The Daily Poem

PROVISION

Learn the fish in your own lagoon

    And you'll catch all the food you need.

Chase from place to place and soon,

    Empty of stomach and full of greed,

    You'll find no fish on which to feed.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem662

Quintain

Cook's Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia

JOURNAL: Ocean Princess (36th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

TAKING TO THE AIR

As fragile as a hollow flightless thing,

As tenuous as a newly unfolded wing,

    As fearful as a falling bird

    ...and then...

I'm swooping up on an airborne feathered swing!

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem659

Quintain

South Pacific Ocean, bound for Bora Bora

JOURNAL: Ocean Princess (33rd Night)

~ The Daily Poem

THAT FEELING IN THE BONES

That feeling in the bones connects to rain

    In wrinkled farmers counting out their days

On rocking chairs with creaking joints of pain,

    Though not so purely accurate in ways

That crafty numbers can with certainty explain.

But still it happens often as they swear

    It does, and sneering doubters can go hang.

Some things don't recognize the rules we wear

     Around our necks like status-yin-quo-yang,

But ache us out beyond what's merely Here or There.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem653

Quintain Stanza

South Pacific Ocean, bound for Fiji

JOURNAL: Ocean Princess (27th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

BREVITY

It's hard to say goodbye

To those we've known but briefly on our way,

Who've touched our lives

    With face and hands

And tipped our spirit's sway.

We'll not forget the chance

They took to open up their hearts to ours

Whose eyes will last

    Forever though

They fly to distant shores.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem646

Quintain Stanza

North of Sydney

JOURNAL: Ocean Princess (20th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

FUTURE GREEN

Then suddenly the famine past is gone;

Today is green with dreams I'd like to keep,

And the future O so lush to feed upon—

    Out there beyond the fences

    Of ever present tenses.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem636

Quintain

Benoa, Bali, Indonesia

JOURNAL: Ocean Princess (10th Night)

~ The Daily Poet

A SLICK NOSTALGIC TRAP

The semi-modern sliding doors

    And plastic fruit arrange the day

    To fit their measured cabernet

As if to settle ancient scores

That don't pertain to me.

The place where I was born is not

    The place that's dotted on the map

    But just a slick nostalgic trap

To pull me down and keep me caught

Inside a memory.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem599

Quintain Stanza

Yung Shue Wan, Hong Kong

JOURNAL: Concerto Inn - Lamma Island (3)

~ The Daily Poet

DINNER GUEST

We had Rembrandt for breakfast,

And Van Gogh for lunch,

Just who's on for dinner

I haven't a hunch.

D. Edgar Lamp

TheDailyPoem543

Quatrain

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Lat: Long:

JOURNAL: Ibis Hotel

~ The Daily Poet

ODE TO CREDIT

I'll just leave it out on the searchabe net

    For someone to find like some credit someplace,

When after the crash they will have to reset

    The Platform Of Webular Energy Rays

That keep us on memory in case we forget.

A couple of gigs on a portable stick

    Is all it will take them to future it through,

With ninety-two back-ups as thin as a trick

    Re-braided in bases and folded in two

Like all the best Watsons have learned how to Crick.

The work of a lifetime to freewaring fate

    With fortunes forgone like conclusions to dust,

All storming their thunders in slip-diamond slate

    Prophetically growing as margins adjust

To take in the traffic, the static, the state.

It's solidly loaded in cannons of code,

    A spark in the darkness to wear on their sleeve,

All fired up clean in a flash for the road,

    To spirit their thinking in hopes they'll believe

There's something like credit to own in my ode.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 503

Quintain Stanza

Tanger, Morocco

Lat: , Long:

JOURNAL: Overnight Train From Marrakech to Tanger

Shared a sleeper with a couple of female partners who had been hiking in the Atlas Mountains for a nine days.  The coach supposedly had air conditioning, but it really didn't cool our cabin much.  It took me a while to fall asleep.  Woke up at midnight when we stopped in Casablanca.  Then back to sleep, and didn't wake up again until there was a knock at the door announcing our arrival in Tanger.

