Morning Thoughts, Poetry

I have been reading some more of Leviathan The History of Whaling In America. There is an interesting idea in this book. Apparently, the Spermaceti Trust, a group of manufacturers which attempted to set the price of Spermaceti candles made from sperm whales may have been the first energy cartel. Thus, we have the origins of the future energy cartels in American industry. I rather like this idea. Whale oil preceded petroleum and may have set many of the standards for the future industry.

Two more books came in for me today; The Big Switch Rewiring The World, From Edison To Google by Nicholas Carr and Untapped The Scramble for Africa's Oil by John Ghazvinian. You may have guessed by now that I am very interested in the issue of energy, especially renewable energy and clean technology.

We did an open mike today at the library. We had ten people total. Ten is a magic number for programming. Unlikely the two earlier poetry readings, however, everyone brought their own original poetry so it was a very unique experience.

I got the poetic urge on the subway home today. I tried something really simple. I think I might have to review my poetics:

Subway Platform

Icy wet rain
Cap, scarf, coat

Opening doors
Sit down fast

Shoulder bump
Watch the hands

Hands under paper
Wallet in coat

Stopped train
Read a book

Train moving
Watch for stop

People arguing
Time to go

I think I am going to have to get my poetry going a bit. I'll probably need a better lead off for next month. I'll try to write two more poems for the next session plus this one to create an opener for the next session.