jrlewis's blog

1.

Here is a tree hoping

to be struck by lightening. 

It seeks relief from these dog days, 

when more water is rushing away than

is rushing toward it.  The river is leaving;

the tree can not. 

The tree is feeling invisible, to everything

Save the sun. 

Once a friend, the sun is now a foe. 

Isn’t dehydration, under the summer sun,

the worst way to die?

Here is a tree wanting

to flee from life, it was wanting to

flee from suffering, until she came into its life. 

If horses were wishes… 

I would have taken the horse

on trial, for two weeks before I left for Iowa City. 

Would he stay sound?

He has four off-white hooves and they have tender frogs

in the spring grass.  I’ve never had a horse with so much chrome. 

He was very fancy. 

How would I win the hack? 

This horse would tell me how to ride him, not why.  His mouth was soft,

but his head was hard.

Was he too much horse for me?

Sometimes, I would have to be closing my fingers on the curb chain,

hoping to hold him back, back him off, half halt.  I must make contact from

my hands to his head.  I was afraid of failing. 

This horse as he was?

I was afraid of falling from him.  I was afraid of falling for him. 

What do I know?

I am afraid of heights, though this horse, he has kind eyes.

How like a bridge is a horse truly? 

A horse can carry a person across a bridge, closing up the distance.

Oh dear, difference is seductive.

I need a goat,

to eat the gifts,

of the first year of my relationship,

I thought.   

toffees,

knee socks,

green and pink lemons,

a solar powered butterfly,

et cetera …

Once, I was green. 

Now,

I know better

of our growth together,

the second year of our relationship

is

the goat.

I will leave

the real baby goat at Bartlett’s Farm,

April Fools,

love. 

Is it our culture?

Microsoft Word Thesaurus connects the word forceful

with the word persuasive

(and powerful).

This thesaurus is a great dinosaur.

“I think;

Therefore, I am,”

Said the philosopher, Renee Descartes.

“I think;

Therefore, I am;

Therefore, I can change who I am,”

Argued the neurobiologist, Paul Grobstein. 

I write;

Therefore, I know;

Therefore, I can change what we know.

Might the poet, Martin Espada, write. 

Neurobiology and Behavior

(Thank you for this conversation Paul Grobstein)

“Maybe, it isn't

That there is something

To behavior other than the brain; but,

That there is something

To the brain other than behavior.”

“But aren’t neurons black boxes?”

“I suspect so,

Still neurons are not the storyteller.”

“This is the story of science as a story?”

“Our undertaking is subject

To the VAGARIES of the currents, winds, and tides

And our own will or lack thereof.

Therefore,

We must return time

And again, not only to find

But to create, and again to find and create.”

“Neurons are stories.” 

“The nervous self system…”

“Now I see

How science is living by the sea. 

Where, washed upon the shore are stories;

There to be captured

And dropped down again. 

Again,

Littering the terrain, so

The terrain is never the same, so

Know that truth and time are interwoven,”

I wrote. 

“Yep

Rich powerful writing

Part of you

You have been keeping under wraps,”

Wrote the neurobiologist.

“Stories are black boxes.”

…

When I am storytelling my life,

People often ask what happened, and I reply,

He is solid wood

Seasoned with wind and fighting

To light sodden logs

Bright is life and death is steam

Fire alarm am I.