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Northfield, Illinois, United States
Michael Steven Platt has taken his life long love of doodling to extremes. His intent is to provide and promote creations of positive energy which will broaden the scope of perception and impart a sense of well being to those who experience them.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Endless Shifting Sand 1: In the Wind


(c) Michael Steven Platt 2012 : Camel Sand Imprint:  Undine Press

Dear Readers,
When last we met, life was a turmoil of things I have forgotten and things I remember but don't know what they were related to, and other such important issues, I'm sure. Stuff happened and I haven't been writing much. But now, I finally did find my way back in to this blog after some years of frustrating inability to do so.
That's the Grand Explanation as to How I've Done and Where I've Been. I wanted to keep it from getting too confusing.  I'm glad to be back... I missed you, too. (The applause is thunderous)
New effort coming through, looking for readership. It follows here:


Endless Shifting Sand 1: In the Wind

I am going to post excerpts from my book, 'Endless Shifting Sand' ... thinking that, perhaps, someone else might enjoy the offbeat humor in the surrealistic flow of smoothly chaotic imagery. Different. Wildly different. I do hope you might give it a whirl... you might enjoy it. Thank you.
Therefore, I put forth the entire Table of Contents as introduction and beginning of what ESS is. Cheers!
(Pardon the quirky alignment. The draft does not match up with the actual posting and this creates some interesting configurations of order)
(All copyrighted, of course)


This Page
Endless Shifting Sand
(or Keeping Score in the Big One)
~ Disclaim Maintain Refrain: Page Numb Baring Approximations ~
Table of Contents …………………………………………………. This Page
Chair of Intents …………………………………………………. Under the Table
Visual Selection ................................... (Under the Chair and Under Construction)
Introduction …………………………………………………….. How do you do?
Opening : If it’s time to get up this must be Monday ………...…….. 1
Part One – Part Another: Take the Wrong Way Home
Chapter One - Greetings......................................................... ..........  3
First Hourglass Spill ………………………..……………… 3
Deal With It ........................................................................... 9
Tracking Treats and Nervous Noise: Answering the Call ... 14
… tock ……………………………………………………. 18
Chapter Two (, Too)……………………………………….....…… 22
Chapter III: Growing Older in the City …………………………... 23
Pardon Yourself and The Great Peanut Butter Caper ….…. 23
Harken to Thy Will ……………………………………….. 24
A Chair is Born …………………………………………… 26
A Neu Firing Line ............................................................... 30
Which Way Do We Go? …………………………...……... 34
Nothing but the Best ……………………………………… 36
Watch Your Hat and Head ………………………………... 39
I Never and A Message from the Stars …………………… 42
This Page, Too
I Retire Undefeated ......…………………………………… 45
Feeling Game in Florida ...…………………………………47
Have a Pleasant Flight ……………………………………. 51
Scientific Announcement ...………………………………. 53
Score and First Kiss (Yes, in that order) ………....…… 57, 58
Intermission ……………………………………………………….. 65
Continuum ………………………………………………………… 65
Break Time and Cryptaxidgience …………..…………. 69, 70
Chapter IV (Intra-Vacuous) ……………………………………..… 73
The Ins and Outs of Communication .................................... 73
Apologies Not Necessary  .................................................... 77
AI: AS: The Phantom Cub Scout …...…………….……….. 79
The Story I Don’t Tell .......................................................... 81
Let’s Go to the Cemetery! ………………………………… 81
Household Hints …………………………………………... 85
A Solstice Celebration Entwined ………………………….. 88
Giving at the Office (or Where am I now?) ……………….. 91
Family Branchings, a Grandfather’s Tale …………………. 93
After the Party Party (or Just Where Have I Been?) ………. 96
Summer Job Farm Adventures ............................................. 98
Go Fish …………………………………………………… 103
AP: SD ……………………………………………………………. 107
Time to Relax …………………………………………….. 108
The Very Next Chapter …………………………………………... 111
This Page Three
Prognosticating Reminiscent Sand Piles ...…………….….… 112
Inspiration Calls …………………………………….…..…… 115
(I Forgot … um… ) ………………………………….…..…... 117
Drink This Book and Like It ...………………………...…….. 119
Sip on This, Two………………………………………..……. 120
Prognostication (Part Duh), “It’s Obvious.” ……..…..……… 121
In Control and Lost for the Plucking …..……………..……… 123
Community Services Announcement ………………..……… 128
A Stoic Pause Orchestrates the Usual ..................................... 130
Amazing Facts …………………………………….………… 133
Lunch Time, (try and) Take a Seat ………………….………. 134
In Cattus Requiem ………………………………….……….. 135
(Further) Into the Fog ………………………………………….……. 137
What I Haven’t Written Yet …………………………….…... 137
(While Waiting) Time to Think About the Passing Time:
Encrypted Dream  ......................................................... 137
Interred Mission to Post Mission …………………..….. 141 - 142
Change the Subject (Please!) ……………………….……….. 145
A Study in Situational Ethics and Karma ………….…….….. 146
Are You Done? …………………………………….………... 150
The Reluctant Snowflake …………………………………… 154
The Pause that Refreshes …………………………………… 156
Waasa Matter? Choke on This Paragraph .................………. 158
A.E.: I.O.U. (and sometimes ‘Why?’)…………..................... 164
This Page Four
Willow and Grayswandir ........................................................ 169
If You Do It, Mean It! ............................................................  171
How God Saved the Little Boy ……………………………... 172
Scorez-vous? ........................................................................... 177
Nope ........................................................................................ 180
This Ain’t Ravinia .................................................................. 181
Do it (to) Yourself Chapter: Fill Your Own Space …………………. 185
Back to My Chapters (Yours is Boring) .......................….................. 186
Dosewallips Coming Down..................................................... 186
Invitation to Imagination and Actual Party Mode................... 187
Happy Returns the Day ……………………………………... 189
(The Preceding Day) Fathered Attentions for Lunch ............. 192
The Lonely Puddle ………………………………………….. 194
The Next Part (Lost In Toxic Subsidy)………………....…………… 197
The Other Next Part and Courting Dreams ……..…………... 198
Birthday (Maid) Service …………………………………….. 200
(Sponsored Inter-Mission) and (continued) ............................. 201
The Offer of a Strife Time ...................................................... 204
Trains Passing in the Night ..................................................... 206
The Philosophical Limits of Imagination ............................... 209
Knock Yourself Out (Please)................................................... 213
Close the Window, Mon Ami ................................................. 214
Politics in Chicago: Snow jobs ............................................... 216

