15.9.09

Israel drops experimental DIME on civilians in Gaza, plans to drop them elsewhere as well.

Israel using new Cancer causing explosive. If it doesn't shred a person to pieces with the first drastic explosion using Dense Inert Metal Explosive, it will cause CANCER to the remaining victims of this vicious and illegal munition.

Why haven't you heard of it? Because the United States allows Israel to commit war crimes. That is because the US has committed war crimes. Sad fact of the matter is, bad people and governments stick together like glue. Even Obama is helpless it seems to do anything about it.

Should we worry?




Fortunately for us, Good People Stick Together Too!

There is growing concern that Israel is planning another attack on South Lebanon. I tend to think that they got their arses whooped the last time and wouldn't risk another humiliating defeat at the hands of Hezbollah but oddly enough, Israel is a glutton for punishment. Hezbollah now has an estimated 80,000 rockets posed and ready to launch into Israel should Israel do something stupid. And Israel is still stupid even if the Israeli people have become wise about their own guilt over so many war crimes it makes a person's eyes water.

They have used the Gaza strip as their own personal in vivo munitions testing facility. Mengele? Oh more than that. Israel makes the Nazi regime look tame and it is no longer an viable comparison.

There is no comparison to the war crimes committed by Israel against civilian populations, infrastructure of neighboring countries and Palestinian prison camps (in Israel and beyond). One day in the not so distant future, people will ask "how did this happen"? Just as people do when considering the war crimes perpetrated by Adolph Hitler against many types of people of whom the Jews composed only a fraction of the number eradicated by his pogroms.

Last week, a group thought to be a small, poorly organized group loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda, fired two home made rockets into Israel and Israel retaliated and blamed the Lebanese goverment for the attack (the only way a legitimate claim of self defense can be made is by assigning guilt to the government of the territory from which a missile is launched). Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government denied any responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, Israel fired on a fishing boat in Naqoura which is a small seaside village bordering Israel and Lebanon which is a frank vilation of the UN resolution that ended the horrendous war crime Israel perpetrated on the Lebanese civilian population (collective punishment for ?) in 2006.

Israel you see, does whatever it wants to. Doesn't consult with the UN peacekeeping forces and sometimes even attacks the UN peacekeeping forces.

I personally don't see an Israeli attack in the making but news reports from the ME do suggest that it is highly possible in the near future that Israel may attempt once again to ethnically cleanse the region along it's northern border of the legitimate occupants who are mostly Shia muslims but also a healthy contingent of Maronite Christians. It wouldn't be the first time. Afterall, Israel is built on the blood and bones of people they murdered in order to form the illegal state of Israel which is not recognized by any ME countries save those on the payroll of the United States (client regimes) like Jordan and Egypt.

In the Jewish daily Ha'aretz, the language is quite tame and indicates that Israel is on the defensive now rather than the offensive:

"The explosions showed that Hezbollah is arming and getting stronger, but the IDF is organized and ready for everything."

Although Ha'aretz is known for it's liberal and pro peace stand, in this case, it misrepresents the facts indicating weakness of the Israeli people. Hezbollah had nothing to do with the attacks. Of course not. Hezbollah is a professional outfit and doesn't launch "home made" rockets nor does it ever launch piecemeal attacks like this. When Hezbollah has something to do with an attack, it will be and always is obvious because they take their operations quite seriously. They also respect their enemies enough to not lie about actual attacks and counter attacks. That is one of the weapons (truth/honesty) that destroyed Ehud Olmert who has recently been deposed by the Israeli people (for corruption).

Hezbollah has literally changed the society of the Middle East in general and the Levant specifically into one of Resistance rather than Submission to the Israeli War Machine. This article is from the second in command of Hezbollah, Shaikh Naim Qassem who is widely considered the "bad cop" of the good cop/bad cop partnership of Nasrallah and Qassem, Inc.:

http://english.moqawama.org/essaydetails.php?eid=9036&cid=234

He invites all Lebanese citizens, Muslim and Non to participate in the resistance society from which there is "no turning back" and which Nasrallah promises will end the injustice of the Israeli state forever:

"Thus the whole society becomes a resistance society; it provides what is required of it to then go back to the normalcy of daily life. Hence a resistance society is not one in which arms are randomly distributed to all the people, but such a community governs energies and capacities into an integrated process of confrontation."

The Christian president of Lebanon echoes this sentiment when he says that the Lebanese Armed Forces should act as a complement to the victorious party (Hezbollah) who is most likely better armed than the state itself:

"Speaking to graduating officers at the Fiadiyeh Military Academy on Friday in the occasion of Lebanon's 63rd annual Army Day, Suleiman stressed that the army's weapons should embrace the ones addressed against the enemy "that was already defeated by the Resistance and the army"."

"Your duty "goes beyond politics and confessionalism (sectarian affiliation). Maintaining security is your duty, which requires sacrifices," Suleiman told the graduating class, which he named after Brigadier General Francois al-Hajj, who was martyred in a bombing."

President Suleiman goes further to identify internal enemies of the state of Lebanon (Al Qaeda and Christian Lebanese Forces affiliates) as being on the zero tolerance list of every citizen of Lebanon and more importantly, the integrated Lebanese Army which just so happens to be composed mostly although not entirely of Shia muslim soldiers:

"Suleiman urged the army to confront "violators" to avoid civil strife and stressed the need to safeguard the military's unity. "Do not hesitate to curb violators no matter what their affiliations are," Suleiman told graduating cadets at the Military Academy in Fayadieh. "Isn't it a duty to confront anyone who shoots" at his compatriot? Suleiman asked."

"The Lebanese army fought fierce battles in the Nahr al-Bared camp" at this time last year, Sleiman recalle, referring to the Lebanese Armed Forces' summer-long fight against the Fatah al-Islam organization in the northern Palestinian refugee camp, a fight Suleiman himself oversaw, as the army commander at the time. "You have preserved our national unity with your sweat and blood. Do not let it be shaken now," the President said."

