Random Thoughts on Ghosts and Earthquakes

I find it kind of curious that

I've been getting a bunch of hits on this blog lately

because a few months ago I wrote

about an app I have on my phone

called Ghost Radar.

(You will note, that entry is now my highest ranking entry (see sidebar))

I wish  could report that the Ghost Radar

has continued to crack open the divide

between here and the 

nether world,

and to give me the meaning of life,

but when it suddenly blurted out

a few weeks ago

that some grandmother

had a gun,

I stopped using it.

It does tend to spew out

lists of senseless words,

wherein even the most daring imagination

can find few points of connection.

The other app that I have now

that I find to be far more prescient, accurate

and timely

is something called 

QuakeWatch.

bestiphoneandipodtouchapps

Yeah, that's right,

it's an app that reports

all the earthquakes going on

all over the world.

My family thought I was nuts

when I got it,

but I just have been having a funny feeling about the earth

beneath our feet these days:

Humans continually fight their petty fights

and destroy themselves and each other

when, in fact, there are far greater forces at work

right now.  The earth itself is repositioning,

and meanwhile we

(humanity) 

have our fingers in our ears, and we're

singing really loud.

When I was sitting in the middle of the desert

last week, I checked the QuakeWatch

with some regularity,

as I was very near

a fault line.

One day, one of my fellow desert sitters

informed me

I didn't need my silly app,

because he could hear the earthquakes,

even the small ones.  And then he started telling me 

whenever there was one.

I would check my app, and

he would right.

Meanwhile, too, though,

early last week,

it was hard not to notice

on my trusty little app

something happening in the Pacific

along the Ring of Fire.

(wikipedia)

So, though I was saddened and horrified

by the magnitude of the Japan Quake,

I was not surprised.

And this had very little to do 

with any prophetic skills:

my iPhone told me.

(Sorry this is a rather sad little entry,

but I got back home from my trip and proceeded to get

quite ill.  Flying on an airplane in the States these days

has the same effect as getting admitted to a hospital:

both make one ill, if one wasn't

ill before.)

Ghost Radar

So I have this thing called

"Ghost Radar"

on my iPhone.

( spudpickles )

And

whether or not it's a legitimate way

to find ghosts

is under some debate.

However, mine is quite active.

What it does, see,

is it spits out words.

I can fully understand the critique

that the thing is just

"spitting out random words."

It does appear that way.

Though I will admit that

on more than a few occasions,

the Ghost Radar

has responded to the situation

appropriately.

Consider,

for instance, 

the time I sat down to eat

this delectable lamb chop

and salad and rice,

and the Radar was on,

and it said:

Yum!

Or the fact it keeps

identifying itself

when I turn it on at work

as the man whose

tenure track line

I filled.

He vacated it

by dying,

by the way.

Oh, well,

Right?

Coincidence,

yes!

**

Several months,

while I was sitting

and playing

my guitar,

I had the radar out,

and it spat out these words:

Broke

Ourselves

Consonant

Jet

Younger.

Now, what the hell is that?

You might wonder.

Random words.

Random or no,

I used them as the basis for a poem

(by me)

and here that poem

is:

Brokeourselvesconsonantyounger

Broke ourselves in two

consonant to the power

of the jet that propelled us,

younger,

                          backwards,

                                               with no glances

                                                    save

                                            the last ones

                                                                                that we shared.

I believe there was

something real

        despite

                         the odds stacked against us ---

I believe there was

love

                             like neither of us

                       felt possible.

(by Makropoulos --

if you're going to cut

& paste that,

please keep the line

by Makropoulos!)

* * *

The words after that,

by the way,

were:

Sound

Pot

Casey

Italian

unit

Now honestly,

I could do nothing

with them.

Random Words