in BusanFactory Outlets in BusanFlea & Street Markets in BusanShopping Malls in BusanSpeciality & Gift Shops in …
Today, we invite you to the Millak-dong Cafe Street, which is quite close to the … Gwangalli Beach and is one of the most recognizable tourist sites in Busan, …
Head to Busan’s most popular beach for a day of swimming, building sandcastles, and … homeware and souvenirs, and sample typical Korean street food at this …
Busan Beomeosa Temple (범어사(부산)) beomunsa station line one exit five transfer to bus number 90. The bus stop is down an alleyway from the station and runs every 20 minutes.
I last saw Beomunsa back in 1982.
I stayed two nights in Dondae hot springs then went to the Pusan Fortress (lookup name in Korean) and Beomunsa temple. Had to take local buses everywhere as there were no subways in Busan back then.
Beomunsa is one of the oldest temples in Korea dating back to the late 7th century during the Shilla dynasty.
The temple was very impressive back then and has been further restored since then. It is one of the temple stay temples – always wanted to do that but that like many things has been put on hold by COVID.
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For more information see
ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beomeosa”>
Beomeosa – Wikipedia
Beomeosa is a head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism in Cheongnyong-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan, South Korea. Built on the slopes of Geumjeongsan, …
Beomeosa Temple is located on the eastern side of Geumjeongsan Mountain, a famous mountain in Busan. It was founded by monk Uisang in 678, the 18th year of …
meosa is a Seon meditation-based temple, a place where people can meditate and clear their minds. Through meditation, all pointless and distracting thoughts …
This is a very fine Buddhist temple located in the hills around Busan. It is nice in the fall because of the orange and red colors of the trees. It is a …
Beomeosa Temple. Along with Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon and Tongdosa Temple in Yangsan, it is one of three Yeongnam temples. In addition, it serves as one …
Dongdae Hot springs 동래온천 metro line one ochcheong station
One of the joys of travel is the occasional random encounters with memorable characters. We ran into an old Korean lady in front of the map. The map was next to a tourist stamp machine. The idea was you would wander about and collect stamps at each of the items listed. The items would be next to a sign depicting the area’s attractions. We walked about the area but did not do the stamp. The lady told us about the stamp and she said that she had found everything but one item and complained that none of the locals had a clue about where things were.
There are outside the train station two maps on the opposite side of each other with contradictory information about the area. There is a restored stream bed park I want to check out (I love the stream bed parks all over Korea – something that Korean should be proud of having accomplished and promote a lot more) we walked about the hot spring area which is closed down due to COVID but I assume will be re-opening in due course. We can see what it might have been back in the day.
There was good signage in English about the attractions of the area. I did see a sign in English for a local hotel that got lost in translation.
Why not stay in the Dream motel where your dreams are killers. ( attached photo here).
When I stayed there back in the day, it was a much more low-key area. Now there are lots of high-rise apartments and the train station as well, and English language signs and the aforementioned tourist stamps kiosks.
There are are a number of other hot springs in the Busan area. The most famous are in Haeundae, and Taedongdae. I want to go back and check them out once COVID is finally over.
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Donglai Hot Spring is a good place for vacation and leisure. The hot spring is very natural. There are also swimming pools and very luxurious hotels. The resort …
The water temperature in the Dongnae hot springs fluctuates between 45 and 60 degrees celsius (113 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit). Hot springs offer several …
Dongdae Oncheong-cheon metro line one ochcheong station
As you may know, I am a big fan of the restored stream bed parks all over Korea. We did not get to this one but it is a nice one particularly when the Cherry trees are blooming. For my next trip to Busan! For more information see the following:
Oncheon-cheon is a tributary of the Suyeong River [ko] in Busan, South Korea. It was previously known as the Seocheon or Dongnaecheon. … The Oncheon Stream Park along the banks o…
Busan #tour #springBusan’s central Oncheoncheon Stream flows from Geumjeong-gu (district) through Yeonje-gu and Dongnae-gu to the …
Suyeong River Walk
We drove by on the bus. The river has been restored and is lined on both sides with bike and walking paths and restaurants nearby. Worth a stop next time I am in town.
Suyeong-gu was created in 1995 following its separation from Nam-gu. It is the border in the North-East by the Suyeonggang River. The name ‘Suyeong’ came from …
Suyeong River is a 6.1 mile (14,000-step) route located near Dongnae-gu, Busan, South Korea. This route has an elevation gain of about 0 ft and is rated as …
Suyoung River Walk is a 5.2-mile (12000-step) route located near Busan, South Korea. This route has an elevation gain of about 91.8 ft and is rated as easy.
Nakong River
This is the main river in Busan and is one of the largest rivers in Korea. It is the center of the freshwater eel fishery industry and is a place I want to visit someday. It is lined with bike paths and walking paths that eventually reach Seoul. It is one of the four river projects that was controversial ten years ago.
The Nakdong River or Nakdonggang (Korean pronunciation: [nakt͈oŋgaŋ]) is the longest river in South Korea and passes through major cities such as Daegu and …
Songdo Beach 송도해수욕장… nearest subway is Nampo Line one.
Transportation tip:
To get to either Songdo or Deadongdae you can catch the bus at Nampo station on the number one line or from Pusan station as well. We took bus 30 to Songdo and did the cloud walk trail on Amnan mountain. From there to Songdo beach you can take the cable car or you can take the bus, or you can walk along two bike/walking paths one on top of the hill, the other along the water. It is about a 4 k walk. We took the bus after walking the cloud bridge. We got there by mistake. But it was a nice walk and view.
Then we went to Songdo and walked about the beach. We saw signs all along of massive development coming to the area. There is an old ally way that is lined with restaurants, but most are being torn down to build luxury high-rise apartment buildings. There are several American and Western hotels in the area as well.
Songdo is the oldest public beach in Korea, it opened in 1913. But in the late 80, it entered a period of decline due to storm damage the cable car was shut down and the beach was badly eroded. The city government started a massive campaign to restore the beach and they have included restoring the cable car that goes across the beach.
But now that property developers have moved in, all the small restaurants that lined the back alleys will be replaced. In a few years, it will look and feel like Heunundae.
We had a decent fish lunch. We ate Gulbi (semi-dried fish) stew for 30 dollars.
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street-poetry-songdo-beachSsong
Songdo Street poetry
by Chungwon Lee
The sea is people’s favorite place
the mountian is people’s favotire place too
How nice it would be
if the sea and mountain are seated together
and if there are bright moon and cool stars
Don’t you agree that place
I fall in love with this place when I arrive at the park. I started around noon time from Songdo beach. I walked to Busan National Geopark, where the …
Songdo Beach is more popular with residents than other touristic beaches of Busan such as Haeundae or Gwanganli. If you prefer a comparatively quiet beach, Songdo …
Things to Do near Songdo Beach; Songdo Cable Car · 98 Reviews. Songdokeibeulka 171 Songdohaebyeon-ro, Busan 49269 South Korea; Songdo Skywalk · 127 Reviews. 129&nbs…
Songdo Beach is 800 meters long and 50 meters wide. The average water level is 1~1.5 meters. It is located 3 kilometers from Busan’s Jagalchi Market and was …
Songdo Beach is a man-made beach in Busan, South Korea. … It was created in 1913. … The name “Songdo” (the Island of Pines) was given due to the thick pine …
Jul 13, 2020 … Songdo Beach was the first public beach in Korea, so a sign te
Taejongdae
We took the bus to Taejongdae from Songdo. Took about 45 minutes. We saw a lot of Busan along the way. We went through a working-class neighborhood and then crossed the bridge to the Yeongdo island. The island is hard to get to from the rest of Busan, there is no subway nearby. The road is narrow and I am sure that traffic will be bad during commutes.
There are several institutions out on the island, the Busan Coast Guard facility is there, there is a Korean Maritime University that trains people to work in the merchant shipping field, and several Buddhist temples. It is also where foreign cruise ships used to dock and no doubt will come again as COVID continues to recede. There is also a coastal walk all along the coast which I would love to do someday.
There is also a hot springs area closed down due to COVID.
The highlight is Taejongdae Park at the southern tip of the island. We took the tram-train around to the various sights. Great views from the observatory, and the lighthouse. There are two small Buddhist temples on the mountain.
The trail around the mountain is about 5 k long and is not too difficult a trail.
Coming back we found a bus that took us back to Pusan station in about 30 minutes.
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Taejongdae is a natural park of Busan with magnificent cliffs facing the open sea on the southernmost tip of the island of Yeongdo-gu. Taejongdae was named after …
Jan 5, 2014 … Established in 1967, Taejongdae is a beautiful seaside park. The island Taejongdae sits upon is a natural barrier protecting the Busan port so …
Jun 28, 2019 … Busan’s Nampo-Dong is the easiest point from downtown Busan to get to Taejongdae, and you can get off at the Nampo subway station on Line 1 and take …
The multicolored rocky coast boasts its beauty formed by years of crashing waves. We’re talking about Taejongdae Park at the southern end of Yeongdo, Busan.
Haedong Youngjungsa Temple
On our last full day in Busan, we took a long bus ride (bus 1001) through Busan from the train station to Haedong Yungjunsa temple. We found that in Seoul the buses are often faster than the subway and you can see a lot of the city from the bus. The bus took us through many neighborhoods and we saw a lot from the bus including Centrum towers, the BEXCO conference center, large shopping malls, and the Lotte World amusement park.
We got off and had a great seafood lunch again for about $30.00 per person, then we walked to the Haedong Yungjunsa temple which is the only Buddhist temple near the ocean. It bills itself as the most beautiful temple in Korea and that is not an exaggeration. It is a very impressive place with spectacular ocean views. Then we took the bus back to enjoy the bus tour.
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Seongjong Beach
We wanted to check out this beach but ran out of steam. It is not as developed or trendy as the other beaches but people say it is worth stopping off. Avanti cove is nearby where there is a big Hilton beach hotel, and further up the coast are smaller beaches Ligawan beach, and Imgna beaches. I will hit those on my next trip!
The beach is great for swimming during the summer months, and it is full of places to eat and dine and have coffee with friends all year round. It is very open …
Songjeong Beach, known as one of the three major beaches of eastern Busan alongside Haeundae and Gwangalli, is a popular family vacation destination thanks to …
Imnang Beach 임랑해수욕장
Imnang beach is another beach I wanted to check out but ran out of time. It is located close to Songeon beach and the Lotte World amusement park. There is a Hilton beach resort at the beach.
Summer is the sea and the sea in Busan, but this beach is not known to outsiders yet. Imnang Beach is the beach loved by the people of Busan and considered …
“The sea here is very clear, reflecting the blue sky and white clouds, the sandy quality of the beach is also very soft, stepping on it is very comfortable, …
Jul 1, 2018 … The official website of Busan Metropolitan City. Find information about the city government, news, events, residents, and business, …
Yongdusa Park 용두산
Nampo Line One
On our last day in Busan, we had a few hours to kill before catching the train back. We went to Yongudsa Park Busan’s equivalent of Seoul’s Namsam park or Incheon’s Jayu park. The park features Busan’s tower but it was closed on Mondays. the park is best reached by the escalator that runs to the park near the BIF Shopping mall behind Nampo station.
The park has two quirky things about it. First, there are wooden statues of deer everywhere.
And the trees all have poems on them.
There is also a statue of Admiral Yi – who saved Busan during the Imjin invasions.
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Tree Poem my translation
I should not allow myself
to surrender to another’s feelings
I should not allow myself
to lose myself
in another’s thoughts
lose myself
in another expectations
without me
my Life is meaningless
Yongdusan Park is a park located in Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea. The 120-meter-high Busan Tower is located here. Yongdusan Park. Yongdusan Park at night.
The symbolic 120m high Busan Tower is located at Yongdusan Park, together with Admiral Yi SunSin Statue, Dragon Sculpture, Bell of the Citizens & Flower …
Busan sightseeing tours often include a stop at the park, along with other attractions such as Gamcheon Culture Village, Gukje Market, Jagalchi Fish Market, and …
If Haeundae is the hot spot of east Busan, Nampo-dong is the most popular place in central Busan. Yongdusan Park is a leading landmark of Busan frequented …
Chongyang Waegwan
As we left the park, we walked through a historic district Chongang waewan which was the only authorized trading post between Japan and Korea in the 16th to 19th centuries. The exact location is marked on a placard and map but nothing else remains.
Load more ATTACHMENT DETAILS Choryang-waegwan-historical-marker.
Pink cherry trees
Snowing all around me
Love in the springtime
Green
poet in springtime
Green trees in Springtime
Smiling at walking lovers
Filling them with awe
Black
black cat
A cosmic black cat
Stares at me with jet black eyes
Just a Buddha cat
White
deer in snow
White snow consumes us
During the intense winter
Climate change is now
Page 17 in printed version
Other recent unpublished Haiku like Poems include:
Met My Fate 160 Poem Form
I met my fate
That date
In September,
A date I shall always remember.
When I saw her there,
Sparks flew from heart to heart.
And I knew she was going to be mine.
160 Character Max Poem Form
Water 160 Poem Form
Water everywhere
Water surrounds us
Nurtures us brings us
Life itself
But few of us
Ever think about water
And what we would do
When the water runs out
And the earth becomes
A desert devoid of life.
Sam Adam’s Final Wish Jisei Poem Fan Story Prompt
Sam Adam’s last wish
Was to die in Berkeley
His spiritual home
My Mother Haiku
My mother was unique
A real free spirit at heart
I miss her always
Berkeley Calling Me Home Haiku Fan Story Prompt
My Berkeley
Calling me to come home
Die in my homeland
Sextet Love Fan Story Prompt
My life has been a dream
almost unreal
A real fairy tale
Filled with romance
an angel came to me
ending loneliness
Outside Haiku Fan Story Prompt
Spring flowers blooming
Inviting me to go outside
Enjoying the Spring
5-7-5 Faith Fan Story Prompt
I believe in karma
Everything is connected
To the divine mind
Coffee Five Line Poem Fan Story Prompt
Coffee
Just hot
The way it should be
Gets my morning going strong
Kick starts my morning
Romantic Tanka Poem Fan Story
When I saw you there
I knew that you were the one
Heaven sent you then
When you came into my life
That was my best day ever
Forward Plans
Forward plans are made
Understood what needs to be done
intel hard to get
Good Golly, Ms. Molly
Good golly
Ms. Molly
Let’s have some folly
And go to Bali
Or Raleigh
Someplace holly
Where we can get jolly
Eating a tamale
Or a Canali.
Prompt – Write a silly rhyming poem
Coffee Huitain
need more coffee
I like coffee in the morning
But in the evening must be wine,
Making it a great mid-morning,
At sunset, I drink wine, while I dine,
When I drink my wine, it is all fine.
In the afternoon, I drink my tea,
Later wine, looking at what is mine.
And I become all I can ever be.
Future Survival Games Three-word Challenge
Shortly, all too soon
We will play a secret game
A game of survival
Grilled Salmon Three Word Challenge Prompt
fish market
Oiled grilled salmon
pink flesh delight
Perfect dinner with white wine
When I First Saw You Dew Drop-in
Revised as Cherita form
When I First Saw You There
When I first saw you there
You came to me
In a dream.
And disappeared,
Haunting me
For eight long years.
When I First Saw You In Person
When I First Saw You in Person
I was overwhelmed
This fairy tale dream of mine
This impossible quest
To find the girl in the dream
Was finally over.
When I First Spoke With You
When I First Spoke with You
I knew that this was it
We would be together
From then on
You were the one,
I proposed three days later
.
When I First Kissed You
When I first kissed you
that was the beginning
of our love affair.
Our love grew stronger
Every year
For the last 40 years,
When I Married You
When I married you
That was the beginning
Of my life,
From that moment
I had no doubt
You would be there.
April 4—List poem w/repetition—write a poem that lists things, using some (not necessarily constant) repetition and variation of an initial phrase (Examples: When I was six…, Remember that time…*, Layers of…., etc.)
Country is a genre of popular music that originated with blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old-time, and American folk music forms …
I don’t care for country music
Never had
Never got into the country music vibe.
Although I like to drink beer
Country music was just never
My thing.
Too rural white boy shit-kicking for my taste.
I always saw it as poor white trash blues.
And it has some similarities to the blues
In terms of themes and even sound.
Country music is not urban enough
For my taste
I like blues, funk, jazz, disco, rock music
And classical music best
Not too much into hip hop or rap
The country is my least favorite musical genre.
But the blues is so much better
Musically.
There were a few country singers
I liked
Johnny Cash is one of them.
But on the whole
Country music is just
A big meh for me.
Finally, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This one may seem counter-intuitive, but today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you have no interest in. This isn’t quite the same, I think, as something you’re indifferent to. For example, I have absolutely no interest in investment strategy. Anytime anyone tries to tell me about it, I want to put my fingers in my ears and go “lalalalalala.” My brain tries to shut down! This is honestly kind of funny, and I think this prompt has value precisely because it invites you to investigate some of the “why” behind resolutely not giving two hoots about something.
Jade Garden (제이드 가든 수목원) is an arboretum located in Chuncheon, South Korea. The garden opened in April 2011. … Jade Garden provides walk-through tours …
Jade Garden is an exotic arboretum established with the theme of “small Europe in the forest.” It was built on an area of 163,500 m2 by keeping its natural …
Why go here? Well, it has a different vibe compared to other Korean gardens. It has a European garden vibe. ALSO, Jade Garden is the filming location of Korean …
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Visiting Jade Garden
Nar Chungcheong, South Korea
On a beautiful spring day,
The cherry trees were in full flower
Pink and white petals
The scent of cherry trees in the air.
Other trees just starting to bloom
Red, yellow and white tulips
Beginning to bloom.
The sounds of spring all around
Birds singing
People walking about.
Talking to one another
As they wander the pathway
Taking in the springtime splendor.
The sun warming up
The pathway winding
Through the Forest.
April 15—Botany—explore the flora of your region! Somehow include at least 3 of the 5 senses.
Get exclusive merch, pick up a savory treat, and sign up to be the first to …
My favorite cheese
Has always been Tillamook
cheddar cheese
My father turned me
On to it
When I was a young lad
Once during our annual
Migration from Berkeley
To Yakima
During the summer vacation
Season
When we drove to the family cabin
And stayed almost two months
Just my father,
My mother
My two brothers
My sister
Our whole dysfunctional family
Forced to be together
For the summer
It was hell on earth
But the road trip
To and from
Was an adventure
One year we drove
Up the Oregon coat
And we stopped
At the Tillamook creamery
And did the tour
Learned how they made
Their famous cheese
And ice cream
Tillamook cheese
Is made in Tillamook, Oregon
A small town
Along the Oregon coast
The cheese is dark yellow
Comes in two flavors
Sharp and regular
I prefer the sharp.
It has a delightful aroma
And is among the most
Favorable of cheeses
I have ever eaten.
And it has an aftertaste
That lingers in your mouth
For several minutes
As you savor
The aroma, the taste
And the texture
Taking you to cheese
heaven
I was perhaps 13
At the time
And interested
In everything
Learned a lot
About cheese
That visit
But the most important thing
Was I learned
That was my favorite cheese
Tillamook. Cheese.
Still is
Almost 55 years later.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Joan Liotta:
What does your favorite cheese–describe the taste, the aroma, its texture, and tell where you first tried it.
I am an Impatient Man Writers Digest
I am an impatient man
Always have been
Probably always will be.
My wife is always telling me
To slow down
To eat slowly
To drink slowly
To talk slowly.
And to be patient
But I just never
Developed the skill
To be patient
and so I rush
through life.
Eat too fast
Drink to fast
Love too fast.
There are some things
I developed patience for
Somethings
That I took my time,
It took me eight years
To get into the Foreign Service.
But the most important thing
In my life
I seized quickly.
When I met my wife
Who I met in a dream
And waited patiently
For eight years
Before she walked
Off a bus
And into my life.
I proposed three days later
We got married two months later
And have been together
For 40 years.
For today’s prompt, write a patience poem. Your poem could be about someone or something with great patience, or it could come from the other direction (ie, impatience). One fun thing about this prompt is that it begs us to consider the various ways of measuring time: From the patience required to sit at a red light to the patience of a tree growing rings for centuries.
Can Love Exist in this Corrupt Age? Sonnet Local Gems
Can love still exist in this corrupt age?
The answer is that love will find a way.
Life seems to play out on a stage,
All that matters is this, how we play.
For love and life is nothing but a game,
On that day, she walked into my life.
In the end, it all comes out to be the same,
Three months later, became my wife.
It was on that date in early September,
that she walked off a bus, no longer a dream.
A date I shall always remember.
When I saw her there, all I could do was scream.
I wanted to just scream out, I love you
Looking at her then, I knew that she knew.
It was in early 82, in September
A date that I shall always remember
For on that date, I met my cosmic fate.
For eight years I dreamt she would become my mate,
I almost gave up waiting for her it was late
But then that day she said in my dream to me
Don’t worry soon together as a we
This is just what our karmic fate that date.
And soon enough everything became great.
And no longer would I need to wait
For love came my way.
And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, “Pied Beauty.” A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it.
French Press This! Dew Drop Inn
Every morning I get up
At the crack of dawn
As the sunlight fills my room
I make coffee.
Using my French press
To make what I call
A fully loaded cup
Of cosmic Joe.
½ Ground French Roast Starbucks
or Major Dickinson Peets coffee
½ decaf coffee
Yogi detox tea
Yogi blueberry slim tea
Turmeric
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cloves.
I boil the water
Bike 1 to 2 k
Then enjoy
My French press coffee.
I make two cups
Shifting to tea
Later in the morning.
April 16—Ordinary object(s)—explore the usual or unusual uses of ordinary objects
The World Is Broken PSH
Among the many sins
Attributed to the Baby Boomers
Is this
They Broke the world
And they do not know
How to fix it
Everywhere you go
It seems the world is broken
Homeless people
Forced to camp out
Everywhere
Gun violence
At a pandemic level
Yet government leaders
Aided by the NRA
Seem to think
The solution to gun violence
Are more guns for everyone
As gun laws are weakened
In many states nowadays
Anyone can buy a gun
Without a license
Training or any liability insurance,
Every time there is a gun battle
In the streets
Conservatives claim
That the solution
Is to have good people
With guns
Battling bad people with guns
Total insanity
Guns don’t kill people
The NRA claims
The price of freedom
Is not free
Everyone must have a gun
To protect themselves
Against criminals
Illegal aliens.
Government agents
And democrats libtards
Trying to force everyone
Into becoming bisexual
Or at least get vaccinated
So Bill Gates can track you.
Climate change
Is here and now
Monster storms
Massive droughts
100-year storms
Every year.
Yet nothing is done
Even though
We all know
What we must do.
To save the planet
And the human race
Inflation out of control
Supply chains are still broken
COVID although receding
Still lurking about.
Putin Invading Ukraine
Committing war crimes
While the US and NATO
Are afraid of provoking Putin
Who is threatening nuclear war
North Korean threatening Asia
China menacing Taiwan.
Meanwhile
Opioids crisis killing Americans
Gun battles killing people
COVID still killing people
Storms killing people.
Too many ghosts everywhere
Screaming out,
“You broke the world
But you can’t fix it.”
And we pray to a God
That may or may not exist
And does not answer our prayers.
Yes, we all share a responsibility
We all broke the world
And none of us
Knows how to fix it.
I hope that this
is not the end
Of the World
Although many days
It feels like revelations
Is coming true.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by J R Turek:
Write a list poem titled “Everything is Broken” but offer no solutions to fix anything.
The Feel of Korean Food Writer’s Digest
octopus on plate ready to be cooked,italyoctopus on plate ready to be cooked,italy
Korean food is a full sensory experience
Overwhelming one with smells, flavors
And textures as well.
One day back
in the Peace Corps days
My best friend visited me
From Indonesia where he
Had been hanging out.
It was the dead of winter
15 degrees F.
When he got on the plane
It was 90 degrees F.
We bought winter clothes
Then I decided to treat him
To an infamous Korean disk
산 나치
San Nachi
or Live Octopus.
They brought it out
The octopus tentacles
Were moving about.
I taught him
The proper technique
Grab it by the chopstick
Dip it in hot sauce
And chew it a long time
Sometimes unwary
Or drunk eaters
Encounter a problem
When the suckers
Get stuck in one’s mouth
Sometimes requires
a trip to the ER.
The texture is slimy
And a big disgusting
Need a lot to drink
The first time around.
My friend tried it
But said never again
And we both bring it up
From time to time.
He was not a big fan
Of the 산 나치
San Nachi.
Never tried that again
But he did like
Other things we ate
That winter.
For today’s prompt, write a touching poem. We’ve already done smell and taste; let’s move on to the sense of touch. Of course, all these prompts are open to interpretation, and touch connects many paths, including touching up a picture, touching down an airplane, bringing a soft or human touch to a situation, and even playing touch and go (or tag). However, in your poem, feel encouraged to put your personal touch on this prompt.
Easiest Thing in the World Local Gem
The easiest thing
In the world
Was falling in love
With you.
For on the date
We met in real life
After dreaming
Of the moment
For eight years.
I knew that I had met my fate
On that fine September date
And soon you became my mate.
The unexpected visitor from the Stars Dew Drop Inn
allien
One day Sam Adams
Received an unexpected visitor
Who walked into his office
Of Rebel news
Telling him he was a space alien
Who wanted him to explain
Humanity to him.
The alien had tried
To understand humans
The craziness species
In the universe.
Who believes
in some nonsense
About nonexistent gods.
But the one thing
He did not understand
Was love.
Could Sam Explain love to him?
Sam thought and said,
“Yes, Love is what it is
And love is what it ain’t,
If you are in love
You know it.
But those who know it
Can’t describe it
It is more than just
Chemistry, and biology
It is that but more than that
Love happens
When you least expect it.
When she walks
Into your life.
You know she is the one
The alien said thanks
For the lesson.
And drank his beer
Saying that humans
Make the best beer
And the best coffee
In the universe,
The Palaskian Conspiracy PSH prompt
The leader of Palaskin
Was being briefed
By his national security team
About Operation Disrupt Planet Earth
Their operative Donald J Trump
Had not succeeded in taking over
The number one country yet.
He was tormenting unrest
And his country was floundering
Operative Putin
Was doing a fine job
Preparing the world
for the Palaskinian
Empire’s invasion.
It would be time soon.
To launch the invasion fleet
Which will arrive
And reinstate Trump
And Putin to rule the world
On behalf of their Palaskian overlords.
They would finally reveal
That they are aliens
And the earth is now
Part of the Palaskinian Empire.
The Emperor smiled
Victory would soon be theirs
Long Live the Palestinian Empire
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Ellen Sander:
palish kin
A non-existent word. You decide how it is pronounced. Whether it’s a noun or a verb. Or someone’s name. Perhaps a country? A religion? Up to you, brave soul. Write a poem using what you determine palishkin to mean.
Writer’s Digest The Powers That Be – Who are They? (Revised)
Conspiracy craze: why 12 million Americans believe alien …https://www.theguardian.com › lifeandstyle › apr › con…
Apr 7, 2016 — But when people leap from thinking their boss is trying to undermine them to believing their boss might be a secret lizard person, they probably …
Watching the news unfold
Every day
I wonder who “they” are
The secret powers
That run the world
From behind the scenes?
There are rumors
That the powers
Of the universe,
The masters of the universe
The secret power brokers
Are not-human.
They are shape-shifting
Reptilian creatures
From the Palaskan empire
in Sirius, the dog star.
their agents Trump and Putin
we’re doing a great job
disrupting and weakening the world.
It was time though
Said the head of the committee
The committee does not exist.
That was the control tower
Of the alien conspiracy
Of the secret powers that be.
For the invasion fleet to arrive
And finish the job
Of enslaving humanity
A job that they failed to do
When they controlled Atlantis
And later the Roman Empire.
For today’s prompt, write a power poem. Your poem could somehow involve electricity, solar power, fossil fuels, wind, or water. It could illustrate a power play or someone exerting their power over someone else. Of course, you could also write about a power outage. You alone have the power to poem your way through this prompt.
Computer Blues (revised) Local Gems
evil computer
Sometimes I think
My computer is plotting against me
And only me
Trying deliberately to drive me mad.
My computer knows
when I am busy
Then it throws
A hissy fit.
Refuses to boot up,
and crashes constantly.
Loses data it had the day before.
Or five minutes before,
Or refuses to save the data.
Just fucks with me
As it loves toying with me
Making me yell and scream
At my damn computer screen
Cursing up a blue stream
of blue curses
As the blue screen of death
The borders across the dark blue screen
Smiling at me
As I beg it
To do what
It is supposed to do
Just once I beg it
Do what you
Are supposed to do
Open the document once
Not twenty times
Do “Not respond”
Endless spinning blue wheels.
