Christmas Punch...old family recipe

Christmas Punch.......circa 1949

1 Qt. whiskey (bourbon)
1 Qt. sherry
1 Pt. peach or apricot brandy
1/2 Pt. Jamaican rum
1Qt. black tea (hot)
1/2 C. sugar
1 Pt. maraschino cherries
6 lemons
4 oranges
_____________________

-cut up fruits and pour tea over them. let stand until cold.
-press liquid and strain out fruit.
-add sugar, liquors, and juice from cherries. mix well and bottle.
-serve cold in a bowl with NO ice.
-garnish with cherries.

* stored cold this will keep indefinitely. best if made a week or two ahead.

thanks Elders for this wisdom of the ages. okay kiddies....now you have your "Superbowl Punch" !!!!!

blueprint for global understanding

We are living in a polarized world. Polarized in the sense that no middle ground can be found, or occupied in our current global social state. It has become high fashion to shout and bellow our viewpoints to one another. Some of us so love the process of argument, that we need only hear a whisper of one discussion or another to be set off, and begin the process of hurling "talking points" from whichever side of the fence we favor, be this a discussion of religion, politics, or sport. We as a people, both of a national and a global society, have become obsessed with conflict. Conflict is bold. Conflict is certain. Conflict is fire, and noise, and sexy...especially when we are in the driver's seat. I am not the first to bring this up for discussion/evaluation. Was it President Jimmy Carter during the Mid East Peace Talks, or Ghandi, or maybe Bob Dylan or Bob Marley who was the first to remind the world of the concept of "commonality"? Why can't we use that which we share, that which we have in common,as a foundation upon which to improve our current situation and build a stronger future society. Argument is the easiest goal to attain, so why bother? If we can find the slightest point on which to agree, with those in our lives with whom we have a history of disagreement, we can begin a process of building, as opposed to our current process of destruction. As a global society, many innocents suffer daily because of the destruction of schools, churches, financial institutions, families, lives; all because it is easier to fund wars and prohibitions instead of working together to accommodate those in our respective communities who are slightly different than us. If you strive to know your neighbor, then you may begin to better know your self. The best way to learn about why someone would hate is to learn about what they love, in this, we can begin the process of the elimination of unnecessary, or unintended transgressions;to strive towards better understanding of a neighbors needs is to present them with a road map to their eventual understanding of your own. In time, the two can learn to live together, by compassionately sharing space. Rationalism dispels fear. Communion bolsters feelings of security.
Leadership, or should I say, irresponsible leaders have divided us. We are divided as a nation, and as a world society. When we trade the responsibility and the gift of freedom for security in times of unrest, we empower those leaders by surrendering our voice. We refuse to make choices for ourselves, because to choose anything automatically obligates us to the acceptance of consequences, when we give our vote to a political leader, or our support to a religious movement, we allow them the freedom to choose for us, confident that this will lead to the safe and secure life we are led to believe is there, but only if we choose in this way or that. We usually get into these situations shortly after finding our backs against a wall, when the pitfalls of life are seeming to prevail. We turn to the church, or to government, when we have tried all we can on our own and nothing has seemed to work. The resulting security gained from affiliation with these entities, becomes the lock on most of our hearts. For to turn against, or to question the collective position held by one entity or another, would put you at odds with the dogma attached to being part of said entity. People are afraid of being left alone, kicked out, or black balled.
We must ALL begin a pattern of accepting responsibility for our individual actions. For many, that may first require self observation, a practice unfamiliar with many (strangely enough) who follow the tradition of "Western" religion. I say unfamiliar because considering the concept of compassion, and it's importance to most persons with whom I am familiar who consider themselves Christians, I witness very little in the way of compassion, or understanding of those who come from different places, who practice religion differently. It does not matter what you believe, as long as it brings you comfort and inner peace. But I believe that to fully participate in any society, whether in a nation or a neighborhood, one must first seek the truths which one claims are essential to the creation and development of mankind, and live an individual life, dedicated to upholding those principals. Freedom of speech does not only mean that you can stand at the foot of the Capital building and shout whatever you want, it also protects those who would stand next to you and shout just the opposite.. Freedom of religion is not just for those in the majority. And the inalienable rights for all human beings, as detailed in our Declaration of Independence, should stand for everyone in the world. If we can't fight for the rights of humans to live in peace worldwide, at least maybe we can stop fighting our neighbors long enough to try and remember what the fight was about in the first place, maybe we won't have so much time to fight once we spend time trying to understand one another. Question authority, it is your right. Don't be afraid of change, ask someone how it may actually enrich your life, and lastly, you don't even really have to be nice to anybody, just be nice to, and forgive yourself. All the rest will seem a fractional shade less gloomy.

