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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Out of Control (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

Out of Control

Sedatives temporarily take the place of self-control

exorcize the twitching of the subconscious

the useless pistol practice against assassination

He stokes the fire in his mind

continually adding more wooden thoughts

until it reaches fever pitch

and it races down parallel

tracks towards infinity

the right and left

hemispheres losing contact and meaning

All the doors close

one after another

and echo forlornly in the hallway

as he stumbles through his day

The wind pulls all the air out to sea

and he can barely breathe

suffocating under the weight of his thoughts

It all happens suddenly

he can barely lift his head

his feet turned to lead

his will lost in the yellow pills

at the rifle range

shooting at targets of himself

never meant it to end this way

useless and childish

The fever running down parallel tracks

And no communication

the bundles of the hemispheres cut

He could not mean to smash

his portrait in

leaving himself

splattered on the floor

between the bonfire and fever

the open bottle of yellow pills

not having bothered to write a will

2:12 PM

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Underground Bazaar (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

Underground Bazaar

They fill your palm with ink

for half a plaster scry

the secrets of your inmost life

The pedlars carry magic loads

the thistle-soft carpets of Shiraz

and Baluchistan

The playing cards of the Marseilles tarot

the incense of Hejaz

green beads against the evil eye

shell combs and seeds

mirrors for birdcages

spices and amulets

paper fans to cool the passion

Fruit of the world’s great pornographies

in the form of handkerchiefs

and post cards

depicting the one act humans

most dream of and fear

The ever flowing river of sex

trickles easily through

the feeble dams of legislation

and self reproach

The underground flows

rising and disappearing in half-formed figures

iridescent as soap bubbles

2:27 PM

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Memories From A Third Floor Landing (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

Memories From A third Floor Landing

Expressionless as the mask of Shiva

neither ugly nor beautiful

naked as power

The blue eyes burn cold

emit no heat

as if dipped in quicklime

All the time he thinks

When I find her lost child

He offers her a life

by giving her death

He drives her home

and waits as the lift climbs

painfully to the third floor

and returns.

It stops with a slight bounce

the light going out with a click

gone

but her perfume remains.

3:01 PM

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Worthy of Killing II (a novel) Chapter 19, Part 3
Category: Writing and Poetry

Chapter 19, Part 3

We arrive in Paris going on towards evening, the sky turning colors and gettng melancholy.. I would like to go exploring the city, finding Leona’s address by shank’s mare, but I have far too much luggage with me. Denise gives me a peck on the cheek, "don’t forget. If you’re ever in Nice, You have my address."

A stream of sputtering smelly coughing smoking automobiles waits outside the depot to take people to their destinations. I look nervously at them. I’ve never ridden in one before.
To my relief an old battered gharry appears, pulled by a gaunt black mare born sometime in the century before. The white mustached and white haired coachmen looks as though he’s been traveling the streets of the city from the time it was a mere village at the convergence of rivers.

He helps me load my luggage and I discover he may be old, but he is quite hearty. I give him the address. "Leona’s." He looks at me closely. "Are you an artist?"
I shake me head.

"There’s still a lot of people that go there, even though Nanci Follain owns it and runs it now."

"You know Leona?"

"I should say I know Leona. Damn near everyone on in Paris knows Leona and loves her." His gray eyes sparkle. "I could tell you some stories about Leona?"

My eyes light up and Wilbur whistles. "Please do."

"It was during the occupation. The Huns had cut off all supples. The city was starving. Going crazy with hunger. Somehow or another, Christ only knows, Leona discovered five barns full of food and seventeen hundred head of beef cattle. They were at a farm 21 kilometers southeast of the city. We couldn’t run trucks or cars, because the Huns would have known something was up. By gharry and horse and mule drawn wagon, and drovers we moved the provisions all one long sleepless weary night. Managed to get everything into the city without the Huns wizing to it. It was almost as complicated to distribute everything through the city and butcher the cattle, but we managed that over the next two days. The city let out a collect sigh of relief. It was only later that we learned that Leona had paid for everything out of her own pocket. Everyone though of her as the matron saint of the city."

He shakes his head. "It would be great if she came back. Nanci is wonderful, but she’ll never be Leona."

We arrive and Xavier says, twenty francs." I hand him fifty. "For the memories and the stories. I am going to be traveling around the city the next few weeks, and I would like to rely on you for transportation when I can’t manage it by shank’s mare. Can you check in every day here? I’ll make it worth your while."

He smiles, "You don’t like cars, do you?"

I shake my head.

"I noticed that. It’ll be my pleasure."

