Thirty-five
Two numbers open
to possibilities-
the three and five
each with open cupped hand
Coral and Jade
are its traditional and modern
representations
It's a long time for people
to be together these days
but not to long for love
its symmetry
which defies math
or any defining number
rebuking any summation
or equal sign
Thirty-five is not a destination
but a mile marker
a momentary pause
on an odometer
to be be eclipsed
It is green with passion
green with hope
and ivory tough
to carry on
for the years
to come
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Journal Bits
- June 7 - "Books on the shelf lean / helter-skelter / left asunder / by random reading"
- June 7 - "Parking is an exercise / of temporary occupation / of territory"
- June 8 - "The day they closed / the car plant / eyes burned of acid bewilderment"
- June 9 - poets to add to my reading list for June: Farrah Field, Joe Wilkins, Adam Clay, Karen Rigby, Emma Bolden
- June 10 - "The miles between us are narrow ruled / I can count the times we've tripped / over one syllable words
- June 12 - " holding on is an art / so too is letting go"
Technorati Tags: Journal Bits,Michael Wells
Up Sores
My wine of choice is Chardonnay. Yesterday, I had a glass of "Hob Nob" while eating out. I tried it based upon the two choices available to me. Big mistake. I imagine it's what wood alcohol would taste like.
On a positive note, I saw the movie UP which was charming and very well suited for 3-D which is how we saw it. Don't let the animation fool you. It's a great movie for adults, especially couples.
Technorati Tags: mistake in a glass,Up sores!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Resistance
Listening to Phil Collins - Take Me Home from No Jacket Required.
The week has been somewhat surreal. Very intense at work. The world beyond too has been intense. There is a very strange seriousness the permeates the air and it seems distant and yet not.
At my age, I've seen my share of graphic pictures and certainly at least since the Vietnam War era graphic media has encroached everyone's life to some degree. Even if it is only regular TV, the news and even much of the programing has perhaps softened us to some degree to the shock of visual brutality, pain, suffering.
I like to think of our nation as one in which dissent is highly regarded. It was largely the basis for the very formation of this nation, but dissent here has been remolded from those early days. We sometimes develop a hardened resistance to any public display of protest that runs counter to our own individual views. While people in this country on occasion are held in the personal contempt of others for expressing themselves on various topics, we don't often find ourselves in the same position those in 1989 were in who met with tanks in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square or as people have this week in the streets of Tehran.
Each day this week I've seen disturbing Tweets out of Tehran as well as video feeds of protesters meeting with not just resistance but the real likely prospect of physical harm and even death. How deep the opposition is to the government in Iran and the ruling Clerics is difficult to judge but it is clearly a significant voice if not a majority. The hope of a better life for the average person in Iran to many seems tied to the nation immerging from the isolation that it has been locked into as a result of the path that it has been on at the hands of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Clerics who have continued to support him against real concerns for credibility in the outcome of the recent Presidential election.
These past few days, what information has seeped through the information wall that the Iranian government has sought to impose shows a very real struggle that is being waged between a massive resistance and the government. A resistance so brutal that some dissenters are paying the price of their lives for the change they believe must come to their homeland. Such change would not come without a tremendous price. How much these people are willing to endure and how long they will continue to expose themselves to the high cost of their dissent will no doubt be a factor in if and when real change comes to Iran. No one, not even the Iranian government or the opposition can predict with any certainty the outcome. What is clear is that each of us is a witness to history in the making as each day passes. I am reminded of the calling of poets to be aware of the world around them. To be witnesses to that world.
Warning: Graphic Video
The Lede - Updating news of the disputed election in Iran
Technorati Tags: Poets,witness to the dissent in Iran
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
To Write of Sleep...
That is the question. Out late tonight and came home and worked on something for work tomorrow. Midnight and I haven't written - "sigh" and I guess I won't at this point. Closing down laptop... I think I'll read a couple poems and call it a night. Tomorrow comes early.
Face of Iran’s Opposition - An Insider Turned Agitator - NYTimes.com
Published: June 17, 2009
TEHRAN — His followers have begun calling him “the Gandhi of Iran.” His image is carried aloft in the vast opposition demonstrations that have shaken Iran in recent days, his name chanted in rhyming verses that invoke Islam’s most sacred martyrs.
Protests Build As Iran Continues Media Crackdown
Enlarge This Image
Newsha Tavakolian/Polaris, for The New York Times
Mir Hussein Moussavi, a former political insider, is leading a postelection protest movement. More Photos »
Mir Hussein Moussavi has become the public face of the movement, the man the protesters consider the true winner of the disputed presidential election.
Slide Show Face of Iran’s Opposition - An Insider Turned Agitator - NYTimes.com
Monday, June 15, 2009
Great Link - Donald Hall Explains
Brian Brodeur continues to provide insight to how a poet arrives at his/her finished product. His most recent guest is Donald Hall and you can find his explanation here at How A Poem Happens.
Technorati Tags: How A Poem Happens,Donald Hall
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