Hi! My name is Cherie Griffith and I’ve been enjoying the lovely clean air and water of the Northland for over 9 years. I had hoped to run an “Ecotel” but plans changed.

I worked part time as a substitute teacher in Elmira, NY for 7 years and in Horseheads, NY for 6 years. I graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. My studies included a semester abroad in Florence, Italy as well as other travels. I have studied yoga and macrobiotic philosophy and cooking for over 30 years. I have given cooking classes in West Hollywood, Elmira, NY and Belleville, NJ. I have lectured in Elmira, Corning, Belleville, and at the Center for Macrobiotic Studies in Manhattan. My photograph of Dr. Anthony Sattilaro was featured in a health magazine and a photo of a group of doctors and macrobiotic practitioners was featured in Kushi Institute Brochures.

I have 3 children and one grandchild and spent a good deal of my time singing songs, rhyming words and telling them stories. I’ve started doing that for my own enjoyment with occasional performances at ABC café in Ithaca, NY, at a poetry slam at the Haunt in Ithaca, Black Cat and Northland College in Ashland, Hurley Coffee Company, Beaner’s Central in Duluth, Earth Day at Stage North in Washburn, and at the Porcupine Mountain Folk Music Festival. I’ve had some poetry published in the Duluth Reader and some displays at the Hurley Coffee Company.

I am trying to help people become aware of the benefits of whole foods, organic fresh vegetables (especially carrot juice), the use of seaweed, whole grains (brown rice), dried beans (mung), and olive oil. I also support plant based soaps for cleaning and personal grooming and suffer terrible reactions form chemical solvents.

I also believe in acupuncture and Chinese tonic herbs, as well as several other traditional herbal systems, and the marvels of

concentrated food-based anti-oxidants such as alpha-lipoic acid, CO-Q10, and trace minerals (as in cell food). This is the medicine of the future and so I talk about it, write about it, sing about it, and I’m still trying to find a way to dance and swim about it – but that is what I do sometimes.

As for what I do the rest of the time, listen to my stories and you decide how much is truth and how much fantasy.

Mon May 25, 2009 - Memorial Day: Deja Bleu

with Special Guest Cherie Griffith

We teach `em
To be helpful
We hope they
Will be kind

Then we whack `em
Out with solvents
Until they
Lose their minds

Then we drug `em
With Big Pharma
Let's just get `em
All on speed

Add a cup
Of sugar
I know that's
What they need

Then we teach `em
Math and science
How to read
And how to write

Then we find
Another drug
To help `em
Sleep at night

And we wonder
At their madness
It seems they
Cannot think

Regular
Or diet
Have another
Poison drink

I've been to
California
Boston and
New York

I tasted
All the pastries
I could fit
Upon my fork

There's cakes they make
With carrots
And chocolate
With whole wheat

It costs
A little more
But oh! It is
So sweet

We need to give `em
Healthy choices
Olive oil's
Not cheap

If we expect `em
To survive
And make that
Quantum Leap

We need to show `em
What to cook
That is
What it will take

Let's switch
To fruit juice sweetened
And then
"Let Them Eat Cake!"

A Million Mothers Like Me
by Cherie Griffith

Oh, there's a million mothers like me
With the vision and the eyes to see
What they're doing to you and to me
And to our children.
Ooh yeah!

And there's a million mothers like me
And we've been damaged so chemically
But the truth will set us free
And save our children.
Ooh yeah!

And there's a million mothers like me
And we are searching, searching desperately
For the answer to these and
All our problems.
Ooh yeah!

And there's a million mothers like me
And we are tired – tired as can be
Of watching our children
Suffering and dying.
Ooh yeah!

There's a million mothers like me
And we won't rest until we are free
From the memory
Of suffering children.
Ooh yeah!

Those million mothers like me
We won't be poisoned oh so senselessly
By a school board that won't vote
For better paint
      (environmental they ain't)
Ooh yeah!

Those million mothers like me
We should get together regularly.
Those million mothers and me
Let's change it all.
Ooh yeah!

