Words and Pieces

"cuckoo" by Beth Achenbach Tick tock,  tick tock, time is up on last year. Drink, drink  drunk, thunk farewell. See the clock, fake the cheer. Chin up,  huff puff, tug of life, silent roar. Bow down,  to rise again. Heal toe, heal toe, soar. Tick tock,  tick tock, begin hefty quest. Press reset,  try again. Still the heart beat the chest. Tick tick  thump thump eyes open,  dawn’s light. New year now,  older you. Tick tock,  tick tock,  fight!

I wrote this poem after spending an hour with a few of my female artistic friends.  We discussed poetry, art, life, and when I got home I felt this overwhelming feeling of inspiration and joy!  Yes!  Joy!  It's like we all shared our energy while we were together.  I just had to write my feelings down.  The words came out of me so easily thinking of my own Sisters and the friends I consider to be Sisters from other Misters.  I wrote the poem in one sitting and a few weeks later I got the idea to record my voice reading it and create a video using photos.  I put a call out on my facebook feed and asked female friends to send me photos of themselves with their Sisters or with their BFFs that they considered Sisters or with women they were inspired by.  The ladies sent me some great images and I used a bunch of my own for fill ins to create this video.  This is definitely one of those labor of love or labor of inspiration times.  Please watch and share!  Words are posted below.

©Beth Achenbach 2016 Wrapped up in devices. My mind is... burnt out from the wires.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016 I sat on the couch Election Night feeling more anxiety than I had ever known.  I didn’t want to believe what was happening but there it was right before my eyes, the electoral map, on my local NBC channel looking like someone wrapped it in red Christmas paper.  I tried to stay hopeful and kept repeating in my head "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary".  I managed a quick nap around midnight, holding out hope that Lovey would wake me up and say “She did it, Hillary is President!” but it never happened.  I woke up about 15 minutes later and it ended up that I was the one nudging her awake around 1am/1:30 saying “let’s go to bed, it’s not looking good” just after they called Florida to the other side.  So we frumped our way upstairs to bed where I lay wide awake for a long time with my mind all a whir. The next day I was feeling very disappointed so I limited my social media browsing and did not watch the news except to see Hillary’s speech, which made me cry.  

Monday is back! Another day, another chance to start again… a beginning… a forward start into a new week, a push into the unknown. Monday gets a bum wrap, a kick in the ass, it gets a little bullied and is dreaded by so many. Monday is a bad hair day… Not enough coffee in the world day… “you look tired” day I’m here but I’m not here, going through the motions kind of day. Just press “auto pilot” day. Did u have a good weekend? What did you do this weekend? Do anything exciting over the weekend? How are you doing? It’s a too many questions kind of day! On Monday you need: A wake up call. A seat on the train. An intravenous with a caffeine drip. Celia Cruz on itunes. A feel good mantra taped to your forehead. Chocolate... and one of those stress reducing squeezy balls With a smiley face. Songs have been written about Mondays. There is “Long Monday”, “Blue Monday” “Monday, Monday” and “Manic Monday” “Wish it were Sunday cause that’s my fun day” But Mondays have to come. They are unavoidab

Today I climbed into my clothes on auto pilot  unaware of size or color or flair. My mind is elsewhere, slipped into a shadow, not wanting to take part in life currently. i’m just along for the ride. A passenger to my mind while at the wheel. This trip to nowhere is slow  and the grey scenery is  speckled with blue as we pass bits of me that i thought I wouldn't see again. It’s an awkward, familiar, comfort like driving by the sign welcoming me  to my home state. A heart pang then remembering there was a reason I left. A nod of the head with the knowledge I am only visiting for a short time. I recline my seat close my eyes and don't give a fuck where my mind takes me today. 10.27.2016  I wrote this poem after arriving at work today. I plopped down at my desk and thought about how I pretty much climbed in my clothes this morning and the next thing I knew I was at work! I was completely on auto pilot!  It's a

Chocolate, I love it!  These days dark chocolate. Day or night, morning or afternoon I'll eat it! I keep a stash at work and we have a stash at home. One brand I'm quite fond of is called Chocolove  out of Boulder, Colorado. Yes! Made in the U.S.A! I could give you a list of my other favorite brands of chocolate bars but I think that might be a longer blog post for another time! What I like so much about the Chocolove is their chocolate is smooth, wonderful and I like the squares it is divided into, easy to break, easy to eat! No this isn't a paid advert, hold on, I'm getting to the point! They have great packaging that makes it a good choice when gifting a bar to someone with the added bonus of a poem on the inside wrapper!  I believe my wife gave me my first bar, or did I give it to her? Anyway, I love to read the poems inside! Lately I've been craving chocolate at a higher rate than normal so I just finished up a bar of their RICH DARK  65%(so good) and it had a

