A Snippet of Light
All is drear today in this dark valley,
but for the ray of light we carry safe within.
Call on it now that the sun might shine-- that joy might transcend
to celebrate where we are going;where we have been.

His Promise

When darkness falls Across the page and amber rays elude the eye, The seasons will continue; no need to question why. There is a plan, a greater plan than our mere minds can comprehend. There is a circle, ever turning; It has no end. It defies our reasoning and turns death’s fetid breath to just a breeze. Death’s season holds no fear for us nor can it conquer spirits bold and true. It shrinks beneath His promise of eternal peace. We, the weak and weary are confident of His grace; Even when we stumble, He attends our needs. He asks only that we seek His light for it will end the darkest night. And lift our eyes to sunshine at the break of each new day Smzang 8/23/2020

It Doesn't Take Sherlock Holmes

By SMZ

Post date June 23, 2020 

After announcing the closure of my Wordpress blogs,  a competitor sent the following email:            e

“Sarah,

I hope you will give me an answer on this question. Is there any way you could transfer ownership of the Pub to me? I would put up an announcement of the change of ownership and pay you whatever you still have invested in the site.

I just hate the idea of trying to build a new blog from scratch. I understand the problems you have with the new editor style, and I may end up switching somewhere else myself. However, for now I could use the ready-made audience.”

The audacity of this individual disgusts me.  I wanted you all to know ‘how important”
the Peaceful Pub is to this person.  It means nothing. to him obviously.

I would ask that if you see someone has attempted to steal the 20 years we have put into building  the name that you will not support the efforts of the would be thief.  There
are those whom I have asked to take over the Pub, both in the past and at this time; they were/are not available to do so.
The person who sent me the email has been making statements that suggest he was with the Pub from the start-up.  He was not. Not with the original pub nor with this one which  began in 2017.
At any rate, this post  is not meant to create a discussion.  It is meant to inform our members.
And in order to save the keystroke it would take to reply to his email I will reply here:

Most emphatically I will reply to your audacious question.

 I quote you verbatim ” I would put up an announcement of the change of ownership and pay you whatever you still have invested in the site.” 

 What do you think is a fair price for one’s good name?  Whatever you think, it is not enough.  My name is not for sale nor is the name of the peaceful pub

As far as what I have invested in the site…you could never amass it.  It has nothing to do with filthy lucre.  

Furthermore, it is my opinion that you haven’t a clue what the Pub
stands for.

Thank you for offering me the incentive to state my piece.

NOTE  For all of you author associates who did not send me that email, I will be sending you a personal note within the next week.  You are dear to me.   Sarah

 

 

Notte di Luna Piena (Full Moon Night)

Such is the soul that mortal eye
cannot see.  A word heard
but not understood, familiar
from dreams, this symphony.

Por ti volare.
Because you give me wings,
I soar. Song of the land, night winds
are whispering.

Con ti partiro, for as long
as the moon is full.  What’s in a song?
What magic makes wise men
such fools?

Such is the soul that mortal eyes
cannot see, Such is the reason
we dance in the rain.
Canta ora per me.

A full moon and a Bocelli concert are a dangerous
combination.  If you have heard his album “Si”
you will recognize several of his titles sprinkled
through this Full Moon Night.
Por ti volare….for you I will fly
Con ti partiro..I’ll leave with you
Canta ora per me…sing now to me.

Pause

Hints of summer warm the air,
Dreams whisper all is well,
Doubts whisper fears.
Will we ever be ourselves again?
Who were we then? Who are we now?

Have we lost that space where calm
prevails? Is it  foolishness or faith
to look for light when the sun is slipping
behind a cloud?  Despite the unknown
of tomorrow

Write your name with stardust. The night
is clear. Moonlight heals the darkness; we
are as resilient as Earth itself. This moment
is a miracle of wonder;  take time
to savor it.

Must be the Weather

A difficult season,
this one we’re living in.
Confusing, some say
enthusiastically
as if an assertive attitude
will clear up any doubt you,
or they, had.

The government or something like it,
has even cancelled the poetry reading
in town. Makes sense I guess, though
I will confess, I had a vision
that somebody (Clooney or Bocelli,
I couldn’t tell…
the lighting was bad)

Stood in a standing room only crowd,
proud to have a spot at all
for my curtain call.  And my
how I did read. No over-emoting,
elegantly understated, every syllable
enunciated .. Oh gee,
it was swell.

And when I was done,
I saw him waiting in line
like a hungry waif, patiently
standing until  at last it was his turn
when timidly he asked me
to sign his mask.  I awoke then.
I wonder what I would have done.

It is a difficult season.

Planting a Garden

     Threatened,
     Bullied,
     Overcome
     by a blank page
     staring dumbly at me.

     Superior,
     Rigid, this entity
     without a soul
     until timidly, then boldly
     I mark it with my pen.

