Poetry in Motion

A little over a year ago, I had the opportunity to go to Nebraska and spend a little time at the orchard. That place is amazing and always gives me some level of peace. One morning, very early, I walked outside to take a stroll along the trees and just take in some cold Nebraska air. As I walked out the door, I was met with a beautiful “dusting” of new snow. During my short walk I met a wandering raccoon who came near enough to almost touch. When I returned from my myopic adventure, I walked inside and what follows is what came out. Don’t ask me when I turned from Philosophy to Poetry. Don’t worry. I’ll be back.

I awaken to a dusting of fresh snow and stand on the walk, pondering my first step, unretraceable.

The snow unmarked, untrodden like the life of a newborn baby having not made his first step.

How shall I leave my mark on the glistening snow? Which direction shall I take? What mark will I leave? Will someone be able to follow my trail or will wind and time erase the prints so that each may leave their own?

The raccoon ponders not his path, which step or direction. Minding only which way leads to peril, becoming prey, not predator. Each step by instinct, not thought.

And as I ponder which step, I start in any direction, following only my heart, leaving my trail, my path, my mark. And looking back see that wind has already covered my footsteps. Having no clear retrace by which to return, my choices remain open in any direction.

Every step a new path, a new adventure. Walk on. Leave a trail. Make a NEW trail. Walk on.


-Matt Leatherwood-

Robert Frost I Ain't

They say there is peace and serenity in being alone, yet it eludes me.

That there is comfort in the company of close friends, though I have but a few.

That there is nothing like the pride of being a father and dad, yet I only succeed from a distance.

Nothing still like the true love of just one other, yet pain accompanies the risk loving entails.

There is a dark place in me that only I can find, where only I can go, and only I can escape.

True failure only comes from failing to try, yet trying becomes harder with each failure.

Yet try I must, for in three words, IT GOES ON.  Precious life, but one, goes on and on, taking with it only

those who continue to fight, continue to try, continue to love, continue to learn, continue to grow.

Happiness hovers in the shadows still of this life, waiting only for the sunshine of a new day to shed light upon

what is yet to come.

Keep breathing in and out, in and out, in and out.  You never know what the tide may bring. What a new

dawn promises, what a new day envelopes.

Go forth with open eyes, an open heart and an open soul.

With each second the universe gets larger, the world smaller, and I more insignificant yet more unique.

Breathe in, breathe out.  The warmth of a new sun is but hours away.

Grand Theft

Recently my apartment was burglarized. In broad daylight, someone violently kicked in the door of my apartment, as well as the doors of three others. In the moments that ensued, these thieves took only a few electronics, a pistol, a badge, a briefcase and a phone. From me, all that was taken was a television, empty briefcase and a phone. What they left is more puzzling than what they took, but that’s another matter. They managed to open and rummage through every drawer, look under the mattress, and otherwise help themselves to whatever they wished. They just didn’t take much.


It’s the second time this year that I’ve felt “violated”. If you want to know about the other time, check out my blog archives. This time was different. When I got the news that I had been burglarized, I was 600 miles away in another state. I was helpless to really do much, including give the police officer any kind of accurate inventory. Over the phone, we were able to establish that some of my most precious keepsakes were still there. Odd.

At first, I just felt helpless, maybe even a little ill. There truly was little that I could do, so I tried not to let it ruin my mini-vacation. Over the next couple of days I felt some anguish, some anger. I was curious to see what my humble little abode looked like in the aftermath. There were times I was truly angry and disgusted. At other times I tried to go the “they must have needed it worse than I did” route. You know, it’s a bad economy and times are tough. This kind of thing is going to happen. But that just didn’t work for me. Oddly, neither did the anger.

Who among us hasn’t stolen something at one time or another? Bear with me. I’m not talking about material stuff. There have been times in my life where I have barged into a life where I wasn’t necessarily welcome and made a mess of an otherwise peaceful house. Through my words or actions I have stolen or damaged dignity and peace of mind. I have robbed people of their sense of security and safety. I have robbed those closest to me of their confidence, their purpose. I have, at one time or another, left them standing in the door with their mouth open, wondering how on earth I could do this to them.

I wonder if the thieves that made themselves at home in those four apartments, look in the mirror and ask themselves how they could do such a thing. I doubt it. I know I wake up every day and wonder how I can ever give back the things I’ve taken. I can’t. Trust is a commodity not easily replaced. I can’t say I forgive those who burglarized my home. But I understand. I worked hard for my “stuff” and it amazes me that someone would help themselves.

