It’s what keeps us down, what keeps us stuck to the earth,
so we don’t go flyin’ off into space.

No one can escape it. Everyone feels its effect.

It’s what brought down the World Trade towers.

It keeps the moon in its orbit. It causes the tides.
It makes your skin sag and your bones ache.

Scientists struggle to understand it.

But between you and me, this ain’t no secret.

It’s just gravity. And gravity pulls at us all.

Of course, some of us feel its pull more than others.





GRAVITY’S PULL




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We Humans Upon this Planet

Through the slats in this window blind
vertical lines of the outside world
a pattern of life
like the cycles of time
we humans upon this planet
like leaves upon a river
swept downstream
carried by currents of emotion
one day to the next
wondering where the past has gone
hoping the future will appear
holding onto the ones we hold dear
we humans upon this planet
hoping for love
looking to the outside world
through the vertical lines
of our lives

Hair, Feathers and Sex

Compulsive behavior.

American Idle

Electricity flowed through the wires of his house, it rippled around the rooms and snaked through the outlet and slipped into the television set and coursed across the circuitry to ignite phosphors on and off until pixels danced and winked and altered their wavelength ultimately making Simon and Paula and that big black Randy animate as if they were real and not just a figment of a producer's imagination a manifestation of a script written in silence while waiting for better ideas to emerge. When I snap my fingers, you will awaken and remember nothing. On the count of three, you will open your eyes and stumble into bed.

If you can draw this dog...

I was five, and fancied myself Mighty Mouse. Then I jumped off the rock wall at Scotty Clark’s house and severely sprained my ankle. As I crawled homeward across the street, I was met by my mother holding a belt in her hand. To impress upon me the danger in crawling across a street (“A driver of a car might not see you and run over you!”) she spanked me.

Basic arithmetic reveals that I was born in 1957, the year the Russians launched Sputnik. I learned early in life that Ajax Laundry Detergent is stronger than dirt, that you should buckle up for safety and Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should. Needless to say, a career in advertising was the farthest thing from my mind. I would be either an ambassador to Upper Votla, or an oceanographer studying dolphins.

In high school, I was convinced that you had to draw in order to be an artist, and since I WAS an artist, I drew. I drew distorted people and dull landscapes. I drew ugly cats that looked like dogs and dogs that looked like horses. Then I discovered typography and fell in love with graphic design. In college, I had an affair with cinematography. And throughout it all, I was passionately writing poetry and short stories.

Then, an epiphany: advertising!

Here, at last, were all my loves in one profession. I could salivate over great typography; adore the wonderful turn of a phrase; be enraptured by the dance of celluloid through the gates of Arri. Drawing? I would leave drawing to the art directors, since they must be able to draw.

An argument for ergonomicS

If you were born with webbed feet, you might not wear pointy shoes. If you were a recipient of rhinoplasty, you might not get in a bar fight. If you were aware of the fire that burns underneath the surface, you might not walk so slowly. Take a look around. Ask yourself if this is the way it was designed to work. Form follows function. Unless, of course, you cut down all the trees and make paper plates. Take a look around. Ask yourself if you can deny the destruction. Man dominates man to his own injury. All the natural systems work, until broken. All the children feel love, until broken. Form follows function. This is not how we were designed. This is not the way. The invisible qualities can be seen. Just look at the design, and follow directions.