DISQUS

Really? Thanks!

Thanks Melissa. If you do pick one up, please let me know what you thought of it.

The cover photo came out really well, especially considering it was kind of a throwaway picture when I first took it last fall. (I took it the morning of the Philly marathon, while I was walking back to Eakins Oval to greet my brother-in-law at the finish line - I can't remember now, but I think it's from Arch just east of the Parkway.)

This is just a vague reference to the changes in unemployment calculation that were instituted by the BLS a few years back.

Basically, they counted anyone who exhausted their unemployment benefits without finding a new job as being out of the workforce. For a more realistic view of unemployment, you'd probably be better off going by the Fed's Augmented Unemployment Rate, which doesn't kick people off the unemployment rolls simply because they aren't collecting benefits anymore.

Thanks for commenting, Joe. I like the way you put it, that we adjust our view to make certain things part of the background - kind of like white noise, I suppose.

Yes, Heather, you read that right.

I watched the first six for a couple days while their parents went away this past February, and it was one of the most simultaneously tiring and gratifying things I've ever done. My sister and brother-in-law have my undying respect after that experience.

PJ - well, I am an uncle eight times over now - it's sort of prolific.

Linda - thanks. My sister now has seven children, and I'm sure she counts it as a blessing, despite the work involved ;)

Heather - I can hardly wait to check in on them myself. I'm anxious to have an accompanying photo for this one.

I should've used that in my title! And yes, I agree with your analysis for the most part.

I thought it was a nice scene, but I almost didn't stop to take the picture. Now I'm glad I did.

And sometimes we're just wired to want what everyone else seems to know is the wrong thing for us ;)

Incidentally, this is merely a reworking of a haiku I originally wrote back in the fall of 06. Funny how thoughts about the one that got away never seem to stay away for good.

I don't think I'm smart or stupid in fixed ways, but people are almost always over or underestimating me. The ways in which they do so seem to vary by person. In short, I think it's more a matter of perspective.

Some people think I'm much smarter than I probably am, while others dismiss me (or think I overestimate myself). And if I have to be honest, the over/underestimation seeps into almost every way in which other people might evaluate me. I don't really understand how it works though.

Agreed. And maybe the absence of mercy is from a lack of awareness, of both ourselves and others.

what - no chirping crickets? no honeysuckles? I can't imagine life without that sensory combination dating back to my early years.

I've always loved the image, Heather. I think I relate to it because of some of the difficulties I've had with dyslexia, especially in my early years when I was struggling to learn to read.

I guess it's just another recitation of the Little Engine that Could, but this is the image that works best for me :)

thanks, I think...

I took to regurgitating older haiku entries especially because so many of them were originally posted somewhere other than here. While I hope my best haiku days are still ahead, I have an affinity for some of the older ones, too.

Besides, bringing back the occasional oldie may just spare you the unfair choice between a stale page and a haiku that may not be fit for human consumption just yet ;)

Thanks Eric. I always mean to use more visuals, but I get sidetracked. I'm going to make it a point, at least once in a while, to raid my Flickr contacts a little more often ;)

Thanks Heather.
I love that first drive through the evening air when sound and scent converge to assure me summer is en route.

One semantic struggle with this haiku was not being able to decide between "roll the windows down" and "roll down the windows." And I'm still not sure, which is just like me.

yet, still, so many
separate stated desires
from the paths they take.

I appreciate the incisive response, Heather. The meaning you drew from it makes it more of a breakthrough for me than it was when I wrote.

Thanks, it was a good trigger - I had a half dozen ideas based on it, but eventually settled on a nature-based theme.

You're my dream girl, but you're no help at all ;)

But seriously, most of my reason for posting this is that I wish I had a better insight too - or at least some insight.

It was definitely my life over the past week

absolutely.

but then what would life be without periodic bouts pitting your head against a brick wall?

Thanks. I liked the McCain one so much, I put it on my phone's main display.

You're not trying to suggest my haiku are minor poetry, are you?
;)

like fleeting glimpses
or leftover dream remnants,

they, too, escape me.