Pol(s)ka

The unwritten Warsaw
ballet remains unwritten
until return.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2013)

A contribution to Haiku Heights and ballet.

Notes
I'd promised myself that I would write one poem a day during my recent trip to Warsaw, Poland, and failed miserably. My diary contains entries from just two days out of four, and these are just notes on what happened or what I saw, nothing that could be called a poem. Of course, there are many valid excuses: lack of time alone, tiredness after lengthy excursions in Warsaw and other places in Poland, etc. You can't always write what you want, to quote the Rolling Stones.
However, I liked Poland so much that I'm ready to return any time, so that there is a chance that the Warsaw ballet will be written some day after all...

The rock, the mountain doubts the validity of his objectives

Today's horoscope read:

Do you doubt the validity of your objectives? Is it possible that you, the rock, the mountain, the bulldozer are having doubts? By golly, it is possible. While you are the master of concrete details, it seems you stumble when it comes to understanding the philosophy behind your plans. Assuming, of course, there is a philosophy. If not, this is the time to consider just what motivates you in your life...

Finally a horoscope that is halfway interesting and relevant!

Answers:
a. Yes, it is possible.
b. Most of the time I don't even feel like a rock or mountain.
c. I never feel like a bulldozer. It's nothing I aspire to be. Probably my tough luck!
d. I am into concrete details. Guilty of that.
e. Yes, I admit to stumbling.
f. Yes, I assume.
g. I am considering. Will let you know the results real soon.

Wake-Up Song

Most mornings I wake up with a song in my mind. I've been trying to determine what causes a particular song to be it on a particular day. Without any success so far.

This morning's song, for example, was a chanson by Serge Reggiani, the French singer and actor (1922-2004). I could not remember the title of the song, so I looked up the album on the Internet just now – it was simply called "Serge Reggiani" and released by Polydor in 1973. Reading the track list had me confused – had the song playing in my head been "Le vieux couple" or "Hôtel des voyageurs" or even "Contre vents et marées"? I could recall all of them in memory, even though I haven't listened to the album in years.

Confusion resolved: it was "Le vieux couple" after all – listened to it on Youtube (see link below).

So much on wake-up songs for now. Will probably explore this topic again soon.

Morning impression

Neighbor's out
on her balcony

Taking quick
decisive puffs

It's that neighbor
whose age

is in hot dispute
between Sadhana

and me. I
make her younger,

she insists on
beyond forty.

It's difficult
to tell

because we
only ever see her

in the shade
of the drawn

sunblind, always
puffing away

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2013)

Proverbs from the Chinese XII

"Never ponder a heave unless it is valid."

One more of those puzzling Chinese proverbs, but possibly just another bad translation. Anyway, it nicely contains today's three words from 3WW: heave, ponder and valid.

Somehow this leaves me pondering ...

Was it meant to say "Never heave a ponder unless ..."?

But even that does not seem particularly valid.

– Yours in Chinese mode Leonard Blumfeld

James M. Cain, The Cocktail Waitress

James
Cain's
Cocktail
Waitress is
the potboiler that
is boiling in my pot right now.

– Leonard "Crime Reader" Blumfeld

First fibonacci in a long time ... written upon inspiration by Poets United.

Mona Lisa Has Found Her True Calling

 

 Picture taken in Città di Castello, Umbria

The filthy poor rhyme

The filthy rich get
rich by making sure
that most others
remain filthy poor.

– Leonard Blumfeld  (© 2013)

Inevitable note
Somehow yesterday's Filthy rich haiku stuck in my mind, demanding more treatment. This resulted in the above poem, which is no longer a haiku by count of syllables & lines. For obvious reasons, I'm calling this filthy poor metric companion to the filthy rich a rhyme.

The filthy rich haiku

The filthy rich get
rich by making sure others
get very little.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2013)

Inevitable notes
Who ever said haiku should be limited to gentle muzings about bonsai in the mist and could not be used for succinct statements of fact? Facts such as that the gap between rich and poor has never been more extreme than right now.
Last year, Apple’s CEO earned about 1 million dollars a day while the workers making Apple products at Foxconn in China earned about 10 dollars a day.
China, a nominally communist* country, now boasts the world’s second largest number of billionaires, right behind God’s own USA.
*Part of the communist doctrine, if I remember right, is a very negative attitude towards private property.

Infinite wisdom I

I was going to start the year with a new column titled "The infinite wisdom of Leonard Blumfeld" or something along those lines, imparting to the world my precious gems of infinite wisdom.

But the fact is that I have come to dislike aphorisms and most of the pearls and beads of wisdom quoted or shared on Facebook or in other books at any opportune and inopportune moment and time of day, telling you in flashes of deep or shallow insight how to live your life, how to be happy or unhappy, how to treat thy neighbor or thy neighbor's dog or how to make or keep friends, enemies, etc.

Therefore, instead of adding to the heap, the above little rante & rave shall remain the first infinite wisdom of the year. That's all, folks!

– Leonard Blumfeld