Andrew's View of the Week

Summer Night

Posted on 03/06/2016 by Andrew Reynolds

Summer Night

In the cool of a summer night,
sleep finally comes.
Oblivion for a few short hours.
Too soon the mind wakes; struggles with life.

Prose wishes to break free.
Sentences struggle for completeness.

References and words float on the air.
Mind’s eye holds a crystal,
considering its complexity,
its simplicity,
its perfection.

Turn the thought over.
Consider infinity,
eternity,
mystery.

To hold the world in your hand.

The scene that follows won’t come.
Struggling for completeness,
for meaning.

Air flows cooling the soul.
The mind rests,
yet it struggles with the thought,
the image that wishes to be found.

Gaze at the crystal again,
into infinity,
into power,
wisdom.

On the wind the voice is heard,
but in the mind a glass wall prevents hearing.

Mumbled words, a phase starts,
“Gaze into the crystal and see … “

Frustration as the words will not flow.

Completeness fades.
The cool air brings relief and
lulls the mind to sleep.

Sweet rest.
Thoughts fade to sleep,
reviving the weary soul.

Sleep gently lays to rest and,
lets the thought lay incomplete,
nurturing the imagination.

Play the scene again,
and again.

Gaze into the crystal and what do you see?
oblivion,
restful dark,
sleep.

This poem is a revision of one I wrote a couple of years ago and this time I’ve included a recording of me reading it. Over the last year, I’ve been finding that reading my poems aloud helps me write better poetry. The act of speaking the words forces the work through different pathways in the mind and you see and feel thing differently. Going to the poetry reading group has really brought this home for me.

It’s a bit time consuming to do the recording, but I hope to do more of this.

I am spending almost all of my writing time finishing my prostate cancer poetry book and hope to start the publication process soon.

Till next week,
Andrew

Posted in Poems | Tagged poem, poem reading, Poetry, spoken poem | 21 Comments

Friday Wisdom – Admit you don’t Know

Posted on 03/04/2016 by Andrew Reynolds

“I don’t have a solution, but I admire the problem.”

We engineers are often called on to solve a problem. Here’s a little secret: many times we don’t have one. I’ve used the above line from time to time with colleagues and friends, but never with my wife.

The line does do it’s job to get people laughing long enough for me to leave the room.

More wisdom next week,

Andrew

Posted in General | Tagged friday wisdom, humor, wisdom | 23 Comments

Wednesday Woodworking – This is a Test

Posted on 03/02/2016 by Andrew Reynolds

I did it, made a picture frame that worked. I decided to just do this as a test and grabbed some scrap wood and started cutting. It didn’t take too long and here it is, my test picture frame:

Made this from some old 1x2s I had in the scrap pile.

It’s a small frame, 10×10 inches on the inside to fit a 10×10 oil paint canvas like this:

A canvas for oil painting.

And now the canvas in the frame:

Canvas in frame. Exciting!

Everyone has an old jar on their workbench. It just what woodworkers do.

Now here is how we clamp the frame up:

Square clamp.

I’ve bought a few of these and this one works out well. I am going to replace the wingnut with something else as you can see I needed my channel locks to tighten the clamp. There’s got to be a better way.

This frame was sanded and given to Heather. She’ll paint it and use it for one of her small pictures. I went through my wood pile and I’ll have to get some nicer wood in stock for my next frame. There is one more jig I want to make – more on that next week.

And now a little mystery for next few months. I just received this order of wood for my Christmas workshop plans:

Yes, it’s a pile of fancy hardwoods.

Yes, I plan on making all my Christmas gifts this year, plus I’ve got a couple of wedding gifts to make for the year. I know what you’re thinking, “It’s March on Tuesday, aren’t you leaving it a bit late?” Well, we’ll see.

It you need me – I’ll be in the shop,

Andrew

Posted in woodworking | Tagged picture frame, woodworking | 44 Comments

How to Help a Cancer Victim

Posted on 02/28/2016 by Andrew Reynolds

How to Help a Cancer Victim

First understand:
we’re confused,
we’re angry,
we’re stunned,
we’re overwhelmed,
we don’t know what we need.

Know you can’t fix it.
Know we’ve heard a lot to be frightened of.
Know we’re fragile.
We just want to be normal again.

I know you want to help.
I know you want to comfort.
I know you fear for me.
I know.

Don’t be surprised if I respond with anger.
Don’t be surprised if I respond with silence.
Don’t be surprised if I respond with a joke.
Don’t be surprised.

Some pain is in the body.
Some pain is in the mind.
Some pain damages the soul.

Help me.
I wish to be normal again.
I wish to talk to you like we once did.
I want to hear of your family,
of the dog, the cat, the car and your crazy Aunt Sally.

Call me, text me, email me,
do normal things with me.
A cup of coffee, a day on the beach,
a trip to the store, a hug for your old friend.

I am not writing this week as I focus my writing time on finishing editing my poetry book. Instead I offer the above poem from the collection I am working on.

Till next week,

Andrew