     Slowly It becomes more pliant,
     It begins to bend. I show it things…

     A bird on a limb,
     A latticed rose climbing,
     painting scarlet where drab had been.

     Suddenly arable, the page becomes a garden. Each line
     a row in bloom. The air wears the scent of roses.
                                

.

From a Window in the Fourth Floor Library

 

You would not believe what one can see
from a window in the fourth floor library:

Looking down:
                          a forty foot tall billboard says:
                          THIS IS A SIGN THAT
                          YOU SHOULDN’T DRIVE HIGH

Looking up:
                          There’s the sky.

Looking over and around:

                          You can see Harmon Creek
                          winding along a deserted highway.

Every now and then a car goes by—a rhythm section,
backdrop for bird song warm with Spring sun.

From this vantage point in the fourth floor library
one sees peace.

Somewhere the world has gone mad; somewhere
nations fight nations; neighbors fight neighbors...
scientists fight a virus.  But all that is far removed
from us on this peaceful day.

Here in the library on the fourth floor, looking eye-
to-eye with the eagle on the flagpole, it is easy to
forget dissension and disease.

Here, it is easy to believe
we can choose the world that we live in.

Smzang
May 03, 2020

Pitching Pennies on Blogger.com will be the only Pitching Pennies blog.

This article was written by Smzang.


As of  June 27, Pitching Pennies on Wordpress will close its doors.
I will miss my blogging friends there.  First of all I believe that the effort writers make
deserves more than a cursory glance at a cell phone.  Secondly I think the misuse
of iframes (Blocks) is despicable.  I have sense enough to understand it is profitable
and that is the bottom line.
Google accounts for over 5.7 billion searches conducted on the web daily.
The Google-recommended configuration for smartphone-optimized sites is responsive web design.
Responsive Web Design has an assortment of names.
Responsive design creates blocks.  There is a block for the title, a block for each paragraph, a block for the header, a block for the footer, etc.  “Pages that use frames (blocks) or iframes display several URLs (one for each frame) within a single page.”(this quote from https://www.ostraining.com/blog/webdesign/against-using-iframes/)
Excerpt from  Ars Technica
“Google has deprecated the desktop Web. It’s still here, but for Google it just got less important.
At least that’s the implicit message in Google’s mobile search update. The company is now judging how “mobile-friendly” a site is and is using that metric to weight search results served to mobile devices.
……”The mobile-friendly update will boost the rankings of mobile-friendly pages… in mobile search results worldwide. (Conversely, pages designed for only large screens may see a significant decrease in rankings in mobile search results.)” In other words, sites that work on mobile will outrank sites that don’t when all other things are equal.
So what does a site need to do in order for Google to consider it “mobile-friendly”?
The company’s guidelines suggest that the site start by avoiding any content that requires Adobe’s Flash Player. That will probably sound obvious to most developers at this point, but don’t forget that old YouTube and other video embeds were probably done with

Excerpt from OS Training: https://www.ostraining.com/blog/webdesign/against-using-iframes/
“If you create an iframe, your site becomes vulnerable to cross-site attacks.

• You may get a submittable malicious web form, phishing your users’ personal data.
• A malicious user can run a plug-in.
• A malicious user can change the source site URL.
• A malicious user can hijack your users’ clicks.
• A malicious user can hijack your users’ keystrokes.

From https://stackoverflow.com/questions/362730/are-iframes-considered-bad-practice
There is so much information available about block design, iframes, reactive design (all basically the same)
Some of this information is 3 years old, some newer and it is available with a little digging.  It is much easier to find positive articles about reactive design because it is what Google wants. It was reactive design that wrecked my original site (after  13 years of energy and effort invested) so one would think I would be immune by now.  It is clear that most all servers are making the switch.
I have agonized for several years about responsive design.  I have quoted in this article only the quick -find provable, but there is so much more that only the techs for each server know.  That is because each server develops proprietary code.
Where will it end?
(There was more, but this is the gist, and it provides links if you care to learn more.)
For me it ends June 27th on this blog.  Other of my blogs have different expiration dates.  I will not be renewing them.  There is always a certain sadness to saying goodbye.  I confess to feeling it now.

But...I also feel an anticipation, an excitement of seeing Pitching Pennies on Blogger.com find its wings and soar.

Going with the Flow

In the splendor of a poet’s pen
a poem lies in waiting.
The words spill from ink
infused with vision.

Some will write a smile
that lights the page
and some will write
to quell some inner rage,

Some will write to share
a deeper thought
and some will fill the page
with endless rant.

Poems are like people
in all sizes and all shapes.
Some prefer the classic
while some seek only new.

The best of all the poems
and the happiest people too
are those content
to do just what they do.

First Day of Summer

A magic flute, a silver note,
a robin on the wing;
everything is celebrating
summer     and I
am one with them.

My eyes see only art,
the weed, the vine, the bloom,
the supple Maple tree,
Each is a maestro
in its proclivity to dance, or sing,
or merely be.

