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Jonathan Butler, December 17, 2012

Cemetery in Salvage

The long hard climb in the rain
Almost didn’t seem worth it
Till we reached the top, a plot bestowed as a gift,
A resting place, for those who could no longer see.

Our mood turned sour when we found the frail outhouse,
Leaning, lopsided, a strange sentry box indeed,
Guarding the gates of the deceased.

“Even the dead defecate,” you joked,
And we all laughed. But you went further:
“Their shit-stained souls,” and we all laughed again,
For a moment, till we realized you had gone too far,
As you like to do, making light of a grave occasion,
An uncouth breach of the barren’s code.

The silence that followed us down the hill
Could be heard throughout the village for days.

The Bard of The Republic
(For Boyd Chubbs)

A man on a stool against the back wall
Plays guitar for anyone listening.
Sometimes I think he plays for himself
When the chatter and bar-brawl bravado
Reach a crescendo just as he finds his groove,
Lips a-quiver, head swiveling side to side
In a kind of ecstasy no one else feels—
Though we could, I realize, as I look around
And see that he’s there for us all
If we’d only pay attention, stop up our mouths,
Witness the holy moment of his fingers
Bleeding religion into the night.

Strange Utterance

They came out not quite right, his first words that morning,
Like a line break in a poem in the wrong
Place, a gap between gesture…………………..and sound.

What we couldn’t figure out was what had triggered it:
Dream, disturbance, or visitation in the night.
But hell, something had happened to him, not a doubt;
No one was quibbling over that.

He poured himself a coffee and sat down,
Fidgeting with bearing and posture, how to fit in again.
No one knew how to help him or what to say,
Until at last he gave up and sat there, silent,
Staring into his mug as if some answer to his problem

Might be found there, deep
In the pool of black staring back at him.

Half

For David Gravender on his birthday: December 16, 2011.

………….             ………….Halfway,
with chances looking………….good of making it
to the dream goal of………….a hundred. What now?
A look back, perhaps,………….at the fifty passed:
the years of youth,………….then irrefutable middle age—
the wife, the we’an,………….the winner’s share of house,
home, and the head………….aches of work, the consolations
of the brave. Half………….way to some dream you had forgotten
but wake from………….some mornings, foggy headed,
halfway to some ………….remembrance, some recollection you’d
put off for a moment,………….half thinking you’d come back to it,
half unsure you could………….translate it, even passably, the way
an archaeologist in………….Crete or Cairo might doubt his rusty Greek
or Sanskrit, a language………….long forgotten, but half remembered
sometimes, halfway to………….another foreign place far from home.

Halfway. Halfway to………….what? Look ahead: everything you’ll do
remains to be written…………..Half afraid, half encouraged,
half mistrusting of………………everything you know,
you’ll scan the lines………….of your life to come
like a poem awaiting………….creation, lifting your eyes
at the end of each………….imagined line
and returning them          to the margin,
……………………..and all the while in………….the gap of that movement
……………………..the half thoughts will………….happen. Let them.

Genevieve Murphy – Mental Metamorphosis, November 19, 2011

Mental Metamorphosis

As we sat there together, under the rainbowed sky of Rokkasho, Japan, in the ceramic studio, mixing clay together, a conversation was initiated that would alter my paradigm of life completely.  It began as a telling of tales, so to speak… of encounters, loves and circumstances of lives past.  It was the sort of conversation you could only have with someone you were connected to at the core of your being… a soul mate, so to speak.  These were topics usually left covered and buried deep within, rarely revealed to anyone, including ourselves.  First he went, sharing several stories of lost loves and the experiences connected with them.  Then, I went.  I began with a surface story, but as the conversation progressed, I began digging deeper and deeper, unveiling my stories of sadness and exposing the emotional scars that accompanied them.  None of this was easy or comfortable, but these were the types of conversations we had.

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Angela Utschig, November 19, 2011

angelaFor her 5 minutes in the Red Room sun, Angela shared an illustrated discussion of our economic system, and why it’s not really working for us right now.  It’s economics explained with apples!  If you want to read the whole lecture and see all the pictures, you can go to the RO Studio website.

http://rethinkinginenglish.blogspot.com/2011/11/apple-explanation.html

Angela has been living and working in Taiwan for fourteen years.  Her current project is the RO Studio, which is a place for people to learn and discuss new ideas, meet like-minded people, and plot ways to change the world.

思,生活工作室  www.rethinkingourselves.blogspot.com The RO Studio

Nick Herman, November 19, 2011

What I read can be found here:
http://psychanaut.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/hong-kong-crazy-part-one/

nick hermanSitting on the airport express, the train hardly makes a sound.  We whiz by improbably tall towers while the on-board tv replays clips of business “commentary.”  The question being discussed by the American hosts—why are startups so sexy?  Can Microsoft compete with Facebook and Google at luring young graduates?  Numbers flickers by on the screen like divinity readings.  Crack bones over the fire, read the flickers of stock values rising and falling like an ever spinning roulette.  I look out the window and wonder where I am.

It is quiet, clean, efficient.  No one talks. This is the sound of modernity—sterility, anonymity.   In the American subconscious, there is a romantic idea of making love in the backseat of a convertible.  Can you imagine making love in this commuter train?  If so, you might truly be a master of your surroundings.

for more>>follow the link, above.

Peter Giordano – A Matter of Life and Death, October 2011

 

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (also called A STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN) is a film made at the very end of World War II. I’ve been thinking about it because it is a film about hope and love and it was made during one of the most violent times in human history.

For me the film resonates because it’s about the need to connect, the need to open our eyes and see how close we are to each other, to see not only that it’s a small world but it’s a small universe.

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Holly Harrington – Keep doing what you love… in Chinese, October 2011

Recently, as I was preparing to perform in my first major Chinese stage role with a local theater company, and as I shared snippets of the performance at the past two Red Rooms, I became frustrated after hearing, from a number of people, the following reason for not attending the show:

“Sorry, my Chinese isn’t good enough to understand it.”

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Edward Chiang- the best of me, October 2011

October 6, that morning when I was on my way to work, I was in the metro using iPhone to check out is there any news around my friends. I saw one friend posted, “Rest in Peace to Steve Jobs.” I said what are you talking about? Then I changed social network to make sure that’s not a joke. But Facebook, Twitter, Plurk all shared the Biggest news: Steve Jobs has gone forever. Apple official website had changed the whole homepage for Steve Jobs… I suddenly couldn’t control myself, I held my iPhone very hard, and grieved over Steve Jobs’ death for few minutes, looking through the passengers, feeling how Apple products have changed our daily life.
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Kate Huang, August 2011

This note was inspired by a text message from a good friend. The warmth of friendship and the inspiration started growing in my mind and one hour later, I wrote down this note. That’s one of the best things about friendship – one starts a spark, and together it becomes  fireworks!

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Angela Utschig, August 2011

Angela Utschig manages the RO Studio. RO means ‘Rethinking Ourselves’. It is a place for people to discuss issues that affect their lives in depth and detail.  RO Studio practices listening just like Stage Time and Wine @ The Red Room in hopes of developing their understanding of themselves and the world around them.

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