Yesterday morning I was running a little late, which since we rescued Merlin the rabbit, it is my new normal. The pet situation is a blog post in and of itself! Suffice it to say I have a lot of waste management to take care of in the morning so getting out of the house on time has been a challenge for me! Ok, so like I said, I’m running late and I decide to hop on one of the local small buses that stops a block away from my house. They run along the same main routes that the New Jersey Transit buses travel in Jersey City. These little buses are owned by independent people so you never know what you are getting into when you climb aboard one. Some are well kept, clean and others are well, not so much. Sometimes to ride one is an adventure into the craziness of humanity but what public transportation isn’t? At least they travel consistently and it’s only $1.50 cash to get where I’m going. I can easily do the 15 minute walk to the train but when I’m running late the little bus is the way

Mystical Things that we want to believe like unicorns, fairies and creatures with wings. Magic unexplained, miracles abound, creatures that foot through woods and hardly make a sound. A howl through the silence, mist rising through leaves on trees, the smell of earth and root, branches moving with the breeze. Shooting stars in starry skies a boat horn heard on shore darkness as we turn off the light the sound of an old dog's snore. Truths and fables faith and imaginings we drift off in wonder and dream of what tomorrow brings. b.achenbach sept 5, 2016

I have a confession my friends. It's not so shocking but here it is, other people's hair freaks me out!  Now what I'm talking about is other people's hair in my personal space, in my food and attached to things I touch.  I think you probably get my drift?!  For example, at my job our client's work orders are attached to gold envelopes with masking tape and then are sent to us in production. We do the work, pack it in the envelope and off it goes back to customer service.  Sometimes I receive one and find a hair attached to the tape that's attached to the envelope. Well, it might as well be a bug or poop because I make a serious stink face and then proceed to remove the offensive hair ridden tape with the delicacy of a surgeon so as not to touch it!  It gets immediately tossed in the trash bin! I mean I don't go putting on latex gloves or anything!  I reserve the gloves for when there are two strands of hair! Plus I don't think it looks very professional

I sold myself to the darkness, flavorless and richless, they got less than a bargain. A pocket full of lint in a box with a bow. I wrote this in my journal on September 1, 2016 after a writing session about this undiagnosed pain I've been having since the beginning of May in my lower right abdomen.  I was feeling frustrated, down and damaged. Can you tell?

Today on the PATH train heading to work I was reading the book  Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert .  I’m on page 177 which, without going into lengthy detail, is the part where she has been at the Ashram in India for a while and is just coming into finding her way with meditating and praying in the different ways available there and also through talking to others at the ashram that had tried different types of meditation. So I read this one paragraph and it spoke to me very much. I constantly battle with negative thoughts. Sometimes I catch myself and plenty of times it just spurts out of my mouth and I’m left shaking my head wondering why I said what I did.  Also I have been on a sort of self discovery path lately and this book practically jumped off the shelf at me when perusing the book section at the Goodwill(I call it thrifting therapy). It has helped me see things a little more clearly on my mission to move forward in life.  And, no, I’m not planning on heading out to an ashram

Today I was on facebook and I noticed in the trending section the name Langston Hughes.  I am a fan of Langston Hughes' poetry and so I was curious to see what was doing under his name.  It turns out that yesterday they had his poem "I, Too" full page, all alone in the NY Times !  There was a special section in the paper about the National Museum of African American History & Culture which opens on September 24, 2016 in Washington D.C. and they decided to put that poem on the back section giving the words all the glory they deserve.  I just think it's great!  I wish I had known yesterday so I could have got a copy of the paper.  I would have loved to have seen the section on the new museum and clipped out the poem to hang up at work.  I'm a feely person, I'd much rather read a paper or book rather than an article online.  Kind of funny since here I am posting this blog hoping those of you that like to read things on the internet will like me!  In my goog

It's actually never happened to me before.  There I was planted on the couch watching tv and as the regularly scheduled program goes to commercial I pick up my iPhone and check my Instagram account .  I'm scrolling through my feed and I see a lovely photo of clouds posted by a friend.  Big billowy clouds that are crossing paths and behind them the sun trying to break through.  Some might call it a moodygram?!  I'm automatically inspired and start thinking words about clouds breaking and I did something I've never done, I hit "comment" and type out with my forefinger on the small iPhone keyboard a little stream of consciousness poem to my friend.  I push "enter" and my comment snaps open in the comments section!  I immediately think to myself "gosh I hope she doesn't think I'm a total nut?!".  My friend responds pretty quickly that she thinks it's beautiful and comments on how hope is a powerful thing.  I'm glad she likes it