The secretary general of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah goes on to order that all interal collaborators in league with the Israeli/US plan for the ME which involves direct and indirect internal meddling be given the harshest penalty possible under the law and he suggests that that start not with members of other religious sects but with the Shia themselves (and yes, some Shia are evil doers and traitors to the Lebanese population):

In this issue I want to be frank and decisive, do not play with security or the judiciary, like the old game of '6 by 6 per sect repeated.' In other words placing the treatment of collaborators under the influence of balances religious confessions and sects.

I say begin the death penalty with collaborators from the Shiaa community.

Fourth: An invitation. Today I like to address the rest of the spies and agents who are still on Lebanese territory, who have not been arrested yet. I say to you 'You are completely exposed, the hands to arrest you will soon reach you, it is why I offer you to quickly surrender yourselves to the official security services and the Lebanese judiciary, lest that lighten your penalty, you spies and collaborators must know you have no value to your Zionist masters, because as far as "Israel" is concerned you are worth a handful of dust, that is why you should guard yourself by quickly returning to your home, people and State before it is too late.

Fifth: We in Hizbullah have always cooperated with the security agencies, but I announce today that we in the resistance will maximize the efforts and cooperation, without any reservations with all official bodies, in a comprehensive national public effort to achieve this noble goal, which is to clean Lebanon up from the networks of spies and agents.

Sixth: we must cooperate to mitigate the political environment, to not allow political and sectarian divisions in the country to justify collaboration and treason. I must also draw the people's attention in all areas, especially in towns and large cities where issues quickly dissipate and become forgotten, when in villages a dead person is kept alive in the people's memory for even a hundred after their death.

I want to say we must act responsibly with legitimacy, morally and fraternally.
The Holy Quran says "... no bearer of burdens can bear of burdens the burden of another" Holy Quran 6:164.
The collaborator and spy in one of our villages or families, is not the fault of their father, mother, wife, children or family. It is bad enough that this or that collaborator wronged his own family therefore; it is not permissible for anyone to wrong his family or relatives.

They are our community, people, citizens, neighbours and distant relatives, we must lament their situation, lighten their burden, and stand by their side, because their wound is very painful, it is more painful than any wound, I know as you do, particularly in south Lebanon, the feelings of any family, father, mother, wife, child or daughter whose son, husband or father is a collaborator.

In this regard I hope the collaboration matter is dealt with in complete compassion.
God Almighty calls on us to reflect His characteristics in His creation, He is with great mercy and compassion and strong impunity. I invite you express mercy with the families and severe punishment with agents and spies.

He goes on to suggest that these collaborators are not merely intelligence agents for Israel but indeed, have harbored TNT in their homes and assisted Isreali operatives in and out of the country and hence, they obviously deserve the death penalty if charged with being "agent executors".

The unification of Lebanon is contrasted with the Disunity of Israel and the people who occupy Palestinian homes and lands. No Occupier in the history of mankind has EVER remained in the land that they occupied. None.

13.9.09

An Evening in September
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

So much has been lost
in the paraphrase and I am one of them
now, on the other side
trying not to be a burden
to not
fabricate the evidence
against us all
and if you cannot forgive
yourself, I cannot forgive
you either.
Our dead child
waits for us in her
stony little grave
but I cannot say it.
If three people have the same
conversation, who says
they all have the same one ah'khee?
It was a long time ago
and shouldn't matter to anyone now.
Afterall, she was never born
into such vivid detail
still has the luck of innocence
on her side and the courage
to warm herself in that tomb
with nothing more than
her outlaw hands and messages.
Sure would have done it differently
even though it would have looked
the same and she'd still be in there.
Her little brother, darling boy
made more of an impression
coming in and blessing us
with his unbelievably high hopes
but he died too, left without
telling anyone goodbye
and I turned to the woman
in the cot beside me,
nos son mortificados,
estranged, guilty
and she was the one screaming.
And for this ah'khee, I now
pay for these crimes all alone.




*ah'khee is the familiar form of brother in Arabic, translates literally to "bro"

12.9.09

To WJ Porter's Ashes

And he reviewed the birds, then said: How is it I see not the hoopoe or is it that he is of the extinct? -The Ant in the Glorious Quran

It is the preburn of creation
without the m
and I know all the answers,
there aren't any about that -
is there moisture down there dad?
When it rains do you feel
a little bit better, more yourself
more like a protestant
caught up in the litigation
of certain tribal defamation
suits against the Creator?
I'm not mad at you just
wish I knew you a bit better
than the dust you've become
knew a little more about
how you knew I'd be alright.
Sometimes I think about
your beard, the way we used
to call you Ahab the Arab
so grateful to you for that
time you laughed about his left hand.
You were smiling weren't you
and someday we'll go fishing
up there I promise,
we'll have all day to
spell your first name.
Teeth

I still would, even if I didn't make it
to the afterhours party, I still would
purchase the hard soap, the green soap
would still make sure that every part
got rinsed off every day. Then
I would keep cautioning my children
to honor me anyway and to look away
if the scene makes them unhappy.
Keep walking brothers and sisters
you used to know me and the stories
are still fragrant, still unfinished
but the last doubt is different,
keeps you hopeful and mellow.
Young son with your facial hair
and daughter with your baby,
it isn't what you expect afterall.
The sky will show you how.
All my teeth are porcelain now
they've shaved off their only shine
been replaced with something
if not better at least it is
more expensive, quality dentition.
I used to think I'd be famous
or beautiful forever, I used to
believe that I could never get
over anything especially love
but I got over you too.

Back to the poetry because afterall, 9/11 is so over. The monsoon isn't though and that is good. Rain is always good, keeps everything fresh if you will.


The Chain Reaction
(for Matt, whoever he is)

It started with the interpreter
then the mayor, where we lived
between Wood and West
long ago everyone was watching,
considering for a few moments
the love that ran between the tall Mexican
and his nurse without any words to fall over,
it was brief and ended nicely
but only went as far as skin.
He likes a little sugar not smoke
but the machine was on all night
and the rest of the world became
silent from pouting, there were no
falling stars, no recorders
but because it was important,
we remembered it and put it into
action for replay in the lives of others.
We are doing such important things here,
taking notes but the archives
put psychology into too many books,
forgot to take our passing thoughts
out for a walk before Mr. Whatshisname
counted the windows and secured
the last door with his arthritic
panhandling wrists, I remember him
I remember all of his children
but never saw them or wanted
to go home with their captives,
didn't eat under their tricky umbrellas.
We took his generation seriously
without making sure first, checking
into what the neighbors said later on.
It happened again with that one too,
he moved in and when it was over
took my two shoulders in his hands
and that was it, we were shaking
and whispering I love you in the car,
I know I could honey but for now
this bed is all mine, is all narrow,
is all made up for the evening,
is all I ever wanted. Just another mistake
but if only you hadn't said
I'm getting better, healing up.
That never works but once.

