DISCOVER MARTIN’S BLOGS

Ralph, a short story about a Vietnam Veteran RALPH The images kept coming - unwanted visitors that inhabited Ralph’s head. He tossed and turned on a soft mattress that his wife insisted was just right for him. Shifting side-to-side in a fruitless effort to summon sleep, these ghosts kept appearing, competing for dominance - taking turns to haunt him. He tried to make sense of these vaporous visions - they defied all logic - alien to his senses, mixing up memories like the

A poem inspired by Walt Whitman

The Pelican sits and waits Not greedy for sushi Not wondering about next When it will fly off and dive To gulp its favorite dish Steinbeck mimics the Pelican In “East of Eden” he writes “There was no sin, no virtue Only people doing things” Pelican adds “and birds too” We are not like that We wonder about next We hope for something good We plan and worry We judge sin and virtue It can’t be helped It’s how we are made It’s in our DNA Greed and anxiety Compassion as well Machia

This time of year is a special time. The dark comes earlier giving us more time for reflection. Last week I attended a Christmas (Holiday) concert with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Princeton choir. There were incredibly talented solo tenor and solo mezzo soprano singers. The orchestra with its stringed instruments, horns, trumpets, cymbals and majestic voices at times transported one to a soaring, higher dimension that transcends all our concerns and worries. P