Signifying nothing

"Remember that one year you planted out Too soon? Those tomatoes you spent three months Coddling just curled up black against the black Earth You should really know better than trying That again mister, such a shame to waste Springtime hope like that if you know what I Mean You don't?  Well don't go planting your toma- Toes when it is just April. You never know When we'll get snow around here. Frost hits us Hard" The neighbor leans on his shovel harder Emphasizing words with his hand cupped on The handle top. You hate him since he is Right And planting out now will lead to certain Doom, but, there is always a chance that wave Of warm hope on the Pacific will not Fail And you will be two weeks ahead of this Shovel-leaning buffoon who scoffs at your Temerity to push the bounds of last Frost " Write a poem about failure, or about a time you failed."

You furrow soil With your hands Building shallow Mounds to dent in The seeds When the earth warms They loosen and split Swallowing the rain Quietly in the loamy Darkness Even the hardest shell Will crack under the  Embryonic pressue Pushing to breach the  Surface There is love inside Waiting in the dark Until it is just warm Until it is just moist Enough The seedling explodes Dividing the good  Earth, reaching upward Outward, onward  To light Seed leaves, at first Tender, but then  Hardened like  Butterfly wings Splay out They are the seed Itself, transformed Made manifest and Green against the dark Rich soil Cotyledon, ancients Might have called them Cup-shaped hollow Cupped, anything hollow Filled up "Write a love poem about a seemingly ordinary or mundane task.

I: The pitchman The valley pitchman From his tiny, one bedroom Apartment This is one of the most incredible things That I have ever seen It can make you a fortune The secret, the secret no more than four Or five days Finding tiny, classified, little ads Out of my one bedroom apartment In four or five little  Days For the last five years I've been talking about this For the last five years Doing exactly what I've been Talking about For the last five or  Four years Talking Out of my tiny, one bedroom Apartment (About this) Did you ever think you'd be depositing Did you ever think if four or five tiny  Little years If you get started buying and selling You might not want to do anything Else My very own 1-900 line You can be set up with your very own 1-900 line Your very own My very own Tiny little very own ninehundred very tiny little own My They even take the calls for you While ...

I move the keyboard close Satyricon plays near They are at sea They lift the whale And so do I Triremes against a blue Ageaen sea Spell check against a Victory Yeah That's it.

Sometimes you wonder Sometimes when they ask you Sometimes when they say Sometimes you just want Across the street a kid is on his scooter He is using the neighbor's driveway To pull a keen powerslide Sometimes you think Sometimes you hope Sometimes you powerslide And then it drops, if you want to learn To powerslide, I would recommend That you find a brand-new road This kind of concrete here is fine But don't be going too slow You want to go a nice Medium speed Sometimes

You know it is deadly, Composed of gasoline Burned and unburned; Passed through a Catalyst Unconverted. (You know it is.) You know that when you breath It burns the back of your throat, Like an unfiltered Cigarette. You know all this, But still it is beautiful As it splays headlights Into beams of unholy light; As it twists around street lamps Landing gently on the cold Blacktop, Smoothing the world with a Cold, unclean hand.

You know it is easy Easy to mock the  Grieving So much overwrought So much sickly-sweet  Flowers    You even spell Overwrought  Wrong Big sister Big sister overwrought That's wrong. Wrong glue Wrong

Grace, all you have is your school history That's a life, of course, but the details are lost In the spaces between the paragraphs about Nothing You moved a love We'll leave it at that You loved a move, Like we all do Grace, Grace, Grace I would have

Peacefully surrounded She passed Her loving family At their home Married of that year Solemnized Solemnized Solemnized That year Many callings And loved serving Others Many callings Solemnized She retired Auto Parts Many friends Solemnized Husband LOVE OF HIS LIFE Husband Solemnized

He worked He worked at proving He worked at the proving ground For many years His favorite job was being a Cowboy A Cowboy in charge A Cowboy of the wild horse Friends Family Hunting, camping, and spending Time Family Friends Survived A graveside a

It was an age of marvels Sprawling in Philadelphia The city of Brotherly love Hundreds of machines, run Simultaneously The American invents It it genius Transcend An inventor needs an enemy Overcome His kaleidoscopic mind

It's not hard these days, He said, stopping to wipe his nose To forget that you didn't remember That coffee on the pot Yes, you forgot to remember That coffee on the pot You forgot it No one drank it as it brewed It brewed some more And brewed some more More What do you think of that sugared Congealed more

Well Its about those wise things that someone is supposed to tell you at this point But you know, those wise things they will say do help you a lot Even if you don't like the wise things that they say AND BAM THAT'S A POEM MOTHERFUCKER should I keep the all caps line in or what?