In endless loops of opening
Not responding
refusing to close
Until I respond to the error code.
Please Mr. Computer
Quit playing games
Play my music, don’t wipe out the sound
On the fifth attempt to play music
Don’t take a half-hour to load Microsoft products
Don’t freeze up on opening music programs
Don’t give me computer haiku error messages
That only makes sense to a computer geek.
Such as general error reading files
Who the ***** is this damn general
And why is NSA reading my files?
Or can’t save the file
Or can’t save the “An open file”
When it just did ten times in a role,
Or kicks me out, while losing my data.
And in Microsoft Excel
Refusing to move the cursor
Just freezing in place for a moment
Before kicking me out.
Excell had a problem
Copying data from other sources
Generating an error message
About not being able to load fonts
Then asking you to say okay
Then kicking you out
Once I did that 200 times
I finally ditched Excel
And moved to Google Docs.
And all the other gobbledygook messages
That pop up every five minutes it seems
As the computer slowly drives me mad
Flashing the final insult
User-driven mad
Mission accomplished.
To show how much
You love someone
The way you glance
At your lover.
The way you laugh
At her jokes
You have heard
A million times before.
The way she smells
The way she eats
Her food.
The way she kisses
The way she makes love
Every time special.
Yes it is the small things
That matters in the end.
Today’s featured participant is a double dose again because you all are producing such lovely work that I’m finding it difficult to pick! In response to Day Eleven’s “big” prompt, we first have Wind Rush‘s quiet meditation on relative size. Second, The Silver Cow Creamer brings us a short and snappy quatrain in homage to a giant poppadom.
Our featured online journal for the day is Stirring. In their latest issue, I’ll point you to these two haibuns by Jennifer Perrine.
Today’s prompt (optional, as always) should come as no surprise. Yesterday, I challenged you to write a poem about a very large thing. Today, I’d like you to invert your inspiration, and write a poem about a very small thing. Whether it’s an atom, a button, a hummingbird’s egg, dollhouse furniture, or the mythical world’s smallest violin, I hope you enjoy your poetic adventures into the microscopic.
The haunted house in Eagle Creek PSH
ghosts
There is a house
In Eagle Creek, Oregon
That is an old mansion.
That is largely abandoned
Except for the owner
Who is over 100 years old
The house has several doors
That led to other worlds.
According to the rumor
The old man has used rituals
From the Necronomicon.
To summon aliens, banshees, bigfoot,
Cerebos, demons, devils, hell hounds,
ghosts, goblins, monsters, leprechauns,
Yeti and Zombies.
The gateway to other worlds
Open up
And they storm through.
From the deepest corner
Of Hell and Hades.
As they chant
From the Necronomicon
The ghosts of the dead
Haunting the old mansion
On the hillside
Outside of Eagle Creek,
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Frog Corpse:
Frog Corpse Writing Prompt:
Create a seven-hundred-word short story or thirty-three-line poem describing a haunted house. The story or poem’s main focus must bear emphasis on the details of the house itself. Explain in detail its architecture/landscape on what makes it stand out. What will make these details different from an average run-of-the-mill home? This prompt is to help improve set & setting when building the locations in your tales.
*Your characters are not the focus of this prompt.
I love You Let Me count the Ways Writing com
I love you
Ever since you walked
Off that bus,
Out of my dreams
Into my life
But why do I love you
Let me count the ways
here are a million
Different reasons.
But these are the most
Important ones
I love your smile
I love your smell
I love your walk
I love your body.
I love your
delightful, wicked
Sense of humor.
I love kissing you
I love making love
To you.
You are the best thing
Whatever happened to me
And I want to proclaim
To the entire world
How much I love you.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month), write a counting poem and/or not counting poem.
The Sound of Temple Bell Brings Me Peace Local Gem
temple blog bell-zen
The sound of a temple bell
ringing in the crisp mountain air
in the Buddhist temple
deep in the mountains.
Brings me peace and joy
and fills me with happiness
as I contemplate
the meaning of Buddha.
And seek to find
peace
in the everyday life
around me.
And I ring the bell again,
wishing hoping for an end
to our suffering
on this planet of ours.
The World According to Cosmos – via Podcast Addict | poetry and rants by the Cosmos. … The World According to Cosmos. By Jake Cosmos Aller. Jan 16 2022 20 mins 1. poetry and rants …
2022. 6. 17. · The World According to Cosmos. Show more details . Add Podcast to profile. The World According to Cosmos Podcast. Best Episodes All Episodes (126) Best episodes ranked …
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2022. 3. 18. · The World According to Cosmos. 126 EpisodesProduced by Jake Cosmos AllerWebsite. poetry and rants by the Cosmos. Start listening. Share. March 18th, 2022 …
The world according to cosmos. I don’t understand the anti-covid vaccination people at all. They are endangering the entire country and world by their gross stupidity, the leaders of the …
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this is a big shout out to Writers Beware – one of my favorite sites. they do a phenomenal job of alerting the writing community to literary scams. They are very responsive to inquires. I check their data base frequently and you should too.
Welcome to the new home of the Writer Beware blog!
After many years on the Blogger platform, we have finally transitioned to WordPress, which offers much greater flexibility in terms of design, control, and ease of use.
I’ve been dissatisfied with Blogger for a while now. I’m not a web developer, but I’m not helpless, either; I maintain the Writer Beware website on the SFWA site, and I built and maintain two additional websites, my own and another for an organization my husband is part of. But every time I thought about moving to a new platform, the size of the challenge just seemed too daunting. How would I transfer hundreds of posts, not to mention the thousands of comments and images that go with them? What about all the non-working inbound links the move would create? Links wouldn’t be a problem if I just started fresh on a brand-new WordPress site–but then the blog would exist on two platforms, with two different web addresses. And what about WB’s thousands of followers and subscribers?
The turning point came last summer when the only email subscription widget supported by Blogger discontinued service. If people couldn’t subscribe to the WB blog, there was just no reason to remain on Blogger. But the amount of time and research involved in moving made me want to lie down and go to sleep (you may know that Writer Beware is a volunteer effort: I do this in my off hours).
Enter the Automattic Special Projects Team, which helps noteworthy and/or interesting people and projects with development, design, hosting services, and more. In an amazing bit of synchronicity, they contacted me around the same time that my subscription service disappeared, with an offer to not only build a new WordPress website for the WB blog, but to port, all posts, comments, and subscribers to the new site and re-direct all Blogger links. In other words…to do all of the stuff I’d been dreading–and create a better and more functional site than I could have on my own.
After many months of design consults and bug fixes, this is the result. Not just a clean new look and way more administrative control for me, but a better subscription service and a much more robust search function (another peeve I had with Blogger, whose search options suck). I’m deeply grateful to the Special Projects Team for their hard work, and their support of Writer Beware.
New WebPage
The one thing I’m sad to lose is our old web address: accrispin.blogspot.com. It’s a legacy (one of many) of the late Ann Crispin, Writer Beware’s co-founder, and my dear friend. Ann started the blog in 2005, originally intending it to be her blog; but after she invited me to join her, it quickly became all Writer Beware, all the time. Looking back at those posts reminds me how much fun Ann and I had in those early days, and how profoundly her energy, fearlessness, and dedication shaped what Writer Beware has become. We’re leaving behind a URL, but Ann is still present in everything we do.
If you’ve come here from a link on social media, please have a look around our new home and tell me what you think! If you’re a subscriber, this is the first newsletter that has landed in your Inbox since last summer. I hope you’ll continue to subscribe–and for those of you who are new to Writer Beware, I hope you’ll consider signing up via the form below this post.
Don’t forget that the blog is just one component of the many-headed beast that is Writer Beware. There’s also our website, which provides a wide range of information, cautions, and resources to help writers educate and protect themselves; our Facebook page, which links to items of writerly interest and provides a forum for discussion; my Twitter feed, where I regularly post updates, warnings, and industry news; and our email address, beware@sfwa.org, where you can contact us–in confidence–with reports, complaints, and questions.
Finally, a huge THANK YOU to all the writers, agents, editors, and others who’ve shared complaints and documentation over the years and helped us build our database; to all the people who send me tips and information; to everyone who spreads the word about Writer Beware (and writing scams in general); and to our fans, followers, and subscribers. We couldn’t do it without you, and we are grateful for your support.
I predict the House and Senate will remain in the hands of the Democrats in 2022 and 2024, but a lot depends on who the Republicans run, if they run right-wing darlings like Trump, or DeSantis they lose, if they run sane moderate Republican governors like Hogan, they will win. if the Democrats nominate someone other than Biden or Harris they will probably win, if Biden runs again, a narrow victory, if Harris runs, they lose (again depending upon the Republican candidate), if Trump runs the third party, the Democrats would win. The Democratic donor class should be encouraging Trump to run the Third-party! calling his party, the Christian Patriot Party.
What Do I Know? Why Listen to Me?
I am a life-long Democrat, having grown up in Berkeley in the late 60s and 70s. I served in the Peace Corps and became a foreign service officer retiring in 2016. I live in South Korea, as I have my wife’s family living here. I hope to return to the Bay Area in another year. I grew up in a politically active family. I served as President of my high school and a student senator at college.
My father, Curtis Cosmos Aller, was the President of the Berkeley Co-Op and the Peralta community college district, served as undersecretary of Labor for Johnson, and a professor and Dean at SF State. and ran for Congress against Ron Dellums winning 40 percent in the primary election in 1974.
I have voted for president since 1974 when I voted against Nixon. I voted for Carter twice, for the Democrats for president in every election. But I also correctly forecast the election returns in every election since 1974.
Here are my predictions for 2022 and 2024, which I will share with the Democratic leadership and post any responses I may receive.
Comments welcomed.
2202 Predictions
2022 is shaping up to be the most consequential mid-term in recent history. The future of America and our democracy is at stake. So far, if I had to bet I would bet on the Senate being held by the Democrats, maybe even a pickup as the math favors the democrats this time around including several open seats due to retirements in Ohio and elsewhere.
The house is more of a tossup. If the democrats are smart, they would announce that Nancy P and the aging leadership are all retiring to open up the field to a new generation of leaders.
But so far there is no indication that they are going to do that.
This opens up the democratic leadership to a challenge along generational lines = as the Republicans continue to paint them as coastal elites out of touch with real Americans which will resonate because there is an element of truth to that.
A lot depends on the following:
Factors Favoring the Dems
If the Democrats can paint Marjorie Taylor Green and her ilk as the face of the Republican party, they can pull off a win.
Marjorie Taylor Green et al play along acting crazy.
Make them the face of the Republican Party –
Rep Boebert
Tucker Carlson
The impact of the January 6h commission – clearly shows how despicable and dangerous Republicans are, and how complicit they were in plotting a coup.
Trump continues hinting he is running in 2024.
Trump endorses candidates who win the primaries and lose the general.
Trump is indicted and or is sent to prison = could cut either way = making him a martyr or turning off the average American to the MAGA crowd.
Republican in-fighting continues positive for Dems.
Much better unified messaging showing how democratic policies are helping average Americans.
The state of COVID by August – if it is over the democrats get a bump.
State of the economy by August – if inflation slows up, the jobless numbers remain good, the democrats get a bump.
Impact of the big infrastructure bill – will people see it is working?
Democrats get unified positive for Dems.
Democratic turnout is higher than normal despite voter suppression efforts.
Gerrymandering is not as bad as expected mixed signals so far,
Biden’s approval rating is above 50 percent by September,
The war in Ukraine ends with a victory by Ukraine gives a bump to Biden
Spreading of rank choice voting systems, as these systems tend to produce more politically centrist candidates, and slightly favor the Democratic party candidates.
Spreading of jungle primary systems, as these systems tend to produce more politically centrist candidates, and slightly favor the Democratic party candidates. California is the biggest state to embrace both of these more democratic voting systems, but the idea is spreading. Most recently, NYC adopted a rank voting system, which led to the election of Eric Adams, who was everyone’s second choice, and not the first choice for most voters. He is a moderate Democrat in a blue progressive-dominated city.
Factors Favoring the Republicans
The Republicans will make Nancy the symbol of a “coastal elite old political hack leadership out of touch with American voters and values ” which will resonate as there is a kernel of truth to that charge. In short, they will her, and so-called “socialist left woke SF Values” the face of the Democratic party, not Biden so much or Harris.
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Trump announces he is retiring, is imprisoned, or dies – removing the biggest obstacle to the resurgence of the Republican party.
The economy stumbles, favors Republicans.
Republicans nominate centrists moderates resisting the MAGA crusade.
Gerrymandering and voter suppression works as advertised – News out of Texas is not good, 25% of absentee ballots were rejected!
Democrats continue their fratricidal infighting – can’t get a unified message.
Republicans are successful in painting the democratic leadership as “old coastal elitist political hacks out of touch with Americans and not dealing with the nation’s problems due to being too weak internationally and domestically, and beholden to a socialist left-wing woke social warrior culture run amuck.”
The culture wars ignite the Republican base, leading to a higher turnout among the base.
Neutral factors:
Retirements = could cut either way.
The deaths of aging leaders could go either way,
What is the Average Age of Congress?
The average age of the 117th Congress is 59 years old and the median is 60 years old. This is much higher than the median age of 38 years in the United States in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Of its 435 members, the House has 38 members born in the 1980s and one born in the 1990s, while the Senate welcomed its first millennial. But the age groups with the biggest gains, compared to the 116th Congress, were those born in the 1930s and 1960s. Members in the 80+ and 50-59 age group saw gains, while the 30-39 age group saw the biggest losses. Members of Congress are, overall, getting older.
AGE OF THE SENATE
The average age of the Senate is 63 years. The most popular years of birth are 1952 and 1954, with seven members each.
Who are the Oldest Members of Congress?
From Alaska, all the way to Alabama, the oldest members of the 117th Congress were all born in the early 1930s. Most of them are members of the Senate.
Specifically, the five oldest members of Congress are:
(four Republicans and one Democrat)
Don Young, age 87, is the Republican U.S. Representative for Alaska’s at-large congressional district. He has served for 25 terms since 1973 and is the current longest-serving member in Congress. (JUST PASSED AWAY AS OF March 19, 2022).
Dianne Feinstein, age 87, is a Democratic Senator from California running for re-election?
Chuck Grassley, age 87, is a Republican Senator from Iowa -running for re-election?
Richard Shelby, age 86, is a Republican Senator from Alabama running for re-election?
Jim Inhofe, age 86, is a Republican Senator from Oklahoma running for re-election?
Who are the Youngest Members?
As for the youngest members of the 117th Congress, they are all part of the House of Representatives. Most were born in the 1980s except the youngest member of them all.
Here are the five youngest members of Congress:
· (three Democrats, two republicans)
Madison Cawthorn, age 25, is the Republican U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district. He is the first member of Congress born in the 1990s.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, age 31, is the Democratic U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district
Sara Jacobs, age 31, is the Democratic U.S. Representative for California’s 53rd congressional district
Ritchie Torres, age 32, is the Democratic U.S. Representative for New York’s 15th congressional district
Jake LaTurner, age 32, is the Democratic U.S. Representative for Kansas’s 2nd congressional district
How Does Age Relate to Party?
Overall, the average age for Republicans in Congress is 58 and 60 for Democrats. Looking specifically at each party in each chamber, the averages are also very similar: – The republicans will seize upon this number, saying that they are the younger generation as opposed to the aging older generation represented by the Democrats.
AVERAGE AGE OF THE 117TH CONGRESS LEADERSHIP
As mentioned before, Congress is getting older. When looking specifically at the leadership in each party, the averages are even higher with Democrats brushing close to 70.
bottom line: Senate to the Democrats due to the math more than anything else.
Fourteen seats held by Democrats and 21 seats held by Republicans are up for election in 2022. Republicans are defending two Senate seats in states Joe Biden (D) won in the 2020 presidential election: Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Democrats are not defending any Senate seats in states Donald Trump (R) won in 2020.
the math goes against the democrats in 2024 though.
“There are 33 U.S. Senate seats up for regular election in 2024—21 seats held by Democrats and 10 held by Republicans as of July 2020. this figure will no doubt change given the age of the Senate so there will be more open seats due to retirements and deaths. This math favors the Republicans as they have fewer seats to defend. Based on this factor alone, I’d give the 2024 Senate to the Republicans, the Presidency and perhaps the House to the Democrats.
The map below shows what seats are up for election and the current incumbent in each race.
While I hope the Dems maintain the House, it is too close to call could be a one to the two-vote margin by Democrats, or a two to three margin by the Republicans, but I don’t see a red wave coming nor do I see a blue wave coming. the gerrymandering in place slightly favors the Republicans perhaps giving them five additional seats, and demographic changes mean additional seats in red states and a loss in NY, California, and New Jersey of one seat each.
2024 is shaping up to be the most consequential election in recent history. The future of America and our democracy is at stake. So far if I had to bet, I would bet on the Democrats winning the presidency (but not Biden running again due to age and health concerns or Kamala Harris making it, and Trump not running due to age, or legal impediments or death)
the demographics of the voters favors the Democrats winning the popular vote, and probably the electoral college, the math favors the Republicans taking the Senate, and the House could go either way, lots depends on who wins the mid-terms, and whether right-wing nut cases wing the primaries and lose the general elections, and the success of the voter suppression movement.
My advice/predictions to the Democratic leadership (I will share this with them) are the following:
Biden should retire at the end of his term but announce that he wants an open primary and not endorse any candidate until the dust settles and a clear leader emerges. The rest of the aging leadership should all retire as well, opening up political space to the next generation of leaders to organically emerge.
Kamala Harris stumbles and another candidate emerges. If the Democrats are smart, they would nominate a moderate problem-solving centrist who can win in red or purple states = the governor of Michigan fits the bill. Preferably a woman, as it is time for a woman president. The VP should be a Hispanic or perhaps Asian-American male. Again, a governor would be preferable but a Senator or big city major would be a good pick as well. I would avoid two woman candidates as that might be a step too far for now.
The theme should be time for a renewed commitment to an America that works for everyone, that we are in it together and are united as Americans.
Other themes would be
Continuing rebuilding our failing physical infrastructure, including our public health systems,
Fighting climate change,
Investing in the next generation of technologies,
including robotics and AI systems,
Recommitting to the space program,
Enacting some version of the build back better initiative,
Continuing to work on rebuilding our alliances,
Reforming our failed immigration system,
Fighting against voter suppression efforts,
Encouraging more democratic voting systems such as rank vote and jungle primaries,
And an old throwback, enacting term limits – this is a winning issue with the public and will disarm potential republican attacks
“on old, tired, political elitist coastal hacks running the Democratic party leadership.”
The Democrats should seize this issue as a sort of political jujutsu move. that would be brilliant!
Starting with the retirement of the oldest members of both parties to bring in a younger generation of leaders. if term limits are a good thing for the presidency they are a good thing for Congress to embrace and would be very popular. I’d suggest 12 years (six terms) in the house and three terms in the Senate for a total of 30 years of service with mandatory retirement at age 70.
Avoid getting sucked into the culture wars nonsense it is a waste of time, resources and puts you on the defensive, just no upside to it at all. the less you say on this the better, let them come off as unhinged and out-of-touch.
The focus should be on building on the solid accomplishments of the Biden era and looking forward with a positive, optimistic message.
I would also not get trapped into running an anti-Republican campaign. That was a losing message for Hilary, and also a bit for Biden. People need to hear a positive, powerful optimistic message but pointing out that the Republican candidate is a neo-fascist authoritarian wannabe is fine, but that can not be the only message or the main message.
Keeping it positive, upbeat, and focused on solid accomplishments for the American people is the key. Remember, they have to want to vote for you, not just vote against them!
A winning slogan could be
“Democrats, the party that gets stuff done for the American people.”
I would also avoid getting too sucked into the progressive wish lists, remember the adage to never let the perfect being the enemy of the good. Remember that people have to want to vote for you and just against the other guy. You could run through an anti-republican slogan such as
Republicans, tools of the 1 percent, the party of fascists, insurrectionists, deficit spending and ignoring the needs of the American people,
If the Republicans are smart, Trump will retire for the good of the party and the country, under the excuse of age, health, or legal impediments. Then they should have an open primary.
Predictions for the Republican Ticket
My prediction would be De Santis wins the nomination and picks perhaps Senator Cotton as his VP. This would unite the MAGA crows and the cultural wars crowds. But also provide a solid line of attack for the Democratic nominee.
I don’t see a pathway for Ted Cruz as he has too many enemies, everyone who knows him or has worked with hate his guts.
I also don’t see a pathway for Josh Hawley either for similar reasons. I can see Marjorie Taylor Green running but flaming out during the primary.
Finally, I don’t see a Trump-Biden rematch but if that happens, I will bet that Biden would defeat Trump.
The other unlikely prospect is that the Republicans get smart and nominate either the governor of Ohio or Maryland and run a positive upbeat campaign as
“the party that gets stuff done for the American people”
Note; Great slogan, the Democrats should use it before the Republicans use it.
while painting the Democrats as old, political hacks who are out of touch, cultural justice warrior elitists from coastal blue states. That would be a powerful campaign theme because unfortunately, there is an element of truth to it!
and they would probably win the House, Senate, and Presidency, but fortunately, for the Democrats, they are far more likely to nominate a cultural warrior nut case like DeSantis, with either Cotton as VP or the Virginian Governor as VP.
if Biden runs, a toss-up. If Kamala runs a toss-up. If the governor of Michigan or another female governor runs, Democrats probably win.
If DeSantis runs, probably Republicans will fail, but if someone like Maryland Hogan runs, the Republicans will win. If Trump wins the nomination as a Republican, Republicans will probably fail as well.
If Trump runs third party, too close to call but he would not win as a third-party candidate. If he runs, he should name his party, the Christian Patriot Party, the CPP in short.
The Senate and House would both probably go to the Democrats despite voter suppression efforts as the math and demographics favor the Democratic party.
A personal note. I am married to a Korean-American woman whom I met in Korea and thus would love to see Hogan elected and have the first Asian-American (Korean) First lady.
My bottom line prediction
Both Biden and Trump retire due to age and health concerns.
Kamala Harris does not win the primary contests, as the Democrats selected a more centrist problem-solving figure who defeats the likely republican nominee – De Santis.
Whoever loses, concedes as we restore the tradition of a peaceful transition of power.
Senate and House go to the Democrats, but with narrow majorities.
The rest of the country continues to be split into about 25 red states and 20 blue states, a blue DC, blue PR, blue VI, purple Guam and Samoa, purple military, and 5 purple states.
Raven Cage Zine will publish some of my Ukrainian poems and stories written in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have shown considerable courage in standing up to Russian aggression.
Ukrainian Refugees Fleeing for their Lives
Putin’s Deranged Press Conference
Rep. Boebert Scumbag of the Week for her thought Crimes against Human reason Scumbag of the Week
When Russia invaded Ukraine
Make Love Not War All Poetry
Putin went to bed after drinking his favorite cocktail Nazi Vodka crush with an orange crush. In his dream, he soon saw himself riding a white horse, chollima the white horse of destiny across the world, fulfilling the destiny of heaven. He saw millions of people bow down worshiping him, following him. Loving their new lord and master. He flies over Ukraine filled with slaves harvesting grain to feed the master Russian race. Up ahead, he sees Kamala Harris walking her puppy, he shoots her and the puppy, then eats the puppy just because he is that kind of evil monster. N’s
Putin Assassinations End the Russian Imperial Dreams
When Putin invaded Ukraine
He did not foresee
That the whole world
Would rise up
Against him
Enough, no more
The Russian people said
As Putin is assassinated
Bringing an end
To his Russian Imperial Dreams.
Ukrainian Refugees Fleeing for their Lives
As the war in Ukraine continues
Millions of refugees flee
With a target on their back
They rush down
The few open corridors left
They look at their gadgets
For the latest information
Hoping to live
Another day
The refugee organization staff
Try to keep track
Of their movement
Amid the cracking
Of the bombs falling
Putin’s Deranged Press Conference
Putin holds a deranged press conference in which he outlined his plans for the future of Europe and the world; He said that Russia would rule eastern Europe and the Central Asian Stans as in the old Soviet era. But with a twist. He would proclaim himself the Czar of Russia and Xi would rule East Asia and SE Asia as the new Emperor of Asia. Teheran would rule Iran, and Afghanistan, the Saudis would rule the mid-east but would recognize Israel. Western Europe would continue as the EU, the UK would continue. The US would be given the Americas. Africa would be divided up between the great powers. The UN would be replaced with a much more focused international organization where the powers would jointly rule the world, cooperating on global issues, such as climate change and space exploration. A military conflict would come to an end. He said that he and China were willing to use nuclear weapons to enforce their new world order. He had no desire to rule Western Europe, the UK, or the Americas.
After a series of meetings, the world leaders agreed. World War 111 was avoided and the world became divided into ten worlds as it was dubbed, Australia/New Zeeland, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Saudi, US, South Africa with the major powers dividing up the world into their spheres of influence.
The UN continued in NYC as the central coordinating body as the powers did work out global cooperation norms including worldwide internet, worldwide business competition, common industrial standards, common currency, ten official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish) climate change and space exploration. The powers also agreed on a few human rights standards, the leaders of each region pledged to allow limited freedom of the press, limited elections for advisory assemblies, and limited equal rights for women. Homosexuality was outlawed in much of the world as was abortion. Drugs and alcohol were outlawed in the Islamic world. Each region had its view on religious freedom, tolerated in the western world, but not in the Islamic world. Immigration between regions was tightly controlled. Universal military service was required.
World War 111 was replaced by the new multi-polar world. Space exploration kicked off as the powers all set up competitions in space cities, lunar colonies, and Martian colonies.
Rep. Boebert Scumbag of the Week for her thought Crimes against Human reason Scumbag of the Week
I sent this around to the MLB Commissioner, the Baseball Hall of Fame and the SF Giants, Oakland A’s and the Nationals and will update it if anyone bothers to respond.
Now that the COVID pandemic is fading and life is returning to normal, it is a good time to step back and reflect upon the future of professional sports. this is especially true for baseball now that they have ended the walkout and are about to resume the season,
American Professional sports, especially baseball, are in trouble! Attending a professional sports game has become unaffordable for the average person, and that is a damn shame. Fewer children are learning how to play in school as schools cut back on sports and fitness programs because of costs, liability issues, and changing preferences among the public. Sports teams are losing their connections to their local communities.
When I was a young lad, American sports comprised football, basketball, and baseball. Everything else was just a minor sport!
Unfortunately, baseball is now in fifth place – it is football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and baseball. And if things continue as they are going, baseball could soon be becoming a minor sport, falling behind tennis, golf, bowling, track, and field, or even after cricket, which is the fast-growing sport in the US.
Yes, the state of American professional sports is deplorable. But I have a ten-point plan to make American sports great again, particularly baseball. These apply also to Football and Basketball, but my focus here is on Baseball.
My proposal consists of the following basic principles
Making The Game Affordable!!!
Expanding The Number of Professional Teams
Real World Series
Adopting Local Schools and Colleges
Requiring Professional Athletes To Have A Degree, And Helping Them Find Jobs After Retirement
Bringing In More International Players
Changing The Incentive Structure So Winning Means More Money Per Player, Losing Means Less Money Per Player
Setting Up A North American Sports Commission
Allowing Corporations to Own Teams
Expanding Broadcasting of Games So That One Could Watch Baseball 24/7 Anywhere In The World For Free or a Small Monthly Fee
Make The Games Gendered Neutral
Getting Rid of Racist Legacies
Enhancing Security Including Health Checks
Making The Game Affordable!!!
We start by making the games affordable for the average person. These comments apply equally to all the major sports, but my focus is on baseball, my favorite professional sport. If one wanted to attend a professional game, one would have to spend hundreds of dollars to get tickets, go to the stadium, and spend a minor fortune on food and drinks. Preposterous and unacceptable.
Professional sports should cap the price of most tickets at 50 dollars per ticket. They should sell tickets at a price that people could afford to attend a game. Perhaps setting the average ticket at 25 dollars? And on game days, sell remaining tickets for 5 dollars, and release free tickets an hour before the game start. Filling up the stadium for every game. That would generate excitement and generate loyalty among the fan base. Better for everyone than the current system where the average price of tickets is about 100 dollars a ticket if they can get one at all. The goal should be to fill the stadium with fans who did not pay a fortune for the tickets and that the average price is very reasonable. One reason that soccer is so popular is that it is the cheapest professional sport to attend in person.
Expanding the Number of Professional Teams
I think there are too few professional teams. There is a market for baseball that is not being met. At a minimum, there should be a professional sports team in every major metropolitan area, and in some areas, more than one team could compete, ice, NYC, LA, Chicago, SF Bay Area.
