watching whales watching us

Yesterday evening and this morning I read this wonderful article in the NY Times magazine, “Watching Whales Watching Us“, about the return of almost-extinct gray whales to lagoons of Baja. They are called “Friendlies” by the locals and the biologists who study them, because they appear to be trying to gently communicate with the same [...]

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question

Standing on my elbow With my finger in my ear, Biting on a dandelion, And humming kind of queer While I watched a yellow caterpillar Creeping up my wrist, I leaned on a tree And I said to me, “Why am I doing this?” from Standing by Shel Silverstein ♥ I read that poem to [...]

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a poetic politic

Am happy to report (well, from the NY Times) that for only the 4th time in U.S. history, a president elect has asked a poet to write and recite a poem at his inaugaration. Barack Obama chose Elizabeth Alexander to preside poetically in his upcoming inaugaration. I think this is cool, because a) it acknowledges [...]

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paddle rights

During a slow breast-stroke behind ten other people in a row at the Stadtbad Mitte swimming pool this evening, I thought about social order, the need for community structures to keep us all from swimming amoc. Today is Human Rights Day. If you’ve never read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, you can WATCH it [...]

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retreat into the written life

In a cafe called Strandbad Mitte today, only two minutes by bike from our apartment, I considered how it is no longer strange to hear German being spoken all around me. Then, as if the fates were testing me, three Americans came in and sat down at the table next to me. I was reading [...]

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