11.9.09



IT CAME OUT OF THE SKY

Oh, it came out of the sky, landed just a little South of Moline.
Jody fell out of his tractor, couldn't b'lieve what he seen.
Laid on the ground and shook fearin' for his life.
Then he ran all the way to town screamin' it came out of the sky.

Well, a crowd gathered round and a scientist said it was marsh gas.
Spiro came and made a speech about raising the Mars tax.
The Vatican said, woe, the Lord has come, Hollywood rushed out an epic film
and Ronnie the Popular said it was a communist plot.

Oh, the newspapers came and made Jody a national hero.
Walter and Eric said they'd put him on a network TV show.
The White House said, put the thing in the Blue Room,
the Vatican said, no, it belongs to Rome
and Jody said, it's mine and you can have it for seventeen million.

Oh, it came out of the sky, landed just a little South of Moline.
Jody fell out of his tractor, couldn't b lieve what he seen.
Laid on the ground a shakin', fearin' for his life.
Oh, then he ran all the way to town screamin' it came out of the sky.

- John C. Fogerty





The Banksters and the Tangled Web They Weave

"In any case, it’s scary: you’ve got a good segment of the American population that is completely impervious to any kind of evidence, any rational argument. I mean, who collects statistics? People in black helicopters!"

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/bernie-madoff-and-the-birthers/

_______________________________________________________________

"How many small towns with barely ten thousand people “boast” a tiny local airport which play host to terrorist hijackers? Or been run by a heroin trafficker disguised as a flight school owner, or a man accused of stealing $300 million in a huge financial fraud?"

"DuBain later founded a San Francisco supper club with oilman Gordon Getty and Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz; his "Pacific Institute" kept former Bush Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld busy in the 1990s."

http://www.madcowprod.com/03202009.html

"One answer has already become obvious. Nadel spent an enormous amount of money on airplanes and aviation facilities."
______________________________________________________________________________


"These reports further state that Madoff was ‘convicted’ in a ‘one of a kind’ designed trial in which his guilty plea kept all evidence against Israel’s betrayal of the United States from being entered into official American records as it was deemed by the Obama administration as ‘too incendiary’ for the American people to know about and would, most certainly, unleash an Israeli backlash many Russian Military Analysts state would leave ‘many US cities in ruin’. ”

http://us.altermedia.info/news-of-interest-to-white-people/bankster-coverup-on-bernie-madoff_4919.html

Now, I was going to write a poem about this and I might indeed do that but not before I reprint a 9/11 classic. One of my favorite poems of all time and it is what it is. It's about truth and the right of "freedom of speech" CONSISTS IN telling the truth according to Ali Mu'mineen, Commander of the Faithful, pbuh. Many of the first Imam's quotes are taken for granted and this one needs to be examined thoroughly by all readers (close reading). Freedom of Speech isn't about just saying whatever you want. Not at all and afterall, it doesn't exist (the so-called Freedom of Speech in the USA) or we'd already have put these culprits all to bed. Osama is dead...has been for quite some time. But the truth isn't well liked by the sentimentalists in the world who hold on to their own misguided notions too tightly regardless of their self declared affinity for "truth". Historically speaking, this is what happened to Moses, SA when the Pharoah got a bit anxious about Moses' revelation before the nation that magicians are just magicians. Moses threw his staff into the ring and it turned into a snake and ate the fake snakes of the magicians (who were merely propagandists for the Pharoah) whole. The point of that parable which is found not only in the Quran but the Bible is simply this, TRUTH TRUMPS FALSEHOOD ON CONTACT. Falsehood ...well falsehood. What about falsehood and it's many sided variations on the truth? It mixes fact and fiction, just like Mr. Krugman said but he ends up being just another part of the act. This is, for those who have spent any time at all perusing the Protocols of Zion, the trick. At the end of that parable, the magicians themselves admit to the truth and in fact, so does the Pharoah but for him it was a bit too late as the Red Sea came crashing down upon him. He pleaded with Allah to accept his apology and Allah just said, "Nope." Just a simple, "Nope."

Liars tell such a fabulous tale that they literally force a truther to look bad if and when they question the facts of the case. In the case of the Pharoah, he threatened the turn-coat magicians of his with CRUCIFICTION (basically). Ouch! No sane person can say that this isn't exactly the case with such "truther"movements post 9/11. The "truthers" have been tarred and feathered, ignored and even ousted from popular poetry boards (Amiri Baraka by Mr. Ron Silliman) for merely stating the facts. Of course, Mr. Silliman has forgiven Mr. Baraka (LeRoi Jones) for his act of defiance and Mr. Baraka has held his tongue after having his Laureate-ship revoked.....but this story just won't die. That is because the fake snake isn't able to eat the real snake. That reptile is Divine Powered you know and has a HUGE stomach. Just huge. The only thing the real snake likes to eat is the thing that satisfies it's hunger and that would be the lie. The real snake food.

Haha...that third article might even be part of the parade...oh...it tells the "conspiracy theorists" which like to think they know (and end up in the forest of mirrors all the same)..if anyone finds out, RUSSIA tells us that it will leave all our cities in ruin! It basically says, we're gonna tell you the truth here but at the end of it we'll put in this fabulous assumption just in case you "get any ideas" about how secret this all is and has to remain.

What utter bullshit. Israel will beat us up...hahaha. And that's exactly what Ahmadinijad said when threatened with Israeli airstrikes....hoho he said. Israel? That tiny little country? Will attack the mightly nation of Iran? Oh...hohoho. He had the usual sparkle in his eye that so many of us teary eyed Shia get now days when faced with the moronic afterglow of 9/11 and Israel's now famous defeat in Lebanon in 2006. What pranksters!

