Regarding Your Silly Assed Expectations / a draft

Regarding Your Silly Assed Expectations / a draft

I have struggled with a second language
The way you wrestle a carry-on bag,
a laptop, a purse and Victoria Secrets shopping bag
as you depart your flight at the terminal.

My tongue manages to say things—
It’s not dependable. Not the way an open window is.
I’ve thought a lot about it. Perhaps too much
of an intellectual leaning. I’m perplexed
to the point of linier grief.

Passing through customs I suppose I can be insouciant.
It is only after the fact that I wallow in subverted dismemberment.
My head rings with the lyrics “too late baby” and I swallow a lump
hanging beneath my chin.

It is the expectation of everyone that I assimilate. I say, “Fuck that!”
Is it a crime to be only marginal in a second language
where most are only marginal in their first?

In customs I declared a bracelet left to me by my grandmother,
Two hundred twenty-nine Paso, a book of matches
with Hector Barilla on the front, my clothing, toiletries
and a cheap paperback, "Say It In English."

A Roar for Powerful Words

Ok, so I'm a little slow. On January 29th I received the award from Fenny Sterenborg. I'm supposed to list three things that make writing good and powerful, as well as pass the award along.

Thanks Fenny!

Three Things:
1. utalizing words that touch a nerve 2. or reinforce universal experiances 3. cause us to question


I'm passing this award along to:

Christine Hamm

Aleah Sato

Kelli Russell Agodon

Quiet Sunday Afternoon

The infield of the ball diamond across the street is a quagmire. Mostly standing water with a few islands scattered about. Around the parameter is a smattering if snow dotting the ground and the outfield is a rich wheat-brown. I'm ready for spring, even if Mother Nature isn't.

I've written a lot today. And for the most part I'm pleased with the results. This morning my wife again brought me some "poetry words" for future use to help make my poetry more inaccessibly interesting. I have promised to find places for them in future work.

She also whipped up a batch of crumpet dough and we made crumpets! Yeah! I love crumpets. This is however the first time we've ever had homemade ones. They were awesome!

Error Gave F.B.I. Unauthorized Access to E-Mail

WASHINGTON — A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode.


A report in 2006 by the Justice Department inspector general found more than 100 violations of federal wiretap law in the two prior years by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, many of them considered technical and inadvertent. {and the ones that were not technical and inadvertent where what?}

Source: New York Times - February 17, 2008

Journal Bits

From my journal - a few recent bits:

• Dexterity lingers in hinged sticks / that count themselves by one
• If these were normal thoughts / they would bask in the sunny side / of frequency- not the cold darkness.//
• Shadows aren't secret places. / Just overlooked and misunderstood.//
• Streets flowed downstream / past lamp posts and shops / that closed for the occasion.//

It's Friday - yeah!

A few poetry items of interest:

While Elizabeth Bishop published only about 90 of them in a handful of books, the Library of America is publishing a new collection of her poems and prose. PBS, who in my estimation has a reputation for providing some wonderful reporting on poetry, has a story about this here.

An East St. Louis woman has filed suit in U.S. District Court against Gillan Graphics and Awards, Inc., alleging it sold copies of a poem she wrote for her mother. Felicia Gayden claims she owns a copyright on a piece of original poetry, entitled "Dearest Mother" which was taken to Gillan for framing by the Plaintiff for presentment to her mother. Gayden later realized Gillan Graphics was selling a framed version of her poem with title and minor changes. [Story here]

The Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) Poetry Series opens with Li-Young Lee [ Story here]

On a political note, Thumbs Up for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who would not be intimidated by President Bush over the deadline on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When the President continues to thumb his nose at Congressional oversight I am glad to see she has the courage to stand up against his pressure. There needs to be more transparency in surveillance when American citizens are involved and when the administration has a history of acting without court authority where there are specific legal system in place to provide protection of rights.

John McCain Panders on His Own Principals

When presented with an opportunity to a choose between voting to extend the Army field manual's prohibition on torture to the CIA and pandering to the right wing of his party, John McCain chose pandering over his principles.

[Note McCain in a Republican presidential debate on Nov. 28, 1007]

McCain said that the Army Field Manual should be the gold standard for interrogations: I would hope that we would understand, my friends, that life is not 24 and Jack Bauer. Life is interrogation techniques which are humane and yet effective. And I just came back from visiting a prison in Iraq. The army general there said that techniques under the Army Field Manual are working and working effectively, and he didn’t think they need to do anything else. My friends, this is what America is all about.

[Now comes the defining vote]- "I made it very clear that I think that water-boarding is torture and illegal, but I will not restrict the CIA to only the Army field manual," and with that McCain votes against torture restrictions and flips on the issue.

Now just as a side note. I've had a great deal of respect with John McCain in the past. Not saying I agree with him on many issues, but I have generally believed him to be an individual of high integrity. That said I find this issue, which he has for so long professed to be a high principal of his, to have vanished so quickly. Perhaps this is just the first of many flip-flops.