Ed Coletti's P3

Stop Raising Tuitions/Vartnaw New Laureate/Beckman Poem/Edelen & The Virtue of NonBelief

2011-12-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

(P1) Political

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(P2) Poetical

Bill Vartnaw: Seventh Sonoma County Poet Laureate

Congratulations friend, Bill Vartnaw upon your selection and for following in the line of laureates including Don Emblen, David Bromige, Terry Ehret, Geri DiGiorno, Mike Tuggle, and Gwynn O'Gara.

Here is Bill's poem "Tree. Stands. Out." which leads off his fine book In Concern: for Angels (Taurean Horn, 1984)

Tree. Stands. Out.
Conversant with the mind
of light. & its shifting interference—
in motion, winding:
like a splash. Firmly rooted?
So it seems . . .
Tree, a master of disguises
spins dervishlike. In synch
with times, familiar—
& throughout simultaneous existence,
to provide consistency. The ground
is not so solid & is no anchor.
We have always dug our treasure
inside-out. Tree is no exception.

from In Concern: for Angels

Bill Varnaw

Petaluma poet Bill Vartnaw established Taurean Horn Press in San Francisco following the Bay Area Poets Coalition's Summer Solstice Festival in 1974. Besides In Concern: for Angels (1984), he has also published Suburbs of my Childhood (2009, Beatitude Press), Postcards (2009, Round Barn Press) & Finnish-American Poetry with Rauhala, Vartnaw, Hagelberg (2010, UFKB&S).

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Here is a David Beckman poem which appears in the 2011 Marin Poetry Center Anthology

November Behind the Flamingo Hotel

Autumn comes inebriate,

dirty dancing on cankered feet,

leaving two dead leaves,

Aristophanes’ lost other halves

unraked and wrinkled

by the covered pool

-- David Beckman

(P3 Philosophical

- Toward the Mystery - http://williamedelen.org -

Atheists and agnostics

Posted By Bill On Nov 20, 11 @ 2:00 am In Weekly Column | Comments Disabled

The senior George Bush, when he was president, said, “I do not consider atheists to be American citizens.” From there his historical ignorance went downhill.

I recently read an article in the LA Times that made me want to scream with anger at the arrogant stupidity of the Christian chaplains in the military. Capt Ryan Jean, of the U.S. Army, wrote on his form about “religious preference” that he was a atheist. He was immediately called into the office of the head chaplain and scolded about his lack of “faith” and was told that if he did not get right “with God” he was a “worthless” individual. And that if he did not believe in Jesus he was a disgrace to his uniform, as this U.S. Army was GOD’S Army”. This militant ignorance of the chaplain was not unusual, but was a common theme. I know, for I was in the Marine Corps for twelve years and exposed to this religious quackery among Navy chaplains.

When the political right wing mentality pronounces loudly that, “There are no atheists in fox holes” they are so full of bull manure it would be impossible to dig through it. For the twelve years I flew as a Marine Corps pilot I knew MANY, that is MANY Marines who were atheists.

An atheist says flatly there are no Gods or a God. An agnostic just says, “I don’t know… nobody does… it’s not an issue.” A mystic believes, as I do, that some energy is at work on a cosmic level, some “Mystery” (as Einstein put it), “something unknown doing we know not what” as the Nobel physicist Eddington wrote so eloquently. Many of the most profound thinkers of history have been included in one of these three categories. But, make no mistake, the “Mystery” of the mystics is NOT a God, out there, nor in Deism is there a “God” out there.

As Ernest Hemingway once wrote: “All thinking human beings are atheists.” A Rabbi that was on the staff with me in the Department of Religion at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, told me that most of the Rabbis he knew were really atheists who supported Hebrew cultural positions, without God. Rabbi Wine of Detroit started a congregation of Humanistic Jews where the word God or belief in a God were taken out of all the liturgy.

Winston Churchill once observed, “Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its virtues being extolled. But some people’s idea of free speech is that THEY are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything BACK, that is an outrage.”

The Greek word “a-theos,” means “one who denies the existence of any god.” Ancient Christian theologians thought that atheism denied belief in God, and also belief in devils. Oriental thinkers were less simplistic about it. The more advanced sages taught that non-belief was more “religious” than belief and that atheism can make better human beings than faith can make. The sages said that non-belief can be as profoundly spiritual as theism, for the essence of religion, or spirituality, lies in the EXPERIENCE, and not in any BELIEF at all. And that all so-called religious beliefs or doctrines are merely theories about the religious, or spiritual experience.

The only religious traditions that actually believe in an anthropomorphic “God” “out there” as divine window-peeker, are Islam, parts of Judaism, and Christianity. Every other tradition would be considered atheistic, by those three, including the American Indian, Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, classical Hinduism and on through all the others.

Some observations:

“The total absence of humor from the bible is one of the most singular things in all of literature.” Alfred North Whitehead

“An atheist is a guy who watches a Notre Dame football game and doesn’t care who wins.” Dwight Eisenhower

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” Mark Twain

“Our Christianity is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could sail in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilt.” Mark Twain

“If Jesus were here now, there is one thing he would never be, and that is a Christian.” Mark Twain

For more than 25 years, the beloved Senior Minister of the famed City Temple of London (Methodist) was Leslie Weatherhead. His books have sold and been read by millions. In the Christian Agnostic he opens with this: “Not for much longer will the world put up with the lies, the distortions and the superstitions with which the simple message of Jesus has been overlaid, with creeds, doctrines and ceremonies to such a degree that any original thoughts have been lost ages ago.” Then he goes on to say that any minister standing in a pulpit who is NOT AN AGNOSTIC is dangerous. Why is he dangerous? Because “he pretends to have answers he does not have. He lives in the 20th century parroting back a third century biblical mentality, as though nothing had been learned, thought, or discovered in the last 1700 years.”

The key to Renaissance thought is the questioning spirit and the willingness to entertain doubt (agnosticism) with Atheism, Deism and Mysticism. I have no use for any religion that does not liberate the human mind to ask great questions. I am appalled by any religion that pretends to have firm, final and absolute answers.

That giant thinker Robert Ingersoll gives us our final word:

“If a man today would follow the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal.
If he would strictly follow the teachings of the New Testament, he would be insane.”

Article printed from Toward the Mystery: http://williamedelen.org

URL to article: http://williamedelen.org/archives/2923

Santa Rosa Colors/The Real "This Land is Your Land"/Steve Jobs on Death/

2011-11-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

Beautiful Colors struck me in this Nov. 2 photo of the tent village at Occupy Santa Rosa

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(P2) Political

Protest Also Is Patriotic (but what happened to Woody's words?)
Note the missing ones in blue!

This Land Is Your Land
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

Steve Jobs On Living "The Final Day"

Here is that portion, most inspiring to me, from Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement address to the graduating class at Stanford

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, some day you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7.30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumour on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for "prepare to die". It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumour. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful, but purely intellectual, concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but some day not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

** This breaks the first rule of contemporary American culture – never talk about death. Work out, lose weight, don't smoke, eat carefully. It's a wonderful, liberating break from that infantile, stultifying convention. One wonders if it made his audience shift nervously in their seats. **

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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Bianca with Barrack/Ehret on Poets vs Fascism/DiStasi/Philosophy Cartoon/

2011-09-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

(P1) Political

President Obama and My Grandniece Bianca Ashong

Exclusive: From my (Ed Coletti's) niece, Lucia Brawley September 16, 2011

Bianca and I went to see the President speak in Alexandria at an amazing high school with formidable students, some of whom hold their own patents. He signed the Patent Reform Act into law. He spoke about the youth present as the future and then gave Bianca a special shout out: "And this little guy, too!" Later, she got to meet him and I told him that her dad and I had met on his last campaign. He noted pointing at her lovely Afro locks, "I used to have the same hair!"

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Get the Money Out of Politics

Please consider signing this petition toward a constitutional amendment with the following wording

"No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office."

(P2) Philosophical

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(P3) Poetical

Bay Area Poet Terry Ehret contributes this terrific prose poem upon the occasion of 100 Thousand Poets For Change Day - September 24, 2011.

How Fascism Will Come

“When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

—attributed to Sinclair Lewis

When fascism comes, it will greet us with a smile. It will get down on its knees to pray. It will praise Main Street and Wall Street. It will cheer for the home team. It will clap from the bleachers when the uninsured are left to die on the street. It will rally on the Washington Mall. It will raise monuments to its heroes and weep for them and place bouquets at their stone feet and trace with their fingers the names engraved on the granite wall and go on sending soldiers to die in the mountains of Afghanistan, in the deserts of Iraq. It will send doves to pluck out the eyes of its enemies, having no hawks to spare.

When fascism comes, it will sit down for tea with the governor of Texas. It will pee in the mosques from California to Tennessee, chanting, “Wake up America, the enemy is here.” It will sing the anthems of corporatization, privatization, demonization, monopolization. It will be interviewed, lovingly, on talk radio. It’ll have talking points and a Facebook page and a disdain for big words or hard consonants. It won’t bother to read. It will shred all its books. It will lambast the teachers and outlaw the unions.

When fascism comes, it will look good. It will have big hair, pressed suits, lapel pins. It will control all the channels. It will ride in on Swift Boats. It will sit on the Supreme Court. It will court us with fear. It will woo us with hope. When fascism comes, it will sell shares of itself on the stock market. It will get rich, then it will get obscenely rich, then it will stop paying taxes. It will leave us in the dust. It will kick our ass. It won’t have to break a sweat to fool us twice. It will be too big to fail.

When fascism comes to America, it will enter on the winds of our silence and indifference and complacency. And on that day, one hundred thousand poets will gather. In book stores and libraries, bars and cafes, in their houses and apartments, in schools and on street corners, they will gather. In Albania, Bangladesh, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Macedonia, Malawi, Qatar, crying, laughing, screaming. They will wrap the sad music of humanity in bits of word cloth and hang them, like prayers, on the tree of life.

Terry Ehret

September 23, 2011

Note: This poem is woven with images and fragments of rants and blogs and online articles I found when I googled the Sinclair Lewis quote. These appear in Italics.

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Ed Coletti's latest collection of poems When Hearts Outlive Minds now available at Amazon.

Nice From Lawrence DiStasi

Ed Coletti is a poet from Santa Rosa (originally New York) who has run two poetry-reading series, SoCoCo and Poetry Azul there. Like most poets, his life has varied widely from service in Vietnam to the Summer of Love in San Francisco to advanced degrees at SF State and Sonoma State to teaching to publishing to counseling. These days he also derives great enjoyment from painting—samples of which can be seen on www.flickr.com/photos/edcolettipaintings.

In this collection of his poetry, Coletti tends to concentrate on elegy, probably because the book is shot through with memories of his father’s decline and death. The poems are contemplative but not heavy, sad but not saddening as they mull over the inevitable passage of time, our power and us with a lightness of touch that reminds in some ways of his paintings. Coletti’s is a way of thinking and writing that can lament loss while simultaneously reminding us of its defining role in the rhythm of life. Here, for one example, is the poem, “Befriending Death.”

