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wvParticipantI have to say wv that’s pretty good.
—————-
Yep. I lost touch with her, but i always thot she
had major talent.w
v
————–
“How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. (92)”
― Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor——————–
wvParticipantNeruda is just ridiculous. I dont have adjectives for that guy. I mean he didn’t write poems in English did he? The poems we read are all translations, right? And they are STILL god-dam-great. Even in translation. Thats just ridiculous.
I think he was as good as it gets, really. Maybe. I dunno.
A few years ago, i dated a doctor who gave up doctoring to write poetry.
From time to time, she’d tell me about this or that problem and like an idiot I’d tell her meaningless drivel like ‘just learn to flow.’ I don’t do that much anymore, but i used to. Anyway, she wrote a poem for me once, and it made me laff:
—————Flow!
Christine xxxxx
my mystic friend says.
And the poet in me answers,
like a river, do you mean?or more, molasses, or warm
syrup from wedged Maples.
Golden beer inside saloons.Nyquil, pouring onto moons.
Or streusel dough from
Christmas bowls. Wetpolish from red toenails,
early summer. I don’t know
how I should do it –only “be”. So many words
encumber brainwaves.
How do I ebb into his sea?Every particle of me
becoming liquid?
I have worn my orange vestlike consonants, providing
vowels shelter, in uncertain,
rising tides. Have brokenlines of poetry. With my
axe handle! Written stanzas
thick as quicksand.When I flow, it’s like
some turbine, lugging cargo –
giant cans of salty word-soup,crates of rhyming contraband.
And the land on my horizon
calls for dashes, colons, slants.Mystic, I begin my answer,
I’m just a blotch upon a page.
A drip that leads to text –dry, sooty spots of fallen rain.
I am sure he’s slyly grinning
at the sound of my discourse.One must start at one’s
beginning. One must
throw away one’s ‘oars’,he’s kvelling back to me.
And still my fingertips
are struggling on square keys.And my brain is coughing
harshly, and my heart
begins to seize, whenthe bottoms of my footsoles
slide, like oil, against the floor.
Yes, I’m trying! I shriek loudly,Seeking waterways thru doorjambs,
pipes transgressing window panes!
Ways to loose the craft! to swim!He says it’s more like floating.
So I ask him, like a duck? My “I”, my
concrete-anchor pronoun, back at work.————
Animal GamesChristine xxxx
1
Summer ’62, my brother rides a dented Schwinn
across fat bellies of wart-strewn toads, front lawn,
just to watch their jelly innards ooze into dry fescue.2
Bluegrass is
what the crickets use to hide and roost, and
where they whistle, twitch in summer. Some escape
into a basement
where they find their midget warden
who locks them inside lidded bottle-prisons,
where they spit their sticky mud on curving glass,
until each thorax shrinks, gasps its final breath.When they’re finally freed, it’s only for his masquerade,
where, on a shoebox stage, each black exoskeleton,
pinned, impaled with sewing needles from below,
will prance and dance and sing his boyish stories.3
Bunker in the blooming rhododendrons – check.
Pile of rounded stones – check.
Slingshot made from the lower half of a stolen doll – check.
Duskfall, summer – check.Because the only good bat is a dead one.
4
I apologize great and noble spider.
Grieve the way that, while he detached
each of your daddy-limbs, I only thought
of me, and how he planned to toss
your useless eyeball-corpse into my hair.
Animal game of summer.
You, flicked into long, brown ringlets.
Shaken out by panicked girly fingers,
Tumbling like a marble toward earth.While you fell, did you find your voice?
That question’s why I’m sorry most –
because my screams so nullified your own.wvParticipantAhh. I hadn’t heard.
First — He Stood up against the Vietnam War, before it
was popular to do so. Lost millions of dollars
and years of prime-boxing-time because of that act.Thats what i remember most about him.
Second, i remember the First and third Frazier wars.
Third, i remember the Norton wars.
Fourth, i remember the Foreman fight.
After Foreman, he should have retired. Couldn’t walk away
from all the glory though. He paid for his arrogance in the end.
