Calhouns Can(n)ons

Monday, July 02, 2007

Why, Yes, It's Another Poem

On another fine sunny summer's day, time to hang out another load of laundry on my World Saving Solar Dryer. No need to rail and natter on about the sewer, even though I'm sure the sewer obsessed folk who visit this site will figure out a way to get off the profound point of this lovely poem and get back to nattering on about sewerish things. (Get out of the house. Take a walk. Go see the wonderfully funny new movie, "Ratatouille," heck, go see the movie then go home and make some. Read a good book. Share a favorite poem in the comment section. Anything other than sewersewersewer for heaven's sake. )

Eamon Grennan's another wonderful Irish wordsmith. He also has collected books of his poetry out in paperback. So, go to your local bookstore and support your favorite poets. Buy their books and enjoy. And/or go to the library and check them out for free!

Desire

It's the way they cannot understand the window

they buzz and buzz against, the bees who take

a wrong turn at my door and end up thus

in a drift at first of almost idle curiosity

cruising the room until they find themselves

smack up gainst it and they cannot fathom how

the air has hardened and the world they know

with their eyes keeps out of reach as, stuck there

with all they want just in front of them, they must

press their bodies against the one unalterable law

of things -- this fact of glass -- and can only go on

making the one sound that tethers their pure

electric fury to what's impossible, will not change.

8 comments:

Mike Green said...: ""Shall we hijack this website and discuss really cool matters, like books and films and history and poetry and Solar Dryers and laundry?"

And music and gardening.

And picking blackberries by the bay,
Kind of a meager crop this year, probably due to drought, but you can gat a pies worth with a little scrambling
And BBQing, word is that the local fleet will have albacore soon! yum, and you can't beat the prices right off the boat. sushi quality too.; 11:53 AM, July 02, 2007
Neptune said...: I’ve been following the Americas Cup sailboat racing on channel 68. It’s aired live from Valencia, Spain at 5:30 am. This show is just perfect for early risers like Ann. I am not an early riser. I record it on my DVR. Switzerland, a landlocked country, is about to become only the 3rd country to successfully defend the Cup since it’s inception in 1851. Yes, Switzerland. A landlocked country. Don’t worry, I’m sure Armageddon is right around the corner. Am I an Americas Cup sailing expert? No way. I watch every four years. I started following the cup when the Australians took it from us for the first time in the 80's with their “winged keel”. Interest rose. Dennis Conner, supported by a bunch of pissed-off Americans, took back the cup and defended once or twice. After loss of interest and support, New Zealand took the cup and successfully defended it, I believe, once or twice after losing it to Switzerland in 2003. Switzerland is up 4-2 in a best 5 out of 9 series. Race 7, wind permitting, is tomorrow morning 7/3.

The Americas Cup has become a bit of a joke because the nationality requirements have become all but nonexistent. I believe the only requirement now, is that the boat be built in the country of origin. The skipper of the Swiss boat and half the crew are all from New Zealand and the helmsman of the Swiss boat(guy at the big wheel that steers th boat) is Ed Baird, an American. Dennis Connor was interviewed and asked; “Who will win the Americas Cup this year?”....He answered; “ New Zealand”, knowing that most of the crew members on both sides are from New Zealand. I was watching the last race on tape this weekend. These boats are designed with state of the art technology. They are the product of Computer Science and Meteorological Science and every other kind of Science there is. But, they are not powered by motors or gas. They are powered by the wind. They use the same motor that ships have used from the beginning of time..........

Anyway, I was watching this race and my mind drifted to a place that only classic words can take you. My mind floated aboard the Pequod. I’m not sure why.
But, once aboard, I started relating this story to our conflict here in Los Osos.
As the director of this play, I will cast the people of Los Osos, who can not afford the energy guzzling sludge factory TRI-W, as Moby Dick(the Great White Whale).
I will cast Taxpayers Watch as Captain Ahab with First Mates Gordon Hensley & Richard Legros, Master of Arms Stan Gustafson. Ivory wench, Joyce Albright. Without objection, I will cast Ann as Ishmael. For those whose memories of Junior High or High School are clouded by the fog of distance and time, Moby Dick is a story about a relentless man(Captain Ahab) with only one thing on his mind and one goal....destroy Moby Dick. In the end, Captain Ahab achieves his goal but in the process he completely destroys his ship, his crew, and himself. In the end, everyone is dead. Save the sole survivor Ishmael to tell the story. Everything that is right and good in this story are destroyed by one man’s pride, ego, vanity and arrogance.

The People of Los Osos have spoken. Time and time again. If you provoke them they will attack and defend themselves. Please, Captain Ahab, don’t let your pride, ego, vanity, and arrogance be the undoing of us all.

Let me get to the point that I wanted to make when I initiated this comment to Ann’s most recent posts ...............

Nice tack, Ann.

your pal,

neptune; 10:14 PM, July 02, 2007
Churadogs said...: Mike Green sez:"And BBQing, word is that the local fleet will have albacore soon! yum, and you can't beat the prices right off the boat. sushi quality too."

don't know if you're signed up to get emails from the Bonnie Marietta, Mr. Tognazinni's boat. He sends out interesting "fishing tales" while they're out to sea, then announces when they come in and you can go down and stand in line with your ice chest and get fresh salmon right off the boat, cleaned, filleted/ steaked, whatever. One time I got some steaks, and asked for a pile of heads and stuff (free) and from that made a marvelous bisque. Yum!