~ The Daily Poet 

IMAGINED ENEMY

Our enemy is alien,

A huge monstrosity;

Conspicuous complexity

Of non-mammalian

Mechanical audacity.

And we the soft protagonists,

With nothing more than skin,

And flowing blood within,

Contrive these hard antagonists,

Then cockily crow, "We win!"

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 460

Quintain Stanza

Stone Town, Zanzibar

Lat: Long:

KILL & EAT

The nine inch knife to the heart of the pig,

The gush of the blood and the eys roll back,

    The zippered entrails are pulled away,

The gaping ribs on the iron rack,

The calculus of death's intrigue.

The party starts with the dipper's plunge,

The cups and knives are raised with glee,

   The pig is carved and put away,

The tongues are wet through shining teeth,

The all-night feasting has begun.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 452

Quintain Stanza

Kande Beach, Malawi

Lat: Long:

ONE HUNDRED MILLION

There's so many people just standing around

    Apparently nothing but glaze in their eyes

    No masterful plan to plot or devise

    A vacancy felt for its lack of surprise

The roots of their soles driven deep in the ground.

Some one hundred new babies to feed

    With curds for the body and words for the mind

    And notions of something worth looking to find

    A something of such a most excellent kind--

The vaguest of wants turns to exquite need.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 450

Quintain Stanza

Chipata, Zambia

Lat: Long:

SWIMMING IN MONTEVIDEO

Blanes, Figari, Cuneo

Brain's a bit dizzy,

Swimming in Montevideo,

Brimming with fizzy,

Plane's in the morning to Rio.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 426

Quintain Stanza

Montevideo, Uruguay

Lat: -34.88 (S), Long: -56.17 (E)

JOURNAL: Ermitage Hotel

- The Daily Poet

THE GENERATIONS

The generations come and come

With something new for everyone

The next three-ringed compendium

    On how to make the diamond oil,

To grease the wheel that makes us run.

The generations go and go

And with them everything they know;

The little things like how to grow

    A fruitful seed in fertile soil.

Tomorrow reaps, today we sow.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 404