2:34 PM

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Immune Enhancers
Category: News and Politics

From The February 1999 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Feature

Immune Enhancers

By Marcia Zimmerman, C.N.

The immune system is the body's ultimate defense against infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. It also protects against genetic mistakes made in cellular replication that result in tumor or cancer growth. The immune system is complex, containing many interacting blood cells, proteins and chemicals. A healthy immune system contains elements that are in balance with one another. In a compromised immune system, the components are unbalanced and unable to protect the body against harmful agents or processes.

Western medical doctors seek to bolster immune system activity by providing either chemotherapeutic agents such as methotrexate, an antimetabolite, that arrest aberrant cellular growth, or bioengineered molecules similar to elements of our own immune complex, such as the alpha_interferon used for genital warts, that will fight for us. The modern medicine bag also contains vaccines, which may contain either dead or weakened bacteria or viruses or other materials such as inactive toxins. Upon injection, the vaccine, which is typically not strong enough to cause an infection, stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies against the perceived pathogen. Despite their overall safety, vaccines and other methods can sometimes produce side effects and upset the immune system's balance.

In contrast, traditional medical practitioners use botanicals and other natural substances to stimulate or potentiate the body's own defense mechanisms rather than substitute for them. This way the body's natural balance is preserved, and side effects are either not present or substantially reduced. Although both vaccines and botanicals elicit an immune response, vaccines boost the body's response to a specific pathogen whereas botanicals tend to enhance overall immunity. Immune_potentiating botanicals are also used to increase the effectiveness of drugs and reduce side effects. The Chinese call this Fu Zheng therapy, which means to support the body's natural balance.

Many of the following botanicals—shiitake, maitake, licorice, echinacea, Ligustrum and astragalus—owe their effects to a group of polysaccharides. These complex sugars have the ability to activate macrophages, which are white blood cells that process antigens and present them to T cells (lymphoid cells that migrate from the bone to the thymus). These polysaccharides also stimulate T cell formation and differentiation, as well as activate a group of more than 25 blood proteins that play a vital role in the body's immune defenses.

Medicinal Mushrooms—An Umbrella of Protection

An estimated 100,000 varieties of mushrooms exist; some 700 are used for food, and about 50 appear to have medicinal value. For centuries, mushrooms have been used in Asia both as food and as medicine. Two of the more popular varieties of edible, medicinal mushrooms are shiitake and maitake.

Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes) are highly prized, both for their culinary use and as immune_potentiating agents. Their most studied active principle, lentinan, is a polysaccharide composed of beta_1,3_glucans with beta_1,6_glucan side chains.1,2 Lentinan stimulates the antioxidant activity of both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and macrophages in vitro, especially when levels of these detoxification agents are low.1,3 Other active principles also occur in shiitake, namely KS_2, a glycoprotein that is isolated in what is called a D_fraction from shiitake mycelia and in RNA isolated from spores. The former stimulates interferon production in animal models when administered orally. Interferon, produced by white blood cells, prevents viral protein synthesis. The RNA fraction appears to increase protection against influenza in mice, at least when administered intravenously.4,5

It is wrong to focus exclusively on individual agents, however, since multiple active principles appear to be involved in the effectiveness of shiitake. This efficacy has been borne out by its long history of use in traditional medicine. Although scientific investigation must focus on a single isolated compound to pinpoint specific activity, using the whole herb takes advantage of shiitake's multiple benefits.

Maitake mushrooms (Grifola frondosa), may have medicinal benefits more potent than those of shiitake. This is because maitake's polysaccharides are beta_1,6_glucan with beta_1,3_glucan side chains, which result in a more complex branching structure. Since maitake is a newcomer in the medical field, U.S. studies are just being completed on what components are effective and how they work.6,7

The effects of maitake D_fraction on cancer were studied by Hiroaki Nanba, Ph.D., and colleagues from the department of microbial chemistry at Kobe Pharmaceutical University in Japan. An uncontrolled study on mice found maitake to be most effective in inhibiting cancer growth of the breast, lung, liver and prostate. Effectiveness ranged from 73.3 to 45.5 percent reductions in cancer growth. It was also somewhat effective in cases of leukemia (25 percent), stomach cancer (33.3 percent) and bone cancer (0 to 16 percent). Maitake was also effective when combined with chemotherapy (an added 4 to 13 percent benefit).8 In fact, maitake reduced the side effects of chemotherapy so it was better tolerated and more effective. This latter effect has been attributed to the fractions named X and ES found in the mycelia of the mushroom. Therefore, in cancer treatment, it was suggested a D_fraction concentrate be combined with mushroom mycelia.

The shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes) is both a food source and general immune booster. Astragalus (A. membranaceus) and ligustrum (L. lucidum) often work together to increase T cell activity, an essential step in the body's specific immune response.

The D_fraction has been found to activate natural killer (NK) cells, macrophages and memory T cells. A second study by the same researchers showed T cells are responsible for maitake's ability to help the body resist cancer metastases. This is because memory T cells help the immune system remember the cells that promoted the original tumor and tag them for destruction before they can promote tumor growth in other parts of the body.9 Therefore, maitake is effective not only in reducing cancer tumors but also in preventing their recurrence. Maitake also activates several cytokines, which are proteins produced by white blood cells. The cytokines, namely interleukins 1 and 2 (IL_1 and IL_2), attach to T cell lymphocytes, helping them essentially clone themselves into an army of cells that attack tumor_promoting cells.

As for the specific effects of the X and ES fractions found in mushrooms, an initial laboratory study on the adaptogenic properties of maitake, and specifically its effects on glucose/insulin metabolism, has just been completed at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Head researcher Harry Preuss, M.D., announced the promising results of maitake's antihypertensive and antidiabetic effects in animal models at the annual meeting of the American College of Nutrition, held October 1998 in Albuquerque, N.M.7 Preuss expects to begin Phase II trials immediately.

As the medicinal effects of shiitake and maitake are more clearly defined, we can better appreciate how highly esteemed these edible mushrooms have been, both in the Asian diet and in traditional medical practice.

Flora for Immune Fortification

Licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra, G. uralensis) is one of the oldest recorded remedies. It has been used in Chinese medicine to assist the therapeutic effects of other herbs and to reduce their potential side effects.

Glycyrrhizin, the primary identified active principle in licorice, glycyrrhizin is a triterpene saponin. Triterpene refers to the 30 carbon molecules attached to a compound's chemical structure. Saponins are widely distributed in nature—most saponins are triterpenes—and form a frothy, soaplike solution when shaken in water. Glycyrrhizin has a chemical structure similar to that of steroid molecules. Its similarity to steroids may account for its anti_inflammatory action, one of licorice's important effects on immune response.10 Hirohiko Akamatsu, M.D., and colleagues from the department of dermatology at Kansai Medical University in Japan, identified the ways in which licorice appears to exert its beneficial effects. Rather than demonstrating steroidal, cortisonelike effects on inflammation—reduction of tissue swelling from histamine, increased blood flow and leukocyte infiltration of damaged or infected tissues—licorice root has been shown in vitro studies to effectively reduce inflammation by mopping up excess free radicals liberated in a free radical burst at the site of inflammation.11 Superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals are released during inflammation to disable targeted bacteria and viruses, a beneficial effect that is often overdone. Similar results were obtained in a 1983 study in which licorice root reduced the number of free radicals liberated by macrophages.12

The activity of licorice on the immune system has been described as "nonspecific" by most investigators.13 This means licorice stimulates, activates or promotes an immune response in multiple ways. Earlier studies identified several of these effects. For example, researchers found that licorice appears to promote proliferation of B (from the bone) and T cells and stimulate production of interleukin_19, which stimulates T cells.7 Licorice also appears to stimulate the production of gamma_interferon by lymphocytes14,15 and the differentiation of T3, T4 and T8 cells, specific kinds of activated lymphocytes.14_16

Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea, E. angustifolia) contains a polysaccharide fraction that, like licorice's, has anti_inflammatory activity. However, echinacea appears to use a different method that inhibits leukocyte migration to the area of inflammation rather than interrupting the enzymatic activities or free radical burst of the white blood cells.17,18 Barbara Müller_Jakic, M.D., and her colleagues at the University of Munich in Germany found that echinacea also inhibits inflammatory prostaglandin formation in both human and animal cell cultures. In this case, the alkamide fraction, a chemically active component of echinacea, was identified as the inhibiting factor.19

Because macrophages are often first to sound the intruder alarm, macrophage activation is one of the most important events in immune resistance. Echinacea polysaccharides are powerful macrophage activators as demonstrated by two studies in the late 1980s.20,21 A study completed in 1997 by Darryl See, M.D., and colleagues from the University of California at Irvine Medical Center confirmed these earlier findings in vitro. The study also showed extracts of E. purpurea and Panax ginseng enhanced cellular immune function of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), from both normal individuals and patients with depressed cellular immunity. The extracts also increased antibody_dependent cellular cytotoxicity of PMBC from all subject groups. Natural killer cell activity was enhanced in cells taken from these individuals.22

A 1997 study found several fractions containing specific components of echinacea activated macrophages. Roger Burger, Ph.D., from Utah State University in Logan, reported that "the multiplicity of compounds found in the unfractionated extract may provide a greater immune stimulatory capability." Researcher cited upregulation of the interleukins IL_6 and IL_10 and tumor necrosis factor in macrophages obtained from acute_phase infection respondents. These cytokines, in turn, activate T and B lymphocytes to produce antibodies, fight bacteria and viruses, and produce deadly chemicals that destroy a variety of organisms.23 Such studies help explain the traditional Native American practice of using the whole echinacea plant.

