Poem for Our 32nd Anniversary

Power of Two

(for Cindy on our 2⁵ Wedding Anniversary)

Two-to-the-fifth years of both weal and woe.

All of those wedding guests, where did they go?

Thirty-two years ago: ring, kiss, and vow.

Where is the face of that company now?

Two for a honeymoon, four till we moved;

Eight for adoption to double our love.

Sixteen for schooling the children God gave.

Thirty-two closer to rest in the grave.

Doubling and doubling again down the years.

Two, four, eight, sixteen, each new power premiers

Doublings of joy, love, and high adoration;

Growing by binary multiplication.

Thus do our marital blessings accrue,

Exponents, both, for the power of two.

--Paul Erlandson, 2017

2nd Annual Shinoda (Slot Car) Reunion!

It's almost time for the 2nd Annual "Shinoda Reunion", to be held at Downriver Speedway in Lincoln Park, Michigan.  Saturday, December 16.  Doors open and Noon.  Racing begins at 5pm.

Here is one of the entries that has been sent in to be raced by proxy.  This is a scratch-built, period-correct "Detroit Slider" style Thingie slot car.  The body is a Shinoda "Bullet" created by Gene Adams.  I've seen this in person, and it is exquisite!  It belongs in an art museum.

Lindsay Shepherd - Canadian University Goons Deny Her Free Speech

This is long, but SUPER important!

Poem - Beatrice Does My Laundry

Beatrice Does My Laundry

More than other men, grief-torn or merry,

That history has thought worthy of note,

I honor and adore great Alighieri,

And not alone for all the poems he wrote,

But for his tears of ecstasy and grief,

Which Dante wept and distilled into verse.

Of sufferers-from-love he was the chief,

His depth of feeling both blessing and curse.

I used to call on Dante, in the past,

For intercession in some special case.

For years, he made no answer, but at last

He spoke as clear as one speaks face to face:

“Look here, my son, what does this madness mean,

That you, the rich, play supplicant to me?

To watch my love, I had to find a ‘screen’,

But you can watch your love completely free!

For you have wife and muse in self-same soul,

And every poem you write her, you can sign.

Your love can both fulfil the Beatrice role,

And kiss you as the clock is striking nine.”

I took his sense, and troubled him no more:

The wealthy must not beg alms of the poor.

© 2017, Paul Erlandson