Quinatin Stanza

Nazca, Peru

Lat: -14.84, Long: -74.94

JOURNAL: The WalkOn Inn Hostel

We were up at 0600 ready for our taxi ride to the Nazca Lines.  But we soon realized that things were going to be in slow motion.  Jose at the front desk called the taxi and we were on our way by 0800.  We were scheduled for a 0900 flight.  But at the airport they said since there were only three of, they wanted to wait for a pair of Japanese girls who were scheduled for 1000.  They arrived, and we waited some more.  Then, as if readying us for boarding, they moved us to an enclosed area by the door that lead out onto the tarmac.  We sat and made conversation as our Dramamines started taking affect.  There was Rita from a town near Zurich, Switerland.  There was Alex from San Jose who was in Lima on business with a company called NavTech.  And the two Japanese girls on holiday.  Soon our eyes were growing heavy.  Then other people were let into the boarding area.  We were told the plane was refueling.  After another hour I started to wonder, and couldn't help remember what Martin had told us about the three plane crashes in the past five years, the most recent one in October of last year.  But he assured us that there had been a big government crackdown on safety since then.  The last crash had been caused by the pilot having a heart attack, now they required two pilots instead of one, just in case one drops dead over the monkey.  They used to be very lax about maintenance records; now the guidelines were strictly enforced.  In fact, five airline companies had been shut down.  And better yet, AeroParacas, the airline we had chosen had never had a crash.  All good to know, but still, what was taking so long?  I got up and asked for an explanation.  A woman was dispatched to inquire, but didn't return.  About ten minutes later I went back to the security officer at the boarding entrance and he let me walk back through.  I walked over to the AeroParacas desk and explained how we had been up since 0600 and it was now noon.  Suddenly there was a flurry of activity and we were ushered out the door by two pilots.  Rita thanked me for pushing them as we walked toward the plane.  I wasn't so sure.  I was the first to climb in and sat immediately behind the pilot.  He didn't seem happy.  Maybe he's thinking, "I"ll show them a ride they won't soon forget!"  But with two Dramaines onboard, my brain just resigned itself to whatever fate awaited me.  I smiled at the pilots and said, "Muchas gracias" and "Muy Bueno" wanting them to know I harbored no ill-will toward them as professional airmen.  A moment later, we were rumbling down the runway and, after what took longer than usual, took flight.  The sky was clear except for some high clouds.  The wind was slight.  We flew along smoothly for about 5 minutes until suddenly the fun began.  For the next 20 minutes it was sharp turn after sharp turn, first to the right, then to the left, wings tilting earthward or heavenward depending on the side you were on.  We were all wearing headphones to buffer the noise of the engine, so it was difficult to hear when he pointed to the oversized postcard that showed our flight path and said, "There's the Whale."  We all put our cameras to the window and snapped away.  There wasn't a moment to zoom in or adjust the frame, it was look out the window, find the geoglyph, try to maintain your sense of balance and adventure, point and shoot.  We saw the Whale, the Triangles, the Trapezoids, the Astronaut, the Monkey, the Dog, the Condor, the Spider, and the Hummingbird, which was my favorite.  After about 10 minutes into this voyage of discovery, this flight of archeological fancy, I had had enough.  They we saw the Alcatraz which means Flamingo I think, the Parrot, the Hands, the Tree, and then it was suddenly over.  "FInished." the co-pilot announced and we were headed back.  I was feeling a bit airsick and discovered a little vent above the pilot's door and pointed it at my face.  That helped.  Once on the ground we took pictures with the pilot and said our goodbyes.  Mimi's first words were, "Back already?!"  and I knew then that we had been gone a lot longer in our heads than we had in our bodies.  It was good to be back on terra firma.  Back at the hostel I went straing to bed and slept like a flightless cormorant on a Galapagos rock for several hours.  How sweet it was.

Mimi wanted to see the Lines from the viewing tower, so she woke me in time to go with her on a 3-hour tour of Palpa with it's nine geoglyphs that purportedly pre-date the Nazca Lines, a museum about a nine-fingered lady who spent her life mapping the Lines.  And by the way, the Monkey only has nine fingers.  Very strange indeed.  Then we went to the viewing tower were we got good views of the Hands and the Tree.  Finally we ended up on a small hill overlooking the whole region and watched the sunset over the lunar landscape of Nazca.  A truly mysterious and wonderful place. 

At 2130, we boarded the Cruz Del Sur bus bound for Cusco.  Four hundred miles of winding mountain roads lay ahead.  At the station, we met a terrific family from Austrailia: father Michael, mother Leticia, two daughters Shawna and Gemma. Shawna had been a guiding tours in Peru for the past 15 months, and her parents and little sister had come to visit her here and accompany her home. For a 25 year old, she was amazingly very well traveled.  she had been to all seven continents, and had visited Base Camp Everest.  Her mother, Leticia is a nursing director of a home care and hospice service, and her sister Gemma, aged 20, is a nursing student. Shawna was talkative and animated; reminded me of Kim.  And Gemma's understated confidence and gentleness reminded me of Ellie.  I was suddenly homesick.

Got to Abancay around seven.

Michael was really sick. Leticia had been up with him all night throwing up in the stairwell. Probably a bag case of motion sickness. The road from Nazca to Cusco is horrendously curvy. And on the second floor of the bus, we really felt the sway.

I kept my eyes closed and tried to sleep. After the ferries in the Carribean and ship in the Galapagos, at least this wasn’t so bad. I focused on the forward motion and finally fell asleep.

The Daily Poet

IMAGINE ALL THE CREATURES

Imagine all the creatures

    Sharing all the world with us

The metamorphing features

Of land and air and sea.

In peaceful sweet ubiquity.

