So Much More

to & for Carolin Combs

While I’m still on this Earth,
& what's left of you is, too,
we’re still engaged in its
activities & significations,
my actions on your behalf
weigh heavily on me: I
have so much more to do
for you, your name, work;
so much more, out of love,
so much more in gratitude.


(12 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)v2
(Carolin was born on 22 AUG 56;
she died on 26 JAN 07.)

Golijov, davening

Slowly davening
while his music’s being
rehearsed, Golijov reverts
to his embodied
Jewish music.

Off any horse,
off any motorcycle,
far below any bird floating above,
his wholly human heart beats
as mine does as I watch him daven.


(12 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)v4

Quail & Bunnies

During the Spring
many small baby quail are born.
Parent quail are very protective,
very alert to danger,
warning their babies of any
person or thing approaching.

When a high-pitched signal is given,
the babies run quickly
to the bushes for cover,
Except:
When there are bunnies about
who share fallen grain with them:
then the babies run to them.


Ginny Beecher Zeitman
(10 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)

Cabrillo 2009: Golijov

Last week from Wed. to Sat. a.m., I was down in Santa Cruz for Cabrillo 2009 with Ginny Beecher Zeitman who has been going there since the late '60s & is now a sponsor.

The most stunning piece we heard last Fri (opening) nite was "Azul" by (Argentinian-Jewish) Osvaldo Goiljov, inspired by his trip to Macchu Picchu: a cello concerto with 2 native-instrument percussionists & a hyper-accordionist, backed up by "a lot of other people" (he Cabrillo Festival Orchestra); Golijov historicized: "In the 19th c., music(al rhythm) was (based on) horses, in the 20th, motorcycles, now birds floating on air-(currents)." What about the embedded rhythm of the resting normal human heart? (1ce/sec.) Ginny (who was medical staff on the Stanford heart-transfer program) thinks we may have longago (primitively) adopted it as a musical meter. Is it a setting of the std. metronome?

bring me up (a rising round)

{round, rising from the bottom UP}

to where we ARE!
to where we ARE,
& where we WERE

to where we were

bring me UP
bring me uP
bring me up


{round, rising from the bottom, up}

(04 AUG 09 Santa Clara CA)
for the San Jose Peace Chorale

Letter to BBC on Bottled-Water, ctd.

In the week after I sent a 2nd letter to the BBC (see below: Sunday, July 26, 2009 CA: bottled-vs-tap water)

the NYT broke into print with "Ad assault on bottled water industry." by Stephanie Clifford, reprinted here in the San Jose MERCURY-NEWS, 02 AUG 09, Sunday Business section, p. E2, bottom left.

Lede sentence: "Can an ad campaign turn bottled water into the new tobacco?"

Subseq. par.: "Taking a cue from anti-tobacco campaigns, Tappening, a group opposed to bottled water on environmental grounds, has introduced a campaign called 'Lying in Advertizing' that positions bottled water companies as spreading corporate untruths.' ..."The 'lies' in question here are about the source of the bottled water. Eric Yaverbaum, a co-founder of Tappening, charged that some beverage companies did not list the source of their water -- and were using only municipal water." (ctd.)

The Farm

A big day today!

The pig gave birth
to ten little piglets,
all pushing each other
to get to her udders.

The fence around the pen
is crowded with hikers
oohing, aahing
& commenting.

-Ginny Zeitman
(01 AUG '09, Santa Clara CA)
vzeitman@earthlink.net