happy winter solstice!

today is the beginning of winter & the shortest day of the year.  now, we get to see the days lengthen & slowly start to warm up.  bummer!  i love winter & the cold.  but california cold, not arctic subzero cold.  so but anyway, it's a few days before christmas.  death takes no holiday.  i'd been thinking about my late friend robert hansen, & also terry hall.  both died unexpectedly & way too young.  i was going thru some of my papers [that sounds official, but my papers are all my shit stuffed here & there in cabinets, cupboards & bookcases without any rhyme or reason] & found a bunch of tiny books published by hansen & sent to me by my brother in the art jonathan hayes & by robert himself.  robert often included a line drawing self-portrait as well.   i miss him.  hall died after a developing pancreatic cancer.  after diagnosis hall died very quickly.  there is no object lesson to be gathered by either robert's or hall's deaths but i am thinking that everything can & does & will change in an instant.  so CARPEFUCKINGDIEM.  if i may be so bold.  as i am now an official old man one of the privileges of aging is stopping to give a flying fuck what others think.  old man punk rock!  anyway, i've not been feeling poetic in a long while.  did read a couple of short stories today & yesterday by raymond carver & zimbabwean poet john eppel.  & i read a few poems today by my late friend michael dennis.  dennis' poems are always full of humor, humility, love, kindness & the grittiness of life.  oh shit.  let me end this ramble by wishing you all a happy christmas.  with that in mind below is the comedy short by cheech & chong on the origins of santa claus.  

peace & love