Friday, February 07, 2025

 

COMMENT - REWARD THEM, AND YOURSELF

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Saw some pithy/witty sayings this morning while I was still waking up (still am, for that matter).


Some struck me as funny, some as dumb, some just didn't make it to the second layer of brain cells.

One, however, struck a chord. "If a street musician makes you stop walking and listen, you owe him/her a buck."

That just seemed "right" to me. But, I don't see that many buskers (street performers).

Continuing my musings, I began to see, for me, that when someone who doesn't have to tell me, and I don't have to listen, provides something of value that I realize, recognize, as such, there SHOULD be a transaction of some kind. A reward, whether of cash, goods, words...something...should be given in return.

Maybe a pat on the back, maybe a recommendation to someone else, maybe a sharing of the message. I don't know exactly what YOU "should" do because THEY brought you value...but, you owe them something for what they gave you, even if it's just the intention to be a better person, live a better life, sing a happier song, or, maybe, just smile or sing, instead of sending out messages of gloom and doom.

There are people trying to do good for you. Reward them at least by trying to do good for others. Nothing big. Just a smile, a memory, a buck.

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Thursday, February 06, 2025

 

HAVE I ONCE KNOWN YOU - A POEM OF A PAST ROMANCE FROM ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE PERHAPS

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

The Crown of Love, 1875
by 
John Everett Millais
(English, 1829–1896)
Have I once known you in

Some other place or time?


Were we lovers then,

Winging forward to the now,


Where we find ourselves

United as before?


These eyes, these lips, 

Seeming delightfully new,


Are yet, somehow,

So famliar, and,


Joyful to behold,

To touch once more...


Or so it seems, that

You and I once were one, 


Lost to one another...

Seeking through eternity,


For that one who

Filled and made us whole.


I gaze upon you,

Reach for you, 


In your newness to

This time and place,


And, with wonderment,

Confused by familiarity 


And ease, must ask,

In this now and here...


Have I known you in

Some other place or time?


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Tuesday, February 04, 2025

 

POEM - FAVORITES

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

My favorite books,
All especially revered
Friends and family,
Have pages turned so often,
They are soft, smooth-cornered,
Marked with my touches,
If not seen, remembered,
Upon pages heavy with underlines,
Notes in the margins,
Never far from 
Hand or head or heart.
Closer still,
Remembered, recalled,
More deeply, more often,
Marked more tenderly,
By underlines and notes
Made by my heart,
Are you,
Oh, my Love.

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Monday, February 03, 2025

 

COMMENT - NEWS

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Every day, various government agencies throughout the U.S. spew out thousands of pages of new laws, regulations, opinions, decisions, and information.

Every day, an army of journalists, these days including "citizen journalists" pores over this vast and unceasing output for "news".

To a "genuine" news organization, "news" is a piece of information that catches the eye or ear of the customer or potential customer. Their continued existence depends on keeping and expanding this group.

Therefore the news that sparks interest is the news that is presented. Being "professional journalists", these reporters of news present it in a manner to provoke the most interest and response....usually in the form of outrage.

Just like "news photos" which have been set up or cropped so that a few people in one spot appear to be a mob taking over a city, written and spoken news is presented to give the appearance of something big happening when the actual event or utterance would normally mean little to most people in the ebb and flow of daily life.

To get people to read or listen to their news, professional news outlets create headlines that ignite interest and leave the customer wanting to know just what in the hell happened.

Most people don't make it past the headlines. They assume the headline to be the news, when it is often incomplete, misleading, and inflammatory.

Unfortunately, we cannot be everywhere observing every event ourselves, and have to trust professional news organizations to provide us with the information we need to make intelligent decisions.

Sadly, sometimes it seems they are too busy trying to stay in business and ahead of the competition to give rational representations of facts in an understandable manner so that we, the citizens, can make our own decisions based on reason and belief.

Don't even get me started on the untold number of "citizen journalists" expounding on the "news" without training or knowledge, but with tons of opinion and hubris, pick words and sentences out of "real news", and present it as fact in order to prove the validity of their position or belief.

In the land of the Internet, once a "fact", real or otherwise, hits the screen, it assumes a virtual life which can never be extinguished. Every day I see "news" that is either patently false or which has been massaged and manipulated to look worse than it is.