As with death himself
I too sit close
to my father—
death all too close
I breathe hot to his cold
jealous we must share
my father, me exhaling,
death inhaling
No contest,
just a rhythm

Coletti also runs two blogs: http://edcolettip3.blogspot.com., and his ‘No Money in Poetry’ blog. Worth checking out.

Lawrence DiStasi

Lawrence DiStasi is an editor, writer, and instructor at UC Berkeley Extension’s Fall Freshman Program and has been the project director of the traveling exhibit Una Storia Segreta: When Italian Americans Were ‘Enemy Aliens’, since 1994. He is author of Mal Occhio: The Underside of Vision (North Point Press, 1981) and Dream Streets: The Big Book of Italian American Culture (Harper & Row, 1989). He is president of the American Italian Historical Association’s Western Regional Chapter.

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Bizarro/Maria de los Angeles/Bill Edelen/Happy 20th Joyce & Eddie/Honest Abe/

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

Maria de Los Angeles Art

Maria just finished one year at the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York (with all A's in her courses). She is definitely on her way to becoming a significant artist, surely, one to watch. This young artist is self-sustaining, working many jobs during her enrollment. She needs additional funds for the next semester. See her Gallery here, and then contact Maria at either mdelosangeles88@gmail.com or delosangelesfineart@yahoo.com

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(P2) Philosophical

Why Bill Edelen Lost His Gigs (sad, intriguing, & all-too-true)

Have I ever mentioned that Bill Edelen (center) married Joyce and me on August 10th, 1991? Yes twenty years!

Censorship by Omission

Posted By Bill On Jul 10, 11 @ 3:00 am In Weekly Column

We get all hot and sweaty about censoring movies… music… literature… pornography and language and yet about one of the most important issues in our past history, the religion of our Founding Presidents, censorship is everywhere with the media, literature, teachers and other mediums of communication. I call it CENSORSHIP BY OMISSION, where by silence, religious and historical ignorance and illiteracy is promoted. Why, this silence? As one editor told me: “because it would offend the Christian community among our subscribers.” Even though factual and accurate history, it would offend them.

It reminds me of one of the most brilliant observations of H.L Mencken, the pre-eminent columnist, known as the “sage of Baltimore,” as he wrote for the “Baltimore Sun.” He wrote: “The most curious social convention of the age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.”

For over 40 years I have been living with this weird and psychotic omission mentality. The mentality that says, “oh my… we cannot tell the Christians that our first six Presidents were NOT Christian, but DEISTS.” Even though it is in the Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as in quotes from their own mouths and writings, we cannot print that for it would offend the TRUE BELIEVING Christians, even though everything they believe on this subject is wrong. Censorship by Omission.

Let me bring this subject down to my actual experiences of over 40 years in order to give you more vivid examples.

I have been writing for a dozen major newspapers in the Western U.S. and in EVERY paper, members of the Christian community, the nut cases, have done all in their power to get the column cancelled. (Read full article here).

(P3) Political

Flashback to a February 21, 2007 P3

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray,
that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years
of unrequited toil shall be sunk,
and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword,
as was said three thousand years ago,
so still it must be said
"the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in,
to bind up the nation's wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the battle
and for his widow and his orphan,
to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

- Abraham Lincoln
(from his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865

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One More Shot At Climate Change/More On The Rapture/Hamlet On War/Catherine Sevenau Poem/

2011-07-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

- Martin Luther King

(P1) Political

Uh Oh!

Y0u know what? Perhaps what I've been saying is true, that folks don't like to read about changes in the weather, rising of the seas, melting of the ice caps, and all such macabre stuff. So maybe I should stop writing about it and calling for responses about the inevitable. After all, no one really likes "Chicken Little." But how about one more shot at it by way of the United Nations' top climate official Christiana Figueres ?

Tom Zeller Jr.
Tom Zeller Jr. tzeller@huffingtonpost.com

Prospects For Reaching CO2 Benchmark And Curbing Global Warming Grow Dimmer

First Posted: 06/ 3/11 08:52 AM ET Updated: 06/ 3/11 10:01 AM ET
React

United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres is calling for world leaders to aim for an even lower threshold for rising global average temperatures, even as new figures suggest that the prospects for preventing temperatures from rising beyond a key benchmark grew dimmer in 2010.

According to estimates released this week by the International Energy Agency, global emissions of energy-related carbon dioxide in 2010 were the highest ever measured at 30.6 gigatonnes -- a 5 percent jump over the previous record year of 2008.

The increase follows a decline in global emissions in 2009 that accompanied the economic downturn.

The sizable leap in emissions suggests that limiting rising average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) -- a threshold that many scientists believe is crucial for preventing runaway and irreversible impacts of climate change -- will be an increasingly elusive goal.

As the IEA explained:

For this goal to be achieved, the long-term concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere must be limited to around 450 parts per million of CO2-equivalent, only a 5 percent increase compared to an estimated 430 parts per million in 2000.

The IEA’s 2010 World Energy Outlook set out the 450 Scenario, an energy pathway consistent with achieving this goal, based on the emissions targets countries have agreed to reach by 2020. For this pathway to be achieved, global energy-related emissions in 2020 must not be greater than 32 [gigatonnes].

For all this math to work out, and for temperatures to keep below the 2-degree Celsius threshold, global energy-related emissions would have to rise less over the next decade than they did over just the last year, according to the IEA.

"Our latest estimates are another wake-up call," said Dr. Fatih Birol, a chief economist at the IEA, in a published statement. "The world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 if the 2-degree Celsius target is to be attained. Given the shrinking room for maneuver in 2020, unless bold and decisive decisions are made very soon, it will be extremely challenging to succeed in achieving this global goal."

The Copenhagen Accord reached in 2009 was the first time that countries involved in global climate talks informally agreed to a goal of limiting rising temperatures to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.

That benchmark was reiterated and placed on a timeline for review at talks in Cancun, Mexico, in December. Some nations, particularly those vulnerable to rising seas, believe even that amount of warming could result in catastrophic climatic changes, with attendant floods, food shortages and other impacts, over the next century.

Speaking at a carbon conference in Barcelona on Wednesday, Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, suggested that the 2-degree benchmark might be too high.

"Two degrees is not enough – we should be thinking of 1.5C," she was quoted as saying by the Guardian. "If we are not headed to 1.5 we are in big, big trouble."

The notion that the opportunity to contain an average temperature increase below a 2-degree Celsius threshold may have already passed is not a new one. Several studies suggest that without some sort of collective action, global temperatures are likely to rise well beyond 2 degrees.

On a per capita basis, most emissions continue to come from the developed world. But the fastest growth in new emissions is coming -- and will continue to come -- from furious economic expansion in the developing world, chiefly in China and India. Without some sort of global incentive structure that would encourage developing nations to forego fossil fuels as they expand their economies, there is increasing pessimism that targets like the 2-degrees Celsius benchmark will prove anything beyond symbolic.

The majority of the energy-related CO2 emissions last year -- 44 percent -- came from from coal, while 36 percent arose from from oil and 20 percent from natural gas, according to the IEA.

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(P2) Philosophical

After and Before and After The Apocalypse Again

So Harold Camping, "bewildered" at blowing another of his end-of-the-world-rapture predictions has set his newest date which is October 21st. That gives me reason here to publish David Madgalene's dad's right-on-the-money piece titled

Christ Comes To California

by David J. Randolph ©2011
More at newwaymediafest@blogspot.com

Christ is coming tomorrow, according to a neighbor in Oakland.
So I went over to check it out.
He was already there.
He stretched out his hungry hand to me on San Pablo Avenue.
She said she was thirsty and asked me to buy her a drink.
He spoke to me in a strange language I couldn’t understand at the airport.
She was rummaging through the clothes bin at Goodwill.
He was in the back seat of the police car going to jail.

I said, this can’t be you. Like this is gold, Jesus .
Where’s the televison crew?

He said, “Do you think that any of these people are going to appear
On the news or talk shows? Let alone American Idol?

But whenever you feed someone who’s hungry and provide water for the
thirsty,
Or welcome a stranger, or help clothe the naked or visit a prisoner,
And support others who do,
I am there.”

So maybe my neighbor is right about the day and wrong about the end.
Like every day Christ comes
and the end is not about blowing up but growing up
and caring for one another.

I reached out my hand
And felt the rapture.

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(P3) Poetical

Ed Coletti's latest collection of poems When Hearts Outlive Minds now available at Amazon.

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Hamlet On War

The imminent death of twenty thousand men,

That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,

Which is not tomb enough and continent

To hide the slain? (Act 4 Scene 4)

Great-Grandfather Isaac Willard Chatfield 1836-1921 /
Civil War Photo 1861: 2nd Lt., Illinois Infantry

LINEAGES

by Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau

I am.

I am from

Leinen and Nigon,

from Chamberlin and Hoy.

I am from Clemens and Chatfield,

from Surdam, Sumner, Smith, Shade, Mastick and Tomlinson too.

From Matthew, Isaac, Finley and Charles. From Barbara, Eliza, Emily and Nellie.

I am from soldiers who fought for the Union and from a nurse who tended them.

From singers, shopkeepers and teachers, from miners, writers and preachers.

From wagon trains and railroads. From hard work and harder lives.

I am from cattle ranches and farmlands, from sowing and plowing and reaping.

I am from whiskey and ale, from betting and bad odds—and from the fall-out of it all.

I am from Noreen and Carl who were like sin and prayer.

What ever in the world made those two think they could stay together?

I am from bad kidneys, bad backs and bad eyes. And bad blood.

I am from dime stores and small towns.

I am from one-pot meals. From white beans, white bread and white rice.

I am from sweet peas, green peas and green tea.

I am from holy water and rosaries, from Hail Mary and Our Father, from mea culpa.

I am from Little Women and Nancy Drew, from I’m a Little Teapot and the Hokey Pokey.

From pop-beads, pee-wees, paper dolls, pick-up-stix, skate keys, comic books and jacks.

From coin collections and stamp collections and collections of cobalt blue glass bottles.

I am from a long line of sharp-tongued women.

From list makers, rule makers and rule breakers—from umbrage and resentment.

From complaining, carping, and keeping score. From they don’t speak… we don’t speak…

Sometimes it seems impossible for me to do it differently, to break this invidious pattern of ours.

And sometimes it is easier to not even try.

I am from good intentions and unattended sorrows. From courage and hope. And grace.

I am from extended arms, extended kindness and extended family. I am grateful.

I am from a company of strangers—this family—of it, but not in it,

watching from the sidelines, taking notes, sifting through

our story and writing down our history, wondering

what directs us, what pokes us and prods us

and has us be who we are, questioning

how I fit into the whole catastrophe,

and, at the end of the day—

knowing I belong.

I am they.

I am me.

I am.

The Climate is Serious "Business"/ The Art of Negotiation/New Ed Coletti Book/Dangerous Phrase Contest/Timpano

2011-05-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

(P1)Philosophical

New "Dangerous Phrase" Contest

American ExceptionalismRichard Cohen (May 10, 2010)

Our first entry in the Dangerous Phrase Contest is from Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen (hit link above for full article)

"...the culture of smugness. The emblem of this culture is the term 'American exceptionalism.' It has been adopted by the right to meant that America, alone among the nations, is beloved of God.

