Stress Management in Black and White

Stress Management in Black and White 4-16-93


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGPb8YYnxPc

Rocket ship sanity.
Lucidity on a string.
Cinnamon cappuccino sippings
entrap a waltzing instinct,
whereof my Barcoliner recliner.
Gazing from the corner of my eye,
it's Flash Gordon through the snow.
He's got his hands in his pockets
on his way to save the universe,
real casual like.
A skyward cloud jockey carousing
Oysters Rockefeller.
What's your silver lining and why?
Black coat, top hat and tie
or flannel boxers and pajama tops?
You believe mine is greener
than your side of the fence,
you forget,
there are no fences in the sky.
Stand and deliver,
you cannot fool your soul.
Hors D'oeuvres are served
from pole to pole.
Relax and save your universe.


Authors Note:
So what does cappuccino, pajamas, Oysters Rockefeller and Flash Gordon have to do with stress management? Sometimes it has everything to do with. There will always be things present in life that don’t make sense at that particular moment. Even though it may be true, it may not make sense. Under certain circumstances or from a different perspective it completely makes sense, but not from the present context.

The snow outside is coming down hard. I’m a bit stressed and I want to relax. I’m sitting in my recliner sipping some cappuccino and watching an old Flash Gordon movie. I get a kick out of the scenes with the toy rocket smoke bomb on a string. Unbelievable and ludicrous, but yet lucidity wins. I cheer him on even though I know he’s going to come out on top. Flash foils Ming’s threat to humanity with a casual urgency. He saved the Universe. So I get up and walk to the window with my hands in my pocket. Those few steps lasted longer than they actually took. Did I have too much cappuccino or was this moment surreal? The thing that was stressing me didn’t make enough sense to stress about anymore. My brain is my universe and I must defend it with the same casual urgency.

I was hungry and wanted something to snack on. The TV said something about Oysters Rockefeller. I have this ardent distaste for seafood so I made a box of Pizza Rolls. Oysters Rockefeller is not the Hors D'oeuvre in this piece. Oysters Rockefeller represents my Ming the Merciless. With a clear head and a proper perspective, it doesn’t matter what the Hors D’oeuvre is. Everything I need for the situation to harmony is right there in my universe. I just need to relax and fly that rocket ship.

Frosting

Frosting 1-30-94


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtmMredXKuo

As when three leaves left the tree
I stood up naked in the window
watching the heated summer day
fall to the ground.
I stood there a moment
left cold in shortened breath
contemplating the arrival
of a winters chill, forestalled
simply by getting dressed.

I imagined you here
and baked a cake
at the thought of you.

Still in the midst of winter,
a naked man stands in the window
reflecting the new fallen snow
just like icing,
white as a wedding cake
cooling on the counter.
A warm sweet fresh baked aroma
permeates my apartment
as I get dressed again.

Authors Note:
Frosting is about Autumn changing to Winter, keeping warm, and my recurring thoughts of a spouse while baking cakes.

About the naked part... I wake up, bake a cake, make frosting, take a shower when the cake is cooling, I walk past my chest high window on the way out of the shower and check the weather outside. In the winter, when I bake the most cakes, this is cold, and a new snow on the trees is beautiful.

I left the first word "As" out of the video. The introduction of the ingredients didn't transition well to the reading of the poem. "As" was kind of abrupt. "When" is smoother, like the frosting.

This depression era frosting goes best with angel food cake, in my opinion. Graham crackers is a close second. Sometimes after frosting a cake, the leftovers wind up on grahm crackers.

7 Minute Frosting
1/4 cup Butter (Not Margarine or Vegetable Spread! Use Real Butter!)
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Cold Water (Ice water without the Ice works best.)
1/4 Cup Flour 1 lb. Powdered Sugar

Cream first 5 ingredients.
Add the flour and powdered sugar.
Beat for 7 minutes on high.

Baker's Tips:
The part about the ice water without the ice, I fill a large cup with ice and the measuring cup with ice. I wait until the ice melts enough to make 1/4 cup. Empty the ice from the measuring cup and measure the water from the large cup. Ice water works best because it keeps the butter from melting. You don't want the butter to melt.

You don't want to use room temperature butter. I use butter when it has been out of the fridge for about 10 to 20 minutes. Not room temperature, not straight out of the fridge, somewhere in-between, but more on the cold side. Well chilled butter helps keep the frosting creamy.

Try adding the first cup of the powder ingredients about 1/4 cups at a time to get things going. Then add the rest about a cup at a time until the powder is blended in just to keep the powder spray down. Once everything is in the bowl, blend it for about 7 minutes.

If the weather is hot it is best to refrigerate the frosted cake. The egg and butter are dairy products and they do get melty after a while. A thin crunchy skin develops on the frosting after about a day in the fridge. Tasty.

Stone Rubbing

Stone Rubbing 4-22-94

It's been there for days
sitting in the sun
in the snow
for years now
outside plain as day.
It's been a long time
to visit so often
to lay paper flat
and to color sideways
with a crayon.
It's been a long time
for days now,
a long way to saving
the markings on this stone.