Mulling over putting Boxcars on Walnut to sleep for a while. I should clarify; that's my haiku book on Southern Illinois. Not this site, which has the same name, which displays some haiku, and which represents my continued connecton with southern Illinois.

I actually still love the place, with its steamy weather and extensive Shawnee, nothing like that up here. We have better, more Iowish weather in my opinion, drier, cooler, not stagnant ever, but once you're 71 the weather takes up less of your problems. It's the people I miss. I'm five hours away and haven't been down there in the three years I've been back in the state. That's on me. Though I am stuck here to some degree, taking care of people, I could still get down there if I really wanted to, and haven't.

The main reason is that I'm still mourning the loss of my hearing.

But back to the haiku book: it's one of my originals, it's very dear to me, but it's not one of my best haiku books. And nobody ever buys it, so it's beginning to look bad. Bad as in enormous ratings. I get tired of just looking at them.

But, I have a longterm goal of reviving it - bringing it back, expanding it, giving it more of a purpose, and revamping it entirely. Its purpose would be to tell the love story of the woman I met a couple years into the place. Altogether I spent eighteen years in Carbondale. I was a big fish in a small pond. But I left because I was burnt out on my job and because my wife was ambitious and wanted a university that was growing and making promises. We went off to Texas, which ate her up alive. I left part of my heart in Carbondale.

I ponder telling the whole story, in verse...it would be called Boxcars on Walnut, of course.

Eclipse report

People came from all over. I had two friends from Iowa who came; one was from Ames and brought his two kids. Cars were lined up on the roads outside of town. Motels were charging too much and were full anyway.

It was a big deal for Carbondale, but to me this was an even bigger deal: it was not only on the line of totality for this eclipe, but also on the line of totality for the one in 2017, which followed a different line but also came right through Carbondale. Someone tracked the spot that was on both lines as somewhere over Cedar Lake.

It's an interesting phenomenon when people come from all over the countryside to be on a single line, whether that line passes through Carbondale, Dallas, or wherever. You have a convergence of people who have all come for a spectacle and presumably all have an opinion on whether it was worth it to do all that traveling. In a sense, all traveling is worth it, and Carbondale is a really special place, eclipse or not, but I think the convergence of the two lines is worth pointing out and I think Carbondale should present itself as eclipse capital of North America, at least for the moment.

But, it's over now, and basically that ship has sailed. People came; it got dark; it made the press; everyone saw the darkness; and then, they all went home. It was, after all, a Monday.

I'm dying to go to Carbondale for the big eclipse on April 8. To me of all the towns in the totality, Carbondale is by far the best.

I read something the other day about being in the 99% percent range is just not comparable to being 100%, so Marion won't do, and neither will Galesburg (where I am now), though I may have to settle for Galesburg. What I'd really like to do is take a day, drive down there, and see a number of old friends, and experience the total darkness while I'm at it. But I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it off.

The best place in Carbondale by far is the Tree improvement lands out on Thunderstorm Road. I'm not sure if the university wants me saying this, but they have a few acres out there with a pond and an old Civil WAr graveyard, in short a good place to get away from it all, and it's generally not heavily guarded with security. We used to take our dogs out there and they'd run around, jump in the pond, etc., and we'd all come back much improved, though I'm not sure we did anything for the trees. it's just southern illinois as it was before all the people showed up and it's very nice.

A place like that would have a million stars, but mostly only on clear nights in the fall. Southern Illinois in April is more likely to be cloudy, and I say that mostly as a warning to those of you traveling from a long distance. It's even more likely to be cloudy than Iowa or Galesbug, and that's because the weather system draws all that moisture up from the gulf, whether there is a shadow crossing over us or not. Really San Antonio might be a better place to catch it without the clouds, and there you can go across town and witness the difference between 99% and 100% as it's a very large town. The Alamo is small but SA is quite large and the skies are usually clear, unlike Carbondale.