a sense of hearing

thinking back to
just moments
ago
i
was awakened
kind of
quick
ly
from a real
and nice dream

not
laudanum
trance nice but
sweet in tint
because i
had two shiny
sports cars and
all
the
time
in the world

and as it
ended my
dream became
and not like
nightmare
in the break

in that zip
as reverse gate
effects that exit
of audible mix
that stop start
dis appearing
big fuzz sound
as blurring
subject turns
audition
as noun def
inition

all the beauty
fades away as i
roll over
gentle smiles or
slobber follows
scream in stammer
none the matter

feelings fading

the memory of the
end of dreams
as just as a
sound

cavernous
like in a
large bathroom
when the water running
in the high back
porcelain stops
then


as
the float floats
still
the days resume
the dreams on hold

and as i sit
inside and bang
this out
outside the breeze
weakens slightly
as
my road fills with
their sounds
and it does not
seem
as sweet to me
as it did just
a few lost
hours before
while the
smell of
japanese
honeysuckle
still
hung laced on
heavy air
their
flowers wilting as
willing witness to
the surrender of
quiet and new
to summer

enter the steamy nights
and the dusty
warm breezes
and the wild weed
as paradise pushes
into us
from the south
and the white legs
lotions and the
clinging invasive s
migrate down

a young married couple
from ohio ask
are there even any people left
in pennsylvania

Ella Graves

  speaking of Ella Grieves

twenty first december, 2010

she was riding a shooting star, it was 3:17...next to a blood red moon, but i saw her...she's making her mind up now...

elfin

light

and a bunch of old

Irish implying by

way of North England,

or Norse 

-greifi

steward

over seer of  property

medieval official

go forth and brightly

let us feel now

for

what we have left to you

and lame yet bold (1996)

i wrote this around the time i was staying with some friends in Manteo, one of whom just played some drums for a couple songs we're recording. i mentioned reading this to he and his wife one night at the house... so here ya go superfriends...memory has made me captor of you all, uh- or not.

 and lame yet bold

i'll try to swing a thought or two

that doesn't set on a me and a you

and get to some normal life once 
in a while
 as bottom drops out through your smile

try to think of something more 

                   to say

 but that which won't just

let us play     i    like to think

i'm telling you    i'm planting 

seed but it just don't go further

than you just thinking that

this kid is just a freak

so break

 here is a letter to the all of you
the big and tall and small of you
i think i shoulda callin you
way back long ago
but seeing what i tried to miss
and drunken in your tenderness
i oblige another sweet caress
and stumble to the stage;
how does it feel to be
the other half of this half,
slight. amazed.

got a brand new pimple
and i tremble
and others want to writhe
my book of love but
i
guess i love
but maybe i am
them maybe
just kid again going home again
way early insane

and still alive to view my progress
my self is trying to lower my
structure my ego in

alabaster prison walls
and pilot to tower in
immaculate control
will aim to hold and lame
yet bold this chain
shan't hold all tired
endeavored and featherless
the sad choice you would treasure
less
to feel that the sinking was pleasure
-less........
 
!

and now fearless combatant
and camping at night time
can you feel
the anvil or
the creeping of the mist as the
sound stage raves
clipping no knowledge to cave
in the rest so
pass it on,
its best

overnighters, just over from VE

it was asheville, 2002. this was to appear in that book, Nudes. it is a poem written about lady and a painting being painted, a few feet away from a little table, and a lost little man scribbling...on an asteroid, on auto pilot. two of 87,000 panes touching...in a singularity neither seen nor heard.

finally...
yep. this mother fucker
should be titled "finally"
although i haven't arrived upon any
conclusion, no destination
has been reached...
but finally...even now
as so many aspects of
my real world hang
in limbo...
i can finally scribble out
the reasons.
the reasons why i lust for
so much...
and the truths that my god
lays before me in these dreams
(pause)________________
______________________
  it was this afternoon as it
was also that time that doesn't
exist, except for in the
feelings
which form the borders of
that world in me
-draws the lines in black
that my subconscious fills
in with colors, smells
i can't remember...
and ghosts.
i remind you
that now...as you read
we are all ghosts.
gone but not alone
searching but finding no
home.
lovely.
_____________
i've spent the last five to
seven minutes trying to figure
out how to say what time
it is in spanish.
pointless.
obsessive, i realize that
i know what i know
and leave it at that.
she's painting chicago across
the room from me.
she is my angel tonight.
my angel, unaware...
and she has taken me in.
she's been saying something but
i think not to me...
and everything is fine now-
but it was this afternoon.
i kept waking up to realize
i was still asleep.
i was explaining to fisher
how the dream went-
i wrote notes, i was so proud,
i was still asleep-
i dreamed i woke up and
i had been asleep for
seventeen minutes too many.
i awoke for real, only for a
moment,
i learned that i had actually
thirty eight minutes until
my alarm goes off-
i was uncomfortably,
un assuredly asleep again.
the dream again..i remember
vaguely the notes i scratched.

