Faute de photo

Faute de photo,
faute d'art
faute de poème
je pose ici
les coleurs seules
pures et simples:
pourpre et orange

– Leonard "Franglais" Blumfeld

Sitting in an Internet cafe in Oxford and not having access to photos, art and (temporarily) poetic inspiration, this posting of the colors "pure and simple" occurred to me for Inspire Me Thursday's Purple and Orange.

Crépuscule du matin obliquely reflected

All night long I fought with memory
It was at the door and staging riots
The old wrecks of old times ...
I'd have to decide what to do with them
Crying, peace, power, lies, hope
It was all there in the sleep
that would not come

– Leonard "Imagist" Blumfeld
(after Amy Lowell)

For One Single Impression's Reflecting.

The peony that invaded the park

The peony that invaded the park
Two photos merged for Inspire Me Thursday and Whimsy.

Been walking since 1962

He's been walking wordlessly since 1962, and today is Wordless Wednesday.

Dramatic mountain landscape

Dramatic Mountain Landscape
Gouache and oil crayon on Guardi Artistico paper

Posted for Inspire Me Thursday's Crayon Art theme.

I use this technique quite frequently, starting with light shades of oil crayon, then painting over the crayon with gouache or watercolor. The waxy crayon repels the water-based paint, creating an interesting effect. Thanks to the excellent picture quality of my new reflex camera, not much work on the digital image is needed to obtain colors that are close to the original.

L.B.

The entitled to mope fib

This
morn-
ing is
far from soar –
my soul is flat sprat
on the ground and friendless. Go mope,
I tell myself, now
is the right
time for
sore.
Go.

– Leonard “Downer” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Sunday Scribblings #111 soar/sore for personal treatment.

In permutation of Gertrude Stein

A rose is not a rose not a rose

– Leonard Blumfeld

Totally Optional Prompts asked for Symbolic Poetry. This is one.

Note added in afterthought
Who knows what exactly Gertrude Stein had in mind with her triple rose ("a rose is a rose is a rose"), one of the most frequent quotes ever. I assume that she wanted to draw attention to the essence of what a rose is.
My permutation wants to emphasize the fact that roses are probably the most meaning-laden flowers ever – highly symbolic objects.

Forgotten entrance

It's still Doors for Inspire Me Thursday, and it's Wordless Wednesday.

Warm and cold

Warm and Cold
Gouache and oil crayon, 2004

A painting instead of writing for One Single Impression's "warm" prompt.

Something you've known all along

There's so much good telephone stuff out there in the music world that I could not even click myself into creative telephone mode for Sunday Scribblings #110. The lyrics of a historical Blondie hit from 1979 follow below. I call it historical because the fundamental situation presented ("I'm in the phone booth, it's the one across the hall") is a historical one. Nowadays we all carry our private phone booths around with ourselves.

I particularly love the cheeky line "I want to tell you something you've known all along" (from which the title of this post derives) – isn't that the gist of many phone conversations?

Here goes (I'm also posting the Youtube video below, which is fun to watch – if only because of Deborah Harry's funny eye and finger work):

Hanging on the Telephone

I'm in the phone booth, it's the one across the hall
If you don't answer, I'll just ring it off the wall
I know he's there, but I just had to call
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone

I heard your mother now she's going out the door
Did she go to work or just go to the store
All those things she said I told you to ignore
Oh why can't we talk again
Oh why can't we talk again
Oh why can't we talk again
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone

It's good to hear your voice, you know it's been so long
If I don't get your call then everything goes wrong
I want to tell you something you've known all along
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone

I had to interrupt and stop this conversation
Your voice across the line gives me a strange sensation
I'd like to talk when I can show you my affection
Oh I can't control myself
Oh I can't control myself
Oh I can't control myself
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone

Hang up and run to me
Whoah, hang up and run to me
Whoah, hang up and run to me
Whoah, hang up and run to me
Whoah oh oh oh run to me

(Written by Jack Lee; from Parallel Lines)

Definitely human

A cautious human,
maybe too
cautious at times

Written using today’s three words from 3WW – cautious, human, maybe.

– Leonard Blumfeld

Chief storekeeper

Boy manning the family store in Kolkata
Posted for Wordless Wednesday

I’ll wear a mask for you

I’ll wear a mask for you
– Leonard Cohen

I did that for you
and kept the mask on for many days

At first I didn’t know
where my breathing problems came from

It got worse and worse
I was near suffocation most of the time

You were beginning to look at me strangely,
as at someone you didn’t recognize

I went for medical help,
explained the situation

“Is it that black thing you have on?”
the doctor said

“Now why would you wear that?”
“To please her,

and because I know
she wouldn’t like me without.