Maybe I can make some eclipse pop art. I miss all my friends down there though, and that's my real reason. I just want to go back and see the place. And then see the darkness.

general report

OK so I moved back to Illinois over a year ago, and still haven't made it to Carbondale or southern Illinois, which is now about four hours away. There are a lot of reasons for that - raising teenagers among them - but that's what it is. I miss my people in so. Illinois very much and want to visit.

This post is more about the general plan to redo Boxcars on Walnut, which is poetry that came off of this site back in the years (1994-2012) that I lived in Carbondale. In those days I wrote a lot of haiku and put it in a book which has been saved here. And in the meantime I have switched over from making massive haiku attempts, 1000 at a time, from my extensive travels, to rather using the small-book format to tell little stories.

So it is time for boxcars to get a revamp. It will probably be very simple and clean, but it will happen in the next few months, and I will keep you posted.

The pop art on this site is something I'm attached to as well. But I've done nothing with it except leave it here, and maybe that's another goal I can set out to accomplish now that I'm in Illinois. I've become a kind of Illinois fan, Illinois patriot. I love the place. And I'm just sitting in my chair, in small-town Illinois, watching the rain (almost unheard of in New Mexico) and enjoying the way a small Illinois town (in this case Galesburg) can make you feel like you've got what you need.

back from the southwest

Ten years in Texas and New Mexico, and I got a little out of touch with what is happening in southern Illinois. We moved our family back over the Memorial Day weekend, and are now in Monmouth, near the Quad Cities and Galesburg, and are waiting to move somewhere in Galesburg in July. We are definitely enjoying the rain.

I may spend some time developing this site, which has always been kind of a tribute to southern Illinois, as well as trains. I am definitely appreciating Illinois, as Monmouth is very familiar in its culture and general atmosphere. The water problem may be opposite - they seem to be getting way too much of it - but in character, it seems comfortable. "Illinois is a lot like Iowa, only more so...." and "Iowa and Illinois are a lot alike, the only difference is, Illinois has a city in it..."

There's a secret that this blog will tell before other people find out. I am returning to Illinois.

The plan is to go to one of five towns: Galesburg, Alton, Bloomington, Quincy, Champaign, and to move about June 1. Why not Carbondale? Lots of reasons. I love Carbondale, but let's just say, lots of reasons. I'm glad I'll be close enough to visit.

The decision may come down to the house. Any of the five appear to acceptable for what we care about, decent school for a couple of high school kids. Also, proximity to kids and grandkids, and health care of various kinds. We've got some specific needs.

I may be able to add to this blog as time goes by; I'm glad it's still here.

Boxcars on Walnut, by the way, is languishing on the shelves; nobody buys haiku. But I don't care; I made it; I love southern Illinois; I love the haiku, and it's the first of several books I've made, so it has a place right there in my heart as a threshold of a haiku era.

More later; I'll keep you posted.

My autobiography & more

http://tlevspress.blogspot.com/2021/09/just-passing-through.html

Winston's memory

So the other night on the Carbondale facebook site the topic of Winston the Bagel man came up, since Winston was an institution in Carbondale and he had a lot of people who loved him and who are severely bummed that he's gone. My main response to it, after I thought about it, was, "somebody ought to write a book about him," which struck a nerve; people agreed.

After more ruminating, I decided that that person was probably me. I can, after all, write books. I memorialized Stone Soup Restaurant in Iowa City and I could do the same for Winston.

The problem is, I didn't really know him all that well. I wasn't in the 2 am drinking crowd, although I think at one time I did buy a bagel and I liked it, but he wouldn't know me if I walked right up to him. I just wasn't around that neighborhood at 2 a m very often.

So, it would have to be a romanticized version, to some degree - fiction - and I'd have to change his name. I couldn't just make up stuff about him that I needed for my plot. Still, I find the whole scene - the bars, down by the woods where the homeless people slept, down on the southeast side, 2 a m, all the students coming out of the bars heading for Winston's little bagel stand.....it's the perfect venue for a novel.

Stay tuned. I need details about him even if I choose to avoid to use his name or I deny any similarity to real people. Of course he'll be a good guy anyway; I don't think any of his heirs will object. It's one of my goals, long term, for the moment.