Imagine Charles Darwin

    Teaming up with Disneyland

To make a world for everyone

A global free Galapagos

For all of them and all of us.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem – 395

Quintain Stanza

Isabela & Fernandina, Galapagos Islands

Lat: xx.xx, Long: xx.xx

JOURNAL: Galapagos Legend Cruise Ship

SWEETHEART DREAMS 

Everybody’s going somewhere

Going there to get some love

Going there just got to get there

Got to feel that hand-in-glove

Going there to get some love.

Everybody’s riding railroads

Riding down to have some fun

Riding there with twitter payloads

Rolling through from dusk to dawn

Riding down to have some fun.

Everybody’s toasting something

Toasting hopeful sweetheart dreams

Toasting that bright wedding ring

Telling how such honey gleams

Toasting hopeful sweetheart dreams.

Everybody’s going somewhere

Going there to get some love

Going there just got to get there

Got to feel that hand-in-glove

Going there to get some love.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 350

Verse Form

Longview, Texas

Lat: 32.50, Long: -94.74

JOURNAL: AmTrak in Sleeper

After we got back from The River Walk, Mimi climbed up on the top bunk in a dead sleep within minutes.  Lloyd and the other attendants were busy with the switcheroo between trains, talking loudly way into the night, but Mimi didn't stir one bit, but slept through it all.  I sat up by the dark window blogging until around 0200.  Woke to loud voices at 0630.  Lloyd handing off to the new guy Tony, whose brother has 13 kids scattered all over the country.  And even though nearly all his paycheck goes for alimony, he always seems to have cash on him, because he's an able gambler.  Our new train slipped it's way out of the knotted San Antonio network of rails, off into the South Texas countryside, heading north toward Chicago.

In Temple we met a lady sitting the garden-like setting of the train station. Her father had been the engineer of a narrow gauge railroad in town for many years. When he died, they poured his ashes into a Union Pacific oil can. All the family got together at the railway park and with his cremated remains took a one lap memorial ride. Turns out she was waiting at the station for her son who she hadn’t seen in three years. When he got off the train he gave her a big hug. He’s being deployed to Iraq—a bittersweet meeting to be sure.

We ate lunch with Gregory from France, who did his best to communicate with us in English, although his accent was as thick as chocolate mousse. He’s been traveling around the U.S. by train for a few weeks. He was on his way to Dallas for a 4-day foray through the city whose namesake TV show was really big in France. Evidently, Dallas is having a comeback show with Larry Hagman and several others. His smile revealed some serious tooth decay (he had trouble biting off pieces of his Tomato & Basil Pizza) making me wonder what healthcare must be like in France.

A black lady named Eva came over to where we were sitting in the observation car this afternoon and asked Mimi to help her with her cell phone, an early Droid. Seems her sister went to return the rental car in Fort Worth and when she got back, the train was just pulling out. Eva was onboard with both her and her sister’s luggage. Her sister had been chasing the train from Fort Worth to Dallas to Mineola to Longview. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t seem to catch up, so Eva got off the train in tears with about ten pieces of luggage to wait for her sister to catch up. I helped her get their luggage off the train. To make matters worse, Eva has to be back to work in Indianapolis the day after tomorrow.

Dinner with Trish and Samantha, mother and daughter. Trish’s T-shirt said “Eagle” and Samantha’s T-shirt said, “Beware of Doom” to go along with her pierced lip. It took them from salads & soda through steak and ribs to finally shed the tragedy of their trip so far, and start to see that things were looking up. Trish and Samantha had driven down to El Paso with her Trish’s sister to meet her husband who was coming home on furlough from Iraq. But shortly after they took their seats in coach, stopping for a smoke break, Trish lost her wallet with $400 in it. Suffering through for over 24 hours with no food, and flipping with futility from side to side trying to get comfortable in their 65-degree recliners, they were desperate. There was no Western Union available, so she called her husband, who called Amtrak, who called the engineer, who at last called her and agreed to let her husband pay the $103.00 online allowing the girls to get bed, showers, and a few hot meals before arriving back home in Oiltown, Pennsylvania. “Where we’re from, if someone finds a wallet with a person’s ID in it, they find the person and return it.” Said Trish. We wished them better luck and good night’s sleep and headed down the corridor to our overly hot room.

