As I arrive in Ft. Collins, CO

It is not lost on me that my entire life depends on the kindness of friends. Here is the doorway of the home of my friend June. When I first started traveling East from Ashland in fall, 2010, she was the first one to say yes to a concert in her home. I've been back through twice, back in the fall for a good long stay - 10 days is an eternity on the Irrational Quest - and when I arrived back here yesterday, I felt like I was arriving in a very, very fine place. Different places have different energy, of course. In Boulder, I was fortunate to stay over three nights at my friend Sheila's, whose dog's name is Rumi. We went to see Michael Meade, an amazing storyteller and mythopoetic teacher. In so many ways, as in these last two landings, I feel blessed beyond words. There is some peace, some wisdom gathering, some meeting that is worth so much more than other ways I might choose to lay my head down from evening to evening. Only once in awhile does it occur to me how much my life is a gift. When it lands it is astounding....

The contraption gets more elaborate....

Now we discover that my "plosives" are excessive. "The poem ( explosion on the 'p') is not the world. It isn't even the first page ( explosion on the 'p') of the world". So Tim sets up this sieve and two other pop filters to filter out those sounds. Marvelous! Did I mention I am having a good time recording?

Yes, if you think you are seeing a tea strainer on the microphone you are right! Recording with Tim is an ancient art involving physics and the poetry of everyday life. I am attempting, with Tim's help, to get a little more work done on the album of poetry before I leave for Taos, NM, probably on Thursday. It is so satisfying to finally get some of these poems on tape! After lunch I will be working on Rumi's Zero Circle and Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye - both with cello, used in different ways....eager to hear how it comes out, "glad to be lost, learning how real it is here on earth again and again...." ( William Stafford, from Cutting Loose )

IIt may seem mundane, in a way, to day after day end up in the same place where people are hanging out in what seems like sort of a random way, although there is some sense of connection, but disconnection at the same time, because I am actually just passing through, and I am actually working, trying to get some things done, and not here to hang out or socialize, but I want to be connected, that is why I am writing this, that is why I will put it up on Facebook, and so many things are going on at once it is hard to express them all. Shortly, I will head back to "home" where I have been staying at Tim's to see if I can make a breakthrough with this piece for a man who spent his life as a military policeman, and is very disciplined but he likes to dance and there is more, but it is really almost too tender to say. I am going to learn two new poems, a Rumi and a Naomi Shihab Nye, and maybe do them this weekend. Mostly I feel confident and anxious at once, strong and like I am falling apart at once, alone and mixed up with everything like a stew at once. At once this is what I am being....

If pancakes for lunch are wrong, I don't want to be right....

I have taken to carrying my own bottle of maple syrup into restaurants, because it is not always the case that you can get that, and it does make a difference, I think....maybe life is a series of very small choices that make it better, or sweeter, as the case may be....