Tips On How To Practice Safe Cell

Before you get on the


with your



or your


be sure to visit

Safe Travel at U.S.A. D.O.T.

(Tell them Dan sent you)

Ta Da!! We DID It!!!

Virginia Traffic Fees Challenged in Court - Update

While I don't condone Anthony Price for amassing his 5th violation for driving on a suspended license, I do support the lawyers who have taken his conviction and are using it to challenge the legality of Virginia's newly enacted "Civil Remedial Fee" law and who are expecting a verdict on August 2nd.

Don't forget, you can make your own displeasure known by signing your name here.


In other, unrelated legal news, in less then 7 hours I'll finally become a law-abiding citizen of Virginia.

In other words, I'm that close to marriage in one of only a small handful of states remaining which still legally prohibits unmarried people from cohabitating with one another.

54 and Counting

Ok....it's 54 hours and 10 minutes away!!!

Repeat after me "I do" "I do" "I do"

Things to do in between reciting the above mantra:

Don't lose the rings between now and then.

Don't freak out.

Buy new underwear.

Paint nails - fingers AND toes.

Buy nylon stockings.

Don't freak out.

Drive to Montgomery County to get a copy of Dan's divorce papers.

Don't yell at Dan because he insisted he had a copy of his divorce papers even though it turns out he didn't.

Don't freak out.

Repeat after me: "I do" "I do" "I do"

Note to self: Don't ever do this again.

Sunset Storm Clouds

Women of the Ages

This is marvelous

This Is the Date

July 27, 2007

Someone called this old poem to my attention this morning.

It reminded of what a volatile 7 years it's sometimes been and how far we've come since this conversation took place in a Pittsburgh hotel room.

What a long strange trip it's been.

Seeking Definition

You tell me love is more
than moments spent
too artlessly entwined.
You tell me "Love is Fire."
I say that hell is hell
because it's kept
too goddamn hot.
You tell me hell
does not exist
and pull away in ire.

I tell you "Love is gentle heat --
The smallest embers
will survive."
We agree to disagree
and love's left undefined.
These, I think
are moments.
You brush the hair
back from my eyes.
We settle back more cautiously
and watch the clock unwind.

The Hypertexts

These Are the Rings

This is the story behind the rings:

The Now Ring

Nothing is worth more than this day!

The present ring contains one of the secrets of happiness. Most human suffering is caused by focusing our thoughts on the past and on the future. Yearning for the past and thinking about what has already happened as well as fearing the future and what may happen, results in a state of "non-existence". We exist in the present which is, in fact, the only reality that exists for us.

Our failure to recognize the present results in our being in a continuing state of fear and suffering. This ring consists of 4 states of awareness that were created to protect us from illusion and to bring us happiness.

The first word - "present" directs us to the only time that exists - now. Focus on the present, causes us to be aware of everything that is happening around us. When we are in the present we have a "presence" and we reach the state of "the present" - Ha-Nimtza (Hebrew word for is here). Ha-Nimtza hints to us the first stages that cause us to "awaken" and "find ourselves" - and in this way to reach a place where we can truly experience our own existence.

The release of false thoughts and trepidations, such as fear and anger, can bring us to a place of clarity and a sense of living a real life, free of suffering.


For me, marriage is acknowledging the past for what it was, accepting today for what it is and not fearing the future for what it might be. I am committing to the "now" and to each today that we share - and trusting that all of our tomorrows will become todays that continue to bring the laughter and the hope, the joy and the peace that I find within myself when we are together.

Ask Not For Whom The Bells Toll

Figure it out for yourself.

Petition to Repeal Va. "Remedial Fee"

Thanks to a fellow blogger whom I do not know but one whom took the time to send me A Petition to Repeal Va. Traffic Fees we now have a way to make our displeasure known - if not appreciated.

If you're a Virginia resident, I suggest you sign it. You can ignore the request from Pay Pal to support I-Petitions if you like (I have to admit, I did) and your signature still counts.

Meet Elizabeth

Poetry Revolt has seen fit to include my second accepted poem on their "preview" issue.

Heeeereee's Elizabeth (Must scroll down)

I have to admit, there's something about seeing your own name in print that just makes you wiggle - even when it's only Tuesday morning, the temperature is already 80+ degrees outside, your water pressure is nil, your electricity keeps flickering on and off and you've just discovered a huge mound of cat puke on the dining room table.

In other news, I see from Shann Palmer's blog that The State of Virginia is offering four fellowships worth $5,000.00 each to poets and/or music composers for the 2007-2008 year. Hmmmmmmm.

Nah. There's a better chance the cat puke will magically disappear before I go back downstairs to clean it up.

Step-Cats

Visit "I Can Has Cheezburgers" - NOW!!

I Can Has Cheezburger

Balcony Sunset - West End Alexandria

The New Yorker, Poetry and The Atlantic Monthly

Why is it that I long to see
a poem by me in Poetry
or find one tucked away inside
the magazine New Yorkers pride?

Atlantic Monthly Magazine?
I'd kill to see my poem between
the pages numbered eight and nine.
I'd puff my chest and crow "That's mine!"

So every year I resubmit
and six weeks later I get hit
with notes that say "I wish we could
print everything you think we should.

Perhaps you do not comprehend.
We've cardinal rules we cannot bend.
The highest standards must be met.
And you, you've mixed your hex with tet.

Poem Two's too short for our milieu
Perhaps you tried to write Haiku?
And Number Three's so goddamn long,
has no one told you long is wrong?

Regretfully we must reject
these poems you hoped we would select.
I know that this sounds awfully rough -
but frankly, they're not good enough."

And so I tuck my tail and whine
how I don't find their stuff so fine.
And I declare that I don't care
if I get published over there

'cuz I've been published lots of times
by editors that like my rhyme
and people who appreciate
the very poems the big boys hate.

And still I act like such a twit
and still I faithfully submit
whatever poems I think are best.
God, let one pass the Wiman test.

Oh Yeah - Happy Independence Day!!

More on Virginia's Civil Remedial Fees

Why are the new Virginia Resident Traffic Fees discriminatory?

Well, besides the obvious - the fact that it's just not fair to charge a resident of one state thousands of dollars more than you charge a resident of another state for the exact same infraction, there's this:

Suppose this is you
and you are sitting on the side of I-395 or behind a bush somewhere alongside of The Beltway and you see two cars, one in the 2nd lane and one in the 3rd lane - Both cars are
and they are being driven by middle aged
moms and both vehicles are, oddly enough, the same color, the same make, the same model and the same year and both are going exactly 22 miles over the posted speed limit - but because it is late and you are alone you can only pull over and ticket one of these vehicles. Will you choose Vehicle # 1

which will net your employeers a grand total of $100.00
regardless of this soccer mom's previous driving record?



Or will you choose Vehicle # 2


which is now magically worth a minimum of $1,050.00 even if the driver of this vehicle has a perfectly clean driving record to date and a maximum fee of over than $3,500 if this careless Soccer Mom's already accumulated previous points on his/her license?

A gold-mine for the State of Virginia? Sure, but a gold-mine for


and for someone else as well.

Peace, Poetry and Traffic Tickets in Va.

Interesting new poetry blog.
This one's on Poetry and Peace and it's maintained by
Philip Metres. The title of it is, appropriately, Behind the Lines, Poetry and Peacemaking.

In other news, one of the two poems I had accepted for the Inaugural issue of Poetry Revolt is prematurely up already on the Fall 2007 Preview Page.

I have no other news worth sharing.