Every day, I get emails, and read comments on social media, from reasonable, reasonably intelligent, and well-meaning friends and relatives who have fallen for the headline and hype without bothering to research the facts.

I guess that in my way, I contribute to the problem by the fact that I have, in the past, "liked" or "shared" information which may or may not have been correct because I agreed with the intent, if not the facts. Recently, I have backed off from even that, which may be why I don't have so much to say...except when I type up long diatribes such as this.

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Sunday, February 02, 2025

 

POEM - OLD HEIDELBERG CASTLE

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Heidelberg Castle
Up on the hill stands the old broken fortress of Heidelberg.

In her dust-powdered wig from yesterday, 
Still standing watch over her city,
Though bare, broken bricks show through, and
Sagging breastworks prove her youth's long past.

Far down, flows the cold, blue-gray water
Of the Neckar,
With the old, arched bridge,
Perhaps seen in postcards,
Showing it in sunlight,
But,
In my mind it is last seen
On a rainy April day.

As I turned to view the bridge, 
Behind me,
The vine-entangled castle brooded,
About all the sad history she's endured.

She's been burned, you know, and
Damn near destroyed so many times.
Even so, she still watches over the city.

They say there's a curse on
The old Heidelberg castle,
But, he who laid the curse is long since dead...

Still, the old lady stands there,
Rain, sun, snow...
Watching over her city.

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Friday, January 31, 2025

 

COMMENTARY - THE MOZART EFFECT

 BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Years ago, I learned of the "Mozart Effect", which, in its simplest form, stated that listening to certain works by Mozart could (some said, "would") produce beneficial effects on mood, and even intelligence.

A little deeper look showed that this is still unproven, although temporary improvement on some intelligence tests HAS been experienced...about 15 minutes, in what I have read.

My point, however, is not to push this, OR pick this apart.

I feel good when I listen to Mozart, and other types of music, including Country Western, classical, big band era, and the occasional rock and roll pieces. But then, I was raised in the 1950s in the South of the U.S. where such music was common and popular, so, perhaps it's not the music as much as the connection to happy days, places, people, and times.

Many people tell me they enjoy "music", but, they mention R&B, Reggae, Techno, Heavy Metal, and genres which would make ME leave the room (he said politely).

We like what we like.

Our "like" is not always the only one, or the "best" one, but the best for us, and good things make us feel better, enjoy life more, and, in a way, I guess, pay more attention..

However, what we find joyful and beautiful, may be torturer tools to someone else. I try to respect that.

I knew a woman who told me, "I get sad and want to kill myself" when she heard Country Western.

I couldn't stand the music she liked.

We were friends.

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Thursday, January 30, 2025

 

POEM - A DRESS ONLY I CAN SEE

By Donovan Baldwin

my mind's hands fashion

a beautiful dress for you
only i can see

you my model stand
erect and proudly naked...
i measure and cut

setting loving words
against your most precious skin
smoothing them in place

Art: Madame X by John Singer Sargent

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POEM - WE ONLY WORK WITH WORDS

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

We only work with words,

We poets do,
To sing,
To draw,
To paint,
To point,
To link,
To loosen that which must be free.

We only work with words,
We poets do,
As best we can,
As they come
As they go,
Or stay,
Emblazoned on our souls.

We only work with words,
We poets do,
So variable,
So insensible,
So certain,
So unsure,
So real,
So lying and yet, because...

We only work with words,
We poets do,
We love,
We laugh,
We cry,
We sing,
We praise,
We demand,
We defend,

And sometimes...
We fail.

For...

We only work with words,
We poets do,
And words are clay, which,
Though molded properly,
And sure and glistening at first,
May slump or turn drab,
In the heat of day and sight of men.

We only work with words,
We poets do,
And ask the reader to read,
What was in minds and hearts,
When set upon the page,
With eyes like ours,
Who saw the sun and sky,
And tried to sing its praises,
But missed the mark.

So too, with love, honor, and courage...

Read our tales with piety and pity,
For round-shouldered scribes,
Trying to make beauty out of letters,

For...

We only work with words,
We poets do,
And must leave the living,
And understanding of our work
Up to you...the reader.

Donovan Baldwin
30 Jan 2018

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