What is it like to live on $1 a day...

MSN Money - Extra: What it's like to live on $1 a day The Africa Plight - as G8 gets underway. live8 poverty

Expressive Aphasia

Touch it with select words
Succulent multi-syllable
Words that get right-to-the-point.
Not two hand phrases that engulf
Far more than we can hold
And dangle like participles
Incapable of modifying
A point-of-view.



poems poetry

Tabios Gift of Poetry better than any Toaster

Well I didn't realize it.... But I guess Eileen Tabios had a bit of an anniversary on June 30th. It was the tenth anniversary of the day she quit her banking career for poetry. Now if that seems trivial to some, I think it is not. After all, what are the odds that I would be reading a blog on banking or any of those gazillion other peeps ( Stick has lost count ) out there. Happy belated Eileen.

Speaking of Eileen, I have been reading in I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved somewhat often lately. It seems ( to me anyway) this book is difficult to just pick up and read through unlike Menage A Trois With the 21st Century. Don't get me wrong, The Brick, as it is often referred to is inspiring on several levels. One, it seems to layer so much into one complete book. Life, culture, politics, relationships, language, art, sex - have I missed anything? Second, it approaches poetry with innovation.

But seriously, lately I have been reading parts of it - some for the first time, some for - Oh I don't know, but certainly the umpteenth time. I keep trying to process this and let it speak to me. I think I'd like to try writing from some portions of it for prompts - like epigraphs.

I really have not blogged much about this book, though I have had a copy of it since I think March. Actually, I really have a lot of questions about it I'd like to pose Eileen. And maybe I will at some point soon.

I guess to go full circle on this post, I should say that I am glad that Eileen traded in here banking career for poetry. I don't know what kind of a banker she was, but she has been electric as a poet. Her energy, thought process as well as expression are all simply amazing. Trust me - I'd take one of her books over a toaster any day!

Meanwhile, I need to get back to The Brick.


poetry

Thoughts on Patriotism

As we go into the 4th of July weekend, here is a link to a short essay that I wrote for USAToday. It appears in their online version and a portion was included in a print copy of the newspaper. You can find the whole essay here, along with others that the newspaper carried. Mine is the first one.

Shakedown

Arms of vast floral range
Gave way to abscission
I too was stripped
Having covered the corkage
After polishing off my shot

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | A who's who of the G8 campaigners

BBC News - offers a look at some of the G8 Campaigners in a bit of a Who's Who.


live8 G8

Reuters - Protests planned for Scottish G8 summit

Reuters News service profiles some of the protest & activists events planned for the G8 conference in Edinburgh. If all this goes off as planned - the 8 heads of state at the meeting should feel a little dwarfed with this vast number of activists. Perhaps this will keep in focus that the world is watching.

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