the timbers stand silent
protruding through the surface of
the great Hudson's waters, in defiance,
in remembrance,
as grave markers of an era
long since passed

time has passed,
yet it never fails to jar a
tear from a cloudless eye,
to stir a shudder from these still bones, this,
crisp repeat of the honour guard salute.
through the humid heats of summer,
the blistering colds of winter slumber,
the dewey splendor of springs bloom,
the regal colours of fall's spectacular,
the airmen, the soldier, the sailor and
the marine stand, starched, pressed crisp in
uniform attention, paying tribute, respect
to a fallen comrade of today, and to those
who have come before,
while a weeping bugle's brassy notes
take flight at grave's edge

Gave Kerri her present today. she loved it. first she was amazed at the beach glass i found. apparently its hard to find. my sister who lives down on the jersey shore, said that the easiest place to find it is in a gift shop. And I FOUND A BLUE PIECE. i guess that is like the 4 leaf clover of the beach glass universe. Kerri loved the poem too, asked if she could hang it in her room, i said that was the whole idea behind it. though i wish that i had a frame with a shelve on the bottom so i could have put the glass jar with the beach glass in it on the shelve. it would have looked great. well its pouring here and thundering and lightning. not such good beach weather. talk to you later

don't know where that title came from, oh well i will use it. the beach was just great today. got there around 11am and was there until 6. i guess i have to get in all the beach time possible right now, i start my new job july 25th. i will be training to be an IT recruiter for a firm in manhattan. have no real knowledge of ITish kind of work. i do know that these guys that i am going to be recruiting are very very smart, and make lots and lots of money at the big firms on wall street. so anyways back to the beach. the ocean has warmed considerably in the past few days, as i heard lake erie has too. while walking down the beach i ran into my ex girlfriend. my buddy and i walked by her, and after we got back to our spot (a few beaches down, as they go by streets i.e. Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Indiana.) well when i got back to our spot, on indiana, i txted her that i was coming over to say hi. walked over 3 beaches (about 3 small, very small blocks) and sat down. of course she looked great. that was at about 3:00, didn't leave until 6:00 after we had even walked back to her house and used the bathroom. we talked about out situation, which really sucks, and talked about other random topics that popped up inbetween us trying to figure out what we are to do about our situation. today is her birthday, shares it actually with haikuster. kinda funny i guess. happy birthday haikuster!!!! well i didint get her (kerri) a present, instead i wrote her a poem on really good paper, and framed it. it is actually the beach glass one. the other day while walking the beach i was thinking of her and picked up a piece of beach glass, something she likes for whatever reason, well it is kinda of pretty to look at, and running your fingers across it, it well i don't know it does something. so i had picked up about 5 or 6 really good pieces of beach glass and brought them home with me. after sitting them on my coffee table and staring at them for awhile, i got the idea for the poem, then i got the idea to frame it. it looks really good. black wood frame, an antique, white/ slightly yellowed heavy paper that has a fabric type consistency to it, and it is written in black ink, not like a ball point pen, but a marking pen of sorts. now i just have no idea what to do with the glass. she has a nice jar full on her nitestand, but i wanted to keep this separate. im headed off to Bed Bath & Beyond first thing to see if they have a small glass jar to put it in, i would think they do. she wants to go to breakfast, but i don't think its a great idea. i mean of course i do, but it isn't the right thing to do. of course i had plans for her birthday but those were put on hold at the time of the breakup. its funny i had a lot of things for us to do. there is this beautiful spot out east, if i remember right its just past west hampton. its on rt27 and you need an suv to get to the spot. its on the beach and you can camp there. you go to bed at nite after campfire and maybe a few drinks, and wake up to the crashing of the surf. its like you are on another planet almost because you look out and see absolutely nothing, well maybe a charter boat here or there, but it is simply fantastic. go to sag harbour, i had wanted to bring her home for the taste of buffalo, what better of a time to bring someone home to meet the folks, and experience buffalo when the queen city is at her best. i thought i was going to be really sad after having talked to her, i mean i am sad, but i am also hopeful. not that i am going to wait around for her to get her head on straight, but hopefully she wakes up and realizes that everything was good. i had gone to my friends baby's baptism in albany. two of my friends from the city rode up with me and they had just gotten engaged, then two of our friends still in buffalo, married with 3 kids came out. it was great, and a bit of a downer too, i could see kerri, sitting there with me in that backyard party in the future, and it felt right. over the past 4 years here, in LOng Island, she and i have been in the same places over and over again, and not met until just this past winter. i worked in garden city, and the nite of the blackout 2 or 3 summers ago we all went to this bar Leo's across the street. everyone was outside on the sidewalk cafe drinking. well its not a big bar, and garden city is compareable to amherst i would say. she was there, we were both there for hours. there are other instances, people who we both know. if it doesn't happen, it sucks, it doesn't happen, but if it does, wow, i would not be surprised. one nite my roomate and i were sitting smoking a cigar and having a soco on the rocks and he is very intune with people. great person, i don't have a brother but i would call him one, and he was like ya know eric thats the girl you are going to marry. my 78 year old great uncle said the same thing. i can see it. the best laid plans huh. we'll see.