"...Therein lies the danger of American exceptionalism. It discourages compromise, for what God has made exeptional, man must not alter. And yet clearly America must change fundamentally or continue to decline. It could begin by junking a phrase that reeks of arrogance and discourages compromise. American exceptionalism ought to be called American narcissism. We look perfect only to ourselves."

I encourage you to read the full Cohen column (see link above) for examples both of American greatness and decline. ALSO, IT'S NOW YOUR TURN TO CONTRIBUTE THE NEXT "DANGEROUS PHRASE."

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(P2)Political

(art by Jim Spitzer)

I grow increasingly concerned that many of us are refusing to read articles like this one. My reason is that I've published numerous such over the years, even ones demonstrating that, while the past administration openly denied climate change, they actively warned business (particularly insurance companies) to prepare for impending losses as the result of climate change - just go back in the P3 archives. BUT, I've never received a single response on this subject from any of you P3 readers. What do you think? Even I am tempted to burrow deeply into the sand and try not to believe that we are in such danger. When I do this, I am very very wrong. Let's get dialog going. Say something on the subject. Please. Thanks, Ed Coletti

A Cost of Denying Climate Change:
Accelerating Climate Disruptions, Death, and Destruction
by Peter Glieck, Water and climate scientist and President, Pacific Institute - April 28, 2011

Violent tornadoes throughout the southeastern U.S. must be a front-page reminder that no matter how successful climate deniers are in confusing the public or delaying action on climate change in Congress or globally, the science is clear: Our climate is worsening.

More extreme and violent climate is a direct consequence of human-caused climate change (whether or not we can determine if these particular tornado outbreaks were caused or worsened by climate change). There is a reason it isn't called global warming anymore. Higher temperatures are only one -- and not the most worrisome -- of the consequences of a changing climate.

Climate science tells us unambiguously that we are changing the climate and trapping more energy on the planet. Trapping more energy will cause more extreme events and worsen extreme events that would otherwise happen.

In the climate community, we call this "loading the dice." Rolling loaded dice weighted toward more extreme and energetic weather means more death and destruction. And it is only going to get worse and worse, faster and faster, the longer our politicians dither and delay and deny. Climate deniers who have stymied action in Congress and confused the public -- like the tobacco industry did before them -- need to be held accountable for their systematic misrepresentation of the science, their misuse and falsification of data, and their trickery.

The conservative (and economically driven) insurance industry understands the reality of data and observations: Munich Re (one of the world's leading reinsurers) has said:

"The only plausible explanation for the rise in weather-related catastrophes is climate change. The view that weather extremes are more frequent and intense due to global warming coincides with the current state of scientific knowledge."

The extreme nature of the ongoing severe weather is well described by Jeff Masters on his Weather Blog. The 3-day total of preliminary tornado reports from this week's outbreak is nearing 300, close to the 323 preliminary tornado reports logged during the massive April 14 - 16 tornado outbreak. That outbreak has 155 confirmed tornadoes so far, making it the largest April tornado outbreak on record.

Of course, tornado outbreaks have occurred before. In 1974 and 1965, collections of tornados killed hundreds of people. But according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, it is unprecedented to have two such massive tornado outbreaks occur so close together. Loading the dice. At least 11 of these tornadoes were killer tornadoes; deaths occurred in six states. (Wikipedia maintains an excellent and growing compilation of historical tornado outbreaks for those interested, and raw data can be obtained from NOAA.) Only two other tornado outbreaks have had as many as 150 twisters -- the May 2004 outbreak (385), and the May 2003 outbreak (401).

And it is not just the devastating tornadoes: parts of the Mississippi River are about to experience record flooding. As spring rain joins with winter snowmelt, a massive pulse of floodwater is moving south. As it joins with the record water levels coming out of the Ohio River it is expected to create the highest flood heights ever recorded on the Mississippi, according to the latest forecasts from the National Weather Service.

Yet while we call this a "1-in-a-100 year" flood event, that term is losing its meaning. The August 1993 flood event was a "1-in-a-500 year" event. Yet in June 2008 there was another such event. Now, three years later, we see another massive flood on the Mississippi, and record floods elsewhere. Loading the dice. As FEMA's director, Craig Fugate, noted in December, "The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year." And that was last year.

The science community knows that we're affecting the climate; in turn, that will affect the weather; and that, in turn, will affect humans: with death, injury, and destruction. There is a cost to tackling climate change, but there is a real, growing, and far larger cost of continuing to deny it.

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(P3) Poetical

by ed coletti

Don Hagelberg
(an appreciation)

just want
you
to know
who may
not know
that poet
Donald
Hagel-
berg is
(Don
ald Hag-
el Berg)
the real deal
is this
Donald
Hagel-
berg who
may not know
he
(Donald Hagelberg)
is
the real
deal.

Veggie Timpano

From my friend Ernie Holden (a la the movie "Big Night"

What the Demos Might Want to Learn About Negotiating

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Halo and Pups/Coletti Poem/Can't Afford a Doctor?/The Best Years of Life/

2011-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

NB. Readers, if you're looking for the new May 11th post, please note that
Blogger has crashed and lost it hopefully temporarily. Please, Please check out this site later today! Thanks and Cheers, Ed Coletti

PS, If the new post has been restored, it will be above this note.

(P1) Poetical

Halo Honig-Guyon and Pups April 20, 2011

Drawing This
by Ed Coletti 2008

No one can afford
THIS
Being made here and now
-Philip Whalen

1.

fading lines
imperfect circles
unfinished people
multicolored water
too few tinted trees
not-blue-enough skies
above exemplary poets
happily painting
permeable poems

2.

frames or stanzas
circles or sounds
colors or metaphors
exhibits or readings
lines or lines
each confirming
nothing

3.

no sense from nonsense
no money nor much fame
silly old spirits
dancing wild motion
bloody butcher paper
morbid lonely nights
myriad crawly visions
unique or fractal flights
steal another moment
question nothing so produced
just give me more of all of
THIS

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(P2) Political

(P3) Philosophical

Study: The "Best Years of Our Lives" Could Be in Our '80's by Michele Travierso Time Magazine

It turns out that, rather than reminisce about the ‘golden age' of youth, we should look forward to turn our grandparents' age to be happy.

There's much more to old age other than fading sight, weaker muscles and a poor short term memory. A number of recent studies indicate that happiness is more easily attained after middle age.

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of living centenarians)

A book by Lewis Wolpert, professor emeritus of biology at University College London, sheds some light on the topic. Called You Are Looking Very Well, the book argues that people are just "averagely happy" in the first third of their lives. That level of contentment declines at mid-life.

"But then, from the mid-forties, people tend to become ever more cheerful and optimistic, perhaps reaching a maximum in their late seventies or eighties", he told the Telegraph.

(More on TIME.com: See the secret to living 100 years)

Several factors are at play, including maturity, diminished responsibilities and the ability to focus on the things that matter rather than chase elusive external goals.

A study by the American National Academy of Sciences has found that the mental state of well-being that we would be prone to associate with youth gradually abandons us as we enter and live through adulthood. It hits rock bottom in the mid-40s. Then, as we've seen, things getter better and our mood would probably peak at the ripe age of 85.

(More on TIME.com: Do we need $75,000 a year to be happy?)

Other research quoted by the article also seems to suggest that some mental faculties do keep on improving with age. Our vocabulary and decision-making skills increase, though we lose math skills.

"Aging is a lot less scary that people are afraid it is," says George Vaillant, 74, curator of the largest longitudinal study on happiness. The study tracked the life of 268 promising young men from their Cambridge years in 1937, and still chugs on today. We sure hope he's right. (via the Telegraph)

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/05/study-the-best-years-of-our-lives-could-be-in-our-eighties/#ixzz1IfJtWYC7

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Feeling For the Cyclops/On History & Truth/Gravity's Rainbow/Larry Robinson/

2011-02-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

(P1) Philosophical

Cyclops Redux

Come on now. How many of us, other than artists like Henry Fuseli, have actually considered the life and feelings of the Cyclops after his encounter with Odysseus? I know that I hadn't. Like the Native American whose experience is changed forever by the white invader, the incredulous Polyphemus not only finds his defenses proved insignificant, he has also lost his hope in vision. All that's left to him is his basic rudimentary "humanity" portrayed so well by Fuseli as the solace provided by an animal friend.

For the first time, I feel deeply most deeply, for Cyclops and even deeper than previously for all people disturbed, uprooted and deprived of sight by myopic invaders, conquerors, occupiers and oppressors.

On History

Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.
-Santayana

What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. -Hegel

On Truth

The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but rather the pursuit of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectibility is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand.

-Gotthold Lessing (1778)

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(P2) Political

Thomas Pynchon On War

It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...secretly, it was being dictated instead by the needs of technology...by a conspiracy between human beings and techniques, by something that needed the energy-burst of war, crying, "Money be damned, the very life of [insert name of Nation] is at stake," but meaning, most likely, "dawn is nearly here, I need my night's blood, my funding, funding, ahh more, more..." The real crises were crises of allocation and priority, not among firms -- it was only staged to look that way -- but among the different Technologies, Plastics, Electronics, Aircraft, and their needs which are understood only by the ruling elite...

- Thomas Pynchon (ostensibly on WWII) in Gravity's Rainbow

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(P3) Poetical

Like a child, I cannot wait for Christmas to put Larry's important message-poem on the P3

A Christmas Carol

Away in a manger

or a crack house

or under a bridge

or in a bombed-out village

or a refugee camp

or in the mesquite shade close to the border wall

some Mary is giving birth.

Even as you read this

a child is being born.

What if one of these were the promised one,

the beacon of hope,

the seed of a new light

in a dark time?

What if they all were?

What gifts would you bring

if you were wise?

- Larry Robinson

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Guns & Peace/Spitzer/Laughter/Mysticism/and Fast Food/

2011-02-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

(P1) Poetical

"3 Creatures" (acrylic by Jim Spitzer for sale, of course)

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(P2) Political

This is the final paragraph of Bob Herbert's New York Times column January 19, 2011 -

We need fewer homicides, fewer accidental deaths and fewer suicides. That means fewer guns. That means stricter licensing and registration, more vigorous background checks and a ban on assault weapons. Start with that. Don't tell me it's too hard to achieve. Just get started. (my emphasis)

and how's this for irony and hypocrisy?

I bought a 2011 wall calendar for my office. The title is "Messages of Peace." The first message looked good

Peace demands more, not less, from a people.

Then I looked under the quote for the author's name...

Richard M. Nixon (!)

...and I was stuck with this for the remainder of January.

From Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat 1-29-11

"Dr. Jerry Minkoff, chief of endocrinology at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, said the average super-sized fast-food meal could have fed a village of Paleolithic homo sapiens 100,000 years ago." Minkoff also observed that we possess the same genes but have mastered overcoming starvation. -- That's for sure!

