Sunday, January 21, 2007

For Pete from NYC, Robert Hershon's poem Ichabod

Responding to Pete's comment here.

I seem to recall a poem you published once (in email I think, not in the literary sense) that ended something like 'the shitheads that run the show.' Always like that one. How about reprise? --Posted by Pete to all this is that at 1/21/2007 07:03:23 PM

Alas, it wasn't mine, but the poem of Robert Hershon, a guy we knew in NYC, a poet, publisher, and editor. He has published over 10 books of his own poems, and through his press, Hanging Loose, published hundreds of other folks. Hershon's Hanging Loose does two incredible things: 1) They never ever let a book go out of print; and 2) Their literary magazine always includes the works of fledgling poets (high school students). Bob writes some of the most trenchant and funny poetry I have ever read. This particular poem was written at least 20 years ago, but it might very well have been written about the current Presidential Administration. Here is his poem Ichabod.


Ichabod

Everyone's first name means
Beloved of the Lord
or Bearer of Glad Tidings
or Valiant in Battle

except Ichabod
which means The Glory
has Departed

and must be considered
the name for the future
along with The Liar is Thriving
Unbearable Cruelty and
The Shitheads are Running the Show

- Robert Hershon

---o0o---

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Index to Jack Brummet poems on All This Is That

The I-ching poems (18-28 are new):

Changes One/Action
Changes Two/The Receptive
Changes Three/Trouble Ahead
Changes Four/The Young Shoot
Changes Five/The waiting
Changes Six/Conflict
Changes Seven/The Army
Changes Eight/Holding Together
Changes Nine/The taming power of the small
Changes Ten/treading
Changes Eleven/Peace
Changes twelve/standing still
Changes 13/Fellowship
Changes 14/Possession
Changes 15/The Armies Of The Night
Changes 16/Enthusiasm, or, the king begins to falter
Changes 17/Following
Changes 18/Fixing what has spoiled
Changes 19/The Approach
Changes 20/Contemplation
Changes 21/Biting Through
Changes 22/Grace
Changes 23/Splitting Apart
Changes 24/The Turning Point (for S.A.D.)
Changes 25/The Unexpected
Changes 26/The Taming Power of the Great
Poem: Changes 27/Taking Care
Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great

New Poems (i-ching poems 18-28 are also new):

Poem: 3 A.M.

I'm agnostic about atheism

Snow Day In Kirkland, Washington

Squirrel poem

Going Mad Might Be Like A Bad Eight Track Tape Deck

Fall Haiku

Jericho & How Joshua Caused The Walls To Come Tumbling Down

The Orgy In The Pantry (starring Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, Pilsbury Dough Boy, Aunt Jemima, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and more)

Poem:With Or Without The Words

Hello. . .My poem is. . .

_____________________________

Previous poems:

You Gather Your Friends
The Way We Were
Scarred for life
The White Flag
The Cover-up
The Good German
Dream Of The Grey
Torches & Pitchforks
The Red Flag
Don't look back
The Tenth Planet (Or An Incredible Facsimile?)
Anger management is a slippery slope
the vault
The Moon's In Tune
Another politician resigns in disrace
Changes Nine/The taming power of the small
Rub-a-dub
Tendrils
The Candidate
Reds
Making Room
The revolt in heaven
Found Poem: The Richmond Hill Oracle Poem (and painting): The Robot Wars
I don't believe I'm here
Ten ways of looking at lies
The Broken Chord
With our heads in the sand during the transit and eclipse
the sun plays its red song
Litany
Poem: The Developers
A raindrop's life
The mystery of the first amendment to the Ten Commandments
The Bay Of Delusion
Mad Song
Reasons To Keep On
Conspiracy Theory The Moon Race
Mr. Flue's Grave In Hillcrest Cemetary, Kent, Wash.
The World Seems Especially Calming And Verisimilitudinous Today
Kent, Washington
Rollover
[It's the Lee Harvey Oswald smile]
Zombie Breakdown
Heaven
The Variations
You Rehearse Dying
Sonnet For Hari
Defensive Daydreaming
The Dream
Dogpaddling
The Prostethic Head & The Absence Of Blood
Tetuan - "No Paranoia, My Friend"
The Grey Visitors & Painting:
The Grey Ambassador
The Bad Movie
The Bucket
The Man In The Mirror
Liftoff
Optimism
Perspective A Flight Of Swallows
Audioblog - The Prevaricator
Weather Report
Your Wooden Leg
The Revelations Sermon At The First Church Of The Mojo Apocalypse
Dosvidaniya, Ivan Ivanovitch The Late Excavation (Text And Audio)
Jack Kerouac, Meet John Barleycorn
The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand
At The Acropolis
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
The sous-chef is a sociopath]
James Wright
Falling
[Life Is Not A Hardy Novel]
Seven
Coyote Comes Home Like A Salmon
Shorts For Jerry Melin ca. about 1988
Bird
Monism
The Golden Rule
The Countdown
When Aliens Land, Or, The Return Of The King
AT HILLCREST CEMETARY IN KENT, WASHINGTON, I WALK BY THE GRAVE OF SAM THE GRASSEATER
Notes On Flying
Daybreak
Explosions
Not Past Tense Yet
the glass is not half-full
It's Getting Crowded Here
Li Po In Disgrace
The Clock
A Love Song
Bad Timing
The Killer
The Absence of Footprints Growing Up
Gone Fishing
The M.D.s
A Poem - Acrylic
The Marriage
Driving Home To Seattle, We Watch Deer Drinking from the Skookumchuck River
---o0o---

