Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day----

A hero is someone who does decent things in a way that everyone notices but it is heroic to do decent things when no one takes notice.  Hero’s tend to get applause from everyone.  Someone who is heroic usually has the love of only those who know them best.  Personally, I think it’s far better to be heroic than to be  a hero…...

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Balance----

Balance

People are creatures
Born of spirit
Born of earth
Like all the other creatures
Who inhabit our little blue planet
We all have an inclination
To look for danger first
This is why our news
Show our problems, show our grief

It's common to believe
You should error
On the side of safety
But this is just a way to say
“Listen to your fears
Listen to grief”
Far better
To ignore your anxieties
Balance yourself with care
And error on the side of optimism

If you gotta make a mistake
Do it on the side of compassion
Rise to the hopes of your spirit
Balance yourself
With the piece of you
That looks for the best in life
And in people

In all that you do
In all who you meet
Give living half a chance
And the benefit of a doubt
You'll be surprised
How many times
Life rises to the occasion

Dewey Dirks 2011

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Book Review----

Review of “Dave Riggler's Stories”


Today I'm going to take a look at “Dave Riggler's Stories” written by Brian Hartman.  “Dave Riggler's Stories” is series of six short stories in one binding about a man who was born with spina bifida, a spinal problem that prevents him from walking.  The book is small, at about forty-five pages.  It is presented as a series of scenes from Dave Riggler's life starting with a story from his early youth before his was in kindergarten.  It follows Dave through his life ending with a story about dating from his thirties.  Mr. Hartman is the sort of writer who says a lot in just a little space.  The book is absent of drawn out or flamboyant descriptions, and the work carries itself quite successfully on storyline, conversation and poignant choice of narrative alone.    
As I read the book, I quickly began to like Dave for his kindness and his determination.   A few pages in, and I couldn't put it down.  Dave is a fellow who approaches his handicap and life in general from a very pragmatic viewpoint.  It's very interesting to read his views on daily life and his opinion of the medical community such as the physical therapists who try to get him to walk with a walker when he was a teenager.  Time and time again, Dave shows considerable empathy for the lives of those whom he happens across, such as a suicidal woman he meets one night in a bar, and a homeless man for whom he buys a meal.  In one of the most dramatic passages of the book, Dave recounts his experiences on 9-11 as he watches the disaster unfold while working in a multistory building himself.  He watches the news in shock as he thinks about all the people in the Twin Towers and about those among them who are in wheelchairs and likely would not be able to escape a building in which the elevators no longer work.  
Two themes run throughout the book.  Daves experiences with the medical community and his experiences with trying to find a partner.  He mentions in one passage that by a certain time in his life he'd undergone surgery thirteen times.  One has to read a book like this to begin to develop an appreciation how significant a part doctors, psychologists, and surgeons play in the life of some handicapped people.  
I finished the book wanting it to be longer so that I could come to know Dave Riggler even better.  He's is the kind of person you'd like to spend a few afternoons at coffee with.  If the book has any shortcoming at all it's that it could be of greater length.  At the same time, in forty-five pages, Mr. Hartman very successfully gives you a heartfelt, well rounded, very well written look at the daily life and emotional wanderings of a man who goes through this world on wheels rather than on legs.  The fact that Mr. Hartman is able to accomplish this in a work of this length only confirms the fact that he approaches the art of the pen with a very great deal of skill.  I recommend Dave Riggler's Stories as a must read for anyone interested in learning about the heart and mind someone who is handicapped.  I would like to thank Mr. Hartman for the opportunity to review his fine book.  It has been a real pleasure to read.   ------Dewey Dirks

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Same Old New....

Same Old New

Love in each of us
Caution in all
Connection and detachment
In everyone
A brotherhood of humanity
Full of individuals
Intelligence in all of us
Idiocy too
Every upside
Has a downside
The fleas always come
With the dog

I've seen the love in someone
Appear at just the right moment
And save everything for them
Possibly worth saving
I've also seen the love in someone
Maim the people they most care for
As it blinded them
Into becoming a fool
I've seen fear eat people alive
As it destroyed
What was in their heart
So too I've seen the fear in someone
Save them from great harm
When at the right moment
They heeded caution

Even the best runners
Trip and fall
Every once in awhile
And the slowest among us
Can be quick to learn
Even the smartest of us
Have found themselves
Acting like an idiot
A time or two

Impermanence
Is mostly permanent
Every day I awake
And look in the mirror
To find the same old
Someone new
Every morning
I look out the window
To find a new world
Full of the same old change
Every day it's the same---
I learn something new


Dewey Dirks  copyright 2011

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Love isn't enough----

If you want to care for people as the Gods do, you have to do much more than just love them. You have to like them.....Then you have to like them in spite of the fact they're a pain in the ass....Then you have to like them in spite of the fact they think you're a pain in the ass too.

Death Gets....

Death gets us all, it's true.....But life gets you first. 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Friday, May 13, 2011

All The Rest Be Damned!----

Today I'm going to use a poem and a video that have previously been featured on the Questioning Way blog to make a point----

Shit. Damn. Fuck. Hell.  I've used all of these words from time to time in my writing and speaking.  They are an integral part of the lexicon of vernacular English as it is commonly spoken and written in the United States in the early 21st century.  They are very important to our language and are widely used because sometimes it is just impossible to employ any other word besides one of these as we each try to express the emotions we feel every day.  A little further down the page, I'll illustrate this point a bit more poignantly.  With the exception of one MMO computer game that I'm a massive toad for called 'Spore,' I rarely stay for long any place on the world wide web that tries to censor me if I happen to use one of these words to express myself.  Now, it might not seem like such a big deal if this or that website has a problem should I use the word shit or hell when I feel so inclined, but I know that the desire to censor speech and thought is a dangerously contagious disease and an astoundingly slippery slope that must be guarded against constantly.  With truly frightening speed it leads to vagrant attempts to control free thought such as experienced by woman in following video, which tells the story high school teacher who was recently harassed by a TV station for having the audacity to be a teacher and a erotic romance writer at the same time.  The principle of free speech is of the utmost concern to all of us if we are to remain a country that in the farthest reaches of the imagination, could be called 'free.'