My favorite truther is this young man who goes into Walmarts and Kmarts and watches employees enter their secret intercom code. He then commandeers the intercom and announces to the Kmart blue-light shoppers that 9/11 was a coverup. What chutzpah! What sheer valor.

The Wondrous Magico

Most things never really happen
to us and those that do
are truly remarkable.
The tired old promise
once the war is fought
and supposedly won, as planned
before the corpse wrecks
the best-laid plans
with clockwork and clairvoyance,
that dreadful pose staged
on the triage of life
and death innuendo
are a pleasant compromise
for the real thing
as it fiddles and burns,
cuts everything in half
and disappears the rabbit
from the land of the living.
Those that shake the snakes
from bags and wave their
crooked old sticks
past all our pleased
and dumbstruck faces
say like this:

and and and and and
Voila! Lo! Behold!




The Chain Reaction

It started with the interpreter
then the mayor, where we lived
between Wood and West
long ago everyone was watching,
considering for a few moments
the love that ran between the tall Mexican
and his nurse without any words to fall over,
it was brief and ended nicely
but only went as far as skin.
He likes a little sugar not smoke
but the machine was on all night
and the rest of the world became
silent from pouting, there were no
falling stars, no recorders
but because it was important,
we remembered it and put it into
action for replay in the lives of others.
We are doing such important things here,
taking notes but the archives
put psychology into too many books,
forgot to take our passing thoughts
out for a walk before Mr. Whatshisname
counted the windows and secured
the last door with his arthritic
panhandling wrists, I remember him
I remember all of his children
but never saw them or wanted
to go home with their captives,
didn't eat under their tricky umbrellas.
We took his generation seriously
without making sure first, checking
into what the neighbors said later on.
It happened again with that one too,
he moved in and when it was over
took my two shoulders in his hands
and that was it, we were shaking
and whispering I love you in the car,
I know I could honey but for now
this bed is all mine, is all narrow,
is all made up for the evening,
is all I ever wanted. Just another mistake
but if only you hadn't said
I'm getting better, healing up.
That never works but once.

10.9.09

GOOD BUY at Abe's

Here's the deal....I collect old books. Some of them rare and some not so rare, just good reads. One of my favorites is a children's book with an illustration done by a very young Andy Warhol. And in that soup can band illustration...you guessed it....the famous can of tomato. I gave away my Durant signed first edition but held on to TE Lawrence...couldn't part with that! I still can't find any copies of the Longfellow for sale so mine must be worth at least a dollar or two. It's obviously rare.

Today I found a really grand piece of historical literature.

I don't know if the link will last because I've purchased the piece but here it is:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=769774467&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3DSalted%2BFeathers%2B10%26x%3D0%26y%3D0

From Mimeo Revolution...and the youngish Flarfists would be tickled to know that the wheel was already invented hahaha. Those old mimeograph machines and what I wouldn't give for one now! Hot tip: buy one. They will be worth a fortune or at least as much as one of the old Pong games.

This issue of Salted Feathers which was co-edited by my old friend Dick Bakken, features a nice selection of the soon to be famous and very famous poets we know of today.

"Stapled Mimeo Sheets. Contributors include: Padraig O Broin, Carol Berge, Allen Ginsberg, Howard McCord, Galway Knnell, Charles Bukowki, Pamela Bakken, James Hazard, Larry Eigner, Carlos Reyes, Arthur Vogelsang, Dick Bakken, George Dowden, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Norma Ceaser. This issue also a portfolio of photos of poets. Cover lightly faded. Bookseller Inventory # 3103"

7.9.09

As The Plane Flew Over

I want to learn how to contact
them tell them how do you do
via signal per madman
all the movement in the ligature
of the city runs round
the battleground in stages
they only could hear
the word mindsmart
the plastic peel or definite
character under our fountain
heads please tell them so
no one will worry
force them to get up to
gerryrig their address
but how can we return
to work knowing all this
has happened
down there as descending
over the activated bodies
bending in time
the aperture widens
and closes in to focus
remembers the sound of the beast
as that heart goes one two three?
Spirit of organization goes on
believe it or not
and the poets talk to it forever.

6.9.09

Terminal Humming, received, read and want to forget about it really and it won't be too hard to do so. The apologetic ending is apt because this is where save a tree comes in handy. There isn't much in this book that excites me either as a progressive or radical or conservative flame thrower. I've no doubt that it is a hit in the five minutes of fame sort of way that feminist literature can be...no doubt at all but in that it is a parody of what it wishes to acknowledge. As is most feminist literature so there you have it, it fits the type that it hopes to either discover or parlay into a new language of rational output albeit communicated irrationally.

Where's the beef in this? All angry protestations or rather, sentimentalistically inclined and very standard vignettes of the no holds barred Ann Murray hairdo sensationalism of yesteryear.

I should recuse myself from reviewing anything of the feminist genre by saying that I hate feminism as it is in our modern world. It is misguided babble and will eat its own tail whether it likes it or not. Therefore, a willing audience to such clap trap you won't find in me.

The chapbook (aptly self defining) is one of those books you'll find on thrift store shelves...the poet wondering where did all my copies end up? Where they should. I started reading it on my way to San Antonio, still bristling over the fact that a person has to pay for luggage and no bite to eat when the steward reminds us that flying isn't as glamorous as it used to be. Great fellow and quite gay, he waxed on about his Fwitzy (his wiener dog), his 22 year union with a partner but stopped short because of the look on our faces over this admission. Later during the flight he whispered to my husband after I returned a little bottle of chardonnay he tried to hand to me for free but I retorted, I'm muslim and don't drink to which he replied, "I'm Catholic and an alcoholic." Thought I'd bust a rib on that one...but he whispered to my husband that he was indeed gay. I took his hand as I left and wished him peace.

Feminism. More gay men should write or rather, right the wrongs of such self indulgent fantasies of hard core or not so hard core feminist rabble rousing. Where to send the troops now? They've all gone home to file their nails once again. As women always do find the safest place to be is where you expect them to be and in the case of Terminal Humming it is full of the usual old diatribes and diagnostic conundrums of women who like to write literature for the sake of informing men of all the hassles they have to endure. But why do they?

