Ray Bradbury’s Writing Table

(x = space)

x

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Ray Bradbury’s Writing Table

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I hope it’s true

He showed it to us,

Talked us through it

Right before each

Episode;

So many toys and

Other things, reminders

Of this world

And other worlds;

There was a metal

Spaceship, the old kind

You wind up; and

There were toy dinosaurs

And many other things,

Curios and totems

Any of which

Might become

Dandelion Wine,

A Martian chronicle

Or Something Wicked

This Way Comes

x

I hope it’s true

And not a set piece,

Though I suppose it doesn’t

Matter; the writing

Table, writing place

Has been lodged in

My brain, coming

Up as memory

Every now and then,

Evocation of

Evocation, and of course

I have my own symbols

Now around me, and

I trust that

You have yours

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C L Couch

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The Ray Bradbury Theatre was a show first broadcast in the 1980s.

Ray Bradbury was a writer who created many monumental works, among them Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

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Photo by Charl Folscher on Unsplash

Part of a series of concept photos I took during lockdown using drawing mannequins.

x

Processional

Processional

 

Color is falling from the leaves

I hear wet tires pressing on the street outside

I have coffee bubbling in a machine

The toaster’s thinking about making me rye toast

(I have to put the bread in

two times)

It’s early, not so early

I have an artificial breeze, cooling me and

Inciting an illusion of faraway and underneath, say,

An Arabian archway on the clean edge of a

Desert

Early in the day

It’s cool there, too

 

Could I ask for more?

Of course, I could

I’m human

But this is pretty good

And I have the keyboard

With electricity

Senses sharp enough to take in more than one perspective

Pretty well,

All things considered

 

A song is playing

Turn around, look at me

Can you see me?

Can you hear me?

Touch me, taste me, too?

Sniff out the wet day with me?

Certainly, you can

And as far as will is concerned,

You might join me in the senses, too

 

I have the coffee, now

First sip (more like a slurp) is promising

Soon, there will be toast

I hear the springs just now

Launching the bread

I will put it in a bowl so I can break

It up and let the crumbs (the

bread ash)

Fall

Like the season

 

I wonder if the bowl was, how it was

Attached to one’s medieval belt

And taken town to town;

Put down money on the bar

To have the bowl filled

With soup or beer

One, then the other

(which first?)

Some work, then on to the next place—a

Forest for the night, maybe near some water

A spire over trees on the next morning’s walking

Signing something built, arising

On the way

 

One piece of bread was enthused,

Leaping halfway out of the slot

As if to say (Las-Vegas style)

This one’s a winner

 

So I guess we have computers, now

And carry on with screens

We don’t hand-write our way;

For most of us

Fingertips touching electrons

Cameras that work in that way, too

Numbers so many beyond the f-stop and

The film speed

 

Well, past time to start my day

I hope you’ll let me think

Of you,

Muse, and all companions

Present and future tense

There you are

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash

Dyptik Company – France Dans L’engrenage. Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival – Sareyyet Ramallah/Palestine.

 

Riding Gimbals

Riding Gimbals

(blank page part 2, I think)

 

The blank page terrifies

No, it doesn’t terrify

It’s only a blank page

It has no weapons, no teeth

No agency to thwart us in

Our better aims

(well, maybe teeth

and when ink is added,

we say sharper than the sword

 

But) all we have to do is write

Try crayons as electric bits

There are some screens that let

Us do this

Take a paper page and apply paint

Relax or get excited

Whatever might compel, today

 

Or write then erase

(I might do that here)

Get something down, send it up

A muse might listen

Write André-Breton-like

But don’t pretend

Because if nonsense,

Say so to yourself

(me say so to me)

Yet we are meeting words again

 

Something like syntax

The grammar of creation might

Not be so far away

In the room, beyond the wall

Through the window flown like Pan

With lovely thoughts

 

Or in a recess unvisited

For a while

Pain, if we must find it there

Pleasure, if it’s due

 

But now some clay is on the wheel

We might need lessons

We might turn it into homework

Over days, who knows

 

We have what we have and want to do

To say

To be engaged

Maybe we can campaign in this

A conspiracy of art to

Break the trap

Release the net

To let us out

 

C L Couch

 

 

Jerrie Cobb, a well known female pilot in the 1950s, testing Gimbal Rig in the Altitude Wind Tunnel, AWT in April 1960.

NASA/GRC/Arden Wilfong – Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6448450

 

A Holiday Carrel

A Holiday Carrel

 

Stacks of books

I’m moving them around

And culling some

To say I have too many is

To understate

They have meaning inside

Also understates

They have meaning on the outside, too

Color, texture, haptic sensations

Simply looking

Reminders that the world

Is bigger than the walls

That freedom is intentional

It takes a process

To be published

 

C L Couch

 

 

Bibliomania

Di tabaluga – Opera propria, GPL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5800206

Da Wikipedia, l’enciclopedia libera.

 

muni-muni

muni-muni

 

a word of such

slow spice, we

say it twice

(sorry, maybe

a better pun

for English)

 

wondrous,

though, to have

a word unfolded

that in the

saying is its

process

 

savor the depth

of thinking

we can go

 

muni-muni

 

we enter a bell

to dive into

an ocean of

insight and

relation

 

we go deeper in

to move further on

 

Word-High July: Welcome!

 

Maria of Doodles and Scribbles and I [that’s Rosema at rosemawrites] are more than excited to read your takes on the 30 Beautiful Filipino Words.

1. Write or create a post inspired or about the Filipino word prompts.
2. A post can be anything. A poem, a fiction, a six-word tale, or even a photo. It’s all up to you.
3. Linkback/create a pingback to this post: Word-High July 30 Beautiful Filipino Words. Here is a quick tutorial on how to do a pingback.
4. Tag your post with WordHighJuly, so your co-bloggers will be able to read/see your take on the prompt. Here’s how you create tags.
5. Most important of all, read and comment to your blogger friends (old and new found, we’ll never know).

HOP ON and let’s all GET WORD-HIGH this JULY!

Work in Process

Work in Progress Process

 

Blank page awaits

No, it doesn’t wait on me—it’s a

Blank page

It doesn’t do anything

 

But I do

When inspired

Wait—must I wait for that?

 

It’s a process, you know

Discovery and meaning

I might not have just now

 

I might have them later

When in composing

Something happens

 

It’s here—hang on, it’s

Coming

On the way, I’m sure

 

And maybe with regret

I’m late waiting for Godot

The sun sets on my day

 

But wait—the

Breath of day is ending

Yet exhale and breathing-in of

Night is more inspiring!

 

 

(Waiting for Godot, a play by Samuel Beckett)