First, a dramatic expansion of baseball so that there are major league team teams in every state in the US, every province in Canada, and Mexico, and in the DR, PI, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That would mean expanding the number of teams to 120 teams from the 35 teams that exist today.
This would not be as difficult to accomplish as you might first think. First, you would convert minor league teams into major league teams. You would make sure that there is a major league team in each state in the U.S., each Canadian province, each Mexican State, and in the baseball-playing countries of the Caribbean, and in Asia and Europe as well, making it a real-world sport.
Some obvious places could and should have a team. Anchorage, Honolulu, Sacramento, San Jose, Portland, Reno, Nevada? Salt Lake City? Boise, Phoenix, Tuscan? Tacoma, Vancouver, Edmonton, Quebec City, there could be up to 75 teams competing across North America. I would also add teams in Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. This will replace the current two-league structure which should be retired.
Each team would play mostly in its region with a few inter-league games per month for excitement, the new league structure would consist of the African League, Asia League (East Asia, SE Asia, and Indian divisions) the North American league (Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, Northeast and Central Divisions) the Caribbean/Mexican League, European League, Middle eastern league, and Latin America Leagues.
This would make it more affordable for teams to travel, as they would mostly play against teams in their region. I would adjust the leagues a bit to ensure that they are all about the same number of teams.
And there would be intense regional rivals for example in the Bay area there would be regular games between SF, San Jose, and Oakland.
At the end of the season, the North American champion would be crowned, and that champion would advance to the world series, which will be held in the spring just before the beginning of the new season.
And perhaps to start the season off on an international basis, the season-opening games should be international teams. I.e. the SF Giants could host the Tokyo Giants for a best of seven games to start the season.
Real World Series
I would change the way the world series is done. Each country that has pro baseball (there are over 32) would choose their national champions through the team that won the national championship, and then the champions would compete in a world series of baseball held in the early Spring. For example, if the SF Giants won the North American series, they would represent North America in the world series and represent the US in the Olympics. The location of the world series would vary among the 32 countries that have professional baseball leagues, but the US should host the first series, and perhaps offer to always host the finals, to ensure the world still associates the US as the home country of baseball and ensure that the US media and public fully engage with the world series.
The games would be world cup style until the last set of games, which will be the traditional best of seven-game format.
+Adopting Local Schools and Colleges
To develop the next generation of players and fans, I would have the professional teams adopt local school districts and colleges and fully fund all sports programs, not just baseball, thus alleviating the burden on the school district or college’s budget. They would do this in cooperation with the other professional teams in the region, splitting the costs between the professional teams. The school districts and local colleges would have a fully funded sports program. Professional athletes would volunteer to serve as coaches during the off-season. The student-athletes would be given passes so that they could attend professional games for free.
This one action would guarantee that children have grown up playing sports and generate excitement for the game among the next generation. And it would not cost the professional team a lot of money and generate a tremendous amount of goodwill. Finally, playing baseball for an MBL sponsored university would give the student-athlete preference is going to play for that team.
Requiring Professional Athletes to have a Degree, And Helping Them Find Jobs After Retirement
All the professional sports federations would jointly agree that they would only hire professional athletes who have finished their college playing days with a degree. They could compete in the professional league for one year on a provisional contract, but must have their degree in hand before they begin their second year. While in college, they would receive a full scholarship, housing, a monthly stipend, and free tickets to all professional sports games, they would also work part-time as coaches in High schools in their communities. These costs would be paid for by the local team.
I would keep players in one team for five-year contracts to build fan support. The typical baseball player would then play four years of HS baseball, four years of college baseball, and 3 contracts (15 years total) for up to three different teams, and a few players would be able to do a fourth contract.
Finally, after a professional athlete ‘s career is over, the professional teams would make every effort to help the professional athlete stay involved with the game by assisting them in getting full-time employment as coaches across the country, or work for the baseball teams, or working as sports announcers. The key is that former players will remain professionally engaged in promoting baseball after retiring from active service.
Bring In International Players
With the proliferation of overseas teams, I would also bring in the best foreign players and let US athletes play overseas, and encourage US players to play overseas during their time with the US-based team perhaps allowing them to play one season overseas while keeping their contract with the US-based team?
Changing The Incentive Structure So Winning Means More Money Per Player, Losing Means Lots Let Money Per Player
It seems that sometimes professional athletes are phoning it in so to speak. So, I would change the compensation so that winning teams get most of the proceeds from a game, with the losing team getting their costs covered. This minor change would make the games so much more exciting as athletes would have a real incentive to compete.
Setting Up a North American Sports Commission
I would set up a North American Sports Commission to oversee professional sports across North America – comprising the head of NFL, MLB, NBA, MLSS, Hockey, Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Track and Field, and Olympics. The commission would comprise player representatives, owner representatives, and high school and college sports representatives.
I would set up a Public-private partnership to set policy for professional sports in North America including the Caribbean, annual conference after the week after the world super bowl followed by the drafting for professional sports teams (all at the same time) just before the beginning of Baseball, soccer, etc.
Thus, the MLB would become one of the NASF commissioners, etc. The head of the North American professional sports commissions would be called the North American Professional Sports commissioner. His or her job would be to coordinate all aspects of the game along with his/her counterparts in the other sports leagues and the Olympics, Pro Golfing, Pro Tennis, Pro Bowling, and track and field.
Each city would have its own sports commission comprising the heads of the local professional sports teams, and the university athletes’ directors. The sports federation would also have players serve on the commission. The local commission would also encourage local teams to share facilities, broadcast revenues, and share in the cost of running the local high school and college athletic programs.
Finally, the US champion team would compete in the Olympics and other international competitions representing the United States.
Allowing Corporations to Own Teams
In Asia, most sports teams are owned by corporations. I don’t see why we can’t do that in the U.S. Unlike in Asia though the corporation would still have to name the team after the location instead of the corporation, unlike in Asia where the corporation’s name is associated with the team and not the location, for example, you could have Microsoft owning the Mariners, but the name of the team would be the Microsoft Seattle Mariners, not the Microsoft mariners. And corporations could and should help sponsor the local high school and colleges sports programs and provide free tickets for their employees as a corporate perk.
Expanding Broadcasting Of Games So That One Could Watch Baseball 24/7 Anywhere In The World For Free Or For A Small Monthly Fee
I would expand the MLB website, which would show every game worldwide streaming free. The paid site would include access to past games, statistical analysis, commentary, etc and links to the baseball sites around the world and also broadcast college baseball games.
Make The Games Gendered Neutral
It is time to allow girls to play baseball. They can compete with the boys and should be allowed to play on the teams. Perhaps we could have about 40 percent female players to start? Allowing woman players would also help grow the fan base as more women would get interested in watching the games.
Getting Rid of Racist Legacies
I would change the names of all professional sports teams to get rid of racist names like the Indians and the Braves, and college-level names as well.
Enhancing Security Including Health Checks
Unfortunately, COVID will likely be sticking around and everyone will need booster shots every year. Baseball teams should offer free flu/covid and other vaccinations throughout the season and require patrons to wear masks during the early spring season (April and perhaps in October) as well. Certainly, all players and staff must get their flu and COVID shots to play. Finally, baseball stadiums should encourage the use of public transit (free metro/bus passes for the games) to get to and from the games to cut down on DUI, traffic and make it easier to get to the game, particularly evening games. Perhaps offering free Uber rides home to anyone who drank too much and letting people park their cars overnight would help.
Summary
It is time to face reality, baseball is no longer “America’s pastime”. It is in fifth place! And with the way things are going could become a minor sport but it is growing in popularity worldwide. It is time for the good of the game and the good of the country for MLB to save baseball as America’s greatest sport.
Taking these bold steps –
Making the game affordable!!!
Expanding the number of professional teams
Real World Series
Adopting local schools and colleges
Requiring professional athletes to have a degree, and helping them find jobs after retirement
Bringing in More International Players
Changing the incentive structure so winning means more money per player, losing means less money per player
Setting up a North American Sports Commission
Allowing Corporations to Own Teams
Expanding broadcasting of games so that one could watch baseball 24/7 anywhere in the world for free or for a small monthly fee
Make the games gendered neutral
Getting rid of racist legacies
Enhancing security including health checks
Would go a long way to solving the crisis facing American baseball. Doing nothing will end in baseball becoming a minor sport in its spiritual homeland.
Note (Update) the Redskins just announced that they are finally getting rid of the racist redskin name but they picked a lame name, the Washington Commanders in my opinion, but at least it is not racist anymore. MLB needs to get rid of the Indian, and Braves names and other racist names, and come up with more inclusive names, especially for expansion teams.
Letter sent to Nancy Pelosi calling for her to retire to save the party and the nation. I’ll let you know if she bothers to respond.
Dear Nancy, Time to Go Dear
Dear Nancy,
I am writing to you to plead with you to reconsider your decision to run for re-election. It is more important than anything else right now for the Democratic party to retain control of the House and the Senate given the insane backward policies that the Republicans in the House and the Senate would try to implement if they were to win in November. Not to mention that they would shut down the Biden administrations’ entire agenda.
I am a life-long democrat having grown up in Berkeley in the late 60s and 70s. I served in the Peace Corps and became a foreign service officer retiring in 2016. I live in South Korea as I have my wife’s family living here. I hope to return to the Bay area in another year. Incidentally, you may know about my family. My father, Curtis Cosmos Aller, was the President of the Berkeley Co-Op and the Peralta community college district and a professor and Dean at SF State.
There is a time in one’s life when one needs to retire from active work and slow down and enjoy the golden years of one’s life. There is no shame in deciding it is time to retire and let the next generation of leaders emerge. At age 83 you have done so much for the country. It is always a good idea to leave on a high note. If you retire now, you will be leaving at a high note. If you run for re-election, you might run the risk of losing the primary. The voters in SF just recalled the school board because they felt that they were simply out of touch with the average resident of San Francisco. Perhaps that should be a wake-up call for you to consider.
But if you run for re-election, the Republicans will no doubt run a campaign demonizing you and the entire democratic leadership as being, old political hacks elites out of with the American people. They will portray themselves as the next generation of leaders fighting for the American people.
As you know, the Republicans are the masters of dirty politics. They will lie, cheat and do what it takes to take back the house and Senate. Given what’s going on right now with the aftermath of the pullout from Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, and rampant inflation, the American public is feeling that things are not going in the right direction and unfortunately they will blame the democrats.
Having most of the leadership of the party, including of course the President all in their 70s or older leads itself to this attack. I can see the attack ads already. The Republicans will no doubt push that narrative to the maximum because sadly there is some truth to it.
I hope that you don’t see this plead as a “agist’ attack on you and the democratic leadership because it is not. I am 66 myself. And to be fair, I believe all the leaders in both parties, the Supreme Court, and the President who are over 70 years of age, should all announce that they are retiring at the end of their terms to let the next generation of leaders emerge to deal with the problems of today, as our old aged leaders are lost battling yesterday’s political battles. You should set the example, and the rest will follow.
The bottom line is this: the stakes are so high that the democratic leadership must do all they can to keep the house. If you announce that you and the senior leadership are all retiring to let a new generation of leaders emerge will change the game and perhaps save the House and the Senate.
And if you do retire, please do not let your daughter run for your seat because you know nepotism?
I hope that you can consider my request and retire for the good of the party, and the nation.
From time to time, I will award a “ Cosmos Scumbag of the Week Award” and post it on my Anchor (podcast on Spotify and Radio Public) blog, Blog Loving, FB, LinkedIn, Medium, Wattpad, Writing com, Tumblr, and Twitter, and send a nice certificate to the person who demonstrated
the qualities of a Scumbag – vile despicable behavior or speech demonstrating that they are a true sociopathic scumbag.
Let me know what you think, and feel free to nominate a scumbag of your own. I’d love to post other nominees. Do let me know if you can use this material on your show. Most of them are part-found poems using the awardees’ language or media accounts to incriminate themselves, along with my snarky commentary.
I am also sending this to Jimmy Kimble, John Oliver, Trevor at the Daily Show, Bill Maher, and Seth Myers in hopes that they can use it on their shows. I will also send a copy to the award recipients. Would appreciate it if you could let me know if you find this useful or could use it. the Direct URL is
Dream Girl True Love Story
Also please check out my true love story, “Dream Girl at the following direct DL. Also published in the book, ‘Dreams and the Unexplainable” by the Chicken Soup for the Soul publishers in 2018. I met my wife in Korea after serving in the Peace Corps and teaching for the U, S Army. I first met her in a dream in high school in 1974, when I fell asleep in a boring Physics class at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, and saw standing next to me the most beautiful woman in the universe, and she was talking to me in a strange Asian language. I fell out of my chair screaming “Who are You?” much to the amusement and laughter of my class and teacher.
I knew that I would eventually meet and marry her. Eight years later on September 7, 1982, she walked off a bus into my life, and we got married seven weeks later on October 29th, 1982. She joined the US Army as an intel officer and was for a while the first Korea born female Army officer to serve in Korea, and I believe the first Korean-born female U.S, army officer. She retired as a Major.
Please also check out the hitchhiker tales talking about my epic hitchhiking the U.S. in 1975 when I was broke, young and foolish. Also published by the Poet Magazine in their Anthology of “On the Road” in 2020. The URL is
I most recently drove across the country in 2016 to celebrate my retirement by seeing the U.S. I traveled over 10,000 miles, and 35 states in three months. And in 2019 finally visited Alaska my last of the 50 states to visit. I have also visited 55 countries. I speak Korea, Spanish, Thai and some Hindi.
I joined the State Department as a foreign service officer and served in ten countries over the next 25 years serving in Antigua, Barbados, (based in Barbados but covering seven Eastern Caribbean countries, Dominica, Grenada, St, Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Korea, Spain, Thailand, India (Mumbai) and four tours in DC. We retired to live half the year in Korea and half in the States but then, COVID hit and we have been here ever since, except for a two-week trip to D.C, last November. We hope to visit the U, S this summer for an extended period, and I hope to attend your show in the audience.
There are 18 awardees so far.
Awardees
Kentucky Factory Manager
Christmas Gun Card
Marjorie Taylor Green Found Poem Marjorie Taylor Green
Matt Gaetz Found Poem
Paul Gosar found poem
Louie Gohmert Found Poem Scumbag
Award Korean Husband Who Left His Wife at Deserted Highway Stop
Marjorie Taylor Green’s Yellow Race Comments Marjorie Taylor Green.
Ann Coulter Defense of Kim Potter
Jessie Watters Anti-Fauci Death Threats
Missouri Governor’s and Attorney general’s Anti-Mask Crusade
Missouri policeman who attempted to arrest a school bus driver for wearing a mask which he falsely claimed was now illegal to wear in public
Rep. Boebert Scumbag of the Week for her thought Crimes against Human reason
Tucker Carlson for Being a Russian Tool on Fox News
Former President Trump for Being Putin’s B…. in Ukraine
and President Putin gets the “Scumbag of the Century Award, for invading Ukraine and bombing a Jewish cemetery. while allegedly fighting Nazis and trying to overthrow the Jewish President.
Award Nominations
Kentucky Candle Manager Who Threatens to Fire Employees Who Want to Flee the Tornado That Destroyed the Factory
In the wake
Of the historic tornadoes
That destroyed so many towns
In six states,
There have been many cases
Of people stepping up
Doing the right thing
Acting like true heroes.
This, sadly, is not one
Of those stories.
Instead, it is the story
Of a factory manager
Who knowing that the tornado
Was rushing at his factory,
Told his employees
Keep working
If you leave
Fleeing for your life
You will be terminated.
The employees
Were too stunned
To do anything.
A few minutes later
The factory was destroyed
Most of the workers
And that scumbag manager
Buried under the rubble.
If the manager
Had acted like the Christian
He claimed he was,
And told his employees
To get the hell out of there
Closing for the day.
Some of them might
Have survived.
For these actions
He truly deserves
The scumbag of the week award.
the Christmas Gun Card
The second recipient
is the congressional representative,
Who felt he would send out
A friendly message
Of peace and goodwill
During the Christmas season,
He had his whole family
Standing by a Christmas tree
Carrying military assault weapons
With the caption,
“Santa, please send more ammo”.
Santa should send the family
A note
“: For your display of Christmas naughtiness,
I am donating ten thousand dollars
from your bank account,
In your name for each victim
Of gun violence this year,
200 thousand dollars
Thank you for your generous donation,”
The Republican congressional
representative from Kentucky
Did not apologize for the lame
Extremely tasteless and offensive
an attempt at a joke
Not even saying
That it was just a lame
ass attempt at a joke.
Tweeting that he had stirred up
A hornets’ nest
But it was good
To see the leftist so upset
And he would do it again
He felt he totally
owned the “libtards” communists
Saw nothing wrong with it.
Yet another Christian
Who shows his adherence
To Christian values,
By violating everything,
Christ stood for.
Not doing what Jesus
Would have done.
And did it just
Before Christmas
right after a horrific
shocking shooting
at a school.
By a kid the same age
as he kids
shown holding an assault rifle
underneath a Christmas tree.
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green, Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Paul Gondor, and Rep. Louie Gohmert for their continued attempt to portray the January 6th insurrectionists as freedom-loving patriots and political prisoners of a communist, dystopian, fascist, racist anti-white socialist dictatorship.
For this week’s s Cosmos
scumbag of the week award
We have four recipients
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene,
Matt Gaetz,
Paul Gosar,
Louie Gohmert
paul gosnar
they held a bonkers
demented press conference
for that, they are all winners.
“On Tuesday,
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene,
Matt Gaetz,
Paul Gosar,
and Louie Gohmert
held a press conference
where they defended
the Jan. 6 insurrection,
promoting every conspiracy
the theory under the sun
and attacking anybody
who dares call i
into question the actions
of the people
we all saw on television,
on our computers,
and on our mobile devices
attacking the Capitol building.
Any one of the three
on the podium
during today’s press conference
could create a misinformation
swarm larger
then the rings of Saturn,
and all four together
did not disappoint their master,
Donald Trump.
“First up was Greene,
who told the world
that the Jan. 6 defendants
we’re being tortured
and persecuted
and forced to submit
to critical race theory brainwashing.”
He went on to say
Of the January 6th defendants
“They were isolated
in a separate wing of the jail
, where they are abused,
where they are ridiculed,
where they are mocked
because of their political beliefs
and because of January 6,
and because
of the color of their skin.”
All are scumbags worthy
Of this award
Rep. Matt Gaetz Found Poem Promising More Kangaroo Courts, and calling for Trump to Serve as the Speaker of the House.
Then came Gaetz to promise
kangaroo courts
and Benghazi trials
while also pretending
that Benghazi investigation
were mishandled
because they found nothing.
“We are going to take power
after this next election.
When we do,
it’s not going to be
the days of Paul Ryan,
and Trey Gowey,
and no real oversight,
and no real subpoenas.
It’s going to be the days
of Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene,
and Dr. Gosar, and myself.”
He would move to install
Trump as House Speaker “
For this and past offenses
he is awarded this week’s Cosmos Scumbag of the Week Award
Rep, Paul Gosar for his murder porn cartoons and numerous other offenses.
“Gosar is the three-sentence embodiment
of a sniveling Dickens character.”
Comment: not to mention
His violent murder porn fantasy tweets.”
And he is so bad
Even his siblings
Campaigned against him
And denounced him
On worldwide TV.
His response
Was to call his seven siblings
Jealous Marxists.
Another worthy recipient
Of the Cosmos Scumbag of the week award.
The Cosmos Scumbag of the Week Award goes to Rep. Louie Gohmert often dubbed the dumbest Member of Congress, known for his deranged, incoherent world salads, and LOSER in the Texas Republican primary race for attorney general for calling for arrest of FBI instigators of the Insurection because reasons
“Gohmert just comes
across like someone
who doesn’t know much
of anything
and therefore, might seem
a touch less dangerous.
Then it was Gohmert’s turn.
Gohmert has recently
decided to leave Congress
in the hopes of taking control
(he lost – LOSER of the Texas attorney general’s office, ”
“last month.
Gohmert’s job
was to promote the conspiracy theory
that the only people
who should be charged
with insurrection should be the FBI.
Literally—that’s his fact-free
conspiracy vomit
into the public sphere for the day.
Then Gosar came up to make
a series of statements
about the cruel conditions
of the incarcerated Jan 6 defendants
calling them human rights violations
Gosar made sure to explain
how white these defendants are.
They aren’t those “hardened criminals” people
(The ones Gosar and Greene and Gohmert
and Gaetz never speak up for),
“they’re fathers.”
Gohmert,
Has so many reasons
To be the scumbag of the week.
I am sure we will award them all many more Cosmos Scumbag of the Week awards. At the end of the year, I will pick the top ten for the Scumbag of the year award and I expect they will be finalists.
The scumbag of the week award is supposed to be international. I am awarding my first international award to the Korean Husband Who Left His Wife at A Deserted Highway Rest Stop
For this week’s scumbag of the week award, we go to South Korea where I currently reside.
the Award goes to the Korean husband who dropped his wife, kicked her out of the Taxi , at a deserted highway rest stop late at night in a wintry rain storm because of an argument. The runner up is the truck driver who ran her over and kept going, and the taxi driver who dropped her off. He went back and found the dead body.
A Korean married couple
Got into a horrific accident
While in a taxi heading home.
The man told the driver
To drop his wife
Off at a deserted highway rest stop.
In the middle of the night
During a frosty winter rainfall.
The taxi driver complied
The woman got off
They took off.
The woman
Went for a walk
Down the deserted highway.
A five-ton truck
Ran her over
And keep driving.
Hit and run driver
The taxi driver
Drove back.
Saw that she was missing
Alerted the authorities.
They found her body
By the side of the road.
And skid marks
Indicating what had happened.
The award winner is the husband
The truck driver and taxi drivers
are our runner ups For this first international
Scumbag of the week award..
Marjorie Taylor Green’s Yellow Race Comments Marjorie Taylor Green.
Marjorie Taylor Green
For all of her deeds
Pure batshit craziness
Incoherent insane word salads,
She is a recipient of
The” cosmos scumbag of the week award”.
During a conservative youth conference
“using her moment on stage
To in part call-out
The diversity of the attendees,
The “black people, brown people, white people,
And yellow people”
Only to highlight
that the event can’t possibly be racist.”
Because….
Proving again that she is a racist
Using the racist words
“Yellow People.”
Which is a 19th-century racial slur.
At least she did not use the n-word
Or talk about “redskins.”.
She went on to make deranged comments
About gender roles in the house of representatives
Noting new inclusive language guidelines
That she will refuse to follow,
Ann Coulter Racist Defense of the Aubrey Killers, Kim Potter, Chauvin, and Rittenhouse
ann coulter
Ann Coulter could be awarded
The Scumbag of the Week award,
For almost every week
She unleashes such hateful racist vitriol
Garbage upon the world.
Her latest outrage
A defense of Kim Potter
The cop that accidentally
Killed a black man
During a traffic stop.
Pulling out her gun
Instead of the tazer.
The jury found her guilty
Of negligent homicide.
Following up on her defense
of Chauvin. the murderer of George Floyd,
and the murderers of Aubrey, and Karl Rittenhouse,
She is batting 1-3 so far.
Ann took issue
With the trial,
And the media coverage.
Noting that the media
Did not blame the victim enough,
That the victim deserved
What he got.
Because he was violent
Out-of-control thug,
And the cop,
Was right
To use deadly force
To put him down.”
comment:
She fails to note
That everyone at the trial
Knew that.
The jury did not believe
That excused the cop
from the charge of manslaughter
Because everyone else
Except for Ann,
Saw it for what it was
What was obvious to all
Is that it was
A racist murder
By a white officer
in broad daylight
Of an unarmed, compliant
Subdued black man.
“It is what it is “
Quote the Donald.
Obvious to the entire world,
except for Ann Coulter – maybe she needs new glasses?
or a compassionate soul?
even though she claims she is a Christian
while violating all the core tenets
of her faith.
Jesus would be leading the BLM protests
if he were to come back today.
Just saying,
George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight
His crime attempting to pass a counterfeit 20 dollar bill
and being high in public.
His real offense was being black
and daring to complain
he could not breathe
as Chauvin strangled him to death.
I suppose Chauvan thought
he should just STF up
while he killed him.
Protesting he could not breathe
infuriated CHauvan
who saw it as defiance
by an uppity drugged up
black man
of his right to subdue him
by any means necessarily.
and besides they had a history
both worked part time
as night club security
and apparently hated each other.
and if he died
too bad he had it coming.
F black drug addict.
“The NYT and other media outlets
Justified their coverage
Of focusing on the cop’s actions
Rather than on the crimes
Of the victim.
For this flaming of racist hatred
Of blaming the victim,
Of justifying another act
Of brutal, horrific police misconduct,
Ann Coulter is the scumbag
Of the week.
Jessie Watters for Calling for the Assassination of Dr. Fauci on National TV- he has yet to apologize, be charged, or be fired!
jessie watters
Jessie Watters
A Fox News Reporter
Is this week’s scumbag
Of the week winner,
His offense?
Telling a crowd to
“ambush” Dr. Fauci
with a “kill shot”
so he “doesn’t
see it coming”
dr fauci
Dr. Fauci responded
To this piece of insanity,
Noting,
“The only thing
that I have ever done
throughout these two years
is to encourage people
to practice good public health practices:
to get vaccinated,
to be careful in public settings,
to wear a mask,”
And for that,”
You have some guy out there
saying that people
should be giving me
a kill shot
to ambush me.
I mean,
what kind of craziness
is there in society these days?”
The guy
should be fired on the spot,”
As far as I know, he is still on the air at Fox.
for this and many other vile commentaries
says two other nations
have citizens in need of saving:
Canada and the United States.
“I pray for Ukraine, and I wish them the best,”
But we also have neighbors to the north
who need freedom and need to be liberated, “
and we need that right here at home, as well.
This was the most obnoxious, vile,
the pernicious canard of the week.
A total nonsensical, non sequitur.
What does the invasion of Ukraine
By Russian forces have to do
With protests against
Mask mandates and vaccine restrictions
In the U.S. and Canada.
The two events are not even remotely
The same thing.
To her and her ilk
Mandating masks, and vaccines
Amid a still deadly pandemic
Is an infringement on their freedom
To be a self-centered a…..
putting themselves and others at risk
including possible death.
And Canada and the US
Are now living in a monstrous communist. Fascist/socialist
dystopic radical leftist woke tyranny
oppressing “normal, i, e, white Christians)
And we need to be liberated
Just like the Ukrainians.
For these crimes against human thought,
Reason, common sense, and common decency
She is the Cosmos Scumbag of the week.
Tucker Carlson For Being Putin’s Tool On Fox News
tucker carlson
Tucker Carlson daily on his show
Has shown that he is nothing more
Than Putin’s puppet
Parroting Russian State TV propaganda
Calling into question the heroism
Of the Ukrainian People
And the government
For that, he is the Cosmos Scumbag of the Week
Former President Trump for Being Putin’s B…. in Ukraine
Former President Trump
daily is his press releases
Has shown that he is nothing more,
Than Putin’s B…..
Parroting Russian State TV propaganda
Calling into question the heroism
Of the Ukrainian People
And the government.
And making the absurd argument
That Putin would never have invaded
Ukraine if he had won.
Because Putin respected him
And knew Trump would not tolerate
That one bit.
The reality of course
Is that the former President
When he was President
Was nothing but Putin’s B…,.
No doubt if Russia invaded
He would have excused it
And not rallied NATO
And the country
To resist the Russian invasion.
Might even have threatened
to pull out of NATO
and Germany
though he likes Poland
because they offer
to name the new US base
Ft. Trump.
For all of these reasons, Former President Trump
You are the recipient of the Cosmos Scumbag
Of the Week award.
President of Russia Putin Scumbag of the Century
You richly deserve this award because of your brazen, blatantly illegal, immoral invasion of your neighbor. You set off the worst military action in Europe since World War 11, targeting civilians and even bombing a Jewish cemetery while falsely claiming you are fighting Nazis and attempting to overthrow the Jewish Nazi president. This clearly shows you are the world’s greatest scumbag and deserve the Scumbag of the Century award.
I have completed 17 flash fiction pieces as part of the Writers Digest Flash fiction challenge. I posted “Cosmic Cat from Berkeley” below. I also completed three micro flash stories for the Writing Com micro flash contest, and daily haiku for the Poetry Magnum Opus challenge. Enjoy.
Day 1 Keys
Day Two Prompt Circular
Day three Prompt limitations
Day four mystery
Day Five: A Dream that Came true
Day Six: a character who tries to be
Heartful”
Day Seven: Workplace conflict
Day Eight: re-gifting
Day Nine Grim reaper
Day ten romance story
Day 12 magic
Day 13 grim reaper
Day 14 animal
Day 16 hobby
Day 17 Book
Dream 18 Time
the Stories
I have completed 17 more flash fiction stories this month, listed below.