This brings us to two studies that examined the effects of echinacea against Listeria monocytogenes and Candida albicans. Both organisms occur naturally in the body but cause trouble when the immune system is weakened. One study reported that macrophages were more active and effective after echinacea administration, even when the mice were given cyclosporin, an antibiotic that inhibits macrophage activity.24 This study confirmed earlier research reporting the same results in mice.25

Finally, echinacea is reported to be a potent inhibitor of human tumor cells cultivated in the laboratory.26 Other research demonstrates that it activates production of lymphokines by lymphocytes, a kind of large phagocytic white blood cell.27

Ligustrum (Ligustrum lucidum) fruit has been used for several centuries in Chinese medicine. Substantial empirical evidence indicates ligustrum possesses immune_modulating effects, including cancer inhibition.28 Today, ligustrum is an important herb for immune_system restoration after chemotherapy (as part of Fu Zheng therapy), as are astragalus and shiitake. Him_che Yeung, Ph.D., of the Institute of Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles, suggests that ligustrum increases white blood cell count and shows antitumor and antibacterial effects.29

An in vitro study of human cellular response compared the T cell response of 19 cancer patients with 15 healthy subjects. Researchers found that cells pretreated with ligustrum extract returned to normal more quickly after they had been exposed to chemotherapeutic agents.30 They attributed this activity to a nonspecific immune activation by ligustrum.

Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus) contains biologically active components of two classes, polysaccharides and saponins.10 However, the reviewed studies used the whole herb, rather than isolated fractions.

Astragalus and ligustrum are customarily used together in Fu Zheng therapy. One study found increases in the number and activity of phagocytic cells obtained from normal subjects after

pretreatment with the two herbs. These herbs also enhanced the differentiation of T cells into active helper T cells. These, in turn, help other immune cells fight bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, toxins and diseased cells.31

Astragalus also reduces autoimmune response (and thus allergy, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus erythematosus), and stimulates B cells and antibody production. Researchers confirmed that astragalus enhances T cell activity and stimulates macrophages, which produce cytokine tumor necrosis factor—a potent immune weapon—and interleukin_6 which mediates acute_phase response.32 At the same time, astragalus suppressed tumor growth and restored immune function compromised by tumor growth.33 These findings confirmed earlier observations.34 Both studies were animal in vitro studies.

All the botanicals discussed in this article can be taken to prevent the onset of illness, but they are equally effective during acute illness or in combination with drug therapy. Cell and animal studies are now defining how and why botanicals are effective, research that may someday validate, in Western terms, the rich history of Chinese and European herbal medicine.

Marcia Zimmerman, C.N., is author of The ADD Nutrition Solution: A Drug_Free 30_Day Plan (Henry Holt/Owl Books, 1999).

References

1. Abel G, et al. Effect of lentinan on pinocytosis in mouse peritoneal macrophages and the murine macrophage cell line C4MØ in vitro. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1986;8(8):919.

2. Kerékgyártó C, et al. Strain differences in the cytotoxic activity and TNF production of murine macrophages stimulated by lentinan. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1996;18(6/7):347.

3. Fehér J, et al. Effect of lentinan on superoxide dismutase enzyme activity in vitro. Immunopharmacol Immunotoxicol 1989;11(1):55.

4. Suzuki F, et al. Antiviral and interferon_inducing activities of a new peptidomannan, KS_2, extracted from culture mycelia of Lentinus edodes. J Antibiot 1979 Dec;32(12):1336.

5. Suzuki M, et al. Antitumor and immunological activity of lentinan in comparison with LPS. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1994;16(5/6):463.

6. Press release. Maitake D_fraction obtained IND for clinical study. 1998 Feb 1.

7. Press release. Georgetown University announced effects of maitake mushroom extract on CVD. 1998 Oct 16.

8. Nanba Hiroaki, et al. Results of non_controlled clinical study for various cancer patients using maitake D_fraction. Explore 1995;6(5):19_21.

