Friday, December 2, 2016

Zorro of the rust belt






   of munificence, a dilettante drop-
   in by the ascending hero of policy 
   disdain, in this ostentatious res-
   cue of a factory by such impulsive
   favoritism, with fascist flourish;
   this WTO-busting subsidy of extor-
   tion-sucking rapture. Half, it ap-
   pears, is never bold enough. He'll
   be the whole butt of his gestures.

   So daring it is, to make us watch.





















Thursday, December 1, 2016

Breakfast strategy






     Between the breadbox
     and the pepper mill,
     it's hard to figure.

     That's not a dilemma
     or even alternative.























Thomas Isermann






Annals of remove i: December as we know it


In the desk drawer to my right
there is the Book of Common 
Prayer given to my father as a
young man by his fiduciary at
school. It is inscribed to him
personally, to a resonantly
historic name Dad never used,
and signed in the embracing
third person, His headmaster.





To this day, December marks
the breaking up of families
improvised in the rough and
tumble of experience in com-
petition, away. Young people
dutifully disperse, asking
each other only, how long be-
fore you might be near?

I suggest a refutation of the
fiction that this is immature.
These families, let us not ig-
nore. They are the ones which
conserve Horace. They are a-
ware of every crab we caught
in crew, every shirt that can
be borrowed, every note that
made us sing the thing again.

Why should we notice this, as
families are obliterated every
day, by repression, famine,
war, the divinity of walls?
Yes, intimate family frailty.
The essential answer stumbles
from the teeth of astonishment:
because this is also true, and
because they are right here.

December is parting, and this
is experience to draw upon, as
January looms to abrogate its
promise of reunion. We have no
precedent to resort to, not e-
ven a Commencement apprehension
of working for money, for that
repeal of learning, skill, wit
and poise, that separating tak-
ing of our heart, we never did
imagine, and have voted into
power.










  









Tuesday, November 29, 2016

South Arm of Compounce Loop


After traversing a picnic area
in a pine grove it follows an
old road southward, passing a
huge boulder at .13 m. At .3 
it crosses a brook and turns
right up a very steep slope.





              The steepest climb on the Southern Tunxis.
              At .5 m the trail climbs gradually along 
              a shelf, crossing another small brook. At
              .75 m it turns right into an old road and
              thereafter is less steep.  







































Shelton B. Hicock
  editor
Connecticut Walk Book
  Eighth Edition
Connecticut Forest and Park
  Association, Inc., 1970©