the maple’s face is covered in snow
outside my window
bare branches like twisted-fingers
in the freezing cold
Observation, Poetry, Reflection, The Skein of
Days, Big Sugar Buddha, Mr. Fantastic, Zen Syndicate Intergalactic,
People's History, Neighborhood Buddha, Pure Land Ministries, January 8th
On this day in the 1656 of the common era (CE), the oldest surviving commercial newspaper, "Weeckelycke Courante van Europa", now known as "Haarlems Dagblad" (still in print), begins publication in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
In 1790 CE the first United States President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address, two hundred and two years later the forty-first President of the United States, George H. W. Bush while attending a state dinner in Japan, vomits in the Japanese Prime Minister’s lap.
In the year 1835 CE, the United States national debt reaches $0 for the first and only time in history.
In the year 1902 CE, New York state assemblyman Francis G. Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize the behavior of men who turn around on a public street and "look at a woman in that way." Two years later Pope Pius X bans the wearing of low cut dresses by women in the presence of churchmen.
In 1968 CE Jacques Cousteau's first undersea special airs on a United States television network.
In 2016 CE David Bowie's 26th and final studio album "Blackstar" is released, it is Bowie’s 69th birthday; the album enters the charts at #1…David Bowie passed away two days later.
it is cold
the furnace went out
it is eighteen degrees outside in
the city
there are poor people sleeping in
tents
beneath
newspapers
the morning sun is pale in a
silver sky
my fingers are stiff…but not from
typing
the sound of the space-heater fills
the room
pushing cold air through hot coils
the smell of electricity touches
everything
the red kettle comes to boil
its sharp whistle pierces the
white blanket of noise that
clings to
me
promising something warm to hold
hot coffee from the French press
pushing through
the chilly gloom