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(P3) Philosophical

Laughter

(according to Jim Holt in Stop Me If You've Heard This: A history and philosophy of jokes - W W Norton2008)

"A passage in a Bach fugue may fleetingly give you gooseflesh. A line from Yeats might make you tingle a bit, or cause the little hairs on the back of your neck to stand up in appreciation. But there is one kind of aesthetic experience whose outward expression is grossly palpable. It involves the contraction of some fifteen facial muscles, along with the simultaneous stimulation of the muscles of inspiration and those of expiration, which gives rise to a series of respiratory spasms accompanied by a burst of vowel-based notes. Healthful side effects of this experience are believed to include oxygenation of the blood, reduction in stress hormones, and a bolstering of the immune system through heightened T-cell activity. But if the experience is too intense, cataplexy can set in, leading to muscular collapse and possible injury. In rare cases the consequences are graver still. Anthony Trollope suffered a stroke undergoing this experience while reading a now-forgotten Victorian novel, Vice Versa. And, according to tradition, the ancient Greek painter Zeuxis, reacting to the portrait of a hag he had just made, actually died of it.

"What I have been describing is, of course laughter. It is our characteristic response to the aesthetic category of the humorous, the comical, or the funny. This raises an interesting question: What is it about the humorous situation that evokes this response? Why should a certain kind of cerebral activity issue in such a peculiar behavioral reflex, one that serves no obvious evolutionary purpose? As Voltaire mockingly observed in the entry under 'Laughter' in his Dictionaire philosophique, 'Those who know why this kind of joy that kindles laughter should draw the zygomatic muscle back toward the ears are knowing indeed.' "

Later, mentioning Max Beerbohm, Holt discusses "...a parallel with sex. The objective in sexual congress, according to the Marquis de Sade, is to elicit involuntary noisemaking from your partner--which is precisely the objective of humor, even if the nature of the noisemaking is a bit different."

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Mysticism

My friend William Edelen has done it again in his wonderful column. Check this out and go to the link for the full piece.

In this column, I want to think and reflect on a word that is misunderstood by so many. That word is “mysticism.”

What is mysticism? Mysticism is not sitting in a cave contemplating your navel. You can be a “mystic” and be working in the busiest office in downtown Chicago or San Francisco. In fact, it might save you from a lot of high blood pressure and migraine headaches if you were. Mysticism goes back as far as we can trace, in all religious traditions, including Judaism and Christianity. Experience and intuition are the two key words in mysticism. Wisdom, truth, insights are best discovered through intuition and experience. There is an inner knowledge that is not the result of an intellectual process. The mystic does not ignore reason and the intellect but knows that there is a limit to both. Where reason and intellect end, intuition takes over. The mystic goes beyond the obvious and the immediate and realizes that there is something more, something not visible, that there is an invisible world of realities, and truth, that can be discerned only through a leap of intuition.

The mystical orientation, or experience, is always the same, whether Taoist, Hindu, Native American, Buddhist, Christian or what have you. The mystic always points toward the oneness, the wholeness of the universe of which we are only a very small part. The word “God” is only a symbol for that Mystery that saturates and permeates everything in the universe. As the giant 13th century Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, put it: “To watch a child pouring water into a glass is to watch God pouring God into God.” Or again: “Going around looking for God is like sitting on an ox looking for an ox to ride.” Or again: “The dung in the stable and God are One. The flea and God are One. Do you want to see God? Look into a mirror.”

William James, the distinguished psychologist wrote: “The mystic has insights into depths of truth that are unplumbed by the discursive intellect.”

As Carl Jung put it: “The creative mystic has always been a thorn in the side of the dogmatic and creedal church. But it is to the mystic that we owe all that is best in religion and humanity.” It usually amazes people, when I am lecturing on this subject, to hear that a vast majority of our Nobel Prize-winning physicists are mystics. As theoretical physicists, they have, by intuition, seen into the nature of reality that goes far beyond the intellect. Mysticism and physics are fraternal twins. Albert Einstein wrote this: “The cosmic order can be directly apprehended by the soul in the mystical union.”

Today’s physicists and quantum mechanics confirm that the archaic classifications of organic and inorganic, animate and inanimate, do not exist and are invalid. Of course, the Eastern spiritual traditions, the Native Americans and mystics of all time and place have known this for thousands of years. What this belief says is: Everything is One. The Mystery within us is the same Mystery that is in every leaf, every atom, every molecule. The Cosmos is everything. The Cosmos is the totality of all things. You cannot experience God, for you are already It. God and a cucumber are One. God and the flea are One. The wolf, the dragonfly and I, we are One. An old Chinese text reads: “There is no Creator. Everything produces itself and is not produced by others. This is the natural way of the Universe.” Modern physicists would say, “Yes, they knew what they were talking about.” There is only creativity and it is constantly going on. It is a continuous process, and every thing is alive and in movement, even though invisible to the naked eye. We are a part of the cosmic dance. Life is a dance and the dance goes on in time and space.

A text of second century Judaism says: “God is not external to anything in the universe. All is One with the One as the flame is one with the candle.” (Bear in mind, that is second century Judaism). Life, so called, is only a short span between two great mysteries which are yet One. Fall begins with Spring, and Winter begins with Summer, and so-called death begins with birth, and it is all One and all interrelated.

What a dreamer am I. My dream: What a blessing it would be if all the religions that are based on dogmas, creeds and doctrines would give them up and become mystical. It is dogmas and doctrines that cause all of the hatred, violence and bloodshed. What a peaceful and harmonious world it would be, with the mystic philosophy. Ah, what a dreamer am I.

Sonny Rollins' Birthday Energy/$1.69 Credit at the Mysterious Future/Pat Nolan Blockprint/Tea Party Error/Michael Thompson Letter/Gun Cartoon/

2011-01-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

(P1) Poetical

(Photo by Tom Brumley - left to right Ornette Coleman, Christian McBride,
Roy Hanes, and Sonny Rollins)

This is a terrific piece by Rick Posner who has become a pen pal and friend

Octogenarian’s Birthday Bash by Rick Posner

Walking into the Beacon Theater, its stately splendor, its classic feel… a big night shine to everything, a feeling that something important is about to happen…everyone buzzing in a mad hive of excitement…the classic statues and tiled ceilings and the gaudy chandeliers…it was like a night at the opera or the ballet…the anticipation was quite maddening actually…but there was nothing phony about it.

The lights dimmed and Stanley Crouch came sauntering out in a merry way…the “black frog” himself in all his intellectual splendor…his caterpillar (sometimes quite ugly!) of real life wrapped in a sweet cocoon of SOUL, then of course, the butterfly analogy (Sonny=jazz?)…the legacy of Louis Armstrong carried on, not by Monk, Coltrane or Charley Parker, but most notably and nobly by Mr. Sonny Rollins…ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

Sonny comes lurching, slouching (“towards Bethlehem to be born”?) Move over Rover ‘cause’ Sonny’s comin’ over…out of the shadows of anticipation, already blowing like a madman…in fact, white shirt down to his knees, black handkerchief in pocket, white, wiry hair all fro-ed out like a mad scientist with a mischievous grin and an I-told-you-so attitude…Wow! The tone is set and so is the bar, way up high where you better get on and swing like a wild ape or you’re gonna be left on the ground with the human beings, the squares.

Sonny is getting into it like a primitive learning how to walk…insistent floods of mixed themes and styles, breaking it down and building it up…and always that island breeze blowing through the charging congas (Sammy Figueroa) and Crenshaw’s bass, the sound is impeccably clean except for Sonny’s dirty bird riffs that chortle, grumble, gruffly like a playful Griot from West Africa…the satire, the sardonic tone of a West Indies social critic like Lord Kitchner mixed with a North American harshness, almost scatological in its in-your-faceness.

All this at 80! …it’s more than anyone expected…a feeling of shock moves through the audience…all we can do is sit there and stare as if it’s some kind of freak of nature…like an 80 year old making full court moves on a basketball court and continuously dunking hard at both ends!...once again there is something primal in the air…this might be where youth and age meet and merge into one perpetual man-child of JAZZ.

Next Roy Hargrove…introduced by Sonny as a man “chosen by the Creator” to lay down his sound on earth…he comes out, unearthly though, with a solo ( I Can’t Get Started) so pure and cool, a heavenly dream of mellowness, a magical, seamless ride with a confidence that is almost other-worldly…(sweet cream on ice?)..it’s really a dream within a dream that makes me think of sadness, loneliness and contentment all wrapped into one, the kind of love that makes you yearn and relish at the same time.

Roy is dressed in a slick suit with a jaunty hat and diamond(?)belt, big old shades and even bigger black tennis shoes…if he’s not gay, he should be…he is an exquisite, delicate, perfectly conceived little elf/sprite…looks like a 21^st Century Little Willie John with his sweet way of tilting his head, so cock-sure of his approach, no questions asked…never even looking at the hulking Neanderthal Rollins on his left who is taunting him into his cave…nothing could get to this guy in his hermetically sealed solo…he’s keeping himself pure and clean…the beauty and the beast?

Next…Sonny says: “Here’s the jazz guitarists’ jazz guitarist Jim Hall…” Hall, with an acute spinal problem, literally crawls onto the stage and slinks into his chair nodding seriously to Sonny…he seems out of sync and a little worried about fitting into the celebratory mood…slowly and surely he picks it up and gets into his dreamy state…a sense of loss and regret comes across as Sonny adjusts to and eases up on him, giving him a break to gather himself and return to the style that he is accustomed to…there’s a generosity of spirit here as Sonny defers to a fellow icon and allows him to get more comfortable with his age and place in the jazz continuum…Hall responds with delicacy and respect as he settles in to his sound…like underwater fantasy land…contemplative, deep water here…I see Hall with a snorkel, mask and guitar in a primordial ocean…the Great Barrier Reef ?

Now Sonny is talking about jazz being the “ music’s music”, the foundation for the building, the origin…I think of Cecil Taylor and hear an echo of my past and the ongoing parade of musicians who pay heed and respect to the timeless nature of the SOUNDS and RHYTHMS of life itself.

Now two unannounced (unexpected?) guests flood onto the stage …a large hulking man in a classy dark suit (the mountainous bass player, Christian McBride) and a fortyish looking Disco Danny who turns out to be 85 year old drummer, Roy Haynes …McBride bows so massively that you could feel the wind of his serious respect for Rollins while Haynes, with his gold chains, gold jump suit and cool shades just glides past Sonny to his home-the drum set…McBride picks up the bass and instrument and man become Siamese Twins, with absolutely no hesitation he becomes one with his instrument, it’s like breathing for him…at times the large bass becomes his toy…I almost forgot how good this guy is…as for Haynes, he simply drops a bomb of a solo on us…crisp, explosive and flawless…his look is Las Vegas (where he lives!) but his grenade kind of sound reminds us of a road side bomb in Iraq…This trio is another treat for us…another layer of icing on Sonny’s cake.