What those people did was illegal, at best. But the things I’ve taken over the course of a lifetime are in a category all itself. I can’t go to jail, but in many ways I’ve created my own prison. Be careful what you take. The price of taking what isn’t yours may be far higher than any price tag. Can you even put a price on integrity?

Andy Rooney

This isn't mine. And although I can't say I completely agree with everything he says, he says it pretty well. Enjoy. -Matt-



Andy Rooney said on '60 Minutes' a few weeks back:


I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, which is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I have the right 'NOT' to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black , that is not racial profiling; it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

I think the police should have every right to shoot you if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word 'freeze' or 'stop' in English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor

I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say 'NO!'

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of 'Political Correctness.' I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa ; so how can they be 'African-Americans'? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else

And if you don't like my point of view, tough...

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! And what about CANADIANS-We feel the same. Bravo for the Canadians too!!!

 

Lets Come Home

The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that the Commander of the North American Armed Forces is faced with a troubling task. According to this report, this Commander is to determine whether the terroristic threat from the air in these United States warrants continuation of our current level of nation-wide air support. Apparently, since the attacks of 9/11 our armed services have either patrolled our air space or been on stand-by to intercept possible unknown threats. If memory serves, I believe that last year there were 1400 unknown aircraft that warranted going on alert. Of those, 400 required us to be concerned and on 200 occasions we actually launched F18 Fighters to intercept and identify the possible threat.

It should come as no surprise that launching an F18 or keeping a force on call to intercept known threats is an expensive endeavor. To that regard, the Commander is basically being asked to reassess and trim the budget. Is there anyone else out there that finds this a bit odd? Ok, how but insane? The cost of the war in Iraq/Afghanistan is rapidly approaching 1 trillion dollars. Yes, that’s with a T. Our war is costing the U.S. taxpayer around 65 million dollars a day. On average, it costs about 390,000 dollars to deploy ONE soldier. And we’re worried about the budget to patrol our own air space?

Please. I completely understand the battle plan that states it’s better to take the fight to the enemy than for them to take it to us. But here’s my battle plan. If I’m at war, I would much rather hunker down in my own house with food and ammo and a really big fence, and DEFEND my turf than I would roam the streets waiting for the enemy to jump out. Game over. I think maybe it’s time we did the same.

I’ve said before I was the first on the bandwagon that called for Hussein’s head. I was all for going over to Iraq and righting a serious wrong. But let’s face it. It’s time to come home. This is a war we cannot win. We CAN continue to somewhat suppress acts of terrorism by maintaining a presence in the Middle East, but it will never, ever stop. This war has been going on for centuries already. Radical Islamics practice Jihad, from the word Jahada, which means “to strive for” and implies a struggle to overcome some force of adversity. In a nutshell, these radicals believe you should convert or die. AND…they are more than willing to die for that cause. It’s hard to defeat an enemy that isn’t afraid to die.

If I can figure out we can’t “win” an outright war on terror in the Middle East, don’t you think the Commander of the Joint Chiefs knows it? Hell yes he knows. So the conspiracy theorist in me screams that we’re there for another reason, be it oil or huge government defense contracts. If we’re truly serious about ending that fight once and for all, we drop glass cutters in the sand attached to a note. We give our troops a couple days to withdraw, and we turn the Middle East into a giant plate-glass window. I know that’s gross oversimplification, but we’re just dicking around over there and our men and women are dying for it each and every day. Defending our freedom? Sure they are, because they’re under orders. How about we order them home? Let’s spend that 65 million dollars a day patrolling our own shores, watching our own air space, hiring some more CIA spies, etc. etc. etc. I’ll bet we can easily do a better job defending our country against terrorism for a lot less money, by hunkering down right here at home.

Enough is enough. Let’s bring them home.

Something A Little "Lighter"

I recently purchased an Apple iPhone. It seemed like the thing to do. My old Palm Treo was acting up. Sometimes it would take a call. Sometimes not. Sometimes you could actually make a call. Sometimes, well…….not so much. It was time. It was time for me to move fully into the 21st century. I needed the latest and greatest gadget so that I, too, could “get an app for that”.

