Early Autumn 2018

Peak color for Autumn in Northeastern Pennsylvania is expected in the next week or so, and most leaves are still green. Word is that the warm, wet weather has kept the trees from beginning to go into dormancy, which would cut off the production of chlorophyll and cause the leaves to show their true colors and then die. Nighttime temperatures have started to dip, so the leaves may begin to show some color before they fall with a sickening thud in a few weeks.

Sweet Autumn Clematis started to show up in our yard a few years ago. I had no idea what it was until a friend posted about it last month. While it is sold as a garden plant, for us this is something of an invasive perennial, swarming over our rhododendrons and smothering them. However, the thick, matted growth forms a soft bed that allows the neighborhood feral cats to relax comfortably seven feet off the ground.

In high-contrast monochrome

After roses have bloomed and dropped their petals, rose hips form. Blaze and Double Delight rose hips aren't especially noteworthy, but Royal Highness hips are a bright red-orange. Wile the pits - rose seeds - are large, the flesh is thick and tasty. Rose hips are supposed to be rich in vitamin C, but you would probably have to eat a lot of them to get any significant amount. 

Burning Bush is a variety of euonymus that turns bright crimson in the Autumn. Like everything else, mine is slow to change color this year. I pruned it back a bit this year - while it took a few decades to amount to anything much, in the last few years it has exploded with growth, enough to spread across the property line and reach towards the neighbors' cars in their driveway - and the bits that I pruned off quickly turned bright red.

I had to run an early-afternoon errand, and when I got back the sun was surrounded by a beautiful halo with two bright sundogs (or parhelia), one on either side of the sun. But by the time I got my camera and got back outside, the clouds had thickened up and the optical effects had disappeared. I later headed out to a sale at Boscov's in Wilkes-Barre - my mom likes their fudge, and the sale was offering discounts of ten to twenty-five percent. Unfortunately, so did hundreds of other people, and the Boscov's parkade was almost completely filled. I was able to snag a spot on the roof when someone else left. Boscov's rooftop parking deck offers some great views, so I tried to get some photos. In the one above, all the optical phenomena seem to be concentrated on the left side of the sun: the twenty-two degree halo, the parhelic circle (the curved band extending almost horizontally to the left), and the sundog (or parhelion) where the two appear to intersect. 

Across Franklin Street from Boscov's is St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. The large rose window makes a beautiful sight from the lower parking decks of Boscov's, and the bells play Westminster Chimes on the half- (or possibly quarter-) hour.

So will Autumn colors brighten up before Winter sets in? That remains to be seen.

Poem: Once were poets

The time when I wrote this poem, and the time that I wrote the poem about, feel like a lifetime ago. Maybe several lifetimes. It was definitely a different time: Northeastern Pennsylvania had a thriving poetry scene, with poetry and prose open mics being held nearly every week somewhere. For a while I set out to maintain a calendar to let people know just what was going on, and where and when it was happening. Sometimes the biggest problem was the sheer number of events happening at the same time - check out the March 2014 entry, which noted that there were three events happening on a single day.

But all good things must come to an end, and maybe, as many people told me consolingly in the aftermath, an art community is an inherently unstable thing. Strong personalities and inflated egos lead to conflicts. Limited time and other resources force people to pick and choose what events they support. Cliques form, friendships get strained, relationships end. Life takes people in new directions, sometimes far, far away.

Venues close.

This poem was written in the aftermath of the closure of the Vintage, the Scranton arthouse and coffee shop where the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers' Collective had our weekly writing group and put on our monthly open mics. The writing group did not long survive the closing of the Vintage at the end of August 2014 - by some measures, less than two hours after the last visit to the Vintage for its everything-must-go sale, the group was effectively broken up. The poem was read for the first time at Arts Seen in Wilkes-Barre, a venue that would not survive 2015. 

There is still a poetry scene here. For a while I retreated to the more genteel scene of the Old School group in Springville, peopled by older and more established poets, poets who didn't act like they were trying to prove anything to anyone. But eventually magister poet and host Craig Czury moved away, possibly forever, bringing that series to an end. I have been a featured reader twice at the Writers' Showcase at the Olde Brick Theatre in Scranton, I have been published three times in the Osterhout literary magazine Word Fountain, and my poems have appeared three times on Luzerne County Transit Authority buses as part of the Poetry in Transit program. Until my work schedule presented a conflict, I was a regular reader at the Be Daring Open Mic at Adezzo in Scranton, which primarily focuses on music and comedy. I know there are a few other open mics and scheduled readings, mostly in Scranton. Maybe someday I will find my way to them, maybe as an audience member, maybe as a poet. I don't know.

This poem was put into its final form on January 29, 2015.

Once were poets

We were poets once
long, long ago
before the curtain fell
and the lights went down
before the egos rose
and the poison spread
we were poets

We were poets then
opening our veins to show the world
the fire that burned within
our innermost truths
deepest secrets
our hopes, our fears,
our loves, our failures
we were poets

We are poets still
as long as we are unafraid
to rip ourselves open
let the words press out
through our hands and our lips and our tongues
push up the curtain
set fire to the lights
suck out the poison
and spit it in the faces of those who would silence us

We were poets once
long long ago
We were poets then
and we are poets now.

