People Get Tattoos

02 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2002, 2004, 2013, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round time, circling round vanities, circling round wrinkles, definitely didactic Tags:

People Get Tattoos

People get tattoos

Because

They think that there’s no change,

Because they’re vain, in love…you name it.

Choose

Because they’ve no idea

That what was butt or breast or chest

Firm-formed, de-forms

With ‘budding bicep rose’ becoming

Wrinkled, wilted posy -of-the-elbows.

I suppose it’s all to do with time

And how we throw away prime

Energies, the side- and peepshow

We once worshipped with a gusto.

 

Worn and old.

Tattoo, you are a symbol

Of myopia and youth,

Cockeyed view of truth that lets us down.

 

Still, there always will be those

Who need tattoos – jewelry indelible,

Refusing reason until gusto is disgust.

There’s nothing one can say or do

Except re-sing this blemished tune

For anyone who’ll listen:

Just be witness and abstain.

 

People Get Tattoos 7.20.2002 /1.18.2004

A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Definitely Didactic; Time;

Circling Round Vanities; Circling Round Wrinkles;

Arlene Corwin

Day After (3 versions) 2013

30 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2009, 2013, birth death & in between, circling round reality, circling round time, circling round time II, circling round vanities, circling round vanities II Tags: ,

Day After #1

One day

After New Year’s Eve;

Thirteen sun years

After millennium:

Continuation ordinaire,

Nothing changed but numbers.

What makes dates so great?

Why fireworks

To signalize, nay, celebrate

A time that’s anyway here/gone?

I am a yin/yang person

Thinking all the time –

What’s there to make a fuss

About when it’s a fiction?

#2

Day after New Year is

Continuation ordinaire:

Nothing changed except the number.

I‘m a yin/yang, pro-con person

Celebrating time that’s done.

Why the fireworks

When it’s a fiction?

 

            #3        

One day

After New Year’s Eve;

Thirteen sun years after

Millennium:

Continuation ordinaire,

Nothing changed but numbers.

What makes dates so great?

Why the fireworks

To signalize

A time that’s anyway here/gone?

I am a yin/yang person

Thinking all the time –

What’s there to celebrate

When it’s a fiction?

Day After 1.2.2009/2013

A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Birth, Death & In Between;

Circling Round Time; Circling Round Reality;

Circling Round Vanities;

Arlene Corwin

2012 in review Arlene Corwin Poetry have-a-look

30 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2012, A Mystic Visits Thousand Oaks, a sense of the ridiculous, arlene corwin's biography, autobiography, biography, birth death & in between, birth death & in between II, birthday book, blogs, cat book, circling round baths, circling round baths II, circling round computers, circling round egos, circling round energy, circling round eros, circling round eros II, circling round nature, circling round reality, circling round time, circling round time II, circling round vanities, circling round vanities II, circling round woman, circling round wrinkles, circling round yoga, CirclingRoundTimeII, coffee book, defiant doggerel, definitely didactic, mother book, nature of & in reality, numbers, numbers book, on the way to the post, our times our culture, our times our cultureII, Preface Notes, pure nakedness, recipes, revelations big & small, small stories book, special people special occasions, swedish book, the processes creative thinking meditative, the processes II, the processes:creative, thinking, to the child mystic, to the child mystic II, vaguely about music, vaguely about music II, war book Tags: , ,

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Humility Or Humbug 2011

29 Apr 2012 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2011, 2012, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round reality, circling round vanities Tags: , , ,

It’s a rainy, thund’ry day here in Härryda, Sweden (where Kent and I live in the country).  The telephone is out.  Somebody’s or somebodies have stolen the copper cables that have been hanging temptingly for months now  (we live in a sad, corrupted conscience-free world).  So here I was, doing the dishes,  energized by coffee and wondering about the difference between humility and insecurity, they looking very much like each other.

Humility Or Humbug

 

It was a humdrum day.

