Monday, October 20, 2014
River life
Allows himself to be swept north on the tide.
Tired of the ride, his wings spread and carry
Him into the lazy sky.
The tugboat doesn't so much pull its barge
As it pushes it downstream, passing another
Headed up. The birds have abandoned their
Watery perch to sail circles above it
As the jetskis roil the river alive with boats
And sparkling with waves
Labels:
barges,
boats,
coast guard,
East River,
sailboats,
seagulls,
tugs
Friday, September 26, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
with thanks to Lydia Davis
Pigeons fighting over a piece of pizza, developed a fondness for pepperoni.
Suddenly, they crave meat.
Suddenly, they crave meat.
Man with many pigeons in Washington Square Park, New YorkCC BY 2.0, JoeInQueens from Queens, USA - DSC_0063 Uploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe |
Labels:
carnivore,
Lydia Davis,
omnivore,
pigeons,
the shortest story,
vegetarian
Handsome
Klopfholz mit BeitelnCC BY-SA 3.0, Janekpfeifer - Own work |
You certainly would not like his looks,
But he is genuinely handsome, with his sculpted beard,
No rather, it is chiselled against his face,
The grey standing out against the burnished oak
In delicate fine lines, his is the face on the prow,
Or perhaps of a captain sailing gallantly and gamely
Into the wind
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Memory
I envy you, remembering
The addresses of your childhood
The addresses of your childhood
I remember nothing, not even
Grudges or the names of
Friends and neighbors
If memory is all we have
I have only you and our years
Together, I remember all that
Every touch, every tender moment
Memories like that are my blessing
My consolation for all my unsung past
© Tamara Beck
Thursday, May 1, 2014
April 30th, New York City
The daffodils, defeated by the rain,
Can barely hold their heads up,
Stems soaked and heavy, but
With no sun and all this cold,
Scrunching down may well be preferrable
© Tamara Beck
Can barely hold their heads up,
Stems soaked and heavy, but
With no sun and all this cold,
Scrunching down may well be preferrable
© Tamara Beck
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Mass destruction
By Bull-Doser (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
The weapons of mass destruction
They are our cars and our
Carelessness, all politicized
Turned into matters of belief
Do you believe that the ice caps
Are melting? Or that our baby
Planet is more than a few thousand
Years old? Remember when dinosaurs
Roamed the earth next to man?
Or the grace of his intellect-- another
Of god's graces
Religion and science at war with reality
Losing ground
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Constructs of time
By Morio (photo taken by Morio) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons |
Strike you as silly like
They do me? Today is
Spring, because it's March
21st but the 19th, that was
Still winter and come June
Summer will begin and the
Whole universe is expected
To tow the line, obey the
Law of the seasons in a timely
Manner, flowers are to bloom
And leaves to fall, cold winds
To blow and rains to pound
The hard earth, each in
Their turn, each in their time
© Tamara Beck
Friday, March 7, 2014
My side
My side of the story usually comes with an apology.
In this case, there will be none.
The truth requires no apologies. I will tell you the truth, my side of the story.
As it turns out, there is nothing particularly exotic about the truth. Tellng it may be a novel experience for some of us, okay for me. But truth is not a rare bird with wild and colorful plumes. That is more like the lies with which I am so accustomed to embellishing my stories.
Truth is a plain creature, generally hatless and sometimes hapless.
Is it scary? It is not. Unlike the famous line, it is easy to handle. The truth is just oddly normal. It has its own pattern, like lines on the paper from a lie detector sheet. It's steady and forthright.... which does seem like an oddly circular way of describing it.
Let me just tell you and you decide.
On that Monday as the working world was heading of to jobs and lounge lizards were barely opening their eyes to cups of coffee black and sweet, I was minding my own business. By that, I guess I mean, inattentive to the people that passed and lost in my thoughts. There were some groceries I was needing to buy and some mending I wanted to attend to.
Someone a little tall and quite burly rushed by as if determined to get there before anyone else. The speed and force was really all I noticed. He went into Joe's store and out as fast with something in his arms. He staggered a little, I thought under the weight of whatever he was carrying, righted himself and then stumbled. He dropped at my feet, the bundle in his arms first. I caught it, picked it up on its way down as it were, and took it away with me.