Hidden Keys to The Universe.
End of The Beginning, Beginning of The End.
A Man Has to Know His Limitations.
Where Did All the Blacks Go?
Dream That Came True.
Sam Adams Crisis of Conscious
Sam Adams Workplace Conflict Leads to a Bad Day.
Sam Adams reignites the War on Christmas
Timeless Love story
Sam Adams the Hoarder (TBC)
World domination but at a terrible price
Conversation with the grim reaper
Sam Adams first Contact
The Demon Car Attack
Cosmic Cat from Berkeley
Sam Adams Discovers the Cosmic Conspiracy
Sam Adams Meets Gloria Magnolia Shah (from a dream)
Time Police TBC
The Cosmic Cat from Berkeley
(audio is for poem version)
The prompt was to include an animal character. This is based on a true story and is a prose version of a poem that has been published.
Sam Adams had grown up in the city of Berkeley CA, but after college, he had joined the Peace Corps in Korea, and later joined the State Department and traveled over the world, got married, lived in Seattle, and later DC, and had it not spent much time in his hometown.
One day he was on leave and he went back to his hometown in between assignments, and his wife was to join him later, then they would be moving back to DC for their onward assignments. She was in the military serving as an officer.
During this trip he realized that his mother was entering into dementia, he had seen her about two or three years before and she was OK then, but now it was obvious that something had to be done, He didn’t know really what to do. he had talked to his two brothers and sisters who he didn’t particularly along with and with his wife. Nobody quite knew how to approach her; nobody quite knew what they needed to do, but they all knew something had to be done soon.
With this gloomy frame of mind, every day he would walk out of the house. go down the street to a restaurant, have breakfast, go out into town go to a movie check out a museum, have lunch or dinner with friends and get back in touch with his old neighborhood and his old feelings.
the very first day he was there when he went out for his morning walk there was a black cat that looked at him. Sam had this feeling the black cat knew everything he was thinking. He quickly dubbed the black cat. The cosmic cat followed him everywhere and Sam quickly shared his thoughts with the black cat who seemed to have been reading his mind, sometimes he would talk out loud at other times he was just thinking and the cat would be smiling and he would hear somehow in the back of his mind the cat’s thoughts about the matter.
The cat was following what he was saying and the cat knew when he needed to do. The cat helped him clarify the decisions that had to be made. The cat well he was a cosmic cat. He seemed to know everything about Sam, his family, his wife and even knew what the future would hold for Sam and his wife. Sam was very fascinated by this black cat. He had no idea whether this was a Wildcat or lived in the neighborhood but he left milk, and canned tuna fish out for him every morning and the cat seemed to like that.
He had no idea how and why this cat seemed to be able to read his mind. Finally, concluding he was a cosmic cat perhaps this was just a cat that was temporarily possessed by the spirit of the universe and was talking to Sam giving Sam advice that he needed to hear.
With his gloomy thoughts in his mind he opened up to the cat and the cat continue to read his mind and give him advice as he walked through his old neighborhood. The cat waiting for him in the evening when he got off the bus and walked with him home and the next morning the cat would be to be there again for their morning rambles.
Sam felt comforted by the cosmic cat, who was always there. For two weeks, Sam and the cat engaged in this deep conversation. Sam finally knew that it was time to make a decision about what to do with his mother. He had called his brothers up and his wife was coming the next day.
They spent a few days together sorting things out trying to figure out what needed to be done, and eventually, the decision was made they would have to move his mother into a nursing home and then in a few years, they would have to be faced with what to do when she passed on because it was obvious that she was declining quite rapidly. She had lived a long time, she was 85 years old.
But the cat seemed to know what needed to be done and somehow Sam thought the cat was giving him advice that he should follow. One day he asked the cat
“Cosmic cat please let me know who and what you are
“ Are you God>”
the cat smiled at him.
“Are you Buddha?
the cat smiled at him
“Are you the great spirit of the universe?”
the cat smiled at him.
“Are you Allah?”
The cat smiled at him.
“Are you really just a cat?
The cat smiled at him.
“Are you satanic?
The cat hissed at him, and he knew he had gone too far. The next day, he told the cat that it was time for him to part ways. The cat smiled at him, and he knew the cat knew that it was time to move on. The cat merely walked away, and Sam never saw that cosmic cat again
He told his mother in one of her periods of relative lucidity about the cosmic cat, His mother merely said that that cat was indeed a cosmic cat that came to them in their hour of need.
Sam never told his siblings about the cosmic cat, He thought they just think that he was mad. He told his wife, and she also thought that this was just a mad story, and then he should not really think about it anymore. The cosmic Cat faded away in his memories.
Literary Yard has published Winter Haiflu and other poems.
Index
Good bye 2021 Good Riddance
Winter Haiflu
Seek the Light
The Darkness Spreads
Seeing Demons
Messenger Dog of God
its a dog’s life for Me
Agnostic Dog wonders if there is dog
I want A dog’s Life
21 Dawns 21 Haiku
Dear Republicans, What Is Wrong with You?
The Revolution Next Time
Zombie Ideas Do Not Die
There Is A Great Sense of Unrest
cosmic calendar
Falling Rain
Good-Bye 2021 Good Riddance
Reflecting on the last six years
One cannot but sense
That momentous thing
Were happening everywhere
2021 was worst than 2020
And the year before as well
Nonstop terrifying events
The world seems
To be spending out
Of control
January
January normally dawns
Cold but hopeful
This year an attempted coup
Storming of the U.S. Capitol
The new president
Not accepted by the old
Half the country
Believes the big lie
February
February continued
The non-stop political wars
As COVID continued
Marching across the land
March
March is not much better
March madness
Continued unabated
April
April taxes due
Other nightmares continued
COVID vaccination wars
Continued in the U.S.
COVID relief passed
May
May brings little relief
Constant political battles
Descends into madness
June
June brings no relief
People screaming none stop
As COVID deaths continue
July Economy Begins Recovery
July continues -COVID still spreading
The economy seems better
But so many people
Have checked out
August
No longer
A month off
The battles continue
September
Many people
Dread returning to school
The economy slowly opens up
Vaccination mandates
Vaccinations stalling out
October
It seemed for a bit
That perhaps COVID
Was easing up
There was some hope
In the air
Perhaps the politicians
Would finally do the right thing
Way overdue
inadequate infrastructure bill passed
Build Back Better stalled
November
The dreaded COVID
Mutates again
Mocking humanity
General Corona still
On the rampage
30 still refuse to get
A vaccination
As one thousand people
A day become Corona Ghosts
December
Travel restrictions re-emerge
COVID continues to surge
Gun violence continues unchecked
Politicians continue to play game
As too many people die
Becoming Corona ghosts
Gun violence ghosts
Drug overdoes ghosts
Accident death ghosts
The year of dread finally ends
With so many ghosts
Crying in the wind
###
Ten Winter Haiflu
Winter is coming
The cold season approaching
Christmas around the corner
The COVID virus
Surging everywhere it seems
Winter of our discontent
The winter rushes
2022 looms
Goodbye 2021
2021
Fading into memory
Good riddance we all proclaim
Dreading the winter
Dreading more COVID
Dreading more Corona Ghosts
Winter depression
COVID fears re-emerging
Still more travel restrictions
The winter starting
Coronavirus and guns
Deaths, ghosts crying in the wind
Wintertime for blues
Blues playing on my YouTube
Seeing Corona Ghosts Dancing
Wintertime sadness
Recalling all who have gone
In this dismal year now past
Winter beginning
Are the end times coming?
Are revelations coming true?
###
Seek the Light
god
also published in Creativity Webzine.
Seek the light
My friend,
Seek the light
The light of the universe
The light of peace and happiness.
The cosmic good of the universe.
The ancient battle
Between Good and evil
Light and darkness
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Seek the light of love
Seeking love
It is all around you
It is all in you.
Open your soul
And let the light
Of the universe
Flood into your soul.
Seek the cosmic light
My son, if you think it is right
If you think the light
Is the same,
As the light of the Christian faith.
You would be right.
If you think it is Light
Of the Buddhist faith
You would be right.
If you think it is Allah’s light
You would be right.
If you think.
It is Shiva’s light
You would be right.
If you think
It is God’s light
You would be right.
It’s the same light
Of the universe
Which shines on us all.
Regardless of our faith
Or lack of faith,
We can all receive the light.
The light of the universe
It’s flawless
We all seek the light
And it is right
To seek the light.
The light of the universe
Is waiting for you
It is all for you.
And if you find
The light of the universe
You will find love
Peace and happiness
It is your birthright,
You will find that
After you die
The Light will fill you
And take you
To the next world.
Seek the light
It is waiting for you.
Wake up and
Embrace your fate
Seek the light on this date.
###
The Darkness Spreads
The darkness is spreading
The darkness of the universe
The dark side
Of the legendary force.
For the world
Is divided into force
Of the light
And the force of darkness.
You cannot have light
Without the darkness,
And you cannot have darkness
Without the light.
There is a cosmic battle
Between the light
And the darkness.
Good and evil
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Ying and Yang
God and Devil
Make up the whole Tao
Of the Universe.
And the darkness
Seems to be spreading
All over this darkening world
Every day we turn on the news
We see more examples
Of the darkness
Spreading across the world
Like dark cancer.
A pandemic of despair, fear, and hate.
All humans seem consumed
With fear, hatred, violent thoughts,
And the disease of the mind.
We all seem to be
Sliding down a dark hole
Into the darkness
Of our souls.
The ancient battle
Between Good and evil
Light and darkness
Life and death.
Love and hate.
War and peace.
And it seems
That we have lost all hope
We have lost this light
Of the universe
We have lost the light
Of love
It seems that the darkness
And the fear of the darkness
That is all that we have left.
Hatred, fear, and mistrust
All overwhelm us
And we look out at other people
Thinking that it is now a time
To do or die.
Kill off our enemies
The other evil tribe,
Before they can do
the same to us.
And only a few of us
Still see the light
That is still there.
It has not gone away
And perhaps
With the turn of the wheel
Of time
The darkness will gradually end.
And the lightness
Will once again
Flood the world.
And we all wake up
Peace and happiness
Will defeat the darkness
Yet again
.
It is the way
Of the universe
Ever since the dawn
Of this cosmic game.
The darkness
And light
Battling each other.
The darkness takes over
Becomes the nightmare
Of our Collective Soul.
But it is not too late my son,
There is still time
To find the light
And combat the darkness.
So, my friends
It is waiting for you
Seek the light.
Avoid the darkness
Walk away from fear
Walk away from death
Walk away from despair
Walk away from hate
But you have
A much better world
Waiting for you
If you embrace the light
Of the universe.
Seek the light
It will banish the darkness
And set your soul free.
###
Seeing Demons
more monster images for poem jpg
from a recent nightmare.
Sam Adams
Fell into a deeply troubled sleep
One night.
He saw in his nightmares
The growing power of the darkness
Of the universe.
The ancient battle
Between good and evil
Light and darkness.
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Yin and Yang
The duality of the Tao.
Playing out
In front of him
As if in a movie
But nightmarishly real.
Sensing the fear and hatred
Spreading everywhere
He saw an army
Of foul creatures
Straight from the nightmares
Of Hell.
Banshees, bears, bigfoot. Cthulu, centaurs, drones, dwarfs, demons, devils, flying drones, flying monkeys, giants, ghosts, gorillas, goblins, orcs, imperial stormtroopers from Star Wars, Klingons, java the hut, leprechauns, lions, max headroom. men in black suits with no faces, Mr. Smith corporate suits, munchkins, monsters, robots, Romulans, Roman gladiators, space aliens, the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding out front, tigers, warlocks, the white witch from Narnia, the wicked witches from Oz, witches, werewolves, wolves, vultures, Yeti and zombies.
He saw millions of people,
Being taken
over by the demons.
Eating them
Rampaging, rioting, raping
Pillaging them
Taking control
Of their bodies
Consuming their souls.
Turning into hideous monsters.
Who continue the carnage
Rampaging mobs
Of deranged crazed demons.
In front of them all
He saw a demon
Staring at him
With a thousand-year stare
Filled with hate.
A tall dark pig-like beast
Standing erect
With reddish horns.
And two heads
The head of President Trump
And the head of President Putin
And blazing red eyes.
The head demon hissed,
Sam Adams
We are coming for you.
“You are mine
Resistance is futile,
Prepare to meet your fate
On this cosmic date.”
He screamed
As the demon ran up to him
Fearing the demon
Would soon consume his soul.
He prayed with all his might
And then he saw
The light of the universe.
The demons ran screaming
Running from the light
Fleeing into the darkness
Back to the hell hole
From when they had come.
He woke up
Next to his wife
Glad he had embraced
Life, love, and light
Of the universe.
Filled with love
And happiness
He got up.
With the demons
Of the dark lord
Fading into his nightmares
Banished by the light
Of his one true love.
Dawns 21 Haiku
2021Dawns
Politics are still uncertain.
thousands still are dying.
2021Dawns
The New president offers.
Hope new beginning.
2021Dawns
The Madness never
ends it seems.
Consuming us all
2021Dawns
The hope springs enterally
We will overcome.
2021Dawns
35,000 lies.
Fading like ghosts
2021Dawns
Politicians still lying.
Thousands still dying.
2021Dawns
Coronavirus spreading
More corona ghosts.
2021Dawns
There is new hope in the air.
Will politics kill it?
2021Dawns
The news stills
scream death and despair.
I turn it all off
2021Dawns
As I wake up at dawn
I see my sleeping wife.
2021Dawns
We wait for the coming fires.
End of the world fears
2021Dawns
Q continues to spread hate.
Millions still follow him.
2021Dawns
Will optimism and love?
Overcome the hate.
2021Dawns
Many questions remaining.
I have no answers.
2021Dawns
With hope, I leap out of my bed
Watching TV kills hope
2021Dawns
Will this be the end of my days?
Will I overcome it?
2021Dawns
2020 hangover
Like a dark nightmare
2021Dawns
Politicians still refusing.
To do anything
2021Dawns
The rich are still getting richer.
The poor remain poor.
2021Dawns
We hope the past will fade away.
Into dark memories
2021Dawns
I wake up hoping for the best.
Dreading worst to come
2021Dawns
I am still alive thank god.
Filled with love for my wife.
###
Dear Republicans, What is Wrong with You?
Dear Republicans,
What is wrong with you?
The former president
Incited a riot.
Stormed the house.
Would have killed you.
If they could have
And you still defend.
The former president
Refusing to hold him to account?
Do you want him?
Running around starting the patriot party
Launching a jihad against you?
When you can remove him
From the game
And send him home.
For good
What the hell is
wrong with you
Just do your job
Put a stake.
Through that vampire’s heart
Kill Trumpism.
Before it kills you
###
The Revolution Next Time
A revolution is brewing.
On the right
And on the left
As madness descends on the land
Incited by right-wing
political leaders.
Inciting riots and rebellion
Demanding action
Against their enemies
While on the left
Revolution is
brewing as well.
Soon will they unite
To march down
Tearing down democracy
As our leaders
Play games.
As the world descends
Into chaos
And the US becomes
Another failed state
Until a proverbial man
On a white horse
Rides in to save us.
From ourselves
The revolution next time
It will not be pretty.
As everything burns
And America dies
###
Zombie Ideas Do Not Die
Zombie Ideas
Do not die.
They linger on
In our collective minds
Infecting our politics
Among my favorites
Are the canard.
That tax cuts will solve all problems.
That deregulation will free up business.
That the free market will solve our problems
That the government is the problem
And we must starve the government.
Of funds
So, it can do no more harm.
To our great country
These and other pernicious
Fact free alternative facts
Are spread far and wide.
Across the right-wing media sphere
Infecting our politicians
Leading them to playing games
Instead of coming together.
To solve our collective problems
And now the Republicans are saying.
Amid the worst epidemic in history
With the US economy slipping into the great depression era
The US cannot afford to spend any more money.
On combatting the pandemic
That the Federal government has done enough
It is up to the states to solve their problem.
Because of deficit spending
Which they did not care about
Before the change in command
Now the federal government is broke.
But we cannot ask the billionaire class.
To pay a dime more in taxes
We need to cut taxes more.
So, we go.
These zombie ideas
Mutating and spreading
Infecting our politics
With madness
Making it impossible to govern
As things fall apart
Let us put a Death.
to zombie ideas
Put a stake through them.
Opening up the truth
Coming together
To do the people’s business
That is what we must all do.
###
There is a Great Sense of Unrest.
There is a great sense.
Of unrest in the land today
Madness in the air
Previous publication (2020)
Literary Yard has just published my Dog Poems. The earlier published my Cosmic Calendar poems. Here they are for your amusement. these are companion pieces for my cat poems.
And look cute
And someone will feed him
And give him water
A dog has no worries
No cares at all
And when a Dog
Wants some loving
All it needs to do
Is find the nearest
Female dog
And enjoy himself
Without guilt
And without worrying
About getting married
Or having an affair
Just simple
Sex in the doggie way
Nothing simpler
Than that
Yes
A dog’s life
Is the life for me?
###
The Dogs of War are Howling
dogs of war howlingdog of war poster
The Dogs of War
Have been set free
Of their cage
And are out
Howling at the moon
The Dogs of War
Have been set free
To wreck what havoc
Might be
Yes, the Dogs of War
The Hell Hounds
Have bound out of their cages
Sniffed about
And smiled
At the destruction, they saw
They knew soon
They would be in their element
As the world descends into chaos
The world saw
The face of pure evil
That fine September morning
A morning like any other morning
Until a fateful moment
When two planes
Came out of the sky
And destroyed
The center of world capitalism
In an act of horrific violence
An act of such evil
That is beyond the comprehension
Of mere mortal man
Surely there must
Be a reason why
That particular day
The world almost ended
The Dogs of war
Are at foot
The chaos is upon us
The evil grows and grows
And dark noises are heard
Here and there
A Jehad had been launched
By the holly lunatics
Misguided warriors
Who thought they were fighting
The great Satan
Not knowing that their hearts and minds
Were corrupted and controlled
By Satan himself
Somewhere in the world
That morning
A door opened
And a man walked through
Flipped a switch
And let loose
The chaos that ensured
The world watched with horror
And fascination
As in real-time
A dynamite action movie unfolded
Only this was not any movie, punk
It was real life
Live and uncensored
With the music of the devil
Playing at full volume
As people died
Burning alive
And the dogs of war
Smiled
They knew soon
They would be in their element
As America
The Sleeping Giant
Again woke up
And realized
That they would have to fight back
Against their enemies
The war machine
Came to life
The plans came out of the books
The military might be unleashed
And the Dogs of war
Smiled and howled at the moon
The machinery of war
Once unleashed
Can’t easily be stopped
There is a certain cruel logic
That demands that the war going on
And people die
And people suffer
And the stock market crashes
And the evil that men do
Goes on and on and on
###
The Cosmic Dog from Goa
My final time with God
Happened a year later
I was staying down in Goa
With my wife
Enjoying being with her
After our reconciliation
We stayed at the Taj Mahal Goa
Living like Kings and Queen
Just for a few days
High up on a hill
Overlooking the beach
Every morning I went down to the beach
And did yoga by the water
While contemplating life
And every morning
I saw the same dog
Not just a dog
But a cosmic dog
Filled with the divine spark of God
And the dog recognized me
And spoke to me and I knew
That God was present once more
In the face of that cosmic dog
Kindred spirit
perhaps to the cosmic cat
that had saved my soul
in Berkeley so long ago
I told the dog everything
And he just looked at me
With those soulful eyes of his
And I knew he knew that I knew
That he was possessed by God
God had sent him to me
To make sure
that I was on the right path
That the reconciliation that God had promoted
Was on a track that I was back with my wife
And that everything was the way it should be
Again, I asked God whether he was Jesus or Allah
Or Brahmin or Ganesh or Buddha
God the cosmic dog just stared at me
I finally asked him directly
Say if you are God the God of Jesus
Bark once
The Dog looked at me and barked
I said
well, if you are Allah bark twice
The dog barked twice
Well are you buddha
then bark three times if yes
The god dog barked three times
Hmm well are you Satan
The dog growled at me
And I knew I had gone too far
Finally, I was at peace
And for the next three days
The God Dog from Goa
was my constant companion
And I knew God for the final time
In my life?
###
Agnostic Dyslectic Wonders if There is a Dog
cute dog
an agnostic dyslectic
stays up all night
wondering if there is a dog
the Buddhists wonder
about the Buddha-nature of the dog
the evangelicals
are sure that there is a dog
and you must follow their dog
or go to hell
for following another’s dog
the Muslims agree
there is only one dog
and the dogs
smile at the foolishness
of the human race
of course, there is a dog
and they are the master race
as they growl at their owners
who bow down
and clean up their mess?
###
I Want a Dog’s Life
O
I want a dog’s life
That’s what I want in my next life
A dog needs to be cute
And his master will feed him
It is a dog’s life for me
###
The Messenger Dog of God
One day
While studying in Rome
As a priest
I notice a small white dog
Staring at me
He glances at me
Indicating that I am to follow him
I get up
And follow this strange dog
He leads me deep
Inside the hidden depths
Of the Vatican
Finally stopping by a door
I open the door
And see St Peter there
He smiles
Dismisses the dog
Who moves on down the hall
Finished with his cosmic duty
As the secret messenger of God
All in a day’s work?
I ask why I am here?
St Peter says
Why are any of us here?
It is time for you to go
But I don’t want to go
Don’t want to leave this mortal plane
St Peter smiles
Says it is time to go
I wake up
Back in my bed
With my wife
And realize it was all a dream
It was not yet time
To go
But I am afraid
I will find the messenger dog
Outside my door
Any day now
The grim reaper waits
And it will soon be my time
Poem: Cosmos’s Cosmic Calendar
cosmic calendar
January
January arrives cold as death warmed over
As I make my annual list of resolutions
Of the great things, I would do
The lies I tell myself to keep me going
While recovering from the hangover of the year before
With regrets for the evitable passing of time itself
And snowbound cold nights of wild passion
As we delay death’s knocking on the door
February
February is a strange month
Cold, short, and eventful
In the U.S. The political season heats up
As politicians rush about
Making their campaign lies
Full of promises of things to come
As we the 99 % huddle down inside
Watching the lies on TV
Outside Winter’s last dying breath
March
March roars in full of sound and furry
Signifying the future marching down upon us all
And March madness hits the sports world
And politicians meet to plot and scheme
As we bravely battle the cosmic elements
Waiting for the promised spring
Hay fever greets me
With the early spring flowers
April
April is indeed the cruelest month of all
So many important events occurred
Kim Il Sung’s Birthday, Hitler’s Birthday
And in the U.S. the dreaded tax man cometh
To take it all away as the flowers overwhelm
And Spring Fever takes hold
Driving us all mad
With strange erotic desires
May
May is in many ways
My second favorite month of all
The flowers are blooming bright
The mountains are aflame with desire
The summer heat is coming
The plans for the year are coming along
The political campaigns heat up
And good movies come out
Star Wars arrived
Spiderman and superman and batman
All came out to play
In late May
And baseball begins in earnest
And most importantly
My wife was born
June
June is always a month of transition
End of the school year
Summer transfer season
People leaving people coming
Hurricanes and Tornados attacking
And wars starting and people dying
As fireflies buzz about
And rabbits eat my garden
As the summer heat descends upon the land
I walk late at night
Recalling that Watergate
Occurred in June
July
July is the queen of the summer season
As she heats the land
Throwing storm after summer storm
And politicians run away
After the July fourth fireworks
Man landed on the moon
Richard Nixon Left the White House
And we all know that half the year
Has flown by
August
So much has happened
During the hottest most hellish of months
Despite the summer sauna that descends upon the land
Enervating all driving people mad with the heat
World War 1 started
World War 11 ended
Hiroshima ushered in the nuclear age
Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey
And tornado ally
All roar down upon the land
And I met the love of my life
Getting off a bus
One August evening
September
What can one say about September
Like June a month of transitions?
And one is filled with ambition
Wanting to finish up what one started
Before the fall arrives
And Winter is hinting it is coming
School starts
New jobs start
New people come into one’s life
And like August’s hangover
Big earth-shattering events happen
The fall of the stock market
The housing bubble bursting
The endless budget games
As the politicians argue
Whether to bankrupt the country
To make a political point or two
And 9-11 terrorizing the world
All September’s gifts to the land
October
October is my favorite month of all
The leaves turn
The weather is usually delightful
Just a tease of the coming winter
Fall ball season underway
Baseball games and Halloween madness
ends the month with a huge bang
And I celebrate my legal birth on the 29th
Also, the day I legally got married
And on October 30, 1955
I was born
And Rock n Roll was born as well
Coincidence I think not
November
November is one of the strange months
Begins like a hangover of October
Then it turns ugly and weird
Political fever hits the land
Every two years
As the people brave the early November chill
To decide what fools they will send to DC
The politicians lie and scheme and plot
And beg and lie again
And the world turns
And the new leaders emerge
Welcome the new Bosses
Same as the old bosses
Just new packaging
And Donald Trump storms the barricades
Threatening the establishment’s stranglehold
On America and the world
Yes, November is a strange month
December
Perhaps the loneliness month of all
The most consequential of all the months
And yet also the most depressing end of time
Kind of month
If the apocalypse zombie or otherwise
Were to occur
It would be in December
That is the sort of insane month it is
The end of the year
As darkness settles down on the land
And holiday parties abound
Full of false cheer
And faked love
And for those who don’t celebrate Christmas
A lonely day perhaps at the movies
A few awkward calls to the relatives
Then New Years
Watching the world end
Drinking up a storm
And knowing that the year ended
And you are one step closer to the grave
Falling rain
falling rain
The falling rain
Of late October
Fills me with essential dread
As I rush about
And end up here
Wherever here is
The rain outside
Seems like the tears of god
As I sit
Crying over my beer
Thinking of lost love
And failed dreams
Wondering
What went wrong?
And what I can set right
And the rain falls
And the night darkens
The rain is falling
All over this man’s world
And the rain falls
And I sit
Drinking my lonesome drink
Lost in dreams
Dreaming of what
Could never be
Thinking dark thoughts
And so I sit
And dream the night away
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I will year try to finish reading classic books. I have a collection from Kindle of 50 books to read before you die, in three volumes – 15O books in total see list below. I have read many of them already which I have noted. As I read them, I will add them to the chronological listing below.