For the coup de grace, Sonny announces that someone with a horn is backstage and wants to join the party…who could it be? A buzzing around the audience ensues as Sonny beckons, welcomes, teases him out…no one appears and the crowd grows restless with suspense…finally, who comes out but Ornette Coleman with a jaunty hat and a shy smile on his face…he curtseys to Rollins and glides over to take his hand in his…and gives it a soft kiss…what a scene!...some of the crowd goes wild…but why do I get the distinct feeling that over half the crowd has no idea who this man is?...As for me, I was privileged to attend Ornette’s Reunion Concert at Town Hall 3 years ago, but he’s the last person I expected to join the party!

So here they are, sort of a Day and Night of sound and structure trying to pay respect to each other without losing their identities…it’s harder for Ornette; he simply lives on another planet with its own air, its distinct landscapes and water…he can’t just come back to earth to meet Rollins…Sonny has to go to his world, and, after some awkward attempts at meeting half way, Sonny gives in, letting Coleman take him on a rocket ship ride to his bizarre world…Sonny is up to this task and plays freer than I’ve ever heard him, with no earthly shackles, Rollins relaxes and starts to breathe the new air…he’s along for the joy ride and he loves it…the audience knows what’s happening as it too concedes to Ornette’s brave new “shape of things to come”…must admit that he will always be more than one step ahead of his time.

As if this wasn’t enough already! Sonny and crew get called back for an encore…it’s Saint Thomas of course, and that Caribbean wind is blowing again with Figueroa going crazy on the congas…calypso sweetness and the soft side of life with its tropical feel of groove and nonchalance… so free and easy that a child could do it just by playing on the beach.

Did I fail to mention Russell Malone’s three sumptuous guitar solos? Sorry.

What a night! I walked out in a trance…almost an unreal feeling…inspiration can come in many forms but when it comes from music it’s sweeter, more sustainable…it’s the air these guys breathe, and, yes, it is that ugly caterpillar’s coming-out party…for me, it’s the past, present and future wrapped in that cocoon but as Sonny so aptly put: it’s all about “being in the moment”…I think about how lucky we all are to be able to help each other to do just that!

(Rick Posner Ph.D. in Education Written a book of poetry (Light –Shadows, 197 Jazz lover (thanks to my late brother, Jeffrey Author of a book about a school that saved his life: Lives of Passion, School of Hope, 2009 (Thanks Connie) Lifelong learner Serious baseball fan (Thanks Sol Teacher (30 years in the public schools, yikes!) Parent (thanks Abby, my multi-talented daughter) Husband (thanks Gail for trying to teach me to stop, look, listen and love)

I wrote this poem in July of 2008 after David Madgalene sent me a certificate of credit for $1.69 to be used at the now-defunct Mysterious Future (used mystery books) Store in Santa Rosa. The poem may or may not be unrelated to that event. - Ed Coletti

Credit At the Mysterious Future



$1.69 in the mysterious future
 worth
  $.07
or
  half-a-yuan
 barely enough
or
        hardly
for one
  joss stick

fragrantly
  smoking

in spirals
  present

past 
   future

visible
  together
one

  oracle
leisurely

  petering
     out


(P2) Philosophical

(Pat Nolan Blockprint at Quicksilver Mine Co. Gallery, Forestville, California)

(P3) Political

Truth, not guns

EDITOR: There are always divisions in politics. Some issues are divisive as it’s meant to be. But what I see is a complete disconnect. I know that when I read the papers or hear politicians speak, I don’t hear Democrats speaking in terms of “cross hairs,” and I believe there haven’t been many “gun shoot” fundraisers for their party. I do hear venom spewed from Republican, tea party and conservative figures.

The divisiveness isn’t a line in the sand any more; it’s become a huge chasm that can’t be bridged. Political rhetoric has become false accusations, malicious reporting and vicious finger-pointing by poorly educated and superstitious demagogues who make politics dangerously reactionary.

I believe that in order for a democratic society to survive, it needs well thought out, logical, even-handed arguments that can be understood by an under-educated America. We don’t need political vitriol and guns to get our ideas across to one another. Instead, we need words of truth and accuracy as a way to salvage a distrustful and dying America.

MICHAEL THOMPSON

Healdsburg

Tribute to Lady

2010-12-25T13:47:00.001-08:00

Lady ( July 4th 1997 - December 19th 2010)

(Lady drawing by Ray Swaney)

A pensive black doggy named Lady

Lay quietly where it was shady.

A bevy of quail

Marched onto her trail

So she rapidly joined their paradey.

Lady As God 2007

My dog Lady otherwise engaged
will not come to me when I pray to her
“Here girl, good girl” busy god she
with no time to deign to descend
to respond to this mere god-made-man,
more likely, certain of my deity,
no mere agnostic she, Lady turns
away from me her personal god
never having conceived
hell among her many
much less virulent creations.

Without a Resurrection

Our black dog Lady
generally collapses to rest.
Trembling haunches
no longer ease her descent.
And likewise it would take muscles
dying within her, with her,
to enable our unabled black dog
to rise mightily once again
even one last time.

Tale of the Tail

Did our black dog miss her tail?
She arrived without one.

I suppose it can truly be termed a “rescue.”
when you take in a dog without a tail.

What sort of tale lies behind her missing tail?
This poetic autopsy of my dog Lady’s tail:

What we know is that Lady
the offspring of a bizaare coupling

big black boisterous male lab and
coy little curly blonde cocker spaniel bitch

began in Clearlake where she
emerged confused on the Fourth of July.

Her psychic nine month gestation
prior to her finding her way to us

began with the pup picked from a box
before the Safeway store in Clearlake.

With such odd breeding, this puppy
named Cheyenne like something wild,

like some Nevada desert whore
with a prairie personality,

proved to be at battle within herself,
skittish as the worst-bred cocker,

convivial as a back-slapping lab,
this two-in-one toddler tugged-at-war within herself.

Scared love given
She must have been beaten

We see it when she cowers
We know of her former mistress

Mistress Oblivious who told us,
“Cheyenne (Oh how that name grates)

“Cheyenne was so good!
She used to pull my wheelchair.”

(something like the Grinch’s
scrawny little mutt without the antlers)

We know she rode long distances
over the mountain in a truck.

We know for show they later
bought two Maltese pups

that bit my black dog’s drooping ears
whenever she’d attempt to eat.

Then, like Cinderella, she was left
outside always alone

while her wicked little stepsisters
ate and played within –

--those tiny bitches! –
and then the tail was taken

by an overzealous vet
who tried to do a cocker bob

but effected a fully final amputation;
how embarassing when other dogs would

check her out, not to mention the phantom
pain she felt for her missing extremity.

The fortuitous fortune that set her free –
-- selfish folly—“too much trouble”

She found her way to us
through a fateful friend

She was wearing a black bow with
big white polka dots

We loved her instantly
She was fully a “Lady”

home from the camps
laden with baggage.

Outsourced Thanksgiving/ Shaky Leaf/How Obama Saved Capitalism and Paid For It/Communalism/Hell

2010-11-17T11:20:00.000-08:00

(P1) Poetical

Outsourced Thanksgiving

Welcome to the Butterball Turkey Hot Line
What is your name please?
Thank you Edward. How may I help you?
Oh that is a good question.
I will tell you what to do with your turkey before you roast it
First, remove the original plastic wrapper
from the thawed or fresh turkey.
Do you understand?
Good. Now remove the neck and geeblets,
then drain the juices and blot the turkey dry
with paper towels. You may now stuff the turkey
then return it’s legs to the tucked position,
insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thigh,
brush with oil to prevent the skin drying
and follow roasting directions that come
with every Butterball turkey.
Have I helped you, Edward?
Good and Happy Thanksgiving
from all of us here at Butterball Turkeys in
Bangalore—I mean Illinoize! Goodbye

Ed Coletti

Leaf

One quivering leaf

lets go,

glides across

a bit more time,

then softly

settles.

(P2) Political

How Obama Saved Capitalism and Lost the Midterms

This piece by Timothy Egan appeared in the New York Times November 2, 2010. I'll begin with the highlights and then leave you with a link to the full article.

"If I were one of the big corporate donors who bankrolled the Republican tide that carried into office more than 50 new Republicans in the House, I would be wary of what you just bought.

"For no matter your view of President Obama, he effectively saved capitalism. And for that, he paid a terrible poitical price.

"Suppose you had $100,000 to invest on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated...

"...As of election day, Nov. 2, 2010, your $100,000 was worth about $177,000 if invested strictly in the NASDAQ average for the entirety of the Obama administration, and $148,000 if bet on the Standard & Poors 500 major companies. This works out to returns of 77 percent and 48 percent...

"...The banking system was resuscitated by $700 billion in bailouts started by Bush (a fact unknown by a majority of Americans), and finished by Obama, with help from the Federal Reserve. It worked. The government is expected to break even on a risky bet to stabilize the global free market system. Had Obama followed the populist instincts of many in his party, the underpinnings of big capitalism could have collapsed. He did this without nationalizing banks, as other Democrats had urged...

"Saving the American auto industry, which has been a huge drag on Obama's political capital, is a monumental achievement that few appreciate, unless you live in Michigan. After getting their taxpayer lifeline from Obama, both General Motors and Chrysler are now making money by making cars. New plants are even scheduled to open. More that 1 million jobs would have disappeared had the domestic auto sector been liquidated...

"And apology is due Barack Obama," wrote The Economist, which had opposed the $86 billion auto bailout...

"Interest rates are at record lows. Corporate profits are lighting up boardrooms/ it is one of the best years for earnings in a decade...

"All of the above is good for capitalism, and should end any serious-mined discussion about Obama the socialist...Obama got on the wrong side of voter anxiety in a decade of diminished fortunes...

"...Of course, nobody gets credit for preventing a plane crash..."

Here's the full Egan article.

(P3) Philosophical

And for those of you not as keen on runaway capitalism, check out this thought-provoking opinion piece that appeared in the Northbay (SF) Bohemian recently.

A Broken Record

Why are solutions for the economy stuck on repeat?

By Art Kopecky

Friends, here we are at the very apex of human thought and endeavor, yet public discussion on the economy sounds like a broken record. For instance: we're waiting, hoping for the economy to "recover." Maybe at some point, growth is not normal or possible, and we cannot recover by reverting to an unsustainable trajectory.

Where do the size of our population and finite resources enter the equation? When people and animals mature, they reach a certain size and stop growing. Perhaps that's the correct analogy. Is it so hard to imagine we have reached a mature economy? Maybe there are enough cities, freeways, suburbs and shopping malls. How often do you hear that?

On the left, there's the monotonous broken-record mantra that we must "stimulate" the economy, and the only solution imaginable is government action. It's never suggested that the people themselves, with the greatest freedom and prosperity in all human history, can find a way to help besides being good consumers and shopping for their nuclear family.

On the right, the only contribution to the debate seems to be cut taxes, even though deficits are too big. Then, the idea follows, we'll "stimulate" the economy and huge growth will pay off the deficit and create millions of jobs. (Example: George W. Bush reduced taxes, and everything turned out fine.) For all our vaunted freedom, action on the part of the people is never suggested—except to vote and shop. So little imagination.

