Dad/Zebras/Swaney/Edelen/Health Care

(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

(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

(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

(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

(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.

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Conscientious/Bromige/Cheney/Fliers

(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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Legalize It / Einstein on Belief / Crimmins

(P1) Political

Legalize It!


In California, as in Illinois and other states, the time has arrived for serious consideration of legalizing marijuana sales and use. California especially needs to pass recently introduced legislation mirroring the public interest in moving forward with legalization.

Currently, in a state facing bankruptcy, California not only doesn't look to one of its top cash crops as a tax "cash cow" but actually goes out of its way (moreso the Feds) to prosecute its growth, sales and usage. It has been estimated by state officials that over $1.3 billion can be raised by taxation alone. Then there would be the revenues earned by legitimate retail stores and the growers, and the resulting overall boon to the economomy.

Decriminalizing marijuana sales would drive away the criminals who would realize virtually no economic benefit as the price is driven down by legalization.

And, considering legal alcohol, gambling, and tobacco, can any starving government possibly continue to posit some type of "moral" argument? Let us also consider that prominent conservatives and libertarians have long argued in favor of legalization. These include, among many others, George Schulz, Milton Friedman, and William F. Buckely.

Let's get on the reality bandwagon and start soon!

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(P2) Philosophical

Einstein On Belief

"Actually, my first religious training of any kind was in the Catholic catechism. A fluke, of course, only because the primary school that I first went to was a Catholic one. I was, as a matter of fact, the only Jewish child in the school. This actually worked to my advantage, since it made it easier for me to isolate myself from the rest of the class and find the comfort in solitude that I so cherished."

"I believe in mystery and, frankly, I sometimes face this mystery with great fear. In other words, I think that there are many things in the universe that we cannot perceive or penetrate, and that also we experience some of the most beautiful things in life only in a very primitive form. Only in relation to these mysteries do I consider myself to be a religious man. But I sense these things deeply. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves."

"During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution, human fantasy created gods in man's own image, who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate to influence, the phenomenal world....The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of that old conception of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to the Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes...."

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(P3) Poetical

San Francisco Haiku #7

Wind grips the wet coast.
Seven hills teach us about

gull sorrow and air.

Jack Crimmins

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Yellow Cat & More/Tolle/Guns in Parks/Pizza in Public?

(P1) Poetic

(below) Yellow Cat With Polka Dots & Saw Blade

(Ed Coletti Water Color)

& Strike (Ed Coletti Water Color)

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(P2) Philosophical


Eckert Tolle

"...it is likely you won't feel any emotion when you are told that someone's car has been stolen,

but when it is your car, you will probably feel upset. It is amazing how much emotion a little mental concept like 'my' can generate."


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(P3) Political

Heard On NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

A member of the Washington, DC council has proposed an ordinance outlawing pizza-by-the-slice joints. Wouldn't this mean that it is now legal to carry concealed hand guns in DC but not hold a piece of pizza in public?

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Why Facebook?/Dalai Lama/Lilliputians/

(P1) Philosophical

Help! Tell Me Why I Need Facebook!

There was a brief period in time when I belonged to the Facebook phenomenon. There were a few areas of value to me. I could look at photos posted by family and friends. I even found a few high school and college friends. Beyond that, Facebook, to me at least felt like one big redundant nuisance. Now, I'm told regularly that I need Facebook, that I'm out of touch. But I just don't understand. Why do I need Facebook when email is so very efficient? I realize that, to some extent, this is a generational thing. That many folks younger than 30 were practically "born" to My Space and Facebook and seldom check their email. Why? What's so wrong with email? What's so difficult about email? Why do I need to resume something which was fraught with so many cutesy little applications, privacy-denying walls, pokes and prods, iconic "gifts" and a mass of other confusing routes for sending websites, links, photos, and anything else I can send by email. What of privacy? What about the apparently facistic founder of FB who will keep anything you've given him and keep it forever, in spite of your telling him you want out?

I found these comforting passages from a student at St. Ambrose University in Iowa named Arielle Wilson ( in The Buzz)

...When I break the news to people that I do not have a Facebook account, many appear dumbfounded. 'How can you not have Facebook?" they ask with confused looks on their faces. Until I hear a convincing argument as to why I should have Facebook, I plan to remain one of the two people on the planet (Ed: "three") without it. I would rather not damage my future career because of things that could be found on a Facebook account...Since I am stuck in the dark ages, I usually rely on e-mail...The biggest thing that worries me about Facebook is a lack of privacy...I don't want to sound anti-Facebook. It is a great way to stay in touch with high school classmates and friends that are far away. For the people that use it correctly, Facebook is a great resource to meet new people and join new and unusual groups. But after hearing stories of how Facebook accounts can be hacked by thieves and lead to identity theft, I think I will stick to e-mail.