I will add this, however. I am totally pissed off at the State of Virginia for this little bit of resident discrimination. Makes me really happy to be a citizen here, yanno? I'm not sure it's fair to hold me to a higher standard of responsibility than a resident of Maryland or DC who happens to be speeding through The Lover's State on their way to work or whatever. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't. I certainly hope someone challenges this one in court. I certainly hope they win and everyone who ended up paying $3500.00 for a speeding ticket gets their money back - and I most certainly hope it's returned with an apology - and interest - not only from the state iteslf, but also from the main sponsor of the bill, one David Albo a part-time legislator from Fairfax County and a full time partner in the law firm of Albo and Oblon where he handles, you guessed it, mostly traffic cases.

God, it's enough to make you want to puke. Or at least un-elect someone.

Some days

I'm aware that poetry just doesn't matter.

Not at all.

Not even a little bit.

Nine Firefighters die in Charleston, S. C.




Rest in peace. Your brothers and sisters salute your bravery and your dedication and we mourn your passing.

Hot Metal Press

Oh Happy Sunday!

Woke up this morning to hot tea already prepared, cats already fed and a brilliant sun shining through the balcony doors. What more can one ask for?

How about a poetry acceptance letter?

Got word about an hour ago that Martin Willitts, who is editing an anthology on Cancer for Hot Metal Press, has accepted my one and only offering, In Utero, for inclusion in his upcoming project which was sponsored by a grant from The Chenago County Individual Artist Grant Program 2007

YAY me!!

The acceptance letter was a bit different. I almost didn't finish reading it because it read very much like the standard rejection letter I've come to expect. It began with the familiar:

"Thank you very much for submitting your poem, ________________. I received many more submissions than expected and cannot possible include them all. Many good poems and poets had to be eliminated.

I am pleased that so many people from around the world participated. I hope
I provided a slight chance to represent some good poetry. Unfortunately I
could not accept everything.

But at the end of the familiar two paragraph explanation was the unfamiliar single stand-alone sentence:

"I would like to accept your poem."

Talk about a pleasant surprise!!!!

It's always gratifying to have a poem accepted for publication - always - and no matter how many poems get accepted there's always that same catch of breath and that same sense of wonder and pleasure at the proof that someone, somewhere, considers you good enough to publish so that other people can also read you.

When the poem is accepted by a publication with an underlying worthy cause, however, there's a special feeling of pride and an accompanying sense of fear that the poem will somehow not live up to the initial vote of confidence. The book will be reaching out to an audience other than poetry lovers - and this one will be reaching out to a group of people who have lived through fear and tragedy that I have only written of - to people with a courage I cannot imagine possessing. How will it meet with them?

I've always felt that being capable of writing poetry is as much of a responsibility as it is a gift.

Now I know it is.

The 13th Annual Poetry Conference at West Chester

We left town early yesterday to attend the last day of the 13th Annual West Chester University Poetry Conference. Actually, we didn't "attend" much - mostly we just hung around and met people in person that we've known in print for years. It was great to finally put faces to names - Michael Cantor, David Landrum, Toni Clark, Greg Dowling, Bruce McBirney, and Wendy Sloan from Eratosphere, and Robin Kemp and Marilyn Taylor from Formalista. There were a few others attending that I really wish I had been able to locate but time was short and the few hours we had there flew by and the day was over long before I was ready for it to end.


We hung around long past prudent leaving-time in order to hear Alicia Stallings, Dick Davis and H. L. Hix give readings and I'm really glad we did so.
They were, all three, wonderful. Dick Davis read several very funny and well-written poems loosely centered on random events at last year's conference which kept the audience in stitches throughout. Alicia read from Hapax as well as from her newest collection and gave us a long poem on the Plague from a translation she's been working on for over a decade. H. L. Hix read several poems which were fashioned solely from phrases taken from Bush speechs and one framed around words spoken by Saddam Hussein. He also did a most moving rendition of Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden. Unfortunately we had to leave at that point and missed the readings by Molly Peacock and X. J. Kennedy.

It struck me while I was there that I was surrounded by the rarest of all poetic breeds - poets and artists who lived and breathed in form and meter and rhyme. I was talking to them, I was eating brats and drinking beer with them, I was listening to them read. For one brief and shining moment I was not a freak, I was not alone, I was not uncomfortable, I was not "different," I was not out of place. I was just like everyone else - albeit not nearly as talented.

Next year - as God is my witness - next year, by hook or by crook, by scholarship or by cash, we will attend the entire event.

I'm fired up.

This Would Be - My Family

Dominic Slide Show - What Fun!!

Wheeee!! How cool is THIS??

Poem For Ari

This is how you thought they'd learn -
by being drawn and quartered,
humiliated, abandoned, set in stone.
But before the lesson's end,
before you grinned and walked away,
you should have turned your head
and taken one long and lasting look
into the lion's eyes. You would have
seen how still they shone.

Introducing "Ari"

Meet Ari!! Ari is Hebrew for "lion" and this particular lion named Ari happens to be a "Shameless Lion" and by virtue of my adopting him, this blog is now a member of The Shameless Lions Writing Circle.

He still needs a poem, though. And I'm still working on it.

Tomorrow, the poem will be here tomorrow.

I Tell Myself

I Tell Myself

(for Patti)

I cannot bear to talk of how you died
by your own hand. I cannot bring myself
to cry in front of anyone. My pain is shame;
my grief is guilt; there is no way to blame
this loss on God or fate - and so, each time
I'm asked, I lie. I say that I've survived
your death and life goes on and nothing's changed
except you're gone. I do not speak of things
unspeakable - I mutter platitudes.

I keep the circumstances of your death
tucked hidden with your note. I lick the blood-
stained envelope to seal away the pain.
I tell myself repeatedly that guns
and ropes and razor blades are just the same
as unchecked cancer cells and others die
in self-same ways a hundred times a day.

I cope. (I do not cope.) I comprehend.
(I will not ever comprehend.) I cry.
(I'll never cry again.) And when I'm asked
if I am on the mend, I tell the truth.

(I lie.)

Two New Poems in PoetryRevolt

I've just gotten confirmation from Dr. Maryke Cramerus, the editor of The Poetry Revolt that she's accepted two recently written poems of mine for the next issue of, well duh, The Poetry Revolt, of course.

It's been a long time since I've submitted anything anywhere - and an even longer time since I've had a acceptance.

Very nice magazine, very nice editor. She was very enthusiastic and positive about the poems and she very tactfully suggested some painless changes which turned out to be real improvements. It's really hard for me, as an author, to accept ( much less acknowledge) requested changes but I did want to call attention to the fact that here's one editor who really knows her "stuff" and who knows how to approach even tempermental and opinionated old hags like myself.

Anyhow, I've made the changes and the poems (Shooting Ducks and For Elizabeth)are on their way to publication.

Feels good. Looks like hard work is worth something.

Smells like vindication!!

How Revisions Work (Or Don't)

Generally when I post a poem here it's pretty new....and hence, it's pretty rough. As the days go by, I make revisions - and more revisions - and still more revisions. Up until now, I've simply erased each version and posted the newer one so that no one would ever really know I'd made changes. Unless they had memorized a line or two and I sincerely doubt that anyone's gone that far.

This time I've decided to post each revision as it happens - while leaving the previous one posted below. My own little "workshop" so to speak. None of my changes are ever big ones - usually a word here or a word there - or some meter-fixing and rhyme adjusting. It might be interesting (even for me, since I never revise except to change the original on the computer and I never save an earlier version) to watch a poem evolve.

And so - here goes.


Suicide
revision #1

So shall I choose to die as young men die -
inside the car when death meets dash and grins
his rictus grin - or crouched in sand too far
from home, aware too late that no one wins;
Or here, where bullets know my name and why
I've come - and for one brief and brilliant flash
I'll be the star that lights the city sky?

