Stand (The Only Poems I Write are Love Poems)

Against the wind

I will shelter you

As you will shelter me

Against the cold

I will give you warmth

As you share yours with me

Against the fire

We will run, your hand

In mine and mine in yours

Even

In the face of Apocalypse

We will stand together

No matter the adversary.

Towards the Library Election

Everyone involved in this library election was on the board or in the volunteer group working towards the building of a new library. I myself would not have volunteered my time if I did not think that having a new library would be beneficial to the community.

The problem for all candidates is that the referendum for building a new library lost. We can try to mollify ourselves and our supporters with whatever words we want, but there is one truth. Either we did not do enough to sell our vision or we over-promised that vision.

The positive effects of a library are hard to quantify, and harder since we’re projecting into the future. The future we can project but is ultimately unknowable.

This unknowable future is why the library is so important to me though. The building we didn’t approve is one that was open and flexible in a way that the current one is not. Space is limited and programs are closed. Our vision was broad and open.

The library as we know it will always be the center of learning. It is not just books but a place for everyone to communicate and learn and grow.

Ultimately the library is a community resource. My vision is growth, but accepting that we might need to reach out to our opponents. The library is a resource for all citizens.

No matter what happens, the goal is to serve all the people of Brookfield.

On Kindt and Hall's "Pistol Whip"

Ultimately, I liked this book.

The problem here is that I can’t talk with my hands.

I want to speak of the noire character of the book, the dark and unknown that stays there through the end. What really is interesting is how the book can both probe deep and stay on the surface of things so that it is hard to get close to the characters, but you care deeply about them.

And here’s the hands-y part. I want to take both of my hands to describe a place in space that takes both hands in parallel facing you, and then weave them through each other. When I do it in space it feels like one of those dances someone on ecstasy does. I’ve never done ecstasy. It makes me think of that two-bits critical word I learned in grad school: “entrelacement”. But I think it is just making me drop pseudo-French and not being real. I hart that.

So, to look back, this is a book about a private eye and a dame and a radio superhero. And about none of that. And totally worth it.