--on a cinder block wall,
--losing balance
--sand, dust, rubble
--pieces of notebook paper
 -striped with random colors
  wide stripes, spanning the
  width of legal size paper.
  soft colors, and those
  of flags, but only in wide lines
  between ruled lines in place
  of sentences and phrases
that should have been there instead.

the rest is foggy now,
i woke up, i dreamed
and it went on like this
for a while,
the rest needs a little incentive
to return to me-
some supplemental brain food.
______________________
_______   ______

i do not care about ice
for my water.
this may mean nothing-
but think about it
it sounds profound,


i do not care about ice
for my water.

there is no sweet,
no bitter which need
the diluting of spirit
by the surrender,
then defeat of density.
i don't care about sweet things
anymore...that's all.
___________________
___________________
   she's the same,
no.
she's dressed in the same colour
of her painting-
but it drips, soul runs extra
from the matted surface
that holds the smears of
one single interpretation,
of something felt, while seen
and now gone,
except in that memory -that
observance.

what has become of my dream, as
 it would seem that i am now awake-

though touched. extreme
in the center of a room that
my brain's flower could never create
as mine.
damn right we are.

"all professional artists trying
to make a living so we don't..."

real time that i'm part of gives
me actually so little,
because my dreamy eyes-
while gazing a million miles
away and in circles, lose
my ears...and sensitive mind
-miss so much of real time
document.   speech.   reason
and no reason.
they all blow out the window
my life stares out of...

somewhere there's a big fan.
tired as hell.

"intelligent concession"...a true pathway to peace

     This is just a note to those who may have seen my recent post, wherein I coined the phrase "intelligent concession". This is a bit of a play on words if you will, that came to me after a very genuine shared experience I had with some folks with whom I found it hard to agree, on a number of subjects. Having admitted to my struggles to embrace the direct points of view that they were supporting, I must also concede to the possibility that my points of view could be a result of my life's discoveries and areas of research, and in this way, easily opposed by those from other backgrounds with different life lessons. In other words, there was really no reason to part ways with the feeling from any side of the table that someone "lost" and someone else "gained" from the over-all exchange.
     To further illustrate the point on which I think the focus should be, if we are to increase our chances of living together in a peaceful,or even civil manner, I pose a simple query. If a scientist believes that a certain geographical feature, a mountain, a crater, can be how ever many millions of years old, based on carbon dating or whatever testing may apply, and a person of faith believes that the same feature must only be several thousand years old, because that is what the teachings in their sacred texts explain, why can't both the scientist and the spiritualist BOTH be "right"? The answer is THEY CAN BE. Why can't someone believe at the same time that One True God can be responsible for the creation of everything, and that someone else can be interested in the study of everything in the natural world which leads to information about the make up, and clues to the creation of things. I do not believe that you have to surrender faith to concede that the Earth was formed by a series of dynamic physical events. In other words, if a firecracker explodes, and nobody saw who lit it, you still know that somehow heat was applied sufficiently enough to a fuse, which carried that heat energy to an explosive charge, which in turn exploded. If two or more people, who share common needs and dreams can agree that many of the lessons included in our sacred texts, are object lessons, whose importance as teaching tools is far more important than a literal adherence to said lessons by attaching real time time lines to events mentioned therein, then the real objective in the lessons may be achieved; agreement, and human kind living as one. Intelligent concession.
     Once we can begin to agree on the smallest and least important of topics, we can begin to build the road map for true civil coexistence. This takes us back to the lessons taught by compassion. If one lives by the / a "commandment", which states that in order to obey their Creator they must not kill, then how can slaughter "in the name of God" be justified? Ever? There is only one answer. Slaughter is slaughter for the gain of man, or for malice, or for human pleasure, but never justified by doing it "in the name of God". You are either "of God" or you are not. Even as a simple state of being, you are or you are not. In action, you do or you do not. Something is, or it is not. All else is implied confusion, applied to situations either intentionally or by virtue of misguidance on the part of our teachers in their own quest for the truth.
     In closing, I will get back to the original point of my note. The human race - with all of it's different peoples and societies has had many Prophets over the course of history. Many of these Prophets spoke of and taught the same truths, and followed the same path of living. The way to peace is a way of life, not a way of acting. It comes from a simple state of being. It requires confidence in the choices we make as individuals, without the need of exaltation. It requires that we act with compassion in our decision making, regardless of the beliefs or practices of those in need of our love. And it requires us to persevere, when those to whom we give unconditionally choose to attack us in return. This concept is nothing new. And in these times of global uncertainty, when the meek all over the world are turning to their political and spiritual leaders for answers, keep in mind that the Enemy is not the enemy which you are being shown. The Enemy of mankind is deception. The truth that some in places of power have and will continue to manipulate the teachings of our Prophets for physical and monetary gain is threatening to be the cornerstone for the ruin of civilization. Intelligent concession means simply that right now, whether Christian or Muslim, Creationist or Scientist, chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry ice cream lover; the only way to continue our current paths together and not destroy each other, is to hold fast to that which we have been taught and hold dear, and know that it is enough. Do not concern yourselves so much with the morality of, or with the responsibility others may have to their own ways of being. The time to begin a responsible life is now. Hatred begets hatred, war begets war, and when it all comes down to it, nobody chooses to be born into one agreed upon belief system or another, but everyone has the same right to peace, regardless of political climate, global or social status.
I also would like to point out that I know nothing.