'FIRST DAY'

(R.I.P. Andrew d. 4-29-08)

You're one hour gone
my little dog
and I,
for the first time,
enter this house without you,

Stooping, I put away
the things of you
--surprised at how they hurt me

-- your food -- your dish -- your bed
-- this useless leash I'm holding in my hand --
not needed now
by a dog that's dead;

So, I must revert my life,
straighten contours
formed
to hold another being,

Mornings, dogless,
I will lie abed,
no longer bounded
by your hunger
or your canine bladder;

Whose need now
will structure me?
and
what will I do
with a life grown sadder?
-jorge999

'Ambivalence'

I don't know whether to call you

- your life so full, so fast -

I'm like an old man in a cross walk,

and you, waiting for me to pass,

with one foot hard on the brake

...and the other foot on the gas.

-jorge999

'Homage to A Great American'

Hail! O Johnny Appleseed!

Driven by infernal need,

compelled to do, and do, your deed,

spreading ev'rywhere ...your seed,

In meadows, and on forest floor

on plains and farmers fields of yore,

(and afterwards, --you did it more!)

you must have been ---you were--

...Mighty Sower!

--jorge999

'The Boston'

Monday April 21, 2008 is the 112th running of the Boston Marathon,
Grandaddy of all marathons. It is a great event in Boston,
enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of local enthusiasts (the
majority of whom could probably not run around the block!)

It is celebrated on 'Patriots Day' a local holiday
commemorating the battles of Concord and Lexington at the
start of the American Revolution.

Inspired by the recent first Olympic games of the modern
era, the first Boston Marathon was held on April 19, 1897
with fifteen participants.

Here is a little info to wet your appetite:

1897
first race, Fifteen runners competed.

1898 The first foreign winner was a Canadian with the
improbable name of Ronald MacDonald.

1911
Clarence Demar of Massachusetts won his first of SEVEN
Boston Marathons. Demar won for the final time in 1930
at age 41.

1928
John A. "The Elder" Kelley made his Boston Marathon debut.
Kelley won the race twice, in 1935 and again in 1945.
During his prime, from 1934-1950,in addition to winning twice,
he finished second seven times and in the top five fifteen times.
Kelley holds the record for most Boston Marathons started (61)
and finished (58).His final race came in 1992 at the age of 84.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Kelley

1936
The last of Newton's hills (at mile 20 on the course) was
given the nickname "Heartbreak Hill" by Boston Globe
reporter Jerry Nason. When John A. Kelley caught eventual
champion Ellison "Tarzan" Brown on the Newton hills,
Kelley made a friendly gesture of tapping Brown on the
shoulder. Brown responded by regaining the lead on the
final hill, and as Nason reported, "breaking Kelley's
heart."

Brown, an untrained runner, was an impoverished Native
American (Narragansett)from Rhode Island, who once won two
marathons on consecutive days! He is still a legend in
Rhode Island.

http://members.shaw.ca/tarzanbrown/legend%20of%20tarzan%20brown.html

http://members.shaw.ca/tarzanbrown/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761176,00.html

1975
First of four Boston Marathon victories by Massachusetts'
own Bill Rogers --A.K.A. 'Boston Billy'

1983
Joan Benoit won her second Boston Marathon in a world-best
time of 2:22:43. Benoit, who won the Olympic Marathon the
following summer, became the first person to win the
Boston and Olympic Marathons. (I watched her incredulously
from Heartbreak Hill as she ran past in 1983, at least five
minutes ahead of all the other women runners!)

In 1983 Greg Meyer of Massachusetts was the last American
winner in the male division.


For an overview of the marathon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon

for lots more, including pictures, map, history,
highlights, etc.

http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/Default.asp

http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/History.asp

http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/CourseMaps.pdf

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/bostonmarathon/index.html

http://www.heartbreakhill.blogspot.com/

http://boston.com/sports/marathon/

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1067197&srvc=rss

http://www.adventure-marathon.com/Boston-Marathon-2008.aspx

'Notes'

'Notes'
(for JD)

About those notes:
You know, (no, you don't really)
notes that I still write to you,
foolish notes you've never seen
-and birds -I think of birds' notes too-
I mean those birds that sing their mating songs,

(Does a bird keep doing, doing,
even though the thing went wrong?)

