I am very, very, very
Fond of riding on the ferry.
There’s no traffic on the river,
So it’s easy to deliver
All the riders when expected
From the boats they have selected.
Up on top, the ride is breezy,
But in any seat, it’s easy
To gaze out at your surroundings
While the vessel’s leaps and boundings
Take you all around the city
For a taste of nitty-gritty.
Passengers of all persuasions
Ride for various occasions –
Workers heading to employment,
Tourist seeking pure enjoyment.
People-watching is rewarding.
Check out strangers while they’re boarding.
Hear the accents from their nations;
Eavesdrop on some conversations.
Ditch the subway, bus or taxi;
Turn your mini journey maxi
And your mood from tense to merry.
Hop on board a New York ferry!
Big complex words often disguise
how good design begins at the nitty-gritty,
with clarity, accuracy, and precision,
pointing straight at the essential core idea.
It is not endless conceptualizing,
brainstorming, strategizing, or theorizing,
stacking abstractions upon frameworks
until the original purpose dissolves.
Strangely, the path toward simplicity
often means wandering through complexity first,
through failed attempts, diversions, and revisions
slowly stripping the unnecessary away.
Every trial removes another layer,
clearing noise from the heart of the problem,
until only the kernel remains—
often requiring the courage to start anew.
In the end, simplicity is not pure genius.
But a disciplined understanding made explicit;
nothing left to add, nothing left to remove—
Simplicity is elegance in design in retrospect.
I paint a whimsy in my mind,
A quiet place and pretty,
Where I can simply dream
Child-like without the nitty-gritty
Of the city's less then kind imagination.
In reverie, the gurus say, the mind
Will try visualization, the machinations
Of the Universe, or so it may seem,
But in truth it's just an aberration
Of Reality's unending hallucination!
I swim in sorrow, deep and wide,
Against a tide that won’t let me hide.
Each thought is bleak, each stroke is weak,
My breath is weak, I cannot speak.
If I stop to think, I start to sink.
My eyes glue shut if I blink.
I'm slunk in a glum, glug slug of gunk.
Stuck in the oooze of blues, I'm sunk.
My arms grow weary, my eyes are teary.
My fate is bleary, dreary, weary.
For grief is a sea, land-locked in self pity,
In which we wallow, until we swallow, nitty-gritty.
Tritina (three tercets with one final line).
I will return as you taught me to read a god gifted total benign, even after nine
I will return as you taught me to see the specific Night of Knight M Shyamalan
I will return as you taught me to listen to the nitty gritty a lot, and the system
told the family sift an autistic family food, Trying dough for far too long in frame
They are class of mishaps, birds of the same feather and you are a linear secular
practice along one way, the other one is pedagogy of monolithic behavioral norm
I told time as I wrote once a power point key. Did commit a tavern charm
Time elapses and time begins, and time stamps the truest may, say so and so.
Time has her graceful heed to vilify the cover page elsewhere, to May to mow.
They blew the divine up, with the silentmost Neon light, landed, to reach for the show!
Here's the nitty-gritty:
I don't need a city
Or the vote from some committee
To tell me that you're pretty
That fact is indisputable
Wholly irrefutable
The truth of it immutable...
Bluebird, you are beautiful!!
Grinds so fine. Keep steep steady.
Catch ev’ry nitty gritty. Screen darkness dregs.
Press, add water. Start ebonic eddy.
Stir ‘nilla cream, bright and witty.
Chat with friends so fine. Keep.
Gentle and loving heart is all.
It tames the stormy days’ wildness toll,
Subsiding the seemingly incomprehensible
Unfairness of the wild world numb contretemps.
Yet
It flames the homely wee joy,
Intensifying the nitty-gritty fathomably
Gift of everyday serendipity godsend--
And only when
the gentle and loving hearts (under)stand.
(14-6-2024)
Written By: D. Collins 2/15/24
To me, red, black, and green means.....
Black blood embedded all over the earth.
There has never been any who have actually seen.
Being used as a tool with free, yeoman's work.
I put this to paper just in case people forgot.
I've been around a while, and have seen a lot.
