How many faces of jazz

are animated by the trouble with blues?

Driving home from open mic,

I set bass riffs and rhythm guitar

to fragments of composition,

schemes of meter and rhyme.

These late-night, in-house sessions

last only as long as the drive.

"Media bias" has nothing to do

   with your absence from the first draft of history.

Was it "media bias" that prompted you,

   once you had set up your blog,

   to cease writing letters to the editor?

And is it "media bias" that restricts your writing

   to the members of your yahoo group

   or your e-mail address book?

Newspapers don't censor the opinions

   of people who refuse to share them,

   who entrench themselves and limit their reach

   to the members of their cyber-coccoon.

Stop blaming the "media bias"

   and look in the mirror instead.

Copyright © August 2006 by Cynthia M. Parkhill

CHORUS We walk lightly on the earth, my Birkenstocks and me (2x)

1. Oh, I never got into granola,

   but I love the organic wheat,

   and I love to wear my Birkenstocks

   for the way they cradle my feet.

CHORUS

2. I get a lot of use out of these sandals,

   that I paid good money for,

   far more than a real hippie

   ever paid for the shoes that he wore.

CHORUS

3. My Birkenstocks are part of an image,

   of the person that I want to be.

   I don't quite have it all together,

   but I'm doing my best, can you see.

CHORUS

4. Have I ever mentioned to you,

   that I love my Birkenstocks,

   but sometimes I wish they were see-through,

   to better show off my hand-made socks!

Copyright © April 30, 2006 by Cynthia M. Parkhill

Rain on the roof, a pot of tea

are all the world's comforts. We

will sit together while we sip.

Begin the day with tea and finish it.

We'll read the scriptures -- Crowley or Lau Tzu

and we'll talk them over, me and you.

I make no promise that I'll understand

the deeper logic in the book at hand.

But the premise and conclusion in a cup of tea

is that I love you, and I know that you love me.

Poised for flight, her nearness goads

the stirring giant.

A ready forum waits if you are so inclined.

A letter to the editor will unlock your mind

by giving you a chance to make your feelings known

preserved as written history on the pulp paper shown.

Don't look for revolution on the screen of your TVs.

Telepundits stifle dialogue with their soliloquies.

But a letter to the editor gives vent to your rage

and preserves your legacy after you have left the stage.