How many of them have the courage to stand up to the beast and tell it, if you followed the word of Allah, we wouldn't need to hassle you so hard or hustle to the next technobeat of our rage.

But there isn't that kind of rage in this tome. It's a pitiful meaow and ends up with an apology...not sure why that had to happen but feel totally confident that administering the last touch ups to the drafts of this was not only easy but worse, it was not necessary. I doubt the poet even remembered which words were switched or why.

Unleashing inner badness? Are we to assume this is the spiteful self hatred of our own gender talking? I certainly hope not although I must admit, I get a bit hot under the collar sometimes as a wife of a domineering arab man for 28 years and mother to his three children. That doesn't mean I hate being what I am but rather, I hate having to pretend not to notice all the time. What kind of inner badness is there really if a woman is so wise as to be able to reflect at length on the meaning of gender inequality or rather, her gender inequality because it certainly isn't mine. There is no such thing then if we are all at home in this skin but that is the best thing that can be said about experimental poetry. That is, experimental poetry ought to expose that which hasn't thus far been exposed adequately enough or in the language of our peers.

I do like certain things, certain lines...especially the part where a peaceful nuclear device is uncovered in the forest. That's nice but problem is, a whole book of poetry needs to have something to recommend itself on. And a few nice lines just isn't enough for me.

I have to say I might pick it up again and give it one more chance but all things considered....it is better left as is with hope for the future of this type of thing which isn't new at all. It's more of the same old tired Ai drivel. Alas. It's not even possible to reproduce excerpts to dissect for review because the act would be fruitless and entirely subjective. This morass of work needs to grow up first, to experience the ledge of the expected before trying to fly into the world of the intellectually courageous where obviously, this poet wants to project herself. There is no such thing as being too smart to handle, too brave to be believed or too contemporary to be understood and by the same token, misunderstood to the point of brilliance. No such thing.
What there is out there is too many up and coming poets to be believed. And if that's the case we can most definitely assume that the poet herself produces boredom as an act of sheer defiance. I think though that is giving way too much credit to the accidental good close reading that a poet with at least a little experience might endeavor to provoke in order to sell a book for a hopeful stranger.

5.9.09

Flarf, is it real or is it memorex? The jury remains hung but the culprit was arrested during the jahaliyya times while exiting the courtroom, nine people dead or at least dying somewhere else there's an earthquake but rather by the department of education. Write letters to themselves.

Has tweeked the language the whitehouse announced they will post the speech online to appease at least one outspoken critic stay in school what's wrong with that?

Parents across the country but what about the schools, the Dewey Decimal system? In some places Arlington just outside of Washington a logistical thing we've been asking this morning.

I must say this is what they listened to but what did they hear? The Time person of the year is you it says and flarf is all about that sort of thing. Someone apparently thinks criticism is you don't understand us and that's final if you don't like it/us. Exclusivity is universal where I stand Adorno. My Adorno, the fire was caused by someone and they have posted a reward for this.

I like to hear not listen, to see but not watch, to feel without touching here at the Gateway to the Air Force where a configuration of four planes flew over the tiny recruits on the field, our son one of them and I wonder is this him, them? One mother arrived in her gypsy clothes and a family of five could not afford to go to Six Flags Amusement Park, the similacra is now too dear. That's what they say in the White Man's Graveyard, too dear and you can find that in the Graham Green. Humbug me.

This generation is just too generation for me, too hopeful about the newness in the jahaliyya times. In Kunduz the metal is sharp and hot for the dress blues and I wonder where will he go? We've already been there and back in again we don't want to go too much into that if we can't get out again all over.

Flarf, my flarf. My flarf isn't as wonderful as theirs is because I cannot drone terribly on without at least one answer and five primary colors. A trip back to the wild wild west transplanted palm trees the most lucsious desert on the planet a must see. A zoo al in one. A giant puma in the headquarters Atlanta this whole debate really rages on.

And on and on.
Walden

My first deal in my teens
over the next eighteen months
in a trailer park as a kid
but I stumbled
down real estate market
he's trying to help us
just like you

what we did just a few weeks ago
six houses all at once
no money down

Huge financial debt
super super wealth
it's attached to
the best part
close to one million dollars
I don't teach you how to buy
an enormous discount
down here to get one deal
the greatest time in history
no money down strategies
on their books nobody bid
anything they can
desperation is huge
opportunity is enormous
twenty years to figure these things out
it's going straight up,
a buying frenzy as many as they can
ten years to cash out
strategy number two
teaches you
I know it's hard to find someone
who owns property free and clear.
The only person that can give
security to you and your family is you,
no one else is selling this
one time deal, self reliance
any desire to get rid of that knot
in your stomach, going to college
will get you a tiny little raise
I don't know what else to say
people just like you took action
directly to you, no middle man
not in stores call the number
on the screen because no one
is going to do this for you,
don't be paralysed, take the first step.
Resurgence With Joan London
in Candlewood Extended Stay Suites, San Antonio
(for Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Our security clearances pending all the time
we want our baby lisas
this window where his shadow runs
watches from on location
churlishness aside, biting fingers off
aside do you have any idea
how to get to Lackland without the machine
to point you and the changes
in your skin?

I noticed my skin changing
when I was about twenty eight

I have a funny story about
why I am sitting here today
skin care junkie
the most expensive to completely
organic and natural.

If we do that we are gonna
feel great about that glow
you start to lose that.
Refreshing and enlightening
from one product, especially.
Highly concentrated
apricot and primrose oils,
papaya algae and plant extracts
soy wild yams alpha hydroxy
polypeptides
instantly shea butter
ruduces the appearance
even the most sensitive
in the next six minutes

1.9.09

The Gospel According to Moses Black

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=27629543&blogId=310683240


My son in law ends one of his gospels, Deuteronomy accordingly:


One
But there is something innumerable
And that
is
Holy
I am the intersection of forces
I could never comprehend
I am a slave
And that knowledge is my only freedom

There he writes his own fate...wonder if he really knows it? I have no idea...we have no idea about other people but what expedited language he uses! Cut's right to the chase and although the profanity is a bit much for this old goat, it is honest.

