A Likely Story

A Month of Couplets - December 2017

2018-01-02T07:30:00.000-05:00

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and here: https://www.instagram.com/lifeintwolines/

@lifeintwolines

December 2017

12/1/17

Wisdom is like the rain--when it comes down

In drips or torrents, ignorance will drown.

12/2/17

There is no faith or truth in corporate crooks--
They'll feed you lies so they can cook the books.

12/3/17

When Democracy's sold to crooks by knaves,
Freedom dies in plantations of wage slaves.

12/4/17

This world is a place with five fools for each sage

And a book of lies for every truth-filled page.

12/5/17

after Emma Lew

The snide rich have one rule, and it's not recent:

"We have one life. Why spend it being decent?"

12/6/17

Hate shouts so loudly that none dare dispute it

Except Compassion, whose kiss can refute it.

12/7/17

The road snakes as we walk, winding and narrow.

But when we look back, it's straight as an arrow.

12/8/17

Eyes see joy clearer after tasting tears

Like hearts grow stronger after facing fears.

12/9/17

Love sees the lover through forgiving glasses.

Without them, angels look like stupid asses.

12/10/17

Love is, no matter how harmonious,

A war that has three sides: you, me, and us.

12/11/17

Wisdom and freedom will both meet their doom

When even fools are too smart for the room.

12/12/17

Hypocrites who preach Christ is love will claim

That hatred's good when it's done in His name.

12/13/17

Yesterdays are like ex-loves who don't care:

My heart still tells me that there's something there.

12/14/17

Loneliness is a clingy ghost who haunts me

By telling me that no one worth me wants me.

12/15/17

We all wake up to ancient pain and sorrow

Telling us how to live our lives tomorrow.

12/16/17

Love is a flower, lush and undefiled,

That will not grow true unless it grows wild.

12/17/17

I tell myself the lies I need to live--

But lie to me, and that I can't forgive.

12/18/17

Nothing is promised. Everything is granted.

Life's only guarantee: we all get planted.

12/19/17

Let all the rivers in you overflow.

Even what feels like poison helps you grow.

12/20//17

for Cresta Kruger

Three rules in life to always keep in mind:

Stay curious. Risk heartbreak. And be kind.

12/21/17

Fan-fiction Christ shills for the rich and greedy;

Canon Christ always helps the poor and needy.

12/22/17

Fan-fiction Christ says, "God favors the wealthy!"

Canon Christ says, "All money is unhealthy."

12/23/17

Fan-fiction Christ is hellfire and damnation;

Canon Christ is forgiveness and salvation.

12/24/17

Canon Christ has a loving heart that's huge;

Fan-fiction Christ is Ebenezer Scrooge.

12/25/17

Canon Christ feeds all who come to his table;

Fan-fiction Christ-just those who wear His label.

12/26/17

Fan-fiction Christ sees threats to get rid of;

Canon Christ is the rebel who cries "Love!"

12/27/17

Fan-fiction Christ will kill to be adored;

Canon Christ breeds compassion with Love's sword.

12/28/17

Fan-fiction Christ condemns women and gays;

Canon Christ welcomes all of us always.

12/29/17

The good disciples worship what they've heard;

The bad adore the teacher, not the word.

12/30/17

Two things the birth of tyranny requires:

Mute those who tell the truth and praise the liars.

12/31/17

Life's sneakers love to walk the same old trail

That leads from new and fresh to old and stale.

Jingle Belles - The 2017 Xmas Compilation

2017-12-20T07:30:00.000-05:00

What a year. We say that at the end of every year, right? But this year? What a year.

I won't bore you with the details of mine. They will either make you incredibly jealous or incredibly happy, depending on how you view despair, joy, loneliness, creativity, major life changes, foreign customs, and the endless vigilance needed to break old habits. Which, when you get to be my age, are the only habits you have. And while that doesn't necessarily make them old friends, it does make them boone companions. (That's not a typo--that's boone, as in Aaron Fucking.)

And it looks like the one companion we all share this Christmas, the one who's running the show wherever you look, is the grubby little brat whom the Ghost of Christmas Present warned us about: ignorance. His influence is everywhere. The country is being run by venal little Scrooges who will not listen to any ghost who doesn't pay them off, or whom they can't pay off to shut up. The North Pole is becoming a swimming pool. California is starring in an annual remake of The Burning Season. And we're maybe only a couple of years away from a category 6 hurricane. Joy to the world, he said sarcastically. But then he snorted a little harrumph and added, "And that's exactly what we need, joy. That's the best weapon we have. Along with love and laughter. And music."

