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Nat Lipstadt Jan 1
•~ A tidal strait is a strait connecting two oceans or seas through which a tidal current flows. Tidal currents are usually unidirectional but sometimes are bidirectional. The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. (Wikipedia)~•

The river by my dwelling is miscalled by all,
in verity, it is a tidal strait, a battling diversity of fresh and saltwater, with currents visible, bidirectional, clashing eddies underway, are
underwater arguments boiling up to the surface,

!a perfect metaphor for a New Year!
<•>

each year seems like a tumult survived,
the currents of joy and its many alternates,
seem to always clash, spot staining
and yet
the estuary of life flows on and on,
the two seas remain connected,
the salt and the fresh intermingling,
waters
surf~officially calm, stoic,
but appearances misleading

every year different
every year also similar,
substance may vary,
the surprises differing,
but we for-see troubled waters
neath the glassine superficial surficial,
and we hold hands,
knotted fingers until
we raise out arms heavenbound,
asking why,
but expecting no answer
for we
knowingly
live our lives in a
tidal strait
Jan 1, 2025
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
flipping channels,
odd conjunction of random itinerants,
mix and mismatched, blend and burr, and the
combination of irritants, annoyingly raucous
pester the barely warmed brain,
by informing me to solve for X,
combine and contrast,
throw all into the blender,
add Fage yogurt, and some chill
ice with interracial combo of
black, blue & red berries
and pour it on you head…

and a breakfast poem is served up…

the utter urgency for civility
rings alarm bells, for it is so threadbare a quality these days, and it is worn by so
very few, and I ponder,
how the quality of
civility
could be so lost,
when I diagram said word,
see it
so clear
April 13 2024
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
12/18/24

I choose fingers,
among the array
of many wonderful
parts on offer,

the other sensory emissaries protest,
but the multi-fluency of fingers,
fluent in all Romance languages,
nay, in every dialect, tongue,
tippling the balance in their favor

for the fingers are wonderful conversationlists, trumping the
cooing coyness of sweet wordy
verbs, fingers defy nouns, pronouns

and are fingers the finest conjunction
that was ever conjured ot conjuncted?

the ears hear poorly when upom it
a long  slim finger casually traces outlines
slow~sensually and the eyes shut tightly,
reflexively, the tongue froze to the
mouth roof, muted into inaction

even the the sense of smell lies powerless
should we block the nostrils with but
*******, and breathe mouth mightily

we do not diminish the orchestration’s
totality, the blending of sound ‘n sensation,
but the blind and deaf all must bow before the power of fingers speaking to
every part of the bodies totality
Nat Lipstadt Jan 4
most oft, the
wherever I write,
is duly noted,
it is a due,
due you,
and hopefully,
the why I scribe,
arrives ‘pon your eyes
with Steuben glass,
of diamond tooled curettage,
a clarifying visual of
beauty,

but always
with fair detailed precision
is the
when
denoted,
for it is the timing
of the mining the specificity,
of the exact momentous,
a precious decision
taken by you,
when to turn words
of a few seconds
of a heart’s unburdening,
with
an inescapable reminder,
of the
thereabouts & the whyabouts
the very verity of a serious
causality
that parented the
casualties
we call
our poems

join me then,
in the processional
of denoting the origins,
linkage contained therein
to the work we
c r e a t e

*•for in the recording of the reckoning•
•exactitude of the longitude•
•and l’atitude is the truest revelation•
•of yourself•
the week I was home alone in dec 2024;
well I’m guessing you know the exact time
this one was born😉
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
WHY are you reading and writing poetry today?

why not?
**** straight &
just be the cause
that's right,

even writing
just keep it
short/\ sweet (self mocking Ha)
there are actual family members
who might require
a shocking paddling
to the
heart
when conducting their
year end review

as for us
the shock, the awe,
of so many fine
new poens opening
is a sufficient charger to the
parts that need restarting when
we wake up, no matter
our diversification
our diversions
and divisions,
reading new words ancient
in the Reforming,
are dividends and
that keep on after the electrolytes, caffeine
& other stimulies

stimulants that keep us going
a golden charging,
Plenty good enough

Ps
and I delight in many new ones
discovering my prose, welcoming
them like my newborn children
all my own, and raising them
and the new-for all-new combinations
to see their Forthcoming with/\ by
bringing them to your attention,
and that is my Jewish own creche,
my own scene of all of god’s chosen
poets
nativities

and did not plan to go in & on
but nothing stirs the sparks,
like thinking that every minute
a birth is celebrated
and I am blessed to be among
the witnesses

nml
12/25/24~12/26/24
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
preface

