The truth waiting in the object

"All truths wait in all things." - Walt Whitman

Jane Hirshfield's interview

one person's tilt of memory
like it were astronomical
and had a course

Spare poem

How would you describe a  Spare poem ?

Not spare like sparse
spare like stepney

Muddy rice and black sake

On reading following Bashos lines

I sit facing muddy sake
and black rice

I thought of the images of Muddy rice and black sake

"Avoid
Adjectives of scale,
, you will love the world more and desire it less.” - Rober Hass paraphrasing Basho.

In the sky

Birds flew together
like
grad caps

Green peach

A peach
is
green peach
at first

Does red apple start green?

Creativity

is like sugarcane
get the most out of it
by optimally recycling
it through the machine

use it like
an essential oil
a drop is enough
to get you
started

Dip in that inkwell
often but scantily

I started with thoughts become things rock inspiration with words become things in mind, but when I started writing it out, it took its own direction and became two things.

Leverage

1. employing experts. Steve jobs about hiring smart people
2. Integration instead of reinventing the wheel.

Starting with a word

solopreneur to slopreneur
entrepreneur to rentrepreneur

This is how
words can become things

By naming it
you can make it

At a Home Sales Office

A broken
message rock

"Thoug hts
  becom e
    Thin  gs"

A child had chucked it
to the ground
not sure if

with  thought
to break it
to see if it would break
to see if it would not break
to see if it will bounce like a ball

Rocks Message
I break

What happened to my morning tea?

Why does coffee heated up in the microwave foam up when sugar is added

What is an Experiment?

It makes the effect
of the invisible atoms
visible

Invisible here is
to the human eye

California two-spot octopus
sees with its skin

Whats inaudible to us
is not to dogs

Animal dictionary
does not match ours

Is life's purpose a
unified dictionary?

In the dark
does it matter
what color the octopus is?

It all depends on the prey's
eyes

Can a blind person
now see with his skin
or a deaf person
through some other
mechanism than ears?

Biomimicry
until all living things
sense in the same way.

What stone lends

Today inspiration - sculpture

Stone lets human body
defy gravity

Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights

I had read about the demonstration on the subway stairs in Newyork prior to ADA in 'Million Years with you': A Memoir of Life Observed' by elizabeth Marshall (great author), in which her daughter contributed towards ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transport). At Tovrea Castle, one of the floors was closed because it couldnt be made accessible. Thats when I realised the ADA provisions. So its history hooked me right from the cover.
As a foreign national, this book is a great way to learn how things come about in law in America. For example, the relay service adding to the phone surcharge bill, number of employees of a small business being changed to 50, so really small businesses dont go out of business trying to retrofit to ADA requirements.
I have lots of notes from the reading to refer to various acts example Decoder Circuitry Act.
The book's main premise is that its not just the activists with the demonstration that got about the ADA to happen, but the politicians and the staffers too had a great role. The book goes into great detail about people, their characteristics, background, their views towards disability, change of mind of those who were not ready for ADA, organizations that melded together for the final act.

Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue

I came across 'Brandeis Briefs' in 'Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights' by Lennard J. Davis. Before I found the time to refer to it, I opened 'Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue' by Melvin I. Urofsky who happens to have written a book on the very Louis D Brandeis who led to 'Brandeis Briefs' with his 'compilation of scientific information and social science than on legal citations'.
If you are into legal history, you will have a ball reading how the tug of war settled in many cases. The how could involve interesting Concurrences and or Dissent. Concurrence is when the end is same but the reasoning to get to the outcome is different. Dissent is being at odds with the outcome. The expectation of the Supreme Court is to be the final word on law but for democratic purposes and future thinking, dissents are encouraged.
The book goes into detail about many cases. I enjoyed not just the specifics of the cases but also the thought processes. How prevailing legal opinions change overtime, how nature got its legal rights, what charter means for property rights.

Performance Breakthrough: The FOUR Secrets of Passionate Organizations

'Performance Breakthrough: The FOUR Secrets of Passionate Organizations' by Mike Goldman is narrated as fiction but speaks to a company with disengaged employees trying to get back on its feet. The first time I read a book fictionalized in business is 'Revenue and the CMO: How Marketing Will Impact Revenue through Big Data and Social Selling' by Glenn Gow.
In the recent times, I have read the concepts of knowing your 'employee culture' in 'Under the Hood' by Stan Slap and playing ignorance in 'The Ignorant Maestro'. Knowing your employees and building trust among them is covered in detail in the former, empowering your employees and trusting them to do a good job, giving them the needed freedom is covered in the latter.
So the concepts have all been there. But this book acts as a quick reminder to get the train onto the track. The format has two layers of fiction. One is the personal life of the narrator which feeds directions into his office life.