The neighbors have built a ten foot snow man I, of course, should make reference to our old Good Ramon Fernandez glassy-eyed in the night No.  This snow man shall hover over my neighboring Street, donned, as he is, in his bermuda straw cap For, quite simply, eternity.  If you don't like that well But no.  That's not what you are talking about is it really There was coal on that beach and sea glass to cut your feet You really shouldn't stand out in the heat without a good Coat There is no coda.  There is no refrain.  These words are put Together like words are always put together.  Figure that one Out, Mrs. Costmayor.

So there you are looking at the screen again It's simple. It's an obituary.  It would be what  The family would put in stone if cutting into Stone didn't cost so much.   So there you are, straining for something to Type in the blinking blinking blinking box And you think how you could say what a  Humanitarian the blinking blinking blinking Person was But There should be some reasonable outcome  But there isn't.   You can't and you won't So you don't. And then it comes to you  You didn't really dislike the person Well you did But you'll have to let it slide Slide Slide Slide And then you worry that no one will Mourn  You.

I confused dates And put 32 on a social Network posting. I confused my age And lost something of you In that because I realized I realized that I had not Thought of you For months Or years Surely not 33 years Maybe just 32 months Or 32 days Or 32 hours Or 33 minutes You weren't haunting me On the parapet demanding Revenge You were lost to my Confusion Dad The post, which I quickly Deleted stirred some interest From social network friends Some acquaintances some Second hand some First hand But I deleted it because It was a silly thing to share And I was wrong about the Year Being acquainted with the Ins and outs of social Networking I removed you and I removed me And then we're gone Both of us. I've always wanted to never Have to answer Gertrude's Question. Maybe someday.

I was doing a tad bit of Internet research on cabbage growing techniques and came across  '98 Thoughts On “Growing Cabbage"'on a web site.  The "98 Thoughts" thing was just the clever  way for the blogger to indicate comments on the posting, but it sure sounds like a challenge to me! Bam! 98 Thoughts on Growing Cabbage Sew your cabbages in February, when the sun passes into Pices.  Not Gemini, mind you because that would be way too late.  If you are in a southern clime, that won't work for you at all.  Try October.  Libra?  Is that the right sign?   Note that cabbage seeda look like radish seed or like mustard seed or like turnip seed.  The seeds look alike because cabbages, radish, mustard, turnip, brocoli, kohlrabi, and cauliflower are all members of the brassica family.  That spiciness you taste in mustard is the same chemical that is found in all brassicas --even the bland (blanched) cauliflower.  Treat them a...

One I am in a white Ford Taurus with my sister.  She is saying something.  I say something back.  There is music playing.  The music is vague, but I recall, now, that one of my earliest memories is of her driving our metallic blue Ford Falcon and singing along to "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog." She drives on.  We are on Redwood Road--a broad road, with a flat open treeless expanse around us of random houses and strip malls. I am adult me.  She morphs from her eighteen-year-old self to her middle age. And then, suddenly, ahead, there is a parade.  The marching band owns our lane. She accelerates. The flag twirlers spot our car and, screaming, bustle to the roadside, flags dragging behind. The band breaks before us in a cacophony of terror.  Trumpets and trombones fly into the air. "They need to get out of the way!"  my sister exclaims, hitting the accelerator. I think we clip one of the girls as we pass.  I try to t...

All hell broke loose when the Muscari sisters showed up to the dance. Originally uploaded by Clint Gardner

While I was sojourning the British Isles, the old URL for Signifying nothing  (signifyingnothing.com) came up for renewal.  I knew that it was going to happen, but in my literal rush to get the hell out of town--I slept past my alarm on the day of my flight out after finishing up a rather taxing semester and came this close to missing my flight--I neglected to do so. No worries , I thought, I'll do it when I get back . More famous last italicized words, it would seem. When I returned from the adventure in nearly mid January, after having spent a whirlwind trip in a dark, cold, yet absolutely enthralling Atlantic Archipelago , I rushed back into a new semester, and gave little thought to my little webby friend, and, having experienced the soul-crushing realization that exchanged rates suck, I wasn't about to plonk down one more Euro.  My previous domain name provider, you see, was based in France.   Not one red euro-cent shall I provide to the economy of Europe!...