Ah well.w
vwvParticipantMerwin is good. What i like about him, is he’s accessible.
I know what he’s talking about. It annoys me that i can’t appreciate poets like Yeats, cause i dunno what they are talking about,
except for a few poems.Merwin has always reminded me just a bit of Billy Collins. I’m not sure why, cause Merwin can be a lot more eastern-buddhist-ish, seems to me.
The hardest thing to write, is a GOOD political poem, i think. I go to a little poetry-reading group here in motown, once a month. And people stand up and read their stuff, and the worst stuff by far is the political stuff. The political poems just turn out to be rants. Not really ‘poetic’ in any way that i can see. And mostly they are leftist-rants, and i agree with the points, but they are just awful as ‘poems’.
Neruda has a good one, about the United Fruit company, but i cant think of many good ones.
This one is not good, but…ya know…here it is anyway.
w
v
———-
Apolitical Intellectuals
Rene CastilloOne day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our people.They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly,
like a sweet fire
small and alone.No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will want to know
about their sterile combats
with “the idea
of the nothing”
no one will care about
their higher financial learning.They won’t be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or regarding their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward’s death.They’ll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
born in the shadow
of the total life.On that day
the simple men will come.Those who had no place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their tortillas and eggs,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens
and worked for them,
and they’ll ask:“What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out of them?”Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will not be able to answer.A vulture of silence
will eat your gut.Your own misery
will pick at your soul.And you will be mute in your shame.
(Rene Castillo)wvParticipantI understand your point, but much of what makes the Repugnanticans dangerous is rooted in religious dogma.
—————
True. Course the Reps are a two-horned-beast. One horn being
the Corporatists (who often, only ‘tolerate’ the religious folks),
and the second horn, being the Jerry-Falwell types.
And of course, there are still probly some actual old-fashioned “conservatives” in the party, but they aint many of them anymore.I dunno which is more dangerous: the Econ Reps, or the Religious Reps.
Its a bit like wondering how many republican angels it would take to destroy the head of a pin. Or somethin.
And again, the Dems aint much better. They dont have as many batshit-fundamentalists, but Hillary and her minions would still lead us into destruction. Just at a slower pace, probly. Maybe.
w
vwvParticipantQuite possible. Not sure if The Rep Party is the most dangerous organization in human history. But, its in the top five.
Its a good thot-experiment, or question. What is the most dangerous
organization in human history?I’d think it would have to be a modern organization, because its modern technology that threatens the entire biosphere. CIA? NSA? Rep Party? Dem Party? IMF? New England Patriots? What else?
w
vThose organizations you listed are all light-weights compared to organized religion. Well, maybe the Patriots…
—————-
Yeah, i thot of religion too, but there isnt really one particular religious organization that i could think of. Ya know.As a cluster…yeah they are a nightmare. But i think of ‘them’ as a different ‘category’. I’m not sure they fit in the “organization” category. …I put them in the “most-dangerous-reflection of human ignorance/fear” category.
w
vwvParticipantI think its meaningless small-talk. Means nothing.
Except it will probly start some heated, nonstop internet pyscho-babble
as well as Laurinaitis-bashing. I suppose.w
vwvParticipantYeah, thats a good one for sure. I’ve had that one saved
in a poem-folder titled ‘nature/animals’ for a while now.
One of my favorites.w
v
—
Summer grasses:
all that remains of great soldiers’
imperial dreamsbasho
wvParticipantQuite possible. Not sure if The Rep Party is the most dangerous organization in human history. But, its in the top five.
Its a good thot-experiment, or question. What is the most dangerous
organization in human history?I’d think it would have to be a modern organization, because its modern technology that threatens the entire biosphere. CIA? NSA? Rep Party? Dem Party? IMF? New England Patriots? What else?
w
vwvParticipantWell, i could only stomach it to about the 12:15 mark. Thats where she said we should “start looking at Iraq as a business opportunity”.
