Wow! if I were not such a piss-headed grump i might actually write this on cardboard and bake it into burnt humble-pie! really. Two days in a row, and i am not going for three, I have been negatively reactive to the point of personal rudeness to friends and the company of my peers. and the piddling somewhat excusable reason for this attitude of anger and frustration with the world as it happens around me. DRUGS. Yup! Yes. Yeah, good old narcotic pain medication. A slip in my regimen is the opposite of an addicts slip in one sense. I need a narcotic to take the edges of chronic pain and its exacerbated flare-ups. There actually is not much other difference though I do emphasize that there is no intoxicating 'high' or euphoric buzz and thankfully no trips to the land of Nod though that is a hazard without, again, the trippiness of opium. So, if anything i have said, written, or done other than my response to two distinct individuals that I know of has occurred then please accept my humble-pie apologies and know that I have taken recourse to ensure that my medication is appropriately managed..., thanks, Tim Ward Baltimore Poet-Writer

I would tell`yas to give me a call if I knew how to answer the new phone. I plugged it in next to the bed hoping it nmight kiss me good night as it seemed to promise to do everything else I could imagine. I suppose I shall eventually get the 'hang' of it but so far I have hung up on the few folks I have tried to call. forget about texting...or, rather I did and budrow Fernando thinks it will not take too long to re-tutor and relearn. Well, the cell number is 443-531-4412, please do not call without a dern good reason as it shall be changed with a wrath known only to mine enemies and we are all friends. Good. Oh, and my gmail is timturtlward@gmail.com. All this shall eventually be in the proper places in my profile as I learn how I wish to organize things. Meanwhile, if you are a woman of uncommon patience and a good heart I am accepting free tutorials. I'll buy the coffee and tapas if you have the patience..., Tim

I am sure I would have loved to share in the memories of August 25, 1963 if I had gone to Washington D.C. this past Saturday (the 24th of August 2013). I admit to an hard-edged cynicism that colors almost all of what I do and believe in living my life honestly. With this precoursing thought I give you the following poem written after seeing the news coverage of Washington's event and after riding the bus two days that weekend in Baltimore where I have lived all of my life. I wish this was not such an everyday banality but in this city that I love it is said and done quite often with a much harder and angrier attitude than even my cynicism can engender.

My poem of course pales next to a master of language and life such as Countee Cullen :

Modern Incident In Baltimore, August 25, 2013"

I ride the bus in Baltimore

On this august weekend of remembrance

For the man who died from hate

And all I hear are words

That I was raised to never use

As people of darker skins than me

Curse one another for being

The people of the color that they are.

With sincere apologies to Countee Cullen,

-t.j.ward, August 25, 2013 fifty years later

Incident

               

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember.                        

- Countee Cullen

As always, thank you for reading..., Tim Ward

I am going to try to post a link to buzzfeed re: 32 books that are life changing. "CAT'S CRADLE" by Kurt V. definitely had a most positive influence on my then 16 - 19 age era. I would not ever wish to have not discovered Vonnegut as early as I did. There are books in this list I have been meaning to read such as  Haddon's re: a disassociated mind. I have not even finished perusing this compendium and hope to put it here so that I may take my time. Well, here goes :
http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/books-that-will-actually-change-your-life

NEW POEM, Sunday, August 18, 2013 : "Dancing On A Sailboat"

Sunday, august 18, 2013 @ 2;32 p.m.

let me try this. Instead of google docs I'll go straight to the blog to transpose and hopefully give the last few tweaks to a poem I have been working on. I love to do this on facebook as it seems to give me the extra added stress needed to do good and not too much at the same time. Somehow, even though folks can read my blog (I am still learning about privacy and may allow only this or that in the future???) it seems to be less stress to do well and not have to be perfect...here goes :

__________ "DANCING ON A SAILBOAT" __________

I had wanted to learn
                                  how to sail a boat

Such as those with small cabins
                                                  above open decks
for sleeping, dreaming, and loving

~~~~

I had wanted to learn
                                   how to swim rivers

For travelling, adventuring, and drowning

and for living and learning how not to drown

~~~~

I had wanted to learn how to dance
                                                        out in the open air

In company, with lovers, and then only with you

~~~~

I had wanted to learn
                                  how to love

My family, friends, lovers, a wife

In real life, neither while sleeping nor while dreaming

~~~~

I am learning how to dream while awakened

I am now swimming in rivers and not drowning

I shall dance on those boats of my dreamings

I shall sail on rivers while adventuring

 I shall live out my life loving you.

                    ~~~~ finish

Well, I hope y'all like it and i am going to try to copy this fast enough to paper to take to Minas Gallery for a reading at an open microphone session which also features Baltimore Poets : Clarinda Harriss, Michael Salczman and Steven Lehva. These are some fine judges, and friends, of good writing so let me see how ai measure up and gain some good advice..., thanks for reading..., Tim                                              

Turtle & the Iroquois Creation Story

Creation Story

Hi Y'All

Please allow me to start off folksy. I shall get around to all of the biography and other such matters of interest later on. Just now I wish to start by thanking some of the folks of tremendous talents and hearts as big as The Chesapeake Bay where we all live in this State of Maryland. So thanks first of all, Fernando 'The Wordpimp' Quijano III, Cynthia Gaver, Clarinda Harriss, Megg Magee, Alan Reese, Julie Fisher, Jessica Lynn Dotson, Marie Abate, and of course many, many others. Thank You All `n much Love to All of You. Though I have attended literary events off and on for many years it is the most recent four years that I have devoted myself to writing and reading and most of all listening. Poetry and short stories are my favorites and they were meant to heard aloud. Thank you for sharing yours and allowing me to share mine. In that spirit here are the first and a near first composition that I read aloud with the encouragement of you, my friends and fellow writers.

"AT TIMES, MY DOG VISITS"

At times, my dog visits
Where he has no home -
He shows his wide grin, sits in
Your favorite spot,
Looking for a friend, Perhaps
Also a brief rub or scratching -

He will not stay long,
Or, if he lingers,
He knows to go
When sent away...,

Except for me
He is quite
Alone.


&~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"LOVE IS SOME-THINGS, MUCH"

I say,
         "Me, I've got nothing much to have,"

Yet my some-things are always here to share,

In life I'll not get far it seems.

I've only my love to offer,

Troubles, if you want the bother.

I say,
        "Me, I've got a lot to share."

 Please look for me on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timturtlward