As I said to a non-blood brother a couple of days ago, I almost didn't do a Xmas music compilation this year, because my heart wasn't in it, because that hard-to-shut-up negative voice in me kept saying "Nobody will care," and because all things come to an end, even traditions. (It's been that kind of year.) But at the end of last week I thought, "Okay, so your heart's not in it; but I bet it will be when you start doing it. And don't be stupid, there are people out there who care about this. And what the hell, why not do a compilation? You've got 15 years of music to choose from, and you've never repeated a track in all that time, so how about something that celebrates that, as well as the holiday?" And two seconds later a voice in my head added: "And given what a hell of a year this has been, make it all female singers."

So here it is. The only male voices show up on a couple of tracks as backup and harmony, or (on the Bonus Track) on the bridge (a traditional male preserve both nautically and musically).

The world is a dark place in the winter. Light it up whenever you can. Sing out loud as you walk down the street. Smile at a stranger. We're all in the same boat, even the snooty first-class passengers who would let the folks in steerage sink if they can't swim. They'd love to turn that boat into the Titanic; but we'll do our best to make it live up to its real name: the Constitution.

Haddy Grimble, everybody.

Jingle Belles - The 2017 Xmas Compilation

1 2000 Miles The Pretenders

2 Winter Song Sara Barielles and Ingrid Michaelson

3 Christmas Day Dido

4 River Joni Mitchell

5 Love is Christmas Sara Barielles

6 Rudy Be Good Tanyas

7 Ten Tubas The Professor and Mary Ann

8 The Heartache Can Wait Brandi Carlile

9 Silver Belles and Sweet Farewells Wendy Colonna

10 (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presents, Dear Syd Straw

11 Darling (Christmas Is Coming) Over The Rhine

12 Unwrap Me Saint Etienne

13 Up On The Housetop Reba McEntire

14 Rockin’ Little Christmas Carlene Carter

15 The Christmas Twist Syd Straw

16 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Darlene Love

17 (Don’t Call Me) Mrs. Christmas Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler

18 Not Tonight Santa Girls Aloud

19 Underneath The Tree Kelly Clarkson

20 I Did It For The Toys Dance Hall Crashers

21 Because I’m Santa The Dollyrots

22 Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me The Love-Me-Nots

23 Baby It’s Christmas Bananarama

24 Christmas In The City Elizabeth Chan

25 Christmas Wrapping The Waitresses

26 Merry Christmas From the Family Jill Sobule

27 Christmas with Fat Aunt Bette Andrea Perry

28 Little Drummer Boy Joan Jett

29 I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus Amy Winehouse

30 I Saw Mommy Biting Santa Claus. The Dollyrots

31 Zombie Christmas Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler

32 Black Christmas Poly Styrene

33 Maybe This Christmas Leigh Nash

34 My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) Regina Spektor

35 Bonus Track

Time

2017-12-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Dreams

2017-12-05T04:24:00.001-05:00

A Month of Couplets - November 2017

2017-12-04T02:55:00.003-05:00

Follow it here: https://www.facebook.com/thedailycouplet/

and here: https://www.instagram.com/lifeintwolines/

@lifeintwolines

November 2017 Couplets

11/1/17

Let's be Republicans!--And hem and haw

Until we overthrow the rule of law!

11/2/17

Loneliness terrifies me because I'm with

Someone I can't stand to spend any time with.

11/3/17

Let's be Republicans!--And smugly blame

What we burn up for triggering the flame!

11/4/17

My bad romances are the children of

A needy dad and moms who feel no love.

11/5/17

Because my heart's an alcoholic souse,

It guzzles love and blacks out playing house.

11/6/17

Let's be Republicans!--And always battle

To make sure men can treat women like cattle!

11/7/17

Just body parts won't start my carnal car--

It's all about whose body parts they are.

11/8/17

Let's be Republicans!--And bravely fight

To make this country bigoted and white!

11/9/17

Between the ignorance and the mendacity

Our leaders put the ass in incapacity.

11/10/17

An ounce of hope lifts despair's ton of pressure

And one kind act's the stone that breaks Hate's thresher.

11/11/17

Two Ideas Of Love

His heart believed her love could validate him;

His insecurity's what made her hate him.

11/12/17

One kind of love always ends in rejection:

Mistaking affectation for affection.

11/13/17

Never give up--but let surrender be

The way your spirit fights for victory.

11/14/17

Let's be Republicans!--And talk the talk!

And then go backwards every time we walk!

11/15/17

If wanting was enough, I'd be a saint;

But that takes love, self-knowledge, and restraint.

11/16/17

What justifies our political lust?

This motto: In Rich White Male God We Trust.

11/17/17

May my life always be a meal that feeds

Not what my journey wants, but what it needs.

11/18/17

When false friends talk behind my back, why curse?

If they knew ALL my flaws, they'd say much worse.

11/19/17

My lower self looks for a pit to fall in;

My higher self, a prospect to stand tall in.