This Digital Life

A mommy's nesting instinct
includes unsubscribing to
unnecessary emails

'you may like' of a e-newspaper
lists tragedy

Summer, Manair Dam

The kids went
 Swimming in the water
They came out
in a two person carriage
their hands held out taut
like marionettes with
invisible strings



Dry drowning every parent needs know
Secondary drowning
Biology of drowning
Breath holding in the pool can spark sudden blackouts and death

Restricted areas accessibility

"Under this law, the space shuttle would have had to be accessible " - James Weisman

So is the space shuttle accessible?

Scoping requirements

Unresume

A summary
of who you didnt be
of what you didnt do

First time

you heard a phrase
When you hear it again
you recall that first time
you heard the phrase

Perspective

Yesterday, one of the apartment building looked as a bigger, whole pattern. Like the white with red roof buildings of Europe. Since then its a beautiful walk toward that side.

Ekphrasis

Rattle ekphrasis
"You don't just have to open the door; you have to rebuild the door" - Justin Dart

The door was never there
like you were never there
until the woods grew
and sustained life
that flew
that gnawed
that sawed
and built a door
to the woods
that vanished life
of the last feather
jaw
man.

Socrates insisted that we define our terms before using them - Michael R Burch

The rhymes and rhythms are my wet paint - John Whitworth


1. Define a term.

2. "Where the house is cold.." - The Examiners, John Whitworth. Reminded me of Tagore's poem Where the mind is without fear. What is your imaginary 'Where'?

3. Was Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle after Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?

Translate

All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids

Still Life Paintings

Joris Hoefnagel

The collection of life in these paintings in inspiring.

Botanical paintings

Measure for Measure

At Last the Women are moving

Effort at speech
Dusk July
Vermeer at the Frick
For Once, Then, something - those solitary moments
The reemergence of the noose
Lucid waking

Thanks to Measure for Measure, I found my favourite meter to be Sapphics, Alcaics, Hendecasyllabics, Lesser Ionics which I have never heard of before. I mostly enjoy free verse. I tried learning how to write formal poetry using "The ode Less travelled: Unlocking the Poet within" by Stephen Fry. As a creative writing exercise, it was great but now I realise that liking formal poetry is about knowing the meter style that appeals to your inner formalist.

List Articles

One advantage of coming up with list articles is that you can expand each of the point in the list into another article with its own list.
1. Look at Jeff Haden do the same with regret and time in Huge risks everyone needs take atleast once and 10 painless ways to free up big chunks of time.

How to title an article

1. Rhyme
Assault on salt

Theft of Memory

poetry prompt:

1. " If we couldn't free it, we'd have to cut the line and attach another lure and begin all over" - Jonathan Kozol.

In the lake of literature, are many lures that instead of catching the poems caught 'piece of wood'.

In 'The Theft of Memory: Losing My father. One Day at a Time', author Jonathan Kozol slices the 'journey' of his father's illness which led him to lose his capabilities, join a nursing home, continuously ask his son to take him home. The son takes him home after reassessment of financial condition. Throughout the book, the author walks us through how he went through the decision making process, giving us an insight into what options were available to him, what things did he think of, how did the other caregivers, doctors, his lawyer, mother help him take decisions by bringing up points that he didnt think about. Fitting tribute to a neurologist, this book delves a lot into the author's thought scape.
The blurb says that this book 'is not primarily about a doctor's public life' but it is also about how the doctor's doctor failed him and how in general geriatrics is not treated as well as pediatrics, because it does not have 'future productivity'.
The author went through his father's clinical cases through his notebooks and accounts how he solved many cases. consistent Dementia. I thought it was funny that a spouse should get competitive of her caregiver's attention when she has to share it. The writing is successful at creating an image of his ailing father, genius father.

The Ignorant Maestro

How Great Leaders Inspire Unpredictable Brilliance.
The wisdom of the ignorant schoolmaster

"An ignorant can teach another ignorant what he does not know himself" - Joesph Jacotot.