So, I'm qualified to give the downright-nitty-gritty.
And, contribute my version of Black History.
It's still bad in Compton, where I was born.
Beaucoup years after Katrina N.O. still ain't home.
There are states removing us from history books.
Now, you tell me, who are the real crooks?
Theme:
Nazrul Song :
The eternal mid-fielder jersey, won't you have thy mercy?
The eternal mid-fielder jersey, won't you have thy mercy?
The ever-young heart, with a malleable intricate
Time took you away, gypsy mood, heard.
a solitude in contemplation, my reverie Lord!
In space , out there, out beyond
An absorbed state of whim, for lowly low, this body
A morale, breakable rule for an unbroken time, lulls on
a solitude in contemplation, my reverie lord!
stars and sun, and moon, playtime when days delight, yours
The indifferent, you
lying all and all, beneath thy feet
In platoons of fleet
The ordinary day with a grand, still, in nitty gritty
In glum and glee, only a tranquil serendipity
In whim of a smile, a tear of a soul, paired for evermore
a solitude in contemplation, my reverie lord!
Lewd Louie came from Windy City
he went straight for the nitty gritty
got fresh with Margo
who told her man Beau
who kicked his a** with rhythmicity
I'm writing in despondence,
Perhaps seeking your indulgence,
Let's talk about this boy,
Let's be their life-buoy,
Big boys are now crying,
They are at a verge of dying,
They're all subject to oblivion,
Very soon going to extinction,
Today I'm speaking for the lad,
Do not say I'm a biased bard,
Where's the manhood glory,
All troddened and treated lowly,
To day I'm writing to the men,
Pushing on to the gentlemen,
Let's be a little magnanimous,
All you hear ain't rumours,
We've lost everything masculine,
The all world is now feminine,
The rain is heavily beating us,
Our own are licking the ****,
Let's go to the drawing board,
There are lots of things aboard,
Lets check the nitty gritty,
It's time to avoid the fishy,
@Tha Formidable Cheru.
#themonk.
Fruits of Labour
Sometimes I dream
Of where I’d like to be:
Far away from nitty-gritty chores,
Enjoying the fruits of my labour.
Happy and nonchalant,
Swaying in my hammock,
Sun tanning, and feeling the ocean breeze
Gently sweeping over me.
On a shore of golden sand
On a South Pacific island,
“Que ce soit ma maison”
(and let this be my home),
My island paradisium,
Distanced from criticism
On the beaches of Tahiti1
With a tiare2 behind my ear.
***
Notes:
1 “Tahiti” (Rising Sun) is the largest island in French Polynesia, and its capital is Papeete.
2 The “Tiare” is Tahiti’s national flower. A tiare behind the right ear signals single and available, while a tiare behind the left ear indicates married or dating.
Being Forgiven
Miracle Man
7/23/2022
I refuse to linger my days in pity,
but am remorseful for things I’ve done.
But when it gets own to the nitty-gritty,
I have the power to change nary one.
For my past is like a read only file,
It can’t be changed, what others see.
So this morning, in thought, I reconcile,
while praising God for forgiving me.
I solemnly received my first toilet auger
As if it were a knight’s well-tempered sword.
It meant I’d passed my ninety-day audition,
And seemed to me a suitable reward.
And so began my tenure working maintenance
In the nasty nitty gritty of a toxic circumstance.
But I’d scored a small apartment, living duty-free,
So, it was time for starting over’s second chance.
A thousand plus apartments needed tending.
When a work ticket printed, I called dibs.
Seventy buildings built of brick and dreams.
I was privy to the skivvy in all those skeevy cribs.
I’ve encountered many silent tribal totems:
Hindu murti, Christian chi rho, Muslim script.
But no matter the religion of the trouble call,
For every useful purpose, I came suitably equipped.
There were feral cats, roaches, and bedbugs
Infesting hoarders’ floorspace wall-to-wall.
I dealt as best I could with the detritus,
But my biggest stress was over-night on-call.
While paying the price of complete independence
I may sometimes have hammered my thumb.
Though I may be a hack in the handyman trade,
I conducted my final campaign as my army of one.
And I came off a winner.
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