I'll simply add my "Amen," and ask you for your comments. Do I need Facebook? Why? And I'm open-minded, so, if you convince me, I will rejoin, but for now it will be a hard sell.

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(P2) Political

Dalai Lama Sightings

The Dalai Lama, in a ringing denunciation, declared April 24th that the ailing global economy is the result of "too much greed, and lies and hypocrisy."

"These are some of the factors behind the global crisis," he said at a news conference at UC Santa Barbara. "Those people who feel that money is the most important thing in life, when economic crisis hits, learn that it is only one way to be happy. There is also family, friends and peace of mind."

• 

  Dalai Lama

• 

  
  

"Therefore, this crisis is good," he added with a laugh, "because it reminds people who only want to see money grow and grow that there are limitations."

I also heard the Dalai Lama at a visit to a soup kitchen where he said wonderfully, "You know, I'm homeless too!"

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(P2) Poetical

Two From the Lilliput Review

Broken On The Wing

A bluebird flies one cage
to claim another

I punch out then
feather home to drink

it's a migratory curse
hollowed in the bones

to bend your neck & peck
before you sing.

-Bart Solarcyzk-

another friend has slipped
into the long and crowded
history of us -
the fish market's
thousands of open eyes

- George Swede -

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Fishy/Dancing/Bill Edelen

(P1) Poetical

"Neither Fish Nor..." (Watercolor & Acrylic by Ed Coletti - 4-1-09)

(P2) Political

Dancing With the Stars

Nothing earth-shaking here. I just couldn't resist! Sarah and Barack!

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(P3)Philosophical (below)

William Edelen is a long-time friend. He's a minister, WWII Marine pilot, friend of the earth, and the most sensible person I know. He married Joyce and me.

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.

(Press here to read the full essay)


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Shanty Towns/Pennies/Vartnaw/Kay Ryan

P1 Political

Only One Paycheck Away

These photos of tent cities or shanty towns in Sacramento and elsewhere in America appeared March 11th in the British publication Mail Online. It wasn't only the pathetic reality of what our economy has come to during the past years of deregulation, but rather that America is now being studied by other countries in this way. It's like when we Americans see photos of camps in Darfur. Notice that the black and white shanty photo was taken during the Great Depression. As I watch and listen to Sacramento's mayor Kevin Johnson discuss the plight of so many of his constituents, I call to mind the old saw that goes something like, "The great bulk of Americans are only one paycheck away from homelessness." These people in the camps are car salesmen and construction workers. Unemployment rises daily.

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P2 Philosophical

Nothing Of Value

Throw away a jar of pennies,
This is very good advice.
Then nickels, dimes and quarters
Worth little more than lice.
In the soul’s progression
Such ridiculous device
As a coin, a dollar or a million,
Clocks and clothes and mice,
Nothing lasts forever,
And ever’s worth the price.

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P3 Poetic

Vowel Poem X

a note at night
ignore the gnats! the bats!
watch the net of beauty
from your boat
fireworks!
I bet you can't beat it
not with a bit of cheese
some nuts
(but don't eat the bait?)
it's neat to nit-pick
which of these stars stir you?
& about the darkness
how it stares from behind


© 2008 Bill Vartnaw




Vowel Poem XIII


tick tock
the white cat at the window
takes a toke of air
it's kite season

tick tock
I took the kite kit & cut
it's low tech
yet I still can't duplicate
the parakeet
I have tacked on the wall

tick tock
I stroke the cat's coat for solace
a cute tyke somewhere
sits on a cot w/ a teak toy
it will tuck between its blankets


© 2008 Bill Vartnaw


U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan is scheduled to read at the free MARIN POETRY FESTIVAL, Sunday, April 26 in Dunphy Park located off Bridgeway at Napa Street in Sausalito, Calif.

This year's festival starts at 1 p.m. and features.four hours of music, spoken word and sunshine.

Other invited poets include Jack Hirschman, Aggie Falk, Sharon Doubiago, Clive Matson and the street corner stylings of poetry al fresco, & music by Avtocja, Owen Wilson as well as open readings.

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