Remarkable video of the massive Alabama tornado sprouting sideways twisters uncannily from its sides. Can anyone doubt that natural phenomena like this did not give rise to the idea of god, gods, devils, and the devil? Put yourself in an iron-age frame of mind and watch this. Jess

JAPAN 2011

The key is in the music

(What key is the music in?)

Dave Van Ronk playing Scott Joplin’s

“The Entertainer”—

a man walking

on a summer day

old pond

“When the present state of man is considered, when an estimate is made of his hopes, his pleasures, and his possessions; when his hopes appear to be deceitful, his labors ineffectual, his pleasures unsatisfactory, and his possessions fugitive, it is natural to wish for an abiding city, for a state more constant and permanent, of which the objects may be more proportioned to our wishes, and the enjoyments to our capacities; and from this wish it is reasonable to infer, that such a state is designed for us by that infinite wisdom, which, as it does nothing in vain, has not created minds with comprehensions never to be filled.”

“One of the secrets of classic ragtime guitar transcriptions is

the harder they are the more fun they are to play.”

Come along with me, sweetheart mine,

Come and look at the world and its ways

the dead favor white stones to be held softly in the hand

“The trio of ‘The Entertainer’ is almost more fun than I can stand.”

The incredible

movement of the music

not dance but movement—

a free man walking

“Ragtime should never be played fast”

“What does the empire not owe to a prince who has honored the house of France”

an island nation

Take a… walk with me, baby mine,

Take a walk and I’ll show you the way

highest life expectancy of any country in the world

lowest crime rate

“There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men’s hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.—He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God.”

The young woman

standing at the corner

suddenly bursts into tears—

Three friends—alive!

The heart

“The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God’s restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God’s enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind or large quantities of dry stubble before DEVOURING FLAMES”

breaks

From David Jaffin,

Dear Jesse,

We are, of course, thinking of you at this time, hoping that your world in Japan is still intact, despite the horrendous happenings there.

I know of

(for Jesse Glass

no other time

s than these
The past’s di

minishing
any sense of

memory and
the future has

its own game
to play with

or with
out my unknow

ing accords I
feel the full

ness of this
here and now

I write to
keep at least

my world in
creasing

ly intact.

yours poetically,

David.

Dear David–We’ll always cherish this poem. Thank you so much for it. Meanwhile, we want to promote your textbook Poemed On A Beach (Ahadada Books) as much as we can this year. Jesse