Jacques Ranciere

How unconferences unleash innovative ideas
 "The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides." - Artur Schnabel

On disadvantages of beaming, the author says that "Of stopping on the way for a short espresso, watching people go by, not thinking - at least not being aware of thinking - for a few moments? Give it up? and when on vacation, would you be happy to find your boss beaming up to you for just a short question?" (consistency of technology in a sci-fi)

In one meeting, the author asked the attendees to sing and dance and look at the participants. after a while, the audience didnt want to stop.

"Creativity in all forms of life, from arts to business to domestic situations, depends on our ability to recognize and explore gaps" - Itay Talgam.

Ensign Bickford recognized that they are in lifestyle business to embrace variety of innovations

anti-music

Sterling Silver Mom and Child Diamond Necklace

Sterling Silver Mom and Child Diamond Necklace has to be held in your hand to admire it. The necklace is 18" which makes it the perfect length to accentuate the pendant hanging to it. The pendant is a an asymmetrical heart, with the right auricle (now being called atrium) a little bigger than the left and the bottom on the left slightly curves. This skeleton has a natural flow which is covered with near colorless to faint yellow diamonds set in prong setting. To my untrained eye, the diamonds look colorless. But we will let the gemologist figure all that out. In the sunlight, the diamonds sparkle like they are supposed to. And in this safe haven of heart is an endearing mom holding child tiny sculpture set right above the bottom corner. Like Diamonds are forever and Diamonds are a girls best friend, this pendant is going to charm any mom not with just the two prongs of the reminder of her love for her child and the glitter of the diamonds but with all the diamonds set in the pendant.
A very good gift for Mothers Day.

The Seven Good years

Up in the air
Interview with Israeli author Etgar keret
Bulgakov
Converso
Goy
The Wire and Jimmy McNulty
requiem for a dream

I have never heard of Etgar Keret before. Its always refreshing to read books from other nations. 'The Seven Good Years' is a collection of flash stories with personal meandering about flight experience (where I began questioning if that fits in the memoir genre, where we want the writing to be about an experience more as a feeling than as a thought). Its a very quick read in the genre of 'I was told there'd be cake' by Sloane Crosley and work by Jane Borden. But there's another side to it, fostered by the author's uprooted past. He is a biblio nomad, who is doing book tours all around the world.
Every page of the book has some unexpected element in it. Right with the beginning interview by Miranda July (We think Alone project where some selected authors are to share an email on a selected topic), where his mom's independent childhood translated to non-over bearing upbringing, you never know whats going to happen next.
When by an error, he is double booked on a plane seat and ask to get off the plane by the flight crew. His reply is ".. If there arent enough seats on the plane, you can get off yourself. I'll serve the food to the passengers."
People either love or hate babies but the author for the purpose of the writing, sees his baby as 'a midget with a cable hanging from his belly button..' and as Chucky from Child's play.
Fictional Book signings for fiction.
War and peace. The local conditions are at unease to imagine peace and feel 'just like in the old days' if war starts.
Some stories have a pattern like the four fingered hand waving at Euro Disney which starts with a man losing his finger trying to reach for his watch that has fallen in a machine. The stories tie back to the beginning.
While looking up the author's works, I found that there is another side to his writing of thought experiments - "Kneller's Happy Campers" novel which inspired Wristcutter's story. In it, every dies by suicide. "Crazy Glue" where everything is glued.
Its hearty to know that finally he gets a house built in Poland, his real homeland.

Clay water brick

"Lawyers are trained to see barriers and help people avoid risk, while entrepreneurs  are trained to see possibilities and take smart risks" - Jessica Jackley


'Clay Water Brick: Finding inspiration from Entrepreneurs who do the most with the least' alternates with stories of microlending changing the lives of people, and the lessons author Jessica Jackley, founder of Kiva learns from those entrepreneurs. Those entrepreneurs who have almost nothing to their name but the drive to make brick out of clay and water, to help disabled by iterative design and so on.. shattering the idea of who is or who can be an entrepreneur.
The author understood that she had to 'use the right language .. also to tell stories to move people from a place of ignorance to a place of understanding. ' This is what the book does too, narrating stories to readers and make them see how the microfinancing changes the lives of people with small steps.
The stories make her 'redefine success not as destination but as away of operating and committing to a process of creation ..' From Li the tailor's wisdom of mending clothes from the inside and ripping the seams off and starting afresh for complex fixes, the author learns the lesson that 'understanding the fabric of your organization' is important for its success.
THe readers are also made aware of the legal impediments in crowdfunding. There have been articles if Kiva really has the person to person interaction between the lender and the entrepreneurs who take the loans. Where that debate may settle, the author shows that if you use your passion and stick to your mission, then a huge change is possible for anyone.

