Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Gratuitous Sax

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

The things you think about while walking around an Amazon warehouse.
    From 2015 until 2018, I worked at IND1, one of the largest warehouses for the company. I was a picker, walking 10-15 miles a night picking items, scanning them and tossing them in big yellow totes, then putting them on a long conveyer to be sent toward packing or to be guided toward a trailer bound for another warehouse halfway across the country. It was monotonous.
    Many times I would let my mind wander through the mods, writing notes on scraps of paper to be worked out later. We were not allowed our phones on the floor.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Spinsters

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

Sometimes, the strangest things can take you back. Take this internet photo, for instance.
I loved to read as a child, but did not enjoy it when forced in school to read a few chapters and discuss them afterwards in class. So when we got to Great Expectations in junior high, I earned my first “C” by “forgetting” to read the assignments and only passed the quizzes and tests by reading the Cliffs Notes. I did enjoy the book when I finally got to it on my own terms.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Poetry Month Wrap &The Evening in Silk

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

What a month! I just love to participate in as many poetic events as possible in April for National Poetry Month. And with the project I announced in my “Ghosts of the Allagash” post, it turned into an adventure.
    I made a sign and took it with me while handing out the origami booklets I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Windbreaker

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

Last Monday, I was sorting through yet another box when I stumbled across one of the first pieces I ever had published.
    I graduated from high school in 1986. Shortly before I did, on my 18^th birthday, I stopped into The Moline Daily Dispatch to turn in my 30-day notice of giving up my paper route. The Circulation Director, Hal Wilkerson called me into his office.
    He asked me what my plans were after graduation, already knowing he did not receive the application for the newspaper scholarship that I had previously told him I was working towards. I explained that I needed to help out at home. Times were tough and my parents still had four more coming behind me. He told me that not getting a degree would be the only thing that would hold me back from taking his job one day, but told me if I needed work, he had something for me. All I needed to do is show up the day after receiving my diploma.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Tewaaraton

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

While seeking inspiration among the many art pieces at the former National Art Museum of Sports (NAMOS) in Indianapolis, I came across a sculpture of a Native American engaged in a game with a netted stick.
    I reached out to the artist Frederick Kail, who provided front and back photos of the original piece, titled “Attack!” (shown below). He is also known for making the trophy given annually to the top men’s and women’s Lacrosse players, and the famous “Joe Jolter” statues that were the first licensed figure of the NFL, back in 1961.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Path of St. Vincent

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl



Let’s just cut to the chase on this one. I blame Bob Boldt.
    I had a really hard day at work and woke up around 11:45, tossed and turned for about half an hour, got up and looked at my social media. Dang it if Bob didn’t change his background and now I am wide awake!
    It’s a piece of artwork titled “The Path of St Vincent,” which Bob produced with black and colored inks flowing out of that creative mind of his.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Chet

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

I don’t remember why I first looked up the letter Chet in the Hebrew alphabet (or aleph-bet), but I thought it interesting enough to write about.
    Chet is the eighth letter and it has a shape like a doorway where the blood of the lamb was daubed during the first passover. It is said to be the letter of life (Chayim) and living (Chayah).
    I remember growing up learning about all the stories of the Old Testament and New, the enslavement of the Israelites and their deliverance after the ten plagues that befell the Egyptians. I had a big yellow book with illustrations titled “My Book of Bible Stories” that detailed all of these events, culminating with the miracle crossing of the Red Sea and the shattering of the Pharaoh’s armies when the waters closed back over their chariots and the sea bed.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Carrion

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

The Rattle Foundation's publication “Rattle” is a very tough nut to crack for a lot of poets. They receive a lot of submissions and are very selective.
    Each month they do an Ekphrastic challenge and present a piece of art as a prompt. I have had several very good pieces come from this practice, but none has ever been one of the two chosen to be featured (one chosen by the artist and the other by the editor).
    “The Carrion” was inspired by Rattle’s October 2020 Challenge: a black and white photo of a cairn built on a beach with the dark shadow of a big bird in the background. As the world was just then dealing with the unknowns of a new disease swirling the planet, the photo seemed to reflect the pessimistic mood that many were sharing at the time.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Ghosts of the Allagash

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

For National Poetry Month in April, I have been putting together origami poetry booklets that I will be handing out in various locations around Mid-Missouri.
    I revived a title I used while with the Poetry Society of Indiana (formerly the Indiana State Federation of Poetry Clubs) for a booklet in 2007. For that project I cut a pomegranate in half, then took a very low-resolution photo. We called the booklet “Poemegranate,” and it included the creative efforts of 11 poets from around the state.