Or shall I choose to live as old men live -
with palsied limbs and shuffling gait - with eyes
grown dim and ears grown deaf - my mind a sieve
that cannot hold unto the truths or lies
which I held dear no matter how I try;
With tired heart and sagging flesh no cash
or costly drug will heal or help disguise?

I fear free will is nought but final ruse.
There is no choice save this; And thus I choose.
_________________________________________________________

Ill Fated
Original version

So shall I choose to die as young men die -
inside the car when death meets dash and grins
his rictus grin - or crouched in sand too far
from home and suddenly aware that no one wins -
or on a street where bullets know my name and why
I'm there and for one brief and brilliant flash
I'll be the only star that lights the city sky?

Or shall I choose to live as old man live -
with palsied limbs and shuffing gait - with eyes
grown dim and ears grown deaf - my mind a sieve
that cannot hold unto the truths or lies
which I've held dear no matter how I try and try -
With skipping heart and stiffened lungs
that costly drugs can not quite manage to disguise?

Perhaps free will is just the final ruse.
There is no choice. I shall not choose.

David Graham's Poetic Library

I've discovered an excellent new (to me, anyhow) resource for poets and those poetically inclined/interested.

It's called David Graham's Poetry Library and it's designed and maintained by, of course, none other than David Graham. (Go figure!!)

Anyhow, it's a must-check-out for anyone with even a teaspoon of interest in poetry.

So what are you waiting for? Go!! Check it out!!

NOW!!!

Deaths, Disappearances, Duct Tape and Diapers

Stories like these just ruin my weekend.

Baby Microwaved or The Devil Made Me Do It

Baby Dies After Having Mouth Taped For Talking During Nap Time

4 Year Old Missing After Being Left In Hotel Room While Parents Are At Dinner

Ack, yanno? So sad, so unnecessary. It's harder to adopt a kitten than it is to assume responsibility for a child. Parenting/babysitting isn't all that easy - but it shouldn't be this difficult, either.

Must See!!

So much better than poetry.....



With thanks to Kristy for the link.

Leaving Eratosphere Behind

Well, I've done it now. I've gone and quit the ole workshop.

And it feels right - it feels good.

Workshopping can be a very valuable tool in the right hands and at one time I learned much at Eratosphere - but that time is gone and those days are past and the current state of affairs leaves much to be desired in that particular place.

I hope for those remaining that the problems there are resolved quickly. I'm just not sticking around to the bitter end even though the end is probably not very far off.

Sometimes the center really cannot hold.

post removed

Sorry 'bout that....Poems don't stay up. Poems get taken down or fall apart or lay around, but they don't stay up.

Mo' Boards

It's May and Poetry Boards are springing up like Hydra's head!!


Dr. WhupAss's Bitch Ass Poetry Round-Up is not limited to poetry and, much like Eratosphere, it has a double function and duel boards which encourage free speech as well as free verse.


There's a rather lively discussion about what constitutes a
Real Poet going on over at Eratosphere. I'm afraid I lost my temper once again.

And finally, for the eyeroll factor alone, I am including the story of The Judge Who Lost His Pants and Wants To Sue the Cleaners For $65 MILLION Dollars. Only in DC, yanno?

God, I miss Indiana!!!

Deamons

Note to Anon

It's a shame that such well thought-out and worded posts can't (or won't) be posted here. There is, of course, a part of me which would like nothing better than to post the comments I've recently received. But the better part of valor is always discretion - as I assume you are all aware - since your refusal to comment under your own names while being perfectly willing to allow others (such as myself) to take the heat for broadcasting your ideas and opinions speaks volumes of your own courage and your own fears.

This is not to say that I disagree with them - or with your rights to vocalize them. Just not in my playground and just not under the broad cloak of "anonymous."

I would, of course, appreciate being able to correspond with you guys since apparently we share many of the same views even if we don't agree on how and/or where to best express them. These one-sided conversations leave me feeling just a bit out-of-sorts and irritated. How can I respond to your charges if I don't know who or where you are?

Besides, if you're truly serious, how on earth do you expect that the "problem" can be addressed if we all choose to remain anonymous? There's strength (and safety, if any one's afraid) in numbers, yanno?

As for me, I walk the narrow line because it seems the kindest and wisest thing to do.

Convince me otherwise.

Comment Moderation

At least for a while the comment moderation feature is going to be turned on.

I'm a big believer in free speech - I'm just not a big believer in cheap speech.

"Poet and Critic"

Allright! A new workshopping board for metrical poets!!!

Not only that - but a new workshopping board for metrical poets who don't feel like wading through tons of personality crap and bullshit cliques to get there.

One with the focus on poetry rather than on popularity.

What more can a misfit metricist like myself ask for?

Poet and Critic

Wish-Fullfillment

Today at five o'clock I shall fullfill one of my lifelong dreams. Yes, you guessed it, we are getting a dorm sized refrigerator for the bedroom.

Ahhh....bliss.

All I need now is a microwave and hotplate and I'll never have to get out of bed again.

Damn Near A Sonnet....Rocky Scan

Rahula

Come sit, Oh fat and Buddha-bellied cat
who thinks he’s kin to humankind. Reach up
and touch your paw against my face before
you climb into my lap. Turn once, then turn
again and find a place of joy. Stretch each
small claw - first sheathed and then unsheathed and knead
and purr and knead and kneed until your heart’s content.
We’ll sit together, you and I, and rock and reminisce
on lives once lived and loves once lost,
while safe within the fireplace, the dying embers die.

You’ll recollect an alley draped in dark,
and I, a house too cold and damp. Your mother’s
milk was all you knew - and I, those children,
soft and warm, small hands against my face.

Well Worth Reading.....Jehanne Dubrow

I don't often find "contemporary poets" that I'm willing to recommend - but Jehanne is different. She's really good. I don't know her, but I wish I did.

Follow the poetry links, please:

Notes from the Gefilte Review

Heard On CNN This Morning

Deidre Imus - "You must stop sending hate mail to these women. If you must send hate mail, send it to my husband."

Go, Dedrie!!!

The Decider Decides.....

for the 171st time!!!!

Rudeness in the Workshop

If I am rude in defense of someone who has been the unwilling victim of rudeness what does that make me?

Corps Places Faulty Pumps in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush's promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.................

The pumps are now being pulled out and overhauled because of excessive vibration, Corps officials said. Other problems have included overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets, according to the documents obtained by the AP.................

The drainage-canal pumps were custom-designed and built under a $26.6 million contract awarded after competitive bidding to Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla. It was founded in 1926 and supplies flood-control and irrigation pumps all over the world.

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

MWI has run into trouble before. The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain $74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.

Entire Article, NW Ind. Times


So the nation has, in effect, re-hired a company which they are already suing for fraud.

I'd do that, too, wouldn't you?

Especially if Jeb Bush was a friend of mine.

Any Man - revision # 1

Any Man

Remember how when we were young, we walked
outside the rapist's house, back and forth, to
and fro, until at last our parents called
us in? My mother said, "You're teasing fate."
Your father said, "You're tempting man." But we
were ten - and curious - and sex and rape
were two small words we did not understand.


But now that I've been raped by love, and you,
my friend, by marriage vows, we comprehend.
The face that sometimes hides inside a closed
suburban home - where fancy curtains can
not keep a secret kept - is someone's son
and someone's spouse and that his name may quite
well be the whispered name of any man.

Women Rule!!!

Notice - it's the females who learn the new tricks first......