Tony, the new guy, is gregarious, which covers a multitude of laxity. Mimi tried her best to get him to change our rooms, but he said he couldn’t. He allowed us to sit in another berth to read until bedtime, when we will again be roasted into naked submission for the night.

After dinner we stopped briefly in Texarkana. I got out to stretch my legs and snap a couple nighttime photos. I was three cars down when the “All aboard!” was called, so I ducked into the nearest car and headed back toward our sleeper. I met Mimi coming up the other way looking nervous. She was afraid I’d been left behind.

In Little Rock, Arkansas I jumped out and jogged the length of the train back and forth. Off in the distance about a quarter mile away, the Capitol Dome shown like a sun-bleached conch through the midnight’s chill. A young family with a boy named Garrison, probably six, and a girl of nine or so, boarded the train and took the sleeping compartment next to ours. Tony is from Chicago and says it is going to be frigid up there. Trish & Samantha got out for a smoke looking clean-haired and happy. Trish stood by the fence texting someone, probably her husband, letting him know that everything is fine and she can’t wait to get home.

I’ve been reading Sandburg, and am enjoying him more. Poems like Mag, Cripple, A Fence, Mamie, Cumulatives, and Limited. Nice. I like how he often returns to the beginning theme of the poem like a refrain.

~ The Daily Poet

IT'S ALL BECAUSE

The reason everything goes wrong

When people start to scheme?

It's all because they take along

The whip without the cream,

The pipe without the dream.

The reason everything goes right

When people start to play?

It's all because they leave behind

The X and take the ray,

The bomb and take the bay.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 335

Quatrain Stanza

Idyllwild, California

Lat: 33.74, Long: -116.70

JOURNAL: Met with Marty at nine.  Mom came along.  Marty and Cathy were happy to see her after all these years.  We asked Marty if he could refer us to a tax guy.  He suggested Peter Rutman, his own tax accountant.  We called him and he agreed to meet with us at noon.  He works out of an office in his home.  Mimi gave him a few documents for him to start reviewing.  We'll bring in the rest next week.  He's a very eclectic gentleman: tax accountant, philosopher, jazz musician, world traveler.  We both have a good feeling about him.

Went back to CJ & Paige's for a few hours.  Played with the kids.  Got CJ set up on Skype and called Rashawna.  She got to see Adin, Lily, and Caleb.  Lyndon and Kendall were over at her place just hanging out.  We had pizza from dinner and then took off.

Mimi and I keep hearing negatives about South America.  Frankly we're getting a little spooked.  We've decided to go to a travel agent to help us plan the South American segment.

THE GALAXY OF TWINS

A distant star of low degree,

Caught up in gravity's immense abyss,

Alone inside an empty sea,

A zone where none can find and all will miss

Its special form of chemistry.

A twinning dual of mirrored eyes

In orbits paralleling two for two,

Forever splitting, Y's on Y's,

In ways beyond our earthly view,

Forever lifting skies on skies.

I found it in the lonesome night;

I pulled it from my window's square of stars.

And now, my love, I give the sight

To you and only you; this place of ours,

This secret twinkling point of light.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 296

Idyllwild, California

Quintain Stanza

Journal: Down to Hemet with Mimi.  Went to Compass, Wells Fargo, and Bank Of America inquiring about 0% Foreign Transaction Fee credit cards.  No luck anywhere.  Lunch at Taco Bell.  Bought a year's supply of Low Dose Aspirin.  Bought some heavy duty metal shelving for the workshop.  Got to put my shop in order before we leave.  It's going to take some doing.  After all the shopping was done we went to see Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in "The Tourist".  A good old fashioned mystery!  Mimi made a a big taco salad when we got home.  See's Candy for desert.  Mom started on Zithromycin today for her bronchitis.  After dinner we built a fire and played Rummy on the couch.  Work called during the afternoon asking if I could do ACM (Admissions Case Manager) as well as Nursing Supervisor tomorrow from seven to seven.  What could I say but yes? Only five more shifts to go.