This Page Five
Part Two – Experience Expands
The Following Chapter: Let’s Spend a Day Together ........................... 218
Think Green and Pick a Day ...................................................... 218
Smoke This ................................................................................. 222
Happy New Year Connections ................................................... 225
Where Was He When We Needed Him? ................................... 228
(Pointed Pivot On To) Dark is Where the White Out Finds It ... 228
On Call: The Situation is, well, In Hand ................................... 229
Taco Time Juggling ................................................................... 230
From Small Chunks Break Bits and Pieces ............................... 232
The 4 R’s and Sunday Morning Pounding Down ...................... 235
A Call Up Wake (or Finding The Big Thrill) ............................ 238
Moral Sport Dedication ............................................................. 239
Chapter On or A Pocketful of Mondays ................................................ 241
Adventure, Mystery and Romance (Maybe Not) ...................... 245
May Day and The Tube ......................................................246, 247
Juggling with Words...... (Every Page, but Specifically)........... 250
Page Two-Hundred-Fifty-Two ................................................. 252
A Grade School Lesson in Neanderthal Humor ....................... 255
Morphalexic Daydreams ........................................................... 257
Wet, Wild and Swinging (This is Ravinia) ...............................259
My Other Foot Steps Out (or) Two For One Camel Magic ..... 261
Letters to My Daughters .......................................................... 268
Chapter Next ........................................................................................ 270
This Page Six
Talk about a Character and Vocabulary Check .......................... 270
Festive Land Gluttony Day ........................................................ 272
Did You Hear Them Say It? ....................................................... 273
Random Page Number Winner! ................................................. 274
Written Memory Test ................................................................. 279
Perspection ............................................................................................. 284
Everybody’s Got to be Somewhere ............................................ 286
My Grandmother’s View of Life ............................................... 289
(I remain sleeping for the duration...) No Return ................290, 291
My Daughter Supplies Another Karmic Lesson ........................ 291
(Retroverbalizations) Intersmitten Blast from the Passed by Past.......... 293
Job Responsibility and My All Over Twist Request ................. 295
Memories in the Dark or Serving a Long Sentence ................... 296
Getting Organized ...................................................................... 298
Reminiscing the Toxic Heir ....................................................... 300
The Great Missing Page Caper ................................................. (???)
The Latest Word ......................................................................... 304
The Low Down .......................................................................... 306
There Really Should Be ............................................................. 309
Welcoming Prologue ................................................................. 311
A Child is Born ............................................................…. 10-18-79
Marriage and Diapers Leading to (More) Snow Jobs ............... 313
Part Three – I’m Looking Up So I Must Be Down
Part To (Otherness) and Ivory Tower Dreams ....................................... 315
This Page Seven
Quixic Tandal ................................................................................ 315
Decide What I Mean .....(every page, but confined here to:) ........ 321
Self-Indulged Food for Thought et Progress in the Job World ..... 322
Winding Down Watch ............................................................................... 324
Special Poetry Section ................................................................... 324
Pertinent Questions and Check Your Scorecard............................ 326
Cheesy Target Practice................................................................... 328
Clear Cut Scoring the Whole Caboodle .......................................  329
Minimalistic Excess and Silent Landing ....................................... 332
Vision Doomed ............................................................................. 335
“     Dimmed ............................................................................. 338
(Invisible Chapter) ....................................... (Your guess is as good as mine)
Final Chapter (SODI?) .............................................................................. 341
Psidereal Matrix and Garden Delight ........................................... 341
Captain Naptime Wins a Gain ...................................................... 344
Scoring through Noblesse Oblique ............................................... 347
Communication Shakedown ......................................................... 351
Am I Supposed to be Here? .......................................................... 353
A(nother) Hollow Weaning .......................................................... 354
I Digress and Hit the Bottle on the Head  ..................................... 356
Is it Ever Not Monday? ................................................................. 360
Torquellipsis .................................................................................. 361
My Aim Keeps Wandering and Missed Her Tame, Boring Man .. 363
Prologue and A Stray in the Life ............................................................... 366
This Page Eight
Epilogue ......................................................................................... 377
What Remains is Gone ................................................................... 378
Narrowing the Way .................................................................................... 379
My Magus Opium .......................................................................... 380
(Further) Winding Down and The Curtain Falls ............................ 382
The Final Score and I Would Say................................................... 384
Final Chapter (Encore) and Final Word...................................................... 385
Closing ....................................................................................................... 386
Son of a Beach …………………………………………………………… 388

And so, again, I am washing over your eyes, sifting the written word across the perceptions of your awareness. I offer you my other way of seeing life in a big city:
(next posting)
I hope to see you there (I'll be the one looking over my shoulder at you)
Thanks.and Cheers