29 Comments
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Forrest Gale's avatar

What actually registered was not at all what was entered, format-wise. Interesting.

Forrest Gale's avatar

What is a new day without a poem of one sort or another? That's probably not a good question to ask many (most?) people, but here we have the dawn of a new environment, and I, for one, don't want to let the crossover pass without attempting to anoint (?) the atmosphere with the faint scent of what is to come, perfume the page

with a hint of possibility, so to speak.

Let's try the new sea of restraint out........

What Is Coming

Spring looms over the night horizon

Like a distant carnival midway

Its verdant roar and flash like fireworks

From a far off celebration--

Silent yet ecstatic, a fever

Yet to heat the body with desire--

Unapproachable yet promising

To torch an appraising mind with dreams;

One has to ask how the Winter sun

With its wan gaze could begin to stay

Long enough to unfreeze the cold sparks

Glittering in the night sky, to run

Like a fuze to the skyline's azure

Reach and ignite its pale vault's entire

Spectrum of colossal beginnings--

But it will, though sometimes it may seem

As though spontaneous combustion

Is what answers the eternal question:

Will Spring ever come? And when?...

This year, Global warming has answered these questions here on the south coast; and the above answers the question of the Substack format's degree of hostility (wrap) to poetic rhythm since landscape mode is not available for data entry (6 line wraps out of 19 lines above), as it previously was. Ah, the little details.......i

Cher L's avatar

Feel like we're in literary kindergarten together. Don't lose your sparkle! Brilliant piece. Elon is a scientist and biz man, no need to pop politics here. We all have our vices ;D xo ©️

Andy Marias's avatar

It worked! Glad to be a part of your fan base!

Miriam Lubet's avatar

I'm grateful to find you and support you on Substack.

Deb Sheridan's avatar

Thank you. So true!

Jan T.'s avatar

It worked! I look forward to your columns Wed & Sat to get me through the rest of the week

Julie Bagg's avatar

Good to be reconnected. Cobbywobbles—one of your best!

Jamee Jordan Patterson's avatar

Is there any way to make the photos bigger? Otherwise the format is super easy to navigate. LOVE the word Collywobbles - SO truly descriptive. Best, Jamee

clover.bee.art's avatar

Tap on the image and it will enlarge. You can also pinch it larger. Hope that works! ☺️

Forrest Gale's avatar

Well, here we are on a new platform. The type is smaller, and the interaction seems to me somehow diminished on the screen--more interactively "internetty" in page design and format, less expansively (almost glossily) semantic as before--a matter of web page width and overall design, but we are here for the reason cited. This IS a platform filled with authorial options, the typing ground of a number of writers who write for compensating audiences; and why not? I will say no more on this, as most of us, like me, get comfortable with a stasis that is probably only in the mind. Nice gentle piece today, easing us into the new format and its more proscribed options. Here comes Spring, appropriately all about change....

Chris Erskine's avatar

Always a pleasure to read your thoughts, my friend. Thank you for your support thru the years.

Linnea Harper's avatar

I'll buy your column if you'll buy my poetry book! More info in April. . . It's all about family... from the darker side... "Junkie Boy ~ A MotherWork" will make you cry or thank your lucky stars, maybe both. Like Chris' columns ; ). It is a chapbook, meaning, mercifully short.

Linnea Harper's avatar

I was able to find Posh's chile recipe with AI assistance

and will slurp it up in the Oregon rain. I guess you were too busy dancing between platforms to tend to such a minor request-- or else I missed it.

Chris Erskine's avatar

Dropped the ball on the recipe. Been scrambling to get this going. So sorry!

Linda's avatar

🎉 Linda🌙