I love the way you capture the complexities of experience, Scanner: we really are creatures living the dialectic, the oppostions, the contradictions--and if we can't make them come together, we can at least make them even out. For some reason, Ginsberg came to mind as I read this. And a chance to hear Jim Croce once again--well, heck, that's a gift.

It's the journey and not the destination as you probably well know.

Fantastic, scanner! Jerry expressed what I feel so well, I'm just going to add that your poem made me think of you as a modern Folk Poet. Great to read your works again.

R♥

I think I saw your hat blowing in the wind, Scanman, down the road not taken. If you go that way, be sure to keep Croce in your heart and a copy of Bukowski in your pocket - just in case you meet someone who asks you for identification.

Tuesday Afternoon, Moody Blues:

Tuesday afternoon.
I'm just beginning to see,
Now I'm on my way.
It doesn't matter to me,
Chasing the clouds away.
Something calls to me.
The trees are drawing me near,
I've got to find out why.
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh.

I'm looking at myself, reflections of my mind.
It's just the kind of day to leave myself behind.
So gently swaying through the fairy-land of love,

If you could just come with me and see the beauty of
Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday afternoon.

I so love the journey your poem reflects. I have some of the same feelings myself in the face of older age. I sit on the precipice, not looking down, wondering if I can fly...

Nothing but the best and your words are real and sound the truth
HUGGGG

Your powerful poem has elicited some powerful responses, Scanner. Uplifting!

Did you create this piece?! I loved it! I loved the contradictions and paradoxes.

I hope you never find your hat. The looking is too much fun. I think this way of writing makes your words easy to read. Thanks for the thoughts. Not done yet...

when you roll the bones and look at them up close youse cants devine nothin' honey; youse gots to step back and look at the transmissiom burnin up on the road back at the last bend to know that car ain't taking youse nowhere fast.

This is some of the best writing I've ever seen here and in the top 1 or 2 of all the posts I've read of yours.

Life affirming. Just what I needed this morning.

Very cool, Scanner.

I have your hat.

"i've ate crap in expensive resturants"

That sounds about right since even at expensive restaurants they just serve recycled shit. It's all recycled shit; they use manure to fertilize the fields and then when they get the final product they just dress it up but they don't change the fact that it's recycled shit; they just charge you much much more for it.

;-)

I love that you capture spontaneity so brilliantly.

Scanner, the thing I love about getting older is the wealth of experiences I have had and can now look back upon and this piece captures that feeling very well.

I am one "someone" who would care a lot if you "called it quits." You still have a lot more of this kind of work in you, and I'm not willing to let you go before that work is done, ha hear?

Lezlie

This is great Scanner - as mentioned before, it's all about the journey.

ah this is a gem, scanner! r.

Really good. You captured life in its complexities and with great rhythm and style!

you left yer hat in heaven, boyo.
you will get it back.

"i've seen young men with old souls
and old souls in young men
i don't belief in the afterlife
but can't wait to see it''

the after life is just the Now.
that is all there ever Is or Was. An infinite series of Now's.
Now yer alive, Now yer dead.
the 'you' will dissipate.
into? into? what???

well, it has got to be something, cuz you are something,
and energy never is erased from the universe,
sez the physicists.
just...converted...to other forms.


good enuf for me!

this reminds me somehow of dylan's
"hard rain gonna fall"

where have you been my good son?

really well done. This grabbed me.

I think you left your hat here when you took it off to show me how long your hair was...
I got one that I found and I bet that's it.
dude is laying in it and she ain't moving no time soon.
Neither are you

around the next curve
in this road
no one can see
trash or treasures abound
waiting to
be found
take a step along
this road we call life
there's a new day a-coming
step up to new life
there's plenty to see
and so much to do
trash or treasures waiting
move along
wait and see...

You rock, dude!

Frabjulous pome!!!

Rated: Better than excellent!
.

Really good writing, Scanner. I get it.

Well thought out, impressively original, and beautifully written, ScanMan. Well done. R

One of your best. BTW I gave you gold on this. -R-

I loved this and it speaks to me too.

Oh there is always something to see here and you do it so well...

This is a real gem, Scan Man! I love the flow. It could be lyrics to a John Dylan tune: a lyrical strum of words interwoven with passion and the ease into life's rhythms. You nailed this.

Yes.
To ever single/singular line.
Brilliant.

Thanks ya'll, I really appreciate the comments. Merry Christmas to everybody, and I hope if you have a friend or relative in the military, they'll be home from Iraq. Let's hope next year, they will be no more friggin' wars. It's time to stop, and regroup, I think even the conservative hawks are seeing this country is broken, and we all need to go to a corner, and have a well deserved, Time-Out! May next year be kind to us all~~

great poem, people would care if you disappeared

scanner, you just keep reinventing yourself. Amazing. Heart, soul and wonderful insight into the condition of human foibles and the human struggle. Woody would be pround! Rated

I am struck by the fact that people older than you and I are making the decisions (going to war) and people younger than us are paying the price.

Where's my damn hat?

Perfect. WOW