In another gospel, Ecclisiastes this time, Moses writes:

Martha: I created a storm and
Walked on the oceans
To show you I possessed nothing,
Not even fear
I called you to me and
You nearly drowned in your doubts
But this was your baptism
I conquered your flesh, and you
Prepared for me a feast and
Washed my feet with
Your hair and fine perfumes, and
As you knelt, I walked on you
To roads paved with gold and good intentions


To be honest, I am terrified by this work, absolutely terrified. His first gift to his mother in law was a book that I truly enjoyed by Maria Ranier Rilke. Hadn't read any Rilke but very glad that I have now. Wonderful stuff.

I gifted him with a book signed by Will Durant himself and knew that he was the one the book was meant for. He was truly pleased.

Allah sent me these two young men, Antonio, the pious and patient and Anthony the genius...to teach them about Islam. We sit at dinner tables and share one thing after or another or...we just watch movies and laugh or play with baby Hassan who is named for the grandson of the last prophet, SA. What a mixed bunch we are and who would have guessed I'd end up in such interesting circumstances. Two Antonios and one Mary.

What a wonderful strange trip it has been. Now, off to get ready for San Antonio where this poet will be sitting shotgun on at least one roller coaster at Six Flags, if my heart can take it.

31.8.09


Truth Rhymes with the Heartbeats of the Temple

How about hours when the rug
slipped out from under
the time you opened the door
to light the universe
and pull some weeds,
gather the homegrown greens
to give them all away.
This is another conincidence
covering more than just one day
and can really add up
when you skip the footnotes.
Honestly, I don't like babies much
but smile at their reputation
for lack of a better word
or watch while they practice.
We just want to look at her
on the panel, want to touch
her tongue and see if it's really moving
before all of those surprises
in majestic diction
fall asleep in her lap.
But that's just gossip.
Such psychological outbreaks
are woefully endemic
here and the calm
of taking it all in
the ten o'clock news
is more than I can bear
all by my little lonesome.
Describe it my darling
in the evening as we try to say
it's all over now isn't it
but stumble between
instead the lamps,
who shall shut them off
if one of us should perish
or the other cannot turn?
The place to arrange the blankets
regardless of which falls first
remains original as I call
the old piano how to play
the game, fidget in the nest
of this tabernacle
where popes bed down too
master the last little lesson,
popping their special pill
like poorly paid ranch hands.
Strange they missed that one
but all those countries
asked for was a Sunday morning
in case they need
a better place to stay
that feels at least a little bit
like the habit where
they are supposed to be
when rituals roll around.
But darling goes off again,
doesn't lock the door anymore
or shut the cupboards.
Is it such a waste of time
to think he said
the house was dark
and they were sleeping?
Or was it just the wind?








28.8.09

Male Circumcision decreases the risk of HIV transmission to women (and maybe other men) by 50%! Studies halted because the evidence was CLEAR.

Take that you Swedish heathen!

http://www.avert.org/circumcision-hiv.htm


Heh...but the doctor's name...what a gas. Anyway...it's true. Forget that ridiculous idea that it will hurt your baby.

On 12 December 2006, an expert committee called a halt to two large studies of male circumcision and HIV. There was already such clear evidence that circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection, that to continue the trials would be unethical. This news caused great excitement among some HIV experts. According to Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the HIV/AIDS Department of the World Health Organisation: “If decisions are made to scale [circumcision] up by different countries, it does have the potential to prevent many tens of thousands, many hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of infections over the coming years.”

27.8.09

Do Cows Wear Blue Jeans?

Now then. These four were quite easy but the next ten are going to be a bit harder to fathom. All that research and no holds barred, an all out food fight. This just goes to show that it isn't about the tools but more about the quality of the metal, you get what you pay for and by george, you get what you deserve.

I'm reading a very, very good book but it says literally nothing. Nothing at all. Brilliant lines, absolutely contagious efforts but it says, literally...nothing at all. Comes to no conclusions..yet...because I ain't quite done with it. Haven't chewed the cud nor made it past the gemstone that ought to be in there. Not that it isn't likable....no....things can be quite likable but do they feed a hungry stomach? Fill it up for more than a few hours?

You might ask, which book might that be?

Hotel Lautreamont by John Ashbery. Got it cheap and for two dollars. Thrown out from the Osceola County Library and stamped DISCARD. Now, why on earth would a library throw out a good book of poetry? Did no one want to read it except me or is it the case that they were throwing it out to me? Not sure. Any more than the fact that an old Ford got rolled into a lake many years ago and this old gal decided to hire some divers to find it in this lake up there. Five minutes into the dive, this guy finds some bones and the detective laughs and tells him it's just an old cow carcass. Funny thing though, the diver says, "Do cows wear blue jeans?" Turns out, this nice fella had been murdered about four months before on a lonely county road. The killer buried him but a week before the divers went looking for that old Ford from the twenties, he decided to dig up the body and dump it in the lake, jeans and all. Damn if things don't just work out perfect sometimes.

And all hail to Ashbery. He's got it going even if he isn't saying anything all that important. I love the freedom of his verbs and the way he house squats on reason. A poet ought to do at least a little of that if they expect to survive the trend that they initiated. No rules in art you know except for us goodly sorts who expect to find whole libraries in paradise, most likely full of discarded texts from dusty old departments of literature and maybe even a hymnal or broadside.
Easy County Fair Poems Made Easier

Keep feeling the chiggers on my arm
who left the light in the closet
on under the category of even?
Through the curtain are images
of what else going on outside
except the birds and bakers
lolygagging and more than one steeple
in your last happy presentation
makes no sense at all
if he leaves then he brings
back all the gold and frustration
trades up and doesn't change
the sheets nor bring back any ties.
We'll wait again for the next call
pleased with milk and eggs
enough for a transient carnie
working the wrong circus,
that's what makes it beautiful
when the dimes land dead center
but we're up in one of the stalls
talking to the tigers,
don't know exactly when to leave
and stop by the hypnotist
on the way out
one more time hoping
that he'll notice, call us up.
I need a volunteer from the audience
he'll say. That's when the fun begins
but he really shouldn't have to ask
by now, I ought to be the last
catatonic prisoner except for the fact
just can't find the ginsu knife and wish
for ten shiny pots and pans
from the demo, wish I'd said yes.
Or wish I'd said no, can't really say.
The Fundamentalist

