Philip Booth, New England poet, dead at 81 - Book News & Reviews - BostonHerald.com

Philip Booth, New England poet, dead at 81 - Book News & Reviews - BostonHerald.com:
"HANOVER, N.H. - Philip Booth, a longtime Syracuse University professor whose poetry focused mainly on his native New England, has died at age 81.

Booth died July 2 from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease in Hanover, where he was born and spent much of his life, according to his family. "

Spend a day in the "real world"

US President George W Bush, facing new pressure to start bringing troops home from Iraq, says he will not consider it until he hears a fresh assessment of the war effort from his top commander there. "That's what the American people expect. They expect for military people to come back and tell us how the military operations are going," Bush said. "And that's the way I'm going to play it as commander-in-chief." (AP wire story)

I would challenge the President to spend a day out in the real world. Away from the pep rally crowds. Away from military bases and military schools. I believe he would be shocked to learn what the American people really expect. He is clueless.

I don't think it takes top military brass to figure out how the operations are going. It seems pretty obvious to everyone but the President, Vice President and a hand full of others. Even many of his most ardent GOP supporters of this war now understand the reality in Iraq.

Why should we continue this path until September's report. When that one looks bleak will he argue for another in January... April.... ?

A Labor of Poetry Love

I was reading Jessica Smith's blog today and was lead to this site. Richard Hansen's Poems-For-All is such an alluring concept. How can any lover of poetry and the arts not be drawn to these magnets to the soul.

Not only is the concept a winner, but Richard obviously believes in the value of word art because he has not been shoddy with the covers of these tiny poem books. If there is an example of poetry as a labor of love, Poems-For-All embodies it.

Poetics of Geography

There are poets whose work is laden with geography. I believe place is important in poetry be it a geographical location or at least a place in time. We often build around such places real or imaginary to help create the image of the moment. I often think of poetry as a picture of words rather than pixels. You can’t very well take a picture without establishing a place and or point in time.

Just a few poets that come to my mind, for whom a good portion of their work seems tied to place, are: Robert Frost, Donald Hall, Ruth Stone, Ted Kooser, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

I took a random look at some of my poetry over the past couple of years and begin to notice that there is little evidence of my Missouri roots it my work. This fact has caused me to wonder if “place” is so important in poetry, why my work is not more reflective of my Missouri roots. Certainly I have established no strong ties to the region with my writing.

Given this lack of a dominant Midwest or Missouri view in my work, I have to ask myself if it is suffering from a strong geographical point of reference. While I don’t have an immediate answer to this question I have posed, I believe it is worthy of consideration. And so I muddle with this idea and hope the internal discourse produces some resolve soon.

Perhaps we are getting close

There is a growing sentiment among Republican members of the Senate that the American military action in Iraq has not, is not and will not work. One by one GOP Senators are leaving the ship. It is about time.

The handwriting has been on the wall for a very long time. The American people fell out of favor with this war long ago. The majority of Democrats in Congress have tried to deliver on an exit strategy but have lacked enough bipartisan support to do so. Many of those Republicans abandoning President Bush have been ardent defenders of this failed war. Their numbers are eroding so quickly that Defense Secretary Robert Gates today canceled a South American Trip as we approach the July 15 date for a report on the President's surge of troops. No doubt the President will argue he needs more time. More time equates to more deaths and more expense.
Few Americans have any idea what this war is costing the U.S.

I'm not referring to the money for military support and rebuilding Iraq (which has failed to do much but pad the pockets of contractors), those figures are readily available. And while they are shockingly high, I am talking about the intangibles... the things we cannot see, like:

• The loss of American respect overseas.
• The boost this war has given to recruitment of those terrorists who hate us the most.
• The stress that will be felt on our economy for years to recover from the unbudgeted hundreds of billions of dollars spent.
• The impact this war will have on the mental health of families of returning veterans.

It is true that the exit from Iraq will likely not be a pretty sight. As bad a the government was that we took out, it provided a minimal amount of stability in the region. I know all the arguments for overthrowing the government in Iraq. For every valid argument to take out Saddam Hussein, there are a half dozen equally bad or worse leaders of nations we do nothing about. The argument for overthrowing Saddam was just an add on to the otherwise misinformation that the Bush Administration used to build it's case for this war.

The men and women serving this country in uniform have not lost a war, they were given an unrealistic mission that was a mistake from the start.

The only questions that remain, are how to best extract ourselves from this. What kind of help can we realistically provide an unstable interum government that has been ineffective and struggles for legitimacy amid a civil war that has at the very roots a long history of religious disagreement, intolerance, and fear that spills blood on the streets daily, much less resist outside forces.

My hope is that in the next couple of weeks, enough Republican members of Congress can finally do the right thing and help put an end to our military presence and bring our troops home.

Quote for the Day

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

~Salvador Dali

So Many Questions (draft)

Gravity driven cracks of despair
Map the years of his face
And give character
Where otherwise none exists.

Reading him offers more questions than answers—
Like why has he so little to say
Verbal or otherwise?

If time has been kind to him
It would be subjectively debated.
Perhaps he was not meant to live this long—
Or he could be far younger than imaginable.

He seems so alone. Why is he alone? Is he really
Alone— was there ever someone in his life
That smoothed out the cracks
That ask so many questions.