THE NUMBERS GAME

There's danger in the numbers game;

The uncut story can't be told.

Ebola hides behind the gold,

With other things that have no name,

Like luckless cards that always fold.

They want to know, I want to tell;

We speak in superstitious code,

Afraid the digits may explode

If suddenly their candied shells,

Like big green M&Ms, erode.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 293

Rancho Mirage, California (Borders Books at The River)

Quintain Stanza

Journal:  Colton for two-drawer files made of wood.  Then to REI to return Mimi's shoes.  Got a solar battery charger in exchange.  Then on to Foot Solutions where Mimi spent an hour getting her feet measured, arches analyzed, and gait evaluated.  Ended up with two pair of special shoes that should keep her feet from aching as we travel.  Then to Costco for some Christmas shopping.  Lots of fun!  Found just the perfect gifts for Lily & Adin.  Once into Rancho Mirage we went to Borders to look up Eurail info and a latte.  Then went by EMC to show Merlyn a few details about how the Nursing Supervisor Shift Report works.  Hard to give a crash course in Excel in 30 minutes.  Finally asked her to just e-mail it to me if they need it revised during 2011.  E-mail and internet makes us all just a click away from each other, no matter how many thousands of miles separate us.  Home a little after midnight.

CONDITIONS CHANGE

Conditions change like hurricanes

Through silent music halls,

And keys fly off both loud and soft

When thunderous cannon balls

Go rumbling down like squalls.

And trumpets play the marching fray

In gales of brassy whine,

Allegro lifting roofs of riff

From docile glass to raging stein,

From status quo to redesign.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 292

Rancho Mirage, California

Quintain Stanza

Journal:  Mimi drove me to work this morning.  She researched telephones for international use, and decided on the Motorola Droid from Verizon with services in 200-plus countries.  She came by and gave me my new phone around noon.  We ate lunch together in the cafeteria.  Toward the end of the shift I bought five of Melissa's drawings.  Let her know about our trip and the closure of the Gallery.  Busy day.  Took my Caribbean Islands guide book (Lonely Planet) but didn't get a chance to crack it open once.  We went to The Yard House for dinner of the way home.  Mom was up when we got home around midnight.  She's been having afib since 0200 this morning.  She went to church and played the piano with her afib in full swing.  Amazing!  I think she's going to find her second-wind in 2011, with us gone. 

DRIVING DIRECTIONS

Idyllwild to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage: 

 
View Larger Map

PUBLIC EYE

The public eye turns right and left

   With roving hungry bite,

   Oblivious to day or night,

Its image-eating ever deft,

   Absorbs each lethal sight.

A need as deep as chocolate cake

   Spurs on unblinking nerve,

   Imagining the swerve;

(The blood its wine, the flesh its steak)

   The feast it must deserve.

D. Edgar Lamp

The Daily Poem - 281

Modesto, California (Clarion Inn at 1612 Sisk Road)

Quintain Stanza

Journal:  Read I Corinthians 15 over coffee with Mimi (our morning ritual).  Then paid bills together in bed, including Florida property taxes.  Ouch!  Downtown with Mimi from noon to three--she at the Chamber office, me at the coffee shop blogging, then ran a few errands: post office, video store, and Town Crier.  We both rescheduled a few things and left town on an impulse to go visit my brother Tom, who has been after me for several months now to come up and see him.  I promised him I'd be up before Christmas.  I've been driving for eight hours.  Made it here to Modesto, 400 miles.  Mimi & I brainstormed about our trip and listened to Christmas music on the radio wherever we could find it.  Stopped at In&Out for dinner, then Starbucks later on.  It was hard driving past Hwy 198, only 30 minutes from my girls. but had to press on.