The Bush Administration On Iraq vs. Reality

"We do know that [Saddam] is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon" ~ Condoleezza Rice 9/10/02

"We believe [Saddam] has, reconstituted nuclear weapons" ~ Dick Cheney 3/16/03

"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties." ~ George W. Bush 9/17/03

"We know where [the WMDs] are." ~ Donald Rumsfeld 3/30/03

"We found the weapons of mass destruction." ~ George W. Bush 5/29/03

We will in fact, be greeted as liberators... I think it will go relatively quickly...
[in] weeks rather than months." ~ Dick Cheney 3/16/06

FACTOIDS -

* Nearly 2,000 U.S. soldiers are dead

* The war is costing Americans $5 billion a month.

* Just this last week, more than 150 people were killed in suicide bombings in the deadliest day in Baghdad since the March 2003 invasion.

* The 9-11 Commission concluded there was not a direct Iraq - al Qaeda link.

* The WMDs are where?

* Nuclear program had never been restarted since the first Iraq war.

Iraq War Bush Administration

The Company You Keep

A candle without a wick
No fire burns
The air is sullen
The sky opaque
The Moon truant

Ambiguity seeps
Through my Pores
A ponderous burden

So I keep company with doubt
Or he with me- we are inseparable
We huddle in the very darkness
That becomes us- this night

Leave My Child Alone

In June of this year I blogged on a little known aspect of Bush's NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Act. This is a provision that requires school districts to furnish the government personal information on your minor child for the purpose of military recruiting.

This despicable provision at least has an opt-out option. This option is little known and no doubt the government was hopeful that it would continued to be just as obscure as the provision itself that requires school districts to turn over this information to them... Including their social security number. This information then is maintained by a private vendor hired by the department of defense to retain this data.

I am happy to report that LEAVE MY CHILD ALONE DOT ORG has made it relatively simple to opt-out and give proper notification of your child's school district as well as the vendor. ODDS ARE THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN GIVEN THE INFORMATION DURING THE PAST YEAR. From this site you can very easily with a limited amount of keystrokes, construct two letters - one to your school district superintendent opting-out, and the other to the vendor instructing them to purge your child's information.


Using the link below, you can access the site to help you with this process. I encourage you to not only do this, but help publicize the site so that more people are informed of this. I already opted-out for my school age child.


The Pentagon has been compiling sensitive data on 30 million youth ages 16-to-25 using a private marketing firm, without the knowledge or consent of individuals or their families. You can opt-out of this database by following instructions at www.LeaveMyChildAlone.org.


No Child Left Behind

United for Peace and Justice - Saturday, September 24 Massive March, Rally & Festival

United for Peace & Justice - Saturday, September 24 Massive March, Rally & Festival


I wanted to share this information with Stick Poet readers. Any of you that are within the proximity of D.C. - this is your opportunity to make a statement to the Administration and Congress that enough is enough!

Sam Hamill of Poets
Against the War has put out a call for support from the poetry community.

While I can't physically be there this weekend, I am there in spirit.

Iraq War Bush Administration Poets Against The War

Yet Another Poetry Send Off

Another six poems off this afternoon for consideration. This is a good thing!

Connecting the Dots

The mind is such an incredible device. You are reading along in some other poet’s work and all of a sudden, hum…. You wonder what was going on in the poet’s mind. Well, very likely what was going on in his or her mind is the same thing working in your own mind, logic.

Of course you’ll argue that you certainly don’t see the logic of what you just read, but the fact is, the writer used his mental process and came up with what he did. So your life experiences are different and these two minds take the same things and end up at different points of conclusion. So what! That in fact is one of the very reasons I find poetry so utterly fascinating.

If I say “clock” and you immediately think of your daughter, I might not immediately see how you got daughter out of that. None the less you arrived at point C from point A. There was to you a logical progression. For you, perhaps the word clock reminded you of an appointment time. Those in turn triggered A thought that you were supposed to be somewhere 45 minutes ago. Where? Ah, your daughter’s school to pick her up and take her to the Doctor. So while I am thinking of wristwatch, quitting time at work, going home, etc., I just don’t see your daughter. Still the connection to you was quite logical.

I recall someone once saying ( I think it was Pinsky but don’t hold me to it) that when he reads a poem and is not getting it, he refuses to dismiss it, thinking what a poor job the poet has done. Instead, he figures the problem lies with himself, the reader and that he has to read it again, and again , again until he gets it.

The is the challenge of reading poetry that inspires me. Yes, I too sometimes wonder, “where did that come from?” The fact however, is that it was the product of the logic of another’s mind. There is always a reason, it simply may not be an obvious reason to you. And so with poetry, we get a tiny glimpse inside the workings of another’s mind.


