
Friday, February 07, 2025
COMMENT - REWARD THEM, AND YOURSELF
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.
Labels: comment, commentary, donovan baldwin, essay, reward, street buskers
Thursday, February 06, 2025
HAVE I ONCE KNOWN YOU - A POEM OF A PAST ROMANCE FROM ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE PERHAPS
The Crown of Love, 1875 by John Everett Millais (English, 1829–1896) |
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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Labels: donovan baldwin, love poem, lovers, poem, poetry, romantic poetry
Tuesday, February 04, 2025
POEM - FAVORITES
Labels: books, donovan baldwin, love, poem, poetry
Monday, February 03, 2025
COMMENT - NEWS
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.
Labels: commentary, current events, donovan baldwin, journalism, news, opinion
Sunday, February 02, 2025
POEM - OLD HEIDELBERG CASTLE
Heidelberg Castle |
Labels: castle, donovan baldwin, Heidelberg, poem, poetry
Friday, January 31, 2025
COMMENTARY - THE MOZART EFFECT
BY DONOVAN BALDWIN
![]() |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |
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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Labels: country, donovan baldwin, music, R&B, techno, the Mozart effect, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Thursday, January 30, 2025
POEM - A DRESS ONLY I CAN SEE
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
Labels: donovan baldwin, dress, poem, poetry
POEM - 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
Labels: donovan baldwin, poem, poetry, words