Tom Stock

We planned to visit the fish hatchery and then return via a trail on the east side of Great Pond. Clouds erased the glare of direct sunshine. Colors are more vivid.

Mark had his camera and started shooting when we reached Westbrook Pond. With no wind, the pond surface was a mirror. Two pair of swans became of metaphor of peace. Mark said, “I know it’s a cliché shot, but me shooting anyway” Mark takes RE-MARKABLE photos. I heard the click of his telephoto several times.

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I  Strap on the bear paws. They are antique gut and hickory shoes that are comfortable when eight inches or more of snow cover the fields. I set off on the Hubbard Duck Farm off Hubbard Avenue in Riverhead along the northern edge of the Peconic River Estuary. I begin my trek adjusting the leather straps that have lengthened because they are wet and need to be tightened; I plod off down the right-of-way, over the tracks, beside the woodlands, past the complex of buildings, the incubator house, the long holding pens, the workers house and outhouse, into the snowy fields with tree statues that look like Giocometti sculptures sticking up, stark, smooth sumac with their knobby, jerky stalks and shield scars where leaves held on, past disk harrows rusted and peeping up above snow surface, with goldenrod stalks like pencil lines on white, white paper; the tracks I make cross deer tracks, and  mink tracks I enjoy a welcoming, cheerful chickadee.Thea sun is hidden behind a gauzy curtain of a certain snow sky, the drifts in open fetches, the tall reeds that hide the creek, the catch basins for duck waste, the bittersweet berries dropped  by the passage through thickets of vines. I plod and tramp past collapsed tin-roofed buildings were thousands of white ducks once quacked and fed and drank and shit. What a beautiful way to spend an afternoon; my thighs hurt; I stop to readjust a strap, tighten the binding; Ie enter a maple forest following a deer path; reenter that field with wind in face through sumac groves, and more disk harrows, who have retired on their home ground. I can hear the ducks, see huge what masses of ducks adding waste to the Peconic River. The place awaits a new beginning..maybe condos. high end luxury homes, golf course. Maybe even an open space area where other people can do what I  just wrote about.

A rainy, overcast day and what to do?? Let’s go shopping at K-mart with naturalist Tom Stock. I grab one of the monstrous shopping carts and am determined to fill it up. I join the consumers already in the store. There are many women, over weight, not very attractive, with huge cardboard boxes that look like skyscrapers sticking out of their carts. These women have smiles on their faces like Herring Gulls or ducks (whom always smile). There is a men arguing with their wives in angry tones over what kind of shampoo they should buy. There are over a hundred choices, so I can understand how difficult this decision must be for this couple. I overhear another man saying to his wife “You need a coupon!” in an urgent voice. I spotted a man sitting in the patio section sitting on a lounge chair with strange, distant eyes.

I had come to buy a four pack of color film. That’s all I intended to buy. So how come my receipt says $64.19?? I passed the blue gene section and tossed in two pairs. I needed candles. I picked out two Martha Steward decorator candles. However, I didn’t intend to decorate with them. They are the decorations; they don’t help with the decorations. Another example of package labeling that may suggest to the buyer that if you buy “decorator” candles, you can decorate. I saw a back scrubber so I thought I needed that. I’ve gotten along without a back scrubber for 20 years. All of a sudden I needed a back scrubber. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to fill up my shopping cart but I still had quite a bit of room left.

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(In support of the Standing Rock Reservation)

They are lined up for the photo shoot

Reporters ready with note pads

A bevy of politicians, dressed in smiles

Hold gold-painted spades

For a groundbreaking event

They look to the cameras

Hunched with blades of dirt

The ceremonial toss of soil

To signify the start of another sky scraper

Or a new village of wigwams

To grow window dressing as proclaimed

“We are taking care of our Indigenous Brothers”

Thesis the start of a new Native American community

With all its infrastructure

New fire pits, fiber glassed dugouts

A cleared path to their “happy hunting grounds”

To energize their wampum business

For jewelry on display in a strip mall

That covers their sacred burial ground

Perhaps a shot of the Sachem and the developer

Standing in front of a tax-free cigarette outlet

While Natives stand by dumb struck

As they wait to be ushered

Into yet another smaller reservation

The treaty has an “X” signature assuring that

In case a pipeline has to pass through

There will be nothing they do co about it.

Behind the line of politicians, a sign…

“Community Redevelopment.”

Maybe there’s a message here

If so, what is it?

Curious George climbs, snoops,

And gets into everything he comes in contact with

Oops, he just stick his nose in a pot of glue

I can learn from this.

Is the Curious George show just a coincidence

When I turned on the TV?

Was this meant to be?

I was looking for the NYC Marathon

And you popped up

I wondered. is this a prompt for some poetry?

I am tempted and curious myself

What will happen next?

What’s your “big picture” message?

Be curious like me?

Everybody’s curious, I think

Perhaps to be more curious

I went to college and passed

I put my hand on the remote

To change the channel

“No. no, no Tom, don’t surf

Stay with me” Curious George begs

Look at him. adorable and charming

A furry little monkey

Oh my gosh, he’s opened a desk

In an elementary classroom looking at books

Wow, he is curious

So I decide to buy a scratch-off card

Because I’m curious to find out

What’s behind those little covered windows

So I scratch. YIKES I won! I won! A dollar

Being curious has paid off

Hey, this might be the big picture message

OK, Tom, get curious about

Something more important

Turn off the TV, get busy

Use my five senses

Start asking questions

I know I’ll find something

Let my curiosity grow.

Thanks Curious George

November 4, 2016

I spent part of the afternoon with some children on the plains. The 19 acre site never looked better not only because of the beauty of grasses.  I watched the colorful jackets of children bounce and dodge in the distance as they made their way along the trail. I was glad to see this. This is what the place is for. This is the kind of playground I’d like to see for all children.

I was asked by Nomi to work with these 9 children to draw them out and try writing poetry. We started with a scavenger hunt.

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