Chimps Fashion Tools to Hunt Bush Babies

By Rick Weiss
The Washington Post

February 23, 2007

Chimpanzees living in the West African savanna have been observed fashioning deadly spears from sticks and using the handcrafted tools to hunt small mammals--the first routine production of deadly weapons observed in animals other than human beings.

The multistep spearmaking, documented by researchers in Senegal who spent years gaining the chimpanzees' trust, adds credence to the idea that human forebears fashioned similar tools millions of years ago.

The landmark observation also supports the long-debated proposition that females--the main makers and users of spears among the Senegalese chimps--tend to be the innovators and creative problem solvers in primate culture.

Using their hands and teeth, the chimpanzees were repeatedly seen tearing the side branches off long straight sticks, peeling back the bark and sharpening one end, the researchers report in Thursday's online issue of the journal Current Biology. Then, grasping the weapon in a "power grip," they jabbed into tree-branch hollows where bush babies--small monkeylike mammals--sleep. "It was really alarming how forceful it was," said lead researcher Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames, adding that it reminded her of the murderous shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Psycho." "It was kind of scary."

The new observations are "stunning," said Craig Stanford, a primatologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California. "Really fashioning a weapon to get food--I'd say that's a first for any non-human animal."

While a few chimpanzees have been observed throwing rocks and a few others have been known to swing simple clubs, only people have been known to craft tools expressly to hunt prey.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Bashert

Bashert

You speak to me in unfamiliar tongue -
Your mother's verse and chapter flooded
through your flesh at birth until the songs
that once were sung at cradle time
became your breath and blood.
Bathsheba, Sarah, Rachel, Ruth, Rahab -
Your women share my bed - I share their grief.
Masada, Gilboa, En-gedi, Ahlab -
The soil's in your soul. I cannot till the earth
you walk upon without exhuming bone beneath.
Moses, Isaac, Levi, Daniel, Job -
The strengths and sorrows of the fathers are
his offspring's board and chalk.
Havaye, Elokim, Kel Shakai - The One
These names you hide inside your mouth and speak
instead of sacrifice and sin, of shield and sun.

Halakhah - teach me how to walk.

Poets Who Lie, Poets Who Love

Two things which are definitely worth reading today:



Jeffrey Levine's Dorset Prize Dustup as published in Poets&Writers by Kevin Larimer (with thanks to Kristy Bowen for pointing it out.)


All My Poems are Love Poems - When Two Poets Fall in Love published in Poets.Org and written by Craig Teicher.

Education vs Effort

Interesting discussion here which I got into late and probably should have stayed out of, but didn't.

Sometimes I just get sick of highly educated people telling lesser educated ones what they should or should not be capable of wanting and/or doing. In the end, it's motivation not money, effort not education and determination not destiny which drives people to accomplish whatever it is they've accomplished. A lack of education is a hinderance, a lack of time is a drawback, a lack of money is a drag, but none of those things are insurmountable and many good things can still take place in spite of all those supposed negatives.

Writing poetry would be one of those things. Writing poetry which other people can actually read and relate to is another. Being proud of who you are and accepting of yourself (even if no one else is) is a third.

Makes Sense to Me

Michael Lewis, a journalist and the author of “Liar’s Poker” and “Moneyball,” appeared in the magazine Poetry for the first time in the summer of 2005, with a satirical piece called “How to Make a Killing from Poetry: A Six Point Plan of Attack.” It offered its advice in bullet-point businessese: “1) Think Positive. Nobody likes a whiner. And poets always seem to be harping on the negative. . . . 2) Take Your New Positive Attitude and Direct It Towards the Paying Customer. The customer is your friend. Your typical poem really doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the living retail customer. . . . 3) Think About Your Core Message. Your average reader might like a bit of fancy writing, but at the end of the day he will always ask himself: what’s my takeaway?”

The New Yorker

Poem for Elizabeth

Elizabeth Siddall Rossetti















For Elizabeth Siddall Rossetti
Who Suffered and Died and Was Buried
For the Sake of Everyone Else's Art http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/victorian/painting/millais/paintings/4.html


And when the artist says, "Don't move"
do you laugh a febrile laugh
or do you shiver at the fantasy
of faking ancient death?
Does your pale flesh crawl as you draw
that last warm breath
submerged as you are (impeccably dressed)
inside a tub as cold as Satan's soul?
At what grave cost do you suppress
each wracking ragged cough?


Poor Ophelia-Necrophilia!


Eventually you'll find the love
you think you've missed.
It's painted in the poppies
in the bouquet at your wrist.

The Horrible Secrets of Motherhood

In honor of the Chicago Bears going to Super Bowl 41. Here are 41 things that have changed from the last time the Chicago Bears played in the Super Bowl (which was Super Bowl 20 in 1986):

1. Brian Urlacher was in 2nd grade. Rex Grossman was in kindergarten.
Peyton Manning was 10 years old. Eli Manning was 5 years old. Their dad, Archie, had just retired from the NFL two years earlier.
2. Lovie Smith was in his first college coaching job at University of Tulsa.
3. Ronald Reagan was the President, and Harold Washington was the Mayor. James R. Thompson was the Governor running for re-election and his office was in the new State of Illinois Center, which is now called the James R. Thompson Center.
4. George W. Bush was 39 years old and still drinking. His father would run for President two years later.
5. Rod Blagojevich was just out of law school and was a low-level prosecutor working for the Cook County State's Attorney, Richard M. Daley.
6. Barack Obama had just moved to Illinois, and Osama bin Laden was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.
7. Red Grange and Sid Luckman were still alive.
8. The Colts had just moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore and were the doormat of the AFC EAST. The Bears were the champions of the NFC CENTRAL.
9. Property in Wicker Park and Bucktown was cheap because they were really bad neighborhoods.
10. CD players, cellular phones and fax machines were expensive, cutting edge technology and only a few people used them.
11. "Surfing the net" meant a volleyball game at the beach, and virtually no one used the "@" key on their TYPEWRITER.
12. Sam Walton was still alive and was wealthier than Bill Gates.
13. Windows were panes of glass...not a computer operating system that was a pain in something that rhymes with glass.
14. The Soviet Union was our main enemy, and Saddam Hussein was our ally.
15. There were no lights at Wrigley Field, and the oldest park in baseball belonged to the White Sox.
16. Michael Jordan and Ozzie Guillen had just finished their "Rookie of the Year" seasons. Jordan's coach was Stan Albeck and Guillen's manager was Tony LaRussa. (Three out of four of those guys are now wearing championship rings, but what ever happened to Stan Albeck???)
17. Soldier Field had AstroTurf. The Houston Oilers played in the AstroDome.
18. The Fox TV Network didn't exist, and ESPN had yet to air a single live pro football, baseball, or basketball game.
19. MTV played music and so did some AM radio stations.
20. Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff weren't born yet; Jackie Gleason and Richard Nixon were still alive.
21. Hillary Clinton had dark hair and was the First Lady......of Arkansas!
22. "The Love Boat" and "Diff'rent Strokes" were still on network TV every week.
23. Martin Luther King Day was about to be celebrated as a National Holiday for the first time.
24. "9-11" was a phone number many cities were just adopting for emergency calls - not a date of terror.
25. I-88 was called "Illinois Rt. 5" and I-355 hadn't been built yet.
26. What the CTA now calls "The Blue Line" had just been extended to O'Hare, and the Orange Line to Midway hadn't been built yet.
27. Q101 played adult contemporary music and most teenagers listened to WLS. Music from the 70s and 80s wasn't "retro" yet.
28. Tiger Woods hadn't won an amateur golf tournament yet.
29. Most people knew Seattle just as a city in the Northwest U.S. - not the home of grunge or Starbucks.
30. Only Southerners went to NASCAR races and only Northerners went to NHL games.
31. The Chicago area had no Wal-Marts, Targets or Home Depots, and Walgreen's was only in the Midwest.
32. Depending on your bank, your ATM card was good at only "Cash Station" machines or only at "Money Network" machines, but there were no fees.
33. "The Phone Company" was Illinois Bell.
34. They still sold leaded gasoline and you couldn't pay for your gas at the pump.
35. Discover Card hadn't been discovered yet, and Miller Genuine Draft hadn't been brewed yet.
36. Stereo TVs were the rage that HDTVs are now. 8-track tapes were still being made.
37. All of the Blockbuster Video stores that are now closing hadn't opened yet. Betamax was still competing with VHS.
38. You paid cash for your groceries and fast food, and you used a travel agent to book airline flights.
39. Bowl games didn't have corporate sponsors, and if the #1 ranked team was in a conference that played in one bowl game and the #2 ranked team was in a conference that played in another bowl game, then so be it! They let the sportswriters vote on the national champion. (and no college football games were played after New Year's Day)
40. The Baltimore Ravens were the Cleveland Browns. The Tennessee Titans were the Houston Oilers. The Oakland Raiders were the Los Angeles Raiders that had just left Oakland. The Arizona Cardinals (the former Phoenix Cardinals) were the St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Rams were the Los Angeles Rams. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans, and the Cleveland Browns (not to be confused with the Cleveland Browns that are now the Baltimore Ravens) didn't exist. The Seattle Seahawks (last year's NFC Champions) played in the AFC.
41. There were no iPods - just Sony Walkmen - so if you said something about a "shuffle" on your Walkman, they assumed you were listening to "The Super Bowl Shuffle"