Everyday we're besieged by a litany of concerns. We're urged to protest global warming, nuclear weapons, foreign wars and mega-corporations. There are daily reminders that we have 14 million Americans unemployed and not enough jobs for the 150,000 entering the job market each month. There are environmental concerns that development hurts the precious natural world. We need something positive in the mix, something new and exciting.

So, you ask, what have I got? How about: bring on the Aquarian Age. Not through legislation, but through service and good works. Join or support "back to the land" intentional communities. Create a culture of cooperation and generosity by sharing properties.

Are we all just guinea pigs ruled by a constant diet of advertisements, or can some of us strike out and do something outrageously positive, helpful and generous?

Forward-thinking people have greatly influenced our history in the past, starting with the very notion of a country run by the people and extending to the end of slavery, the rise of civil rights, of workers' rights and women's rights. So what's next? I believe the intentional communities movement, already well incubated with a 50-year modern history, fits our need.

I don't think it can be avoided. Some of "the people" will have to pioneer advances in the culture (some are already doing it, but not nearly enough). If young people can dedicate themselves to war, giving up life and limb and comfort, then where are the young people who can build cooperative communities for mutual survival for all? Where are their elders who can encourage a nongovernment people's movement, to demonstrate consideration and even brotherly love?

If we are so advanced, so smart, why aren't these ideas in the conversation? Are profit, greed and accumulation the high points of human consciousness? A few million people on beautiful farms, supportive of the "low money" people—is that such a crazy idea?

Unemployment is here to stay, the cost of living is only getting more astronomical, and the government is way beyond broke. So help out by creating intentional communities instead of crying to be given jobs. Why are we avoiding it? Is it too hard, too creative, too original, too against human nature? Be a pioneer and prove them wrong. Our culture has already come a long, long way.

Create a culture of conscious kinship? Whoa! Stop right there. Let's get back to stuff we're used to: "go shopping," "cut taxes" and "stimulate the economy" so it can "grow" . . .

Ah, that broken record is so comforting.

Art Kopecky is the author of 'New Buffalo: Journals from a Taos Commune' and 'Leaving New Buffalo Commune,' UNM Press. He lives in Sebastopol, works as a contractor-carpenter and is active in the communities movement.

Finally, I like this from Christopher Hitchens in his wonderful book God Is Not Great: how religion poisons everything. Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell, unless it is the sorely limited mind that has failed to describe heaven -- except as a place of either worldly comfort, eternal tedium, or (as Tertullian thought) continual relish in the torture of others.

(Photo by Lin Marie de Vincent)

Laurel&Hardy Meet Santana/Bizarro/The Buffalo Theory/Sinead O'Connor Writes the Pope/Mike Smith Cartoon/

2010-10-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

P1 Poetical (sort of)

A Bizarro That Resonates

Laurel & Hardy Meet Santana

Check out this link for
Laurel and Hardy Meet Santana !

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P2 Philosophical
Sinead O'Connor's Open Letter to the Pope (9-20-10)

Sir,

Your remarks made last week concerning church authorities' handling of child rape complaints give the impression that neither John-Paul II nor yourself knew of how these complaints were being managed.

Can you please make clear exactly who has been running the church since 1979?

You have said church authorities did not act quickly nor decisively in dealing with allegations. This is entirely dishonest.

In fact church authorities acted extremely quickly and decisively, but in protection of rapist priests and the church, not of children.

In your letter to Irish mass-goers you stated that the Irish hierarchy, in covering up rape and transfering known rapists to other parishes, where many more children were raped, had done so out of "a well-intentioned desire to protect the reputation of the church."

If there is any such well-intentioned desire on your part then why have you not in outrage fired every employee of the church who contributed even in the remotest of ways, consciously or uncsonciously, to the attack on Christ himself as made manifest in those children who were raped?

It looks extremely bad that you have not done so. And that you continue to set up lies and smoke-screens and treat us as if we are stupid.

Spokespeople on your behalf keep saying, falsely, that hierarchies acted independently of The Vatican, when countless pleading letters from bishops to The Vatican show that is not the case, as do the specific instructions issued by The Vatican in 1962 to all bishops in the world for dealing with allegations of rape and abuse.

As you are aware, those instructions required the cleric taking complaints, as well as the victim making the complaint, to sign an oath of silence under threat of excommunication.

Your letter of 2001 to all bishops in the world confirms the 1962 instructions were in operation until 2001.

Why do you allow your representatives to lie?

All reports carried out in the four corners of the earth have found, independently of each other, that the church's main concern in dealing with abuse was the preservation of its assets and reputation and that the welfare of children was not a consideration.

As an example I refer you to the fact that in 1987 the church in Ireland took out a series of insurance claims in every diocese in order to protect the church from claims they foresaw would be made.

The church then sat back and did nothing until 1995 when complaints became public knowledge.

The reports show that without exception each diocese in the world behaved in exactly the same manner when dealing with allegations.

If hierarchies had been acting independently of The Vatican there would have been differences in their behaviour.

We deserve better than lies and insults to our intelligence.
The Holy Spirit deserves better.

As long as the house of The Holy Spirit remains a haven for criminals the reputation of the church will remain in ruins.

Finally, your statement that you hope the church's "humiliation will help the victims" is deplorable on two levels.

One: not one member of The Vatican has publicly displayed an iota of humility over this issue. Instead each person who has spoken has done so most arrogantly and dismissively.

Two: how dare you use the word humiliation to describe what you and the church are going through? Hope and pray, and thank God that you will never know the abject humiliation of children who were raped by monsters in the employ of your church. That is true humiliation.

The Buffalo Theory by Cliff Claven “Well, you see, Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it’s the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

P3 Political

Personal Infrastructure Crisis/Spitzer's "Boy Toy"/Ingersoll Quotes

2010-09-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

(P1) Political

Infrastructure?

Friend Tom Mariani, primarily as the result of the family Volkswagen plunging off a bridge crumbled by an earthquake near Eureka, California in late 1980, became a strong advocate for improving the state's highway infrastructure.

Look closely at the photo, and you'll see the car bearing Tom and his wife. For a time they were terrified not to be able to find their two children who had been ejected from the car. Tom writes The L.A. quakes in the 1970s that caused overpass failures, showed that we cannot rely on the constant force of gravity. What my wife and I saw out of our windshield November 8, 1980, and what we all saw in the Bay Area after the 1989 quakes, further demonstrated that Caltrans' engineering theory for freeway construction does not hold up during an earthquake.

To this I add "infrastructure" well may be the single greatest concern and cause to which each of us should subscribe. As roads and bridges age, as water conduits corrode, as buildings rot, far too little is being done in the way of replacement. "Taxes" whether new or increased apparently have become "evil. Many of us grew up expecting to pay our fair share in return for services and infrastructure improvements. Sure we grumbled at tax time, but we knew that there was no free lunch. Somehow, over the past 30 years, the term "tax increase" is barely whispered. Instead, we have either unbridled borrowing or, perhaps worse, nothing at all. On top of that, proposition 13 gave us one percent property taxes. That "free lunch" resulted in "no lunch." Wake up, California and America; demand infrastructure projects and also the jobs they will create!!!

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(P2) Poetical

"Boy Toy"

Partial representation of 8"x8" Acrylic painting by Jim Spitzer

For Sale

jimspitzer@lycos.com

or visit the studio at
4524 Badger Rd.
Santa Rosa, CA 95404

707-538-4640

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(P3) Philosophical

4 From Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) (Look him up!!!)

1. It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a god would choose for his companions, during all eternity, the dear souls whose highest and only ambition is to obey.

2. A believer is a bird in a cage; a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.

3. Who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this infamous doctrine of eternal punishment? Think of the lives it has blighted--of the tears it has caused--of the agony it has produced. Think of the millions who have been driven to insanity by this most terrible of dogmas. This doctrine renders God the basest and most cruel in the universe...There is nothing more degrading than to worship such a god.

4. Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith!

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Oscar Grant/Katherine Hastings/Harvey Pekar/Global Warming Big Time/

2010-08-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

In Memory of Oscar Grant
New Years Day, 2009

by Katherine Hastings

As the young supermarket worker lay facedown
amid the darkness
as he lay there in Oakland's underground,
where moon and stars are barred
unarmed, black, pinned down,
inside the darkness
begging not to be shot,
as he lay there covered with cops
dark forms with dark wings
hiding him from view as best they could,
through fear's thick veil
cell phones up and down the tracks
a shape-shifting transit crowd
recorded the cop pulling his gun,
pressing it to the back of the unarmed black man
strength in meekness
who was a young friend, who was a lover,
as a drop of dew
who was a father laying facedown
as a small drop of dew

As the young black man lay there,
encircled
pinned down, facedown, begging,
a lone drop of dew
a cop shot him in the back, BAM!
dying
shot him in the back!

As the young unarmed man laid dying,
birds within the wind
cops hiding him the best they could,
fish within the wave
cell phones recorded the shooting of Oscar Grant,
thoughts of man's own mind
unarmed,
float through
pinned down,
all above
face down,
begging.
the grave

Everyone saw it and saw it and saw it
those eyes
and no one can say
burn through

Death!
it wasn't so.
the last embrace

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(P2) Philosophical

Harvey Pekar Tribute by Jaime Crespo

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(P3) Political

Forgotten About Global Warming? - Check this out
Giant Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland.. Largest Chunk Since 1962

WASHINGTON — A giant ice island has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland.

A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles – more than four times the size of New York's Manhattan Island.

Andreas Muenchow, who is studying the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada, said the ice sheet broke off early Thursday. He says the new ice island was discovered by Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service.

Not since 1962 has such a large chunk of ice calved in the Arctic, but researchers have noticed cracks in recent months in the floating tongue of the glacier. (AP 8-7-10)

The Gulf in Our Humanity

2010-06-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

(Ed Coletti-"Dead Fish - watercolor)

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Practically every environmental problem we have can be traced to our addiction to fossil fuels, primarily oil.
Dennis Weaver

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun. (ed, I would add "Yet.")
Ralph Nader

“I think the devil will not have (you) damned, lest the oil that's in (you) should set hell on fire."
William Shakespeare

It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas.
George W. Bush

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Ed's June 22d Letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Mixed Cartoons

EDITOR: It irks me that The Press Democrat feels the need to please everybody, and therefore nobody, by providing conflicting political cartoons. I miss the days of the great newspapers (e.g. the Washington Post) which took a principled stand and stuck to it. But the Press Democrat appears to want to provide something called “balance.” While this concept may be appropriate for reportage, it's not the case with editorial opinion.

So along comes the Monday political cartoon apparently objecting to government spending to save the planet. I conclude that this must be one of those days when the PD steps to the right while figuring that tomorrow, it'll move left. However, the “balance” bromide fails horribly here. What is the balance to saving the planet? Is it “not saving the planet”?

Perhaps I expect too much. But I do long for a newspaper which, in the grand tradition, takes a strong editorial position on issues local, national, international, and, yes, even planetary.

ED COLETTI

Santa Rosa

I wrote the following poem quite a few years ago, and long before the Gulf horror. Just goes to show you. Oil long has been about the worst thing in our world. What was the name of that recent movie? Oh yeah, "There Will Be Blood."

