Hospital Tanka

You are prepped and tubed,

Waiting for the surgery.

I should be thankful

That the minutes feel so long.

At our age clock hands move fast. 

Will there always be an Ireland?

"For where there are Irish there’s bound to be fighting,

And when there’s no fighting, it’s Ireland no more!

Ireland no more!" 

-- Rudyard Kipling, "The Irish Guards" 

Overrun by Mohammedan hordes? Want to take your country back?

It's hard effectively to "speak truth to power" with words or deeds once you've been censored and disarmed by some species of totalitarianism. Just ask the people of Iran. 

The computer in my pocket

I am in ceasefire negotiations with the part of me that always said I needed a full size keyboard if I was ever going to write anything. I think the parts of me are almost ready for a prisoner swap as a show of good faith. 

I had that old me over a barrel because he needed me to rescue the notes and tag ends of brainstorms from the ruins of that Ubuntu laptop the he was trying to use to write that Young Adult semi-SciFi time travel novel. *I* had the tech savvy to download the text artifacts. I turn over the e-archeological remains, and in return? I get to post short-format stream of conscientiosness fluff. Pennies down the wishing well. Roses tossed on the current of the Thames. Japanese poetry in English. Memories. Memento mori. 

If the habit forms it could be quick and fun to check in. No plans, just hopes.

Random Acts of Mindness

I went back and deleted a lot of the old posts, and may go back and delete more. 

Posterous deleted me.

A few days ago I got the jump on 'em and deleted my Tumblrs.And my Instagram. 

But here's the thing: there will be more Crowndot as we go forward. I might be able to exercise a few of the remaining creative brain cells. 

Waltz! Don't march!

The producers of hymnals hate 6/8 time. They will do anything to pound the march or the dirge out of a processional or recessional hymn.

The transcription of the Thaxted tune shown above just about requires some higher math. I finally convinced myself that those measures (one and a half beats  plus half a beat plus three-quarters of a beat plus a quarter of a beat) do add up to three beats each. 

Where there's a will there's a way, and they by golly waltzed it!

Tanka, February 25, 2023

Almond trees in bloom --

Like mine their heads have turned white.

Snow on the mountain --

An old man in a white shawl.

And yet -- and yet! -- new Spring grass!

A. K. Chesterton

 Gilbert Keith Chesterson's alter ego? 

Saw this: 

Thought this: