Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Words Sought in the Ether (a seeking work-in-progress)

Like an aging granny, I spin tales to Jeb about the ‘old’ days when I was a child.

“Back then, there weren’t even cell phones!  In fact, most of the my time growing up, there were only land lines and they had cords attached to the wall!  You had to sit by the phone.  You couldn’t walk anywhere when you called someone.”

This isn’t quite like the tales of walking to school in snow, uphill (both ways!).  But I see the wheels turning in Jeb’s imagination as he listens, not able to picture my world of curling cords and rotary phones.

“You know, there wasn’t even an internet.  When I was a kid, if you needed to learn about something, you went to the encyclopedia.”

I remember the leatherish bound encyclopedia set on our living room shelf, representing all letters of the alphabet.  Pages edged with a gold-colored coating, promising entry into all things of the known universe that began with the letter ‘A’.  ‘A’ was a book, maybe two inches thick.  For anything A-related, not listed, that was further research in the stacks down at the local library.

courtesy of Shishberg

Back then, should you have opened up ‘G’ (it may have been combined with ‘H’ or ‘I’), you would not have found an entry under “Google.”  These days at our house, it’s a standard phrase.  If Jeb asks me questions I can’t precisely answer (“how is dry ice made?  what makes lightning?), he simply says “Let’s Google it.”  In two clicks we have a plethora of answers.

In all my granny glory, I shake my head, cluck and sigh with amazement:  “Oh, the times have changed…”

Instead of pulling down a two-pound bound edition from the shelf, the fingers of answer-seekers are weightlessly flying over keyboards, typing any phrase imaginable to find clues to their queries.  Oh, the things that you can find on this new-fangled internet thing!

What are people looking for?  And where do their searches take them?

Believe it or not, some of them find me.  So intrigued I’ve become, I am introducing a new page here on the Archives called Little Engines that Search (see left sidebar, under About, and click).  With WordPress tracking the phrases browsers use, I get a glimpse into the words that trace them here.  Fascinating, indeed.  So I’ve dedicated a page listing some of my favorite phrases that have brought people to the Archives.

Who would have thought that “highway grass”, “stirrup chairs” and “does anyone sell banana leaves in fresno county” all would have funneled cyber-surfers to this very ethereal locale?  Inspired by these phrases, I’ve played around to create my own search term poetry.  You never know, maybe this is the next big thing.  So profound it could be published.  Maybe into a hard-bound book to sit on a shelf…full circle!  I can see the title now:  “Words Sought in the Ether.”  I’d definitely want the pages edged in gold.

WORDS SOUGHT POEM I (BEAUTY)
inspiring word
butterfly cocoon unravel
morning sunlight through my bedroom window
bottle french wine
who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land
rainbow colored honey
rock texture moss
desktop ocean
beautiful toes
barrel of love
wave tossed in the ocean
the honey peace of old poems
robinson jeffers
how do you know? Love
snakes of coastal bend
scary wave wipeout
succulent pocket
osho zen the lovers
chrysoprase stone
moons in our solar system
shroud of turin
desktop water love
a banana leaf miracle
vast

WORDS SOUGHT POEM II (JUST PLAIN QUIRKY)
klmit
hafiz you have been invited to meet a friend
spelling sentences
goat in heat charging
does anyone sell banana leaves in fresno county
highway grass
california safe tent camping
lone ovary
the anatomy of a compost pile
rumplestiltskin edward gorey
solar system for kids
fetus at week 23
how to cut down a banana tree
stirrup chair
red toenails
hornier neck lift
airline rush luggage tag images
charts and graphs on insomnia in children
screen saver crazy
uterus
kermit the frog

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer · 2 Comments

Bridging Fire

As the morning light comes on before 6am these days, I’m finding myself scrambling to keep up with time.  Yesterday I may have walked leisurely on a plush red carpet, but that was Sunday.

Monday morning I’m back on the highway, my day scheduled until nightfall.

Still I remind myself to breathe.  Come here as a gesture, if nothing else.  That this life is still mine.  This half an hour before breakfast can be my place for words, thoughts and feelings.