Glass by Robert Francis Writing com
Blue Winter by Robert Francis Writing com
encounter writing com
Where I Belong – Contest winner Feb 24, 2021, writing com
Edna St. Vincent Millay -Pastoral writing com
Lorraine Marguerite Gasrel Black -Pastoral Rhapsody writing com
Daniel Miltz -Pastoral Day writing com
Henry Kirke White -A Pastoral Songwriting com
Carl Sandberg Passers-By
Poetry Corner, writing com Poetry corner
Randall Jarrell The Olive Garden Writing com poetry
Randall Jarrell The Breath of Night Writing com poetry
Randal Jarrell The Orient Express Writing com poetry
Abdul Ala armada Rafi I poem Friend, this world is like an unburied corpse
Ali Ahmad Saeed poem
Alton David translation of a man and a woman white
Andre Breton Man and Woman Absolutely White
Mary Bernard, translation of Sofia he is more than a hero
Ingeborg Bachman poem
Anne Bradstreet letter to her husband 1650 first Published woman poet in The US
Willis Barnstone translation of Mother’s song if snow
Charles Bernstein writing exercises
William Blake Sick Rose
Elizabeth Browning Sonnets from The Portuguese #43 how Do I love Thee
Elizabeth Bishop one art Britain
Andre Carter Stephen D translation lady is shichimi if someone would come
William Barnstone she is at island me turn off
Maxine Chernoff writing exercises
Chilam Balam poem
Chiyo various lines
William Corbett Vermont Apollinaire
Robert Creely The business
EE Cummings In Jest
Bel Dao Listen, I Don’t Believe Chinese poet mid-20th century
David Wagner lines and since a call since Elam since summer
Thomas Campion When to her lute Corinna sings
Jon Donne Holly Sonnet 14
Lucile Clifton, I don’t know how to do
Emily Dickinson lines and poems 214
Emily Dickinson poem 262
Emily Dickinson poem 640
Emily Dickinson poem 986
Emily Dickinson poem 1732
Enhenduanna The Exaltation of Inanna, antiphonal Hymns Praise of Inanna
Egyptian Poem, untitled
Fanny Howe About Face
Imr El Quais The Great Ode
Elaine Feinstein excerpt from translation Marina TSvetayeva poems of The end Lawrence Ferlinghetti excerpt from constantly risking absurdity Coney Island of The mind
Donald Finkel excerpt from a translation of Bel Dao
Roberts Elizabeth silent poems
Frances Kathleen vanishing point third black quartet from Wayne
Robert Frost Nothing Gold can stay
Robert Clark translation departure by Pierre Reverdy
Jorie Graham In what matter is The body united with The soul
Barbara Guest Lines from red lilies
HD Dread
HD Sea Rose
HD Oread
Allen Hibbert translation of Adonis desire moving through The Maps of The material
Ronald Hoffman excerpt from deceptively like a solid
Kelly Holt writing exercises
Bible, Ecclesiastes for everything There is a season
Homer Odyssey
Homer Iliad
Edward Arlington Robinson Richard Corey
Fanny Howe About Face
George Herbert Death
Linda jarkesy The bed
John K
Randall Jarred The death of The Bell turret gunner
John Keats The Eve of St Agnes
Lao Tzu Rule a Large Nation
DH Lawrence Bavarian Gentians
LiPo Moonlight Pools
Liu Tsung-yuan From One thousand mountains
Audre Lorde lines from coal
Hugh MacDiarmid Another epitaph on The army of mercenaries
Jackson Mac Lou excerpt from antic quartans
Omar Khayyam Rubaiyat excerpt
Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism
Bernadette Mayer writing exercises
WS Merwin excerpts from leviathan
Pablo Neruda leaning into afterworlds
Pablo Neruda and walking around
John Milton excerpts from Allegro
John Milton excerpts from paradise lost
Mariana Moore experts from the monkeys
Laura Moriarty The mouth
Bridge Mullins writing exercises
Ellen Myles honey bear
Lorraine Niedecker now in one year
Charles North excerpt from shooting for line
George Oppen excerpt from psalm
Dorothy Parker resume
Bob Pearlman speaker vibrates through the entire house after from AK
Ezra Pound in a station in The Metro
David Ray translation lines from Chiyo
Kenneth Rexroth translation of Midnight songs
Pierre Reverdy Departure
Christopher Sawyer Le is More Than an Hericenone translation Flight of The Itza
Dominion Searls translation of a kind of loss
Shelly Love Philosophy 19th Century
Sappho He is more than a Hero
Jack Spicer lines for imaginary elegies part 1-111
John Tipane translation Abu Hamza al online from this world
Dante in the middle of the road
Anonymous Egyptian poem only one matchless sister
manioc If snow falls on the left field
Issa Morning
Beowulf soon saw
Homer Then wide ruling Agamemnon
Homer infinite terror
Homer wars spears
In El Qis here was the place I watched her
Arthur Rimbaud Bateau Ivre if I desire
Arthur Rimbaud memory
Arthur Rimbaud longing for young arms
Rig Veda There were no such things
Sappho The moon has set
Charles Thomasson lines from Mr. Birdy
David Trinidad monster mash
TS Elliot Excerpt from The Wasteland
Mariana Tsvetanyana Poem of The End
Alfred Tennyson Now Sleep the Crimson Petal
Anne Waldman excerpt for Iovis 19
William Carlos Williams except for The descent
Walt Whitman excerpts from Leaves of Grass
William Butler Yeats the second coming
William Wordsworth The Solitary Reaper
Louis Zukofsky in Arizona from 729 songs
Richard Lovelace 17th Century British Poet, “To Lucasta, Going to War”
Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 Call complaint to His Purs (Purse)
Parody Poems from NaPoWrMo April 27 Prompt
Lewis Carroll Crocodile
Isaac Watts How Doth the Little
Lewis Carroll This the Voice of The Lobster
Isaac Watts The Sluggard
Lewis Carroll Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat
Other poems from Writing com and Elsewhere
Abandoned Farmhouse
by Ted Kooser Wooden Boats
Judy Serum Brown
Denise Levertov Celebration
Edgar Allan Poe A Dream Within a Dream
Poetic blooming
Heal The World with Marigolds poetic blossoming entry
Midnight encounters a poetic blossoming entry
David S The All-Mighty Thresher
Sally Ann Roberts example #1:it All Started with A Packet of Seeds
William Seaman Higgledy-piggledy
Arthur W. Monks Higgledy-piggledy
Paul Pascal
Higgledy-piggledy
stink in God’s nose.” by Anthony Hecht
Higgledy-piggledy
scraped off The tracks. by John Hollander
“Higgledy-piggledy
Andrea Doria
GLUB”. . . (end of quote). by John Hollander
The dactyl meter is a three-syllable foot with a stress pattern of DUM-da-da, as explained and demonstrated in The following link: https://literarydevices.net/dactyl/
Example #1: The Charge of The Light Brigade (By Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Example #2: Evangeline (By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Example #3: The Lost Leader (By Robert Browning)
Example #4: (Out of The Cradle Endlessly Rocking (By Walt Whitman)
Example #5: Higgledy Piggledy (By Ian Lancashire)
Sidney Lanier The Song Of The Chattahoochee
Sidney Lanier (Written for The Art Autograph during The Irish Famine, 1880.)
Sidney Lanier A Sunrise Song “Where Grandpa Died”
Robert Hayden ~” A Plague of Starlings”
Robert Frost ~” The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost{/pre}
Jack Kerouac Daydreams for Ginsberg
Mini-Monoverse and Double Mini-Monoverse
How Many Times? Emily
Louisa May Alcott
The Short Story A Christmas Dream, And How It Came True
Louisa May Alcott
The Rock and The Bubble
Louisa May Alcott
The Short Story Shadow-Children
Marcus Manilius Sagittarius
Rudyard Kipling’s Centaurs
Mary Swenson The Centaur
ODES
Genethliacum Ode, is a poem written in honor of the birth of a child. Usually, these lofty odes were reserved for the birth of nobility. However, technically any poem written in honor of the birth of a child would qualify as a Genethliacum.
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
Encomium or Coronation Ode is a Greek choral lyric celebrating a person’s achievements. This can be expanded to the length and formality of an ode as in honor of the coronation of a king, but most often is a simple poem as would be spoken at a banquet in an introduction in the category of occasional poetry. It specifically celebrates a man rather than a god. This genre of verse usually has 5 elements, prologue, birth and development, accomplishments, comparisons with which to praise, and an epilogue.Just a Man
Palinode Ode is an apologetic ode, that retracts or recants something said in a previous poem by the same poet. It is usually written as a retraction of an invective statement or offensive remark made in satire.
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a palinode at the end of the Canterbury Tales, recanting and apologizing for any bawdy or offensive statements previously made. It is really unclear if this palinode was part of the original Tales or if it was tacked on later as either an advertisement of his works or as a death bed confessional.
Wherfore I biseke yow mekely,
for the mercy Of God, that ye preye
for me that crist have Mercy on me
and foryeve me my giltes; and Namely
of my translacions and enditynges
of Worldly vanitees, the whiche I revoke
in My retracciouns:as is the book of Troilus;
the book also of Fame; the book of
The xxv. Ladies; the ;
The book of seint valentynes day
of the parlement of briddes; the tales of counterbury,
Thilke that sownen into synne; the book
of the Leoun; and many another book. This was found at Wikipedia.
Panegyric or Paean is an ode that celebrates something from its inception or the life of a person, not just the accomplishments. It is usually written about someone still alive and celebrates the who rather than the what of the person. “Paean” should not be confused with the metric foot “paeon”.
Triumphal Ode, is an ode to celebrate a victory. Also called an Epinicia when specifically celebrating a sports victory. The Epinician Ode said to be created by Simonides of Ceos, Greek lyrical poet, 556BC to 468BC though the most prolific user of the theme was Pindar of Pindaric Ode fame. Originally written to honor a victor the Hellenic games and sung in a procession for the winner and connecting him with a great hero of the past. The frame at the discretion of the poet. Victory by S.J. Duncan-Clark
The Chicago Evening Post, November 11, 1918 Great Poems about the World War
OUT of the night it leaped the seas–
—The four long years of night!
“The foe is beaten to his knees,
—And triumph crowns the fight!”
It sweeps the world from shore to shore,
—By wave and wind ’tis flung,
It grows into a mighty roar
—Of siren, bell and tongue.
Where little peoples knelt in fear,
—They stand in joy today;
The hour of their redemption here,
—Their feet on Freedom’s way.
The kings and kaisers flee their doom,
—Fall bloody crown and throne!
Room for the people! Room! Make room!
—They march to claim their own!
Now God be praised we lived to see
—His Sun of Justice rise,
His Sun of Righteous Liberty,
—To gladden all our skies!
And God be praised for those who died,
—Whate’er their clime or breed,
Who, fighting bravely side by side,
—A world from thraldom freed!
And God be praised for those who, spite
—Of woundings sore and deep,
Survive to see the Cause of Right
—O’er all its barriers sweep!
God and the people–This our cry!
—O, God, thy peace we sing!
The peace that comes through victory,
—And dwells where Thou art King.
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge Death and the Lady
Canon Dixon’s Last Poems in 1905.
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge The Other Side of a Mirror
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge After St. Augustine
Creativity Webzine has published my poem, “Seek the Light.”‘
Seek the light
My friend,
Seek the lightThe light of the universe
The light of peace and happiness.
The cosmic good of the universe.The ancient battle
Between Good and evil
Light and darkness
Life and death
Love and hate.
War and peace.
Seek the light of love
Seeking love
It is all around you
It is all in you.
Open your soul
And let the light
Of the universe
Flood into your soul.
Seek the cosmic light
My son, if you think it is right
If you think the light
Is the same,
As the light of the Christian faith.
You would be right.
If you think it is Light
Of the Buddhist faith
You would be right.
If you think it is Allah’s light
You would be right.
If you think.
It is Shiva’s light
You would be right.
If you think
It is God’s light
You would be right.
It’s the same light
Of the universe
Which shines on us all.
Regardless of our faith
Or lack of faith,
We can all receive the light.
The light of the universe
It’s flawless
We all seek the light
And it is right
To seek the light.
The light of the universe
Is waiting for you
It is all for you.
And if you find
The light of the universe
You will find love
Peace and happiness
It is your birthright,
You will find that
After you die
The Light will fill you
And take you
To the next world.
Seek the light
It is waiting for you.
Wake up and
Embrace your fate
Seek the light on this date.
Starting in 2016 when I retired, I began posting my work on various sites and began getting my poetry, fiction, and essays published all over, including of course on my flagstaff blog post, The World According To Cosmos. Here is where you can find my work. I generally try to update my postings once a week. The blog entry is copied to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tumblr automatically, the rest I have to manually add so it may take a while before everything is in synch. Also, since last summer, I have been podcasting weekly, using the Anchor podcast platform. I am now also writing on Medium and Wattpad. Starting next year, I hope to add regular vblogging on YouTube, advice on what software to use for that would be greatly appreciated. Please follow me on all these sites
Imaging The End Of The World Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
No More Coffee Blues Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
What Am I DNA Results Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
End Times Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal
Imagining End Of The World Ariel Chart
Just Another Night In The City Of Angels Ariel Chart
The Revolution Is Coming Beatnik Cowboy,
I’d Rather Not Mess With Sam Between Hangovers
A Million Ways To Say I Love You Blessed With Love Poems
I Still Want You Blessed With Love Poems
Ode To Valentine Day Blessed With Love Poems
Love Explained To A Space Alien Blessed With Love Poems
Slime Patrol To The Rescue Blue Nib Literary Magazine,
The Fog Blue Nib Literary Magazine,
Dream Girl Cherry-House Press Dreams Anthology
Dream Girl Chicken Soup For The Soul Series
Chains That Bind Me City Limits Publication
Dream Girl City Limits Publication
Various Creative Talents Unleashed
How I Married the Girl Of My Dreams Creativity Webzine
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Father’s Family mostly German and Scandanavian including part Laplander
My family history is complex and many-layered. I did a DNA test a few years ago and have updated it since then. The DNA test had a few surprises. According to family lore, pieced together from what my father, Mother, Uncle, and Aunt told me over the years is that the Aller Family (paternal side) is descended from Hessian mercenaries who came to the US around 1775 to fight for George Washington. After the war, they settled in Pennsylvania, later moved to Ohio, and my grandfather made the trek to Washington State, where he was one of the founding fathers of the Yakima fruit industry, which took hold in the 1920s with the development of irrigation. He was also an avid horticulturist and invented the Edison Apple and green asparagus.
My father got his BA degree from the University of Washington and was a Rhodes scholar, studying in Oxford, getting an MPA degree, Later he obtained a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He taught at CAL State SF for 40 years before he died in 1985 of cancer. He had one brother and three sisters, all of whom have passed on.
He served as the Undersecretary for Labor for President Kennedy and President Johnson and was a local politician serving as President of the Peralta community colleges, and as President of the Berkeley Co-Op where he resided.
According to the DNA reports and family lore, the Aller family is descended from French Huguenots who settled in the Aller river valley near Hamburg. The family name was transcribed in English as either Aller, Allard, Eller, Ohler, or Oller and anyone with those last names is distantly related to me.
My ethnic background consists of (from my grandfather, Curtis Cosmos Aller, Sr.) German, French, Dutch, and Scotish, from my grandmother, Inga Maria Olsen, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Russian, Jewish, and Laplander (Sammi) ancestry. According to DNA records, we also have Ukrainian, Mongolian, Basque, and Italian ancestry. We also probably have distant relatives throughout Latin America as Allers were among the Spanish who conquered Latin America. Aller is a common name throughout Latin America.
Mother’s Sad Tale – Part of the Lost Tribe of the Cherokee Nation
According to my mother, her family is descended from the lost tribe of the Cherokee Nation. They were Cherokees who ran away into the Ozarks in Arkansas, Missouri, and Eastern Texas, intermarrying with other five civilized tribes members (Choctaw, Creek, Osage, and Seminoles), Scotts, Irish, Dutch, French, English settlers, and escaped black slaves. They are a small group less than 30,000 people, and their DNA samples have not made it into most commercial data banks according to Ancestry com.
They have been fighting for decades to gain both Federal and State recognition but so far the two Cherokee nations (the Oklahoma branch and the Eastern band) are opposed to such recognition because they consider their claim to being Cherokee very weak, as almost none of them retain any Cherokee culture or language, and most of their claims are that their great grandfather or great grandmother might have been1/4 Cherokee at best. And they could also be Choctaw, Creek, Osage, or Seminole for that matter . They are mostly white, and some are African American as well. Almost none of them have any documentary claims, and most also do not have any DNA evidence either.
The real reason for the opposition according to the self-proclaimed Ambassador of the Cherokee Nation whom I met at a State Department formal consultation with the Indigenous tribes, which is a formal consultation required under the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Indigenous which the US joined in the 1990s, the two Cherokee nations don’t believe that the lost tribe has enough Cherokee ancestry to be considered members of the tribe, and they also don’t want to have them to be able to open a Casino in Arkansas, or Missouri and they also don’t want to share BIA money with the Lost Tribe of the Cherokees.
But he added,
“We all know that they are our lost tribal members,”
and he supported recognition.
They remain a lost tribe. There is a ballot initiative in Arkansas that if it passes will give them at least State level recognition.
The DNA test does not reveal any native ancestry for the above reasons, but does reveal French, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, and English ancestry, and 1 percent Nigerian. My grandparents spoke Cherokee; therefore, my mother must have been at least ¼ and that makes me at least 1/8 Cherokee, which is good enough for me. If they ever get recognized, I will pursue getting recognized as well. In honor of my mother.
My mother ran away to the Bay Area where she ended up working as a Pacific telephone operator, later as a real estate broker and business manager for my father’s economic
She often said
“Every ten years, the world flips
And all the nuts roll downhill
To California
That is how she got there
Part of the planetary nut reconfiguration program
PNRCP A little known federal ABC agency “
I have included my father’s and mother’s obituaries following seven poems exploring my family’s rich history.
Family History Poems
Index
DNA Tests Do Not Lie or Do They?
Family History Revealed
My Mother’s History
Father’s Son
Thoughts on Visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC
Mary Geneva Wilson Aller, There’s Method to Her Madness
Curtis Cosmos Aller orbit
Mary Geneva Aller Orbit
DNA Tests Do Not Lie or Do They?
I sent way
For one of those DNA tests
That promises to reveal
Your ethnic heritage
The only problem is that claim
Is not yet true
The results were surprising
To say the least
Family lore would have it
That I have 18 nationalities
In my tangled family history
Mostly Northern European
Part German, Norwegian, Swedish, Finish, Danish, Dutch, Laplander, Russian, Scottish, Basque, Mongolian, Jewish, Spanish, and French from my father
Part Cherokee, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, English, Italian, Nigerian, and French from my mother
100 percent born and raised in Berkeley
The DNA results showed
that I am 68% northern European
with trace elements of Jewish, Basque. Italian
Mongolian and Nigerian stock.
No native American at all
And my Germanic last name
For some reason
Did not register at all
Go figure
I said
And I read the fine print
The state of the art is such
That claims that they can tell
Your ethnic background
Are exaggerated
The fine print read
Explaining why it is often inaccurate
The Cherokee background
Disappeared
Because my branch of the Cherokees
Disappeared into the mist of time
Part of the lost tribe of the Cherokee nation
Part Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole
African Americans, Scotish, Irish,
English, French and Dutch.
Who fled to the Ozark mountains
To avoid the trail of tears.
The German background
Got swept up into the northern European thing
And at the end of the day
I remained as much
a mongrel
breed as anything else
Typical American
I suppose
Overall
A fascinating experiment
Family History Revealed
The DNA results
Revealed some aspects
Of whom I am
Where I am from
But not everything
Was revealed
And much of my history
Remains hidden
My father was from Yakima
Ran away to the Bay Area
Where he became a college professor
Taught the dismal science economics
Along the way
He met my mother
And after a whirlwind romance
had four children
My older brother,
Me
Younger brother
And sister
My Mother was a refugee
From the dust bowl
Fled Arkansas
In the late ’30s
Never looked back
Settled down
In the Bay Area
Yet the south lingered on
She trained herself
To speak without an accent
by listening to the classical radio deejays,
The only time the southern came out
Was when she was talking to her sisters
She was the 10 of 11 children
Father was a moonshiner
A Cherokee medicine man to boot
Lived life in the Ozark mountains
She had two sons
From a prior relationship
That went south
We never really knew them
My father was an atheist
And a morning person
And a man with a plan
For everything
My mother
More make it up
As she went along
And a night owl
How and why
They met and stayed together
Is beyond me
They had a stormy relationship
My mother always said
Germans and Irish
Don’t mix
And never should marry
She also said
The world is divided into morning people
And night owls
And they are doomed
to marry each other
Yet I suppose
There was real love
Beneath all the drama
And bluster
My Mother’s History
One day many a year ago
My mother spoke to me
About her family’s tangled history,
She spoke to me
Of lies, half-truths, and myths
Some of which may have been true
And throughout the evening
Her history came alive.
She was born in the hills
of North Little Rock
The 10th of 11 children
Of an ancient dying race.
The Lost Tribe of the Cherokees
who had run away
Refusniks
Refugees who fled in the hills.
Part of the lost tribe of the Cherokee nation
Part Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole
African American, Scottish, Irish, English
French, and Dutch.
Who fled to the Ozark mountains,
To avoid the trail of tears.
Rather than join the rest
In the promised land
Of Oklahoma.
They did not exist
I did not exist.
The BIA told us
No Indian scholarship
For you
Since you can’t prove
You are in fact
Of Native American ancestry,
I asked my mother
What does this mean?
She said
No BIA money for you,
My non-Indian Cherokee son.
Her family and Bill Clinton family
Were related
Bill Clinton and I are distant cousins
When I met him
I related my family history
He concluded that we were indeed cousins
Said I could call him Cousin Bill
And he would call me Cousin Jake
And said he too was part Cherokee
Irish, Scotch, French
And African American
Part of the lost tribe
Of the Cherokee nation
I told my mom
This story
She said
It was true
She was a distant cousin
Of Bill Clinton
Still did not like
The lying SOB
Her people disappeared
From history’s eyes
And DNA data banks
My history was over
As was hers
And so,
I learned at last
The painful truth
That due to the genocidal crimes
of politicians so long ago
My mother’s people
Lost their land, their culture,
and their hope
And became
downtrodden forgotten people
Hillbillies they were called
Living in the hills and mountain dales
Clinging to the dim fading memories
Of their once glorious past
As proud Cherokees
Now no one knew their name
The old ways were forgotten
And the new world never forgave them
And they never forgave the new world
As they lived on
In the margins of society
Forgotten people
And I vowed that as long as I lived
Their history would not die
As I knew the truth
And I would become a proud
Cherokee
And make my mother proud of me
And my accomplishments
When I am feeling down
I recall her stories
and her warnings
And realize it is up to me
To live my life
To let the Cherokee in me
Live his life
And in so doing
My mother’s history does not die
It lives on in me
Until the day I die
Long live the Cherokee nation
Long live my mother.
Father’s Son
I am my Father’s Son
I lived all my life
Fighting against turning
into a carbon copy
Of my father
And I failed as my father emerged
From the darkness of my soul
The full German personality
And Scandinavian background
becoming clear
And peered out
and liked what he saw
As I became him
step by inexorable step
Turning into my father
As he had turned his father
And his father in his father
Since the dawn of time
We have played this game
Sons turning into their fathers
And watching grandsons
Start the Cosmic dance
all over again.
Thoughts on Visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC
Sam Adams
Had never been
To the Holocaust Museum,
Despite the fact
He had lived
And worked in DC for decades
One day after he retired
He said to himself
It was long past time
To finally see
the holocaust museum
He went the week
After Charleston,
When the mob had chanted,
Jews will not replace us.
The museum affected him deeply
He had just confirmed
Through DNA
That he had at least 10 percent
Jewish ancestry
Among the 18 other nationalities
Swirling among these bloodlines
Sam Adams was concerned
Those elements of antisemitism
We’re emerging among
The MAGA crowd.
But he dismissed
The fears that Trump
Was another Hitler
As liberal hyperbole
It could not happen here
A new holocaust
Would never happen
But now he was not so sure
Poetic Version for April 2021 Contest – Write an Elegy Poem Writing Com Dew Drop-In Prompt Posted April 14, 2021 (April 13 Est)
The Wit and Wisdom of Mary Geneva Aldridge Aller -“There’s Method in Her Madness” Dedicated to My Mother Who Passed on July 31, 2005.
We are here today
To celebrate the life
Of Mary Geneva Aldridge Wilson Aller,
My mother.
As we are gathered together
to mark her passing
On to another, better world,
I thought we should reflect
On her life and its meaning.
Therefore, I have a message
That I hope we all leave here today.
I call this speech,
‘the wit and wisdom of Mary Geneva Aldridge Wilson Aller,
” there’s a method in her madness.”
Which was one of her favorite Shakespeare quotes.
I hope we will see the wisdom
That my mother tried so hard to impart
And what I hope
I have learned
from 52 years of watching
The life of my mother.
What have I have learned?
From Mary’s life
And her death
And what we can all learn
From her 85 years of experience
In this mad crazy corner
Of the world, she loved so dearly.
She was a true Berkeley original,
and it is only fitting
That we bury her
Here are a few blocks
From where she spent
Much of her life.
What can we learn?
From Mary’s life in this world?
Her favorite song from a musical was
“stop the world.
I want to get off.”
And today she gets her final wish
As she leaves this world
And moves on to another world.
My mother grew up
In Arkansas
In what could best be described
As hill country folk.
She was the 10th child of 11 children
Born on a family farm in the 1920s
High up in the Ozark mountains
North of Little Rock, Arkansas.
She graduated from high school
And lit out for the west coast
just as millions of people
Fled the dust bowl
of the late ’30s and ’40s.
She arrived in the SF area
And settled in Berkeley.
she hated being considered an Oakie
and lost her accent
She cultivated an accent
She learned from
The classical radio deejays.
She then became involved
In labor and democratic politics.
She became a telephone operator
union president,
Later was a real estate salesperson,
And became involved
with the save the bay movement
And the league of women’s voters.
During the 60’s she accompanied
My father to Washington DC
When he was undersecretary of labor.
She could not wait to get back
To her beloved Berkeley
Because she felt at home
In the zany openness
of the bay area
She once said
“Every ten years the world flips
And all the nuts roll downhill
To California
That is how she got there
Part of the planetary nut reconfiguration program
PNRCP A little known federal ABC agency “
She hated DC
As it reminded her why
She left the south so many years before.
In later years, she helped my father
In his many political campaigns
And was his business manager for almost 10 years
when he ran an economic consulting business.
When she retired,
She kept her love of reading
Until just a few short years ago
When she finally
Was no longer able to read.
That for me was one
Of the saddest parts of her final years
As she loved to read.
What we all learned from Mary
– Mary’s wisdom can be broken
Down into four areas:
Question authority,
Think for ourselves
read everything there is,
And always do the right thing.
She always told us that we should question authority
and that we should never trust experts.
she said often what is an expert?
Just a guy with a PH. D
And we all know what means –
Piled high and deep.
and she laughed
As she was married to PH. D
And hated campus politics.
She hated with disdain
Almost all politicians
Except for Truman and Kennedy
And she had her own Truman story
She thought they were all crooks and liars,
Especially the southern-bred types.
She believed though in equal opportunity
And hated republicans as much as democrats.
No one ever measured
Up to her lofty standards
Of ethical behavior.
She often told us to do
The right thing.
But she refused to tell us
what would be
As we had to figure
That out on our own.
My concluding thoughts
Are on reading the lifelong
Love of books
That she gave me and my siblings.
She read an average of three to five books
Per week every week of her life.
We were always trading books
Stocking up books on our visits
To the family library
As I thought of it.
I have taken a part in the library
With me and will treasure all the books
That she shared with me and my siblings.
she always had an opinion
About everything.
One of her and my favorite books
Was the world according to Garp
And there was a “world according to Mary”
Where what you saw was what you got
And if you did not like her opinion,
then you had best get out of the way
Because Mary,
Was afraid of no one
And always stood her ground no matter what.
With Mary “what you saw was what you got.”
But I am happy that she
Let me in the “world according to Mary”
And I have lots of stories
from her life that would make great fiction,
For, in Mary’s improbable life,
Life was truly stranger than fiction.
Because my mother grew up in a Christian family,
It would be appropriate to read a bible quote.
my mother was raised as a Baptist
Although she left the church
After asking the minister,
“if god created the world,
Who created God?”
Here is one of her favorite bible quotes
Ecclesiastes 12 (King James version)
Ecclesiastes 12
1remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
2while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
3in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
4and the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
5also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets:
7then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto a God who gave it.
8vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
9and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
10the preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
11the words of the wise are as gods, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
12and further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Her minister friend said the short version is
” life is good.
Then we die
And it gets even better.”
When Mary was a telephone union president,
word came down
that she was invited
to meet Harry Truman.
She replied
I don’t want to meet
Harry unless he wants to meet me.
Hearing that quip,
Harry was amused
And sent his advance team to talk
Some sense into that feisty fiery woman
Out in SF
that Mary Aller.
Two government types,
dressed as I do,
showed up
Asked her if she was a communist
She responded
Boy, are you stupid?
If I were a communist, would I tell you?
I don’t think so.
Where do they get people?
Like you anyway?
The SF chronicle captured the moment
With a huge headline,
“Harry meets Mary.”
This sums up my mother’s fearless feisty
Stubborn personality and yes,
Truman was one of the few politicians
That got the Mary aller seal of approval
Now my final Mary story
Sums up her life for me.
In 1974 I was in this play,
“the madwomen of Chailoit”
Where I played the waiter
Whose line was
“she’s not mad.
She’s the madwomen of Chaillot.”
But Mary was in the audience
And I lost my character
for a moment and said,
“she not’s mad,
She’s the madwoman of Berkeley, oops I meant Chaillot.”
Brought down the house.
I went home thinking I had done it,
insulted my mom in front of the whole school.
She laughed
And said that was okay
as she liked the phase.
I said
“well, Mary,
You are my madwoman of Berkeley
And I’ll have it no other way.
she laughed
And that was the end of it,
until now.
When I say,
“Mary, you were one of the most
original people
Whoever lived,
And I treasure the fact
that I was your son.
You were at times
Very difficult to deal
With but in the end,
Your good karma
Will outlive you
As you always did the right thing,
and for that
And all the other words
Of wisdom, I learned over the years,
I salute you,
Our beloved madwomen of Berkeley.
the prompt was to write an elegy poem. I delivered this at my mother’s funeral in 2005.
When Curtis Cosmos Aller was born on 16 November 1889, in Carrollton, Carroll, Ohio, the United States, his father, Daniel Wilbur Aller, was 24 and his mother, Drusilla McCausland, was 22. He married Inga Pauline Olsen on 30 September 1917, in Bremerton, Kitsap, Washington, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 3 daughters. He lived in Summit view, Yakima, Washington, the United States in 1930 and Election Precinct 108 West Summit view, Yakima, Washington, the United States in 1940. He died on 12 August 1956, in Yakima, Yakima, Washington, United States, at the age of 66, and was buried in Terrace Heights Memorial Park, Yakima, Yakima, Washington, United States.