beach glass lying in
the surf
clear, green, blue, amber
jagged, broken edges softened
rounded, smooth
like pieces of stained glass
washed ashore from far away
castles, cathedrals in dreams
I can only imagine, as I gaze
out upon the horizon, little children
silhouetted in the summer haze laugh
and play at ocean's edge
I hold in my hand, beach glass,
dreams and hopes,
of which are my gifts to you

so its the taste of buffalo, i am so jealous of all of you people who get to enjoy the great weekend!!! wish i could be there too! i saw from some of the pictures posted that the weather is great for the taste. couple of my friends from albany went out to buffalo for the event. tomorrow i plan to get to the beach for sunrise. it is supposed to be another beautiful day here. well thats all today. thought i would have more, but just not in the mood to write anything

well it was nice to see someone actually reading my post. i would like to make a correction. I did not mean that only independents are able to come up to their ownl conclusions. that was not what i meant to put out there. however i do feel lableing yourself left/right is a part of the current crisis our nation is facing. it was good to hear from you jason. thanks

i sit in the glow of the bar
miles away from myself
looking through the bottom of each bottle

hope everyone has fun with that last post

all of you march your little self's off to war. Left, Right Left Right. I just love how people identify themselves so strongly with an ideology, its as if they are proud to join this fraternity of people who do not think for themselves but rather take their marching orders from people who have a hell of a lot more money, and a hell of a lot more control over things than they will ever have. Why don't you just really grow some balls and join a gang, bloods, crips, westsiders, eastsiders, maybe that will give you the adrenaline rush that "ideology" can provide. gang warfare. oh but thats right when everyone leaves the ivory tower, those pastoral lawns infront of great halls of learning, obviously you forgot the whole reason for going to school. NOT FOR A FUCKING OCCUPATION, BUT TO INSTRUCT YOU TO LEARN TO THINK FOR YOURSELVES. see in high school kiddies, everyone wants to be like everyone else. and please do not say thats not true. there is a reason why 80's high school movies are so popular, because they are a mirror of high school life all over the country. so when you go to school, you are allowed to see different points of view, take information for your own and formulate your own hypothesis. but then if you still did that, you would not be able to keep up with the jones's, or people might think you eccentric. or perhaps, when someone says what are you doing now, you might not have the exact, correct answer. just let your minds become mush, become the fodder the PARTY wants you to become so when you watch Bill O'Reilly on his spin no spin zone, and he shouts down a guest you can see his side of the shouting match, its all entertainment people and you apparently just can't see this. thats how they sell the adds that pay for the shit on tv now adays. go ahead watch reality tv. talk about the next day. because lord knows, (oh shit i said lord knows, is that allowed, considering i am an independent. i do believe i god, and feel our nation was founded on christian principals, he is on our money and in our courthouses, he is in our pledge of allegiance and should be there) thats what the PARTY wants, so you do not have time to read, to find for yourself the truth or to think critically so you do not have time to QUESTION AUTHORITY, maybe if you did do this you would see that most of what we are told, or fed through sound bites is out of context and self serving. apparently all of the loans on the loan counter are a waste of money, an accumulation of interest that you could have put to better use at the casino in niagara falls, or on an online texas hold em website. My roomate is a Republican, Myself, an Independent. I can already hear the cries, Why don't you pick a side, don't be a flip flopper, well friends everything should be taken on an issue by issue basis.abortion, immigration, the environment, But of course you people who proudly wave the bloody shirt say your way is the only way. And then you have those who want to be friends with everyone, coddle and understand. Well people there is a time and place for both. think of our world as your neighborhood, everyone has to live there. yes there are people who fuck up majorly. their are zealots. but do we have to support their cause by giving them reason to hate us more? they will hate us regardless. we have not fullfilled a prome. i did not and do not support the war in Iraq. i support the troops and pray for their speedy return, safe and having accomplished that which they were sent there for. though they should not have been sent in the first, they are there now and have to do the best. my roomates brother is leaving in a month for kuwait. he has a child, and one on the way. do you think the gov't pay is going to be near enough to support his family? a pvt in the army makes 17,000 a year give or take a few hundred. what does an entry level employee at Haliburton make? what will the bush twins make? part of the problem is our country's policies.policies that even have rended our nation in two, four even, the left the right the haves the have nots. there are haves and have nots in each party, the snake has two heads, the blind just cannot see this. part of the problem is the result of france and britains carving up the globe in the age of colonization, and unfortunately, we left standing as the lone superpower after the cold war have taken the onus of responsibility on ourselves. the problem is much to complex to be solved in a black and white, excuse me red and blue world (ref: election map) i don't have the answer, but we do live together and no this is not can't we all just get along, cause its not, but we as a nation need to come together, and that will not happen until the changes with in require an administration that is RESPONSIBLE TO THE PEOPLE THAT ELECTED IT, THEY SERVE US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

Necessity is the plea for infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." - George Washington

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960, p. 1035- 1040

My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.

My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

IV.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.