Source: Unknown

This is a tough year for my house. Sons # 1 and 3 live in the Chicago area and are die-hard Bears fans. Son #2 has his football roots back home in Indiana and is equally passionate about The Colts. Fortunately for me, Dan is out of it - his being a Pats fan and all. (Better luck next year, Honey!) Any way you look at it, I am going to get telephone calls tonight.....and someone will be happy and someone will be sad. I shall be forced to celebrate and mourn at virtually the same time. I shall also be forced to deny having three-way calling capability on my cell phone so that no child in the presence of his siblings can catch me in the act and call me out on feigned sorrow or phony joy thereby solving once and for all (in the loser's mind) the age-old mystery of just which son it is that mom loves most.

Ahhhh....the horrible secrets of motherhood. No one told me there'd be games like this.

All Things Biblical

You know the Bible 82%!

 

Wow! You are truly a student of the Bible! Some of the questions were difficult, but they didn't slow you down! You know the books, the characters, the events . . . Very impressive!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

That was fun.....this is funner:

The Biblical Scholastic Aptitude Test (BSAT) by our own beloved Dan Halberstein.

The Shadow Knows

The Boondock Saints Justice!

I'm not a big movie goer....In fact, it's probably been 10 years since I've seen the insides of a movie theater and the last video I watched before this one was "Shreek."

Be that as it may, I spent Thanksgiving at my youngest son's house and we had a marathon video-day in between several marathon football days. Joe got to pick all of his favorite movies and we all got to watch them.

I'm so proud of him. He's obviously just as disturbed as I am when it comes to movies and why we like them.

While all of the films we watched were fine ones, this one has stuck with me the most. It's not a well known film, in fact it had a theater showing of one week in a grand total of 6 theaters.....but it has apparently become something of a cult film and I've (just as apparently) joined the cult.

If you don't mind gratuitous violence (and even if you do - you can do as I do and shut your eyes when you just know something or someone is going to explode or esanguinate) and you love tight-knit American Irish Catholic families, the idea of Willam DeFoe as a gay cop and comic Italian side kicks - you really really have to see this one.

Really.

Donovan - Season Of The Witch

Ya gotta love it. Well, you gotta love it if you're old, anyhow.

School Daze School Daze

You paid attention during 63% of high school!

51-67% You are smart enough to be ashamed of still scoring so low; remember that there are books in the world, full of information? Yes, books are our friends.

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Not bad, considering I virtually never even went to high school.

Intoxication Update

(CBS/AP) Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a woman believed to have been killed by drinking too much water in a radio station contest.

On a tape of the Jan. 12 show, disc jockeys on KDND-FM's "Morning Rave" joke about the possible dangers of consuming too much water, at one point alluding to a college student who died during such a stunt in 2005.

During the contest, a listener - self-identified as a nurse - called the live radio broadcast and warned that the game was dangerous, CBS News station KOVR-TV reported.

"I want to say that those people drinking all that water can get sick and die from water intoxication," said the caller.

"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of them said.

Another DJ laughed: "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."

Police Probe Death

I wonder if anyone told the radio station that a "release" and "informed consent" are two different things....and when you're dealing with the possibility of death (which apparently they were well aware of) I'd think that you'd have a hard time even making a signed "informed consent" stick. I can't imagine a mere "release" will hold up in court.

That poor woman....and her poor children and family. Ugh. Firing them all just isn't good enough. They were fully aware of previous deaths from drinking too much water - they were informed on the air of the dangers involved...and they joked about it.

How sick is that?

Hyponatremia

Autopsy Finds Signs of Water Intoxication in Radio Contestant's Death

Well, duh!!! "Water Intoxication" is not a new phenomenon. Atheletes have died from it, babies have died from it, hikers have died from it. Unfortunately, people continue to die from it - and now they're having contests to see how fast they can do so.

The medical name for water intoxication is Hyponatremia and I've seen firsthand what happens. It's not pretty, either. We had a baby in the ER once, about 9 months old, whose parents were told by the family doctor to make sure the child got enough fluids during a bout with the ordinary flu. Unfortunately, the doctor forgot to tell them that there was such a thing as "too much fluid" and they gave the hungry baby all the water that she could drink - which turned out too be too damn much - and by the time the poor parents realized something other than the "flu" was causing the baby's rapidly progressing problems and brought the baby into the Emergency Room, it was too late, and she died in spite of our best efforts.

Hyponatremia results when a dehydrated person drinks too much water without the accompanying electrolytes. When too much water enters the body's cells, the tissues swell with the excess fluid. Your cells maintain a specific concentration gradient, so excess water outside the cells (the serum) draws sodium from within the cells out into the serum in an attempt to re-establish the necessary concentration. As more water accumulates, the serum sodium concentration drops. From the cell's point of view, water intoxication produces the same effects as would result from drowning in fresh water. Electrolyte imbalance and tissue swelling can cause an irregular heartbeat, allow fluid to enter the lungs, and may cause fluttering eyelids. Swelling puts pressure on the brain and nerves, which can cause behaviors resembling alcohol intoxication. Swelling of brain tissues can cause seizures, coma and ultimately death unless water intake is restricted and a hypertonic saline (salt) solution is administered.

The kidneys of a healthy adult can process fifteen liters of water a day! You are unlikely to suffer from water intoxication, even if you drink a lot of water, as long as you drink over time as opposed to intaking an enormous volume at one time.

Short Chemistry lesson


How the radio station in question missed all this, I don't know. There has been enough published material about so-called "Water Intoxication" and the resulting deaths of otherwise healthy people that you would think that someone there should have been aware of the dangers involved and done something to ensure that the contest did not take place.

Apparently not, though.