9. Nanba, H. Activity of maitake D_fraction to inhibit carcinogenesis and metastasis. Cancer Prev—Ann NY Acad Sci, 1995 Sep. 30;768:243_245.

10. Tang W, Eisenbrand G. Chinese drugs of plant origin. Berlin: Springer_Verlag; 191_7, 567_91.

11. Akamatsu H, et al. Mechanism of anti_inflammatory action of glycyrrhizin: effect on neutrophil functions including reactive oxygen species generation. Planta Medica 1991;57:119_21.

12. Igaku A, et al. The effect of glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetic acid on production of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide by macrophages. Chem Abstracts 1983;98:155082a.

13. Chavali SR, et al. An in vitro study of immunomodulatory effects of some saponins. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1987;9:675.

14. Nara IZ. The role of interferon_gamma (IFN_gamma) producing cells in clinical immunology. Chem Abstracts 1984;35:424.

15. Sugawa I. OK432, glycyrrhizin and CCA (lobenzarit disodium) are good in vitro inducers of IFN_gamma production. Chem Abstracts 1991;114:135740j.

16. Shinada M, et al. Enhancement of interferon_gamma production in glycyrrhizin_treated human peripheral lymphocytes in response to concanavalin A and to surface antigen of hepatitis B virus. Proc Soc Exp Bio Med 1986;181:205.

17. Tubaro A, et al. Anti_inflammatory activity of a polysaccharide fraction of Echinacea angustifolia. J Pharm Pharmacol 1987;39:567.

18. Tragni E, et al. Anti_inflammatory activity of Echinacea angustifolia fractions separated on the basis of molecular weight. Pharmacol Res Comm 1988;20(V Suppl);87.

19. Müller_Jakic B, et al. In vitro inhibition of cyclooxygenase and 5_lipoxygenase by alkamides from Echinacea and Achillea species. Planta Medica 1994;60:37.

20. Stimpel M, et al. Macrophage activation and induction of macrophage cytotoxicity by purified polysaccharide fractions from the plant echinacea. Infect Immun 1984 Dec;46(3):845.

21. Luettig B, et al. Macrophage activation by the polysaccharide arabinogalactan isolated from plant cell cultures of Echinacea purpurea. J Natl Cancer Inst 1989 May;81(9):669.

22. See DM, et al. In vitro effects of echinacea and ginseng on natural killer and antibody_dependent cell cytotoxicity in healthy subjects and chronic fatigue syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients. Immunopharmacology 1997;35:229.

23. Burger R, et al. Echinacea_induced cytokine production by human macrophages. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1998;19(7):371.

24. Steinmüller C, et al. Polysaccharides isolated from plant cell cultures of Echinacea purpurea enhance the resistance of immunosuppressed mice against systemic infections with Candida albicans and Listeria monocytogenes. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1993;15(5):605.

25. Roesler J, et al. Application of purified polysaccharides from cell cultures of the plant Echinacea purpurea to mice mediates protection against systemic infections with Listeria monocytogenes and Candida albicans. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1990;15(5):605.

26. Voaden DJ, et al. Tumor inhibitors. Identification and synthesis of an oncolytic hydrocarbon from American coneflower roots. J Med Chem 1972;72(6):619.

27. Coeugniet EG, et al. Immunomodulation with Viscum album and Echinacea purpurea extracts. Onkologie 1987 Jun; 27.

28. Sun Y, et al. Preliminary observations on the effects of the Chinese medicinal herbs Astragalus membranaceus and Ligustrum lucidum on lymphocyte blastogenic response. J Biol Response Modifiers 1983;2(3):227.

29. Yeung H. Handbook of Chinese herbs and formulas. Volume 1. Los Angeles: Institute of Chinese Medicine; 1985. p 405.

30. Sun Y, et al. Immune restoration and/or augmentation of local graft versus host reaction by traditional Chinese medical herbs. Cancer 1983;52:70.

31. Lau B, et al. Chinese medicinal herbs inhibit growth of murine renal cell carcinoma. Cancer Biotherapy 1994;9(2):153.

32. Yoshida Y, et al. Immunomodulating activity of Chinese medicinal herbs. Intl J Immunopharmacol 1997:19(7):359.

33. Liang H, et al. The effect of astragalus polysaccharides on cell mediated immunity (CMI) in burned mice. Chin J Plast Surg Burns 1994 Mar;10(2):138.

34. Rittenhouse JR, et al. Chinese medicinal herbs reverse macrophage suppression induced by urological tumors. J Urol 1991 Aug;146(2):486.

New Hope

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The problem with the botanicals mention in this article is there price, available and quality. The botanicals are not always available, because there are only produced in limited quantities. This insures an overly high price fro a product that may or may not be what it purports to be..

