July 31, 2009

Image

There are
sticks there
a stack of sticks there
that means something

or does it?

sometimes a stack of sticks
is just a stack of sticks
independent
life
that's the trick, my boy
efficacy

or, as the old bastard would say
just what the fuck is this, really?
meaning
not so much what IS it
but WHAT DOES IT DO?
is its life

justified
slotted into a narrative
that is not destructive
or is it a token of our oppression?

(the bars on the cell door
the flagpoles of the ice cold monster
the pikes leading

us into the valley of the shadow
of the things THAT PEOPLE KNOW

what, for instance,
have THEY [US]
to say
about some sticks

that lie
synchophantic dogs

marching
in line --)

sometimes sticks
are never just sticks
what are they?


Lake Leelanau
7-29-2009

Conflagration

if, as you say,
it is limitless,
would we not still
burn ourselves up
in its pursuit?



7-28-2009
Lake Leelanau


July 26, 2009

This Year's Beach Read: The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley

I'm trying a slightly different tack this summer for my beach read . . .
why not poetry? I've spent a lot of time with this collection, but I'm
going to try reading it consecutively from front to back this time. Here's
a poem early in the collection I like:

From Pico & the Women: A Life

Love God, we rather may, than
either know Him, or by speech
utter him . . . Disuse, good father

these things have rusted and
we know a man who speaks more
freely of these and other, of

all wonders. We have hands,
now, and can hold all wonders.
And yet man had liefer, good

father, by knowledge never find,
good father, that which they
seek . . . These words are twisted.

*

Today is a green day. Today
we are away from those involving
questions, that the gods have

put upon us, wittingly, to bind,
to fetter, and surprise. And
the god's eye is clear, is an

unsurprising blue, with which
we are each familiar. We are
born to blue, under, god's lid,

good sky, blue sky, with which
we are each familiar. We are
born to sky, under, god's eye.

*

He will be sleeping somewhere
else, little rabbit, in the long
grass, in the hole of his own

making. He will be sleeping and
it will be our fear that lies
so. It is not our time nor our

spirit, but we will come to it.
It is our lion of fire, our
triumphant animal, with his own

victories, our hearts' conquesting
beast, little rabbit, that will
not bite you nor otherwise harm.

July 12, 2009

Shell Games Continue

this is hidden, that is wagered
we are the ones born every minute
born again and born again

- but what is left to do but play?

Splitting Atoms

shatter and spark

strange how


words cracked

reveal

July 4, 2009

How to Break a Full Court Press (For Sara Palin)



1) This is a simple, yet very effective offense to use when facing a full court zone press.

O1 takes the basketball out of bounds. O2 and O3 line up at the free throw line and will break opposite of each other. They may need to start out in a stack position and screen one another to get open. O1 passes the basketball to O2 and then sprints to the middle. If O1 is open, O2 passes him the ball. O1 will look to advance the ball up the floor with the dribble while O4 and O5 fill the lanes. O2 and O3 will fill in behind.

If O1 is defended while cutting to the middle, O3 should break hard to the basket area looking for a pass from O2. O2 will then break to the middle and O1 will break to the sideline. O3 looks first to O2 filling the middle. If O2 receives the pass from O3, he can advance the ball up the court while O4 and O5 fill the lanes.

If O3 passes to O1, O1 will look to pass to O2 in the middle. O2 advances the ball with O4 and O5 filling the lanes and O1 and O3 filling in behind.

The main thing in beating a full court zone press is to always have someone in the middle of the floor, with the other players filling the wings or sideline areas. Most zone presses try to force sideline with the idea of trapping at the corners...either near the baseline or near halfcourt. If the ball gets to the middle, the opportunities will present itself to attack the press, rather than letting them attack you.



From Hoops U.com