What should I do?”
“Take it off. The mask is the source

of your problems.”
“But I will lose her. She’ll be terrified.”

“How do you know?
She’s never seen you without.”

I followed doctor’s orders
and removed the mask.

“Who are you?” you said
My new looks did not please you

It wasn’t long before you left me
I went back to the doctor’s office

“Your breathing is much improved,
your face looks quite relaxed.

How come you’re back?”
“She’s gone. She wanted that mask.”

“You must decide what you want.
My guess is that she is not what you want.”

And with those words
my doctor dismissed me and closed the door

– Leonard Blumfeld

Inspired by the Lyrics and Verse Challenge at Poets Who Blog.

Happy Mirthday

An annotated snapshot from a neighborhood garden for World Laughter Day 2008.

“World Laughter Day” was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The first “World Laughter Day” gathering took place in Mumbai, India, in 1998. Twelve thousand members from local and international laughter clubs joined together in a mega laughter session.

Where should I live?

You Should Live in a Big City

You don't want anything in particular out of life... you want it all. You crave new and exciting experiences. And you get bored fairly easily. Only very big cities can keep you entertained and stimulated.

Where Should You Live?

Looks like I live where I should live!

Still locks

Taken with my new camera, an Olympus E-410, and posted for Wordless Wednesday on Friday because I missed Wednesday.

Memoir of a reading arranged by a cowbird

Mr. Cowbird was the hyperactive kahuna of the culture scene in Badenweiler, a small spa in the Black Forest which used to be a nobility hangout in the 19th century. Its claims to glory and fame reside more in the past – it is the site of baths from Roman times, the ruins of which are still around, and the place where Anton Chekhov died in 1904.

Russian poet Vyacheslav Kupriyanov – probably better known in Germany than in his native country or anywhere else – had come to give a reading, which I attended to finally meet him in person. His and mine publisher had told me a lot about him.

The reading drew an immense crowd of about 18. Mr. Cowbird presented the poet with a lot of not so succinct words, making reference to this and that – including Kupriyanov’s more famous compatriot and old ties to Russia – and eventually allowed him to read.

Kupriyanov’s poems, particularly the funny ones and the ones he read in Russian, were received with lots of applause – much better than the prose. I seem to recall that he read an excerpt from his novel “The Wet Manuscript,” which left the audience in a state between puzzled and dazed.

Afterwards, Mr. Cowbird and his secretary led a small flock of die-hards to a Weinstube to celebrate the event with some of the excellent local wine and plenty of self-congratulation by Mr. Cowbird.

What do you do when exposed to the incessant onslaught of such an overwhelming ego? I mostly just sat there and blinked my eyes, as did everyone else.

I ordered red wine. Before the waitress could give it to me when she arrived with her tray, Mr. Cowbird, who had been impatiently awaiting the white wine he had ordered, grabbed the glass off the tray, took a good gulp and went on rambling.

Once, when he had asked Kupriyanov a question and actually let him answer it, Mr. Cowbird looked at his wine glass and said, “Did I order that? That’s pretty bad. I didn’t order that.”

“No, you didn’t. That was mine,” I said.

– L. Blumfeld (© 2008)

Written for Totally Optional Prompts.

The unlucky 26

Discovered today,
the first of May:

Rhymed ballads
of personal doom

filled with hilarious
detail of gloom.

Go visit PJD's The Unlucky Twenty-Six.

In the middle of nowhere

Dumped along the highway
somewhere in Texas,
thumb ignored

– Leonard Blumfeld

For 3WW LXXXIV. Also inspired a little bit by remembering the movie Out of Rosenheim (aka Bagdad Cafe).

In the green zone

This is a green sticker for a German low emission zone. Such zones were decreed this March in several cities of Germany. Cars that do not have a sticker are not allowed in low emission zones, i.e. if you're caught without you get fined. There are green (da cleanest), yellow (not so good) and red (barely passable, mostly diesel engines) stickers. The sense or nonsense of this government measure is subject to heated discussion. Owners of older cars – who tend to be the less affluent – are pissed because they are forced to either invest in a particle filter (which is not even available for some makes) or to get another car. While their old polluter will continue polluting somewhere else where there are no low emission zones – most likely in an East European country. While the main polluter still remains the industry, etc., etc.

Another and the final contribution to Anna Carson's Project Green, which comes to an end with take nine.

Oh such flowering

Oh such flowering in April and May!
I wish I could enjoy birch, nettle and bay.

Alas: grasses, bushes and trees, even bamboo
give me but watery eyes and endless achoo...

