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Just got home from this month’s poetry reading at Amaze-in-Tchaiovna and it was a really good affair.  Far bigger crowd than usual, and I  have  no idea how or why that happened, but it went pretty quickly nonetheless, all open mike and no feature speaker did hasten things a bit and perhaps it was partly perception  on my part, I arrived after it had started and just about the only available seat  was at a table with a couple of  lovely, young Italian college students.
My stuff was well received, people laughed, in the right places, and one, which I’d considered not doing at all as it was just a four  line thing and rather a negative thought at that, actually produced a couple of gasps.  Other than myself, I quite liked the guy who sang blues, sort of…Amy Winehouse, yeah, it’s blues, what else could you call it.
Anyway, I read 8 poems, only 3 of them above the ‘very  short’ length, which is mostly what I’ve been writing lately, and into the normal short category, but all of them will go into the next book, Paradox.

I’ve got two more planned, one a book of very short, ekphrastic poems of which I  want 240 and I’ve written about 5 but I  know what I want and, as they’re very short I’ll be able to crank them out, it’s a theme to work on.  The third book in the pipeline will be called ‘The 5 Stages of Consciousness,’ or maybe 4, or 6, I don’t know, but it’s also sort of a concept book.
The more I write, the more I write.

As I sometimes do, I went out for a walk today to smoke a joint, which usually means I  go to the park, or that vast and indeterminate area next to the river, but today I walked a different direction, just to take a look at a building which is almost finished, and is an interesting architectural addition to the neighborhood.
It’s an office building, called ‘The Butterfly,’ I guess because of its wavy walls, but the feature that makes it interesting is that it’s covered in plants.  Seriously, over half the external space is covered in green.  It’s a fantastic concept.  I’d like to see lots of  buildings like that.  It could save the environment.
Wasn’t a very good space for smoking a joint, though, public street and all, and rather a windy day.  So, I pocketed it half-finished and walked over to the park.  As I walked, my mind wandered, and here was the gist of it.  As we move into the future, the rate of change is going to speed up and speed up, so what we are  headed  for, ultimately, is an  explosion (metaphorical) of change.  However, explosions (real) tend to destroy the good along with  the  bad.  So, we need  to invent, develop, plan, desing (back  to metaphorical) an explosion which only destroys the bad  stuff.

How do we do that?  I don’t know, as I said, my mind was wandering, not moving in  a direct, committed line.  But, I got a few good lines for a future poem and it was altogether a lovely walk.

I’m not going to include the link.   If you follow politics at all, you’ve  probably seen the clip.  Donald Trump, at some sort of award ceremony for the Navajo codebreakers, a group of men who did way  more than average in the fight  against Hitler, which is not only something Donald Trump would know nothing about, it’s also something Trumps dad  would  know nothing about, made a really  dumb joke.
I mean, it’s not even a joke  at all unless you’re a diligent  follower of Trump and a right wing hater of Elizabeth Warren (which is completely different than a left wing hater of Elizabeth Warren – we are not at all the same)

It was the most tortuous lead up to a lame punch line since Hillary and Bill DiBlasio made that horrible joke about ‘colored people time’ on a New York City stage what seems like a million years ago.
He talked about how ‘special’ the old Navajo gentlemen next to him were, how they were the original Americans, and then talked about a ‘special’ person in congress (which sort of highlights the lack of actual indigenous representation), who he calls ‘Pocahontas.’
Now, the nickname originates because Liz Warren once listed on a college application that she had American Indian ancestry.  Perhaps she hoped that would give her an  advantage and perhaps  it did.  Turned out she actually doesn’t have any Indian ancestry, but she  said she’d always been told,  in her family, that she had, which I find perfectly plausible.  Lots of little fibs in family histories here and there.
But the point is, the nickname is Trump’s, nobody else calls her that, and the joke was absolutely gratuitous.  Warren had nothing to do with the speech Trump was giving,  or with the Navajo nation, pro or con.
So, there was no reason for it.  It was as random and irrelevant as if he’d suddenly cupped his hand over his mouth and  started dancing around going woo-woo-woo-woo.  That’s how  bad  it was.  And, just like Hillary Clinton in the skit she did with DiBlasio, he totally failed  to realize how racist it was.  Because racists usually do.

I sometimes enjoy  ‘Food Factory’ on Discovery Channel because I enjoy food, and it’s not  a bad format, although it’s a bit repetitive.  “How Do  They  Do  It?” is another one, even though I  don’t really care, and have  never, in fact, even wondered how  bowling balls  are manufactured.
It’s very like Food Factory,  and repetitive in the very  same way, but there’s something to  be  learned just from that  fact: the manufacturing process, whatever the final product, follows a pattern.

First, the idea.  They have to tell the story of who had the idea first, the history of  the idea.  That takes about a minute and  also puts a  bit of a human spin  on it.  Then the process begins, and  it begins with  raw materials.  They are assembled, perhaps mixed, and then placed into the machine, where they are either refined (rollers flatten,, choppers chop, ovens heat) or combined, then packaged  and  sent out for distribution.  Trucks with raw materials coming in, trucks with  finished products  rolling out.

This brings me to a couple of  Buckminster  Fuller’s greatest ideas.  First,

W=R x E x T, or something like that, he might have  had P for  power  instead of E for  energy, or perhaps even L for labor, because labor, in this equation, is counted as energy.
Resources are more or less finite, but the availability of energy is increasing dramatically with  improvements in solar and wind generation, and improved battery storage.  And technology, represented by T, is through  the roof.
Fuller’s other great idea is that we could all be living lives of luxury, all of Earth’s billions, if we just arranged our society a bit more sensibly.

Just like on Food Factory, we need to channel the natural resources into the highly powered, constantly moving, brand new world building machine, keep it  moving, and all the houses, schools, canals, high speed rail lines, and luxury homes that we  could ever  want will  come pouring out the other end.

Even this late in the game, I  usually get at least one comment a day that Bernie supporters are responsible for the Trump presidency.  When I point out that we think the same of them, or talk about Hillary selling uranium to the Russians, or how many people close to her have  wound up dead, or her selling nerve gas to terrorists in Syria (haven’t researched that one much yet, but I consider Seymour Hersch to generally be a good source), or her ex-BFF’s book which pointed out that no  matter how bad we thought the  rigging was, it was  worse, they retreat to their argument of last resort: “Why are we arguing about this?  We need to unite  so  we can  win in 2018.”
Well, it would be pretty easy to say ‘you started it,’ and I’ve said that on  occasion, but it’s not terribly productive.
I do agree that we should unite ahead of 2018.  Just because you blame us for the  loss and we blame you doesn’t mean we  have to fight.  It’s past.  Let’s talk about the  issues.
Are you in favor of universal health care?

Are you in favor of saving the environment?

Are you in favor of getting money out of politics?
Are you against private prisons?
Are you against wars?
There are 9 or 10 other issues, but I don’t want to reach too high right away.  If you can say yes to these 5 questions, then you already ARE united with Sanders’ supporters, and we’re very happy  to have unity with you.
If you can’t, then go.  Vote Republican, and take Hillary with you.