Before you hear otherwise, this sets the pace
for all the words that follow, in the name of
the unactionable inscrutable infallible
take your tickets and burn the fields
in preparation for the interrogation
there won't be any survivors, no last
apology will be spoken and the machine
is on rewind not play. It won't do.
My master hasn't told us the whole
story, just certain parts that fit just so
this giant puzzle called in the beginning.
I don't want to give it away but fact of the matter
is, I can't although I've really tried hard.
Tried coaxing and combining, excercising,
tried fooling and bullying but those deaf ears
keep listening to bull dozers and scrap men.
Ay Caramba! Ay Caramba!
This is the pace, the speed of light
folds up neatly on a pin, keeps shining
but for some reason, the engine won't turn over.
For some reason we keep talking about the weather,
keep talking about the sin of repetition
play it again boy, play it once again
how many weeks before the fiesta?
It's true what the master said then,
they just won't give a damn and don't
bother wasting your time on them.
I didn't he said, I just told them to be careful,
no touch ups and forgone conclusions,
and then they did what people usually do.
They took for granted that I kept it simple,
thought it meant I was playing games
with their angles and plots, imagined
that they could imagine me! Imagine that!
There isn't a contradiction in me, not even
a definition to which a contrary might apply
but that's beyond the pace of this lecture,
beyond the pace of most minds
this thing has only one facet and here's the cheat sheet,
both past and future, regrettable but fair.
Rule number one: no citation for the tautology.
Rule number two: try not to find any.

Prayer for the Coworker

Made it to the door
but not the gate
which still needs sanding
but the clerk is hemorrhaging
and hanging out in the OR.
After losing the voice, finding it
and losing it again, it's a bitter break-up
the pressure, the pills, the liver
one more try, give it at least one
and deliver the special messages
one at a time until the kafr
bite the ends of their fingers
quite off and the believers sigh
slowly and ready to question
the insects that inspect the lights
that flit back and forth between the porches
past each other, past the turn-off
where little lulu cries by herself
over the death certificates
gets to know everybody
as she reads the whole town diary.
No one knows she is out there
behind a desk marking off
infarct, accident, natural, suicide
sepsis, embolism, failure, coagulation
because death is confidential
to us all all hush hush
we whisper over our lunch buckets
that we just can't believe
it was him or her
but as she looks for one last lover
rides in and out of town
doing her wheelies,
minding her business
picking up her paychecks
one at a time, it feels real special
to know just a little something
about the way she cut her hair
four times before giving up
and regretting all that loss.
The prayers went out last night,
the same gang who go in together
on the lottery, one dollar
per contestant sent one hopeful amen.

26.8.09

How the Hive Works

When the ceiling starts to splinter
it only misses a few pieces
before the rest starts and stops
to believe in it, follows suit.
Why bother turning over
the altar to another piecemeal
party pooper when it is yours
for the asking, just compromise.
It's a long story
full of derring do and self righteous
hegemony, all the holidays
rolled into one sanctimonious
class action law suit
against asbestos and misspelling.
The people versus this, the people
versus that like contagions
and inflations of pygmy fainting goats
who tremble and jitter
and the tiny woolen creatures
inside our skin coming out
after a scientist with a big bright idea
tells everyone how hard
his last keepsake jammed
and mended the theory
of chance to destiny
by reworking five chemical phrases
but not the sixth because OH
isn't on the end, it's in the middle.
A whole other doctrine
he said and cupped his hands
like this to blow
on the very last horn.
They're just bees and believe me,
they aren't big enough to try.

25.8.09

One of the problems with having a comments section is keeping up with the odd comment or two that is received. I work full time and then some...spend mornings looking for projects that apply to this or that aspect of my day job.

This one arrived some weeks ago and I just noticed it today when going through my email that I only go through maybe once or twice a month. It is from "jh"....who always has interesting things to say over at his blog which is here:
http://bewilderingsearch.blogspot.com/

jh writes:

benson
i've been
up and down those streets
have chewed into
a burger at rebs
and sat bewildered alone
eating a gomorrah style
breakfast at
the horseshoe
have wondered at the desultory souls
shifting up the main drag headed
for the desert or another charming
nowhere
there
scuffling through benson
in a dust storm
the daylight far too bright
sad images of wolves howling
for something like justice
on the hills outsdie town
only to land near st david
the place forgotten by benson
the place so silent
save for the groan and fumes
fumes from the
stack where the powder is prepped
for exploding in holes
like demented sex and a hope
for more more riches

Well done and I'm going there today! To the B on the tank as you approach Benson from the south on 80. Going to a drug treatment facility up there to do HIV screening...always a terrifying experience i.e. the thought that one day, sooner or later, I have to be the bearer or bad tidings. Scares me literally to death.



23.8.09

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.



22.8.09


First photo of girl's head found at the Canaa massacre (Israeli war crime and boy, I sure remember it and can't even afford a shrink). This image, BTW, was used by the Israeli Revisionist filmaker in Waltz, literally PLAGIARIZED.
Second photo which is well known throughout the WORLD depicts the murdered child (Mohamed Al Dura) and his father who was trying to shield his son from IDF pigs. Israel then went and bulldozed the crime scene within forty eight hours and blamed in on Palestinian gunmen. The nerve of those shits. To try to tell the world that they just can't remember very well. And when they do, it is appropriate to create an art work that absolves each and every one of them from guilt, blame and eventually, retribution.

Waltz With Bashir
REVISIONIST REDUX or, Just Another Holocaust movie afterall? You be the judge.

(Bashir Gemayel) who was assassinated by another Christian Maronite in league with Mossad operative Elie Hobeika who confessed or rather, was about to confess a few years back and then he too was murdered (by Mossad). Gemayel was murdered in order to rally the Christian Phalangist Forces against their muslim countrymen and the Palestinians and this in turn led to the Sabra and Shatilla Massacre (anniversary is rapidly approaching in September I believe). That in turn led to the bombing of the US Marine Barracks in 1983 by muslim activists hell bent on justice for the real culprits who were Ronald Reagan, his administration who were in league with Israel. The massacre is depicted in the Oscar Nominated movie as something that happened and the Jews were "helpless" victims and witnesses to the affair.