– Leonard Blumfeld (c) allergy season 2008

Written specifically for flowering at One Single Impression.

Downtown with a greenish tinge

Downtown Stuttgart photographed through the glass front of the new art museum café. The glass is slightly tinted, hence the greenish flavor.

Posted for Anna Carson's Project Green Take Eight.

The economical future of the planet

This apocalyptic painting by German artist Norbert Stockhus might depict the future of the planet if the current neoliberal economical trend is allowed to go on. The rich have erected a fortress in which they defend the wealth they have amassed against the poor left in the arid wasteland outside.

A response to Sunday Scribblings #108 - the future of the planet.

Weekly horoscope

There is a powerfully creative energy at work in your life that is encouraging your natural genius to flow.

Wow! Let it flow.

You are learning that you are capable of far more than you thought possible. Be practical, but dare to challenge yourself as well. Keep moving out of your comfort zone and all will be well.

Good to know that all will be well. But I don't like to leave my comfy zone. Is there anyone who really does?

Monday is excellent for taking risks and showing off your natural talents. Tuesday is not so great, as there are confusing elements in the air that may cause you to make a wrong turn. Take care when signing any new deals or important documents.

Ok, I'll be careful with those deals and documents. None planned anyway.

Venus moves into Taurus on Wednesday which adds a special note of sweetness to your social life. Going on a date should be a lot more romantic and tender at this time.

Let Ms. Venus come!

Thursday in particular could be very passionate with a touch of obsession in the air. Someone may want to get to know you more than you can imagine.

Can't imagine right now, but will be open to imagination.

Saturn turns direct on Friday, which will help you make better progress with all travel affairs, especially any major trips you may be contemplating.

I am contemplating a few indeed. India, U.S., Calabria and a few others.

You will also find that legal issues begin to resolve themselves at last.

There is one that has been weighing on me.

Saturday is not the best day for talking someone around to your point of view, wait a day or two before you do this.

Ok, I'll wait. Even though I usually don't even want to talk people into my point of view.

What a fantastic weekly horoscope. Mr. computer did a good job. Now let's see what happens.

The breathy fib

Each
breath
is in
the mike, and
this exposure to
breathing apparatus goes for
sexy. More voice, please,
and less child-
ish brea-
thi-
ness.

– Leonard “Music Eclect” Blumfeld

Invitable note
Just listened to one of these breathy singers* again while visiting a blog and had to vent my feelings poetically.
* I won’t say who it was in order not to offend anybody’s taste, but there are far too many around anyway. For my taste.

Mr. Green Shadow

For Anna Carson's Project Green / Take Seven.
Picture taken a few minutes ago in bright spring sun.

So I became another Mr. Green (not bad company ... there's Graham Greene, there's Julien Green, there's Peter Green ...) – but only in shadow.

And no, I'm not as bulky as in the picture. Thank God.

How Bunzilla was saved

A real story of incest, pregnancy and medical skill


When we lived in the village and the children were small, we had a female miniature rabbit who gave birth to two babies on Easter Sunday in 1992. One of them was sturdy, the other a little runt. Both of them were incredibly cute. There is nothing sweeter than baby rabbits. We called them Bozo and Priscilla, naturally assuming that the little one had to be a girl. We gave Bozo away after a while and kept mother and daughter together.

Much to our surprise, Priscilla also turned out to be a boy. We noticed because his mother started giving what looked like practical sex education lessons to her offspring. Priscilla was renamed Oedipus, and we kept mother and son separate from then on.

Being sickly, Ed stayed in the kitchen with us, while Bunzilla, who was robust and healthy, stayed in a stall outside. She had developed a nasty temper and could only be touched with leather mittens (hence the name).

However, they managed to get together long enough once, and she got pregnant. She gave birth to a dead baby but seemed uncharacteristically listless for days after the delivery, so we took her to the vet’s. It was amazing to see how this unfriendliest of all rabbits seemed to realize that the vet was trying to help her, and how she cooperated with him as he pushed and massaged her sides to eventually get another dead little rabbit out.

Bunzilla recovered quickly and became her usual ferocious self. We gave her away eventually. Ed, who was smart, loving, musical, funny, had a hay allergy and crooked teeth that needed to be cut regularly – horrible handicaps for a bunny –, remained with us until he died in 2002.

L.B.

I doodled the bunny drawing this morning for no particular reason. When Inspire Me Thursday came up with a request for medical art today, I added the sentimental rabbit memoir above to make it all faintly – very faintly – medical. Or veterinarian, I should say.

