Donald Traxler's Poetry: 05/04/21

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

2018 BLOG INDEX: June

112,000 Visits, and Many Visitors

Last night we passed the milestone of 112,000 visits to this blog. Although this was partly due to the activities of a couple of pirates, it is gratifying with respect to the long-term loyalty of my readers.

Here at home, we had three different houseguests in one week. This has recently become possible since we are all fully vaccinated. It is wonderful to be able to hug someone or shake hands with them for the first time in more than a year.

As to the blog itself, it's the usual plus something new: indexing. I have already indexed 2016 and 2017, and am now approaching the halfway point with 2018, which was the highest-volume year.

I am also experimenting with new forms, writing longer lines than ever before. See, for example, "Journey," posted this morning. At the same time, I continue with my "Photo" series, which of necessity only allows for short quotations or excerpts, joined at the hip with appropriate photography, and often with translations into Udugi.

As usual, thanks to all of you for your continued interest and enthusiasm. ꮹꮩ, wadó.

Journey

I was wearing a brown, leopard-print, cat-suit overall that I must have picked up in a Melbourne op-shop, with nothing underneath. It's alien-technology velcrish straps cunningly crossed in the back to pull the whole thing into a unisex wasp-waist form that I hadn't had the body for for decades, or for lifetimes.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cowrie shell, which I gave to the driver. "Which way?" he asked. I said, "try up."

The g-forces pushed me toward the bottom of the craft as we rose, the youthful crowd parting for me like the Reed Sea when they saw my tightly fitting, leopard-print overall. In some way, the cat-suit was evidently functioning as a passport, but to where? The suit would be appropriate to few occasions or destinations.

Once, in Paumanok, I observed an older couple making love on the beach, and I knew that in their embrace were all the stars of the heavens, and endless continuity.