Animals raised in confinement have a real problem with infection, and their immunological systems need to be enhanced to the upmost so that disease does not run rampart in a short order.

Embria Health Sciences has for many years produced a veterinary immune enhancer. They now produce a patented human immune enhancer from polysaccharides (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), EpiCor. This product works to prevent cold, flu and other infectious diseases as well or better than any botanical, and the one pill a day can be had for under 30 cents a day. It is readily available on the net.

The writer of this blog has no relationship whatsoever with an of the products or companies mentioned in the blog.

2:33 PM

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

A Walk In The Dark (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

A Walk In The Dark

After the second Armagnac

the gray city awnings assume

the pigmentation of night

Black faces melt into nothingness

empty garments walk about

hats perch on cancelled faces

the darkness and blackness of the night

becomes complete

Whistling softly

he walks toward the malecon

a swaying coconut palm

flaring in the reflected light

He dives into a narrow bottleneck staircase

emerging in an airless ballroom

half-blinded by the butcher’s

incandescent light.

The fat proprietor eyes’

fried very slowly

in olive oil to a rich dark brown

says

Two new girls
Both from Hungary

The light dim

turns blue black

a shiver of tambourines

and a roll of drums

throw up the last performer

into a blinding silver spot

Her sequins catch fire as she turns

a blazing Viking ship

jingling down the smelly corridor

to the dressing rooms

and oblivion

2:29 PM

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Worthy of Killing II(a novel), Chapter 19. part 2
Category: Writing and Poetry

Worthy of Killing II, Chapter 19, Part 2

As is our custom, Wilbur and I wake early and wander out to the space between two cars: I to feel the cool morning air on my face, erasing all the last vestiges of the dreams of the night before, and Wilbur to take a morning flight and reconnoiter of the area. As he flies off, I smile, knowing that he shortly will be bringing me a whistled reported, one I can now understand with some certainty.

While Wilbur flies I get the violin and tune it. My skill with the violin is slowly growing, even when I am not possessed by maestro that takes over when I play in a trance. At lest now I can set things up for him, and I know much more about fingering, touch, sensation, tone.

Soon Wilbur is back whistling his glorious and wonderful report, going into great detail about every roof top, tree and fiend he has seen. According to him, knowing could be better than to have been born into this world. Life is a song, and there for the taking
Wilbur is thrilled at the sight of the violin. Nothing could be better than to make music all the day long.

He rides on my elbow, hoping I will start playing immediately, and we head to the dining car. He help himself generously to my American-styled breakfast of potatoes and scrambled eggs, eaten with toasted French bread and black, black coffee.

Soon Denise and I are facing one another, talking about this and that and anything else. "You really must visit me if you eve make it to Nice. I hope you won’t think I’m too forward when I make a statement like that. I’m really not a hussy!"

I smile. "I can’t imagine you being a hussy. Though, I have no idea when, if ever, I will visit Nice. It all depends on how things go in Paris.

Our car has filled up considerably as has the train. Wilbur alights on the violin and bounces up and down on it, insistent that I start to play. It’s early, but my fingers feel the need to be sliding and depressing the strings, touching the soul of the world.

I pick up the violin and Wilbur hops to my elbow. Soon we’re off in a race of notes to heaven, hitting crescendoes and low sweet sad laments, note after note flowering the air with a bouquet of music.

Both Wilbur and I get totally lost in the music, the little bird not missing a note. Time gets lost and drifts completely away. We can’t see the crowds of people that have jammed into the car to hear.

We are oblivious to the applause between numbers, also immediately taking off on another gallop into the magic and eternity that is the core of true music.

Denise has passed around a huge hat she pulled out of her luggage. It fills with notes and coins as Wilbur and I play on. It is evening before we stop, my fingers, extremely sensitive, red and sore, but content from having touched the pulse of all being, counted it strong beat, the rise and fall of its heart.

Denise smiles triumphally. "If you keep this up, you are going to be a very rich man."

"I am already a rich man for having been born into this world, and having met so many wonderful people.

4:52 PM

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Voices & The Imagination (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

Voices & The Imagination

Unrecognizable figures at the next table

talking lazily in the dusk

mauve-veiled evening voices

uttering stockyard

and exchange quotations

in the lazy verses

love in a thousand

different dialects.

