down the valley

I met you on the Summit County bus, as I walked towards the back I caught my first glimpse of your western boots and dark brown hair and I all but lost my breath. you sat back deep in your thoughts as I carried on a shallow conversation over the phone I was so embarrassed, you embodied my ideal of hip, you screamed sexy in tones I had never heard before and I found myself instantly wondering what you were thinking while completely aware of my homely appearance. I turned around to ask if you knew where my stop was and you had no idea, you were a traveler just like me and to be honest I didn’t care if you told me get off in Dillon because I only asked to hear the pitch of your voice. You wore dark sunglasses like Elvis Costello but I was lucky enough to catch a glance from your piercing almond eyes before you hid them behind black curtains. I moved to the front of the bus to ask the bus driver where I should get off yet I could not help but look back as I watched you indulge a child and ask him his age (he held up four fingers) and whether he would ski or snowboard (he said ski). you cracked a subtle smile of amusement laced with mystery more intoxicating than cocaine soon I tried to guess the contents of the bag you carried and I gathered it held an adventurous melody with a chip of apathy and a grain of sorrow. I lament that before I could devise a clever plot to make you fall in love with me the bus slowed down and the driver hollered the name of my stop. so long handsome traveler…

coffee rinds

taste bitter but make the soil fertile and the trees grow.

i'm sitting in starbucks, a place i avoid because i can't afford a 4 dollar hot chocolate but i've found my way in nevertheless at the bottom of the hill and i'm staring at piles and piles of white snow, contemplating capital letters and fortune cookies. i envy the lion for its ability to roar and scare the shit out of everything in its way and i need more than a prayer and a shot of whiskey to purge me of days past. things become more interesting when i hear nina simone sing lilac wine over the speakers at starbucks and i start to think that everything can be made cheap and commercial and that nothing stands for anything except for a mother's love. the sun just fell behind the arapahoe courtyard giving mercy to the snow until it rises again tomorrow to melt its perfect crystalline structure. have you ever looked at a snowflake? it is the tiniest fleeting miracle i have ever seen and far more charming than a drop of rain. i'm living a fairy tale and i keep letting in monsters that fuck it up, but they have something i want, like music or books or love so i put up with their terrible manners.

My friend writes well

Joe Goosey

Little Minx Exquisite Corpse

and she stares longingly at what she has lost...



Pay attention to the dog barking and pulling against the chain when the child is taken away by the mysterious man. This image reminds me of a Kilgore Trout(Vonnegut) book I am reading except in Venus on the Half Shell the dog barks at spaceships instead of perverts. The protagonist Simon is chased by an invisible spaceship in outer space and it is his dog who first notices the presence of an evil spirit:

"Every Earth ship that put out to space beyond the solar system carried a dog. Radar, being limited to the speed of light, was not good for a vessel going at superlight speeds. But a dog could detect other living beings even at a million lightyears' distance if they were also in soixante-neuf drive. To the dogs, other beings in this extradimensional world were ghosts and ghosts scared the hell out of them."

Argentina

making its way into the hearts of rockstars...

Grizzly Bear_Plans (Band of Horses cover)
Mirah_Dogs of BA
Vampire Weekend_Mansard Roof

lemon drops

if in the sea you saw
a portrait of your mother
if in the leaves you found
an orange from your fathers land

i went to the dock last night
i felt the dust blow below me
how did those noble spanish
build this castle out of sand

glitter comes from butterflies

i think this video is cool too...

fem and me

el sol quiere amar

everytime i need to run
a little bird comes along

he gives me hope, and space to breathe
he carries me out to the sea

a kind old friend, hides in the mountains
he brings me to his snowy fortress

it's filled with warmth and friends and peace
10 days to seek serenity

starburst

at least we still gaze at the same moon

so fantastic

i'm leaning towards mountains but there is a microscopic shining glimmer of hope that would change my mind and cause me to forget everything and runaway to juarez. its the tiniest possibility drowning out all other prospects and consuming my breath. its a relentless weed infiltrating every thought and strangling bastions of logic.

best friend

the important thing is that you feel free.

write in the box

i can't decide how i feel about haikus. they made a fun graduation speech, they can be cute, and they can challenge you to focus your sentiments into a simple expression. but i also think they are gimmicky and serve as a formula for creativity. the jury is out on haikus. here is one i like...

always a critic
except when it comes to you
because i love you

On dating...

You can't be lovers if you're not in love.

vanilla

a common luxury, vanilla is pollinated by the hands of women and children in east Africa and Madagascar.
vanilla flowers bloom for only 4 hours.

a tiny window to achieve delicacy.

swimming

each year we wait for the next. we vow to change and we pray for forgiveness.

some years roll around and you hope that they'll be different from the last but you know its just more of the same. more of the same that makes you unhappy. nothing will change until you pull the courage out of your pocket. those are the years you remember with pride. change is a thick cloud of snow filled with the promise of adventure and the fear of failure but daring makes your failures seem like conquests. i've been rejoicing in the colorful laughter of the people i care about and reflecting upon those private moments of sublimity.

its only december but I feel like i'm already dancing on a clean slate.

and another one

some pieces you can't pick up.

tabula rasa.

your face

shut out.

where did i go?

day and night.

suddenly all the colors seem much brighter and all the smiles warmer and all the laughs louder. i have my friends back and one that means more than most things combined. i can't even begin to describe how grateful i am to have these people back in my life but i lament that i ever missed them. people get lost sometimes.

and now my nights are full of adventures and mischief and good company and new music and porches and fires and and and...

i think i'll knit for awhile. i know someone who's going to need the extra warmth.

Baobabs and Betula

who knows why some words seem monumental
and others hardly noticeable...it makes no difference anyways.

lets save our words for lyrics not fighting.

where have all the honey bees gone?