There is an Aller river in Germany, and in Spain and there is an Aller village in Sussex country, England.
Aller History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
Origins Available:
Germany
The name Aller comes from the German region of Westphalia. The tradition of adopting hereditary surnames came to Germany after the 12th century, and the names of places where people lived were a primary source. Many local names carry the prefix “von”, meaning “of” or “from,” which was originally an indicator of land ownership, and is sometimes a mark of nobility. The Aller family originally lived by an alder tree. Ancient records reveal the name Aller is derived from the Old German word elre or alre, which means alder. There are also numerous places named Eller in the northern German states, such as the Rhine and Moselle areas, which adopted the name of an old stream called the Ellera. Thus, the name Aller is both a topographic surname, a type of local surname that was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree, and a habitation name, a type of local name that was originally derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.
Early Origins of the Aller family
The surname Aller was first found in Westphalia, where the family emerged in mediaeval times as one of the notable families of the region. From the 13th century the surname was identified with the great social and economic evolution which made this territory a landmark contributor to the development of the nation.
Early History of the Aller family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Aller research. Another 77 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1354, 1424, 1680, 1690 and 1730 are included under the topic Early Aller History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Aller Spelling Variations
In the medieval era, many different cultural groups lived in the German states. There are thus many regional variations of German surnames from that era. Westphalians spoke Low German, which is similar to modern Dutch. Many German names carry suffixes that identify where they came from. Others have phrases attached that identify something about the original bearer. Other variations in German names resulted from the fact that medieval scribes worked without the aid of any spelling rules. The spelling variations of the name Aller include Eller, Ellers, Eler, Aller, Aler, Ellern, Ellere, Elera, Ellera, Ellerer and many more.
Early Notables of the Aller family (pre 1700)
Notables of the period with the name Aller were Wolf Ernst von Eller (d. 1680), who was the Governor of Minden and Sparenberg, a military general, and Privy Councillor for defense to the prince…
Another 34 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Aller Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Aller migration to the United States+
For many Germans, emigration to North America was an inviting alternative to the trials of life in the old country. From the mid-17th into the present century, thousands of Germans migrated across the Atlantic. They capitalized on the chance to escape poverty and persecution, and to own their own land. After 1650, Germans settled throughout the states of Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California. Many also landed in Canada, settling in Ontario or father west on the rich land of the prairies. Among them:
Aller Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
Peter Aller, who landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1749 [1]
Michael Aller, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1753 [1]
Contemporary Notables of the name Aller (post 1700)+
Javier Aller Cervera (1972-2018), Spanish film and television actor from Madrid
Rodney Goddard Aller (1916-2005), American lawyer, naval officer and masters skier
Lawrence Hugh Aller (1913-2003), American astronomer from Tacoma, Washington
Victor Aller (1905-1977), American pianist
Eleanor Aller (1917-1995), American cellist and founding member of the Hollywood String Quartet
Related Stories+
The Aller Motto+
Aller History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
Origins Available:
Germany
The name Aller comes from the German region of Westphalia. The tradition of adopting hereditary surnames came to Germany after the 12th century, and the names of places where people lived were a primary source. Many local names carry the prefix “von”, meaning “of” or “from,” which was originally an indicator of land ownership, and is sometimes a mark of nobility. The Aller family originally lived by an alder tree. Ancient records reveal the name Aller is derived from the Old German word elre or alre, which means alder. There are also numerous places named Eller in the northern German states, such as the Rhine and Moselle areas, which adopted the name of an old stream called the Ellera. Thus, the name Aller is both a topographic surname, a type of local surname that was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree, and a habitation name, a type of local name that was originally derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.
Early Origins of the Aller family
The surname Aller was first found in Westphalia, where the family emerged in mediaeval times as one of the notable families of the region. From the 13th century the surname was identified with the great social and economic evolution which made this territory a landmark contributor to the development of the nation.
Early History of the Aller family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Aller research. Another 77 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1354, 1424, 1680, 1690 and 1730 are included under the topic Early Aller History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Aller Spelling Variations
In the medieval era, many different cultural groups lived in the German states. There are thus many regional variations of German surnames from that era. Westphalians spoke Low German, which is similar to modern Dutch. Many German names carry suffixes that identify where they came from. Others have phrases attached that identify something about the original bearer. Other variations in German names resulted from the fact that medieval scribes worked without the aid of any spelling rules. The spelling variations of the name Aller include Eller, Ellers, Eler, Aller, Aler, Ellern, Ellere, Elera, Ellera, Ellerer and many more.
Early Notables of the Aller family (pre 1700)
Notables of the period with the name Aller were Wolf Ernst von Eller (d. 1680), who was the Governor of Minden and Sparenberg, a military general, and Privy Councillor for defense to the prince…
Another 34 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Aller Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Aller migration to the United States+
For many Germans, emigration to North America was an inviting alternative to the trials of life in the old country. From the mid-17th into the present century, thousands of Germans migrated across the Atlantic. They capitalized on the chance to escape poverty and persecution, and to own their own land. After 1650, Germans settled throughout the states of Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California. Many also landed in Canada, settling in Ontario or father west on the rich land of the prairies. Among them:
Aller Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
Peter Aller, who landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1749 [1]
Michael Aller, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1753 [1]
Contemporary Notables of the name Aller (post 1700)+
Javier Aller Cervera (1972-2018), Spanish film and television actor from Madrid
Rodney Goddard Aller (1916-2005), American lawyer, naval officer and masters skier
Lawrence Hugh Aller (1913-2003), American astronomer from Tacoma, Washington
Victor Aller (1905-1977), American pianist
Eleanor Aller (1917-1995), American cellist and founding member of the Hollywood String Quartet
Curtis Cosmos Aller, Jr. Undersecretary of Labor 1963-1968.President of teh Rhodes Scholar, Harvard PHD President of the Berkeley Co-Op
James Elwood Aller Admiral retred Navy Academy graduate University of Virginia Professor of Applied Mathematics, coiner of the term ‘Computer bug”.
John (Jake) Cosmos Aller US diplomat 1981 to 2016 retired.
The Aller Motto+
The motto was originally a war cry or slogan. Mottoes first began to be shown with arms in the 14th and 15th centuries, but were not in general use until the 17th century. Thus the oldest coats of arms generally do not include a motto. Mottoes seldom form part of the grant of arms: Under most heraldic authorities, a motto is an optional component of the coat of arms, and can be added to or changed at will; many families have chosen not to display a motto.
Motto: Gloria virtutis umbra Motto Translation: Glory is the shadow of virtue.
The motto was originally a war cry or slogan. Mottoes first began to be shown with arms in the 14th and 15th centuries, but were not in general use until the 17th century. Thus the oldest coats of arms generally do not include a motto. Mottoes seldom form part of the grant of arms: Under most heraldic authorities, a motto is an optional component of the coat of arms, and can be added to or changed at will; many families have chosen not to display a motto.
Motto: Gloria virtutis umbra Motto Translation: Glory is the shadow of virtue.
Aldrige (mother’s maiden name)
Early Origins of the Aldridge family The surname Aldridge was first found in the counties of Sussex , Suffolk, and Surrey, where the Aldridge family held a family seat from very early times. The family had the Saxon spellings of Alderich, Ealdric, or possibly Aelfric before the Norman Conquest)
Mary Geneva Aldrige Aller
Mary Geneva Aldridge Aller Sept. 9, 1923 – July 31, 2007, Former Resident of Berkeley Mary was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, and came to the Bay Area in the 1940s and settled in Berkeley where she resided until 2003.
During the 1950s, she was active in the labor movement and served several years as the President of the Pacific Telephone Operators Union. During the late 1950s, she was a real estate agent and involved with the Berkeley League of Women’s Voters, and the “Save the Bay” movement.
In 1952, she made local headlines when she told President Truman’s staff that she did not want to meet him unless he wanted to meet her. The San Francisco Chronicle authored a big article with the Headline “Harry Meets Mary.” She was a long-term political activist and active member of the Berkeley Co-Op along with her husband, Dr. Curtis Aller, who passed away in 1985.
During the 1960s, she accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C. when he served as the Undersecretary of Labor. She returned to Berkeley in 1968 where she worked with her husband until 1984 as the business manager for the Center for Applied Manpower Research. Mary is survived by two sisters, Mildred and Robbie who live in Arkansas. She is also survived by six children, Roger Aller of Sebastopol, California, John (Jake) Aller of Washington, DC, Thomas Aller of Albany, California, Inga Aller of Gualala, California, Richard, and Larry Wilson from her first marriage, and many grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. The family will have a private ceremony Friday, August 3 for interment. Flowers can be sent to the Sunset View Funeral Home, 101 Colusa Avenue, in El Cerrito (510) 525-5111.
Today, in honor of the 400th celebration of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be good to pull together my Thanksgiving poems written over the years. I have no doubt others buried in my computer’s hard drive, and if I ever get my act together to find them, I will update this in due course.
Thanksgiving and Christmas were my favorite holidays as a child. I grew up eating Southern Style cooking, as my Mom was from Arkansas and my Dad from Yakima, Washington, and she did most of the cooking and was a creative cook.
She did thanksgiving/Christmas full southern style – featuring a full roast turkey (fried turkey was not common when she grew up although now in the south fried turkey is as common as roasted turkey).
Here’s the recipe
Roasted turkey
Stuffing in the bird bread, onion, ham bits, bacon bits, herbal mix)
Gravy
Sweet potato pie with marshmallows
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Corn Bread
Salad
Green beans
Southern-style greens –
turnip, collard, kale, spinach
with bacon, ham, onions and, molasses
Rice
Wild rice
Roasted potato au gratin
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
Vanilla ice cream to finish the meal
And leftover turkey sandwiches for a week.
I found three articles that are apt. See below for links to the full article. The first is an article about what the first Thanksgiving meal consisted of, and the second is an article on how Thanksgiving was a controversial holiday in the south until the late 19th century, as it was seen as a Yankee puritan tradition and competed with Christmas, and the third is a history of the holiday. It only became a holiday in the civil war, and only became what we think of it in the late 19th century.
Many families mine included did the same menu on both Thanksgiving and Christmas although some families did something a bit different for Christmas, substituting ham, duck, goose, Cornish game hens, or a pot roast for the turkey for example.
And there were ethnic variations of course. And Jewish people usually went out for a Chinese meal on Christmas, as did the Chinese as well. In Berkeley, my Jewish and Chinese friends celebrated Thanksgiving with the full bird treatment, but went out on CHriatmas day for Chinese food.
Poems
Thanksgiving Gratitude
Thanksgiving Memories
Ode to Thanksgiving Meals Past and Present
Best/Worst Thanksgiving Ever Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day
Best/Worst Thanksgiving Ever Thanksgiving
Thankful for my Angel On Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving COVID Senryu
Turkey Senryu
Turkey Revolt
Death to All Humans, the Mad Turkey Screams
Three Thanksgiving articles -excerpts
What was on the first Thanksgiving menu? Smithsonian
When Thanksgiving was fighting words LA Times
Invention of Thanksgiving – New Yorker and other articles
Thanksgiving Poems
Thanksgiving Memories
On thanksgiving day
We are grateful
For the little things
In life
For the memories
for the food
that we will enjoy
on this day of giving thanks
Writing com Prompt: National Gratitude Month encourages us to embrace the power of gratitude
In an 8-line poem, write about just one non-human thing you are truly grateful for.
Ode to Thanksgiving Meals Past and Present
Growing up
My favorite holidays
Were Thanksgiving
And Christmas
We did a traditional Thanksgiving
And Christmas dinner as well
Southern American style
As my Mom was from Arkansas
My Dad was from Yakima
And we lived in Berkeley, California
Featuring of course the full bird
Roasted turkey
Stuffing in the bird
consisting of bread, onion, carrots, ham bits,
walnuts,bacon bits, and herbal sage mixture
That came with the stuffing mix
Gravy
Sweet potato pie with marshmallows
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Corn Bread
Salad
Green beans
Southern-style greens –
turnip, collard, kale, spinach
with bacon, ham, onions and, molasses
Rice
Wild rice
Roasted potato au gratin
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
Vanilla ice cream to finish the meal
And leftover turkey sandwiches
For a week
Nowadays
Whenever I am
In the world
I try to have a traditional
Thanksgiving dinner
but it is hard
doing so overseas
where turkey
is just not that common
a food item
and Thanksgiving is such
an American (and Candadian) tradition
not celebrated anywhere else
over the years
I have had steak
Ham, Mexican food
Indian food
on Thanksgiving Day
Even sushi on thanksgiving
In Okinawa
And once
I had Tofu Turkey
Even though
I am from California
That was a step too far
Just not for me.
But in the end
Nothing is more satisfactory
Than eating turkey
On Thanksgiving night
I have added drinking
A bit of bourbon
On Thanksgiving day
To my routine
On this Thanksgiving day
In Korea
We did a roasted turkey breast
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Asparagus
Cheesecake
Bourbon
And wine
The turkey, cranberry sauces, bourbon, and wine
came from the Army Commissary
The other ingredients from COSTCO
It was just divine
As always
And in the end
It all comes together
As I eat my Thanksgiving dinner
No matter where I am
As long as I am eating
Thanksgiving dinner
With my wife
It does not matter
too much
What we are eating
Forever thankful
She is there
To share my life
On this special day.
This week’s prompt is Holiday Meals. While most people, here in the U.S. have the typical Thanksgiving turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, not everyone follows the crowd. Think back to holiday meals you participated in when you were younger. Feel free to write about Thanksgiving or any other holiday meal you choose. Please share any items of food that you or others might feel are out of the ordinary. Do you have memories of any special or surprise guests that came to any of your holiday meals? Did you ever have a catastrophic holiday meal? Do you still carry on the same holiday meal traditions you had as a kid, or have you changed things up? Are you now typically the host or hostess for meals (sans Covid) or do you usually participate as a guest? Does your family like to go out for holiday meals, or do you prefer to stay at home? Is your table setting different for holiday meals? Do you decorate the whole house as part of your mealtime mood? Please share some memories of your special holiday meals.
Thanksgiving Day
On Thanksgiving Day
We are grateful
For the little things
In life
For the memories
for the food
that we will enjoy
on this day of giving thanks
For the day of Thanksgiving here in the USA, we are featuring the theme of gratitude, in any form or style that you prefer. Several examples can be found for inspiration in the following links:
It was a thanksgiving to remember
One of the best
And one of the worst as well
It started with burned dinner rolls
Then power outage stopped the turkey
Finishing roasting in the oven
They pulled out the mostly cooked bird
Declaring it was time
To eat
And sat down
Having a traditional southern style
Thanksgiving dinner
Featuring of course the full bird
Roasted turkey
Stuffing in the bird of course
Gravy
Sweat potato pie with marshmallows,
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Corn Bread
Salad
Green beans
And left-over turkey sandwiches
For a week
Uncle Bob lost a tooth
The doorbell rang,
The dog dashed
out the door
Chasing the mailman
Down the road
Mom brought out
Desert
pumpkin pie with hipped cream
Writing com prompt was to use the following words in a Thanksgiving poem
Burned dinner rolls
Power outage
Uncle Bob Lost a tooth
Dog dashed out the Door
pumpkin pie with Hipped cream
Happy Thanksgiving Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving
Devotion
Thanksgiving
Big
Hiking
Yipee
Every day the fridge magnet site publishes a lits of words that you can use to make a refrigerator magnet poem from. Today’s Fridge prompt words were:
unlike
bag
pact
yippee
addicted
considering
vertigo
tampon
employ
NBC
sleet
decoy
hers
hearing
hey
denominational
cunning
big
steaming
sock
democracy
swear
significantly
what’s open on thanksgiving
ecological
fetid
India vs New Zealand
backstroke
timid
Spartan
silt
faint
votive
abroad
gringo
he
nan
thank
happy thanksgiving
devotion
cheque
hiking
thanksgiving
improve
retracted
Thankful for My Angel on Thanksgiving Day
On Thanksgiving Day
I woke up
and saw my wife
Sleeping peacefully
I look at her
In the dawning light
Filling my soul
With her love
I drink my coffee
Contemplating my life
Ever thankful
Especially on Thanksgiving day
For the angel
That came to me
Out of my dreams
Walking into my life
Taking charge of me
39 years ago
I met my fate
On that date.
Thanksgiving Senryu
This Thanksgiving
Celebration of life
COVID is Ending
Turkey Revolt
On Thanksgiving Day
The feast started late
The turkey was having a problem
He refused to go quietly
Into the oven
The turkey stood up
Screaming
What is wrong with you people?
You are going to burn me alive?
What have I done to you?
Why can’t you just pardon me
Like the President did
I mean, I am cuter than
Peter Butter
And Jelly anyway
The turkey grabbed a knife
And killed the guests
Running out into the dark
Joining all the other
Suddenly “woke” turkeys
All screaming
“I am mad as hell
and not going to take it anymore
Death to all humans.”
That was the day
That went down in history
As the Thanksgiving
Turkey revolt.
writing com prompt: the feast was late because the big bird
Death to All Humans Turkey Screams
The big feast was ready
and the family
made its way
to the dinner table
when suddenly,
the turkey woke up,
jumping off the table
he picks up a knife
and attacks
and kills the family
Screaming
“Death to all humans”
Ending the Thanksgiving Day
feast for the family.
writing com prompt The big feast was ready and the family
made its way to the dinner table when suddenly,
What am I grateful for? Thanksgiving Day Poem
On this Thanksgiving Day
I am thankful
For the fact
That I have survived
My 66 birthday
My father and grandfather
Both died at age 65
And I felt a curse
Had been lifted
As I lived beyond
That date
No cancer
No Alzheimers yet
And no COVID
Cheated death
In my life
22 times
And most important
I am still madly in love
With the love of my life
Whom I met
In a dream
47 years ago
39 years ago
She walked into my life
Becoming my wife
And this fairy tale romance
Has continued to this date
And for that I am thankful.
Thanksgiving Day Feelings
On this Thanksgiving Day day
We have a lot
To be thankful for
A lot to be grateful for
Most importantly
We have survived
Old Corona has not
Taken us away
We are alive
Love and life
Continues
As we gather around
The dinner table
Thinking of the past
Enjoying the moment
With thanks in our hearts
We say
Happy Thanksgiving Day
Happy Thanksgiving Day F’ing
Happy Thanksgiving Day
Considering her
hey a cunning
big steaming gringo
f… her
on Thanksgiving Day
unlike
bag
pact
yippee
addicted
considering
vertigo
tampon
employ
NBC
sleet
decoy
hers
hearing
hey
denominational
cunning
big
steaming
sock
democracy
swear
significantly
what’s open on Thanksgiving Day
ecological
fetid
India vs New Zealand
backstroke
timid
spartan
silt
faint
votive
abroad
gringo
he
nan
thank
happy Thanksgiving Day
devotion
cheque
hiking
Thanksgiving Day
improve
retracted
For the 2021 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, poets are tasked with authoring a poem a day in November before assembling a chapbook manuscript in December. Today’s prompt is to write a remix poem.
For today’s prompt, write a remix poem. For this poem, take one of your poems (or several of your poems) and make a remixed version that is a completely new poem. This could involve lengthening a short poem or condensing a longer poem.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
Thanksgiving JiYu Shi Poem
Thanksgiving day
A time for reflection
A time to feast
With friends and family
Nowadays in person and zoom
Hard to eat a turkey
On zoom
What am I grateful for? Thanksgiving Day Poem
On this Thanksgiving Day
I am thankful
For the fact
That I have survived
My 66 birthday
My father and grandfather
Both died at age 65
And I felt a curse
Had been lifted
As I lived beyond
That date
No cancer
No Alzheimers yet
And no COVID
Cheated death
In my life
22 times
And most importantly
I am still madly in love
With the love of my life
Whom I met
In a dream
39 years later
She walked into my life
Becoming my wife
And this fairy tale romance
Has continued to this date
And for that I am thankful.
What was on the Menu for the First Thanksgiving?
“The history of the holiday meal tells us that turkey was always the centerpiece, but other courses have since disappeared What Was on the Menu at the First Thanksgiving?
Megan Gambino” title=”What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu”>
Senior Editor
November 21, 2011
Traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes but the First Thanksgiving likely included wildfowl, corn, porridge and venison. Bettmann / Corbis
Today, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes any number of dishes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. But if one were to create a historically accurate feast, consisting of only those foods that historians are certain were served at the so-called “first Thanksgiving,” there would be slimmer pickings. “Wildfowl was there. Corn, in grain form for bread or for porridge, was there. Venison was there,” says Kathleen Wall. “These are absolutes.”
An engraving shows Union troops receiving Thanksgiving rations during the Civil War, circa 1864.
(Kean Collection / Getty Images)
BY JENNY JARVIE
NOV. 23, 2017 3 AM PT
Reporting from Atlanta —
“When Americans across North and South gather for Thanksgiving around tables laden with turkey and cranberries, perhaps the biggest regional disagreement centers on stuffing versus dressing.
It was not always so. In the runup to the Civil War, there was strong resistance in the South toward Thanksgiving itself.
“With the whole prospect of a showdown over the expansion of slavery, there was more and more rhetoric coming out of the South charging that Thanksgiving was pretty much a Yankee abolitionist holiday,” said James C. Cobb, professor emeritus of history at the University of Georgia.
While governors from Arkansas to Mississippi gradually embraced the idea of Thanksgiving in the 1840s, issuing Thanksgiving proclamations for their states, the idea of celebrating a traditional Puritan northern holiday became more contentious in the 1850s with the heightening temperature of the national slavery debate.
“Thanksgiving was, above all, a New England holiday, and New England was abolitionist territory,” as Diana Karter Appelbaum put it in her book “Thanksgiving: An American Holiday, an American History.”
“Autumn is the season for Native America. There are the cool nights and warm days of Indian summer and the genial query “What’s Indian about this weather?” More wearisome is the annual fight over the legacy of Christopher Columbus—a bold explorer dear to Italian-American communities, but someone who brought to this continent forms of slavery that would devastate indigenous populations for centuries. Football season is in full swing, and the team in the nation’s capital revels each week in a racist performance passed off as “just good fun.” As baseball season closes, one prays that Atlanta (or even semi-evolved Cleveland) will not advance to the World Series. Next up is Halloween, typically featuring “Native American Brave” and “Sexy Indian Princess” costumes. November brings Native American Heritage Month and tracks a smooth countdown to Thanksgiving. In the elementary-school curriculum, the holiday traditionally meant a pageant, with students in construction-paper headdresses and Pilgrim hats reënacting the original celebration. If today’s teachers aim for less pageantry and a slightly more complicated history, many students still complete an American education unsure about the place of Native people in the nation’s past—or in its present. Cap the season off with Thanksgiving, a turkey dinner, and a fable of interracial harmony. Is it any wonder that by the time the holiday arrives a lot of American Indian people are thankful that autumn is nearly over?
Americans have been celebrating Thanksgiving for nearly four centuries, commemorating that solemn dinner in November 1621. We know the story well or think we do. Adorned in funny hats, large belt buckles, and clunky black shoes, the Pilgrims of Plymouth gave thanks to God for his blessings, demonstrated by the survival of their fragile settlement. The local Indians, supporting characters who generously pulled the Pilgrims through the first winter and taught them how to plant corn, joined the feast with gifts of venison. A good time was had by all before things quietly took their natural course: the American colonies expanded, the Indians gave up their lands and faded from history, and the germ of collective governance found in the Mayflower Compact blossomed into American democracy.
Almost none of this is true, as David Silverman points out in “This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving” (Bloomsbury).”
In my 66 years on this earth, I have learned a few things, because I have seen a few things. I grew up n a very secular town, in a very secular era. The late 60s in Berkeley was a time when everything was being challenged, questioned, debated and the issue of God came up frequently. Was God still relevant in this modern era?
Most of my friends were agnostic at best, don’t recall having any Christian friends, Most were Jewish though and one was a Mormon. Most were white, but I had a few black friends as well, a few of them were Christian.
My mother was born a southern baptist, she was kicked out of church for asking the forbidden question, “If God created the universe, who created God?” the preacher was not amused and kicked her out for being a “free thinker” which to a Baptist was a very bad thing indeed, especially in Arkansas in the late 30s.
My father was a devote athiest, grew up in Yakima in a Methodist family, but just did not see God anywhere. An economist believing in economic laws, he was materialistic and deterministic, God simply did not compute for him.
They told us it was up to us to determine what to believe because they disagreed. But in the end, it came down to this, “Do the right thing” but it was up to us to determine what that might be.
I went to a few church services. but it just did not stick, did not get the whole shebang, did not believe in the Virgin Mary, the crucifixion, and other Christian dogma felt it was all just ancient irrelevant fairy tales. I shared my father’s materialistic worldview and my mother’s skepticism regarding Church teachings. She was pleased though when I told her I had started reading the bible.
For a while, I became a militant athiest, hung out at a, debating with Holly Hubert and the street preachers who were there. I shocked the Christian fanatics with my athiest stand-up comedy routines.
One day Jehovah’s witness came to my house. I told them I would love to talk with them but I was late for a Satanist meeting and invited them to join me. They fled in terror.
Later in college, I had a roommate, who took too much acid and became convinced he was God. We spend many nights smoking weed and debating the existence or non-existence of God. He had grown up as a Jehovah witness. His parents blamed us for their son’s descent into madness and promised to pray for us but said we would go to hell for the sin of questioning God’s will.
In college, I took a course on modern religions. As a sociology student, I studied the Unification church’s recruitment practices and went to their recruitment dinner, but wisely did not go their weekend retreat, otherwise, perhaps I might have been converted and become a Moonie.
I even went to a Scientology center took their free personality test and concluded it was all a scam. Liked to hang out with Hari Krishna dudes joining them for public chanting.
Started reading the bible in my world religion class, but took me almost 30 years before I finished reading the bible, and all the other spiritual texts, on the eve of my 50th year. Started with the Book of Mormon and ended with the Koran after reading the Buddhist writings, the Hindu scriptures, the Confucian classics, and the Tao De Ching.
Had to finally skip over the entire genesis begat stories, saying to myself
“What’s the point?”
Concluding the bible was badly edited. Just a collection of fairy tales, not fit for the modern world, but revelations fascinated me.
When I went to Korea in the Peace Corps, I became fascinated by the subtle interplay between traditional Buddhism, shamanism, neo-Confucianism principles
And the resurgence of aggressive Christianity, and the new religious fervor of Reverend Moon, the unification church, and other new religions.
Spend some time at Buddhist temples, even spend a few nights hanging out with the monks decades before the formal temple stay programs became popular among foreign tourists.
I had an encounter with shamanism when my uncle-in-law died, they did a shaman “kut” ritual. the shaman a female channeled his spirit. He came to the room berated us all, cursed us all from his perch in hell, That was such a freaky experience we had to flee the demented scene.
I had a few mystical experiences, once in college I saw God in a lake, But that was probably just the magic of the magic mushrooms, doing its mushroom thing.
Once while I was hanging out in Berkeley, I encountered a cosmic cat, I saw the divine spark In his eyes, as he followed me everywhere. I told my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer’s about the cosmic cat, she concurred he was indeed a cosmic cat.
Later in Goa, I encountered a cosmic dog who followed me everywhere. I asked the cosmic dog once,
“Say, Cosmic dog, are you god? Bark once if yes, two if no.”
He barked once.
“Are you Allah? Bark once if yes, two if no.”
He barked once.
“Are you Buddha? Bark once if yes, two if no”
He barked once.
“Are you the great spirit of the American indians? Bark once if yes, two if no”
He barked once.
“Are you Satan? Bark once if yes, two if no.”
He growled at me and I knew I had gone too far.
When I was in Thailand, I continued my exploration of Buddhism visiting most of the famous Buddhist sites there, later in Taiwan, Vietnam, and India as well.
When I lived in India, I became immersed in the spiritual energy all around me
I became a fan of the big Ganesh, he removed spiritual obstacles, allowing me to connect to the divine spirit all around me. I felt that cosmic vibe, just flowing through the world.
While in India, I attended a few Catholic services, other Christian services, went to Hindu temples, Jain temples, Sikh temples and even a few Muslim pilgrim sites. I also fasted during Rammadam and went totally vegan to observe lent.
Now that I am an old man, I think back on what I have learned from my spiritual journeys. I think I can sum it up as follows:
I believe that the universe is alive, and I am part of the divine mind, the universe God if you would, flows through us all. If only we have the eyes, to see the divine all around us.
The Christian faith, like all other faiths, is just an attempt to discover the God of the universe. It is all the same path we are on, trying to connect to the cosmic overmind of the universe.