I'd be lying if I claimed I was headed striaght to the precinct house when the cop pinched me. He jumped to a policeman-like conclusion that I was Burly Man's accomplice. The truth is I was curious about the package that had fallen into my hands, and wanted a chance to have a look-see. I was not averse to handing it over to the police, really, just wanted a little time to explore the contents.
So there I was caught red-handed at something I had not done. An innocent bystander, holding a smoking gun.
The truth looked a lot fishier than any assumptions to which you could jump.
In this case, there will be none.
The truth requires no apologies. I will tell you the truth, my side of the story.
As it turns out, there is nothing particularly exotic about the truth. Tellng it may be a novel experience for some of us, okay for me. But truth is not a rare bird with wild and colorful plumes. That is more like the lies with which I am so accustomed to embellishing my stories.
Truth is a plain creature, generally hatless and sometimes hapless.
Is it scary? It is not. Unlike the famous line, it is easy to handle. The truth is just oddly normal. It has its own pattern, like lines on the paper from a lie detector sheet. It's steady and forthright.... which does seem like an oddly circular way of describing it.
Let me just tell you and you decide.
On that Monday as the working world was heading of to jobs and lounge lizards were barely opening their eyes to cups of coffee black and sweet, I was minding my own business. By that, I guess I mean, inattentive to the people that passed and lost in my thoughts. There were some groceries I was needing to buy and some mending I wanted to attend to.
Someone a little tall and quite burly rushed by as if determined to get there before anyone else. The speed and force was really all I noticed. He went into Joe's store and out as fast with something in his arms. He staggered a little, I thought under the weight of whatever he was carrying, righted himself and then stumbled. He dropped at my feet, the bundle in his arms first. I caught it, picked it up on its way down as it were, and took it away with me.
I'd be lying if I claimed I was headed striaght to the precinct house when the cop pinched me. He jumped to a policeman-like conclusion that I was Burly Man's accomplice. The truth is I was curious about the package that had fallen into my hands, and wanted a chance to have a look-see. I was not averse to handing it over to the police, really, just wanted a little time to explore the contents.
So there I was caught red-handed at something I had not done. An innocent bystander, holding a smoking gun.
The truth looked a lot fishier than any assumptions to which you could jump.
The beginning of a short short story. © Tamara Beck
Labels:
a noir,
jump to conclusions,
police,
two sides to every story
Mementos
Our lives may end like this, too
Carted away by 1800JunkToGo
Workmen picking up the detritus
Things we've kept far too long
Well that I did, you would
Have thrown them all away
In time's past
We could have kept the memories
Without the stuff
You would have thought
Unbothered by sentiment no longer
Remembered, or maybe
Remembered just enough to make us smile
Carted away by 1800JunkToGo
Workmen picking up the detritus
Things we've kept far too long
Well that I did, you would
Have thrown them all away
In time's past
We could have kept the memories
Without the stuff
You would have thought
Unbothered by sentiment no longer
Remembered, or maybe
Remembered just enough to make us smile
© Tamara Beck
March 7, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Where there were
© Tamara Beck
|
So familiar as to be forgotten
There are great big holes in the ground,
Waiting for cement and cranes,
And that inevitable uplift to
The city skyline so familiar
As to be anticipated
© Tamara Beck
|
Labels:
architecture,
buildings,
change,
construction,
new,
New York City
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Origins
Will the moment we learn with complete certainty where
It all began, the origin of our universe, be the moment
Life
ends
Will when we learn who we are and how we began be our
Ending?
It all began, the origin of our universe, be the moment
Life
ends
Will when we learn who we are and how we began be our
Ending?
Labels:
beginnings,
Darwin,
end of times,
endings,
life,
origins
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Is that a fact?
Facts are not really facts-- they are tempered in the prism of opinion and judgement.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Resolve this
It's 2014, but it could be any NEW year....
Stressed by all the resolutions you've made?Try to simplify: you don't want to be a completely different person.
Resolve in smaller increments-- you can always make better choices.
For instance, instead of resloving "to lose weight," determine to make better choices in food; rather than "to work less and relax more" resolve to choose the projects you undertake more wisely; a resolution "to quit drinking or smoking" will give you greater success as a resolution to make better choices about your health. Look for success.
Resolve to minimize the stress in your life and maximize the pleasures.
Labels:
better choices,
new year's resolutions,
resolutons,
stress
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