Month: October 2026

To me, a poem is a sermon, meant to start a whisper slow and lowly, just above the congregation’s expectant murmur pepper with a few harsh backhands, gaps, and nervous coughs.

In a good sermon you never really know what to expect.

That’s why you’re nervous a little.

Understandable.

And that’s just the beginning.

In the right hands and the right throat the hum can grow, slowly, moving right past the early adopters and tugging on a few of the usual holdouts. It’s not too much work because they’re pretending either way. They’re leasable.

With the increased volume the hum starts to get to you physically. The energy is building; you know it. You recognize the signs. They may call it the Almighty something or other, but it’s something you already know. What you can possibly KNOW is human sized. Your brain can’t even comprehend how much larger the ASO (that’s Almighty Something-or-Other, you remember, dearly beloved?) is. Never mind your phonetic chuckles there. You get the point.

Ok. So maybe your foot starts tapping or you start nodding your head to the meter of the speech, whatever you think it is. No judgment on your rhythm skills.

Moving on.

From the hum it grows into a conversation. The flow goes back and forth, poet to audience, preacher to congregation, each moving the other to greater eloquence and determination, if not to achieve the goal of their point, to achieve the point nonetheless.

Needless to say at this point it’s a little louder up in here.

But sooner or later, through a series of ever climbing and falling peaks and valleys, these waves upon the ocean that represent our seemingly independent but really quite unequivocally connected ocean, these waves crest.

And break, upon the shore, like tears: of passion, grief, mourning, pain, sorrow, joy, heartbreak, pleasure, surprise.

Now you’ll need to eat something.

That’s what buffets are for.

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment

You have a beautiful idea. It’s magnificent. A well crafted and elegantly, yet kindly, worded statement on the human condition. It may well change the world.

You think: I must write this down or record it in some way – for fame, posterity, etc.

And then you are distracted.

And then the idea is gone.

You feel sad. You want to know why.

It’s not because you’re stupid or absent minded or drunk or tired or just plain out of it. Although honestly that hasn’t helped me much. Some of it CAN be fun. Just saying.

Why can’t you remember that idea, that perfect slogan, that zenith of creativity sagacity and charm?

Why?

Because you grabbed at it.

It didn’t belong to you.

That should be a lesson for EVERY damned body.

02 Oct 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment

radicaldruid.com/mp3s/JRL/01 – Half Crazy.mp3

I’ll tell you that I almost lost it
once or twice but now I’m doing fine.
(there may have been an incident
that put me down somewhere along the line)

I’ve been held back, and I’ve lost track.
It got to be too much and I got lazy.
They tell me parts don’t make the whole,
but no one’s ever really just half crazy

I’ll tell you I was loco over you
but now I’ve come back to my sense.
(Still, any man who’s studied Freud
will tell you there’s no middle of the fence)

And I’ll admit, there’s quite a bit of time
where what I did is kinda hazy.
I’m no exception to the rule,
‘Cause no one’s ever really just half crazy

You told me that I’d done things wrong,
that I’d forgotten how to talk to you –
and furthermore, you’d gotten sore
that I could never give you what you’re due.

That may be so, but I don’t know,
the right and wrong of it still kinda faze me
Seems like we’re two sides of the same mind .
No one’s ever really just half crazy

You acted like you didn’t want the things
I did because they were insane; and made me question who I was
and every thought that came into my brain.
I’ve been a wreck. In retrospect,
you really should have known you couldn’t save me.

But knowing’s just one piece of mind
and no one’s ever really just half crazy.

1997

UNDERTOWN MUSIC (ASCAP)

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment

Ever near.
Ever close.
Ever true.
Ever aware.
Ever present.
Ever nowhere.
Ever nothing.
Ever ending.
Ever lasting.
Ever here.
Ever now.

Never who.
Never what.
Never where.
Never when.
Never why.
Never how.
Never which
Never whom
Never once.

Never ever.

Never mind.

02 OCT 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment

We often receive emails as part of a distribution group, i.e., we’ve been cc’d.

In many cases, an email with multiple recipients includes a question or questions to be answered, or specific task assignments or responsibilities. It can be confusing or unclear which responses are being requested from which recipients, i.e., who is supposed to do what? 

This can lead to delays in responding to emails and negatively affect relationships, communication, quality, safety, cost, etc. Particularly if no one who received the message is sure. The impulse is to respond impulsively, or to hesitate until at least one other person has responded. For a time-sensitive issue, this can become a problem.

We can’t and don’t really want to control the actions of others. However, we can consider the following each time WE individually respond to multiple recipients.

Assume you receive an email about a price increase to multiple recipients, Paul, Sara, Jheri and Jordan. For the purposes of this demonstration, YOU are Paul.

• If responding to a request from a specific individual, e.g., “Paul, can you upload the file?”, consider including the questioner’s name in your response: “Sara, I will upload the file at 3:15 today.”

• If you are NOT mentioned, e.g., “Jordan, can you upload the file?”, consider not answering until Jordan has a chance to do so. Obviously if there are multiple questions or requests and you are mentioned in any of them, you need to return to the previous step. If you KNOW Jordan is not available, confer with them and respond accordingly. For example, “Sara, I spoke to Jordan, etc.”.

• If you are not mentioned but you know that the person asked the question should be YOU or someone other than Jordan, you should respond (if you are the right one to answer), “Sarah, I’m responsible for that area. No worries. I can upload that file this afternoon.” If it should be Jheri and not the person identified, wait and see if Jheri responds. Use your judgment to figure how long to wait. The urgency of the issue is of course the primary motivator here. If you KNOW who should be answering, and it’s not you, and it’s not who the asker thinks it is, AND that person has not responded during your diligent period of observance, consider writing, “Sarah, Jheri is likely the person responsible for that.” If you’ve talked to Jheri, say so. If she wants you to respond on her behalf, do so. If you know that Jheri (in this case) is very busy or otherwise unavailable and unlikely to respond timely, check with Jheri to find out if SHE wants to respond or wants YOU to field a response.

• If you are responsible for the fate of multiple queries, particularly if they are from different people [you may find yourself responding to older version of an email in which someone other than yourself responded to a different query in that message. For example, the original message might be, “Paul, can you upload that file? Jheri, we need to schedule a meeting with the Steering Committee to approve this ASAP.”] be sure to address the requesters individually: “Sara, I’ll upload that file this afternoon. Jheri, I’m available to meet Tuesdays or Thursdays.”

• If you are using Outlook and know how, “mention” the parties in the body of your email by using the @ reference, i.e., @John. Not sure how it works universally (does anything really). But in some applications (like Outlook) it can quickly you of email specifically mentioning you. This can be very helpful when digging through 1000+ daily messages. That’s actually a low number. For me, between work and home email I probably receive 10,000 messages a day. Roughly 85% are spam, trash, junk, malicious attempts. That leaves 1500 valid messages. Still quite a handful. Word [no trademark pun intended] to the wise.

Of course, the best course of action when responding to ANY email is common sense. But in the absence of fact, we must spar with speculation.

Ever nowhere.

02 OCT 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment