'Cause it felt so good

Just stop and realize just what is true. What else can you do?
Just follow the rules and keep your eyes on the road that's ahead of you.
~Little Feat

For Music Monday, Little Feat. Did I listen to this album a million times when it came out? Why, yes.



Also, Let It Roll
Halloween music

The right conditions

Maples are such sociable trees ... They're always rustling and whispering to you.
~Lucy Maud Montgomery

Happy Poetry Friday! When I was looking for quotes, I also found this delightful one:
I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and so clean it quivers.
~Leif Enger

It's been very gold today. *happy sigh* I am a fan of October. We have two tree-related poems this week.

letter to my father
by Sara Eddy

I’ve been walking around with a knot
in my belly all week for no reason.
There’s nothing wrong, no big turmoil.

But I feel everything, a web of open nerves
zapping to the tune of every little thing.
We finally had winter this week, after many...

read the rest here

*******************

Whenever you see a tree
By Padma Venkatraman
Think
how many long years
this tree waited as a seed
for an animal or bird or wind or rain
to maybe carry it to maybe the right spot
where again it waited months for seasons to change

read the rest here

*******************

Beyond Literacy Link has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Carol!

Molten

"A singer can shatter glass with the proper high note, he said," "but the simplest way to break glass is simply to drop it on the floor.'"
~Anne Rice

For Art Thursday, Glass Blowers of Murano by Charles Frederic Ulrich. Have you watched the tv series that's a glass blowing competition (I can't remember the name! Arg)? It impressed upon me how dangerous glass blowing can be, although this painting looks very relaxed.

Glass Blowers of Murano
by Charles Frederic Ulrich

Photogravure (by Goupil & Co.) based on the 1886 painting by American artist Charles Frederic Ulrich

Orange-colored day

You’re a part of the season, no more and no less
~Liana Flores

For Music Monday, a song Ariana introduced me to during my visit. Liana Flores:

We can make a house called tomorrow

It's sobering to realize that there's a huge chunk of the U.S. voting population that doesn't think of sexual assault as something horrendous enough to disqualify a presidential candidate.
~Ana Kasparian

by Jogesh Chandra Seal

Happy Poetry Friday! How great is it to have poetry friends who will take up a meaningful challenge with you? Here's a post from 2020 full of poems about hand-marked paper ballots.

Ouch: Voting Machine by Maggie Smith

Lastly, I'm returning to Alberto Rios, who knows what to say:

A House Called Tomorrow
by Alberto Ríos

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen—
You are a hundred wild centuries

And fifteen, bringing with you
In every breath and in every step

Everyone who has come before you,
All the yous that you have been,

The mothers of your mother,
The fathers of your father.

If someone in your family tree was trouble,
A hundred were not:

The bad do not win—not finally,
No matter how loud they are...

read the rest here

****************

I'm visiting Ariana and Matthew this week but hope to make the rounds anyway, maybe a little late.

Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Matt!

Vooooote

[Project 2025] is a meticulous outline of how they will crumple the system simultaneously through minute changes.
~Cecilia Esterline

For Art Thursday, voting! I voted early:

It was super easy, but would I have gone to great lengths to vote? You bet I would! Am I terrifed at the thought of someone with no regard for civil rights, ethics, or democracy taking the White House?

endless screaming

Like everyone, I am pulling myself together and carrying on. Conserve your strength, preserve your sanity, take action when you can. The Norman Rockwell Museum's Unity Project "calls upon all Americans to uphold democracy by voting":

VOTE
by Lisk Feng

Vote – Register – Find – Learn – Explore – Make Sure – Research – Look – Check
by Timothy Goodman

The Future is in Your Hands – VOTE
by Edel Rodruiguez

Noodle Soup

Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.
~Francoise Sagan

For Music Monday, Four80East: