"The Rose Family," by Robert Frost

Ceiling Fan

Four dull blades

whirl fanatically,

slashing at air
but never wounding it.

The room breathes
mild breezes.

hans ostrom 2025

Mount Rainier, Morning Commute

We in our wheeled box

join streams of them in theirs--
snaking lines of pale yellow
lamps and ruby red ones:
commuting traffic.

Immense, the volcano
Mount Rainier dwarfs
our rolling frenzy. This
morning the mountain
appears as a roughly sketched
triangle, all of it a back-lit
blue, two-dimensional, that

little tell-tale notch at the top
where one day, one night,
the molten inner Earth
will travel up and out,
blast ash, spew lava, rain
boiling mud on our busy silliness
down here on this plain.

hans ostrom 2025

Was Here

 in memory of J.L.B., "JImmy"

Sprinkle some of his ashes
in Mobile Bay. Watch
them float away past piers
on their way
to the Gulf of Mexico and forever.

Sprinkle some more
in Perdido Bay. He found
good trouble there
back in the day.

Take what's left. Say
the 23rd Psalm, sing
"Amazing Grace" with
seven unsure voices.
Watch a marlin too close
to shore leap out of water,
its whole blue-green body flashing
in sunlight. Sprinkle

the very last outside a saloon,
the Floribama, big and loud
and squatting on state bounder-
lines. He loved the place
so much he left his name
there years ago,

and added "was here."
Yes, walk out onto the bright
white sand, past the bikinis
and brown bodies, past
the hoisters of beer and rum.

Yes, drop the last
of his body's dust
into royal blue Mobile
waters as the wind pries
up a few white-caps.

Turn away, walk through
the bars and gift shops,
past the thumping country
cover band, out to the cars.
Drive away and one day, one
night, think "we were there once."

hans ostrom 2025

‘Amazing’ Texas Discovery Could ‘Rewrite’ American History | BBC Timestamp

"Desert Night," by Roger Illsley and Hans Ostrom

Home Tonight (Ledbetter/Illsley)

"Worrier Blues," by Roger Illsley

Frank Sinatra & Quincy Jones How Do You Keep The Music Playing

How do you keep the music playing? (Legrand) | The Choir of Trinity Coll...

The Windmills of Your Mind - Noel Harrison

RABBIT HOLE, by Crystal Ignatowski

I just finished reading Crystal Ignatowski's fine books of poems, Rabbit Hole, from Cathexis Northwest Press. It is a superb book. The poems contain several rabbit holes (a la Alice in Wonderland)--tragic or empty relationships, difficult questions of identity, and unsatisfying sexual adventures, for instance. 

The poems have what one might call "edginess," but is hard-earned, not faked, but also not indulged. 

The poems come to us in clear, crisp free verse, but they come with maturity, depth, and sophisticated thought--as well as terrific imagery. 

I've already started re-reading the poems--that may be one of the truest signs of good poetry.

Crytal took poetry writing from me in college many, many years ago, and she has just kept on writing. She has discipline and patience. 

I hope you and/or your library (at your suggestion) will get a copy of Rabbit Hole. You'll enjoy the book. Congratulations, Crystal.

Khatia Buniatishvili - Pictures at an Exhibition - The Great Gate of Kiev