11/20/17

Everything that we get in life's a loan.

Why cling to things that we can never own?

11/21/17

Arrogance--greed--rudeness--despoliation:

My country is an uncivilization.

11/22/17

Now is not then and will not ever be.

Let it go--it's one sure way to be free.

11/23/17

My life's been gifts and blessings by the tank-full.

I give thanks that I'm still here to feel thankful.

11/24/17

Joy's flowers are all watered by my tears;

My courage is the daughter of my fears.

11/25/17

Ask me my flaws--I'll tell you ten at once.

Ask me my gifts--I stammer like a dunce.

11/26/17

Bad decisions teach me how not to fail

Like storms at sea help me learn how to sail.

11/27/17

All sins can be forgiven--except one:

Using The Bible like a Gatling gun.

11/28/17

The ego: "Seek revenge for every hurt!"

The heart: "Treat foes like flowers, not like dirt."

11/29/17

The present is a diet of fresh meat

But it's the past's stale leftovers I eat.

11/30/17

Each time I undertake a plan of action

My monkey brain gets dazzled by distraction.

Sonnet based on a line from Mark Tredinnick's "Lotus Pond"

2017-11-27T07:15:00.000-05:00

Lotus Pond:

https://redroomcompany.org/poem/mark-tredinnick/lotus-pond/

Thanksgiving

2017-11-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

This Is Who They Are

2017-11-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Dumbo's Feather

2017-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

This Be The Premise

2017-11-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Choice

2017-10-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

My Empire of Dirt

2017-10-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Point

2017-10-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Guest House

2017-10-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

#ItsInMeToo

2017-10-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

Empty Fridge Syndrome

2017-10-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Work

2017-10-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

Gardening

2017-10-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

I Could Love You

2017-10-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

Shaving Cut

2017-10-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

The World

2017-10-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

The world says that I have to pay attention
To what it says must occupy my mind.
I have to be a cog in its convention
Of relevance, or else I’m unrefined.
The world says that it is the arbiter
Of what I should be seeing—doing—wearing—
For my own good. And so I must concur.
If not, then I deserve to be despairing.
The world says that what it says matters more
Than anything I say—and its approval
Is all I need to get me past Fame’s door.
Without it, bouncers see to my removal.
The world says I must give each waking thought
To what it calls important—or I’m not.

They say the world will come to you if you
Just keep doing the work, but that’s a lie.
It only comes when brought by someone who

Sees something in it that he wants to buy.

They say the world will always notice talent,

But talent is defined as flattery.

Sing the world’s praises; it will call you gallant

And stay blind to your mediocrity.

They say the world will recognize great art,

But that’s the greatest fiction of them all.

Works that have brilliance, vision, style and heart

Are chaff if not sold at the shopping mall.

They say the world decrees where worth begins—

And every time we buy that, the world wins.

The world wins when it says "I am the one

Who brands you with the tattoo of success.

You cannot shine unless it is my sun.

Without my label, all is worthlessness."

The world wins when we say that we define

Our own success, since that means we’re conceding

We’ve failed at the world’s game, and get to dine

On our own praises, which is special pleading.

The world wins every time we factor in

The world to an equation. It’s a term

Whose value changes what we’ve done or been

Into an either or: winner or worm.

The world wins when we seek out its affection—

And wins big when we give it our rejection.

Rejecting the world means that we still care

Enough about it to defend our work

Against its disapproval—its unfair

Ignorance—its supercilious smirk.

Rejecting the world means we tried to win it

Over to us, and then cried “Sour grapes!”

Because it wouldn’t give us half a minute,

We bitch it out for days with gripes and japes.

Rejection feeds the world’s great vanity,

For hatred’s just a hotter kind of loving.

Beneath its heat, it says you want to be

Embraced and welcomed by the one you’re shoving.

It doesn’t want her gone—it wants her sweet.

Which makes rejection yearning in defeat.

The world can’t lose because the game is rigged

To either make it win or make you fail.

It poisons every toast you’ve ever swigged.

(I swear to God, it’s like the world is male.)

The world can’t lose because it is the court

And judge and jury where worth’s law is passed—

That puts your name on Time’s final report

And then rules whether you will fade or last.

The world can’t lose unless you just don’t give

A shit what it thinks. Takes a special soul

To care so little for applause, and live

Without what others cling to, and be whole.

The world can’t lose unless, for all you love it,

You vow always to be in it—not of it.

The world is everything, for those who look

For someone else to tell them all the answers.

“Here’s the great movie!” “There’s the must-read book!”

“That company may move, but they’re no dancers.”

The world is everything a vampire is—

It needs your blood to live; it fills your head

With hungry dreams and condescension’s fizz;

Then leaves you soulless, brainwashed, and undead.