Poetics

Even Nixon & Bush Would Admire NYPD Gestapo Tatics

Yesterday, Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist who's son was killed in Iraq and who camped outside Bush's ranch for most of the president's vacation spoke in New York's Union Square. She had nearly finished when police intervened.

She was ushered away from the Union Square rally by supporters as onlookers yelled at police and chanted "let her speak". Some upset onlookers likened the police response with the arrests of more than 1,800 protesters last year during the Republican National Convention. Organisms Paul Zulkowitz was arrested for using a sound devise and disorderly conduct.

NYPD Detective Kevin Czartoryski called the arrest "appropriate action" after the department received numerous complaints. Daniel Starling, Green Party's Manhattan chapter co-chair who attended the rally said, "This is what's been happening for the last couple of years, every time we hold a demonstration they arrest us."

Ah yes, shades of Richard Nixon at the height of Vietnam.

Iraq War Cindy Sheehan NYPD

The Ever Fashionable Barry has his Beauty Day Out

My dog Barry - who has previously graced the pages of this blog with pictures of him teething on his George W. Bush doll, among other poses, can be seen here sporting the "wet look" when he was taken to the Brookside Barkery for a shampoo and blow dry. Obviously this is a pre-dry shot.

Barry is a very hip - dog with real culture. He has been know to set on the bed and listen to me read poetry aloud. My wife will tell you he has no choice in the matter, but I can tell he enjoys the likes of Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Sharon Olds, and Billy Collins. He even is kind enough to listen to some of my own.

Released Into The Wild

Do you ever mail submissions and feel like you've just released doves into the air or something?

Packet with six poems off in the mail this afternoon.

Stickpoet Writing Journal

Stickpoet Writing Journal
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Why Not?


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For Animals Left Behind - Time is Running Out

Katrina has separated children from parents and many senior citizens from their children and grandchildren. Many of these people are slowly being reunited now that they have been safely relocated.

The story is much different from the animals left behind. Those persons who had to be evacuated were not allowed to bring pets with them. In many instances these pets have been shut off from the rest of the world in structures that in some cases remain flooded. Their food supply by now has surely been long ago depleted.

The Humane Society and many other volunteers have been working to rescue many family pets. Thousands have been safely rescued. Sadly, thousands remain out there and for these pets, time is their worst enemy.

The Humane Society of the United States is asking your help.


Presently the only way these workers are able to get the vast numbers of pets left behind, is if National Guardsmen take pity on the rescue workers that are pleading for the lives of the animals.

Over the weekend Human Society workers found an adult St. Bernard that was miraculously alive in spite of the fact that his weight was reduced to a measly 40 lbs from weeks of starvation. It is a miracle he was still alive and an even greater miracle that he was able to be rescued without a federal rescue plan for animals in place.

Many rescue workers are and have been ready to do the work but are not officially allowed to go and get the animals they know are out there still, barely hanging on.

Time is critical. These pets were essentially dependents that in many cases were confined to homes the families left behind. Some have found ways to free themselves from the homes but many remain trapped and their only way to survive requires human intervention. There must be better cooperation with National Guardsmen and rescue workers. I urge you to help with this matter by bringing the issue to the forefront and addressing it before it is too late.

Go to this link to the Human Society and write a short note to public officials bringing this matter to their attention.

New Reading Material

A mid day trip to the library - brought home the following new reading material:

Delusions, Etc - John Berryman

2004 Pushcart Prize XXVIII Best of the Small Presses


Missing Measures - Modern Poetry and The Revolt Against Meter - Timothy Steele

Kansas City - Outloud II - 32 Contemporary Area Poets - Edited by Dan Jaffe

A First Draft is Always a Critic

In the beginning, you were
A very private matter
Between me and the blank page.

We struggled a bit.
I would take you by the shoulder
Pulling out of a line

Then sometimes forcing you
Into another. You stubbornly
Slapped my face in rebuke

Forever telling me why
Something wasn't working
But never offering alternatives.

It is always left to me to make it work-
You are the critic- always a critic.
You never have anything nice to say.

Neighborhood Bully

The boy down the street stole my truck.
I said I didn't care but I did.

He had hedgehog green teeth.
His eyes never blinked.

All the other kids grew weary of him.
He took what he wanted from them as well.

Bobby's marbles, Sam's ball glove.
It was made of real leather too.

He took Hank's dad's hammer
And Hank caught hell for losing it.

He snatched Jan's rag doll.
The one with the patch on its elbow.

He took Helen's virginity.
That's what I heard. Some kids watched.

But when he choked old lady Horton's cat
Well that was it. We all had enough.

We have to laugh when we see him now.
You just can't help yourself.

Stuck Up There

Moon
Post-it Note
On carbon sky

Is It Just Me?