yup

this is #99, & when it’s done,
another winking title will pop-up,
be

recorded, reordered, and reported
out to you,
and that old drinking song will~still
be justified with words adapted to
sing out of & about~no~doubt them
emotional rhythms traversing my
blood stream that inhabit my
thoughts and causes, visions and
curses


poem

a gray cloudy xmas day, and home alone
by my-choice, which is a potpourri of
caramel popcorn vinegar and vital vitamins,
a metronome of verbosity and to counter~~
attack these insidious moody blues, select my McIntosh mug with a Winslow Homer painting of East Hampton Beach


yup,

this is no. 99, in my file of
working scribbled potions, ,
which like my porcelain lipped mug,
is brimmm-ing filled too,
with phrases~tastes,
accompanied &harmonized,
with a mug up-to-the-top
of circularity spooned, steamy fine
Blue Mountain coffee,
colored beautifully creamy brown
by a quarter cup of
Fairlife skim milk
and damnable inspired
pseudo-dissatisfaction


apology

for rambling but it’s
a rambling day, and just going
with flow, and the east river
ocean bound current strings chains
of molecules, words, randomly
planned and planted, and lined
up to take  stolen sips of  coffee
breaks, indoors-inside my coffee cup
mind


****

got lost and now forget what
this poem was to be announced~about,

thus #99,
version b., will re-main on
the list, awaiting refurbishment, and
more, sigh,

                          *coffee
12-25-24
Poetoftheway Dec 2024
“you should watch for what’s good and say so, watch for what’s bad and say that,
and be afraid of neither observation.
If you lose your temper, lose it; if you find yourself unexpectedly moved, admit it.
Keep your tools, compass and gyroscope,
clean, dry and level.”
Peggy Noonan,
columnist, author
<•>

good
Christmas Eve advice
getting harder to find,
wheat from chaff, and all that,
what’s sensible,
what’s defensible,
and what actually feels
A~ok!
as in
perhaps, it actually could be,
pause to think,
correct?
and:or:heck,
even right

so if you read the above ,
take it from a couple of senior geezers,
you just got a holiday freebie!
yeah, yeah, keep your powder dry,
just ain’t the same, sorry…

we talking tools and fools here,
them that keep you
on a course
of your owned free choice,
with an assist,
to  know your position & to
never to lose your balance

when everybody is
instantly
telling you what to think,
take that long pause,
use your tools,
to pick the problem up,
Rubik’s cube it,
twist and shout,
when the
solution emerges

‘tis the season for
preaching and overreaching,
but use this quietime pause,
look internal,
and keep your instinct and
inside tools oiled,
and mind open, clarified

wish you then, clear eyes, open ears & love;
wisdom, that’s up to you,
but, you’re a billionaire for sure,
use the grey cells you were given
thoughtfully & well,
and keep on looking for
‘what’s a good way,’
which is always an
everlasting work


                             nat lipstadt
12/24/24
5:45 pm
NYC
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
“Talk in everlasting words
And dedicate them all to me
And I will give you all my life
I'm here if you should call to me
You think that I don't even mean
A single word I say
It's only words and words are all I have
To take your heart away”


“Words” by the Bee Gees
<•>

words are orbs,
living in the airy space just
about above over my head

still plucking ‘em when the
spirits shake me awake,
speaking
“create, can’t wait,”
for if the instance slips by,
a
disparate disparaging displacement
though not fully lost,
the precise
conviction combination
precious precision decision
if not stepped upon with
a codifying immediacy urgency
can result in an
irreparably irreversible irresponsibly
l o s s,
feeling as if a piece of your
owned amazing
has been chipped off irretrievably,
flown away to a
never again
nether land

not lost on me that
the infinite symbol

is sometimes called the
lazy eights

a minute momentous moment,
all it takes, for the loss of
infinity permanence of going
gone gone gone

read of a man,
in a creative place,
songwriter on a crowded California
Santa Monica highway,
with no place to pull off,
sings over again the tune birthing
with no intermission
repeating for hours the tune
and the lyrics
of a new (now famous) song,
proceeds
directly to the recording studio
to lay that track down

been there, done exactly that,
“while doing 85 mph on the
Long Island Expressway,”
(L.I..E. )
and those
everlasting words
live on today
Dec. 2024
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
inspired  by“Blame It on Kristofferson” written by Byron Hill and John Wilken,
released 2010
(lyrics below)
<•>
A young teen listens to the
folk/rock during the Sixties,
five few years later,
now all growed up and living, crazy,
on Bleecker Street, the very same,
where these songs were being sung live,
by the artists, songwriters & friends
on the streets’s bars ‘n cafes

And Judy sings a ballad, mysterious,
‘bout a Marianne and all the tea in China,
words written like it was a poem,
and the infection was silent transferred,
still ‘fected, even now, in days sooner to
be reporting to heaven’s door, this blessed
curse will be unrelenting coming along,
we blame it on
Leonard Cohen