Honestly, that statement says more than all the other words
she could possibly say. It sez it all.w
vwvParticipantI don’t think the emails would be a ‘blackmail problem’ coz
if she’s president she will just have the blackmailers
Droned to death.Hillary knows how to make ‘hard choices’ you know.
w
v
===
June 1, 2016
Hillary’s Role in Honduran Coup Sunk US Relations With Latin America to a New LowHillary’s Role in Honduran Coup Sunk US Relations With Latin America to a New Low
by Dan Beeton – Ming Chun Tang
…. In the years since the 2009 coup in Honduras, there has been remarkably little scrutiny in the major media of how Clinton’s State Department handled it, and she has had to answer few questions about it.
But Juan González asked why she resisted cutting off aid to the coup regime and instead brokered a deal for new elections. Clinton controversially doubled down on defending the coup, outrageously suggesting that the oligarchs and generals who had forced President Manuel Zelaya out had a legal justification. Worse, she suggested that Honduras emulate Plan Colombia: the U.S.-funded war on drugs and guerrillas that sparked the biggest internal refugee crisis in the world outside of Syria, involved the deliberate killing of thousands of innocent civilians by Colombian armed forces, and fostered death squads now poised to stick around even as the country nears an end to its civil war.
Honduras also pops up in Clinton’s memoir, “Hard Choices.” The paperback edition, published shortly after she launched
June 2, 2016 at 6:53 pm in reply to: Cornell west, Bill mckibbon, K.ellison, D.parker, J Zogby #45236wvParticipantYeah, zooey, i think a lot of people have just had it
with the lesser-evil thing. A lot of people have not had it
with the lesser-evil thing, of course.Its only gonna take a few percentage points to kill the DNC-Dems
chances though. So, it may very well be a Trump Presidency coming Amerika’s way.Anyway, looks like Cali-forn-I-A is getn interesting.
Got a pree-diction on California?
w
v
——
…After Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for the presidential election, many thought that he would be taking on Hillary Clinton. Her numbers and approval rating appeared to be too great for anyone to overcome, but that may no longer be the case. According to the most recent 2016 presidential polls, Bernie Sanders is not only gaining a lot of ground on Clinton in California, but he’s actually leading Trump in Michigan.In California, Hillary Clinton is barely holding onto her lead and as of Wednesday night, it was down to just two points. According to the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Sanders is gaining quickly on Clinton with the state’s primary right around the corner on June 7.
Likely Democratic primary voters in California have given 49 percent of their support to Clinton, while Sanders has taken 47 percent. The Clinton campaign may be getting even more nervous as a wider electorate of all potential Democratic voters in the state of California shows Sanders ahead by one point.
June 2, 2016 at 2:55 pm in reply to: Cornell west, Bill mckibbon, K.ellison, D.parker, J Zogby #45225wvParticipant“So the question here is: how do you get a party not only that adopts a platform that reads well, but that takes that platform seriously?” says Curry. “You do that, I think, by building a strong, independent progressive political movement to hold both parties accountable and not simply act as a Political Action Committee.”
————Well, i agree with that. And part of that process/approach means (to me)
NOT falling in line and voting for the corporate-neoliberal-Dem. I just think its time for the left to stop doing that. The corporate-Dem-machine will NEVER listen to the Left if they can always count on the Left to fall in line. As per usual.I’d rather see Trump elected and crack open the Dem Party,
than see Hillary elected and the corporotacracy go on as usual.I know zn doesn’t think a Trump win would crack open the Dem party,
but a Hillary win will seal the Dem Party up for maybe decades. If she wins, they will continue to follow that ‘winning formula’ for decades.Personally, i aint ever voting for another neoliberal. Aint doin it.
w
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This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by
wv.
wvParticipantYou know, I know zip on this ’email scandal’ thing. Zero. Nada.
I havent read a single solitary word about it.
And i don’t intend to.I couldn’t care less whether she “committed a crime” or not
by sending or receiving “classified” emails.I mean to me, the CIA in and of itself is a Crime. The whole entire organization has a long history of assassination, torture, butchery spying on pacifists, derailing democracies, dealing in narcotics…etc, etc, etc. And the FBI aint no better. Or the NSA. All those secret shadow organizations are anti-democratic and rife with corruption.