Neptune sez:"Switzerland, a landlocked country, is about to become only the 3rd country to successfully defend the Cup since it’s inception in 1851. Yes, Switzerland. A landlocked country. Don’t worry, I’m sure Armageddon is right around the corner."

Switzerland? Bwa=hahahahah. Sort of like, what was it, the Jamaican bobsled team? If you have to build it in the country of origin, suppose you only have to build a portion of the keel? Otherwise, if you have to build the whole darned thing, can you imagine it being transported out of Switzerland via train? What a picture comes to mind.

speaking of the butterfly keel, if you saw that surfing movie (Step into Liquid, I believe) that weird keel is now showing up on surfboards and allows the board to rise above the water. Wierdest looking thing, but apparently a much smoother ride (no slapping of water on board itself since it's about 2-3 feet up on this weird stilt-like affair with that torpedo like whazzis under the water stabilising the whole thing. Amazing)

As for Moby Dick. Toss in Medea (the LAFCO dissolution), Icarus (the formation of the original CSD) and Camelot (The Ponds of Avalon,) Watergate (charges of various nefariousness by various people), Sherlock Holes (The Curious Case of the Dog That Didn't Bark in the Night,) The Teapot Dome Scandal and/or The Bush Administration (charges of incompetent/crony &/or nefariousness by highly placed governmental entities and bureaus and private companies,) Alice in Wonderland (The RWQCB), and The Three Stooges & The Marx Brothers Meets Armageddon, Part I, II, III, top it all with the old saying, "No Good Deed Shall Go Unpunished," and there you have it!

Oh, and I forgot, for those of a certain age who grew up on Mad Magazine, Mad's Movie Parody that started out, "Call me Fishmeal."

Have I left anyone out?; 7:15 AM, July 03, 2007
4crapkiller said...: To Neptune:

Your analogy is way premature. For the time being there would be more to compare with the story of the Pied Piper (Racano) blowing sounds of his impossible regional solution with the children of Los Osos leaving the security of their homes to follow the notes of "pie in the sky".

"Pie in the sky" was and is only a diversion from reality to get the ultimate politically impossible project accepted: a regional sewer.

Too bad, sooo sad.

Stick to poetry, Ann. You will never be forgotten.; 9:03 AM, July 03, 2007
*PG-13 said...: neptune said > Switzerland, a landlocked country, is about to become only the 3rd country to successfully defend the Cup since it’s inception in 1851. Yes, Switzerland. A landlocked country. Don’t worry, I’m sure Armageddon is right around the corner. .... Switzerland is up 4-2 in a best 5 out of 9 series.

Swiss Navy does sound like a bit of an oxymoron but ... Hey, don't cha remember Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music?

I loved all the literary reflections on our community dilemma. They all seem appropriate. I'd suggest the storyline and our rush to a sewer is well described in the cross-county race in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Its an unbelievable film simply chock full of famous comedians, As one reviewer on imdb said: "this film has some of the all-time most memorable comedy scenes ever put on film. Plus, unlike today's comedies, there is no profanity, no sex, no blood....just silliness and one wild scene after another, with an unbelievable slapstick ending atop a building." Doesn't that sound exactly like our sewer saga?; 9:44 AM, July 03, 2007
Churadogs said...: Crap sez:"Your analogy is way premature. For the time being there would be more to compare with the story of the Pied Piper"

Actually, you're premature at this point. If the County completes its Process, the voters vote, and an acceptable system gets built, there will be nothing pied about the piper.

Now, if you were refering to The Ponds of Avalon as the luring notes of the pipe . . .

As for regional solutions, they make a lot of sense except historically cities and seperate communities have always had a nearly impossible time dropping their egos and balliwick-guarding behaviors to work together for regional solutions to shared problems.

Pg-13 sez:"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Its an unbelievable film simply chock full of famous comedians, As one reviewer on imdb said: "this film has some of the all-time most memorable comedy scenes ever put on film. Plus, unlike today's comedies, there is no profanity, no sex, no blood....just silliness and one wild scene after another, with an unbelievable slapstick ending atop a building." Doesn't that sound exactly like our sewer saga?"

Except we've had profanities, sex, if not blood, some slapped faces, and some really, really ugly, ugly stuff going on under any silliness and wild scenes. As for ending up atop a building, yep, there's been a proposal put forth to put the treatment center on top of Morro Rock. Saaaaay, works for me!; 6:56 AM, July 04, 2007
Unknown said...: Ann says: "...put the treatment center on top of Morro Rock. Saaaaay, works for me!"

Doesn't sound like a true ecologist saving the world with her solar powered toilet, computer and clothes dryer.

Since Morro Rock is an acknowledged ecological treasure and home to the osprey, wouldn't it make more sense to move it to, hmmm, let's say next door to Ron Crawford. He would be the perfect manager! We could regionalize, hook up Morro and Atascadero. Sort of spread the cost around. Now the only one offended would be the one who doesn't like big pipes. Maybe Orenco could develope a pipeless transport system? If we just think on this another 30 or 300 years, we just might get a sewer or mankind will evolve into non-eliminators?

We just aren't thiking hard enough, a vote no on any 218 ballot will ensure more thinking, no planning, just sitting on a compost heap, smelling the septic aroma of Baywood Puke and watching the mud flat die off.

Have a truely blest 4th of July!; 10:11 AM, July 04, 2007
driftwood said...: The America's Cup would be a lot more interesting if they allowed each ship a full cannon battery............; 9:04 PM, July 14, 2007

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Monday, July 02, 2007

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