516. "Strings, Boxes, and Plastic Wrap" A First Poem from the Bahia de Los Angeles

"Strings, Boxes, and Plastic Wrap." First poem written from the trip to the Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico, with Jules, March 18-26. The PDF can be found here:

http://sites.google.com/site/stokastika2/stringsboxesplasticwrappoem.pdf.

What can I say? This is the first time I am writing in my blog for a long time. This is the first time I am sitting in my room in Goleta--my clean room, I finally cleaned up thoroughly (removing about 500 spiders, I'm sure!) this past weekend--this is the first time in over four months I am not running around like a graduate-student-maniac, and I am purposefully slowing myself down to inspect every thought.

This poem is an example of a slowed-down inspection. My mind invented a poem this morning when I was jogging along the beaches of Ventura, and I managed to hammer it out to some final version a couple of hours later. This poem is a metaphorical comparison of the lifestyles of "first world" and "third world" countries, and the resulting question is: who is more deprived? I feel I have much more to write about with our trip to the Bahia de Los Angeles, except I am feeling unhappy and creatively stifled being here in Santa Barbara. I will continue my travel writings tomorrow.