Up Shit Creek and Other Assorted Goodies

New and interesting -

People: Reginald Shepherd's Blog

Jeff Sharlet's Call Me Ishmael blog

Places: Shit Creek Review

Poetry: Umbrella Journal

Sitters Aren't Necessary if You're Married

They called it the week of heroes in New York City. In three different instances, bystanders saved life. In the third instance, a three-year-old climbed out onto a fourth-floor fire escape while a sitter was otherwise occupied. Two men saw the child about to fall and caught it. While New York may have improved its civility since the murder of Kitty Genovese, when bystanders did nothing, I was troubled by some details in the story of the child. I noted at once that the boy and his mother had different surnames. This working, single mother left her child in the care of a negligent sitter. She probably paid a good fraction of her wage for this service. Would a sitter have been necessary, if the woman had been, you know, married? A tragedy was averted; but children should not have to rely on the kindness or bravery of strangers, when the disordered lives of their parents put them at risk.

Seablogger

Hmmmm. I don't normally cut+paste from someone else's blog, if I have something to say, I say it in their comment section - but in this case I'm forced to say it here. Alan tends to not like posting my comments and that's his perogative. However, this disturbs me enough to think that it's only fair that it gets refuted to some degree - and by whom better than a "working single mother?"

Not only that, I wonder just how many people agree with him on this one?

I'll try to take this in order here:

1) There's no real evidence that this child's mother WAS a single mother. She may have been married, she may be living with the child's father, she may be a widow, she may be almost anything. It's somewhat unfair to "guess" at her marital status based on different last names. My children and I have different last names....doesn't mean I wasn't married while I was raising them. Doesn't mean I was, either. Point is, it really isn't anyone's business, is it?

2) Why are we assuming that the sitter was negligent? Because she took her eyes off the child for a second or two? Show me a sitter (or a parent) who says she hasn't turned the other way or answered a phone or picked up a cookie while caring for a small child and I'll show you someone who's probably lying about it. As any parent of small children can tell you - children can get in a whole world of hurt in about half a second - and you can be looking right at them while they do it. Eric Clapton's child fell to his death from a balcony while his mother was right there in the apartment with him. Shit happens. And it happens regardless of who's present and who's not present. I watched one kid bean another kid with a sledge hammer (accidently) and fracture his skull - not 12 feet away from me - but there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it - by the time I screamed "Look out" the hammer had connected with the forehead. Was I an unfit mother? Nope - just not quite quick enough. We cannot lock our children in a room nor wrap them up in cellophane - sometimes they get hurt. We can only do our best and pray alot.

3) As for "would this child have needed a sitter if the mother had been, you know, married" - the answer is probably yes. In today's world most parents, even in two-parent families, work. Now maybe that's sad, but it's fact. And they do it not necessarily to pay for "goodies" either - but to pay for things like food and shelter. The cost of living is bad enough here in DC, I can't imagine trying to raise a family in NYC. And if she was a single mother, and she was out there working to put food on the table, would you rather she be on welfare than bustin' butt trying to take care of her own?

4) Last but not least - if all the hypothesising done above really happens to be correct, how come no one wonders where Daddy was during all this? How come the question wasn't "Would the sitter have been necessary if the father was, you know, around?" I mean, he could have been the one out working while the mommy was staying home "where she belonged" or (novel idea, I know) he could have been home babysitting while mommy was out working. (Although for the life of me, I've never figured out why mothers who stay home are "parenting" and fathers who stay home are "babysitting.")

5) All children have two parents - regardless of how many of those parents they are living with. All parents are (or should be) equally responsible for providing for that child's welfare and upbringing. Why cast stones only at the custodial parent? After all, the custodial parent is the only one at least trying to do the right thing. Working to support your children is not bringing your own "disorder" to your child's life - it is a wonderful attempt to bring order into both lives.

I don't know the "whole story" here. I think that all any of us needs to know is just what the story reported - that two strangers thought enough of life to attempt to save one small falling child - and they did it without stopping to question the lifestyle, marital status or current whereabouts of the falling child's mother.

I mean, jeez, what if they had stopped long enough to think about all the things apparently thought of here? They might have gotten all rightously judgmental and decided that some lives are just not worth saving at all.

Words From Eliot

" For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice."

LIttle Gidding
# 4 of Four Quartets
T. S. Eliot

Any Way You Say It

新年好
Feliz Año Nuevo
Nouvelle Année Heureuse
Nuovo Anno Felice
С Новым годом
明けましておめでとう
Καλή χρονιά
Ano Novo Feliz
새해 복 많이 받으세요
Happy New Year

Fieralingue

I received an email from Anny Ballardini of NarcissusWorks today. She invited me to submit a sample of my poetry to Poet's Corner at the absolutally gorgeous Web Site Fieralingue.

Never have I had a response so quickly!! And, a few hours later, just like friggin' magic, there I is -- Laura Heidy with not just one but a even dozen poems!!

Thanks, Anny!! What a wonderful way to end one year and begin another!!!

The Eyes Have It

Happy Holidays

from Washington D.C.

How A Woman's Eyes Grow Narrow

The earth is cold. A woman’s tears
are ice upon her cheeks. She fears
hot words, rough hands, and the threat
of a careless cigarette held
too close against her flesh. She’s small.
She’s old. She's skin and bones
with hips no wider than a boy’s.

She fears crude swastikas, white hoods
and men of every race. She keeps
within herself a litany
of epithets like a filthy
twisted handkerchief tucked hidden
in her breast. She's safe nowhere.
She hears the whispered jewbitchwhore
against her ear, behind her back,
inside the store, across the street
where spit seared scars beneath her hair.
There's no relief, she seldom sleeps.

When she was young her eyes were wide,
and clear, and hungry in her face,
but every time she raised her head
the world fed her hate.

New Endeavor

Since I can't seem to write poetry anymore I've decided to tackle a new writing project. I've agreed to take over the editorship of our currently defunct condo newsletter, both hard copy and online edition.

I know very little about writing and even less about editing. Dan occasionally edits my poetry - much to my dismay most times, but that's about the extent of my knowledge as to how it's done.

I'm looking forward to it, however. It seems like a great opportunity to get involved in the community I live in as well as broadening my written word horizons.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile...

Philosophy 101

If you move far away, to a place where you know no one and no one knows you, does the person you used to be still exist?

Fusion Poetry Slam-a-Thon

I took part in a very well run Internet (AOL) poetry "Slamathon" a few weeks ago......and got this really neat winner's shirt in the mail today. Thank you, Fusion Poetry People!! I wish I could have gone on to compete in the semi-finals but the final grand "Slam-Off" (should I have advanced that far in the second round) is being held on December 16th, which is Hanukkah for me and I'll be in Jersey celebrating with family. I didn't want to commit to something I couldn't participate in and so I didn't sign up for the extended rounds. Good luck to whoever wins, though - genuine cash prizes involved!!!

Lindsay Lohan and the Amazing Condolence Letter

It recently came to my attention that Lindsay Lohan released her "letter of condolence" to the Robert Altman family to the press.....and the press picked it up, word for tortured word, and reprinted it. I'm not sure why she wrote it and I'm less sure why she released it to the press and I'm not at all sure why the press went ahead and printed it. Unless, of course, they hate her.


Here it is - reprinted in all its misspelled glory and incoherent phrasing:


http://usatoday.com/life/people/2006-11-21-lindsay-statement_x.htm

"I would like to send my condolences out to Catherine Altman, Robert Altmans wife, as well as all of his immediate family, close friends, co-workers, and all of his inner circle.

"I feel as if I've just had the wind knocked out of me and my heart aches.

"If not only my heart but the heart of Mr. Altman's wife and family and many fellow actors/artists that admire him for his work and love him for making people laugh whenever and however he could..