Whether you are an atheist, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Jain, a Jew, a Harri Krishna, a humanist, a Hindu, a Moonie, a Mormon, a Muslim, a Pagan or a Wiccan devote, we are all cosmic fools, seekers of the truth. The truth is out there for us to discover it for ourselves.
But in the end, it comes down to this simple principle, we have to decide
to always do the right thing, but that is a decision, only we can make deep in our soul.
Whether heaven or hell is awaiting us I do not know. Whether Jesus is the son of God I do not know. Whether Mohammed was the last prophet of God I do not know. Whether Allah is waiting for me, I do not know. Whether the grim reaper will be coming for me I do not know.
But I am ready for the final stage of my life. In the end, I also know this: I knew my wife in a prior life, and I will see her in my next life. That is the operation of fate, of karma, and reincarnation, which I do believe in. The adage, what goes around comes around is a simple basic fact of the universe.
That is all that I know for sure. That is what I believe. In the end, always
I know there’s more to that Scientology personality test story because I was there. Those tests were top secret, and they never published them or allowed anyone to carry them outside of the Scientology Center. You and (I think) Robert and I went into the Center and started taking the test. Then you told the people administering the test that you wanted to go outside for a minute for a smoke. You surreptitiously slipped the test into your pocket and we walked out, not intending to return. About a block away, one of the Scientology people came running after us, demanding the test back, and you gave it to him. So we (you) were foiled in the attempt to steal the test.
You’ve been on a fascinating journey, Jake! It all makes perfectly good sense.
I was raised a Catholic, but I respect all religions and non-believers. Reconciling science and the history of men with the biblical Adam and Eve, as well as noting that there are so many people with different beliefs, have made me question my beliefs. I agree that we need to do the right thing (as our conscience dictates). I’m not sure of reincarnation, but I watch Korean dramas and am fascinated by reincarnation stories. May I share your story with my friends?
Thank you for sharing that, Cosmo! I have also sought to deconstruct what was given me and see what’s under the hood, so to speak. And that’s not just a Berkeley thing. It might have to do with having parents of different beliefs. My father too was a fairly strict atheist, a scientist, and a researcher who had studied history and concluded religion was mainly a tool for control. Whereas my mother was always a seeker who came from a non-religious family and churched herself as a teenager, then turned to the church when her child died. She became something of a pantheist, utilizing Christianity, Scientology, and various forms of unity consciousness and Native American beliefs in her journey. Years later I concluded my impulse to bridge the scientific and faithful outlooks was an expression of the child wanting to bring his divorced parents back together, but now it’s just important to me to remain open to possibilities and alternative explanations. Via some of the people I’ve known, I’ve witnessed a few things my skeptical impulse can never entirely explain. Your conclusions and mine are the same.
Hello uncle- I have always loved listening/reading about your travels and experiences. My Mom loved you and looked up to you as well. I relate as someone who’s Dad was excommunicated Catholic and whose mom said “choose for yourself”. I visited many churches/religious events, still do, and have read a lot. There are many things I do not know, but the things I feel I do know- are relatable. I remember being with Grandma when dementia set in and I was losing “my person” I remember reading your early college work and thinking “if he can do it, so can I” as I was struggling with adult ADHD & dyslexia recently discovered but had been there the entire time. I struggled in some areas but I persevered. Part of my love for other cultures came from you, and despite “and because of” living in a small racist county
Hi there from Scars Publications (this letter is being sent from a bulk email address and all replies should NOT go to the Gmail address but to any scars. tv email address) – we wanted to let you know that Scars Publications released a 2021 annual collection book of select poetry, flash fiction, prose, & art from 2021 issues of cc&d magazine and Down in the Dirt magazine. Since your material was chosen from the past year of accepted materials for inclusion in this annual collection book anthology, we wanted to let you know about this brand new annual collection book, titled “Regarding Utopia”!
Links to see all of chosen writers and artists (and the titles of their work) in “Regarding Utopia”: http://scars.tv/2021collection/Regarding_Utopia.htm
This is where you can also find out what material of yours appears in this annual collection book.
Enjoy the 2021 poetry, flash fiction, prose (and don’t forget the artwork) anthology with a 2021 Editor’s Choice contest winner from Scars Publications, titled “Regarding Utopia” of select poetry, flash fiction, prose & art in this one-of-a-kind annual 2021 anthology collection book, which contains select accepted writings chosen from 2021 issues of both cc&d magazines and Down in the Dirt magazine…
To know exactly what is included in this collection book, view the listing below… If your writing or artwork appears in this collection book (or if you know someone with the material in this book, or if you just want to pick up a great book to read), order a copy of “Regarding Utopia” today!
And HEY! Any video recorded readings of material included in this date book are also listed here, so check out the video links here as well…
To know exactly what is included in this collection book, view the listing below… If your writing or artwork appears in this collection book (or if you know someone with material in this book, or if you just want to pick up a great book to read), order a copy of “Regarding Utopia” today!
My poem 5-7-7 Love Poem
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Prayers and Bullets” Down in the Dirt, v181
(the March 2021 Issue)
Order the paperback book:
I recently rediscovered Korean beaches
I have been living near several beaches
Seldom going to the beach
Just too busy
With retired life
Even though
We are just a few miles away
When we went there
It was better than I had imagined
Finally solved the chronic parking problems
Not too crowded, mid-week
even during the middle
of Korean beach season
because of COVID
and the bad economy
The weather was hot
But not overwhelming
We stopped for tea
At a rustic hut
On some rocks
Overlooking the beach
Been there for 30 years
Hardly changing
The beach town itself
Is “Old school”, old fashioned
No high rises, no fancy hotels
No fancy restaurants
a bit expensive by local standards
during low tide
people go clamming
lots of fresh clams
and seafood
Pretty basic
But we liked that
the water was cleaner
Better than we had remembered
Not too many foreigners
Yet near the airport
The nearest beach to Seoul
We are planning to go
Weekly throughout the year
As long as we live
Near the beach
Why not I say?
Eurwangni Beach 을왕리 해수욕장 -eul-wangli haesuyogjang
I have been living off and on in Yeongjong International City, near the Incheon airport since I retired a few years ago. We live near three beaches, and four other islands. Yet for some reason, I have not spent a lot of time exploring the Beaches of my new home island.
I recently went to Eurwangni beach the other day and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. I am now going to go regularly.
Korean beaches are still somewhat seasonal, but going to the beaches off-season has become much more popular than when I first came to Korea decades ago when there was a beach season and the beaches the rest of the year were deserted.
Eurwangni beach is the most famous of the Yeongjongdo beaches. It is the most developed. It is on the west side of the island and features low tide extensive mudflats. Many people go clamming there at low tide.
The main part of the beach is lined with the usual assortment of seafood restaurants and hotels but nothing that high-end. It is a very old-school vibe. It is about 700 meters long from the south end to the north end. At the north end of the beach, there is a fishing pier and a few small restaurants.
Transit options
From downtown, Seoul take the AREX train to the airport and get off at T1. From Incheon airport, T1 3rd Floor take bus 111 or 306 and get off at Seunchang Wangsan Beach stop (near the end of the line). The bus takes T-money.
Alternative plan – you can take a bus or taxi from Unseo station area. Unseo station area is lined with restaurants and budget friendlier places to stay.
AREX has a station at Yongju but it does not appear to be operational. The Airport MAGLEV goes there. From there the beaches are about a 15-minute walk or a short bus or taxi ride.
Yongju station is also the closest train stop to the entrance to Muido beaches. You can take a bus from there to Muido, and there are lots of restaurant options across the street. There is a nice walkway lined with restaurants as well.
Driving
If you drive, type in Eurwangni beach parking which will direct you to the parking lots at the south end of the beach. It is a five-minute walk to the main part of the beach and about a half-hour or more to the other beaches.
Theme: Rare Animals/ Plants/Spectacular Cliffs & Rock Formations
The name “Fairy Rock Beach” comes from the fact that fresh water is gathered at the seashore beneath…
Seongyeol rock is a series of rocks leading to a pine forest on the south end of Eurwangni beach. The rocks are closed during high tide and at night. If you go to Euwangni beach, tide permitting, it is a great 2-kilometer walk. At the end of the pathway, there is an old shack restaurant that has been there for almost 40 years. The owner of the shack is a nice young woman who inherited the property from her parents. I got the impression that she gets few visitors as it is at the end of a long pathway from the main beach. You can get your usual drinks, and fresh seafood there, but it closes at sunset. The trail at the shack turns inward entering the old pine forest but we ran out of time to explore that. We will be back no doubt.
Wangsang Beach
왕상해수욕장 -wangsanghaesuyogjang
Wangan beach is much less developed or crowded than its bigger neighbor, Euwangni beach, which is a 15-minute walk away. The beach has a nice camping ground next to the beach which has the usual camping essentials for sale or rent.
The sunset is very nice.
for more info
For more information you can call 82-32-777-1330 or wangsan-beach.co.kr. the web page says that they have English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean operators, but I have not verified that. The web page opens in English and provides information on a wide variety of nearby attractions and is well done. I was pleasantly surprised.
Transportation options
Public transportation
From Incheon airport, T1 3rd Floor take bus 111 or 306 and get off at Seunchang Wangsan Beach stop (near the end of the line). The bus takes T-money.
Driving
Same as Eurwangni beach with the following additions:
GSP enter Wangsang beach address is 810-204, Eurwang-dong, Jung ju, Incheon (Wangsang Beach).
118, Masiran-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon 22385 South Korea
(2.9 miles from Eurwangni Beach)
transportation:
public tranist – take the AREX train to the airport. Buses are available at the airport terminal 1, 3rd floor. The beach buses stop at all three breaches, Maisin beach is the first beach, Eurwangni the second and Wangsang is the final stop.
Driving
type Maisin beach into your GSP
118, Masiran-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon 22385 South Korea
depending upon traffic the beaches are about an hour from downtown Seoul or Incheon city.
무이도 Muui-dong, Jung-gu, Incheon South Korea
(3.3 miles from Eurwangni Beach)
Muido, So Muido and Silmido are islands near to Yongchongdo. You can get to the islands by taking a bus from the airport, or from the Yongju maglev stop. there is a new bridge and the roads have been improved, but Muido is super crowded on weekends so best to go mid-week if you can.
There are hotels and Korean style resorts near bridge and at the beach, there are huts for rent. There are restaurants near the ferry terminal and at the beach, but the selection is limited to Korean seafood.
When you enter the island there is a trailhead that takes you to the top of island – and you can walk the entire island in about four hours. The trail is very pretty and not too steep.
Update: Not sure if the tourism info stand is still there. last time I visited was just after the bridge opened. When I visited, the people were very helpful, spoke good English and had lots of maps and guides in English and can also tell you about the ferries to the other islands. Well worth a stop. You should stock up on tourism information here if you are going to the outer islands as once you get there is very little English language signage or English speakers on the islands. They are open until 6 pm most days.
Address
310-11, Daemuui-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon
인천광역시 중구 대무의로 310-11 (무의동)
1330 Travel Hotline: +82-2-1330
(Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)
For more info: +82-32-760-7114
Muuido Island is located in Jung-gu, Incheon which is not far from the mainland but is only accessible by ferry. Nearby are two smaller islands, Silmido Island and Somuuido Island. In olden times, small boats were used to go from Muuido Island to Somuuido Island but the two islands are currently connected by a bridge so visitors can reach Somuuido after a 10-15 minute walk. Muuido Village Bus (maeul bus; 마을버스) takes people from Keunmuri Dock (큰무리선착장) to Gwangmyeonghang Port (광명항). To enjoy the beauty of Somuuido Island fully, Muuibadanuri-gil 8 Course is a must-visit path, taking around 1 hour and giving stunning views of the East Sea vista. Two beaches, Hanagae Beach and Silmi Beach are famous beaches in Muuido Island. One interesting thing in Silmi Beach is that people can walk to Silmido Island at low tide. Hiking up Horyonggoksan Mountain (호룡곡산) and Guksabong Peak is also available on Hanagae Island.
The trail head to Horyonggoksan Mountain (호룡곡산) and Guksabong Peak can be found at bridge entrance to the island and also near So Muido and at Hangagae beach as well. The round trip takes about three hours, and the trail is well marked but only in Korean. Go up the stairs and at the top turn right to access the main trail head.
Hanagae Beach
Hanagae beach is the main beach on Muido. It is near the end of the island. the turnoff is easy to miss though. on weekends it can get crowded. there are beach huts to rent and camping is also allowed. There is a zip line on the beach and the usual assortment of seafood resturants. Like all Incheon area beaches at low tide you can walk quite some distance and you can see people clamming.
From my trip advisor collumn –must visit island
Feb 2019
now a short drive from the airport. I’d take the bus from the airport or Unseo station so you can enjoy a drink. there is a great round the island hike takes five hours;. I will do that next week and write a fresh review. the beach is very nice includes a zipline and bungalows = 20,000 won per night! with the new bridge it is easy to get to. if you have five hour overlay you can defintiely make it to Muido and back.
Written January 27, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
So Muido 소무이도
So Muido is a nice spot for a walk as well. Take the bus to the end of the island and walk across. There are places to stop and eat in So Muido. The walk to the top of the mountain is a nice walk takes about an half an hour to reach the top. There is a private beach on the way back to town. On the weekend traffic and parking is impossible unless you get there really early. there are camp grounds near by and a number of hotels, but nothing too high-end.
Silmido
Silmido island is the site of a secret military base where they trained commandos going undercover into North Korea. They closed the base in the 80’s and a Korean K drama was filmed at the island. The island has a resort where one can stay but there are not much there, not even restaurants. Still the beach is nice but a bit deserted. You can walk across to Silmido at low tide, at high tide it becomes a separate island.
Shindo, Modo and Jangbo islands
신도, 모토, 장보도
Shindo, Modo and Jangbo Islands located near Incheon International Airport are great places to get away from Seoul or Incheon for that matter. These three islands are near Yongchongdo. You need to take a ferry to reach them. The ferry ride to Jangbo the biggest of the islands takes about an hour. The ferry runs every hour on the hour the last ferry back leaves about 6 pm. You can catch the ferry at Sammok quay.
삼목 부두 sammog budu
There are buses from the airport and from Unseo station to the ferry terminal.
Modo island is connected to Shindo island. You can easily walk around both Modo and Shindo in an hour or two. There are places to eat and spend the night, but Jangbo island is the biggest of the three and has the best facilities, beaches, restaurants, and walking biking trails.
Jangbo Island
The island is located one hour and 40 minutes from Seoul. To get there take airport express train from Seoul Station and get off at Unseo station and then transfer to a bus going to Sammok wharf in Yeongjong Island, Incheon. The ferry from there takes 40 minutes. The last ferry back leaves at 6 pm. There are plenty of places to stay near the beaches which are a short walk from the ferry terminal. This is also a popular place to camp as there are camping grounds near the ferry terminal. There is a mountain hiking trail that follows the ridge line all over the island and is a great hike. If you go to Jangbong island, it is worth stopping off at Shindo and Modo islands first and take a walk. A number of K dramas have been filmed on these islands.
More info from Visit Incheon web page follows:
Coastal Trail connecting Sindo Island, Sido Island and Modo Islands
Come to the triplet islands and have a bike tour around them for a fantastic ride along the shoreline. The triplet islands are very well known as one of the best spots in Korea for a bike tour. Come down to the Sinsimodo Islands for a safe and pleasant bicycle touring. Take a boat at Sammok Quay in Yeongjongdo Island. You will get to Sindo Island Quay in about 10 minutes. The three islands of Sindo Island, Sido Island and Modo Island are all connected by bridges, so you can tour all of them in a day. You can rent a bike on the island. There are only a few cars on the road, thus the island is recognized as one of the best places for bike riders.
Sindo Island Pureun Beonmal, a designated traditional agricultural village
The name Sindo Island (literally “the island of trust”) has come from the fact that its residents are conscientious and innocent. It is in this context that the salt produced in the island is called jinyeom (literally “genuine salt”). As the island have mud flats, salt evaporation ponds, and rice paddies, visitors can enjoy everything they can expect from the country’s rural area in Sindo Island Pureun Beotmal designated by the government as a traditional agricultural village.
Sinsido Island Yeondogyo Bridge
Sindo Island is connected to Sido Island by a bridge. The name of Sido Island has come from the legend that troops of the Joseon Dynasty practiced archery in Manisan Mountain with targets set in Sido Island (“an arrow island”). The island is also called “Salseom (‘sal’ also means an arrow in Korean).” Given the actual distance between the two locations, the story is hardly credible, but the idea is intriguing enough. Sido Island has been filming locations for popular TV dramas such as “Full House” and “Sad Love Story” because of the harmony between its slow slope hills and the sea.
Sugi Beach, the filming location of ‘Full House’
Sugi Beach in Sido Island was the filming location for the popular TV series called ‘Full House.’ You can see a few islands in the distance. The beach is covered with quality and beautiful white sands. Main characters in the TV drama series often spent time together here. Who would not have fallen in love with each other in such a beautiful environment?
Simodo Island Yeondogyo Bridge
Sido Island and Modo Island are connected by a bridge. Believe it or not, you can get to a totally different island in just a few minutes. The name Modo Island comes from the word ttiyeom (‘tti’ refers to King cogongrass). The legend says that fishermen in the region once complained that his fish net only had grass instead of fish. ‘Mo’ in Modo Island means ‘grass’ in Chinese.
Baemikkumi Sculpture Park
Baemikkumi Sculpture Park is located on Baemikkumi Beach in Modo Island. The ‘Baemikkumi’ (the local dialect meaning a hole in the bottom of a ship) has come from the fact the beach is as flat as the bottom of a ship. The beach is also famous for a sculpture park featuring a number of surreal erotic sculptures. Blue water, white sand, and dreamlike sculptures blend well with one another. The sculpture park has become a reason to many for a visit to Modo Island.
The Sinsimodo Islands, a paradise for bike enthusiasts
Together, the Sinsimodo Islands are small but pretty places to visit. Most notably, as they are connected, the Sinsimodo Islands will sustain the fame of a paradise for bikers in the West Sea for a long time to come.
Yeongjong Seaside Park 영종해변공원 -yeongjonghaebyeongong-won
Yeongjong seaside park is on the other side of the island. From the airport, you can get off at Unseo station and take a bus or taxi to the Yeongjong Seaside park. The park features a 5.6-kilometer rail bike that runs along the coast with great views. At the entrance to the park, there is a small beach. If you walk along the beach you will come to the Fishmarket complex which is a newly developing area lined with restaurants, hotels and is a colorful area to walk about.
other things to do
Yeongjongdo History Museum
The museum traces the history of Yeongjong Island. It is located on a hill next to the rail park.
The Incheon free economic zone (IFEZ) IFEZ has a nice FB and web page filled with information on things to do in Songdo, Cheongha, and Yeongjong International cities. Worth a visit.
Here is some information on local attractions I just discovered.
Let us introduce Yeongjong Dulle-gil where you can enjoy the nature of Yeongjongdo while looking around the sea of Incheon. How about taking a walk along Yeongjong Dulle-gil where you can get refreshed while following the quarantine rules?
Comment: every place has a ‘Dulle-gil” (walking trail) nowadays. Korea has lots of things to offer foreign visitors, but unfortunately, there still is not a lot of information on Korean tourism written in English. For example, the Yeoungjong International city Dulle-Gil (map above) is a nice trail, but because there is almost no information on the trail other than a few references here and there in Korean, most foreign visitors and Korean visitors as well simply don’t know that it even exists. This is sad because Korea has so much to offer foreign visitors. This is a small problem that can be easily fixed if the Korean tourism authorities took a more proactive approach to promote Korean tourism. The above map is only in Korean, is incomplete, and there are few if any references to the Dulle-Gil anywhere online or in the community making it challenging to follow the trail. At the minimum, there should be a clearly labeled map in English/Korean and maybe by attractions at every subway station. Some stations do a great job, others not so much.
World Peace Forest Yeongjong 세계평화의숲 (segyepyeonghwaui sup)
This is one of the hidden gems of living in Yeong Jong island. It is a five-mile-long trail that goes through pine forests, cherry trees, and along a lake. There is a lotus pond at one end of the trail. The trail leads to Paekrungsan mountain which is a nice hike. There is almost no information in English on this park and even locals don’t seem to know much about it. If you google it you will find my earlier blog posting on it.
We hike it daily. There are deer, foxes, wild cats, birds, snakes on the trail.
The trail was built in 2003 or so when they build the airport. The airport authorities had to promise to preserve most of the island in a natural state. As part of that commitment, they build the world peace forest with the two national airline carriers donating land, volunteers, and materials to build the park.
The park has become mature now and is much better than when I first encountered it in 2003 or so. Still not much information on the park though.
It would be a great thing to advertise as it is so close to the airport (less than five miles away).
Transportation options
By driving drive to Unseo station area and park nearby.
By public transit
Take the AREX train and get off at Unseo station (two stops from Terminal 2). Take the A exit and turn either left or right. If you turn left taking exit A from the AREX station and cross the street you will see the trailhead heading up Pakeyungsan mountain. If you turn right and go past the Lotte Mart you will see the trailhead across the street. It is a five-mile round trip walk, mostly flat except for the mountain trails along Pakeyungsan.
Review of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Series
One of the most interesting and unique books I have read recently is the “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” series. There were six books in the series
A sequel, titled Hollow City, was released on January 14, 2014.[13] The novel is set immediately after the first and sees Jacob and his friends fleeing from Miss Peregrines to the “peculiar capital of the world”, London.[14]
The third installment in Miss Peregrine’s series, titled Library of Souls, was announced in early 2015.[15] It was released on September 22, 2015.[15]
And there was a movie version, with Samuel L Jackson as the main villain.
alma peregrine
The books all follow a similar pattern. Old fake photos are interspersed throughout the books illustrating key people and events.
The original idea was to write a children’s book featuring the old photos and the story that photos told.
The series is somewhat like the Harry Potter series, a young man discovers a secret hidden world that he is a part of and he is destined for great things. The series unfolds as a grand battle between good and evil with the future of not only the peculiar world at fate but the entire world. It is also somewhat like the X files. Mutant children are hidden away at boarding schools hidden in time loops to protect them from prosecution in the larger world. The leaders of the peculiar world are women who are also part birds.
The main villain, Caul, is the sister of the main Ymbryn bird lady, Alma Peregrine. He intends to enslave all of pecurliardom and then enslave the normal as well. Her wards play a decisive role in the eventual defeat of Cual and his army of wrights, and hollogasts – who are terrifying creatures both in the book and in the movie.
How they defeat them I will leave the reader to read about as I don’t want to spoil the book or movie.
I disagree with the critics of the movie. The average rating was 3 out of 4, I might give it a 4 out of 4. The movie version is pretty close to the book and is one of the better adaptations of a book I have seen. I hope they make a sequel.
All in all, one of the most original, inventive, and yes terrifying young adult SF horror series I have read in years.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a contemporary fantasy debut novel by American author Ransom Riggs. The story is told through a combination of narrative and a mix of vernacular and found photography from the personal archives of collectors listed by the author.
This young adult book was originally intended to be a picture book featuring photographs Riggs had collected, but on the advice of an editor at Quirk Books, he used the photographs as a guide from which to put together a narrative.[1][2] Riggs was a collector of photographs but needed more for his novel. He met Leonard Lightfoot, a well-known collector at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, and was introduced to other collectors.[3] The result was a story about a boy who follows clues from his grandfather’s old photographs, tales, and his grandfather’s last words which lead him on an adventure that takes him to a large abandoned orphanage on Cairnholm, a fictional Welsh island.[2]
The book has been a New York Times bestseller.[1][4] It reached the #1 spot on the Children’s Chapter Books list on April 29, 2012, after being on the list for 45 weeks,[5] remaining there until May 20, when it dropped to the fourth spot on the list.[6][7][8] Critics have generally praised the book for the creative use of vintage photographs in the sepia style and surrealist form, as well as good characterization and settings.
As a child, Jacob Magellan Portman has been fascinated with his grandfather Abraham’s stories about surviving as a Jew during World War II, running from man-eating monsters, and living with peculiar children in a secret home guarded by “a wise old bird”. As Jacob grows older, he begins to doubt the stories until the arrival of his grandfather’s death. Blood-strewn, exhausted, and lying in his back garden on the outskirts of Florida Woods, Abraham’s last words are a mystery: “…find the bird in the loop on the other side of the old man’s grave on September 3, 1940, and tell them what happened.” As his grandfather dies, Jacob catches sight of a horrific monster just like the ones described in Abraham’s stories. Soon, he starts experiencing trauma and being plagued with nightmares relating to those monsters. Believing their son to be going crazy, Jacob’s parents take him to Dr. Golan, a psychiatrist, who suggests that Jacob go to Cairnholm, Wales, the location of his grandfather’s children’s home to confront the place of his trauma. On his own, Jacob locates and explores the old house only to find it empty and everything caked in dust. According to the local people, the place is haunted and a bomb had killed all its inhabitants many years ago, on September 3, 1940.
Sensing a connection, Jacob refuses to give up and returns to the house one more time, where he encounters a mysterious girl who can conjure fire with her hands whom he follows, trying to question her after hearing her call out his grandfather’s name. They reach the bogs surrounding the house before Jacob realizes that the people of Cairnholm are different, including the patrons at the inn and his father isn’t there. Luckily, a confused Jacob is rescued by the girl from before and an invisible boy, who introduce themselves as Emma Bloom and Millard Nulling’s respectively. A suspicious Emma holds him captive and brings him to the children’s home, where he finds it magically transformed to the paradise of his grandfather’s stories, complete with the peculiar children and the “wise old bird”, who is, in fact, the headmistress Miss Alma LeMay Peregrine (named after that well-known raptorial bird of prey the peregrine falcon).
There Jacob is also introduced to other peculiar children apart from Emma and Millard: Bronwyn Bruntley, a girl with incredible strength, Claire Densmore, a little girl with an extra mouth at the back of her head, Olive Abroholos Elephanta, a little girl who can levitate, Enoch O’Connor, a boy who can animate non-living things for a short amount of time by transplanting organs, Hugh Apiston, a boy with bees living in his stomach, Fiona Frauenfeld, a girl with an affinity for growing plants, and Horace Somnusson, a boy with prophetic dreams. Jacob is shocked and befuddled by the state of the place, so Olive and Millard explain that they are currently existing in a time loop, a place where time is constantly reversed and where they all relive the same day every day, September 3, 1940. This is all thanks to Miss Peregrine, a special type of peculiar being known as a ymbryne, one who can shapeshift into birds (namely a peregrine falcon after which she is named) and manipulate time. Apart from keeping them alive (if not the bomb would have killed them), this time loop also protects the peculiar children from being hunted by hollowgast — humanoid, tentacle-mouthed creatures that devour peculiars. That experiment occurred in the Siberian tundra, which was marked by a cataclysmic explosion, and from there the hollowgast was born. In addition to hollowgast being a threat, hollows who have consumed enough peculiars are evolved into wights, beings who resemble humans in every aspect save their eyes, which have no pupils. These wights’ ultimate goal is to gain power from the peculiars, as well as morph every one of their fellow hollowgast into wights that will rule the world.
Soon, Miss Peregrine’s former mentor Miss Avocet arrives at the loop mad with grief over the kidnapping of her wards to wights, who have executed their plan of raiding loops. Fearing for the children’s safety, Jacob is tasked with the job of reporting any suspicious information going on in the outside world. With his comings and goings, Jacob and Emma begin to develop feelings for each other, as well as get a glimpse into his peculiar self: he can see the hollows while other peculiars can’t, just like his grandfather. Miss Peregrine’s fears are confirmed when eyeless sheep bodies begin to pile up, and Martin, a worker in the Cairnholm Local Museum, is killed. Going against Miss Peregrine’s orders to not leave the house, Enoch, Bronwyn, Emma, Jacob, and Millard escape, and Enoch uses a sheep heart to briefly bring Martin back to life. Martin manages to inform the group of the presence of a wight on the island, but by then it is too late as one appears right behind them along with a hollow companion. To Jacob’s shock, he reveals himself to be Dr. Golan, as well as Jacob’s family’s hired lawn gardener, and Jacob’s middle school bus driver. Jacob refuses Golan’s offer to join him in finding peculiars and decides to stay with his friends. Golan sends his hollow after the group, and Emma and Jacob split up from the rest. After a brief scuffle, Jacob kills it with a pair of sheep shears. They make their way back to the orphanage, but discover that Golan has kidnapped Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet and locked the rest of the children in the house.