He thinks of her

how she said

I cannot read fast
as yet in Braille
I want to surrender
to the power of each word
even the cruelties
and weaknesses,
to arrive at the grain of thought

The phrase causes a ringing

whimper of a bullet

which passes too close

If he could only see her now

A medusa among the snows

dressed in her old tartan shawl

2:55 PM

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Friday, July 10, 2009

The Escape (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

The Escape

He counts his money and smiles

while slipping lightly downstairs

into the dusky street

The streets turn slowly

to the metallic blue of carbon paper

all the while giving off

the heat of the sun

A sprinkling of electric light waters

the coming darkness

Large mauve parcels of dusk move

blurring the outlines of building

and people walking by

in a gracious haze

Sleepy cafes awake to the incessant

whine and fret of mandolins

merging with the shrill rhythm of wet

tires on asphalt.

White and black robed fingers

suddenly populate all the sidewalks.

Window boxes give off a piercing

odor or slaked earth and urine

Limousine soar away from the Exchange

their horns crying softly

flights of metallic geese

One blinks and becomes half blind

by the blossoming sky

brushing shoulders with the throng

a chance roll of the dice

The pavement retains the day's heat

just as a watermelon when cut

open at dusk

the damp heat slowly drifting up

through the thin soles of one's existence

The sea winds move in

to invest the upper town

with a damp coolness

felt only spasmodically

One moves through the dry air

the crackle of static electricity

a comb pulled through the hair

One swims through a tepid

summer sea full of creeping currents.

He walks through a perfume

shed by a passing woman

the reek of jasmine from a dark archway

Knows the damp sea air will soon blot

everything and everyone out

The perfect moment for an aperitif

and a bullet

in the fading half light

3:25 PM

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

Worthy of Killing II (a novel) Chapter 19, Part 1
Category: Writing and Poetry

Worthy of Killing II, Chapter 19, Part 1

Leona and Antonio see Wilbur and me off in an early Lisboa drizzle, an overcast start for a hopefully successful journey. All my paperwork is in order, though I have reservations about how the French authorities are going to respond to Wilbur. I, of course, can send him flying off. This is a new train with American-styled Pullman compartments, a dining car, a smoking compartment, and various salon styled seating cars.

After a thorough exploration of the clicking and clacking, slightly swaying train, Wilbur and I take our seat. This is a new experience for both of us.

I face a young woman who would be very attractive if her face were not marbled with fat. I judge her to be about four eleven in height, and as wide as she is tall. She carries so much excess weight that it is impossible to determine her age.

Next to her sits a thin middle-aged woman with dark hair and eyes and a worried serious expression on her face. She gives the impression that she could squeeze all the fun and joy out of life. The seat next to me is vacant. The stern-faced woman is the first to talk.

"What type of bird is that?"

Wilbur knows that she is talking about him and starts to whistle. "The best I can tell from the books I’ve consulted is that he is an American Mocking Bird. I picked him up in Spain, or rather he adopted me, and we’ve been together ever since. I have no idea what he was doing in Spain." A bit of mischief gets into me. "And he can tell fortunes!" I wink at Wilbur and he gives me a chuckle back.

The sour-faced woman gives a snort. "Fortune tellers! Just trying to separate fools from their money." I don’t say anything in return. After awhile she asks, "How much does it cost?"

My eyes twinkle. "There is no set price. If the fortune is good and you believe it, you pay what you think it’s worth. If the fortune doesn’t suit you and you don’t believe it, then you pay nothing. These fortunes are not something we just make up, but are communications from the other side, the side of our existence that most of us can’t see, but a side that always exists for those that can communicate with it."

She shakes her head unbelievingly, though it is obvious that she is curious."What do I have to do for you to tell my fortune.?"

I give her the faintest of smiles, knowing I have hooked another one. "You are right-handed." She nods her head. "Let me see your hand." While I study her hand, I say, look into my eyes and let your mind go blank. Think of nothing. Think of falling in or being consumed by a void of light. A light that is more relaxing than anything in your life, a light that is the core of existence."

I slip into a deep trance, Wilbur riding on my shoulder. Suddenly the voice of that Old Crow Indian issues forth through the peak of the small bird. "Your husband only married you for your money. He never loved you, though he professed to. All during your marriage he has maintained lovers on the side. You are aware of this and have never said anything, though it hurts you deeply. What’s more, your husband, Andres, has no love for either your son or your daughter by him. He looks at them as competitors for your money. He is currently involved with a woman named Maria Elena Vasquez-Flores. It is through her urging that he is conspiring with a attorney and notary public to have all your wealth transferred to his name, leaving you a pauper and your children destitute and without hope. There is still time enough to stop him, but you must act quickly or your future will be ruined."

After this is uttered, Wilbur shakes his head and fluffs his feathers and he and I both come out of the trance.