Oak Hills Drive from SPENDLOVE on Vimeo .

Some say that you should stand here beside me  You know you won't, but you want to let the  Breeze flow across your skin. A simple request  Just stay here beside me. Just be here with  Me  It is a request. Not a demand.  Only desire Just an animal inquiry.  So so so so so You know.  There was an apple on the cupboard, You left it Like you left me.  Easy. An easy consumption And easy avoidance. So so so so so so I left the window open,  I'm sorry.  The wind It blows across your skin and you are cold  It is my fault.  I

This ting and I do mean ting might be the worst thing I have ever encountered on the Internets as far as useful advice for anyone: http://lifehacker.com/5950082/how-to-grocery-shop-when-youre-cooking-for-one Wow and tripple wow: Skip the Store Altogether If you  don't have a ton of time  or hate grocery shopping, try doing it online ( Peapod  is surprisingly affordable). This is a great way to avoid the tempting aromas and strategically placed impulse items and just shop for what you need. Best of all, you can save your grocery lists on the site, so if you buy the same stuff every week, your shopping can be done in literally minutes. With just a little bit of planning, you can easily get into a groove of grocery shopping for just you—and save some money and waste less food, too. If you really hate grocery shopping, check out Lifehacker's tips  here . Jaysus living Christmas. Really?  

If you decide to take on the care of another life,  you need to respect its needs.  If I get a cow, I provide it hay and grass.  If I get a snake, I provide it mice.  If I get a cat, I provide it a ground yellow corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, beef tallow (preserved with mixed tocopherols), animal digest, calcium carbonate, turkey by-product meal, salmon meal, ocean fish meal, phosphoric acid, choline chloride, salt, potassium chloride, titanium dioxide (color), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate [source of vitamin B1], riboflavin supplement [source of vitamin B2], pyridoxine hydrochloride [source of vitamin B6], menadione sodium bisulfite complex [source of vitamin K activity], vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), minerals (ferrous sulfate [source of iron], zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodat...

I am inspired by toilet fixtures FAST FILL VALVE FITS ALL BRANDS I won't mention that it REPLACES UNIVERSAL FILL VALVES Sorry, I GUESS I DID. The installation was as simple As the box suggested One Two Three But I have a bucket of water From the drained tank that I Have not emptied. You know it is impolite to talk About our bodily functions But changing the float valve In this shitter really makes me Want to take a royal shit So I do. Goodness.  You shouldn't talk Like that The INSTALLATION went well I even consulted the Spanish Instruciones. At least it flushes now.

Lynn, You were dour And you know it The postcards from That far away city Speak of love However You must read that Book aloud to us all Now We are stuck on the Tube But then again We drank at the Bar X There was loss There was gain There was Your excellence cannot Match a regular schedule Of meetings and schedules I suggest you write That's what you do Dear doctor Write

Lisa, The glaring sun could not outshine Your honeysuckle brilliance. You sang, my God you sang. You sang of a memory lost And then recovered You sang of lust undiscovered Discovered. I talked to you after, quite foolishly, And said "honeysuckle" when it was Honey locust. All honey tastes as sweet, As the poet says. An ode should be longer, Methinks. But I am overwhelmed, like Keats with his bubbles winking Your wine has over-taken me. What's the strophe?  What's the Antistrophe? But here's the epode: Pindar celebrated athletic performance, Did he not?  You out shot the sun In your simple song sung. Twelve hundred million meters I say.  No discus could ever Sail so far or so high. Tis not unusual, as Tom, might Say _________________________

while ($Redwheelb arrow=="glazed with rainwater") { $whitechickens=" beside"; }

First, "I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely," The lights were on in his Office. Second, a casual conversation In the hall, "I'm just feeling Lonely." Third, I don't recall it so Clearly, but it was a lost Girl who walked by me and Said hello.  She glanced quickly Side to side Hush now, don't explain Loneliness

We all have the honor of over- Hearing others talk about our- Selves at some discrete point in Our lives Sometimes it is while we lay In bed--our father dying in the Other room. Sometimes it is sitting behind A wall--where, on the other Side they discuss your future. Balancing it out, you know Is the other

eatinganimals Originally uploaded by Clint Gardner

Another in a series of animals enjoying food.