Dr. Golan warns them not to attempt to rescue Miss Peregrine and leaves the loop, but Millard manages to sneak out invisibly and follow him. Jacob and his friends follow Millard’s tracks and find Golan near a lighthouse trying to catch a boat with his other wight comrades. During the process of saving Miss Peregrine, who is trapped in her bird form, Millard is wounded from a gunshot, but Golan is ultimately killed by Jacob. Just then, the other wights arrive and even though they can rescue Miss Peregrine, Miss Avocet is taken away. Returning to the orphanage, they find it destroyed, leaving them having to track down the wights and discover how to help Miss Peregrine. It is then Jacob decides to follow his friends and returns to the present to say goodbye to his father, but promises to return when his mission is finished. Guided by only a prophetic dream from Horace, they set sail to find help.
Otherwise known as synergist (a word meaning “peculiar spirit” in the Old Peculiar language, which is, in turn, the author’s adaptation of Old English, or Anglo-Saxon language), peculiar folk are a branch of humanity possessing a second soul which manifests itself in strange ways such as abnormal characteristics and abilities commonly referred to as peculiarities. Very rarely are peculiar children born to peculiar parents as the essence or gene of peculiarity often skips entire generations, making peculiar populations vastly less than that normal people.
A ymbryne (pronounced IMM-brinn) is a specific kind of female peculiar who can transform into distinct birds, control and manipulate time as she sees fit, and govern the peculiar world. Most essentially, the ability to control time lets these women possess a period of historical time by looping it, creating a potentially eternal sanctuary for peculiars. They often set out into the present-day world to rescue peculiars in dire situations or to search for those without a ymbryne. Ymbryne means “revolution” or “circuit” in Old Peculiar.
The Council of Ymbrynes is the official government and law of peculiardom. Their responsibilities include the maintenance of loop order, the writing or amending of laws regularly, and the determination of sentences for those convicted of a crime. Members are not specified.
Time loops are the fabric of the peculiar world, often referred to as peculiardom. Similar to towns, cities, states, and countries, they act as specific locations. Together they create a vast and quite complex world of varying whereabouts and dates only peculiars can enter. Within these loops, peculiars live indefinitely without aging or reliving previous experiences, even as the day around them repeats itself. While it may appear to be a form of eternal youth, it is the suspension of time inevitable. In reality, many, if not all, of Miss Peregrine’s children are over fifty years old, but the loop detains them as teenagers and small children physically and mentally. A loop must be reset daily or it will collapse, leaving all peculiars within it exposed to the outside world.
As a result of time loops, those who reside in them may not be able to return to the present day, depending on how long they’ve been there. In a mere matter of hours outside of the loop, the amount of time evaded will catch up. An example of this is Miss Peregrine’s former ward, a young girl named Charlotte who left the loop while Miss Peregrine was away. She was discovered by police in the mid-1980s and sent to a welfare agency. When Miss Peregrine found her just two days later, she’d already aged thirty-five years. Although she survived the ordeal, the unnatural aging process had caused Charlotte a great deal of mental disorder, and she was sent to live with Miss Nightjar, a ymbryne more suited for her care. The same process of deterioration applies to anything taken out of time loops as another instance was an apple Jacob took back to the inn where he and his father were staying in the present day. He left it on the nightstand next to his bed as he fell asleep that night, but by morning, found it had rotted to the point of disintegrating.
A word meaning “empty spirit”. The hollowgast are monsters who feed on peculiars. They were created by a freak accident in an unethical and illegal experiment conducted by Miss Peregrine’s two brothers. Hundreds had joined their cause, and with the aid of misguided but powerful ymbrynes, it was intended to achieve immortality without the limitations of time loops. Instead, it led to a catastrophic collapse that destroyed half of Siberia where the experiment took place. Everyone involved was presumed dead, but their corpses became deformed and crawled back to a lesser, animalistic state of life. Apart from their shadows, hollows are invisible to all but a gifted few including Abraham and Jacob Portman. They are also identified by the groups of large tentacle-like tongues that occupy their grotesquely stretched mouths. It is speculated that this outcome was the result of being reverse-aged to a time before their souls existed, thus the word hollowgast. Their souls having been erased, hollows possess no form of peculiarity, rendering them unable to enter time loops.
If a hollow consumes enough peculiar souls, its original human form is restored, except irises and pupils leaving the eyes entirely white. Because of this, peculiars refer to these evolved creatures as wights. They possess no extraordinary abilities but are highly skilled in posing as normal people under multiple identities and can even pass into time loops. Much of their existence revolves around procuring peculiars for remaining hollows to devour. Once they set their eyes on a peculiar child, they will follow them around, as they did with Jacob to the island.
Jacob Magellan Portman— A 16-year-old American teenager and the protagonist of the story. Jacob becomes subject to acute stress reaction after witnessing his grandfather’s death and claiming that a monster from his grandfather’s childhood stories had killed him. Everyone he knows begins to consider him crazy and avoids him. His parents eventually take him to see a psychiatrist, on whose instruction Jacob’s dad takes him on a trip to the Welsh island where his grandfather grew up. There, Jacob discovers that the stories of a magical orphanage and both peculiar children and the monster are real. He also learns that the ability to see these monsters is an extremely rare peculiarity as they are invisible to all but a few like himself.
Abraham Portman— Abraham was Jacob’s grandfather who also had the peculiarity of seeing the monsters. He left Miss Peregrine’s loop as a young man to join both the war against Germany and the war against the hollowgast, promising to make a home in America for his fellow peculiars. But having started a family of his own during his time in the normal world, he never went back for them. Despite this, he was still pressured into eradicating hollows, resulting in long, frequent hunting trips away from his wife and two children, a secret which they took as careless neglect. Over the years, Abraham became a near-stranger to everyone he knew and, in his old age, was killed by one of the very monsters he had fought so valiantly to defeat. Police simply concluded that dementia and an attack by wild animals were the cause of his death.
Emma Bloom— Emma is a teenager under Miss Peregrine’s care. Her peculiarity manifested in her hands when she was ten years old. They began to glow red, becoming painfully hot to the point of generating fire. Emma had a romantic relationship with Abraham which they maintained even as he went to war until he stopped responding to her letters. After years without replying, Abraham finally wrote her back simply to tell her he could no longer do so because he’d married another woman. Emma became heartbroken and bitter but still mourned him upon learning of his death when his grandson Jacob arrived in Miss Peregrine’s time loop. Although she treated Jacob harshly at first, their mutual sorrow for Abraham started a deeply sincere relationship between them.
Millard Nullings— Millard is a young adolescent possessing the peculiarity of invisibility which is said to be quite uncommon. He chooses to go about nude to stay fully invisible but wears clothes at supper on Miss Peregrine’s orders. He is also exceptionally well-versed in all things peculiar and, as a hobby, spends much of his time documenting every little detail of the day they live in.
Bronwyn Bruntley— A young adolescent possessing super-human strength, Bronwyn is also kindhearted and a loyal friend. She respects and obeys Miss Peregrine more than her fellow wards do, often correcting them and citing rules they’re meant to follow, mostly in fear of anyone getting in trouble. The only occasions for which she refuses to cooperate are when she is made to dress lady-like. Before Miss Peregrine took her and her older brother Victor in, Bronwyn discovered her strength at the age of ten when she snapped their abusive stepfather’s neck without actually meaning to.
Enoch O’Connor— A young adolescent with the ability to resurrect the dead and bring inanimate objects to life for a limited time by using the extracted organs of other living things. Enoch was born to a family of undertakers and, before moving into time loops, caused tremendous confusion by frequently bringing the dead to life at his father’s funeral parlor. He is the least liked of Miss Peregrine’s wards as the others are put off by his selfish behavior, negative thinking, and obsession with violence. His previous ymbryne was never specified, nor were his reasons for relocating to Miss Peregrine’s loop.
Olive Abroholos Elephanta— Olive is the second youngest to Claire and comes across as quite giddy and openly friendly. Her peculiarity renders her lighter than air, making her float freely like a balloon. She has barely any control over it and must always be weighed down or bound to something to keep from floating away. Her most routine means is a pair of heavy leaden shoes.
Hugh Apiston— Hugh is a teenager with bees living in his stomach. His peculiarity allows him to communicate with them and command them. He is in love with Fiona.
Horace Somnusson— Horace is a young adolescent capable of having prophetic dreams, albeit very scarcely. They occur most often as nightmares of events so horrifying, they tend to throw him into bouts of shock. He can be quite a snob and is an extremely passionate follower of fashion, commonly seen in a suit and tie with a top hat and monocle.
Fiona Frauenfeld— Fiona is a teenager possessing power over plants. Her peculiarity allows her to manipulate their life and growth and control their movements. She speaks with a thick Irish accent, though she rarely speaks at all, and has a romantic, symbiotic relationship with Hugh.
Claire Densmore— The youngest of all Miss Peregrine’s wards, Claire also possesses the most grotesque peculiarity in their midst: a second mouth in the back of her head with sharp teeth, hidden beneath her blonde curls. She is typically cheerful but becomes shy and self-conscious when made to dine with others.
Victor Bruntley— Miss Peregrine once had many more peculiars under her care, many of whom were killed by the hollowgast, including Bronwyn’s older brother Victor. Like Bronwyn, Victor possessed immense physical strength. He left during the loop’s early days, claiming he couldn’t stand being trapped there; it was a reckless decision that led to his demise. Until his burial when the loop closed, his lifeless body had remained at Miss Peregrine’s home, locked away in his bedroom and neatly laid to rest in bed. Some of the children would occasionally sneak in and have Enoch resurrect him, though he always seemed to be in a rush to get back to the afterlife.
The Twins— The Twins appear as two short children, wearing sacks on their heads that have holes for the eyes, however without their masks, they have pale gray, scaly skin with gray serpentine eyes and fangs. Not much is known about Twin’s personalities, besides the fact that they are shy and quiet because they do not speak to anyone besides each other. Not too much is known about their peculiarity, but in the movie, they were capable of turning a Wight into stone with just a glare, similar to Medusa in Greek Mythology. It was believed in the book they had a telepathic bond.
All ymbrynes take on last names which correspond to the type of bird into which they can shapeshift (e.g., Miss Peregrine can turn into a peregrine falcon).
Alma LeFay Peregrine— Miss Peregrine is a highly skilled ymbryne and the headmistress of her children’s-home. She is a delicate woman who enjoys smoking a pipe and adores her charges, though she can be strict at times. At a very young age, she learned to hone her peculiarity as a student under Miss Avocet. Miss Peregrine’s loop is located on the fictional island of Cairnholm, Wales, on September 3, 1940, though it’s September 2 for the first few hours.
Esmerelda Avocet— Miss Avocet is an elderly and wise woman from the mid-Victorian period in England. Having taught most notable ymbrynes to master their craft, she is regarded as near-royalty. Her loop is in Derbyshire on July 15, 1867, but it was invaded by wights and hollowgast, forcing her to flee to Miss Peregrine’s loop.
Miss Nightjar— Miss Nightjar takes in difficult cases of peculiars. One such case being Miss Peregrine’s former ward, Charlotte. Miss Nightjar’s loop is in Swansea, Wales on April 3, 1901, and is co-run by Miss Thrush.
Miss Finch— Miss Finch has an aunt who is also a ymbryne but prefers to stay in finch Their loop is based in London, but the date is not stated.
Millicent Thrush— Miss Thrush has a loop in London and is headmistress of a children’s home there but also co-runs Miss Nightjar’s special-care home.
Miss Kestrel— Possibly a rather historical ymbryne. Enoch mentions an old story of her being injured in a road accident. The incident is said to have trapped her in the form of a kestrel for an entire week, leading to the collapse of her loop before she healed. Location and date are not stated.
Balenciaga Wren— Miss Wren is the headmistress of a menagerie for peculiar animals. Her loop is based in mainland Wales in a much older, unknown time.
Miss Gannett— Miss Gannett has a loop in Ireland, in June of 1770.
Miss Treecreeper— Miss Peregrine mentions her name but doesn’t remember where or when her loop is based.
Franklin Portman— Jacob’s father, Frank, is an unemployed, amateur ornithologist who volunteers at a bird rescue and likes to pass it off as his job. He also spends much of his time writing manuscripts for nature books, though he’s never completed one, giving up on his every project midway. His whole life, he’s had a rather rough relationship with his father, Abraham, as he was rarely around. Frank is very protective of his son but understands his need for room to grow and learn on his own.
Maryann Portman— Maryann is Jacob’s obsessively materialistic mother and Franklin’s wife. She comes from a wealthy family that owns a drugstore company with one hundred and fifteen branches across the state of Florida. While she loves her son and is immensely protective of him, she tends to be more concerned about public image and what people think of them.
Golan— Dr. Golan was one of the many peculiars who supported and participated in the disastrous experiment that created the hollowgast. He is among those who have reached the state of being a wight, a term he disowns as “their word.” He is a licensed psychiatrist and, to uncover information on Miss Peregrine’s loop, has been stalking the Portman family for years under many a guise including their yardman, Jacob’s middle school bus driver Mr. Barron, and ultimately himself when Jacob begins seeing him for therapy.
Malthus— Malthus was once a peculiar and an old friend of Dr. Golan’s who also joined the rebellion against the ymbrynes, dying by the results of the experiment designed to overthrow them and reemerging a hollow. He now travels with the restored Golan, devouring peculiars as they discover time loops. For reasons not specified, Golan allowed him to kill Abraham before they could learn the location of Miss Peregrine’s loop. From then on, Malthus haunted Jacob, keeping a vigil on him day and night.
Martin Pagett— Martin is a part-time but knowledgeable and well-spoken curator of a small museum on Cairnholm, though due to the island’s sparse renown and low tourist appeal, they rarely see any patronage. He strikes up a bond with Jacob, giving him a rundown of Cairnholm’s s history and assisting him in learning how the children’s home was destroyed. Martin plays an unwitting but vital role in discovering Malthus and Dr. Golan on the island.
Oggie— Oggie is Martin’s uncle, whom he introduces to Jacob to help him learn more about the fallen children’s home. Elderly and gruff but still sharp of wit, Oggie recalls the strange children and their reclusive headmistress and recounts the bombing in detail, occasionally veering off into rants on the weather and politics. Though he longed to fight for his country, he was too young then and merely watched it all take place.
Susan Portman— Susan is Frank’s younger sister and Jacob’s aunt. While going through Abraham’s possessions with them after his passing, she found his copy of The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and that he had written a brief well-wish to Jacob on the title page. When she gives it to him on his birthday, Jacob unwittingly discovers a letter from Miss Peregrine when it fell out from between the pages.
Ricky— Ricky is described as Jacob’s best and only friend, though their relationship is more of a deal for personal benefit: in exchange for Jacob helping Ricky with his homework, Ricky acts as Jacob’s bodyguard at school.
Miss Peregrine’s spent seventy weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list for children’s chapter books. It reached the number one spot on the list on April 29, 2012, after being on the list for forty-five weeks.[5] It remained there until 20 May, when it dropped to the fourth spot on the list.[6][7][8] The book dropped off the list on September 9, 2012, after sixty-three weeks.[9][10]
According to Deborah Netburn for the Los Angeles Times, the best part of the novel is “a series of black-and-white photos sprinkled throughout the book”.[11]Publishers Weekly called the book “an enjoyable, eccentric read distinguished by well-developed characters, a believable Welsh setting, and some very creepy monsters.”[12]
A sequel, titled Hollow City, was released on January 14, 2014.[13] The novel is set immediately after the first and sees Jacob and his friends fleeing from Miss Peregrines to the “peculiar capital of the world”, London.[14]
The third installment in Miss Peregrine’s series, titled Library of Souls, was announced in early 2015.[15] It was released on September 22, 2015.[15]
An original graphic novel adaptation by Cassandra Jean and Ransom Riggs called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel was released in October 2013.[17]
Filming began in February 2015 in London and the Tampa Bay Area. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, on September 25, 2016, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 30, 2016, by 20th Century Fox.[5] It received mixed reviews and grossed $296 million worldwide against a production budget of $110 million.
Abe Portman has told stories to his grandson Jake about battling monsters and spending his childhood at “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” at Cairnholm, an island off the coast of Wales. The home’s children and their headmistress, Miss Alma Peregrine, possess paranormal abilities and are known as “Peculiars”. One day, Jake finds Abe dying with his eyes removed, and he tells Jake to go to “the loop of September 3, 1943”.
Following advice from Dr. Golan, Jake travels to the United Kingdom to go to Cairnholm with his father Frank to investigate the children’s home, learning that it was destroyed during a Luftwaffe raid. Upon entering the ruins, Jake finds children from Abe’s stories. They take him through a portal and he emerges in the year 1943 when the house was still intact. Miss Peregrine greets him and explains that she belongs to a class of female Peculiars named “Ymbrynes”, who can transform into birds (in Miss Peregrine’s case, a peregrine falcon) and manipulate time. To avoid persecution for being Peculiars, she and her children hide from the outside world in a time loop she created, accessible only to Peculiars and set to September 3, 1943, allowing them to live the same day repeatedly and avoid aging as long as they stay inside it.
Jake is introduced to the rest of the children, including aerokinetic Emma Bloom, who he is attracted to. Jake learns he is also a Peculiar like his grandfather and can see the invisible monsters from Abe’s stories, which are called “Hollowgasts” (or “Hollows”). They are disfigured Peculiar scientists who killed a Ymbryne in a failed experiment to harvest her powers trying to achieve immortality. Led by shapeshifter Mr. Barron, they hunt Peculiars to consume their eyeballs, which allow them to regain visibly human form, but with milky-white eyes, named “Wights”.
A wounded Ymbryne named Miss Avocet arrives, explaining Barron assaulted her in the January 2016 time loop at Blackpool, England, killing her children, and is trying to repeat the failed experiment using more Ymbrynes. Miss Peregrine prepares to move out with her children and Miss Avocet, after learning from Jake that a Hollow may be on the island in the present after sheep were killed. Jake returns to 2016, but finding an elderly man killed by the Hollow, he goes back to the portal to warn them the Hollow is near. However, he is followed by another visitor on the island, an ornithologist who is Mr. Barron.
Barron had tried to extract the location of Ms. Peregrine’s loop from Abe, but he’s hungry Hollow companion, Mr. Malthus (the one on the island), killed Abe before he could do so. He then posed as Dr. Golan, encouraging Jake to go to the island so he could lead him to the loop. Using Jake as a hostage at the children’s home, Barron forces Miss Peregrine to trap herself in bird form and takes her to Blackpool, leaving Jake, the other children, and Miss Avocet as prey for Malthus.
Malthus arrives and kills Miss Avocet, but Jake and the children escape just as the Luftwaffe raid destroys the house, killing Malthus. Without Miss Peregrine to reset it, the loop closes, leaving them stuck in 1943. Rescuing a sunken ocean liner, they travel to Blackpool and enter its January 2016 loop, fight Barron’s Wight and Hollow allies, and rescue Miss Peregrine and other captive Ymbrynes. Barron disguises himself as Jake, hoping to confuse the children who have come to finish him off. But when the last remaining Hollow arrives, Jake can see and avoid it. The Hollow kills Barron and is in turn killed by Jake.
Before the time loop closes, Jake says goodbye to the children as they exit and return to their ship in 1943 while he stays in 2016, travels to Florida, and relates his adventures to Abe, who is alive and well: Barron’s death at the beginning of 2016 erased his presence in Florida later on. Abe gives Jake a map of international time loops, allowing Jake to reunite with his friends and Emma in 1943. They declare their feelings for each other and kiss. The children and Miss Peregrine sail their ship, seeking a happy time loop.
Eva Greenas Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine, the strict but clever and caring Ymbryne headmistress of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children who can transform into a peregrine falcon and manipulate time[6]
Terence Stampas Abe Portman, Jake’s grandfather who can see the invisible Hollows
Judi Denchas Miss Esmeralda Avocet, the Ymbryne headmistress of another shelter for Peculiar Children in Blackpool. Like Miss Peregrine, Miss Avocet can manipulate time; she can transform into an avocet.
Asa Butterfieldas Jake Portman, a 16-year-old American teenager, and Abe’s grandson. He visits Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and is given, by Miss Peregrine, the task/promise of protecting the children. Like his grandfather, Jake can see the invisible Hollows.
Butterfield also portrays Mr. Barron’s disguised as Jake[9]
Ella Purnellas Emma Bloom, an aerokinetic teenager who can manipulate air and can breathe underwater by creating liquid bubbles of air. She is lighter than air and must always wear lead shoes or a tether to keep from floating away. Emma is also Abe’s former love interest in the 1940s and Jake’s current love interest.
Finlay MacMillan as Enoch O’Connor, a teenager and Olive’s love interest who can reanimate the deadand bring inanimate objects to life as his living puppets for a limited time by placing a heart inside
Lauren McCrostieas Olive Abroholos Elephanta, a pyrokinetic red-haired teenager, and Enoch’s love interest. She has to wear special black gloves to prevent burning everything she touches.
Cameron King as the voice and motion-capture of Millard Nullings, an invisibleboy[10]
Pixie Daviesas Bronwyn Bruntley, a young girl with superhuman strength, Victor’s sister
Georgia Pemberton as Fiona Frauenfeld, a young girl who can control and maintain plants including the vegetables in Miss Peregrine’s garden[10]
Milo Parkeras Hugh Apiston, a boy with bees living in his stomach[10]
Raffaella Chapmanas Claire Densmore, a young girl with an additional mouth hidden in the back of her head[10]
Hayden Keeler-Stone as Horace Somnusson, a boy who can project his dreams (which are sometimes prophetic) through a monocle[10]
Joseph and Thomas Orwell as the Twins, two masked gorgon-like twin boys who turn anyone who sees them into stone. They normally wear hoods to hide their faces.
Louis Davison as Victor Brantley, Bronwyn’s late brother who had the same ability as her. He was killed by a hollow infiltrator before the events in the film and was briefly brought back to life by Enoch.[10]
Samuel L. Jacksonas Mr. Barron, the shape-shifting leader of the Wights and Hollows. Barron and his Wight and Hollow minions hunt Peculiars and devour their eyes to recover human form. Barron also believes by doing this that he is invincible. His shape-shifting peculiarity allows him to disguise himself as another person. When he uses his peculiarity to become a person who doesn’t exist, his white eyes don’t change, so he has to wear contact lenses. He can also form blades, axes, and/or lassos with his own hands.
Chris O’Dowdas Franklin “Frank” Portman, Jake’s father and Abe’s son
Kim Dickensas Maryann Portman (credited as “Jake’s Mom”), Jake’s mother[7], and an up-and-coming businesswoman
O-Lan Jonesas Shelly, Jake’s drugstore supervisor, and co-worker
Jennifer Jarackas as Susie Portman, Frank’s sister, and Jake’s aunt. She passes Jake her late father’s gift which gives him the way to find Miss Peregrine’s time loop.
George Vricos as Bobby, Judy’s husband, and Jake’s uncle
Brooke Jaye Taylor as Judy, Bobby’s wife, and Jake’s other aunt
Ioan Hefin as Kev, the bartender on Cairnholm in the present day
Nicholas Ameras Oggie, a blind and elderly present-day resident of Cairnholm
Shaun Thomas and Justin Davies as Dylan and Worm, two present-day teenage Welsh residents whom Jake meets in Cairnholm
Director Tim Burton makes a cameo appearance in the film as a visitor at the funfair in Blackpool who gets a skeleton thrown at him by a Hollow. Glen Mexted, who previously worked with Burton as an extra in both Dark Shadows and the music video for the Killers‘ “Here with Me“, also appears in the same scene as a customer eating ice cream.
On July 28, 2014, Eva Green was set to play Miss Peregrine in the film; Mischa Barton, Lucy Hale, and Alison Sudol were also considered.[6] On September 24, 2014, it was announced that Asa Butterfield was being eyed for the second lead role as Burton’s choice, but that at that time he had not yet been offered the role.[15] On November 5, 2014, Ella Purnell was offered a role and was in final talks to join the film; it was also reported that Butterfield had been offered the male lead role, and was the favored choice.[16] On February 6, 2015, Samuel L. Jackson was added to the cast to play Mr. Barron, while Butterfield was confirmed for the second lead role.[9]Terence Stamp, Chris O’Dowd, Rupert Everett, Kim Dickens, and Judi Dench were announced as being in the cast on March 12, 2015.[7]
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was originally set for a release date of July 31, 2015.[21] The release date moved to March 4, 2016, then again to December 25, 2016,[5] before finally moving to September 30, 2016.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children grossed $87.2 million in the United States and Canada and $207.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $295.1 million, against a production budget of $110 million.[3]
In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside Deepwater Horizon and was projected to gross around $25 million from 3,522 theaters in its opening weekend.[4][22] In total, the film earned $28.9 million during its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office.[23] The opening was on par with Dark Shadows‘ $29.7 million in 2012, Burton’s last big budgeted film.[23]Variety called it “a mediocre start” given the film’s $110 million budget.[24]
It had number one openings in Russia ($6.3 million), France ($5.3 million), Mexico (3.8 million), Australia ($3.1 million), Brazil ($2.7 million) and the Philippines ($1.7 million), and the biggest opening for Burton in Malaysia and Indonesia.[25][26] In South Korea, it debuted at number two with $5.2 million. The film was released in China and Italy in December 2016 and Japan in February 2017.[27]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 253 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children proves a suitable match for Tim Burton’s distinctive style, even if it’s on stronger footing as a visual experience than a narrative one.”[28] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B+” on an A+ to F scale.[30][31]
IGN critic Samantha Ladwig gave the film a 7.2/10, summarizing her review with: “Though there are lingering questions about certain characters by the time the end credits roll, the film’s striking visuals help compensate for its unemotional and anti-climactic script.”[32] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote “Easily the director’s finest work since his masterful 2007 screen adaptation of Sweeney Todd, and a striking reminder of what an unfettered gothic imagination can achieve with the right focus and an infusion of discipline.”[33]USA Today‘s Brian Truitt gave the film 3.5 out of 4 and wrote, “After a long run of dystopianYA movies for teen crowds, Burton is just the right guy to make cinema weird again.”[34] Calvin Wilson of St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the film 3.5 out of 4 and stated, “Burton delivers his most ambitious and engaging film since Sweeney Todd (2007). Although the story becomes increasingly complex as it goes along, the emotional payoff is more than worth it.”[35]
Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film 3 out of 4 and wrote “The very idea of this – at once gruesome and darkly funny — is perfectly suited to Burton’s sensibility, which also reveals itself in the casting of Butterfield, who has the quality of a young, slightly less freaky Johnny Depp.”[36]The Guardian‘sJordan Hoffman gave the film 4 out of 5 and said, “We get the playfulness of seeing quirky magic powers mixed with the familiarity of how a time loop plays out. Add in Burton’s authorial visual stamp and what we’ve got is an extremely pleasing formula. It gels as Tim Burton’s best (non-musical) live-action movie for 20 years.”[37]James Berardinelli from ReelViews gave the film 3 out of 4 and stated, “Overall, despite feeling a little long and suffering from a rushed ending, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a fresh and engaging storybook adventure that should appeal to viewers both inside and out of the core demographic.”[38]The New York Times‘sManohla Dargis gave a positive review, writing: “The story gets busy — you may get lost in 1943 or perhaps closer to the present — but it scarcely matters. Mr. Burton’s attention to detail and the ebb and flow of tone (scary, funny, eerie), as well as his sensitive, gentle work particularly with the child actors, make each new turn another occasion for unfettered imagination.”[39] Devan Coggan from Entertainment Weekly gave the film “B-” (67/100), describing the film “The film chooses style over substance, emphasizing how cool the children’s powers are without fleshing them out as full characters. To compete with Burton’s best, his heroic weirdos need a little more heart — and the monsters need sharper teeth.”[40]
Kyle Smith of the New York Post, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times, and Tom Huddleston of Time Out decried the film. According to Smith, who gave the film 2 stars out of 4: “It may be senseless, but it’s sumptuous: the picture looks like it cost about a billion bucks, with absolutely every detail giving Burton an excuse to take his mad picture-book mind and let loose, the way Emma the girl full of air keeps soaring away from earthly constraints. Burton may give us a bland hero, a tepid love story, and a muddled plot but, hey, at least he’s got a skeleton army doing battle with giant tentacle monsters at an amusement park.”[41] Roeper, who scored the film 1.5 stars out of 4, began his review by writing: “I’m wondering if the mutant kids at Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children ever play basketball against their rivals across the pond, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. I’d watch that. I’d certainly rather watch that than Tim Burton’s adaptation of the popular children’s book about a school for freakishly gifted children. This is a messy, confusing, uninvolving mishmash of old-school practical effects and CGI battles that feels … off nearly every misstep of the way.[42] Tom Huddleston of Time Out gave the film 2 stars out of 5, writing: “Director Tim Burton likes his films busy: watch a classic like Beetlejuice or Batman, and you’ll be pushed to find a single frame that isn’t packed with background detail, weird creatures, ornate furnishings, and intricate costumes. The problem with his new film, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, is that the script is every bit as busy and it can get pretty confusing.”[43]
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