The stern-faced woman is aghast. "If what you say is true, I must act fast. "How will I get in touch with you to pay you, if what you say is true." I write down the address in Paris where Leona said I was to be staying. I hand it to her. "I hope all goes well with you." "I’ll definitely be in touch if what you told he here is true." She gets off at the next stop on this train that seems to stop every fifteen minutes or so.

The plump woman seated in front of me tells me that her name is Denise. "Can you read my fortune too?" I can’t help but like her. She has a pleasing disposition, though I wonder what her medical condition is that she should be so grossly overweight. "Surely."

The routine is followed, but instead of the voice of the Old Crow Indian issuing from Wilbur, it comes from deep within my bowels. "You have two problems. an inflammation of the thyroid, compounded by a small tumor of the parathyroid gland.

To treat the thyroid problem, you must each a diet of seaweed bladder soup with clams and octopus and avoid all refined flours and sugars. To solve the tumor problem, have a herbalist mix a compound of one third each of blood root, stinging nettle and gymnema sylvestre. This will dissolve the tumor and cause you to drop down to 43 kilos. You will be recognized as a beauty and will marry well."

Denise is beside herself. "I’ll start immediately, and forever be indebted to you."

I smile. "Let’s make sure this works before you become indebted to me."

With those two fortunes told, I’m kept busy all the rest of the day and into the evening.

When I lie down in my compartment at night, the clicking of the rails gently passing underneath, and Wilbur perched in a corner, his weary head under a wing, I think of what Leona said. I’m to be sharing Leona’s old apartment above her shop with Nanci Follain, the young woman who purchased her shop. According to Leona, she is a homely and lonely church mouse who never goes out. Should I be bothering her at all? Will she accept me for who I am with no intention of harm to her? What will she be like? Will we be friends?" For me it seems the completely unknown is better than an imagined unknown.

Finally, I fall asleep, vowing on the morrow, Wilbur and I will not tell one fortune, but rather spend the day making music.

3:58 PM

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Humid Silences (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

The Humid Silences

The small plane begins to slant slowly downward

drifting back to earth in the violet evening

The brown wrinkled desert

a monotony of wind-carved dunes

giving way to a relief map of delta

The slow loops and tangents of the brown river

lay directly below

seeded with small water craft

Deserted estuaries and sand bars

empty unpopulated areas of hinterland

where fish and birds congregate in secret

The river becomes bamboo

splitting and bending

coiling around an island with fig trees

some dying palms

The feathered softness of the palms

furrowing the flat exhausted landscape

with its hot airs and mirages

the humid silences

Squares of cultivation laboriously darned

a worn tweed plaid

between segments of bituminous swamp

embraced by slow contours of brown water

with an occasional rosy knuckle of limestone

3:42 PM

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Chandelier (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

Chandelier

Across the darkness I track down a group of dervishes

in a lighted corner between two great embrasures

They turn one of themselves into a human chandelier,

covered in burning candles

hot wax dripping all over him

His eyes stare out vague and tranced

An old man drives a huge dagger

through both cheeks

On each end of the dagger he hoists

a candlestick fixed with lighted candles

The boy rises slowly to this toes

revolving into a dance

a tree on fire

After the dance the dagger

gets jerked out of the jaw

the old man touching the wounds

with a finger moistened with spittle

The boy stands smiling

looking much more awake now

2:19 PM

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Hand Over Fist (a poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry

Hand Over Fist

Camels pound everywhere in the dusk

lanterns and cressets flap and smoke

People pitch a tent under a ruined arch

where two bearded dervishes talk under gonfalons

folded brilliant humming bird wings

and the light of a great paper

lantern covered in ancient indecipherable inscriptions

A dense opaque darkness

but brilliantly lit sideshows beckon

This freak town with its mud streets

long avenues of sparkling stalls

melons and eggs

bananas and sweets

every itinerant pedlar from the continent comes

In the dark corners

children play

squeaking like mice

while elders cook food in huts and tents

lit by tiny puffing candles

In one booth a beautiful prostitute

sings heartbreakingly

chipped quarter tones and plangent headnotes

as she turns in her sheath of spiral sequins

Her price is painted on her door

A storyteller moans out the singsong

romance of El Zahur

Drinkers of sherbert and cinnamon spread

at ease on the seats of makeshift cafes

Within the monastery comes the sound of priests

chanting

Tombs fill with flowers

watermelons shed a buttery light

trays of meat perfume the air

sausages and cutlets and entrails

buzzing on spits

The whole welds together into a picture

as the moon comes up hand over fist

3:08 PM

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