Cheery Berry and other Poems

Cheery Berry

  The fear of being devoured
  Is considered a character flaw
  In a bowl of Cheerios.

  Most of them realize
  They are becoming
  Part of something larger.
  They don't think
  Of giving up
  Their identity.

  They see digestion
  As merely a transformation

  On
        a
            superficial
  level.



I Sleep on Springs

  Whenever I sleep on springs,
  my mind drips down to debate.
  While my body compresses them,
  I pressure them with questions.
  After I’m done holding them down all night,
  they will pop up again – back in shape.
  I share my concerns.
  They share their secret of resilience.

  Whenever I sleep on springs,
  my spirit drips down to commune.
  While they support me,
  I bond with each tight coil,
  sharing elastic, steely strength.
  We were both made to rebound.
  In the morning, we are each ready to give back what we took in.

  Whenever I sleep on springs
  My dreams are on trampolines,
         floating – flying – anywhere –
                   drastic – elastic – returning.
  One eight-hour, slow-motion bounce,
  and I’m back on my feet again.

  I always sleep on springs.




Intensity

    I can carry a whole month on the back of my mind, in a Starbook bag.  When I first get the Starbook (or embodiment thereof), the bag starts to fill.  While the joy of the Starbook is fading, the month begins accumulating.  The heavier it gets, the more I fill it.  After the first week, I dream of the diamond it can yield.  In week two, it is snowballing to size, throughout the days, packed down through the nights.  Sometime in the third week, it becomes insurmountable.  I’ve reached the limit. 
    I compress, cut, carve, chisel, and chip away for days and days, seeking a diamond, or a sculpture, icon, or landmark totem.  Finally, in a searing blaze, I destroy the month and the bag it came in.  It ascends, free and lovely.



Interest Follows Ability

Change it up - flip it.
You'll still be able to grip it.
Take a chance - it's OK.
Look at things a different way.

Ignorance is a dirty word -
Ugly, like a baby bird.
Interest follows ability.
Inaction creates fragility.


    Interest follows ability, because we like to compete where we have the edge.  Ability follows interest, because involvement brings facility.  It is well and right that strong traits flourish.  However, one this self-reciprocating loop is established in a stable setting, one increases the specificity.
    Situational inversion seeks to isolate or abstract a factor - typically to address, more directly, a technique.  It also brings secondary traits to the forefront.
    Participants accept the artifice best when it demonstrably works to their advantage, but even the strongest must realize it is one of the conditions of a learning community.  Putting you on your "B' game suports your "A" game, even if you do not see how.  We all want to have no "B" game, because popular culture advises us it is not worth the effort.  This tends to create a preference for monody.
    Another reason for preferring monody is fear - ther perception of inadequacy.  Spend effort creating the perception of avbility, competence, and success only to see it collapse and crumble with one second-hand dismissal?  No!  Limit praise to sure, authentic assessables of components on a chart.  These irrefutable factoids accumulate to produce the perception.  While generated from artificial conditions, they center on the ability of the individual - not the game.  The individual must not fail to put together these abstracted pieces of game at some time - or else become anxious about it.