Can he quit and go away?
(Does a bird know how to sigh?)
Does he keep on doing doing?
Or does he slowly, die?

Still my solitary notes continue,
still repeat a gentle song,
slowly, softly, sadly, singing:

'...too long, too long, too long, to long...

--jorge999

'Poetic License'

Want to see my license?
I got it late in life,

After all the serious things
--a car, a house, a wife--

I know, I know, it seems a little
silly and pretentious,

but it gives some consolation,
'cause it's too late now


to live a LIFE licentious.

-jorge999

'Worst Poem'

A website where I often lurk
had a contest for 'worst poem',
the winner may accrue some perks,
and anyway, I'm right at home!
I did what anyone would do,
I did my best to do my worst,
now I inflict the thing on you
to prove I truly am ill-versed.

That was just for fun. My official entry is below:



'I Humbly Claim The Prize'

I surely have a suffering look,
I sigh and feel an awful lot,
I've read ( the covers of) so many books
that I perused but never bought,

I'm told I have a noble nose
as handsome poets often do,
My head is stuffed with un- bon mots
I'll put them in a poem for you,

I've saved so many foreign phrases
to wedge into my learned poems,
my erudition shocks, --amazes
my mom and dad and girls back home,

but empathy's my strongest suit,
I feel your pain, I really do,
(Do you think my eyes are cute?
Don't you like their shade of blue!)

so therfore: Veni, vidi vici!
Here I stand, I claim my prize!
also-rans should not feel bitchy
(I see it darling in your eyes)

I win! I win! I must insist,
one is blessed, many cursed,
too bad, the losers are all pissed,
I've done my best to do my worst,

I've justly earned your low esteem
--perhaps against your better wishes--
so give it up, declare me king.
Oh, what a fine, fine victory this is!


.

'On Rocky Marciano'

I grew up in Avon Massachusetts, eighteen miles south of Boston and four miles north of Brockton, home of Rocky Marciano.

Rocky was the only undefeated world heavyweight champ. He held the champion's belt for four years, from 1952 until he retired in 1956. His professional record was 49-0-0 with 43 knockouts.

All of Brockton and vicinity loved Rocky but he was especially adored by Brockton's blue collar Italian community many of whom worked in the shoe factories that Brockton was then famous for.

Rocky had a 1953 Cadillac convertible with Mass. license plates, 'KO', known to everyone as 'The KO car'.

I'm sure it was apocalyptic, but it used to be said that Rocky was undefeated: "...because each time he fought half the Italians in Brockton mortgaged their homes to bet on him so he wouldn't have dared to come home if he was beaten!.."

One of my school chums was Rocky's first cousin. We got together a couple of years ago after not seeing each other for decades. We had beers and then dinner at George's Cafe on Belmont Street in Brockton. George's is about a half block from Rocky's boyhood home. The cafe walls have many, many pictures of Rocky's fights, his training, 'Welcome Home' parades etc.

For anyone who is curious, or who remembers Rocky and wants to reminisce, here's a great link: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/1047/Rock.html


Addendum:

Brockton, which likes to call itself 'City of Champions', was also the home of 'Marvelous Marvin' Hagler. (Full Disclosure: Marvin moved there from Newark NJ at age thirteen in 1967)
Marvin Hagler is considered by many to have been the greatest Middleweight of all time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Hagler

The Cost of Things

The 'narcotic' of consumerism entraps us...we work too hard and too long.. we are unhappy and so we reach for a fancy SUV with all the bells and whistles as if that will make us happy...and it does briefly...but then the extra car loan helps to keep us locked into the good paying job that we hate... or it keeps us working the second job that we had told ourselves was only temporary....Meanwhile, the years go by.
--jorge999/aka G.L.


"...The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." (Henry David Thoreau)