"Robert altman made dreams possible for many independent aspiring filmmakers, as well as creating roles for countless actors.

"I am lucky enough to of been able to work with Robert Altman amongst the other greats on a film that I can genuinely say created a turning point in my career.

"I learned so much from Altman and he was the closest thing to my father and grandfather that I really do believe I've had in several years.

"The point is, he made a difference.

"He left us with a legend that all of us have the ability to do.

"So every day when you wake up.

"Look in the mirror and thank god for every second you have and cherish all moments.

"The fighting, the anger, the drama is tedious.

"Please just take each moment day by day and consider yourself lucky to breathe and feel at all and smile. Be thankful.

"Life comes once, doesn't 'keep coming back' and we all take such advantage of what we have.


"When we shouldn't..... '
"Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourselves' (12st book) -everytime there's a triumph in the world a million souls hafta be trampled on.-altman Its true. But treasure each triumph as they come.

"If I can do anything for those who are in a very hard time right now, as I'm one of them with hearing this news, please take advantage of the fact that I'm just a phone call away.

God Bless, peace and love always.

Thank You,

"BE ADEQUITE"

Lindsay Lohan

Having been a "poetry judge" and a chat room host in a poetry room on AOL for several years, I can pretty well decode the spelling and decipher what she may have meant to say.......but that (12st book) thing really had me confused. At first I thought she was making a biblical reference, but afraid to trust my own judgement, I cheated and "googled" the phrase. It's from the AA 12 step program - and it's the fourth step in the recovery process.

That clears up that, I suppose.

What it doesn't clear up is "why?" Why release this to the press? I can understand her writing it in the first place.....the thought itself is kind and actually having the presence of mind and the grace to take the time to write a letter of condolence is more than I would have expected from the teenage actress ilk - but to release it to the press with no regard for spelling and/or coherence? Being regarded as a sex symbol is one thing - but do young girls really want to be viewed as nothing more than mindless senseless bimbos? As a woman I'm just fine with sexy - however, as a mother, I'm not so fine with stupid.

Here's a scary thought - maybe she never even realized it was poorly written.....according to The Los Angeles Times Ms. Lohan received straight A's from a public school located in Long Island. Maybe no one ever took the time to say "Look, Biatch, I don't care how pretty you are - this is just WRONG!!! You need to spend more time with your grammar and less time with your girlfriends." Sad to say, while it's shockingly incoherent and grossly misspelled, this letter is just not the worst I've ever read from a teenager.......and it's pretty much what I've come to expect. Doesn't mean I like it, of course, just means that it's prevalent and that I've become unhappily familiar with it.

Kinda makes you question the entire education system (as well as the parents) more than it does one poor misguided publicity-seeking young girl, doesn't it?

Art at Work

Came home from Thanksgiving Holiday to find an email from Paul Tulloch at http://www.livingwork.ca/index.htm telling me that a poem I had submitted back in April or May had been short-listed in their contest, Art at Work.

I barely remember entering it......which only goes to show I need to start writing this kinda stuff down somewhere again regardless of the fact that I submit very little anywhere anymore and I am convinced that due to sheer lack of volume that I will remember when I do (because obviously I don't.)

The interesting thing about the whole thing is this: The poem which was picked (out of three which were sent) is the one I was least sure had value. It's an old one and I remember workshopping it on Eratosphere some years ago to some really bad reviews. The general consensus was "too emotional, too overblown, too too" and "this is one to keep for yourself but not to show other people because it's poorly executed and you can do much better." And they're right....it IS emotional, and it is overblown and perhaps I can do "much better" but "much better" means different things to different people. I've always wanted to write poetry which people other than poets would appreciate. I was pretty sure then (and I still think so now) that some times both of those groups can be reached by the same poem (although apparently I am often mistaken about that particular line of thought.)

I'm often caught in between two worlds - the gritty one I've lived and worked in, and the "other" one where people write beautiful words which mean essentially nothing to anyone but other well-educated and refined poets. I can mimic the refined and I can fake the well-educated but more and more I ask myself, "Why bother?" Truth is - I'm neither of those things and I'm not convinced that my poetry has to be either of those things in order to be successful.

They're breeding emotion out of poetry now days. Virtually every poem I read which is current ends up boring the shit out of me. It's either sleek and sophisticated or it's full of gimmicks - and either way, it's more often than not as dull as hell. I don't want to write safe clean poetry which isn't dripping blood - even if the blood I have to drip is my own. I don't write often for that reason. It's painful, it extracts too much from me and leaves me with virtually no protection. And yet, it feels too much like cheating when a poem is written without some sort of personal emotion being not only involved but expended.

So, in a sense, I feel somewhat personally vindicated by having
Paul Tulloch and the other judges of Living Work having picked the free verse poem "Bless the Babies" for their short-list over the other (and more formal) poems which I submitted to them. It means that I had the courage and the conviction (and yes, the ego) to still feel something was good even when I'd been told by some of the best formal poets around that it wasn't.
It's good to believe in yourself.
Really good.

Happy Spanksgiving!!!!

Off on a road trip to Chicago to see 2 kids, 1 grandson, 1 daughter-in-law, 1 want-her-to-be daughter-in-law, 1 mother, 1 aunt, 1 sister, 3 nephews, 1 niece, some old friends, some old co-workers and a partridge in a pear tree. Back on Tuesday. Have a safe and happy holiday!!! Kiss someone special......make 'em know they are.

"If I Did It" - No One Wants to Read About It

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp. announced today that News Corp. has decided to cancel the upcoming O. J. Simpson book and television special "If I Did It."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15820344/

Sometimes the people in this country really DO make a difference

"If I Did It"....by O. J. Whatshisgame

I must echo Washington Post Op-Ed columnist, Ed Robinson and urge you to please, for the sake of all that's still decent in the world, please do not spend your money on O. J. Simpson's latest attempt at recapturing the limelight entitled, un-aptly enough, "If I Did It," or watch the Fox Television infomercial promoting said-travesty.

Ugh. I certainly hope that whatever money he makes off of the bozo's that buy this book miraculously ends up in the pockets of the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

I also hope there's a special place in hell for narcissistic ex-football players - along with their editors, publishers and press agents.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601360.html

A Picture's Worth.....

The coffin of Marine Cpl. Michael H. Lasky, 22, of Sterling, Alaska, arrives at Arlington National Cemetery in the back of a pickup truck as requested by his family.

Time for a Change

I've decided that it's difficult to take pink seriously....and so I've developed a new look. It's like getting a new haircut with subtle highlights or having a sophisticated set of french-tipped acrylic nails applied.......a face lift that I didn't have to leave the house to get. Unfortunately, my blog probably won't wear sophistication any better than I do - so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Etheree at Barnard

A few days ago I received a message from the Formalista group which was sent out by a rather well known professor from Barnard University. She was searching for information on a little known form called an Etheree.

In my response to the list, I took the liberty of including a link to an Etheree I had written a few years ago and which can be currently found at The Hypertexts. Apparently she liked it, because she then personally emailed me and asked me if she could please use my poem as an example when she assigned the form to her students.

I was sincerely flattered, I said "Of course" and "Thank you" and now that I'm done dancing I feel very much like what my children would refer to as a major "poser."

Most days it doesn't bother me a whit....but sometimes, when something like this occurs, I am sorely conscious of my own utter lack of education and I wonder what in the hell am I doing here and who in the hell am I fooling?

Dan says it's not "fooling" people at all. A good poem is a good poem is a good poem and it doesn't matter how much or how little the author of the poem was formally educated.