And there's a million mothers like me
Oh there's a million million mothers like me
Oh there's a million mothers like me
And we will see
Ooh yeah!

Oh there's a million mothers like me
Oh there's a million mothers like me
Oh these million mothers and me
We will see
Ooh yeah!

Involuntary Intoxicants
by Cherie Griffith

You can get high
In the perfume aisle
So don't you walk, don't walk, don't walk
That long Mall mile
Cause that kind of high
Ain't got no style
And you don't need
Those pseudo-folk
And you don't need
Their lousy dope.
I said Dontcha, Dontcha, Dontcha
You got to go to the forest
Just past the field,
Cause if you go to the Mall
You can get high
In the perfume aisle.
So don't you walk, don't walk
That long Mall mile,
Or you're gonna be
Wacked out for awhile
I hope the darned fumes
Don't make you kill.
So get off, get off
That Mall treadmill,
Cause if you go to the Mall,
You can get high
In the perfume aisle.

So don't you walk, don't walk, don't walk
That long Mall mile.
Cause that kind of high
Makes nobody smile.
And you don't need
To fall for their hype
And you don't look
Like the mindless Mall type.
I said Dontcha, Dontcha, Dontcha
Dontcha know what's real?
You've got to head for the hills
They've got scents appeal
Cause if you go to the Mall
You can get High (way too high!)
From the perfume aisle (Don't take that aisle!)
So don't you take that
Nasty toxic long Mall mile.
Nature, let me tell you,
Is back in style.
Don't you dare take that perfume aisle.
So don't walk, don't walk
That toxic Mall mile.
It's making you die. It's making you high.
It's making you die.

Shakespeare Live In Ojai

by Cherie Griffith

I've got a little problem – it began with Dr. Seuss.
He's captured all my nouns and verbs and will not let them loose.
I was reading all his lovely books from morning to night.
My children so loved Horton that Thidwick's out of sight.

His grip was quite insidious and before I even knew
He'd slipped right in my consciousness and now I'm in a stew.
He will not let me speak unless it happens all in rhyme.
It's true I do like poetry but not all of the time.

I ache to say "How are You?" and "I hope

you're feeling fine."
But I can only say it by adding, "you're a friend of mine."
I try to shop for carrots and some noodles and some corn,
But when I ask assistance I must add "on this fine morn."

Sometimes although I like to rhyme I do feel rather silly,
Especially when it's hot outside and I must rhyme "how chilly."
I've heard this sort of malady just comes and soon will pass
Meanwhile please excuse me if I sometimes seem the ass.

Wherever I Walk
by Cherie Griffith

Wherever I walk – I hope to leave behind
A trail of smiles – I know I don't mind
Wherever I walk – Oh under the sun
Wherever I walk – Even under the gun
I hope to leave behind – A trail of smiles
I want to leave some joy – And I've walked so many miles

Let the vicious feed – Oh on their own flesh
Oh I don't need – Their viciousness

Wherever I walk – I hope to leave behind
A trail of smiles – I hope that you don't mind
Wherever I walk – Oh under the sun
Wherever I walk – Am I the only one
Who wants to leave behind – A trail of smiles
I want to leave some joy – And I've walked many a mile

Wherever I walk – On this earth of mine
Wherever I walk – Whatever I find
What will I leave behind
What will I leave behind

Wherever you walk – Wherever you've gone
Wherever you walk – What ever you've done
What will you leave behind
What will you leave behind

Grain World
by Cherie Griffith

Every meal
That I greedily ate
Came with a price tag
On every plate.
The starving in India
What would they do?
If a grain of rice
Were left unchewed?
And for your waste
You'd bake in hell
Each leftover kernel
A suffocating shell
And so I tried
With all my might
Upon my plate
To make it right
And here I stand
It seems alone
Not quite forlorn
But far from home
And choose to eat
That low food chain
As I imagine a world
Where we'd all eat grain
There might be enough
To go around
And I'd be spared
The whining sound
Of hungry children
And mothers who would
Do any old thing
If only they could
Just fill their bellies
And get some sleep
And tomorrow perhaps
A new harvest they'd reap.

