Seems now this universe
has immediacy of the mind.
Seems we are fortunate
without a sense of time.
Seems now tomorrow
is yesterday.
Seems now this universe
has immediacy of the mind.
Seems we are fortunate
without a sense of time.
Seems now tomorrow
is yesterday.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sky fleeting
opens eyes to sweep
tilling fields of the planting season.
The spring might tease the mind.
Waiting
watching the snows unwind.
Bicycles wish melt rubber on the asphalt,
smells of pollen, fresh release
puddles and rain tapped sills
the songs return,
we advocate
a challenging season.
Waiting,
watching tree limbs come to life again
buds waiting for a mist, a shower,
the nitrogen of a lightning storm,
long hard winter behind.
Imagine a hot horizon ahead
where skin will choose a bronze
beyond the pale shadows of a chilly memory.
Waiting
while we wander in grand scheme our mind.
© Thom Amundsen 3/2022
Could I share with you
How it really feels
Not knowing
Always slowing
My mind in the midst of the eye
Always ready
Wanting only to know,
To understand a frame of mind
Is still not constantly on rewind
Only let the ribbon twirl away
We do
Touch hearts
Any motive in our mind
Is meant as something new
A fondness
A memory
A radio song
We touch each other’s heart
Its meaning, why we do
Water dripped and tapped a window pane
the opaque look of a morning blue.
Sitting now in front of a fire crackle,
imagining just how short a life we lead.
I drew myself closer to the glass
that sheltered me from the damp.
I wondered about those that might
spend their night chilled, and wet and sad.
The rain would continue through evening,
and I would watch the night envelop my dawn.
There is a crystal ball lays inside a lull,
a rainstorm lets us breathe and feel,
so in the rains one day when we wake,
we find some quiet solace in its wake.
© Thom Amundsen 3/2022
I have been writing here for many years. Always I’ve been grateful for an audience of good critique. Tonight, this will be my last post on this blog. I’ll be starting a new one in the near future that addresses my needs as a writer. For now I move on but I will remember the many people that touched my life through their writing and their giving me confidence with my own. Take care everyone.
Oh, if I might dream the scenes of Sidney Poitier in moments as a child. His, a beautiful grace, a magical sojourn for the eyes anyone a witness. I was actually on my couch having a nap when the news came across my phone. I closed my eyes for a moment and recognized that beautiful smile, his clever poise. To Sir With Love came to mind in a tender moment, and I thought about my mom. I thought of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and afterwards …
So much memory is attached to that which we love. Where we were, how we might have been feeling, what is really on our mind? And yet, in this moment years later we recall the generation and his wisdom to deliver sure and sharp dialogue, inflection in his every turn on the stage. Oh my what a beautiful hand delivered smile.
So tonight I thought I would watch To Sir With Love and it resonated with me to the point of tears. I certainly did remember the times, those first walks into a new classroom, the indecision, learning steps. And yet, that was my now, when the then was Sidney Poitier in the early 60’s making waves. I remember watching the movie with my mom and being fascinated with how debonair and charming his character was all the time.
Tonight I watched the movie with a range of emotions. I couldn’t get over the spirit of being a teacher and working with students wanting only their ability to move forward with their lives. What the movie does is show us decades ago how important relationships can be in the education of our students. They need to believe in someone, or if they at least can, that comfort might allow them to think out of the box, to look more at life the way it will appear in their future beyond high school. It lets the students in the classroom feel like adults rather than pawns in the process.
I think one of the more glowing moments is when Mr. Thackeray turns to his students after discovering a leg of his desk set up to collapse. He picks up the broken leg, pats it in his hand a few minutes, gives the room a knowing look, then goes back to the business of teaching. I think the students were ready for a confrontation, but he didn’t do that. He chose to look past a negative moment, and build upon the next positive one he could. I think that is a piece of teaching we could all take lessons from in every aspect of our lives, not simply the classroom.
As an actor, the movie propelled Sidney Poitier’s career as he would go on to perform countless films that would accentuate his talents and more importantly his need to be on stage and recognize the human contributions of a man drawn with courage and compassion. It takes that individual to be a mentor in the classroom and life, and Poitier was a pleasure to watch play out each of his characters.
To Sir With Love is a film about education and love, and the need for students to feel strength in their own identity. Even when the students test Mr. Thackeray to no end, he still is resilient, he expresses in timely fashion his responsibility as a teacher. He knows the mission of the school, yet he knows more clearly his need to bolster the confidence of the students in his classroom. He does so with panache and elegance.
I could watch more of Sidney Poitier’s movies, and will do so over the weekend. I would suggest we all take a moment and enjoy the dramatic prowess of such is this iconic star of the silver screen.
© Thom Amundsen 1/8/2021
In the gaze of candles
illuminating the room,
my children’s faces,
held in time to behold.
I was wondering about the day,
the new year,
watching flickering lights
waiting for me to decide.
I looked up from my coffee
slow immediate steam swirls
reminding me of beauty,
the little things that turn our lives
to where we land,
and then I thought of
that time before.
© Thom Amundsen 1/2022
Remember the conversations,
an afternoon waltz
upon the tiles of education.
Having lost my niche,
sought out a colleague,
suddenly when in past there was an easy
decorum,
now the response seemed
hesitant, life repeating itself,
seems heard this one.
~
The advice of beleaguerment
having found itself,
really, that inner bind of knowledge,
make it Hollywood,
use a standard plot,
but the reality
so much more eloquent,
holding value
to some hidden
excitement.
~
Only alone in thought,
imagining everyone to walk the same
aisle of conversational suicide.
Yet there are such is the
minion mindset.
There are those moments of clarity,
and saddened surrender
only remains hope that a serenity,
bold in its own candor
does mean peace.
© Thom Amundsen