Do the Kind thing

bars that are under weight and we have to give those bars away for free as samples

Flexitol

Flexitol packaging has all the marketing devices. Testimonials, graphs, results.

Selling Your House

In the recent times, I have learnt from friends that you can claim your house on Zillow and update its value according to your upgrades (Now I should find from this friend if he read this book or how he found out). A house in our neighbourhood is being leased now and will then be sold to the person leasing. In 'Selling Your House: Nolo's essential Guide', its referred to as 'Lease-to-Own'. Author Ilona Bray explains the advantages and disadvantages of a Lease-to-Own.
The book runs in a very interesting manner about what months are likely to be well received in terms of home selling. Did you know that your home owners insurance might not be valid if its vacant? Have you heard of transfer tax, discount brokers, listing agreement (which is better - exclusive right to sell, exclusive agency, open listing), FSBO (For sale by owner), broker's tour, seller rent-back.
Should you stage your house?
The book is also interesting because of the numbers. For example, staged houses moved 87% faster.
Should you hire an agent?
89% do. Why not?
With these statistics, you get a good grip of the real market and buyers profile. You will be surprised at the number of contingencies a house sale could face.
Redfin - hybrid model

Poetry in Medicine

"The cry of a door is a pitiable thing." - Thomas James, In Fever.
the only parts of the body the same size at birth as they’ll always be.
Mummy of a lady named
Pathology of colours
Ode on my belly button
Fear of Grays Anatomy
Clarinda Harriss
I'm like a rifle that's a little out of date but very accurate: when I love, there's a strong recoil, back to childhood, and it hurts
Epilepsy petit mal

"the plastic tubing whispers blood through

her flesh, .." - Transfusion, Kate Kimball

more brain mashed because of the probe’s braille path;
The Urine Specimen
Ode on my episiotomy

"and the faith of that stranger

who answers when my name is called" - Dennis Nurkse, Things I forget to tell my Doctor
But someone I know is dying- And though one might say glibly, "everyone is," The different pace makes the difference absolute.

"When we are sleeping

alone, and we wake, and the walls are breathing

and they are the company we keep" - Florence Weinberger, Getting in Bed With a Man who is sick.

"Count Dracula was right, she says it (blood) makes you look good" - Harvey Shapiro

poetry prompt

1. Nude Descending. Write  a poem with a title after a painting title or inspired by it.

Excuses

Chicken Biryani rife with spices
tastes good with hot peanut chutney
A spoon of chutney left on the plate
begs for a helping of chicken biryani
Some left rice on the plate
calls for chutney

Morning walk

The girl who walked to school yesterday
is late today
I meet her at the corner as opposed
to the dead end
The sophomore who biked yesterday to school
isnt out yet or has left already
The neighbour who dropped her kids yesterday
and said hi
has just entered the community today
Morning walk puts you
in the routine of others

The pole hides the flag
The wind reveals it

Baby is not in your tummy anymore

Come bathe me
Baby is not in your tummy anymore
Sit with me on the floor
Baby is not in your tummy anymore
Can you lift my scooty over the threshold


This is what my daughter says after her little sis is in her hands.
Once she asked me if the baby will go back into tummy.
Digital nest making for babies - unsubscribing from all groupon and other daily emails that are anyways not used during the first 6 weeks immobility of having a new baby.

Planet of the Bugs

Molting habits may have led to extinction of once hardy trilobite
Semiaquatic Silurian Scorpions

Poems that make grown men cry

She was deep within herself, like a woman heavy with child
Ithaka
Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad
Peer Gynt: The Priest's Monologue
while grass and buildings and the somnolent river, who know they are allowed to last forever,
- Not all rivers are allowed to last forever. Our village's river has dried up.
That everything's remade With shovel and spade;
No painting had ever made me cry
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day. What instruments we have agree The day of his death was a dark cold day.
"Paternal Love will only use Force in the last resort On those too bumptious to repent."
So many poems about the deaths of animals. Wilbur’s toad, Kinnell’s porcupine, Eberhart’s squirrel,