Fortunately, thousands of people came to this woman’s aid with a show of support (The Questioning Way blog included) as her  story made it's way around the web.  To the TV stations credit, they later aired a piece correcting their mistake, but only after so many people came to her defense, it became painfully obvious to them they really screwed the lurch.
I've also felt the sting of serious attempts to control what I say and write.  Some years ago, I was invited to publish some poetry to a federally funded website ran by the National Endowment for the Arts.  At the time it was a pretty nice break for me because the site enjoyed thousands of viewers.  Among the work I published there was the poem “Don't Call me Collect---God”  It was subsequently banned from the site for using the word 'damned' because I had God saying “All the rest be damned!” in one of the lines of the poem.  If you don't think that swear words serve a vital function in our language, just substitute the phrase  “All the rest be darned!”in place of original phrase and see how the poem reads.

Don't call me collect  --God

Perhaps on some golden throne
alive in the sky, you watch over each of us
--rain warm love, bathing one by one
man and sparrow with most tender care

Or, like a child at play
did you make the clock your grand experiment?
then, called to dinner, you plan to be back at eight
wondering if we'll still be tocking

Are you a big ashen bearded daddy?
with all the answers up there
will you spank us forever if we don't believe?

Maybe you're a cosmic hippie
you say "Hey don't you remember?
ten thousand years ago
we all stood at Salisbury in ecstasy"
Then, with hand to forehead you say
"Or maybe it was nineteen seventy-one
you know, all that acid still gets to me"

Are you a wrinkled old man?
stuttering, the very edge of senility
you wait at the gate, white picket complacency
We come home for a hug and obligatory visit
the younger playing Grandfather for a free dime

Perhaps you are a crone, ancient and wise
living in rock, road, brook, and tree
You made a hard, wondrous, magical land
where stumbling, we acolytes slowly learn of beauty

With fire on your finger tips
maybe you throw lightning bolts
make floods, cause the sky to darken
Perhaps you'll let five thousand faithful in
"All the rest be damned!" you say as the earth quakes


Perhaps one time, some time, ever time
we'll be sitting in the park, you and I
Muhammad, Gautama and Einstein play dice across the way
cool green grass, white daisies, blue sky, shade trees
I say, "You know, I wondered always if you were a figment"
You say, "Don't we all, my friend, begin and end in fantasy?"

Dewey Dirks Copyright 2010

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Buzzard Breath----

....This poem goes to prove you can never take life too not seriously...or is it too not unseroiusly not....;)

Buzzard Breath

Lord it's hot up here today
an' all this smog
from yonder city
is flat out chokin' me
Lookit that car down there!
man is he goin' fast!
maybe he'll run a rabbit down
an' I'll have sumthin' to eat
Oh no! here comes Hank!
he's that asshole from Death Valley
an' I'd bet a dead rattlesnake
he thinks he's gonna bum some food from me
Hell, if birds had teeth
that sucker'd steal yer tail
while he was smilin' at yer beak
Well hullo there Hank!
howzitgoin ya ole scavenger!
long time no see! Oh I'm jist fine
What's that? Nope nuthin's bin kilt off yet
not even a horny toad
What? Yer leavin' already?
nice seein' ya Hank, fly by more offin'!
taker' easy an' have a good thermal!
Well, there he goes...
I hope he flies into a 747


Dewey Dirks copyright 2011

Friday, May 6, 2011

Pirate Girl



"Pirate Girl" video.  Music, "Remains of the Day" by Blood Ruby

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Lotta causes.....

A very wise man once said, "There are many causes I would die for, but not a single cause that I would kill for...." Sounds like a good philosophy to me. If more people felt that way we'd all live in a better place

Monday, May 2, 2011

Melody Version Two----


Here is a new version of the video "Melody"  We had such a problem with the licensing on the last one we decided to put it to new music....


Update---Man, going live with one of these things can be a mess.  We had a couple details wrong and had to do a new edit of the video real quick and post it back up--the version you see here is actually the third version I've post up today gggrrrrrrr ;)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Heaven and Earth----

Heaven and Earth

Some say heaven is high above us
and hell lies far below.
Some say that life for most is hell in a hand basket
but that for a few it's pure bliss.
Some say earth is the land of labor
where day by day we all break our backs.

But you know, life is a long, long walk
with more than one place to go
and more than one place to stop.
What you get back
has a lot to do with what you put in.
And what we think we see
can be a tricky thing
because life is inside of you
and outside at the same time.

Life is trouble for each of us
some of the time
but little bits of heaven
touch us all every day
in the smiles of strangers
in the touch of your lover
in the eyes of a child
in jokes from a friend
in the purr of your cat
in the wag of a dogs tail
where the love you give out
is the love you get back.

Now, those bits of heaven
that you have every day
can carry you through a lifetime
like a river flowing out to the sea.
But don't hold on too tightly
as the moments pass by.
Love and happiness
enjoyed for a moment then released
return to visit
more than once each day.

The roads we take
can be a hard, winding ride.
We all know
what this old world can do.
If you loose your way
just hold a newborn babe in your hands.

Little bits of life
spread all around five minutes at a time
grow into eighty years of good memories
like a great field of cool green grass
stretching out across the long years behind.



Dewey Dirks Copyright 2011