I dont care what Clinton did with some emails. What Clinton has done that is perfectly LEGAL is what appalls me. Her support of the mega-corpse, neoliberalsim, the big-banks, goldman-sachs…etc. All THAT stuff is enough for me to loathe her. And Obama. And Bush. And all the mainstream Dems and Reps.
I could go on. But i have to plant some milkweed seeds.
wv curmudgeon
wvParticipantOK, so basically, we are all rooting for serious, Injuries
to Seattle and Arizona’s top three QBs.We seek decimation.
And then the Rams can unload Mr Foles.
w
vwvParticipantI think we’ll see more and more of this. Not a flood of it,
but it will become more routine, for players to quit
after they’ve made seven or eight million bux.
At least with the guys that have more than football
in their lives.w
vwvParticipantKurt nailed that. Perfect approach for a professional competing against young guys.
w
vwvParticipantWell did Foles actually ‘say’ I’m not doing OTA’s ‘as a protest because the Rams drafted a QB.” ?
Do we know that the Rams even wanted him at OTA’s ? Maybe they told him,
look we are gonna jettison you one way or another, no
need to come to OTAs.At any rate, it would be a very difficult situation for him
to be at OTAs. Ya know. I mean that would be awkward as hell.
What would be the point of him being there?w
vwvParticipantBest Punter in ram history ?
w
vwvParticipantWe travel a lot. More than most. We don’t run into Danes. While it isn’t scientific, its interesting. Germans, Brits, French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese always but can’t remember a single Dane.
Welllll….anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean much, but I have encountered Danes in my travels enough that I don’t consider them a rarity. I met Danes in England, India, Thailand, and Hong Kong. In fact…though I hesitate to express this on the internet…my second favorite sexual encounter of all-time was with a Danish woman in Jakarta.
Oh, boy. I’m going to log off before I write a Penthouse letter that shames the entire board.
——————
Well, I for one, am glad you had a Great Dane
experience.I think. I dunno.
w
vwvParticipantHe says screw the vast
field of research, bombing civilians is always wrong.Yeah well Gandhi is free to say that because of all the brave american men and women who bombed Tokyo for a living during the war.
If not for that he would be living under some kind of foreign imperial system without national independence.
In other words he would actually have to fight for his freedom himself, as opposed to blithely criticizing those who did it for him.
.
================
If you hate Gandhi so much, maybe you should
just stop eating Indian food.w
v
wvParticipant<
if he can break out as a wide receiver, that’d be humongous.——————
Best case Scenario, is that Goff turns out to be the real-deal,
and brings his accuracy and deep-ball-touch to the Pros,
and then ALL the Ram WR’s “break out”.We’ll see.
I think Stedman would have been helped by a guy like Goff
the most, btw. Cause Stedman has great hands and fights
for the ball and runs decent routes. I just think he would
have really benefited from a super-accurate QB that threatens
the whole field.w
vwvParticipantWow. Thats quite surprising to me, that some of the
IMF folks would actually question the Faith.I mean, thats like some of Saluman’s big Orc-thingies, questioning whether its really a good idea to eat manflesh.
w
vwvParticipantIts gonna be tough for some of those guys to get enough reps
to really show what they can do. Tough gig, bein a UDFA.Sometimes WRs may not be that ultra-talented, but for whatever-mysterious-reason
they develop a ‘chemistry’ with a particular QB. I’m kinda
hoping one of them UDFA-WR’s and Mr Goff develop some magic.
Ya know. Like Rogers and Astaire, or Rowan and Martin.w
vwvParticipantAny idea how many of his big plays were called back for holding, or stupid bonehead plays on special teams? Just curious.
—————-
Some computer genius like X
should do a vid on the big plays Tavon has had called back.He aint ever gonna be Jerry Rice as a WR, but i do
think he’s more than a ‘gadget’ player. I think this is
the year we find out how good a WR he can be. He doesn’t have
to learn a new system, so he should be able to concentrate
on route-running, and holding onto the ball.w
vMay 31, 2016 at 7:12 pm in reply to: US Doctors Call for Universal Healthcare: "Abolish the Insurance Companies" #45125wvParticipantThanks for the words, WV, but I didn’t get her home. I failed her. Knowing what I know now, I would have done a lot of things differently. We were together since high school. Would have been 40 years since our first date on Oct. 10.