Knew the words, learned the secret chords,
which was easy, a-direct line between us,
knew where he got them holy tunes, and the
words he stole stealthy from our prayerbook,
went to Montreal, visited his home,
it was no accident, just the hand of god,
but don't blame the divine mystery being,
nah~nope, half~century, later, this dope
still blames it on,
yeah that’s right, on
Leonard Cohen

And here we are, the two of us, probably
smiling, gesticulating and gesturing, who
in fact is truly responsible for our crazy gene,
that pursues us, to create,
to mate words with
music of the deep soul, and here me be,
I am,
grateful grasping for each latter day to birth a new creation,
going out smiley & feeling kindly and fulfilled, now more than ever, and
zero doubts that the person at fault, fully blaming it all on my Canadian soul brother,
Leonard Cohen
https://genius.com/Byron-hill-blame-it-on-kristofferson-lyrics

<•>

Lyrics Listen
I WAS ONLY SIXTEEN|WHEN I HEARD THAT MELODY|AND THOSE WORDS ABOUT A YOUNG MAN|WHO WAS ALMOST JUST LIKE ME|ON A SUNDAY MORNING SIDEWALK|HE WAS FEELING ALL ALONE|I HAD NEVER BEEN THAT FAR FROM HOME|BUT NOT FOR LONG|BLAME IT ON KRISTOFFERSON||HE CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER|WITH EVERY WORD HE WROTE|HE SANG WITH RHYMES THAT RAMBLED|AND THEY HIT ME LIKE A ****|SO I HEADED OFF WITH MY GUITAR|TO NASHVILLE TENNESSEE|MADE A PROMISE TO MYSELF I'D ALWAYS BE|WHAT I'D BECOME|BLAME IT ON KRISTOFFERSON||CHORUS: I'VE BEEN BLESSED TO BRING A SMILE|TO A FEW FOLKS WITH MY SONGS|BRING A TEAR TO SOMEONE'S EYE|AND HEAR THEM SING ALONG|BUT SOMETIMES I START HATING|EVERY WORD I'VE EVER WRITTEN|THINKING I AIN'T EVER LIVIN' UP|TO SUNDAY MORNIN' COMIN' DOWN AT ALL|BLAME IT ON KRISTOFFERSON||SO HERE'S TO JOHNNY CASH|AND 1970|THAT TV SHOW WHERE FIRST HEARD|THOSE WORDS THAT SPOKE TO ME|OF A SUNDAY MORNING SIDEWALK|AND A YOUNG MAN ALL ALONE|I HAD NEVER BEEN THAT FAR FROM HOME|BUT NOT FOR LONG|BLAME IT ON KRISTOFFERSON||REPEAT CHORUS|
Nat Lipstadt Dec 2024
begin this life in a wordy
but wordly habit, daily,
father-gifted, though different,
in form and language selected,
‘tis the one and ‘tis the same

tally, a counting combination
of all that has been done, for both
better & worse, blessing/curse,
the key: revamp review reset
this day upcoming and welcome
all the major tasks, minor miracles,
that one can effect,  select, elect!
by choice, a freedom so great it
tenderly rips joy thoroughly into
and from my cells, and my body
is enlightened, uplifted in this,
now a preposition, a conjugation, a

state of composition,

for the tasks given, the granted,
those that must be taken, those most
difficult, when knowing their choice,
entails pain, untempered, and
requires establishing a two edged
position of composure…

this is a hard and an easy
new proposition I create,
hard for I write on a tiny
phone screen, in letters so
small. it keeps me humbled,
a reminder of having
lived a span well
beyond belief,
for one took\gave body a
careless comfort,
giving little
of the differring
kind of nutrition in order
to live life, well and purposed

hard too, for my body has wept,
a steady stream of silent tears.
unceasing as I scribe,
making vision difficult, the
insight salty but clear and the
words contained within them,
flood for easy laying-down

for this AM workout of counting,
lists up and down, so many items,
of differring nature, even now
noticing for the very fitting first time,
the subtle hint within
differring,
for it possesses a doubling
of the enormity, the division
of what has been already
accumulated and what yet,
needs accomplishing, the tally
needy for resolving looking past,
for seeing with yet more tears
fast-as-you-can-forward

the tally never ends, paused only
for a quick question/happy deletion
of, and a resolute immediate, moving on:

Where do I stand,
what is my position?


keep on keeping on,
tallying has no finale,
no sunning/summing up,
for another day
will yet follow,
for you, and
your own
tallying must
goes on, on
and
not even,
nor even,
odd,
when mine,
mine no long,
and the
and yets,
no longer
commence
646am dec 18 2024
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