Photo essay by Alan Taylor @ TheAtlantic.com, Dec. 3, 2013

Intro: [Read more]

The Haikulodeon gets the jump on all those other haiku emporiums by opening it's doors early in order to beat the Thanksgiving Weekend poetry rush ...  [Read more]

Here's this week's heap of haikus:

Double tanka haiku:

Social Studies class;
the Principal came in, took
the teacher aside.

They spoke for a moment, then
the class was told what happened. [Read more]

Today I picked up my first CSA box of vegetables, as you can see it covered my whole stove. The share was more generous then what I was expecting. This was also the first time I have been to the Geraldson Community Farm. It is located in a wonderful historic part of Bradenton, Florida. Just a stone’s throw from where DeSoto set foot on West Florida. It was a enjoyable ride for me to go out there on a Saturday morning. It had rained and everything looked fresh and the sea air smelled good.

  [Read more]

Here's this week's heap of haikus:

 [Read more]

November 6^th, 2013

Multimillionaire Bill de Blasio was elected New York City’s next mayor last night.  This morning, as I rode my Bloomberg-enabled Citibike to work, three homeless men carrying squeegees surrounded me at a stoplight.

“Clean your bike, sir?”

In terror, I tried to roll up the windows and lock the door, but I was on a bicycle.  I had nowhere to go.  Soon, the homeless men had taken the bike from me.  They wiped it clean, disinfecting the handlebars and seat with antibacterial hand gel no doubt lifted from a Bath and Bodyworks.

  [Read more]

Here's this week's heap of haikus:

  [Read more]

  [Read more]

According to USDA, one in six people in the USA are food insecure. That comes out to forty-nine million people which includes children. One child out of five lives in a home that is food insecure which means that child does not know where his next meal will come from. Food insecurity is spread over all communities not just in urban ghettos but in rural and suburban communities also. The fastest growing group of families falling into poverty is hidden in suburbia. Families that are struggling to hang on to their homes, keep the utilities on and maintain a car. These families are least likely to qualify for SNAP or commonly known as food stamps. To put it simply they have too many assets that disqualify them for help. In 2011 4.8 million people over the age of 60 was food insecure and that is only going to grow as the baby boomers retire. [Read more]

Geraldson Farm is my local CSA farm. The community supported organic farm was started in 2007 when the Geraldson family sold the land to the county for this use.  The Geraldson family wanted this land to be used only in agriculture.

  [Read more]

Last winter I planted my first urban garden.  I did what you call square foot gardening which you plant very compact in a small space.

From left to right. California wonders green peppers. okra, and Kentucky wonder pole beens.  [Read more]