Rabbit enjoying a cherry.

I think I may have found the quintessential blog entry . No wonder blogging has been going down hill since 2011.

Great name , for a disease.

You want your children To run to To hold you Blinking cursor

They rule the world. Why else do machines Not fix themselves? (Computers etc) Secret lairs: Mom's basement Grandma's basement Aunt's basement Garden level at Cascading Palms w/ 3 others Bedroom Neo-Georgian Colonial Post-Colonial Duplex Hotel room Beach Castle They rule the world And make it impossible And make it possible And imparsible It may be pursuable

I prefer to believe that the black Eye of the only boy in the Irish Dance troupe was received while Kicking ass for Irish folk dance

I don't know you anymore He shouted His glasses likely flew off his Face It was one of those plaintive cries That only men, only, choke out With the dissolution of their Desolation There was a reply It was low bass The wind struck then Rattling the apricot Leaves Nothing more could be Heard

Payson Canyon Spring Originally uploaded by Clint Gardner No HftNM yet one this venture, but this might just be one of best pictures I've ever captured. It is, none-the-less, probably my favorite photo so far. Haibun to follow--perhaps shortly, or perhaps longly. I am on vacation, after all. Stop peer pressuring me!

The former kid's show star sits at his computer There, that blog post again, it itches his skin The one that some no one someone posted But like untreated syphilis it haunts his cowboy Soul There, there is his past; the stupid he can't live Down or up, the empty heart that was tied to Place and time and time and place and dark Matter The kids loved to hate him, and he tell himself That before he leaves seventeen comments Because eighteen would be too many to Condone And then he searches again and again and again Looking for those mentions of himself and him Self. Because that is what cowboys do who have Lives after being a kid's show star and no some One

listen to ‘Washington Park’ on Audioboo Today I wandered around Washington Park, four miles up Parley's Canyon beyond the golf course club house.   It was another extremely temperate temperature, with partly cloudy skies.  The park itself is an oddity, really.  The trees seem to be a mix of native, box elder, scrub oak, and pine; as well as non-native shrubs such as lilac and currant.   Paper mulberry, however, is native.  I know this without recourse to the Internet, since on the farm where I grew up we had a paper mulberry bush near our duck pond.  It was shaded by a standard mulberry and some wild rose bushes.  Now, you must realize that our farm was in the heart of the Salt Lake Valley and the paper mulberry is not native there.  That particular paper mulberry was transplanted by my grandfather from an uncertain canyon surrounding the Salt Lake Valley.  My father was very specific in his recollection of h...

The Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve is owned by the Nature Conservancy .  I was intrigued to visit, since I've never heard of it before I randomly found it by Googling "cool natural places to visit in Utah."  There is one error in my Boo, below:  Nature Conservancy's main focus is on buying private lands that are under threat of development and preserves them in perpetuity.  They sometimes turn over those lands to local governments.  Given the political climate in Utah to SELL ALL THE LANDS! and DEVELOP ALL THE THINGS!, it seems important for organizations like the Nature Conservancy to be leery of local government hand-overs. It was quite a beautiful morning.  The redwing blackbirds were out in force; their trumpeting, however, couldn't overwhelm thrush that were singing madly in the bullrushes whilst making their nests with catkin fluff. listen to ‘Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve’ on Audioboo ...

Note: While I was at the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve today (May 11, 2012) the idea for posts like this one coalesced, and that is why I have edited it and changed its title. The concept is to create a haibun using the variety of technology I have access to. Yellow Creek Canyon sits at the bottom of the Salt Lake Valley in the Oquirrah Mountain Range.   listen to ‘Yellow fork canyon hike’ on Audioboo listen to ‘Yellow Fork ominous’ on Audioboo I want to turn back But the path draws me upward Deer crash in the woods

So the great carless experiment of the naughts has come to a conclusion.  I join you all in the car(rat) race again.  Where did that "To all the Cars I've Owned Before" web page go?