Nothing on my mind,

I looked up humble

Where I found humdingers:

Humus

Humorous

For fingers.

Not a humph of sound,

For, humanized I pondered on

The difference ’tween

Low self-esteem

And lack of self-importance:

One, humility,

The other, well, –

Just plain old insecurities.

It is a fine line, hard to recognize.

The insecure seem often humble

And the humble insecure.

Good to analyze,

Who is the one to tell?

 

Then we come to arrogance.

 

Humility Or Humbug 7.5.2011

A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Circling Round Vanities; Circling Round Reality;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, the grass is never greener.  Stay home and enjoy your Detroit could-be paradise.  Help it along.

By the way, I worked in a wonderful jazz club in the 50’s!  I don’t remember the name, but Detroit was the place then.

Comment by Sue Shoemaker on Tuesday
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In your intro, Arlene, you mention someone stealing copper cables.  Being from MI … we have heard so much about the destruction of old homes and other properties due to the theft of copper lines in Detroit.  It’s interesting to hear that this is not just a Detroit or even just a USA phenomena.  Sometimes it is easy to think that the ‘grass is greener’ in other places in the world.

Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on Monday
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Pardon if this comes into your mail more than once.

Out this week –

Vaguely About Music

Arlene Corwin

The seventh in a series circling around some aspect of life: time, woman, the creative process, mysticism, vanity, our times and culture,Vaguely About Music deals with aspects of jazz, performance, criticism, celebration, mourning – all to do with music, the players, the performance.

Available on

 Amazon.com, Xlibris.com, Barnes& Noble.

Also available as ebook

Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on July 7, 2011 at 10:31
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I forgot to mention, – as a starting point I was fooling around with the hum’s.  So in the seriousness of the message is the fooling around-ness too.  Even in the most serious matters there must be and is fun – and (conversely) and perhaps even more important, even in the fun and under the fun lies always the serious.  Contiguous walls. (see next blog).

Fondly,

Arlene, Sweden

Comment by Marian Van Eyk McCain on July 6, 2011 at 20:48
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“…within the nowness of seconds, if you live in them, there is wisdom, and in that wisdom, security.” That’s a really profound statement, Arlene. I like it. And as Sue so rightly says, control is a total illusion.

Yes, that’s the beauty of poems. They are like Rorschach blots in the way they trigger associations, impressions, ideas, insights…

Comment by Sue Shoemaker on July 6, 2011 at 19:01
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Not sure where I first heard the phrase … THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL … but it seems to relate to the discussion here.  When speaking of “security” and/or “change” … as much as we would like to think that we have “control” over these things … the fact of the matter is that the idea of CONTROL is just an ILLUSION.

Comment by ARLENE CORWIN on July 6, 2011 at 18:47
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As the I Ching or Book of Changes says, there is nothing else but change.  So, of course, all things being dynamic, there can’t be security (as we usually use the word) absolute.  But within the nowness of seconds, if you live in them, there is wisdom, and in that wisdom, security.

 

And no, it isn’t what I meant in the poem, but your (Betty) and Marian’s response show what delicious things can come from a little poem.

Fondly,

Arlene

Comment by Marian Van Eyk McCain on July 6, 2011 at 8:51
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That is SO true, Betty. And I guess that’s why Voltaire called life “a daring adventure.” Facing that, square on, is what ‘radical aliveness’ is all about.

 

Comment by Betty Taylor on July 5, 2011 at 23:24
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There is no such thing as “security” in this life and it’s pursuit is a fruitless dead-end.

Think of all the empires built upon our fears and our pursuit of security–insurance businesses, financial markets, hospitals and health care businesses, nursing homes–the list goes on and on. We invest precious dollars in a futile attempt to ensure our safety. Life is not safe. Investing in these things out of fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. We end up creating the end we fear.

I know this may not be the  road you were going down, but this is what your post stimulated in me.