Though I,
wan mortal that I am,
stand paler
by their beauty, Today
I am at once the wing-ed bird
and the graceful tree.

How I'll Cure the World

I will write the demons,
the silent screams and tears,
the groundless, and not so groundless, fears
accumulated like mismatched luggage.

No fancy suit bag here,
just battered baggage
scarred and damaged,

the ugly rumblings of griffins
and goblins, the predators
with twirled mustaches,
vile breathed and detached.

I will write the shadows
that smother the sun,
the smog and the pollution,
the pestilence of intimidation,
the bias of discrimination,

I will write the smack, the crack,
the booze, the pills, the pain,
the insane refrain that does not dwindle.

I will write it all
then crunch it up
into a vulgar ball
and burn it.

Country Wisdom

There are some things you live your whole life
without knowing, some facts that nobody cares
that you lack. Of course, if you’d be a farmer, 
you must know  a mule from a horse.

If you should be asked to write for Farm Journal
it is important to know that the fruit of the corn
is known as a kernel;  chickens gathered to eat
said fruit are rightfully called a flock.

A bullock (or ox if you choose) has never
been noted for curls. That mentioned, two bullocks
are oxen, single one out it’s an ox. Furthermore,
if it’s a cow, it’s always a girl.

A sow  (as in cow)is a hog that’s had babies,
before that she was a pig, and even prior, in a time
somewhat remote, that pig was known as a shoat.
Then as now, in good times  and worse,  
you can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.

 

This New Day

On May 16, 2019May 16, 2019 By smzangIn 1, Poetry, sarah zang, smzang4 Comments

           

..begun with birdsong and dew;
and a  newspaper that’s  a smear
of condensation and sensationalism
(soon only the scandal sheets
will survive.)

Each day
marks the end of something…
flexibility, dexterity, temerity…
the probability that today it might be
the end of war and world hunger
is a jump even on this optimistic morning
when May and the sun conspire for perfection
but the possibility is there.

Hungry souls
sense what they never know.
Somewhere inside
all of us live alone.  Breathe deeply
as if consciousness expands
with the lungs.  Take that first sip
of dawn and with it a hit of reality…
This day will be what we make it.

Quotable Quotes

You can complain because roses have thorns or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. ~Ziggy

Tomorrow is yet to be. Today is the miracle. Unknown
In acceptance, there is peace. 1 Timothy 2:15

Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. Glenn Turner

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. –
Thich Nhat Hanh

The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it.    Unknown

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Patience is the key to paradise.  Turkish Proverb

Goldfish and Sinusitis

Belly up
is not how it’s supposed to look,
is it?  Eyes glazed, sightless…
What will I tell her?

That nothing is permanent,
that life brings disappointments
even when a goldfish
is the object of affection?

Sparkles has lost his sheen.
Already those opalescent scales
have dulled pale and pasty;
even the special light bulb

cannot make it right.
I will not tell her, not yet.
Instead I make the rounds…
19 pet stores in a 30 mile radius;

surely one will have a double.
Yes!  Sparkles  lives  again.
After all, it is Spring,
a time for miracles
and sinusitis.

When they Crucified my Lord

April Is the Cruelest Month*

         * the title is a line from The Wasteland by TS Eliot

To Bryant's Fountain

“…shall the veins that feed thy constant stream  be choked in middle earth, and flow no more forever, that the water-plants along thy channel perish, and the bird in vain alight to drink?”  (from The Fountain by William Cullen Bryant)

What feelings has a fountain stilled
by overgrowth of moss and twigs?
Your silenced waters trod to dust
by the endless marching years.

The twisting thicket pushes hard
against your stony face; leafy
lances penetrate your walls. Wrens
pass without a pause to rest.

What history lies sleeping, deep
within your heart…unreachable
through the thorns and tangled ivy?
What native brave slaked his thirst

with your cold water, ere it turned
red with conquered’s blood or stain
of  autumn rust? But you, storm splashed
soon washed crystal clear again.

For years wheat fields stood by your side
and children tossed their pennies in
to make a wish come true, ruddy cheeks
glistening with sun and youth.

Then, when the farmer’s time was done,
the sportsman hunted and wandered
through September’s noon, but even
hunters hang up their muskets.

The brave surrendered native land;
the child has grown into a man
and all the men have been called home.
Now you alone remain here.

We pass by and pause to wonder
what dreams hide in a fountain’s heart
when the water has departed
and the ancient tears have dried.

Tolkien's Middle Ear

 

 

O, Tolkien, did you think
of Middle Ear
and all that happens there?
The trysts between the malleus,
incus, stapes and the brain, the ring --
you know the one
that drives a man insane --
a trilogy of senses intertwined.

What did you know
of the Eustachian tube?

Will you map it for us with your worthy pen?

Perhaps invoke a tuning fork
so we will better understand why in March
when snow still frosts the ground,
we hear a robin sing
and join hands
to welcome Sprng.