This Barrel of Oil Addresses
An American Slave

They call me black gold
but like a dollar bill
I ain’t worth a spatter
'cept they use me for something
believe me they do
but I don’t need to tell you
the way they used you
some of them knowing better
were the worst for the knowing
not doing anything about it.

They pretend I’m not even there
while I’m all that’s there and you
your existence made their heaven
planted on the bottom line
with no price for labor
anywhere above,
the difference between us being
you had children,
that alone made it so you couldn’t hide
their misery or your wife’s
or that man place inside you
where you knew hot rage
with nowhere to go.

So me I’m just a metaphor,
something they use and use and take
away from under what was never theirs.
The people who try to live nearest me
who don’t own a dram of me,
they get used the same as you and everyone else
gets used a bit like you, and only you
really know just how very used
the people of this earth are
used and used
and used to being used.

(Published at In Our Own Words (Fall 2008)

Ed Coletti Paintings at Big Bridge/ Jim Spitzer & the Kids/Community Land Trusts/Churchgoing/

2010-05-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

8 Coletti Paintings At Big Bridge

Here's a link to Michael Rothenberg's great international arts forum Big Bridge where Michael has honored me (Ed Coletti) by featuring 8 of my paintings (check them out and be sure that, upon viewing a painting, you then click at the bottom, "Click here to go to next Ed Coletti work").

Shown here is a recent watercolor not at Big Bridge. You may like the title, "Fish With Large Red Mustache, Bird, Worm, and a Tortoise On Roller Skates."

Now here's the link to Ed Coletti's 8 Paintings at Big Bridge

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and also, Check this out!!!

Jim Spitzer On Art and Youth

After you hit the link, then page down to "Jim Spitzer's Philosophy of Art." Here's the LINK

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(P2) Political

Community Land Trusts

San Francisco radical organizer and poet James Tracy is one of the founders of the San Francisco Community Land Trust.

The community land trust movement nationally is most interesting and very promising. James will be reading and speaking about the movement in NYC soon. I urge you to go to the linked (above) website for the full skinny on the trust.

My cousin Bill writes, Community Land Trusts are a great way to attack speculation...the root cause of many of the housing problems in the country. One slogan of the movement is "The land belongs to a vast family of people; some of whom are dead; many of whom are living; and most of whom are yet unborn".

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(P3) Philosophical

Philip Larkin - Church Going

Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new -
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

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Supreme Court Whackiness/Nice Haiku From Lilliput/ Blake, Sagan & Denner on Mystery/

2010-03-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

(P1) Political

Senator Exxon & Soylent Green

So I got to wondering why, since the Supreme Court, in an act of infinite mischief, has ruled that corporations are actually "people," how long will it be before corporations will be legally able, not only to contribute vast fortunes to buy elections and politicians, but also actually run for political office.

My tongue is only loosely planted in cheek when I muse that, in addition to using the fullest measure of their bribery powers for influence, the corporations (not the new ones, smaller by definition. These are precluded from running because a "person" must be at least 25-years-old to run for congress) could eventually run for congress and become "Senator Exxon," "Congressman (or woman) Halliburton," or even "President Goldman-Sachs."

How lovely such a prospect! I mean , if these same people can "reason" that a marriage between two people of the same sex will lead to inter species marriage, is that less far-fetched than the jump from "corporations are people" (sort of like Soylent Green) to "corporations are our elected officials"?

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(P2) Poetical

Nice Haiku

today's weather map

says winter rain is falling

on my father's grave

--from Joe Hutchinson in Lilliput Review

(P3) Philosophical

William Blake, Carl Sagan, and Rychard Denner on the
Mystery That is "Man"

Blake: "The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive....Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of, & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood; Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.

And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things. Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast." (from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)

Sagan: "God is an invention of Man. So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery. The deep mystery is the nature of Man." (Narei Koburi, late Abbot of the Buddhist Temple of the Shining Dragon in Kyoto - quoted by Sagan & Druyan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors)

Denner: "the shallow mystery is the nature of deep" (Rychard Denner as Jampa Dorje, Poet and Tibetan Buddhist monk)

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Google 411/Eve Ensler/Tears/Bauman Paintings/Hey Look Where I Live!/

2010-02-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

Google 411 If you're not using this absolutely free telephone directory service, it's got to be because you don't know about it. Google 411 is free, works like a charm and is fun! Just dial 1-800-goog. I suggest adding the number to your speed dial.
I've been using it for well over a year. It even connects you!

(P1) Poetical

Martin Bauman (Santa Rosa, CA)

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(P2) Philosphical

Tears and Bullets

Bullets are actually hardened tears.

(press >) Eve Ensler

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(P3) Political

Hey, Look Where I Live!

Top communities:

Boulder, Colo.

Holland, Mich.

Honolulu, Hawaii

Provo, Utah

Santa Rosa, Calif.

Santa Barbara, Calif.

San Jose, Calif.

Washington, D.C.

Ogden, Utah

Oxnard, Calif.

Source: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, www.gallup.com

Hot Air(coletti w'color&crayon)/Wonderful Palindrome/Breast Cancer/Doug Landis/

2010-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

(P1) Philosophical

A palindrome reads the same backward as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backward as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

This is only a 1-minute, 44-second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won Second Place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it. Amazing........

(P1) Philosophical

Stupidity and Cupidity
Perfectly lamented in cartoon

Dear Ed,

Happy New Year to you and your lovely wife Joyce!

Should you find it worthy, please feel free to include the following in your very worthy Blog:

"Especially during these trying times, inspiration, as found in the following pencil sketches by Doug Landis, is always appreciated!":

Here's the link to

Doug Landis Mouth Art

Cash & John/Leissring Drawing/Andrew Sullivan: Inch by Inch/Non Sequitor Disses Facebook/Blake's Motto/

2009-12-31T17:13:00.001-08:00

P1 Poetical

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

That's my son, NYC poet John Coletti low-fiving Cash Wollard! (above)

Jack Leissring Drawing

and a cartoon from Wiley
William Blake's Motto

I must Create a Syetem or be enlav'd by another
Man's.

I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create."

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P2 Political

Barrack Obama Slowly Moving Mountains

Andrew Sullivan, former conservative, first a sample, then go to the full article

No recent president has had such a substantive start since Ronald Reagan. But what Reagan did was to shift the underlying debate in America from what government should do to what it should not. His was a domestic policy of negation and inactivism, and a foreign policy of rearmament and sharp edges. Obama has, in a mirror image of 1981, reoriented America back to a political culture that asks what government will now do: to prevent a banking collapse, to avoid a depression, to insure the working poor, to ameliorate climate change, to tackle long-term debt. The point about health insurance reform, after all, is that it represents a big expansion of government intervention in the lives of the citizenry — and that’s a game-changer from three decades of conservative governance.

Andrew Sullivan: Inch by inch, Barack Obama is moving mountains

Posted using ShareThis

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P3 Philosophical

Philosophy is the no-man's-land between science and theology, exposed to attack from both sides. - Bertrand Russell

I cannot enjoy the present happiness, for anticipating the future; which is about as foolish as the dog who dropt the real bone for its shadow. - Charles Darwin

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Spitzer on Politics/Herbert and Coletti on War/Bizarro on Fear of Flying

2009-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

P1 Political

(painting by Jim Spitzer)

Another Big Mistake?

From a recent Bob Herbert column:

"I hate war," said Dwight Eisenhower, " as only a soldier who has lived it can, as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

He also said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."

(Ed: Yikes, Eisenhower, in today's relative terms, appears to be the "progressive"! This is pretty profound stuff.) Bob Herbert continues:

A recent Bill Moyers program on PBS played audio tapes of Johnson on which he could be heard telling Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, "Not a damn human thinks that 50,000 or 100,000 or 150,000 (American Troops) are going to end that war," McNamara replies, "That's right."

As one of the strongest Obama supporters there is, I personally have one (actually several) huge question(s) for the man who purportedly studies history, "Do you, Mr. President, seriously believe that this escalation in Afghanistan will do anything more than placate unnamed American interests? Do you seriously believe that, in a multi-thousand-year-old tribal culture, you can succeed in creating an effective National Afghan Military? What of those same words about the ARVN in Vietnam? Do you not see even the hint of similarity? I'm kind of lost here. What happened to your guts? What happened to "just say no"?

Here's a link to the full Bob Herbert column.

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P2 Poetical


American Interests – Part II

Oil juice sloppy slick
energy-bartered lives
human bodies exploded
 like dinosaurs
into fossil fuel futures,
 if there is a future to be.

Defense Department
defending what? ——

America?
you? me?
my children?
my father?
all those kids who go to war 
to defend
 liberty
 shores
 nation
 way of life? ——

When was the last war
to defend against invasion?
World War II
after Pearl Harbor?
Afghanistan after
World Trade Center?
Certainly not
“Remember the Maine”
“Remember the Alamo”
Korea
Vietnam
Iraq.

Why then can these                            
our boys and girls                
desire to fight
for American
Interests?
spheres of influence?
oil?
dominoes?
treaties and pacts?                   
war contractors?
college education?
jobs?
manliness?
thrills?
personal honor?
jingoes and jangoes?
Their fellow soldiers?
the kids and families
they’ve killed and wounded?

Who attempts to embrace
these “American Interests”
(young women are trained to fight and die for)
stress the “American” part
as in fighting for America.
They gloss over those troubling
“Interests”
as in America
(n) interests.

Soldiers long to proudly declare
“I’m defending America
and what she stands for.”
So tell me, America,
what do you stand for
right now, this very second?

(ed coletti 2009)

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P3 Philosophical (sort of)

Dad/Zebras/Swaney/Edelen/Health Care

2009-09-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

John J. Coletti (August 31, 1914 - September 9, 2009)

link to obituary

So Many Poems
(for John J. Coletti)

My father lies dying
(so many poems)
His chest rises and doesn’t
(so many poems)
then rises again
(This is our moment)
My beacon now phoenix
(so many poems)
I draw him,
soothe him
(so many poems)
I sponge his lips with cranberry
He sucks on it
(honey bee)
So many poems
he’ll never read —
has never read —
so many.

(ed coletti - sept. '09) Please see full 7-Poem Suite For Dad at No Money in Poetry site

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(photo by Katherine Hastings in Kenya 1989)

(poster by Ray Swaney)

(P2) Philosophical

VIRUSES OF THE MIND

by William Edelen
April 26, 2009

A child comes into the world, born an atheist as all babies are, and then is quickly indoctrinated with the religious virus of his or her parents and culture. A child through enculturation absorbs the culture of his, or her people. Enculturation is the process by which an individual learns the patterns of the family;

Children, through innocence, believe everything the parents tell them. They believe in the "tooth fairy"..."Santa Claus"..."The Easter bunny"..."witches changing princes into frogs"..."a man being born of a virgin"..."a man who could rise up from the dead"..."walk on water" and so forth. Children, being gullible, are easy prey for mental infections. It is easy for a child's consciousness to be exploited by a mind virus that is identical in nature to a computer virus or a biological virus.

The helpless young are easy victims of an insidious propaganda regardless of how ignorant or bigoted.