Perhaps he's right....perhaps a poem stands alone, apart from the poet's background and education. It's just that there's so much being said about MFA's and doctorates and what school what poet hails from and what university what poet is a full professor at that I just feel totally lost in the shuffle.

Ah well, at least a poem of mine made it to Barnard.

Next best thing to having been there myself, I suppose.

Which Poet Are You?

Gosh, thanks to Reb I now know I can (and should) give up wracking my brain attempting to write poetry.


My score onThe Which Famous Poet Are You Test:

William McGonagall!

"You are, without a doubt, the worst fucking poet who ever lived. You have all the charm of a bowl of peas. You do not know how to have a good time. You have no sense of rhythm. You do not have a way with words. Your rhymes are hackneyed, and your ideas are boring. You could use a stiff drink and a good fuck, but the thought of it makes you a little uncomfortable. You should stick to your day job, because la vie poetique is not for you. You do not have a masterpiece in you. I'm sorry."

Take it!http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=8120684024692611744

Innominate

Behold
the changeling child.
The insolate daughter
of the night. She is the sun's spawn.
She shines.

Celebrating Anne Sexton

Tapestry of Voices and the Forest Hills Educational Trust present

CELEBRATING ANNE SEXTON

with poets Lois Ames, Suzanne Berger, Robert J. Clawson and Victor Howes.
Sunday, December 10 at 2 pm in Forsyth Chapel at historic Forest Hills
Cemetery
95 Forest Hills Avenue, Boston MA.

If she were alive, Anne Sexton would turn 78 this year. Many of her friends,
students, and colleagues are still around, though, and still celebrating
her as a poet and a force. This November 12, they’ll gather for a fifth
annual tribute at Forsyth Chapel, reading her iconoclastic poetry
and their own. The reading ends with a walk to Sexton’s burial site
on the surrounding grounds of Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.

People who love Sexton’s poetry - her rawness, her energy, her way
with words - would do well to attend the celebration. This is a chance
to meetVictor Howes, who knew Anne as a member of the New England
Poetry Club; Lois Ames, who edited Sexton’s "Life in Letters";
Robert J. Clawson, who managed her band, "Anne Sexton and Her Kind";
and Suzanne Berger, oneof her students at B.U..

Anne Sexton stirred up trouble with her poetry, and in her personal life.
She was wild, transgressive, and wildly intelligent, a break-out
from the suburban middle class. Her poetry still exudes disturbance,
excitement, electricity. Its aggressive honesty still influences poetry today.

Admission: $5. Directions and details at www.foresthillstrust.org
or 617.524.0128. PLENTY OF PARKING

Fun Stuff. - Give It A Try

Warning: Addictive as hell. Help A Drunk Home

ALLEN CONCEDES

The joys of being a Democrat in Virginia.....or how I learned to love voting in my first election.

Actually, I'm not too thrilled with Webb, either, he just seemed like the lesser of the two evils.....a possible misogynist vs a known bigot......Well, that and the fact that I just wanted to have an "In your face, President Bush" moment.

Arghhhhhh......will there ever come a day when we can vote for someone who's NOT the lesser of two evils but the better of two goods?

Poetry....by Donald Rumsfeld

The collected poetry of Donald Rumsfeld.

Just an Old Fashioned Female

SENDING A MESSAGE

BOP shift

Of course, all is not won, oh no, all is not won. In my home state of Virginia there will be a recount in the hotly contested Allen vs Webb race.....and Virginia DID, unfortunately, vote in favor of the infamous "marriage ban," otherwise known as "Question 1" - which means that not only do gays not get any recognizable side benefits from living in a marriage-like situation, neither do Dan and I. Ah well, win some, lose some - as of this morning it looks like Allen is going to win, recount or no recount, it's just going to take until December to say so - and, in addition to winning The House and quite possibly The Senate as well, South Dakota voted against a ban on abortion so all is definatly not lost... in fact, most of it is WON!!!!!!

None of this is probably very good birthday news for my friend, Evonne but I'm happy with the election results. She got to gloat back in 2004 so it's only fitting that I have my turn in 2006.

Happy Birthday, Evonne, may you have a great and prosperous year to come and we'll argue politics again in 2008.


The Birthday Girl herself: (Can you believe this lovely woman is a Republican????}

Go On....Get Out There

VOTE!!!!

It's the one time in all times that you can make a difference. Most especially today with so many races so close.

I won't even tell you how to vote, you already know that.

BABY ELVIS

Sex or Religion?

You be the judge.

Until I met a Man With No Shoes.....

I felt really bad last night - what with having Rex Grossman as my fantasy football quaterback and all....until I remembered that my son and 13 of his friends had traveled all the way from Chicago to Arizona to watch the game.

It's all relative, isn't it? And at least The Bears won the damn game.

(Although, honestly, I don't think anyone in the history of fantasy football has EVER had a quarterback who's been bad enough to actually loose them 14 points.

Rex G. - my opponent thanks you.

The Cutest in Kids and Cats

Poets for Peace and Justice Press Release

September 23, 2006

For immediate release

For more information, contact:
Francesco Levato, 312/546-4521
or francesco@francescolevato.com

20 poets protest war by reading for peace

Speak Truth to Power: An Evening of Protest Poetry, in tandem with an art exhibit, the World Can’t Wait protest, seeks to begin the end of the Bush regime


CHICAGO, IL – The outcry of poets will be heard despite the city’s permit denial to the organizers of the World Can’t Wait Day of Mass Resistance Protest and March (scheduled and advertised for Oct. 5 in Grant Park, Chicago; San Francisco, and NYC, where similar protests have also been denied).

Speak Truth to Power: An Evening of Protest Poetry, organized by activist poet Francesco Levato and sponsored by World Can’t Wait, will take place during the Peace & Justice: Artists for Change art exhibit. The event is free and will be held on Friday, Oct. 6, from 7 – 9 p.m., at the Acme Building, 2418 W. Bloomingdale.

For the protest, Levato sought poets whose work answered yes to these questions: “Are you opposed to war without end; to torture; to eavesdropping on American citizens; to suppressing scientific truths; to a dangerous theocracy imposed on Americans; to holding prisoners without due process; to the erosion of women's rights to abortion, and so on?”

The response was so overwhelming Levato could not accept all the poets who wanted to read. The reading will feature a total of 20 readers from Chicago, Virginia, and New York City, including:

Emily Calvo, public relations director for the National Poetry Slam Championship in Chicago; Nina Corwin, author of Conversations with Friendly Demons and Tainted Saints; Dan Halberstein (VA); Mary Hawley, author of Double Tongues; Laura Heidy (Alexandria, VA); Wayne Allen Jones, publisher Fractal Edge Press, author of Decades of Rehearsal; Allison Joseph, editor of Crab Orchard Review; CJ Laity, publisher of ChicagoPoetry.com; Francesco Levato, activist; founder of Street Level Series & author of Marginal State; Lauren Levato, author of Marriage Bones; Mars, founder of She Laughs, a female interdisciplinary improvisational poetry/music mob; Brent Mesick; Erika Mikkalo; Mike Puican, author of 30 Seconds; Steven Schroeder, author of Revolutionary Patience; Purvi Shah (NYC), Executive Director of Sakhi for South Asian Women, a community-based anti-domestic violence organization; Lina ramona Vitkauskas, editor at Milk Magazine, author of Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star; Michael C. Watson, host of Wordslingers radio; Ruan Wright.


Speak Truth to Power: An Evening of Protest Poetry

DATE:
October 6, 2006

TIME:
7 – 9 pm
LOCATION:

Acme Building

2418 W. Bloomingdale

Chicago, IL 60647
COST:

FREE




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