Poetry
Amanda Gorman – “The Hill We Climb”
Joe Biden – Kamala Harris, 2021 Inauguration.
National Youth Poet Laureate
Honoring Elijah Cummings
“My life is based on pain, passion, and purpose.
I’m going to do what feeds my soul.”
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
BY ROBERT FROST
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
R.I.P. Ric Ocacek – The Cars
“I’m happy that the pop songs have a bit of a twist. When I’m writing, I never know how it’s going to come out. I don’t think, well, I’ve done a catchy one, now I can do a weird one. I read a lot of poetry, and that gives me a wide range of permission to say anything in a song — they’re more twisted than I’ll ever be.” – Ric Ocacek
Rich Ferguson
(Photo “Orange Crush” by Rich Ferguson)
What the What
What we argue about.
What we know to the depths of our souls.
What causes the soles of our feet to burn.
What our pain is, and what we do with it.
What we do for love.
What animals mate for life.
What weapons will look like in 100 years.
What our history of violence tells us.
What the silence tells us on nights we can’t sleep.
What time whispers in our ears when another year slips by.
What slips between our fingers, between the cracks.
What cracks us up.
What gets us up out of bed every morning.
What we see when we look in the mirror.
What to do for a broken heart.
What to do when your what-if machine breaks.
What your tongue can tell you about your health.
What your health can tell you about your wealth.
What we can learn from our mistakes.
What we can learn from the color of a star.
What we wish for when we wish upon a star.
What truths are self-evident.
What our parents aren’t telling us.
What our politicians aren’t telling us.
What it means to be kind, what it means to be cruel.
What it means to be rich, what it means to be poor.
What to do to cleanse your colon.
What to do to cleanse your soul.
What to take for a yeast infection, or erectile dysfunction.
What a dangling or misplaced modifier looks like in a sentence.
What a prison inmate’s life sentence costs the average taxpayer.
What it costs to build a house.
What it costs to buy a house.
What Lincoln said about a house divided.
What Shakespeare said about destiny and the stars.
What scars we wear proudly.
What wounds we keep hidden deep.
What we’ve lied about, rioted about.
What we’ve remained absolutely quiet about.
What the coroner’s report will say about us when we’re gone.
What our families, friends, and coworkers will say about us when we’re gone.
What to do to get turned on.
What to do when you’re turned off.
What made Van Gogh cut off his ear.
What paint colors go together, or make people look more beautiful.
What it really means when people say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
What eye color is most sensitive to light.
What it takes to power Times Square.
What 9/11 looked like from outer space.
What you can and can’t take on airplanes.
What you can and can’t buy with food stamps, or eat while pregnant.
What role folic acid plays in pregnancy.
What acid taught Timothy Leary.
What we should and shouldn’t be leery of.
What agitates us, brings us peace.
What meditation does to the brain.
What cancer does to the brain.
What we know about wisdom vs. intelligence.
What we know about ignorance vs. stupidity.
What stupid things people do with their smart phones.
What women do that drive guys crazy.
What guys do that drive women crazy.
What it really means when a guy says he’s scared.
What it really means when a woman says, “Fine.”
What degree of separation you are from Tom Waits vs. Tom Cruise.
What your musical taste, or taste in movies says about you.
What the chicken says when crossing the road.
What the road has told us when we’ve journeyed off alone.
What we’ve done for kicks on Route 66.
What 666 means to a mathematician vs. a devil worshiper, or biblical scholar.
What prayers to say for abundance, what prayers to say for healing.
What we’ve held in our hands.
What we’ll be handing over to the next generation.
What we’ve handed over as a bribe, peace offering, or evidence.
What the witness saw.
What the victim saw.
What the shooter saw when staring down the barrel of his rifle.
What we see when looking up at the clouds.
What we see when looking down deep into ourselves.
c. 2018
Wishing you Comfort & Joy from The Juice Bar!
Blueberry Hill – Fats Domino…R.I.P.
Blueberry Hill
I found my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
On Blueberry Hill
When I found you
On Blueberry Hill
On Blueberry Hill
When I found you
The moon stood still
On Blueberry Hill
And lingered until
My dream came true
On Blueberry Hill
And lingered until
My dream came true
The wind in the willow played
Love’s sweet melody
But all of those vows you made
Were never to be
Love’s sweet melody
But all of those vows you made
Were never to be
Though we’re apart
You’re part of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
You’re part of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
The wind in the willow played
Love’s sweet melody
But all of those vows you made
Were never to be
Love’s sweet melody
But all of those vows you made
Were never to be
Though we’re apart
You’re part of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
You’re part of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
Songwriters: Al Lewis / Larry Stock / Larry Lawrence Stock / Vincent Rose
Blueberry Hill lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Memory Lane Music Group
Mr. President, I rise today to say: enough.
Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, announced on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election in 2018. He delivered a statement from the Senate floor.
The following is an excerpt of those remarks, as prepared by The New York Times.
“We were not made great as a country by indulging in or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake. And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are.
This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better. Because we have a healthy government, we must also have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good.
Until that day comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it, because it does. I plan to spend the remaining 14 months of my Senate term doing just that.
Mr. President, the graveyard is full of indispensable men and women. None of us here is indispensable nor were even the great figures of history who toiled at these very desks, in this very chamber, to shape the country that we have inherited. What is indispensable are the values that they consecrated in Philadelphia and in this place, values which have endured and will endure for so long as men and women wish to remain free.
What is indispensable is what we do here in defense of those values. A political career does not mean much if we are complicit in undermining these values. I thank my colleagues for indulging me here today.
I will close by borrowing the words of President Lincoln, who knew more about healthy enmity and preserving our founding values than any other American who has ever lived. His words from his first inaugural were a prayer in his time and are now no less in ours.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.”
Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona
Eminem VS. Trump
“The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I’m just like, ‘Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do’.”
“Paper Towel President…he absorbs nothing but praise for himself.” – L.K. Thayer
“He really puts the ass in compassion. It looks like he’s operating the T-shirt cannon at a Flippers game. Who does that? What planet is this man from? The Brawny paper towel guy would know better than to do that.”
The Juice Bar 