The movie is animated most brilliantly. Problem is and even Israeli journalists and viewers agree, it was up for an award while yet another Israeli atrocity was taking place as the grossly negligent creator of the movie stood up to accept his prizes and didn't mention a thing about the war being waged on the people in Gaza. Shame upon shame, hypocrit extraordinaire!






Most recently, Israel assassinated another leader.....Rafik Hariri and attempted to blame it on the usual suspect (Syria) and when that failed, Israel moved into Lebanon and destroyed all the bridges and murdered somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 people...roughly the same amount killed in this hypocritical movie Waltz With Bashir and roughly a similar amount that were being killed as the movie made it into the awards circle.

Israel failed to instigate a civil war between muslims in Lebanon for the Hariri assassination and suceeded with the Christian Phalangists? Why you might ask.

Hezbollah. That's why.




This movie however needs to be flagged as Pro Zionist Propaganda, no more and no less. I advise people to see it anyway. The animated scenes are wonderful and it provides any viewer REVISIONIST albeit relatively true portrayal of the elements of the massacre. It just fails to point the finger at the right murderers.




Although...I have to give it to the creator on this one....the seed of truth that perhaps he didn't even notice is that psychiatry and dreams...the tools with which he tells his half baked story are the basis of revisionism. In that, he hit the nail right on it's messed up Zionist headspace. Now, my father who shot and killed many people in WWII, NEVER forgot about them. He used to regale us with his tales of woe sans psychoanalysis AND with alcohol. So....this director is preaching to the choir if you ask me....but he can draw pretty good and love that little Jewish kid in the background and depicted as "oh such a nice" middle class Jewish boy doing middle class Jewish things in er.....most likely a home BORROWED from its real owners, a homeless Palestinian family who most likely are buried in the rubble of the Gaza strip.



BEIRUT ASSASSIN LEAVES MARK

The cocks were storm-crowing that morning
after a real long spell of total
environmental darkness. Two broughams sped by.

(In the land of the prophets
the angels speak out-loud,
people pretend not to notice.
Here it is the status quo.)

All the clocks whirred with quick sighs
and at sunset the clouds were full of the dust

from extinct volcanoes.
On the beach loversbodies were kissing

each other while long lost birds
perched in the Cedars up north
and sang their common song of return.
On the Corniche, people brought

valentines, coffee and cardammon
from every shop on Hamra.

Then everything just stopped.

Windows fell
apart

and people ran home, started looking.


Zoom in, zoom out, zoom in, zoom out.


I felt around for my watch to note the time.
School was letting out and I compared JFK,
that unholy day to this one. Must have been similar,

the way we huddled close and locked

all our doors, turned on our TVs .

Human forms felt their way toward the crater

and the same herd of goats crossed my path twice.

Cars hung in the windows of hotels
for months and years on end.
No more luck, no more money, no more beadsmen.
The predictions are keen to usurp everyone
and the last unlucky man born will keep vigil
near a pitcher of water and a set of lost keys,
a tape recorder will produce the truth.
Airports fell first and then the invasions,
a graveyard was blown into the sky

and the dairies all went dry
but it does take some time, perhaps forever.


The poor remained indifferent.

One man was found two weeks later in the rubble,
pointing in one direction, holding his cell.
No one called out the dogs because it is said
the canines ate the corpses in Sabra and Shatilla.

I wonder.. to whom was he speaking,
where was he pointing?





















Real photos of the massacre

Qana MassacreS ONE and TWO
Stevensian

..article by Helen Vendler

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/books/review/Vendler-t.html?_r=1

"Stevens said many beautiful and significant things about poetry in his prose. In his remarks, at 72, on receiving the Gold Medal from the Poetry Society of America, he spoke of the spirit of poetry as a companion of the conscience, and the poem as a faithful act of conscience: “Individual poets, whatever their imperfections may be, are driven all their lives by that inner companion of the conscience which is, after all, the genius of poetry in their hearts and minds. I speak of a companion of the conscience because to every faithful poet, the faithful poem is an act of conscience.”

21.8.09

TheNewCafe.Currents.Are former astronauts starting to crack up?

[29.67] Do they not see that We have made a sacred territory secure, while men are carried off by force from around them? Will they still believe in the falsehood and disbelieve in the favour of Allah? -The Spider in the Glorious Qu'ran

Which soon influenced
the way institutions fuctioned,
the halls that smell of urine and cigarettes.
we support
we believe
we encourage
the planet.
We listen carefully and appreciate
what is true
about all points of view,
without demanding complete agreement.
Sharing facts, feelings, and opinions
enables us to better understand reality.
Is this true? i really need some evidence
from the hadiths or Quran.
This also means learning the rules
of tahara, ie wudu, ghusl, tayamum and their conditions.
America Alone: The End of the World
As We Know It, a New York Times bestseller.
Perhaps you should try posting your thoughts there?

(Please no lecture about marital rape happening
in the non-Muslim
world as well – we all know that
it happens, though I haven’t heard
it justified on religious grounds elsewhere rightly or wrongly
based on the “word of God”.



PHLEBAS the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,

Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell

And the profit and loss.

A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell

He passed the stages of his age and youth

Entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew

O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,

Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

"We have just learned that a number
of Israeli peace activists have
had their computers confiscated,
have been called for interrogations,
and have only been released


This is a thought crime,
but only when linked to another crime.
There was reference to antisemitism
as the 'hate crime' which is key.
The comments on that article are
amusing, deranged and bigoted but amusing.
The last substantial work on the barrier,
a network of fences andconcrete walls
flanked by a military patrol road,
was finished
Some stores
have lists of serial numbers they reject,
usually it is the first 2 alpha characters that they focus on.

The arms of a galaxy are not arcs of a circle.
Unlike the arc of a circle, the change
in direction is not constant
in one of these arms as you proceed
from one point along the arm to another.
The change in direction is constant
as you proceed along the arc of a circle
per Richard Clark, UFO enthusiast.