The soul of the Senate
May not sit in his seat
Or stand for the truth
Regardless of consequence,
However, his spirit lives
In my heart and the
Hearts of those
Who would champion justice.
Though I may not have
The strength to be a public servant
I have the same intent as he did,
To be relentless in the
Pursuit of fairness to all.
Though the body and personality may die
I believe the soul is eternal
And as I mourn his passing
(Especially now when we really need one brave person)
His essence will not be lost.

Nukes and Beyond
by Cherie Griffith

How can I tell you in only a page
How filled I am with burning rage
That the offspring I've nourished so tenderly
Are practically glowing in front of me?
Radwast is oozing nearer, it's true –
Projected control starts in 2002.
The entire earth is smothering so
And when it succumbs, where shall we go?
We are one with the earth, that's what I say
Stop hurting me please, and stop it today!
Here I am but one small voice,
But with your chorus, we'll make the choice.
No more nukes – not any more.
It's self-destruct – way beyond war.
And as for limits, fallout will spread
Until we are all mutated or dead.
And I bet there's a mother in Russia somewhere
At two a.m. in her rocking chair
Hoping and praying that this can't be
And wishing for peace just like me.
Surely she can't be the only one –
The end of humanity can't be fun.
The horror of this holocaust isn't science fictiony
No air, no food, no water – no joke to me.
Earth's 50,000 nukes will soon be on computer
And if two survive mistakes, their gender will be neuter.
It only takes 500 for MAD to level all –
That's mutually assured destruction – everything will fall.
Do you think you'll have some notice for a war that no one wins?
Well, you'll have about a minute before the end begins.
Are peaceniks Commies all – rabbis, priests, and preachers, senators
and scientists,
doctors, mothers, teachers?
We're not supposed to blindly trust.
We've got the technology to know what we must.
You can't have peace without parity
And that's what we've got approximately.
So the Russians have more, on land, yes it's true –
But not if you count out air and subs, too.
Building shelters instead of warheads for reactor leaks is fine –
But 80% survival is really out of line.
Already cancer takes one life out of four –
Just add more radiation and you'll get some more.
If only our leaders can keep their cool,
Perhaps our children won't play the fool
And think that we must bully each other
Instead of trying to use the word brother.
We as a race, what's happened to us?
We hear annihilation and wonder at the fuss!
We take in as food the earth that we've made
Polluted with stuff that makes life forms fade.
Our food is so processed it's in cahoots
With so much pollution, we've lost our roots.
Growth-causing hormones, humans shouldn't eat
And yet they are found in all but wild meat.
If industry would stop adding poisonous stuff,
Degenerative diseases wouldn't be making our lives so rough.
And no one in six black city kid's head
Is only part functional – it's poisoned with lead.
Combine the gas fumes with CO and then
Crossburnings? Nothing's like murder by pen.
The cities are choking – the countryside's sprayed
It's teratogenic – these mutants we've made.
Have we really just coddled the unfittest along
Or have we begun to sing sickness's sad song?
Revere the earth – the air is free
Let city folks breath with suburbia's glee.
At least let us breath – as creatures we must
Pollution control before all turn to dust.
Our people die like flies – every family's links are broken.
We are crumbling and diseased and not a word is spoken.
Our health's degenerating and our judgement is too.
We're no longer close to the grain that is grew.
It's this degeneration, so awesome and so real,
That's ruining our nation – poisons in each meal.
Synthetics we eat give us Chemical Brain,
So to us such an earth may not seem insane.
Our soil's dying, useless, ruined by chemical abuse –
Versus no nutritious food, nukes aren't any use.
Do we use our grain to make our children strong?
Is a Russian cow's stomach where it should belong?
We make them more aggressive by providing them with meat
So think of peace and choose with care everything you eat.
Peace on earth and health – it's not as hopeless as it seems –
If only all of humankind dare to dream such dreams.
So let us work toward a peaceful world renewal
We humans have been given live – let's cherish well this jewel 

Downtown Lounge & Depot 

This page was last modified on Tuesday, June 08, 2010 07:01:25 AM