Postcards from the Edge

Halfway to Graceland

Center of the Universe

Center of the Universe II

These postcards are from a specific era in my life when I was using xerox machines to create graphic arts. The full collection is here although it is not quite complete yet. You'll see a number of ones from Carbondale including the ones above.

It was a prolific time for my pop art - the xerox art had started in Kansas in about 1990 and continued right through the nineties until I got more into posterization and computer-generated pop.

The good news is that I am working on a pop art book entirely about Carbondale. These aren't in it; they are early, and not as good quality, as the posterization. But they had a kind of inspiration that I still like. I will try to complete this collection and then link to it from templates.

All from before is now obsolete

100 Haiku paperback $4.29 + shipping on Amazon
kindle $2.99

This book has given "Boxcars on Walnut" (see the ad on the side) a new life, for this reason: small haiku books are clearly the way to go. Putting a thousand in a single volume was clearly beyond my ability to sustain, not to mention do well, and this one in general has a much better chance.

American haiku, 5-7-5, is alive and well. Making a collection of them gives you a single form for every one in the book, and there's something to be said for that. When it's all over, Boxcars on Walnut will be the first of a series.

I was proud to learn that when the president tried to fly into southern Illinois, have a lightning rally at the airport, and leave town fast, a number of people were there to greet him. Someone who owned a farm near the airport allowed their land to be used for a huge "LIAR" sign, visible from the airport. The paid audience, many of whom came from elsewhere, were there to boo the protesters, but there were more protesters. Maybe they can't pay people enough to go to these rallies.

He hasn't been especially good for southern Illinois; he promised to bring back dirty coal, but, I don't think that will do it for southern Illinois, even if he were able to do that. I don't even think they want dirty coal anymore. Hospitals are one of our few remaining industries, and hospitals have been full of black lung for years. Dirty coal is not the answer.

I'll get a picture if I can. All I can say is, VOTE. That stooge you have in there who keeps voting for things like tax cuts for the wealthy, he has to go too.

e pluribus haiku 2018

$6.00 on Amazon
$2.99 on Kindle


1000 original haiku from fifty states and the District of Columbia - written in an original 5-7-5 style. Haiku are colorful and physical and include a season word or hint. Because the USA is geographically spread out, geography clues are necessary too.

april rocks kindle promotion

details on my facebook author's page

e pluribus haiku 2017

a thousand original haiku

Available at Amazon $6.29 + shipping
Available at the Createspace Store $6.29 + shipping
Available on Kindle $3.59

Boxcars on Walnut

Now available on Amazon $5.38 + shipping
Coming on Kindle $.99 (soon) as well

A Dozen Crime Stories

Now available on audiobook!

Short Stories

for the ages!

Quaker Plays for First Days

This is a southern Illinois thing:

$7.28 + shipping at Amazon
All profits go to Quaker organizations

more haiku

wakes up from th’strange dream,
magicians, dragons, ‘n’ castles –
‘no name road’ street sign

up devil’s backbone,
th’frog comes a bit too early,
and th’snake is ready

came back from l a –
he says it was th’prom, but could’ve
been seventeenth street

road t’ th’christmas tree farm –
at an old texaco sign,
he sees th’stud’baker

homecoming parade –
chi-o’s are telling the delts
plans for th’spillway

grand tower levee –
barge workers wave, when they’re not
fighting that current

interfaith windows,
broken in th’riots – used t’hit
th’army recruiting

fifty arrested
‘n th’halloween “disturbances” –
most from out of town

on boskydell road,
goes ninety – not listening to
th’shrill warnings ‘f th’locusts

chance t’go up t’duquoin –
he climbs on th’big main stage, where
charlie daniels played

reunion ‘t quatro’s –
only th’freshmen look diff’rent,
pizza’s good ‘s ever

they march t’ward mélange,
everyone’s a bit too cold –
then, th’kid spots santa

turn left ‘t th’smiley face,
vulture fest’s down that valley –
yellow, ‘n’ has th’bowtie