Green thingy

Bunny with green ruff adorning my daughter's hair on Easter 2007

Posted for Anna Carson's Project Green / Take Six.

Mostly Green

Public art for Anna Carson's Project Green.

An unknown artist's embellishment
of a switch cabinet in my neighborhood.

Going by the letter of the law, the creator of the graffiti did not violate the rule printed on the switch cabinet – "Bekleben verboten" ("Do not stick posters"). Nothing was said about spray painting.

Project Green - Aquarian

Not what it might seem like – un underwater shot.

Unfortunately I'm not a diver.

In reality this picture is a close-up of a turquoise metallic car hood in bright sunlight. The whitish spots are smudges from a cat visit.

Posted for Anna Carson's Project Green.

Trapped forever between ferocious creatures

For Wordless Wednesday.

Picture reflected stop

This was a message from “unknown” – just these three words, nothing else.

Like a telegram from those times of old when people still sent telegrams:

PICTURE REFLECTED. STOP.

What picture? Reflected by what?

I can’t let this go on irking me – what’s in three words of unknown significance from an unknown source after all?

But why were they sent to me? By whom?

– Leonard Blumfeld

For 3WW #83.

Project Green with Peter Green

As a contribution to Anna Carson's Project Green I'm posting a video of Peter Green performing Man of the World – a song from the early blues days of Fleetwood Mac. Both the picture and sound quality are excellent. Lyrics below.



Man of the World

Shall I tell you about my life
They say I'm a man of the world
I've flown across every tide
And I've seen lots of pretty girls

I guess I've got everything I need
I would't ask for more
And there's no one I'd rather be
But I just wish that I'd never been born

...

And I need a good woman
To make me feel like a good man should
I don't say I'm a good man
Oh, but I would be if I could

I could tell you about my life
And keep you amused I'm sure
About all the times I've cried
And how I don't want to be sad anymore
And how I wish I was in love

Written by Peter Green (song released in 1969)

Composition in red, blue and gold

Composition in Red, Blue and Gold
(detail, acrylic and ink on paper, 2008)
for Sunday Scribblings #107 – Compose and
Reduce Reuse Recycle at Inspire Me Thursday.

This painting, done specifically to create something titled Composition in Red, Blue and Gold, is the outcome of two done simultaneously on two different acrylic paper blocks using the same colors. I ended up disliking one of them so intensely that I tore it up, but then took some of the pieces and glued them onto the other one. Unfortunately, these two layers are hardly discernible in the scan. Gold and black ink I added after the rip-up and paste-on process.

Recycled

Detail from Diamond Doors, 2006
Acrylic and ink on photo paper

This was when I discovered high-gloss ink jet photo paper scraps as a medium for painting. It makes a bright white shiny background on which even bright colors appear somewhat dull. I liked the effect.

Not such a great scan, I'm afraid.

Posted for Reuse Reduce Recycle at Inspire Me Thursday.

A person ...

A person
is entitled to cry
once in a while

Posted for Totally Optional Prompts: A Person.

A few days ago, a colleague at work sent me this cartoon in an e-mail to properly reflect the state a difficult project had put her in. And, believe me, she is not normally a crybaby.

Wallflower

Doesn't this give you a feeling of warmth and sunshine?
And yet this picture of an old wall in the city
was taken around midnight
in the light shone on it by a street light.

Posted for Wordless Wednesday.

Round

The washing machine
goes round and round.

In front of it my cat
makes not a sound.

In deepest fascinotion
her head follows the motion.

– Len “Silly Mood” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Goes with the call for ‘round’ literature from BlogFriday. Requires one of the European-style washing machines with the round glass window in front.

Sky

Glory to the great wide blue ...

For One Single Impression – Glory.

The King is dead rumor

It has been said
that the King is not dead.
But why, if that’s true,
hasn’t he sung anything new?

– Leonard “Messenger” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Unsuppressible notes
After a long break another poem in the venerable form of the rumor. Click here for more of/about them.

This was born as an extension of my previous post on current myths – three assorted pieces of modern mythology.

April sunshine fib

How
some
sunlight
changes it
all! Tulips brighten,
spirits brighten, life starts playing
in the streets. New love
might wink. Quick,
try and
catch
it.

– Leonard “Spring Struck” Blumfeld (© 2008)

All of Leonard's fibs

An envelope

Envelope for a letter to God dictated to me by Annabelle (with some of my suggestions incorporated).

– Leonard Blumfeld

Posted for Inspire Me Thursday's envelope prompt.

