Thursday, March 20, 2025

Where Walt Whitman Walked

A Work in Progress
28


So Donal came to stand on land where Whitman may have walked
where he and Jean Bartik sometimes walked and talked
by the Cooper River across the street from where Donal worked
as Editor: Standard Electronic Data Processing
in time to see how it all began with those
who were programmers, coders

Donal carpooled with Jean
one of ENIAC’s team of programmers
all of them women 
Americans working with male engineers
She, Jean Bartik nee Betty Jean Jennings was an Editor 
at Auerbach Publishers across the river from Philadelphia
in Pennsauken, New Jersey beyond Camden
by the Cooper River 

And ENIAC claimed being first
And once upon a time the Cray-1 was undoubtedly the fastest
built by wirers, all of them women
Americans working with male engineers

So Donal learned to write for money
Auerbach Reports on mainframe computers
got to see how it was done
emergent from an archive of previous work
Cray’s short vector machine 
the world’s fastest computer by far

And Donal got a job at Cray Research, Inc.
and was there to witness Seymour himself
on a Saturday at the punch card machine
at the Halle Lab in Chippewa Falls
and in time got a transcript of his recorded talk
explaining a tool which measured nanoseconds 
in short strides of wire
delay lines running back and forth across the board
synchronizing signals
interconnecting simple electronic parts
obtained from Fairchild and Motorola
to mathematicians
famous at wrangling data breaking codes
there in the puzzle palace where a red flight flashed
when Donal went down to the basement where a multitude
of computers were arrayed



Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
                    2025

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Glenn Hughes Began Another Screenplay

A Work in Progress
27


Let’s assume that by 1958 Glenn Hughes had read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, published in 1951, 52, and 53.  From this came his idea for another screenplay where an older building on the campus of the University of Washington was the hub of a secret in plain sight, another type of Second Foundation dedicated to the survival of the human species.  A place where scholars kept in touch with ancient texts and philosophers, a place of great learning and patient understanding, a place where civilization would be saved when…

Donal sat on the steps of Denny Hall and sang while playing his guitar...

When you’ve been trumped, you cannot play for time
for your cards have been moved to another’s
you must wait then ante up and play once again
while you stay at the table with your brothers

When you’ve been trumped you must play a long game
For time’s on your side as all things decline
Before he can fail, he must first succeed
Posturing dominance vulpine lupine

Cast in crypto-gold to look like Caesar
Acting as if there’s no law can bind him
He’s going to say something outrageous each day
Sometimes led on by his keepers sometimes at whim

When you’ve been trumped watch out for madmen
Crazed with power and enabling a king
Trading votes in order to pay homage at court
Unable to see their king’s gone ding-a-ling

When you’ve been trumped it’s just a defeat
Victory comes when voters cast ballots
Having seen the mad king and his court at work
Next year the country will cast out some bigots

When you’ve been trumped you must play a long game
For time’s on your side as all things decline
Before he can fail, he must first succeed
Posturing dominance vulpine lupine


Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
                   2025

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Dunkirk 

June 1st, 1940

A Work in Progress 26


At dawn the last men of the rearguard got to the beach
There were no boats waiting to take them off
So, they trudged miles towards Dunkirk
While Messerschmidt’s strafed in daylight
finding a rowboat, they dragged to the shore 
floated out to sea
where a sloop picked them up 
Donal's father said he came back on a sailboat

  
Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
                        2025


The party “included personnel from the 1st Battalion, The South Lancashire Regiment, the 6th Battalion The Black Watch and Brigade Headquarters personnel, as well as Fusiliers.  The party marched to Dunkirk, where a rowing boat was found and towed into the water.  Eventually the party was picked up by a sloop which, although twice hit by bombs, eventually reached Dover”.

A Short History of the 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment during the first year of the war.  Published by The Naval & Military Press.





Monday, March 10, 2025

Once One Spring


Outside on the driveway inside my fence 
looking at purple irises, yellow daffodils, jonquils
a palette of colors to please the eye
four tall cedars over all snagging morning sun
low in the sky standing stationary 
awake and aware life is just a slice through time
a flurry big enough to leave a wake astern
of memorable moments I’d like to describe
if one can imagine a breeze moving fuchsias
long stemmed that sway shiver sometimes shake 
or the sound of a shovel as it scrapes
magical moments alone with nature
when things move in rhythm with a flute faraway 
far from the din of battle. Harkaway




Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
                    2025

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Try Again

A Work in Progress
25


Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better.
Heeding these words
Donal got up on his feet
Found his voice 

To those adrift in troubled times

Now in these times of strife
famines follow disasters
lands unploughed and wasted
our inheritance goes empty

brothers   sisters   are drifting
going east going west

while this war continues 
they cannot meet   or
direct their steps home
where doors bang in the wind
gardens lie ruined

they are my flesh and blood
yet they drift down strange roads
dragging their lonely shadows
through far countries
unable to lean on a friend

like a solitary bird
blown thousands of miles
like uprooted grass
scattered in the wind
I am alone
cut off from home

now we all look up at the moon
in five different places
the same thought clouds our eyes

and we weep


Po-Chu-Yi
T'ang Dynasty
translated by David Sen, Dick Russell
© 2025

Sunlight  A Work in Progress 56 Sunlight shows what sound waves signify trickles from a fountain fill a bowl  with water which magnifies tri...