L'aura del Campo

Badges, Violets, 2 Rants-to-go

                             

L'aura del campo

WINTER: 11 Mulk (17 February) 29º and windy.

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

Badges

Ain't they pretty at the top of this entry? And color coordinated too .

Funny? LilPaul thought I was witty! Well ... surprisingly I am funnier in my comments in other blogs than I am in my own. I'm too damn serious here. Of course, consider the source ... he's the one who wears polka dot boxers ... .

jspinelli thought I just needed a reminder that I'm ... how did she put it ... "wonderful". I don't have to believe it, but it's great that someone else thinks so and gives me a badge for friendship.

monique went through my portfolio and noticed how organized my list of poems were ! Every time I think of that, I want to go through my port and sort. It needs Spring cleaning, arrangement into folders and more cross-reference of poems hidden in 4 'books' and in my blog.

charlesthec congratulated me on my poetry. Now I may question the other three badges, but I know I can write poetry. I was tickled purple (I don't do pink) that someone agreed with me. And here I thought only my opinion counted.

It's alway great to get a merit badge.

Me, my friends and my family

Couldn't sleep Thursday night. Read blogs and went to website of local paper and left some footprints and spoor there. There are a lot of local issues that concern me and disturb me. A lack of kindness and respect are at the core of much of my stress.

On Friday saw Susan and spoke with Jan and Ophelia. Went to market and picked up ground beef and cheese. The snow came down thick and I felt again like the child that once loved storms. Last night: wind.

Today ... sun and sleep. I read some. Lounged a lot. Left to go to the coffeehouse, Aimees, so I would accomplish something.

The Petroglyphs (Randy Carlson and Kevin Rabas) are playing their mix of blues, folk and country music with acoustic drum and guitar. Kevin read some poetry: 'Ballet Slippers', 'To Eat Just Once', "At the Jam', 'My Mailbox', 'Loaning Books', 'Clothes Left in Washers'. They have a place at MySpace.

IMAGES and RAMBLINGS

Cold seat of the metal chairs outside; the warmth inside; conversation about the movies 'Red' and 'Blue'; drum and guitar; Brett smiling; a super large cup of cold 'Rolling Thunder'; cinnamon; DRUM DRUM DRUM.

~ is the plural of mangoose mangeese or mengoose or mengeese? There is a joke in there somewhere ... as soon as I chase it down ... .

Or sillier: mon goose, mon gander, mon geese, mon goslings. Yikes!

~ overheard: "that must've been after your time" Oops, I guess our time has passed!

Violets

The fragance of modesty,
shy beneath green hearts
greets the walker along
this stony path, where stairs
hewn into moss and fairy rings
cling to the riven gash
of the gorge. Timid fawns
seek forage where
leaf litter provides
the camouflage of Youth,
invisible to Age stored
within the countless years
of roots cracking rocks,
these earth-bones giving refuge
to the elusive fragrance
of shyness.

[163.577]

WATT'S GNU!

Oooooo ... Kansas 92, Nebraska 39. Ouch and double ouch and ... We used to consider trampling the Huskers into the cornfields our duty every winter as bittersweet revenge for football season. Not as impressive as the 150-95 win over Kentucky in 1989, but we'll take it.

The weather is late winterish. Moist, but not too cold.

READING

Marcia Muller's Eye of the Storm. I also got another one of Murakami's novels out and borrowed the movie Umberto D.

BEWARE: BEYOND THIS POINT ARE MOANY GROANS AND FINE WHINES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

MY RANT!

Is the University of Kansas a gay friendly university? Not as long as the sports teams do not have inclusive policies. There are efforts and people do care ... just not enough to make it policy. When Esera Tuaolo visited, neither the coaches nor any members of the basketball or football team were in attendance. A member of Q & A (Queers & Allies ) commented that he thought they wouldn't be allowed. So the following article is pertinent:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-jimlitke-020807&prov=ap&type=lgns

It's nice to talk about the World and the Nation, but what about where we-all live, our 'home' town?

Is Lawrence Kansas a gay friendly town? Is yours? Here they are trying to be, but the LGBTQ community is complacent. No one is beating up on them personally, so no one seems to care. The kids at KU do their thing, folks in town do theirs. Now there is a proposal to have a domestic registry, but this so offends folks who don't live here, like a whole bunch of self-righteous jack-offs in filthy-wealthy Johnson County that they want the state to block it.

The streets are quite another matter. Most of the men are bi-sexual in behavior. Drugs, alcohol, time in jail have convinced most of them that a little ... ain't nuthing to avoid or worry over. On the other hand, there is the gossip, finger pointing and downright threatening hatred of a few. The streets are very dangerous to anyone gay or lesbian or bi.

In this city it is possible to traipse down the main drag in drag. It is possible for the handsome to hold hands. It is also possible to be bashed in the alleys.

Only until the City Council leads the way (they do have an anti-discrimination law) does the city become safer.

Only when those who run the alleys and the service providers decide not to tolerate hatred will the streets change. Not likely.

Only when the University of Kansas adopts all-inclusive policies, including their unpaid gladiators and overpaid Sports Inc. staph (yeah, I could've written staff, but they ARE an infection) will things change. The Chancellor needs to lead the way.

Culturally, things will change when the iconic leaders lead the masses: those Hollywood Queens, those Military Kings, the Political Knaves and Sport Jesters. Until then we will live beneath the heel of the self-Righteous Religious Levites who rule by fear, spouting venom that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

BLOGVILLE

First a thank-you to everyone who went and left comments at ♥Flower♥ 's blog these last couple days: Solitary Man , hoosiermomma2 , Startiara , dareng, Nada , alfred booth, wanbli ska and cattahgrl . Flower also gives thanks to Vivian for her calls through this crisis. Support through hard times is essential to the soul's happiness in this physical world.

My rant: I've been reading lots of blogs and leaving lots of comments, but not getting many comments in my blog in return.

I guess my approach must be different than most folks here. The most common approach at WDC seems to be: you read my blog and leave comments and I respond, then you respond. Almost a scroll or IM approach.

I don't do that. I don't chit-chat (much). I don't do chat rooms. My approach is: I read; I respond. You read my blog, I go read yours ... and leave comments.

I would say that I leave comments at 9 of 10 entries I read and at 24 of 25 bloggers.

On the 12th and part of the 13th, I had read and left 53 comments at 30 blogs. I got how many comments here? So, I'm confused. Obviously my approach isn't working. I have no clue what will work.

Just like I can't convince my friends and family to read this. So I'm thankful for all of you who do (even those that don't leave comments ).

Would love some warm kind friendly advice on how to invite people in, encourage them to stay awhile and feel safe enough to comment.

But perhaps I complain too much. I've been to too many blogs recently where I was the only comment, which is sad. Like writing poetry ... if you write blogs you need to read them. And if you want support you have to give it. Most folks here crave encouragement. Why write a blog if folks aren't even going to say hello? Very discouraging to some, even to a veteran like me.

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 Kåre Enga

~ until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go. ~ Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish