Arclist

Journal

Ralph Melcher

Ralph Melcher
Location
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Birthday
April 13
Title
Writer
Company
Arclist
Bio
Ralph Melcher is an essayist living and working in Santa Fe New Mexico.

Ralph Melcher's Links

Salon.com
NOVEMBER 10, 2009 8:44PM

A Precipice

 

"It's not just a question of worrying or of hoping for the best, but of finding new weapons." 

                       - Guy Deleuze "Postscript on Control Societies"

 

I purchased my first personal computer in 1984Read full post »

NOVEMBER 10, 2009 8:41PM

A Precipice

"It's not just a question of worrying or of hoping for the best, but of finding new weapons." 

                                          - Guy Deleuze "Postscript on Control SoRead full post »

OCTOBER 30, 2009 10:50PM

The Facts

The child is given a puzzle as a preparation for life. We go through life surrounded by puzzle pieces that we call 'facts.'  We assemble these facts into shapes and narratives in order to make sense of it all. We are given maps by our elders that we either accept orRead full post »
OCTOBER 10, 2009 4:34PM

Hat's off to Michael

 

Something has changed in these past few weeks. My own life has turned a corner and I feel like I’m coming out of a long dark tunnel. Still the world of battle calls to me as it always has. I look at those who fan the confusion and desperation inRead full post »

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 8:20AM

Big Creek - 1981

 

Next week I head toward Cleveland by car and toward a reunion with my oldest friends. I was sorting through my papers and came up with this poem from 1981 (slightly edited). It tells of our adventures together (even before we went to Woodstock and witnessed that barbarian dream/… Read full post »
APRIL 18, 2009 5:13PM

Movies and Machines

by Ralph E. Melcher

 

 

I told myself after the election that I would try to avoid writing about politics. In spite of all of the passions expended trying to get one or another candidate elected as president the actual impact of politics on the things that effect

Read full post »
APRIL 9, 2009 8:01AM

Two Sides of the World

A Country for Wandering

I had a dream last night.
It was full of friends
and full of ceremony,
a very sweet dream.

Now, awake, these things have mostly gone away.

Friends have gone, ceremony has gone.
Have I pushed them all away?
Do I carry only my guilt
Read full post »
FEBRUARY 15, 2009 10:31PM

Political Bullshit

Bush-Cheney

 This priceless photo taken of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at the inauguration of their successor captures a glimpse of two sides of the American character. On the one hand Bush looks distracted as he fiddles with something in his hands (It looks like he's playing a video game!).Read full post »

JANUARY 25, 2009 9:14PM

Viva Las Vegas

Mascot

I guess spring is coming early this year. When I drive the eight miles of my increasingly constricted world between home in the woods and bookstore in town the patches of snow along the road grow everyday less while between the occasional threat or promise of oncoming storm the

Read full post »
DECEMBER 14, 2008 11:46AM

The Church

There was a large wooden clapboard building in the middle of that semi-rural Florida neighborhood. A single floored structure that stretched clear to the end of the property line where the trees and tropical bushes clustered at the edges of a creek. The place had few windows and those that itRead full post »

DECEMBER 8, 2008 8:56PM

Sketches of My Father

My father never talked about his war. He was an enigma to me in many ways. A heavy smoker and someone who liked to tell a joke to lighten up a room and who liked to argue for the enjoyment of an argument. We argued often, until my mother would

Read full post »
NOVEMBER 23, 2008 10:13PM

Creative Space

Creative Space

 

 

There is nothing in this world I could not do without

 

except the air

 

therefore everything is a surprise

 

A poetry reading given by friends.

 

The back room at the Agora supermarket,

 

working class Hispanic humor.

 

One brother in Cleve

Read full post »
OCTOBER 25, 2008 2:45PM

Future Tense

Future Tense

 

 

My body    my anger    my city

my people    my son

 

Who are these    Who are you

 

What are we    What are those

 

Where do we go    What is now

What is coming

 

Where does nature speak

Read full post »
OCTOBER 12, 2008 10:38PM

A Perfect Storm

 

"The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!" A chant that has echoed through four decades, first heard broadcast from in front of the Hilton Hotel in Chicago in 1968, as Walter Cronkite intoned that the Democratic Convention was being held "...in a police state". This was

Read full post »