Friday, January 19, 2007

Poem: Changes 26/The Taming Power of the Great



A good horse
Follows the others
Because they have somewhere to go

It furthers one
To cross the great water
Because Heaven lies within

Heaven lies
Nestled deep within
The windswept snowcapped mountain
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 25/The Unexpected

If someone is not as he should be
He develops
The reverse Midas Touch

Under heaven
Thunder rolls
Thus the old kings

Fostered everything
With a heartbeat
We cannot lose

What really belongs to us
Even when we throw it away
The gathering winds

Blow through my heart
Reverberating in the echo chamber
Of regret.
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 97—Air Force Colonel Sees A UFO In Arkansas


photo by Col. Brian Fields - click to enlarge. The yellow lights in a
triangle were seen on Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights
are from a local radio tower


WorldNetDaily.com has reported a retired Air Force Colonel, Brian Fields, spotted a UFO in Arkansas last week. This UFO sighting follows closely on the heels of the very recent Chicago sightings.

"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," Col. Brian Fields told World Net Daily. "I have no idea what they were."

Just before 7 p.m., on January 9th, he saw two bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.

"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."

Fields' wife thought the lights may have been ground-based, but Fields says he's certain they were airborne. The retired colonel spent close to 32 years in the military, flying F-16s as a member of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard.

"I'm certain it wasn't an aircraft [from Earth]," said Fields. "
Click here to read the entire story on WorldNetDaily.com.
———o0o———

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great



1
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point
The wood is stout
At the center of gravity

But the pressure
Is at the margins
You cannot change the pine

Because it is what it is
So you must change
The triggering condition

But you
Are not
God

2
The lake rises
Over the treetops
Caution 'though it seems exaggerated

Is no mistake
The enterprise cannot succeed
Without caution

In laying the foundation
And bracing
The ridgepole

3
You must go through the water
Even when it goes over your head
Even when you surrender life

So goodness
And the right prevail
There are things more important

Than life
Or so they say
But I can't think of what they might be.
---o0o---

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Is this cool or what? 4D scanning...


Triplets: in utero

A new, highly developed form of ultrasound is allowing us to see things we've never seen before. The fascinating article, with picture gallery is here.
---o0o---

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The majority of women are now living without a spouse



According to a New York Times analysis of census results, in 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

"In 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

"Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom. "

As Aimee Mann wrote:

"You fucked it up
You should've quit
Till circumstances
Had changed a bit

You fucked it up
You jumped the gun
I swore you off but
You climbed back on

And when you said
Of course you know
Could I be blamed
If I'd wished it so
I don't think so."

---o0o---

Monday, January 15, 2007

The C.I.A. and the creation of Osama bin Laden

The illuminati conspiracy archive recently published a fascinating article by Norm Dixon on how the C.I.A. created Osama bin Laden, and his nefarious operations.

“Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are on the defensive — on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the political and economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man — in the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters.”

Is this statement from a bin Laden fatwa, or from the Taliban? Not so much. This encomium of the terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban stooges was uttered by President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985. The “evil empire” was, of course, the Soviet Union, and other Third World groups fighting US-sanctioned colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship. . .in the third world.



We created the monster and we engendered the toxic fundamentalist theology that lead to the war in Iraq, the savage deaths of thousand of Americans, and has us waiting for the other shoe to drop. As horrorific as 9/11 was, it was just a ride on the tilt-a-whirl compared to what might happen next.
---o0o---

Sunday, January 14, 2007

President Bush's secret plan to go down in the history books revealed

In the spring of 2006, President Bush came up with a plan to salvage his presidency in the history books. Phil Ronson of the All This Is That National Affairs Desk in Washington, (1580 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003), was informed earlier in the week of White House conversations that have apparently guided Administration policy for the last year.

A highly placed Administration aide told Ronson that the President told a group of advisors that if he couldn't be remembered as one of the great Presidents, at least he might be remembered as the worst. "OK, so things haven't exactly gone according to plan," he told the meeting of political aides, "well then we might as well be remembered as the worst." Two other White House personnel independently confirmed the tenor of that meeting.

"We'll give Grant, Harding, and Nixon a run for their money," President Bush said. "By the time I'm through, people will barely even remember those c***suckers!"



According to the leaker, White House staffers all agree the plan seems to be quite successful.
---o0o---

Photograph: The Mannequin Factory


. . .click photograph to enlarge. . .
---o0o---