Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 15

This most amazing existence

Part 3 of 5.

It is a most amazing day, thank you, Lord. I slept in longer than yesterday, but the dog did, too, and the cat did not caterwaul for her morning meal as much as usual. The winds are calm, and the sky like it will allow the sunshine through — not blue but not foreboding.

Yes — “Thank you, Lord.”

I don’t know how it became commonplace not to believe in a higher power, as if humanity, this fragile, short-tempered species, was the smartest thing that nature could come up wi...

This most amazing hunt

Part 2 of 5.

When the words flow, they flow, they race to come out, tumbling over one another. It helps to set the table with gratitude, I think, or I suspect. Call it invoking the Muse, praying to God, whatever helps, but a dose of gratitude, a dollop of awe, a recognition of miracles, seems to go a long way toward priming the pump.

I thank God for this most amazing day!

This feels like one of those messages or themes that I was meant to deliver. This feels like one of those messag...

This most amazing day

Part 1 of 5.

Moments before I drifted off to sleep the other night, as I reveled in a chance to rest after a hectic but productive day, I thought, “Thank you, Lord, for this most amazing day.” For some reason I thought that would be a great thought to write about in the morning if only I could remember it. (You know the drill: “That idea was so good I’ll surely remember it when I wake up.” Uh huh.)

It’s not original or mind-breaking, just a good positive thought. But I was too comfy to...

Storm, Part 2

“Get a real job, a**hole!” I told the scam
man with the not-from-around-here accent
who woke us up from a midday nap
but maybe this is his real job
and he hung up on me because
I obviously would not earn him any commission
And Not because I hurt his feelings.
If I had to take a job calling people
in other countries and trying to steal their
money, my self-esteem would not be high.
I perhaps shall be nicer
to the next charlatan who
wakes me up.

Here’s what I’m doing

OK, let’s be honest. This is a filler blog post. Or is it?

I’m working on a five-part series that will start Monday, emerging from the phrase, “Thank you, Lord, for this most amazing day.” I have a poem already locked and loaded for Sunday. So what do I write for Saturday? (As I type this, it’s 9:30 a.m. Friday and I need to leave the keyboard shortly.)

The post office tells me my first copy of The Man Who Was Thursday will be in the mail today, and I’m looking forward to that. Our sto...

Rhythm

There is a rhythm to a life, a day, a moment, a year — find the rhythm, the timing, the beat, and you are on your way to a poem, a song, a story, a book — find the rhythm and you unlock a certain something that cannot be described in words but many words will likely flow anyway, enough that the reader says, “I think I understand,” or better, “I understand.”

The understanding will be different from the intent, but it will be close enough.

Life is a series of random events, and so awaren...

‘I saw that the state was half-witted’

Resistance to Civil Government: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience has proven over the years to be the most consistent seller among the books in my little stable of tomes. Perhaps because its message is a timeless one that resonates through the centuries.

I heartily accept the motto, “that government is best which governs least,” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe: “That government is best w...

W.B. at the Movies: Yesterday

I love the idea of Yesterday: Something unexplained happens and Jack Malek discovers he’s the only one in the world who remembers The Beatles and all their songs. (Or is he?!)

We finally got to see the film thanks to the library book sale that also included a bunch of DVDs that they were trying to move out. For a buck we can watch the film over and over and over – such a deal!

It’s the valentine to the music that I thought it would be, with a sweet love story (Lily James is always terr...

The Roger Mifflin Collection finally resumes

The Man Who Was Thursday is a delightfully weird nightmare. A detective is recruited to infiltrate a mysterious star chamber of seven anarchists, each identified by a different day of the week. The council needs a new Thursday; hence the title.

Syme, the detective, slowly learns there’s more to the mystery than he bargained for, and before long the adventure is careening in unexpected directions. Roger Mifflin said this book is for when your mind needs “a good rough-and-tumbling,” and he’...

A perfect Carly Simon playlist

Carly Simon is one of those artists who makes you feel like you know her from listening to her songs. I have been captivated from the moment back in 1971 (!) that I heard her first hit single, “That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be.” It was intimate, it was painful, it was real.

The Wikipedia article about her quotes a former fiancee as saying she was “the answer to any sane man’s prayers: funny, quick, erotic, extravagantly talented.” And her best songs pull you deeper below that su...