Let's See If We Wake Up to Restored Internet When We Wake Up. Curious What Went Down with Spectrum. Ick-phrases #VerseLove26

Ate Varsity Pizza again after a long, long while. I'm happy to see it is still open on the hill, and it was nice to meet Melissa and her son, Alex, while he toured Syracuse University. Mike and I also enjoyed cropping the bush out front without any resistance from Butch. 

But then Spectrum went out and that meant the parental phones, cable, and Wi-Fi. This also meant mom short-circuited (I texted Cynde saying we were loading up and coming over to use her system). Ah, but I figured out how to Jimmie my laptop to use cellphone lines to stream the game from the ESPN App. I guess Jordan's furniture won't have to pay all that money back to customers. It would have been great to see, though. 

Yesterday's #VerseLove was to use a piece of art to inspire the language of the day. I had a series of photos from For Which It Stands, the art exhibit on campus this Spring (as we worked with it while reading Victory Stand). I've also been reading another book about the Canterbury School of Connecticut founded by Prudence Crandall, so the national anthem has been on my mind again. That's where I began to doodle.

But this morning, I shall be cooking (well peeling potatoes and carrots, and prepping the ham. It's been a minute since I made creamed potatoes, but I'm excited for a traditional Easter Dinner. 

Here's to another NCAA Final Four game day.

Ick-phrases for Which It Stands

b.r.crandall

I’m thinking about Reuben, again,

Prudence’s brother. The one

arrested for being an abolitionist 

while his sister ran away from 

chopped-up kitty cats meant

to scare Sarah Harris & Mary

Elizabeth Miles.

K-K-Kuz

we’ve always

lived two

interpretations

of our red, white,

& doo-doo…

…these anthems.

the ways they tread

on the rest of us.

land of the free…

home of the brave.

It’s an off-key anthem

after all, Frances Scott,

sung to shackle

human

dignity

at the

core.

O say can we see.

Leilya Petra, a Colleague for Louisianna, Pitched #VerseLove26 Poem #2 Perfectly with a Prompt to Write About Everyday Small Things

Poetry is funny, especially with #VerseLove because you never know what the prompt will be  when you wake up or what you might want to write about. Yesterday, dad slept in and Cynde came by to ready mom for another medical procedure. She brought over goods from Geddes bakery which I instantly used to, perhaps, leverage a bath and episode of shaving. He was hesitant about all of it, but his sweet tooth always gets the better of him. When Cynde brought the goods back to the kitchen, he instantly started underdressing on the couch. I took advantage of the moment and started shaving him right where he was (bringing a vacuum cleaner in to suck it all up...he looks like a vagabond in 18 layers of clothing (including a new jacket I brought up from Connecticut). 

Mom reported she pooped out a little woman (a joke from whatever stupid show she was watching a couple of nights ago) and Cynde moved to get her back to Upstate Hospital. On Daddy duty, I had a poem to write, simply by recording the moments as they are right now.

 Thursday Morning, April 2, 2026 

On his planet of animals,

River Monsters replace the red-head 

reporting from News Channel 12…

…the one who smears her

    eyebrows with red-velvet frosting

and discusses birthright citizenship 

& presidents.

We’re siting by the bay window

waving at people who drive by…

…perhaps those he once knew,

      with busy lives

                     and places to be.

I did not know a Westinghouse t.v.

could reach volume 52…

but I do now,

               as my mother watches the ways Robins build nests

on his once-used fishing poles in the garage

from her Ring-Doorbell camera  on an iPad —

                    the same birds that have been shitting

on my new car…. the wilderness

 trekking across state lines.     

Why do I have to shower,

he complains. No one else does.

Apple fritters and pies

    bought by my sister as a

    bribe to shave him.

A mirror, chapstick, and salt & pepper shakers 

sit on stained napkins besides him -

 - ones with therapeutic 

directions listing all the ways

he’s supposed to get physical…

his warehouse for plucked nose hairs & nail clippings,

a flashlight, an unplugged clock, and the plastic 

bags of pennies, nickels, and dimes he sometimes sorts.

Right now, he’s petting my dog & wondering what day it is…

     wondering if it is time for him to take out the garbage…

or to lick more sugar from his dentures 

he's pulled form his mouth. 

Well, #VerseLove26, We're At It Again. A Poem a Day for 30 Days. Kicking Off This Year in Syracuse, But I'll Return to My Front Porch. Promise.

Meals on Wheels. Price Chopper. Dog walks. Parental Naps. A Cinnamon Cake (Although he much prefers a pie...the kind of pie served at Cynde's house, I suppose). Prompt one was simply to use "Inside Me There Is," which I used as the title. 

Was thinking about Kris & Dave's Ishy and his love of Basquiat-like artwork which seemed to match the idea of flooding yards in Clay...was also channeling my love of Egger's The Eyes & the Impossible. I'm not done with that book yet, nor the John Donne poem. Jen Dail simply need to find a new outlet for our article, since the original seemed to be one of those pipe dream ideas that fizzled out by the dreamers behind it. Okay, April, where we go.

Inside Me There Is

~brcrandall

a poetic landscape

of winding roads

doodled across

Basquiat swamplands…

I am scribbled like a seagull

above dry lakes & empty seas.

a know man,

an eye, land

ing upon

photographs

charting maps

outside

beyond

boundaries

binaries

aviaries

histories

discovering

this poem. 

With the month, comes the showers in hope of the May flowers. Central New York have offered swamplands the last few weeks. 

It's Officially April, #VerseLove, so Today Will End the Last Post Until My Poetic Shenanigans Cease in May. For Today, an Achievement

I have to applaud Meals on Wheels. Daily, they arrive with a warm meal and a cold one every morning...the drivers are kind and gracious, the food preparation greatly appreciated, and the savings of time outstanding. The one gripe Cynde and I have had is with peeling off the plastic wrap on the top because it shreds and turns into a mess. Yesterday, however, I successfully peele the plastic off two meals without any issues. I had to photograph and send her way. Ta-Da! Look at me.

The classes are taught for the week and now for grading and administrative rolls for the rest of the week. I hear it's a holiday, too. Something about resurrections, Cadbury eggs, and bunny rabbits. I just want to maintain peace and tranquility. 

Today, however, I need meal prep for me a little better. Last night's dinner sucked. I ate frost-bit Samosas I bought and stored in the freeze a few trips ago. They tasted alright, but were not the best.

As for the rain...it's welcome to depart at any time, although the forecast is rain, rain, rain. Wednesday and Thursday the temperatures drop, too. It'll warm up, with rain, for the weekend.

In the meantime, I am thrilled to report that my mom made me watch a television show where a man pooped out a little man. 

This is why I don't watch television. 

Poor guy was constipated out of fear he'd poop out another. 

Hello, April. Perhaps this was a poem after all.