The original “Poemegranate”

The invitation inside its cover

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Seventh Avenue Jesus

Detail from “The School of Athens”
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By Maik Strosahl

Back in Indiana, there used to be a guy who would walk from downtown Indianapolis up Meridian Street and Highway 31 out of the metro area. Somewhere up north he turned around and made the long trek back.
    It was the image of that man that inspired this poem, which I set in New York City. What always impressed me about the little time I spent there was the variety of people you could encounter in just a small area, such as Central Park.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Pumpkins in the Corn& Flutter By

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

Years ago, while in training as a driver in Kentucky, I was put in a hotel for my trainer’s home time. Kali and the boys came down and surprised me with a visit and we took some time to visit Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home at Knob Creek.
    Lincoln himself said his earliest memories were of living on a farm there. One memory he shared was of planting a garden with his sister Sarah. In one row, he would plant pumpkin seeds and the next she would sow the corn. The following night, a big rainstorm sent water rushing into the creek, flooding the fields and wiping out that garden.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Machines Are Taking Over

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

A poet friend of mine posted an amazing picture, then announced it was generated by artificial intelligence.

“Jungle Angel,”
free from Pixabay,
purported to have
been AI-generated

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Stories We Tell

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl


About a week ago, I received an odd email of a future posting on Moristotle & Co. It made me question the way I do my posts.
    The post looked like one of Michael Brownstein’s offerings. The title was “Template” and it was followed by only 4 lines:

[preamble…]
[…preamble]

[repeat title]

xxx

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Cursive

Detail from “The School of Athens”
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By Maik Strosahl

Bob Boldt recently shared a painting of his that took me back to the 5th grade at McKinley Elementary in Moline, Illinois.

“Crazy Rhythm,”
by Bob Boldt, 2003

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Pieta

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

By my count, this is the 108^th post I have made toward the Moristotle & Co. collection. Most of them I have been very proud of, and yet there is one that I always wanted to take back and redeem the pieces that were highlighted within during their infancy.
    The piece was an exercise in jump-starting my creative mind by playing with several photographic prompts (“Waiting for a Trailer,” April 7, 2021). By no means did I consider those pieces fine poetry, but I always wanted to go back and do something with them if I could.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Two Waxwings

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By Maik Strosahl

A photo and a short story are going around the internet that focuses on the deaths of two cedar waxwings outside the photographer’s window.
    For me, the point of the post was that even within nature we can see examples of wildlife experiencing grief.
    This week, my family have experienced the loss of an uncle on both my father’s and my mother’s sides of the family. Those losses had me looking again at that post, at today’s poem, and at a wonderful comment Roger Owens made on my January 4 post, “The Old Folks Place.” Roger quoted C.S. Lewis as saying of our loss, “The sadness now is part of our happiness then, the happiness then is part of the sadness now.”

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: WHOE

Detail from “The School of Athens”
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By Maik Strosahl




I belong to a group that shares photos and commentary about Abandoned Trains. I have used inspiration from here before as recently as my Broad Street Diamond post from back on November 2.
    A couple weeks back, Jason Whipp shared some photos of cabooses abandoned on a spur of the Walking Horse & Eastern line. I loved the name of the railroad and had to explore.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: Here Lies Officer Burnett

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

I love a good Spoon River poem. I have mentioned this type of poem before when dealing with the death of Stephen Foster (“Dear Friends and Gentle People,” November 10, 2021).
    Edgar Lee Masters created an entire history for the fictitious town of Spoon River, Illinois, with the voices rising from those resting in the cemetery. His poems expressed their regrets, humorous stories and greatest scandals.
    I have played with different variations on his themes. I find it is interesting to experiment with thoughts of what could haunt a ghost.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: The Old Folks Place

Detail from “The School of Athens”
a fresco by Raphael (1483 – 1520)
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By Maik Strosahl

After 1915, a postcard made its way to many a mailbox in Russia. The picture was of a painting done by Isaak Brodsky titled “Fallen Leaves.”
    Isaak Brodsky was born of Jewish descent in what is now part of the Ukraine. One of his famous paintings, a portrait of Vladimir Lenin, actually bears an autograph by Lenin himself, as requested by the artist. The Russian leader is reported to have said, “I am signing to what I don’t agree with for the first time.”
    “Fallen Leaves” was painted in 1915 and came to my attention as a reproduction of one of those postcards that were mailed around the Russian landscape. It spoke of other abandoned homes I have enjoyed exploring, and I felt a story brewing inside that image, one that was asking me for words.
    Of course, I had to oblige.

Hobnobbing with the Philosophers: How to Love Another Man’s

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By Maik Strosahl

I was digging through a box of memories when I found a scrap piece of paper with a handwritten poem scribbled on it.
    In my newspaper days, it was common for me to compose poems on the paper that was used to protect the freshly printed papers. On other occasions, any clean piece of cardboard could bear words that would surely have been lost if I didn’t get them out of my cluttered mind onto some sort of record.
    The one below was scribed on just such a piece of packaging and long ago forgotten.
    Until today.