National Poetry Month meets National Library Week: Word Fountain

April is National Poetry Month. April 9-15, 2017 is National Library Week. With this convergence, I believe it will be most appropriate to focus on the Word Fountain, the literary magazine of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

I was honored to have a submission accepted for inclusion in the Winter 2017 edition of Word Fountain (issue #12.) The issue is chock-full of poetry (and some prose pieces!) by local, national, and international poets and authors. The entire issue is now online, so you can read it from anywhere. Submissions have already closed for the Spring/Summer 2017 issue, but a call for submissions for the next issue will be coming soon!

Rather than focusing on a single piece, I'm encouraging you to go to the site and check out the entire issue! You can also read all of issue #11, Summer 2016!

Roman's Candy, Wilkes-Barre

Nearly eleven years ago I wrote about Diamond's Candy Shoppe in Nanticoke, the source of my favorite chocolate since I was a wee lad. Diamond's began closing sporadically shortly after that, then closed its doors for good about five years ago. Since them we've gotten our holiday chocolate from a few other sources, but mainly from Roman's Kitchen Made Candy in Wilkes-Barre.

Roman's is located at 40 South Regent Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18706, and the phone is 570-823-7834. This is a small operation - basically a one-woman show. It's a small, locally-owned business, in a world that is trying to squeeze out small, independent businesses. I got to have a nice conversation with the owner about the state of the industry, including how her chocolate supplier was absorbed by a huge multinational corporation that then vastly increased the minimum order size.

Roman's is only open for a few weeks before the major chocolate holidays of Christmas and Easter. (I'm not even sure if she was opened for Valentine's Day!) If you want something specific, or if you want to be assured of getting the quantity you're hoping for, you might want to call ahead.

Roman's features filled and solid milk chocolates in all shapes and sizes. They also have a selection of dark chocolate, white chocolate, and even some peanut butter shapes like the rabbits on the upper right.

These cows are reminiscent of Northeastern Pennsylvania's most famous cow, Three-O-Nina!

I could just see the folks from the Dinosaur Toy Blog have a go at these chocolate Stegosauruses: "The oversized head lacks cheeks, while the dorsal plates are arranged in a single line, reflecting outdated reconstructions of the genus. The scutes embedded in the sides are a nice touch, though a quick check under the tail reveals the usual lack of a cloacal opening."

One of my friends asked online if the Scottie Dog might be a tribute to Fala, Franklin D. Roosevelt's dog. I don't know, but it's possible that the molds date to the middle of the last century. Meanwhile, the chocolate cross is a staple of all Easter Baskets around here, though I understand such confections are frowned upon in other areas. What could be more appropriate for the season than to eat the symbol of the Crucifixion in delicious solid milk chocolate?

If you want to support a locally-owned business, or a woman-owned business, or an independent business in a world full of soulless mega-corporations, or if you just like good chocolate, be sure to check out Roman's Kitchen Made Candy in Wilkes-Barre!

Up on the roof

This was my next-to-last week doing the Blog of the Week at PA Live! on WBRE. For the past seven months I've been parking in the Boscov's parkade next door to WBRE every Tuesday (or almost every Tuesday; those days that I was working after the show I parked at a meter across the street so I could make a quick getaway.) It's given me a reason to visit Boscov's, something I hadn't done in years. A few weeks ago I happened to park on the top deck of the parkade, something I hadn't done in over a decade. The views were beautiful, but I lost sunlight before I could get back to the car. I decided that one of these days when the sun was setting later I had to park up there and remember to bring my camera. This past Tuesday was to be the day.

The stairwell and elevator shaft on the top parking deck of Boscov's in Wilkes-Barre. I went all these years without realizing there was an elevator here. My mom never even realized there were stairs. Someone has tagged this wall. It's hard to read, but it looks like it might say "Gort."

The spires of the Irem Temple, the Masonic hangout in Wilkes-Barre. Looking East down Franklin Street.

The Westmoreland Club seen from street level. This is where the rich and powerful of Luzerne County gather to plot. I think.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church from ground level.

The Bear Creek Wind Farm seen from the top deck of the Boscov's parkade. The white building on the left is the Bicentennial Building. This is facing east-by-southeast.

Close-up of the wind turbines.

The Market Street Bridge, looking towards Kingston. Facing north.

The backside of Wilkes-Barre. Main Street runs through the middle of this picture. These buildings, which look like so many tenements, present attractive faces to Main Street. Facing south by southwest.

The rooftop array of WBRE. A bit of chain-link fence can be seen at the lower left. This picture and the ones before and after it were taken through a chain-link fence that keeps you from falling off the side of the parkade. (No such fence is at the front, just a low railing separating you from a five-story plunge to Franklin Street. Facing south by southwest again.

Another skyline view. This is mostly to the left of the previous picture. The towers of Penobscot Mountain are visible  to the left of center. Facing south.

St. Stephen's as seen from the top deck of the Boscov's parkade. This building is so large and so close that it couldn't be captured in a single photograph. This is a composite of three photos.

I realized that a building I tried (and failed) to photograph earlier in the day (the sun was behind it) now had favorable lighting conditions. I drove a few blocks across town and took some pictures. This is one of the better ones of "THE WILKES-BARRE CO".

What does that even mean? I have no idea. Does the "CO" stand for "company?" "Colliery?" What were the smokestacks for? How many people worked here at its peak?

UPDATE: I've been informed (and have confirmed) that these last two photos are of the Wilkes-Barre Steam Heat Building, which once provided steam heat to customers throughout Wilkes-Barre. Scranton had a steam heat system when I went to college there in the mid-to-late-80's. The steel-barrel chimneys in the middle of the street, and the great gouts of dirty-smelling water vapor pouring out would have made great photos. I think I took one or two, which I'm sure I have somewhere.