Thanks,

Betty

Notes

Adding Photos

 

There are two kinds of photos on Elderwomanspace:

–       …

Continue 

Created by Marian Van Eyk McCain Aug 12, 2009 at 1:25pm. Last updated by Marian Van Eyk McCain Nov 29, 2010.

Starting Point

Welcome to Elderwomanspace. This is YOUR network. If you are new here and/or are not already familiar with the way social networks operate,click here to read my note ‘Getting Started’. If you plan on inviting others into the network, be sure and click hereto read the ‘Invitations’ note first. There…Continue

Created by Marian Van Eyk McCain Mar 19, 2010 at 2:45pm. Last updated by

Critical Thinker 2011

18 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2011, circling round vanities, the processes II

Critical Thinker

I am the critical thinker,

Taking in then analyzing,

Struggling

Between advantage,

Vanity

And sharing;

Even to the point of

Owning up to struggles

In themselves.

Not vanity

But offering.

Still embarrassed to read I

As I re-read

“I am”,

But cannot change a word.

 

Critical Thinker 4.1.2011

The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Circling Round Vanity;

Arlene Corwin

Vanity Re-named Perhaps 2011

09 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2005, circling round vanities, I Is Always You is We

Vanity Re-named, Perhaps

 

Not reveling in one’s run,

Who wants to be remembered

Only when they’re gone?

You a memory in time: a force

Whose praise you always thought would be

A nice thing to enjoy while here.

You are not here to give it ear.

No wonder great religions

Call for dwindling interest in the ego,

Foster focusing on source.

Loving all as brothers,

Comforted in knowing that you share with others

Something that is you at bottom.

You could rest in peace.

The rest a vanity and arrogance.

 

Vanity Re-named, Perhaps 9.22.2005/rewritten11.1.2011

I Is Always You Is We; Circling Round Vanities;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

Zapping Vanity 2011

07 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2011, circling round vanities

       Zapping Vanity

 

If everything is vanity,

Is all in vain?

Wrong to relish beauty

In, around

With tricks at hand

To purify intention

For awareness,

Extricating motives there –

Secret, meager;

Underlying, steering;

Using what technique you can

To zap a handicap

And liberate desire

From the mire of appearance?

No.

 

Zapping Vanity 12.4.2011

Circling Round Vanities;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

 

 

Zapping Vanity 2011

05 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2011, circling round vanities

Zapping Vanity

 

If everything is vanity,

Is all in vain?

Wrong to relish beauty

In, around

Using tricks at hand

To purify intention

For awareness,

Extricating motives there –

Secret, meager;

Underlying, steering;

Using what technique you can

To zap a handicap

And liberate desire

From the mire of appearance?

No.

 

Zapping Vanity 12.4.2011

Circling Round Vanities;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

 

 

The Losses 2011

27 Nov 2011 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2011, birth death & in between II, circling round vanities

The Losses

 

Not the losses,

But the watching:

Changes, alterations in

A generation

Aging, dying, disappearing.

Knowledge which,

Though solace to the vanity,

(you’re still alive – whoopee!)

Craves the ring of answer

That has not yet come.

 

The Losses 10.21.2008 (found on a scrap – reworked 11.26.2011)

Circling Round Vanities; Birth Death & In Between II;

Arlene Corwin

Loss Of Vanity 2011

18 Nov 2011 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2011, circling round vanities, pure nakedness

Loss Of Vanity

 

Loss noticed:

Gradual and un-dramatic –

As if letting go.

 

It is a letting go.

 

No longer yearning for approval

From the neighbor; from the culture.

Free from fashion factory’s syndrome,

Factory fashions altogether.

 

They won’t know the why

Or even that there is no vanity.

They might say “Oh,

She’s letting herself go”,

And they’d be right.  She’s undergone

A distancing,

A retrograde,

An understanding

That it doesn’t make a difference,

 

Self-importance an illusion.

Loss of fear – that’s what it is

That’s come at last.

 

Loss Of Vanity 11.18.2011

Circling Round Vanities; Pure Nakedness;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

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