At the store, the sales rep assured me that my iPhone would sync easily with my old Palm software and all my calendar information would be transferred to my new wonderful device. Again, not so much. I really didn’t feel like I was taking much of a risk, because I WAS only paying 99 dollars (with a two year contract) for this most amazing piece of technology. Oh, well it was actually 160 dollars to get out the door because I DID need the latest and greatest hard cover, protector -thingy for my new toy. You can’t actually INSURE an iPhone so you better be able to protect it.

On my first attempt at HotSyncing, I learned quickly that iPhone does NOT actually sync easily with Palm software. In fact, iPhone ONLY syncs with MicroSoft Outlook, OR occasionally with Google Calendar/Contacts, but it isn’t quite that simple. So, I went gingerly off to my local Best Buy and purchased my brand new version of Outlook. It was only 119 dollars after tax, after all. Upon installation, I found that my old Palm phone, which stored all my previous data, would not sync with Outlook because the software version I had was incompatible WITH VISTA!!  After downloading the latest version of PALM software, I could now sync my OLD phone with Outlook so that I could THEN sync Outlook with my new fancy iPhone. It took two hours on the phone with a really nice guy from India to figure all that out.

But here’s the really good news. This phone is amazing. Today, I downloaded a new “app” which is called “virtual lighter.” It’s a must-have for concert-goers. You open the app and a “lighter” pops up on your screen. Using only your finger, you can open the lighter and actually strike it like the real thing, at which time a flame appears which actually BLOWS IN THE WIND!!!! I know, right?! If you want to share information with another iPhone owner, you need only open the information you need, and bump phones. POOF!! Like magic the phones share selected data. How that works is WAY beyond my shallow mind. But of course, all this has me thinking.

Anyone over the age of 40 must easily remember Dick Tracy. You know, he was the famous comic book detective that used a two-way wrist radio. It was the stuff of fantasy land. How could someone just talk on his wristwatch? That kind of technology was reserved for someone from outer space or some vast frontier. Certainly not something we’d see in our lifetime. Boy, were we ever wrong in a very, very, very big way.

Consider how technology has evolved in only the last 120 years or so. Only 200 years ago we didn’t have things like the internal combustion engine. Electricity, the telephone, cell technology, the internet, micro-chips, ad infinitum. My girlfriend in High School had a party line at her country home. Are you KIDDING ME? Today, I can take a small device from my hip and make a call, send a text message, surf the internet, play on Facebook, check my email and calendar, read my horoscope and get a tarot reading. The things I can do on my “phone” would have taken an acre of computer hardware to handle only 30 years ago. 30 years before that a “computer” was something of science fiction. Imagine all this in only 100 years or so.

Now consider that our earth/universe is billions and billions of years old. Mankind has only been part of that picture a fraction of that time; a very SMALL fraction of that time. We’ve only been around a few million years. It took millions and millions and MILLIONS of years to get to the beginning of where we are technologically today.

Now ponder this. If we’ve developed this much in only 100 years, imagine what will happen in the next 1000!!! We’ve already mapped human DNA. We have the technology to clone actual human beings although it hasn’t been done yet…..at least to our knowledge. Quantum physics is in its infancy. Things that once were thought impossible are now, well…….likely. How about time travel, worm holes, quantum leaps? You’d have to be living in a cave to disbelieve that we’ll someday be traveling on little spaceships. I’d say it’s only a matter of a generation or two before we’re actually considering things like time travel, or literally transponding from one location to another…instantaneously. This of course can all be true if we don’t self-destruct first. We may actually be able to travel to, and explore new galaxies.

Nothing is impossible. Dream big. Imagine the unimaginable. Consider the impossible. I only wish I could live to see the amazing things mankind has yet to invent. If you still don’t believe any of this can happen, you should come take a look at my new “virtual shotgun” app. Amazing……..simply amazing.

The Great Lakes Swimmers

I posted these lyrics previously on my old blog, but thought they deserved another look. Enjoy.




I was lost in the lakes

And the shape that your body makes,

That your body makes.


And the mountains said I could find you here,

They whisper the snow and the leaves in my ear.

I traced my finger along your trails.

Your body was the map.

I was lost in there.


Floating over your rocky spine,

The glaciers made you and now you’re mine.

I was moving across your frozen veneer.

The sky was dark,

But you were clear.

Could you feel my footsteps?

And would you shatter, would you shatter?

Would you?


Your soft fingers between my claws,

Like purity against resolve.

I could tell then there that we were formed from the clay,

And came from the rocks for earth to display.

They told me to be careful up there,

Where the wind rages through your hair.


-The Great Lakes Swimmers-