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It's Friday, and while I like to take my Friday evenings a little on the lighter side, especially after a challenging week, I read a remarkably powerful poem by Jilly title Poem By an American. Needless to say, it's not on the lighter side. She acknowledges she may not be finished with it, but it is well worth reading. It's really quite different from anything of her's that I've read.

Also, Aleah Sato has poetry up at k a l e i d o w h i r l - winter 2008 edition. Her work is generally well worth a read.

The Endorsement

Here we have George "W" Bush and the GOP Presidential nominee for 2008 John S. (W, II) McCain.

What McCain brings to the table is a slightly more effective version of the same disastrous Bush policies. There is not much more to say.

Understanding

"What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print." ~Isadora Duncan

I saw this quote and though what a curious thing to say. It may reveal much about my my own personal view of poetry.

There are two separate points to be made here. One is the untellable aspect that if you haven't lived my life - what I write will not mean the same to you as it means to me.

The other is that deeper aspect that sometimes what we write from the soul we don't even fully recognize ourselves. Sort of the duende that Federico García Lorca spoke of. I firmly accept the premise that there are truths from deep within that we are occasionally able to unearth in our poetry or art that remain somewhat of a mystery us and therefore cannot easily be explained to others.

Sunday night

It reached at least 72 today in Kansas City. The wicked wend of the North West is pounding us and storms moved in tonight. Alas, snow is in the forecast for drive time tomorrow morning.

A few journal bits from this past week:

• unshaven legs, suctioned to a convex view /
• repetitive days in a mirror judgement / till there is glitter in the Coral Sea /
• a crooked scalp line parted the hairs / rising from the banks of regression /
• cut stone, linear and stacked / forged four corners / below the surface
• my son says my equilibrium /is off and that is why I can't stand / neocons-

Stats update

Time for me to take mental note of what I have and haven't achieved so far over the past 12 months.

Pending responses: 11
Submissions sent last 12 months: 47
Submissions sent this month: 2
Acceptance ratio: 10.71 %

Sigh

"Discipline in art is a fundamental struggle to understand oneself, as much as to understand what one is drawing." ~ Henry Moore


It's Friday afternoon - I'm wiped out. No energy for struggle of any kind at the moment. I'm thinking comfort food. Vanilla cone at Dairy Queen sounds good.

Poetry in the News - Etc.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota didn't like the idea of a State Poet Laureate in 2005 and he vetoed legislation calling for one. Now he has tapped for that position, perhaps the most widely recognized poet in the state's history- Robert Bly.

At age 81, Bly has authored 19 poetry books, 7 anthologies, 13 translations and 7 non-fiction books and was a National Book Award winner in 1967.

Bly was an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam as well as the Bush invasion more recently in Iraq. As poets go, he is perhaps the closest thing to a household word.
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And this from Michael Silverstein (The Wall Street Poet) : A Call For More Political Poetry On America’s Op Ed Pages.
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Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and fellow U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), have written the Justice Department and asked them to look into Roger Clemens' testimony before congress on performance enhancing drugs. I'm having a little difficulty with the priorities here, We have a bold face lying President and Vice President, a Justice Department riddled with scandal, e-mails missing from the White House that were asked for in an investigation, all kinds of corruption in the present administration in the White House and they want Justice to look into this? Who gives a rats ass? Justice is riddled with people paid by the taxpayers who have lied to Congress under oath and no one holds them accountable?