I know I'm not exactly a spring chicken - err rooster, but I think I am relatively open minded. Perhaps I'd draw the line at being hip. I mean that would be ok if you thought I was hip, but I'm not really trying to fool anyone here.

As I read other blogs, something I see, has sort of hung in the back of my mind... In the little space where annoying things seem to go and set up shop and just hang out till you evict them or something.

Understand, I'm not trying to be judgmental. That is NOT my reason for this post and I certainly am not going to point fingers. Still, something is gnawing at me and I am starting to wonder if it is just me.

I see from time to time other bloggers who will post another's poem in its entirety. The interesting thing is, people don't seem very often to post some other blogger poet's work, though I have seen it done on very rare occasion. What I do see is people posting the complete text of the works of very established poets. Often deceased, but not always.

Myself, I would never think of posting another bloggers poem without first getting permission. And that seems to be a prevailing view of almost everyone else out there. Am I being totally old fashioned by applying that same standard to say the works of Robert Frost or Sharon Olds? I know some works are in the public domain. But for those that aren't, if I am going to reference them in a post, I may use a line or two or a stanza to illustrate a point, or often link the entire poem from somewhere else on the internet. But without permission of the poet or copyright holder, I would not feel right reposting it in my blog.

Someone is probably going to say, "Michael, get with the times." File sharing is rampant, etc, but as artists, as poets, as writers, should not we respect the work of others to the same degree we would expect them to treat our work?

What say you?

poetry copyright
ethics

Happy for a Little Rest

I wouldn't say I slept like a baby last night but I was able to sleep better at least part of the night.

KC Metro Verse meeting last night - a very sparse attendance - unlike the previous.

I was introduced to the work of Raymond Carver. His bio can be found here. One of the poems read was Happiness.

The last two stanzas of this poem strike me fascinating because he sets this stage for happiness in a moment of beauty that is not defined by death, ambition or as he says, "even love". An abstract, defined in this instance by the absence of two abstracts and death playing any role. It is a peculiar approach, but I like it because it has in a way, brought simplicity to what happiness can be.

Such beauty that for a minute / death and ambition, even love, / doesn't enter into this.// Happiness. It comes on / unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really, / any early morning talk about it.//

Elusive Sleep

"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep." ~ Fran Lebowitz

As the song goes, "Last night, I couldn't get to sleep at all..." And this would be several days now. I attribute it largely to new medication so I don't see this ending anytime soon. I think I have actually had one good night of sleep since I started it. Now, I suppose if I felt life was actually happening while the sleep isn't, I could at least feel there was a reasonable trade off. Fortunately it has not been a problematic during the day.

Meanwhile, I feel my creativity is less impacted by my new medication then the previous.

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you likely know that one of the blogs I try to routinely read is - Ivy Is Here.

I enjoyed her most recent post with a heart warming story about her mother's reaction to her poetry. It's a great story, go over and read it if you haven't already.

I was already aware that Ivy Alvarez has extensively researched and written of Sylvia Plath. Should she find a publisher for her manuscript she has a customer here!

Thanks Peeps!

Oh, I forgot...

I wanted to thank the readers of Stick Poet because I see over the weekend we passed 16000 unique hits! Thank you all!


Michael Wells

Plath Discovery

For some reason I find the literary remains of writers to be fascinating stuff. I believe we often get to see a different picture of a writer by material that surfaces postmortem and has otherwise been out of the view of the vast public. Sometimes it is a early draft of a published work and we get to see some progression and by that can visualize the mental progression of the writer. Or it may take the form of letters between peers or family or other significant people in their life. And then there is always the possibility of that lost or unknown piece of work that we get a view of for the first time. I find all of these possibilities utterly fascinating. It is almost like studying their DNA. You learn more about who they were.

So last night I was like a giddy kid in a candy store upon reading that pages and notes from an unpublished novel by Sylvia Plath have been discovered among documents left by the Ted Hughes estate to Emory University in Atlanta. [source]

The papers evidently comprise some notes and I believe two chapters of a work that was to be a fictionalization of an American girl who moves to London and marries her poet lover. The title of the book novel was Falcon Yard which was the place in Cambridge where Plath met Hughes, her future husband and bit him.

It was a known fact that such a novel was written by Plath as it is mentioned in her journals. Falcon Yard was meant to be a gift to her husband. A bestselling romantic comedy that would be successful enough for them to be able to get on with writing poetry. It was generally assumed that the manuscript had been destroyed.

Some of the material will be on display starting Wednesday at the Grolier Club in New York, starting Wednesday in an exhibit of Plath and Hughes material.

The archives at Emory University of the Hughes estate which contain Plath's material as well total two and a half tons of letters, poems, drafts, proofs, etc. God, I'd love to be able to sift through it.

Sylvia Plath Poetry Literature