I got me a fearless heart

For Sunday Scribblings' #106 – Fearless I'm posting the lyrics of a song by Steve Earle from his outstanding 1986 album Guitar Town. Steve Earle's turbulent life is told by music writer David McGee in his biography Steve Earle: Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet (2005).

As an amusing aside it may be mentioned that Mr. Earle appears to be quite fearless in matters of the heart not only in song but in real life as well, having been married a total of seven times...

Fearless Heart

Don't you worry bout what you've been told
Cause honey I ain't even close to cold
It's kinda soon to fall in love again
But sometimes the best that you can do is just jump back in
I got me a fearless heart
Strong enough to get you through the scary part
It's been broken many times before
A fearless heart just comes back for more

Folks'll tell you that I'm just no good
But I wouldn't hurt you honey if I could
I can't promise this'll work out right
But it would kill me darlin' if we didn't even try

I admit I fall in love a lot
But I nearly always give it my best shot
I know you must think I'm the reckless kind
But I want a lady with a fearless heart just like mine

– Steve Earle

Three assorted pieces of modern mythology

1. The King lives.*
2. Jim Morrison never died.
3. Johnny Winter is a zombie.

Mythology isn't all about things long past - each age has its own myths and mythology.

The theme of Totally Optional Prompts today is mythology, hence this small collection of mythorabilia I pulled out of my mythological hat.

Art by Dustin Parker. For more see Dustin Parker Arts LLC.

* See here.

Wordless relationship

Posted for Wordless Wednesday's April 9 edition.

The color fib

Red,
white,
blue, green
hue. Yellow,
cinnabar, maroon,
cyan, ocher and pink pink moon.
Anthracite and black,
but there’s im-
minent
li-
lac.

– Leonard Blumfeld

Colors with admixture of Nick Drake's Pink Moon song and the coming of spring in lilac.
A perfect fit for One Single Impression's "color" prompt.

Back then in ca. 1959

Back then when summers seemed an unending sequence of warm sunny days
When swimming trunks were shapeless and high-hipped
When trash cans were made of zinc-plated metal and held some kind of mystery

Posted for Sunday Scribblings # 105 – The Photograph.

Yep, that's yours truly in the picture. I was too young to recollect what I was doing there – all the memories I have of this vacation in the Black Forest are vicarious. Whatever it was, my father felt compelled to get out his Leica and take this snapshot.

L.B.

The land with the velvet hill (peace will come)

The land with the velvet hill
(detail from The Fortress of Golkonda, 2004;
gouache, oil crayon and acrylic on paper)

Today's theme proposed by Inspire Me Thursday is PEACE - the peace symbol is turning fifty.

I'm not using the peace symbol itself here but make reference to someone who was a symbol of the peace movement of the 1960s and 70s – Melanie. In particular, I'm thinking of her song Peace Will Come whose lyrics are the reason why I chose this painting.

The song seems to focus on the peace inside oneself, yet also establishes a connection to the whole world or even becomes the world. We are all part of it, and it might not be the worst idea for everyone to buy one – a piece of peace.

Peace Will Come

There's a chance peace will come in your life please buy one

Sometimes when I am feeling as big as the land
With the velvet hill in the small of my back
And my hands are playing with sand

And my feet are swimming in all of the waters
All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man

Well sometimes when I am feeling so grand
And I become the world
And the world becomes a man

And my song becomes a part of the river
I cry out to keep me just the way I am
According to plan

According to man, according to plan
According to man, according to plan

There's a chance peace will come
In your life please buy one.

There's a chance peace will come
In my life please buy one.

For sometime when we have reached the end
With the velvet hill in the small of my backs
And our hands are clutching the sand

Will our blood become a part of the river
All of the rivers are givers to the ocean
According to plan, according to man

There's a chance peace will come
In your life please buy one

(Written by Melanie Safka, song released in 1970)

The following video shows Melanie performing Peace Will Come at the Johnny Cash Show:

So I am a snapdragon ...

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Here's what is says about snapdragons at This Garden Is Illegal, where I took this test:

Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh.

I came across this not while gardening (I don't even have a garden right now unless you count the cactus and sedum on my kitchen window sill) but while reading Linda's poems.

Mysterious parallel bounce

I. Parallel

Sometimes I have the feeling I am living in parallel worlds, especially when poetry plays in my head while I realize at the same time that a work-related conversation between my colleagues is playing outside my ears.

II. Bounce

The bounce back from my poetic parallel world can be dramatic and painful, like falling on my duff and hitting my tailbone.

III. Mysterious

Mysteriously, I have so far always come back from my poetic parallel world and have survived all the bounces.

– Leonard Blumfeld

Written to incorporate parallel, bounce and mysterious from 3WW LXXX.