Read Some Poetry. . .

Over at Dan's Uberliss Page.

Dan and I met in Boston. We used to live in the same neighborhood and ran into each other once at this free yoga class that one of my old roommates brought me to one day but never spoke.

Afterward, I saw him many times on my commute to work. We didn't introduce ourselves for a long time, but I had the unsettling feeling that I knew him from somewhere.

Then one day, I overheard him talking to someone else about the same yoga center. He mentioned to him that I had seen him at that free intro class. We became friends somewhat slowly after that, meeting a couple times at the Chinese buffet restaurant for lunch right across the square from my office and then just before he moved to Chicago, he invited me over to his house for a goodbye party.

He gave me a book of poetry that he wrote and published. I read through it during my commutes to and from work after he had left for Chicago. It kinda struck me as material that I couldn't necessarily get, which I blamed my general poetry illiteracy for experiencing. Over some time of reading the book, though, I started picking up on the feeling of the poetry and going with it. It really comes as more feeling poetry than anything high minded, almost Zen-like, if you will.

Dan's a lot like that, in a way, quite Zen-like. I wouldn't say that he has reahed enlightenment or anything, but he does a good job at living in the moment and losing himself in it, even if he can lose track of the time and flake out on you. He makes it easy to forgive him, though. . .it probably has something to do with his great, big, cuddly bearish irrepressible personality.

The fiancee and I really have a good time getting to know him better over the years as we've visited Chicago and met up with him for a night at Second City, some drinks, some meals, a walk down Wells St for the artist fair and just the general hanging out and visiting the "Dan experience."

You, too, can get a glimpse into that experience at Dan's Uberbliss Page.

Ironically and somewhat perturbally [sp?], though, we haven't seen him since we moved to the city. Grrrrrr. . ..