The world is everything you’ve ever wanted—

State-sanctioned virtue, tolerated vice,

The lure of fame whose absence leaves you haunted—

And all you have to do is pay its price:

Be the world’s champion, not its accuser—

And then call anyone who is, a loser.

The world is just, or so it likes to think,

And fair the way society is fair:

It serves the Ins a complimentary drink

While telling all the Outs “I just don’t care.”

The world is just too proud to be disgraced

Whenever someone says it might be biased.

It claims it’s just coincidence its taste

Runs to the straightest, whitest, and the guyest.

The world is just another inner voice

That tells us all the things we cannot do—

Praises us when we choose to give up choice

And swears it’s champagne when we swig its brew.

The world is just a low voice from on high

That will praise nothing it can’t profit by.

The world is nothing more than a collection

Of self-sustaining myths. It’s like a church.

Give it your worship; it gives you protection.

Deny it; it will leave you in the lurch.

The world is nothing but an elevator—

Once you’re in, upper floors are all you’ll see.

It guards the penthouse like it’s Joy’s dictator,

Crying: “You must find happiness through me!”

The world is nothing less than a machine

I have no control over, so why should

I think its ignorance of me is mean

Or meant? Or that its praise of me is good?

Why look for vision in what cannot see

And always puts the vain in vainglory?

“The world is ours!” successful people cry.

But they don’t ever own it—it owns them.

Its praise—and not their gifts—put them on high,

And what it raises up, it can condemn.

The world is yours to do with as it pleases,

But only when you choose to give it power.

And when it does deliver on its teases

And kisses you, the aftertaste is sour.

The world is mine, when I can say to it

“You don’t own me!” and mean it—every word—

Do what I will, not what it will permit—

And be untroubled, not a fountain stirred,

Each time the world thinks of new ways to fool me

Into believing that its standards rule me.

Anthill Blues

2017-10-09T05:56:00.000-04:00

Pings

2017-10-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

Pings

2017-10-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

A Month of Couplets - September 2017

2017-10-01T11:26:00.001-04:00

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9/1/17

The new is tar in which my thoughts will sink.

Boring routines will give me space to think.

9/2/17

Walk out of any room where there's no love

And write a tale that you're the hero of.

9/3/17

If I loved myself half as much as I

Love the unworthy, oh, how high I'd fly!

9/4/17

Safety is knowing what you'll do for weeks.

Adventure never sees beyond your cheeks.

9/5/17

The door I fear to open guards a room

Of terrible rewards, not pain and doom.

9/6/17

I love the new, but it's the same old game:

When strangeness beckons, I reach for the same.

9/7/17

In all of history, no one's been you.

Don't waste that doing what the rest can do.

9/8/17

You always know who misses you the most:

The great reach out; the rest fade like a ghost.

9/9/17

Want to make haters feel incompetent?

Treat all their insults like a compliment.

9/10/17

Anger congests us till we fume and sputter.

Forgiveness cleans out all that nasty clutter.

9/11/17

Those born to a belief may be dogmatic

But converts live their creed like a fanatic.

9/12/17

Escape in fiction gets looked down on by

The jailers who say all art must be high.

9/13/17

Fear whispers--my soul sinks beneath the floor.

But just a breath of hope can make it soar.

9/14/17

The more we feed the hate of push and shove,

The less we listen to the voice of love.

9/15/17

(After Blaise Pascal)

All mankind's woes are meat on this one bone:

We can't sit quiet in a room alone.

9/16/17

Compassion weaves when heartless cuts the cord.

When hate is king, love is the rebel's sword.

9/17/17

It's only when I'm all alone and free

That I feel like I'm in bad company.

9/18/17

When my corrupted drives are all cleaned out,

There's still the back-up server of self-doubt.

9/19/17

The things that hurt us most we'll call a treasure

And let them kill us--if they give us pleasure.

9/20/17

It's Life when every answer to our cries

Is just another question in disguise.

9/21/17

It's all about what solitude can teach us

And those who care enough to try to reach us.

9/22/17

Shame is a cannibal--it always eats

Itself, till you're weighed down by your defeats.

9/23/17

Speak tolerance to hate--he never hears it

Because it's loving, and because he fears it.

9/24/17

Power responds to rebels with complaints
By killing them—then making them its saints.

9/25/17

Never tell narcissists that you adore them--

Because it's what they want to hear, you'll bore them.

9/26/17

The high road will become your status quo

When you ditch those who make you take the low.

9/27/17

Fools take for granted their deep friends' ovation

And fish the shallows for appreciation.

9/28/17

The hardest things in life to let go of

Are those that cling to my lack of self-love.

9/29/17

Obey this sign and lift depression's fog:

DO NOT FEED THE NEGATIVITY DOG.

9/30/17

The world says I must give each waking thought

To what it calls "important"--or I'm not.