RELIGION IS A CULTURAL ACCIDENT. Children believe what their parents tell them and so follow the religious belief of their parents, or culture. The diety of ones worship is a product of ones culture. Catholic nuns do not have visions of the Buddha...nor do Buddhist nuns have visions of Christ.

Religions come with built in guilt mechanisms if the host starts to question. It is like a computer's warning statements if you try to delete a file needed for its operating system. Fear will usually remain even if guilt is overcome. A woman in my Congregational church in Tacoma, WA had grown up as a Roman Catholic and left to become a Congregationalist. She told me that she often awakened in the night in a cold sweat afraid she was going to be punished for that after death.

In my university class I would tell the students that the only reason they are Christian is due to the fact they were born in the United States to Christian parents. Had they been born in Israel they would be a Jew...in Japan a Buddhist...in India, Hindu...and so forth going through the various religious traditions. I told them they were not Christian because they had studied all the other religions of the world and then chose Christianity. And the only reason they were a Methodist, say, is because they were born into a Methodist home in the United States..They were not Methodist because they had studied all the other Protestant traditions and then chose to be Methodist. . In other words, quite simply and factually, they were only an enculturated Methodist Christian.

Link to Complete Essay

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(P3) Political

After great pain/ Preamble/ Edelen

2009-09-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

Emily Dickinson

After great pain a formal feeling comes--
The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;
The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore?
And yesterday--or centuries before?

The feet, mechanical, go round
A wooden way
Of ground, or air, or ought,
Regardless grown,
A quartz contentment, like a stone.

This is the hour of lead
Remembered if outlived,
As freezing persons recollect the snow--
First chill, then stupor, then the letting go.

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(P2) Political

Healthcare For All

Preamble to the United States Constitution

We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish
this Constitution
for the United States of America.

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(P3) Philosophical

Reply From William Edelen

My feeling about death is...as they say in Taoism and Zen...there is nothing to fear...at all...it is just a perfectly natural part of the cycles of nature...birth growth and death...everything is a part of that process...even the galaxies...the flowers of a rainy spring...and the grasses of a showery summer...are good...and beautiful...and sufficient even tho they will vanish..."life" so called...is only a brief interlude between two mysteries.which are yet ONE..birth and death are just perfectly natural part of the rhythms of nature...it is ONLY the people of the "book"...the bible...Islam and Judaism and Christianity that have made it a fearful event...so...my friend...I hope this helps a little...with love...Bill

Go here to William Edelen's Website

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Mad As Hell Doctors/Chris Giovacchini Ramirez/Cartoon

2009-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

(P1) Political

Single-Payer System is the only solution to the nation's health care woes! Democrats in the administration say that it cannot pass. Yet they have the necessary votes to do what they want. Republicans vigorously opposed our two most popular programs, Social Security and Medicare, but two very courageous presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, respectively, used all of their powers, including persuasion, to get the measures passed. This is a time for courage in the face of disgusting scare tactics and lies similar to those used by the same special interests who have opposed all social programs over the years.

The Democratic administration and congress not only are choosing to bypass a single payer provision, but we're also hearing noises that they may give up on the lesser public option and also not negotiate with drug companies for lowered prices. Both of these measures are necessary for even a modicum of success. In the event of their absence from the bill, President Obama must veto such a gutted mess that, in a year or so, Republicans would use as proof that healthcare reform had failed.

The devil is not in the details. The devil is in the health insurance and drug companies who will spend any amount of their vast wealth to stay alive and to thrive.

Let's not let insurance company profits dictate the quality of our health care. Those who stand and shout against reform are the very ones who suffer the most when insurance companies maximize profits by denying services.

Take a look at Dr. Adam Klugman's (yes, Jack's son) major efforts through Mad As Hell Doctors.Com.

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(P2) Poetical

Machine of a Man
by Chris Giovacchini-Ramirez
(see photo)

Suddenly, the elephant garlic is too big.
It hasn't been planted customarily
During the full moon in November.
The jeep battery goes dead.
Tippy nudges and drools at his elbow
For handouts once taboo.
She remembers that he doesn't.

The shovel is missing.
The raised vegetable beds are untended.
A homemade bird house is hung upside down.
In the shed, wine is turning to vinegar.

An aviary of wooden birds, whose pinwheel wings
Represent a progression of prototypes,
Hangs crippled in the garden breeze.
He can't get a dial tone on the television remote control.
The workbench and tools that created reindeer for Christmas,
Cats and dogs when it rained, lies silent in chaotic repose.

In spite of the latest medications, swallows weave the air,
Building mud nests in the corners of his mind.

A kiss on the cheek from
An old acquaintance, he rants, is a secret affair.
Television is mysterious array of images.
"Is that guy talking to me?," he asks.

Wrist watch worn upside down reflects a change in time.

It's a stigmata, on the family heart, that bleeds through stoic
Bandages and concealing clothes.

We cope.
We hold hands, I scratch his back, we sit together,
I ply and stretch his clenched hands.
When our eyes meet I tell him I love him,
"I love you too," he replies.

"I don't know where I am," he says. "This is a nursing home," I answer.
"Where do I go from here?", he asks. "Go toward the light," I tell him.

A tireless machine of a man.
An old piece of farm equipment,
Retired to a far corner of the field, oxidizing.

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(P3) Philosophical

Arby/News?/3d World Health Care/Rove&Plato

2009-08-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

Final Words
(for Arby Kenny 1943-2009)

You did not call 911. Instead
you summoned your friends who
streaming out from The Witch's Brew
found you sitting breathless
on the tavern steps.

The publican who had been an EMT
asked you if you knew who you were.
Goddamn it! you retorted,
You know who I am!

Those words helped your friends
feel better. They sounded like you,
you who were being packed
into a Salem ambulance
never to be seen live again.

Your final words vital to your friends

Goddamn it! You know who I am!

(ed coletti August 5, 2009)

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2700 citizens lined up at 5:30 AM for The 2009 Remote Area Medical (RAM) Expedition which recently came to the Virginia Appalachian mountains. Are we a "third-world country"?

(P2) Political

Whatever Happened To the News?

These days do you ever wonder why you see TV ads from corporations like Lockheed-Martin and wonder who's going to buy a fighter jet because of a TV commercial? It's not like Lockheed wants to sell you a fighter bomber. It's more about these ads and similar ones intentionally being placed to maintain control over the networks. If Lockheed, for example, doesn't like a particular show and demands that the station pull it, what recourse does TV "news" have but to comply rather than lose the bribe (I mean advertising)? None.

Some time ago (probably around the time Ronald Reagan succeeded in getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine, and Rush Limbaugh went on the air four weeks later), TV News Divisions were subsumed under the Entertainment Divisions of TV stations and networks. While TV news had been non-commercial and provided as a public service, the Entertainment Divisions did all the earning and supported the news. Now, however, the News Division is expected to earn its own way, and we see more and more "news" shows of the type portrayed above (The Today Show cast on NBC).

Where are we now to go for the news? As much grief as it gets, the New York Times still provides a reasonable product. You might also consider the Huffington Post and Politico.com among a few others.

Peter Zenger is turning over in his grave.

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(P3) Philosophical

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Blackberries&Bromige/Dresden James/Bill Maher

2009-07-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

More of the Lasting Contribution of David Bromige

Perhaps it was 2 years ago that I shared the following poem with David Bromige. He suggested an addition that is in the second version below. Suffice to say, it is the second version (with David's addition) which has been accepted for publication by Xanadu.

Picking Blackberries Without Me

She sd
I could have used you
to hold the dog
Your height
to get to the good ones
Your body mass
to push aside the vines,
tough out the thorns
and get just a little bit juicy.

Picking Blackberries Without Me

She sd
I could have used you
to hold the dog
Your height
to get to the good ones
Your body mass
to push aside the vines,
tough out the thorns
and get your face
just a little bit juicy
so I could lick it off.

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(P2) Philosophical

When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over gerations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. - Dresden James -

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(P2) Political

Bill Maher's New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit
How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn't do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn't used to define us. But now it's becoming all that we are.

Did you know, for example, that there was a time when being called a "war profiteer" was a bad thing?...Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason -- who the hell wants to own a prison? ...unlike in Cronkite's day, today's news has to make a profit like all the other divisions in a media conglomerate... ...But like everything else that's good and noble in life, some Wall Street wizard decided that hospitals could be big business, so now they're run by some bean counters in a corporate plaza in Charlotte. In the U.S. today, three giant for-profit conglomerates own close to 600 hospitals and other health care facilities. They're not hospitals anymore; they're Jiffy Lubes with bedpans.... ...If conservatives get to call universal health care "socialized medicine," I get to call private health care "soulless vampires making money off human pain."...

...And if medicine is for profit, and war, and the news, and the penal system, my question is: what's wrong with firemen? Why don't they charge? They must be commies. Oh my God! That explains the red trucks!

Bill Maher (at Huffington Post), host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher airs live tonight at 10pm

Get the entire essay.

Conscientious/Bromige/Cheney/Fliers

2009-07-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

(P1) Poetical

Beckman On Vietnam and David Beckman

VIETNAM AND ME

The draft board needed me to
wanted me to fill,
to fill a slot.

Smell of charcoal
and burning meat
from the family grill and all the fun
all the frolicking summer cookouts
that fun summer.

They didn’t care
didn’t care if I
sat out the war as long as
as long as I didn’t, you know, embarrass anyone.

How I refused,
refused to fake some infirmity
and take the easy way.

How I applied for --
it’s an interesting couple of words, all right --
conscientious (that’s heavy, that has implications)
conscientious objector.

How the draft board,
my father’s friends,
(How are you, Herb? How’re the kids)
asked me to define
please define for us what the hell that is

and then said yes,
you are a
we know you
know you to be
yes, we know that you’re a sincere young man.

How ten years later I awoke in a sweat
wondering who
died
who exactly died
in
my
instead of, you know,
in
my
stead.

-- David Beckman

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(P2) Philosophical
from David Bromige

life is brief

it says here

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(P3) Political

THE TRASH CAN SCHOOL OF POLITICS

Holds there is no truth greater than the stink
of the compost beneath your sink. No greater
titanic ruse to the drowning of your senses.
Or the senselessness of a dead mouse
at the doorstep of former V.P. Dick Cheney.

Sells a silly fiction that anything goes
and everything soars like the gilded eagle
perched beside the original Articles of Confederation
signed by Adams and Hancock but not read
by all the people or former V.P. Dick Cheney.

Swears by the tarot cards of the fortune teller
of all Roma festivals and raw excitement
of jaw breakers and castanets and the quick steps
of the flamenco that string us along in a milkyway
of conceit just like former V. P. Dick Cheney.

Possesses the fatalism of the dead sea of the Plastic
Killing Fields of the Pacific. The wide smile
of unilateralism is the guise of good intentions
martinis and the kiss of the sloth, muskrat
blue monkey, and mother of former V. P. Dick Cheney.

Slips a knot around each word and high fives
the graffiti of Guantanamo drop by drop by precious drop.

~Nancy Cavers Dougherty

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