I get what you’re saying about health care for the poor…
———————
Well, I’m sure somewhere in the deep-mystery of the Universe,
your wife wants to kick your ass for thinking that you ‘failed her’. 🙂You did everything you could, given what you knew, and the circumstances.
At any rate, she loved and married a human. Not a perfect, omniscient, all-powerful, being. A human.
w
v
“And throughout all eternity, I forgive you, and you forgive me…” William BlakeMay 31, 2016 at 4:59 pm in reply to: US Doctors Call for Universal Healthcare: "Abolish the Insurance Companies" #45106wvParticipant… the US will adopt the single payer system. It’s inevitable, really. But I don’t think we’re going to like it very much and God help you if you find yourself in a dire medical predicament…there are no “heroic measures” in this system.
——————————–
The Personal: Sounds like you did everything you possibly could to
help your wife, O. It makes me smile to think how
much you care/cared about her.The Political: As far as the politics goes, I agree a lot of folks wont like single-payer. But a lot of folks dont like the corporate-profit-system either.
Big awkward systems are never fun to deal with, no matter what they are based on. But ask POOR PEOPLE how much they like this corporate system we got now.
Again, the example from wv — in poverty-stricken McDowell County — average lifespan for males is 65. Six hours away, in wealthy Fairfax County Va — ave lifespan 84.Now… Can you imagine the “health care stories” in McDowell County WV ?
Can you imagine the “health care stories” in Fairfax VA?
Do you think the health-care stories would be different? I do.Single-payer helps the POOR. Thats why I’m for it. Its not perfect, though.
But there should never be a 20 year difference in lifespans between the rich and poor in one country. That…is…wrong. Just my opinion, of course. One man’s opinion. 🙂w
vwvParticipant< … interpretation… argument… vast field of research… debate that can never be “won.” People just have to make an honest effort to be informed, and then out of the myriad of slippery factors, make a choice that suits them and that they can stand behind…
—————
I completely agree with that. Which is one reason among others,
why i dont try to ‘debate’ it or try to ‘persuade’ on this topic.I just flat-out announce the one-holy-truth,
on the topic and I expect everyone to fall in line.Btw, Gandhi agrees with me on this. He says screw the vast
field of research, bombing civilians is always wrong.w
vMay 31, 2016 at 8:34 am in reply to: US Doctors Call for Universal Healthcare: "Abolish the Insurance Companies" #45071wvParticipantI don’t think it’s patient care they’re worried about–medicare works fine. Insurance companies routinely turn down claims and patients don’t get procedures done.
They just happen to be trying to protect their own profits.
—————–
You know, Pa, one of the most dis-spiriting discussions I’ve ever had in my life, happened when i went to a dinner with a friend of mine, about seven years ago or so. My friend’s brother-in-law was in medical school. And this dinner was a get-together of Med-students. (all wealthy, white, privileged young people) — and somehow we got on the topic of single-payer. Every single med-student at the dinner (about eight or ten) was against single-payer — and several of them flat-out said things like “I did not take out all those loans so i could be poor.” It was all about the money. And they were adamant. And angry at the thought of not making a lot of money as doctors. That was their priority. It was painful to listen to. Not a word about poor people or what is happening to the poor. No understanding of what is happening to non-privileged Americans. Sigh. Ignorant, ignorant privileged med-students.
w
v
“Our patients can’t afford care and don’t have access to the care they need, while the system is ever more wasteful, throwing away money on bureaucratic expenses and absurd prices from the drug companies,”wvParticipantSo, duh, none of this is simple.
I don’t see those arguments as brave, either. Nor as the opposite of brave. I just see them as more people doing now what people have always done before over this—wrestle with it. It was the same when I was 17.
=====================
Well, i think it was wrong and unnecessary to drop the bombs.
So that’s that poster-man.
I’ve settled it.
w
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This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by
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