the fourth in cloudcroft is busy. we are twenty or thirty degrees cooler than the valley so lots of people come up, and the shopowners stay open to greet them. people hang around the boardwalks. motorcyclists come through as cruising through the mountains is one of their favorite things. everyone wears red white and blue, or some combination thereof.
the parade was actually on saturday, day of my meet the author, and i stood up there on the second floor, downtown, with all my books, as every firetruck on the mountain came by and tested out its siren. kids scurried for candy. someone actually threw stuffed toys. some uncle sam came by on stilts.
altogether i don't get too excited about it. i think people are eager to go down the hill to see fireworks, but it's hardly worth it to me and i'll be grateful if i can stay up here, lay low, stay off the cliffs. yesterday someone endangered my life on the roads and i realized, lots of people are impaired. bad time to be on cliffs. i yawn here now and the sun hasn't even come close to setting. i did very little today except haiku, random reading, and sitting on the porch, where it's cool as usual. this is the first town i've been in where you can actually be outside on the fourth - my biggest aversion to the holiday is simply the heat. the drinking is not an issue as long as i stay home, and the over-the-top patriotism, well i can take that or leave it.
on the haiku i gave away some today - it is, after all, e pluribus haiku, and i genuinely hope somebody is getting something out of it. it's a kind of colorful look at the united states - not meant to be disrespectful, meant more to be a genuine picture of the usa as it is, or in this issue, as it was in 1974. the new issue is more free with the time, time is now, and so far i'm producing plenty. my goal is to make it maximally visual, bright, intense. i want it to be the warhol's marilyns of haiku. i want people who care about haiku and know it, to like it. i pay attention to who grabs it when i make it available for free. there are a few people who are reading it. not so many who are paying for it, yet. that's the way poetry is.
a wide swath of this country, my half, are upset about the way things are going, about russia taking over, and ruining our environment, science, and education, and our relationship with europe - but i look at it this way. it's our opportunity to make sure the system works and works right. we have to do the right thing to get him out of there peacefully, and fix the damage - the epa is what we use to keep each other from poisoning our land - and we need public education. so it's a crucial time for people who love the country, in all forms, who need to come together to save it. if you love the country, stop complaining, and find the ways he's used the national till to make himself richer, and get him out of there. it's that simple.
on the local level there are people who seem to vote republican no matter what. they don't seem to care about all the stuff that irritates us, and they object so strenuously to the socialist-leaning democrats that they couldn't imagine ever going over that way. so, now they're trapped. they have this ignorant boor, destructive and petulant, and they have to stick with him to the bitter end. unfortunately, it may well be bitter. he will use the government to destroy the press, if he can.
the parade was actually on saturday, day of my meet the author, and i stood up there on the second floor, downtown, with all my books, as every firetruck on the mountain came by and tested out its siren. kids scurried for candy. someone actually threw stuffed toys. some uncle sam came by on stilts.
altogether i don't get too excited about it. i think people are eager to go down the hill to see fireworks, but it's hardly worth it to me and i'll be grateful if i can stay up here, lay low, stay off the cliffs. yesterday someone endangered my life on the roads and i realized, lots of people are impaired. bad time to be on cliffs. i yawn here now and the sun hasn't even come close to setting. i did very little today except haiku, random reading, and sitting on the porch, where it's cool as usual. this is the first town i've been in where you can actually be outside on the fourth - my biggest aversion to the holiday is simply the heat. the drinking is not an issue as long as i stay home, and the over-the-top patriotism, well i can take that or leave it.
on the haiku i gave away some today - it is, after all, e pluribus haiku, and i genuinely hope somebody is getting something out of it. it's a kind of colorful look at the united states - not meant to be disrespectful, meant more to be a genuine picture of the usa as it is, or in this issue, as it was in 1974. the new issue is more free with the time, time is now, and so far i'm producing plenty. my goal is to make it maximally visual, bright, intense. i want it to be the warhol's marilyns of haiku. i want people who care about haiku and know it, to like it. i pay attention to who grabs it when i make it available for free. there are a few people who are reading it. not so many who are paying for it, yet. that's the way poetry is.
a wide swath of this country, my half, are upset about the way things are going, about russia taking over, and ruining our environment, science, and education, and our relationship with europe - but i look at it this way. it's our opportunity to make sure the system works and works right. we have to do the right thing to get him out of there peacefully, and fix the damage - the epa is what we use to keep each other from poisoning our land - and we need public education. so it's a crucial time for people who love the country, in all forms, who need to come together to save it. if you love the country, stop complaining, and find the ways he's used the national till to make himself richer, and get him out of there. it's that simple.
on the local level there are people who seem to vote republican no matter what. they don't seem to care about all the stuff that irritates us, and they object so strenuously to the socialist-leaning democrats that they couldn't imagine ever going over that way. so, now they're trapped. they have this ignorant boor, destructive and petulant, and they have to stick with him to the bitter end. unfortunately, it may well be bitter. he will use the government to destroy the press, if he can.
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