I can quickly type out a moment from last night’s Beltane fire.  No amorous running through the woods or sightings of the May Queen (unless she was peeking from the nearby garden).  Just time with friends around a back yard fire, built by Jeb with our neighbor.  We each fanned the flames in our own style.  Added twigs under the stars.

I calmed my nerves to open and let Jeb jump across the blaze, not once but probably at least ten times.  His belly full of post-Easter jelly beans, he was wild with the passion.  Excited but intent, leaping with plenty of clearance.

After a series of jumps he came to me to whisper all of his wishes.  His warm, moist words heaving dreams inside my ear, coating my cheek with sugar-sweet, seven-year old desires.

They fell from his mouth in delighted sighs:  “I wish that I could be a ninja…that the world was made of candy…that I could speak Japanese…I wish that the sky would rain hot dogs…and I wish that you would live forever and never die.”

As the evening came to an end, the fire was left to burn alone.  Before heading home, I wandered to the embers.  Let the warmth of the coals fill my hands.  Looked up at the stars.  A wind chime in the hibiscus sounded individual notes with deep resonance, as the slightest breeze played a slow and deliberate song to the night.

I thought ahead to Fall, when I would be living the harvest time.  Days reaping the intentions of what this season sows.  I could imagine my hands warming by an autumn fire in a different place and time.  For a moment I was the bridge, glowing red-orange heating my palms.  Two fires in two times, two places.  And me, the in-between.

I may not know exactly where I’ll be.  But come Fall, I know there will be a moment, as I stand before flames, the weather colder, the days shorter.  And I’ll remember the wind chime’s song on the first night of May on a tropical island.  There at that future fire, I will consider all that has transpired.  Reflect on what was sown.  Know more of what has grown.  I hope to live that moment.

These rituals rely on future.  My human way, can’t help it.  Pretending that I will live forever.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Wolf Whistles, Oysters and the Red Carpet Treatment

Maybe the world is always our oyster but some days feel like you’ve been granted the secret password needed to reveal its inlaid treasure.  Lately, for me, not only has the oyster been gently opening at the hinges, by golly, it’s got two pearls inside!

If I’d been suspecting that I was right there in the pocket – feeling tight, life and I – then all was confirmed at the Department of Motor Vehicles on Friday.  Rock star parking led right to an empty line inside.  Within five minutes I had paid my annual registration and was back out in the tropical sunshine, moving forward with the day.

More mundane tasks ensued with efficiency and ease.  Costco mission complete in twenty minutes (they opened up a register just for me!).  Ultrasound appointment done in no time (they won’t tell you a thing of what they see) by a big and beautiful African woman who hummed a sweet song while taking pictures of my womb.  I was crossing off my to-do list efficiently, swift like an arrow on course through the maze of downtown.  My iPod was on shuffle, the soundtrack of life in my ears.  John Mayer singing “The Heart of Life is Good,” and it was easy to concur.

Back home in cyberspace my email Inbox reveals more cosmic winks.  For those of you following the Archives, remember those boot advertisements in the side bar of my email screen?  These days they’ve changed.  They’ve been replaced by airfare promotions now.  First stop?  Vegas.  Perhaps I’m on a winning streak that’s worth a gamble.

The ultimate affirmation comes at day’s end, straight from Nature, when I stepped out my front door and my friend, the White-Rumped Shama gave a wolf whistle from his nearby perch.  I’ve heard plenty of his songs, but I’ve never heard that one from him before.  You know the call.  That emotive sound of approval perfected by crass construction workers.  I’ll post the sample here (click ‘wolf whistle‘), but it can’t compare to the melodious beauty of hearing those notes flow from the throat of a songbird.

I know I mentioned the other day in my Sunrise Reserves in the Kimono that life doesn’t roll out the red carpet.  That we must carve it out ourselves.  But maybe that’s not always true.  There are times when we can ease into some sweet spot.  Find some perfect groove where Providence has roped off our course, allowing for easy entry.

courtesy of Tomomarusan

I’m following that unfurling crimson runner toward the rare, double-pearled oyster, while birds whistle affirmation in my wake.  No need to question.  Just be grateful, stay open and say yes.