My friend of all these years talks through history Of thought he once found suspect and nonsense But he has found the root of the conflict and how The tree was pruned; how the prevailing winds have Leaned the tree  hard against injustice of life It is the lonely leaf (not alone) that feels the Whip of a hot summer breeze or the punch of hail Those  on the windward side shrivel and tear Those leeward grow wide with thick veins The tree knows to sway and twist in balance Through its studied response to the weather's Argument Without the tree, no leaf.  Without the leaf, no tree Meanwhile, outside, a gentle spring rain falls on The lush forest of the university, dripping life On sparkling sidewalks slick with the future

We After all Are Very Good At wearing shoes

So all its about is this guy, this guy who just wants to walk Walk on a beach.  You know:  he's just a regular guy, a guy Who goes to work, who has his wife, and they have kids And you know, it isn't such a bad life, but then all of a sudden

And now, for your listening pleasure, a tale of woe, intrigue, and joy:   How Men and Women Got Together . It is based on fragments of a Blood-Piegan tale.

Once you told me that you wanted to see Me grow old:  my temples grey; my ruddy Visage wrinkled with wise distinction You used words like that, then.  I remember. I wonder when I look for you on the wires If those words ever come back to you While changing the diaper of your daughter Who would have been ours, if the words Had been right. A young friend now tells me that words Spoken or written shape his existence You know that I know that you know that we Know nothing is less real than the words we Cast into the boiling pot of our lives An incantation of being simply cannot exist Still, I sit and scribble the words, casting back To a time when you loved me and I loved you And words really did make our love real and Solid like the slick concrete I once cracked My head against, having fallen while catching You before you fell.

The wheeler-dealer on the bus has a wireless headset "I am in the back of the bus by the fan, so it is noisy," He shouts into it.  The cockney gym rat stares him down. The wheeler-dealer is not phased and continues to wheel, "I'll call you back, but I just wanted to touch base and Make sure we are on for Friday.  I mean it is time to Move." Two more stops and three more calls and he bounds Off the bus to his dollar store destination.  Everyone Knows but he, that he is talking to no one and nothing Is on.

You would think you wouldn't nightmare him Thirty years buried in the sticky clay of your town But then you wake at 3:23 in the morning and he Has transmogrified into a drooling demon who Murders your sister, who threatens to slit your throat And you spend the whole of the next day secretly Aghast, since his ghost now haunts you Not the demon that your unwaking mind made him To be, but the man who was; the man who built You a boat to sail in the drain ditch out front Why now has he transformed for you? What have you done that has made him change? What have you given up?  What have you kept? So you walk out into the storm, clutching your Collar close, wondering if you will find him Again.

You worried about people thinking that you're ridiculous But the ridicule that dropped from your lips stained your Best dress shirt with a jagged pool of yellowing hate Sneering, you wondered why people would turn on you It was them, of course, not your stained shirt, not the bitter Spell bubbling away in the cauldron of your soul So what is to be done?  Where do you go with all the seething Mockery that wants to boil over and cover the stove in a sticky Syrup of jeers that you once thought built the body of your Existence?

High tension wires strain into the distance Where mountain range nearly touches mountain range God to Adam at the bottom of the valley One arm inclined in lackadaisical acceptance The other disinclined in active indifference A sea gull follows the wire through the morning haze Never reaching the point where man and divine Join together in a rocky embrace

He carries the plank Over his house's threshold Careful not to trip

Look at this http://www.sni.org/ThanksGiving.aspx http://www.sni.org/ThanksGiving.aspx it is from the Seneca, but I shall extract:  Small plants:  We give greetings and thanks for the plant life, which includes fruits and plants for food and medicine. The plans work many wonders from sustaining life to curing our diseases. The most important of these plants is the strawberry. Now our minds are one. or this  Earth:  We give greetings and thanks to our Mother that Earth who continues to provide for us. The women and Mother the Earth are one; givers of life. Now our minds are one. or  Water:  We give greetings and thanks to the waters which provide for our strength and well being. All life, including people, plants and animals need water. We give thanks to the lakes, rivers, and streams. The waters of the world quench our thirst and provide food for the plant and animal life. Now our minds are one. We'd do well to be so thankfu...

Presidential Day ramblings from the past*. *I was wrong about President(')s(') Day, by the way.  Apparently it is all three and none at the same time . Signifying nothing  does not regret this error.