The StarPoet Newsletter is an exploration of poetry and unabashed curmudgeonry. It contains poems, musings, and various outrages. You can subscribe by using the quick form below. By the way, I will never disclose your personal information and mailing information to any third party, ever. http://starpoet.com Fri, 09 May 2008 18:40:00 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://starpoet.com/images/M_images/rss20.gif http://starpoet.com The StarPoet Newsletter is an exploration of poetry and unabashed curmudgeonry. It contains poems, musings, and various outrages. You can subscribe by using the quick form below. By the way, I will never disclose your personal information and mailing information to any third party, ever. http://starpoet.com/content/view/197/69/ The Starpoet Newsletter Volume IX, No. XVIII Sunlight through the window Setting blindingly in my eyes Silhouetting the tree line Into dark blacks and greens I am aware of your presence Sitting on the sofa near to me Watching your poet write No pressure but Slipping into my consciousness You slip into my poem Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2008 C. E. Three Week Old White Naped Monkey MAY. Summer lurks with a storm growing outside. family matters Sundays with the Family Rerun Sopranos, Italian to the end, Somewhere one of my relatives Is working in the background: If life had been different, If grandpa hadn’t moved west, I’d most likely be in the kitchen Cleaning up after Sunday dinner, Making fresh coffee for the men Talking business in the living room, Talking children with the women ‘Round the breakfast table. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 peer review The Sound of A Squirting Sea The repertoire of G protein-coupled receptors In the sea-squirt Ciona intestinalis, The genome of the protochordate, A good model system for vertebrate diversification. An analysis of the repertoire provides insight into origins, Phylogenetic analyses reveal homologous representatives Concomitant with other vertebrates, unambiguous orthologs, Defined for the human, mouse, and puffer fish, Possess a novel domain organization, hitherto unobserved. A high level of orthology of a protochordate repertoire Suggests the ascidians contain basic ancestral complements. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 I have lived and slept in the same bed With English countesses and Prussian farm women ... No woman has excited passions among women More than I have. -- Florence Nightingale something for everyone Prayer for The President Hello Jesus, are You busy? I would like to ask You for some favors: Could You stop these incessant migraines And while You're at it, do something about our president, I understand he's one of Your favorites. He tells me he doesn't make a move Without consulting first with his Lord and Savior, You can't have told him do what he's done So perhaps it’s a matter of miscommunication, The president has trouble with words, you know. Maybe if You cleaned out the wax in his ears, Removed all the impediments to understanding, He could hear You better and do right by You; But if it isn't to much trouble, if it’s not too hard to do, Please Lord, a miracle, do something about our president. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 to no one in particular Ceremony Why didn’t you kill me When you had the chance? You’ve blown it now, I’m ready for your next advance. Life goes on And I don’t plan to spend it Worrying what you will do, or when; So c’mon, darlin’, Show me what you’ve got, You’re the one who still wants this dance. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 $> Man Woman $> Segmentation Fault (core dumped) counting up Planes and Quakes and Cars and Bridges I’ve lived my life Amidst earthquakes and tornadoes, Airplanes crashing within a quarter mile, Airplanes crashing within a couple hundred feet, Bridges collapsing A few seconds after I have passed beneath them, A jeep that grew tired of the icy road And flipped me out through the soft top, Landing me on the cold highway sixty feet away. The odds are in my favor To live a long and profitable life, Assuming the suitcase in the metro Isn’t a small nuclear device. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, But now the damned things have learned to swim, And now decency and good behavior wear me! -- Frida Kahlo meanwhile back in high school Alumna I am the alumna Of an all boys Catholic high school That since my graduation -- Many decades past – Has luckily gone coed; They didn’t even blink an eye When I told them I’d changed, Perhaps being in California Carries more weight than what The good Pope may have said. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 Iraq and Beyond ... if we withdraw it won't be only al-Queda taking over Iraq. As I see it - and I'm sure my opinion is suppported by history - Iraq will cease to exist. Iran will come in from the east, taking part of southern Iraq (and the oil wells and ports there). The Saudis, as they have threatened, may come in to defend Sunnis in the so-called Sunni Triangle areas. They may be supported by Syrian forces. The Turks are likely to come into the north, a little, to attack PKK forces there and try to keep the Kurds from expanding into Turkey. In short, it'll be a mess of historic proportions, and wars will go on for years or decades. And al-Queda will have safe havens there. Which is a non-trivial problem. It will be as bad as Afghanistan under the Taliban as a base for global terrorism. -- Jed L. Babbin I enjoy dating married men Because they don't want anything kinky, Like breakfast. -- Joni Rodgers memories, legends, realities, and myths The Glow of Metal I never was a saint, no matter what the nuns thought, Never as innocent as my smile might suggest; You can go a long way on brown eyes and dimples, If you have a certain sparkle and soft, full lips. In those days before AIDS raised the ante for playing, Summer nights in the valley ran warm after midnight, While the driveway of a monastery became a safe, quiet haven For young bodies testing out their hormones and touchpoints. Come Sunday morning, gathered at the Newman Center, Playing guitar and singing at our then cutting edge folk Mass -- So successful both bishop and parish pastors were irritated -- I was usually sinless until, post missa, we left for the beach. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 They laughed at Joan of Arc, But she went right ahead and built it. -- Gracie Allen the truth of it all The Vanishing Edge A woman dying, Bleeding inside, Holding her newborn to her breast; The old gods die hard As the men stand around Glad they were not born a woman. Some things will never be equal, No matter what laws may be passed Or intricate social engineering imposed: Males will be men, females, women, And babies, the gulf between them. Lisa Jain Thompson May 2008 To fly, We have to have resistance. -- Maya Lin Copyright © Lisa Jain Thompson 1995-2008. Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized. Email your letters and postcards or visit her contact page at the Starpoet website News - Newsletters Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:00:00 +0100 http://starpoet.com/content/view/65/82/ Tao 1 The Tao that is known is not the eternal Tao. What can be named is not eternal. Nameless is the beginning of earth and heaven, Before the beginning the word was unspoken, The seed of everything that follows. The mystery is within, hidden and unnamed, The present is without: behold the universe. The hidden and the manifest are one in the same And flow from the starstuff from time's beginning. Their fabric is the essence of the continuum around us, Their mystery, the door to all things. Poetry Cycles - Tao Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0100 http://starpoet.com/content/view/66/82/ Tao 2 Non-Existence defines Reality; Disharmony, Beauty, Silence, sound, The complexity of the universe, the single atom. Deny nothing, For without evil to define it, there is no goodness, Without death, no meaning to life. Even the stars will burst forth and cease their fire For what is done cannot be undone Until the continuum itself is unbound. Do not dwell upon it. Poetry Cycles - Tao Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0100 http://starpoet.com/content/view/67/82/ 3 Remove fame as the reward for talent And celebrity will not become the goal. Dull the glitter of gold and silver And there will be no need to steal them. Keep hidden what is most highly valued And the soul will not be consumed. The wise one empties hearts of desire, Feeding the stomachs of the hungry, Filling their need for materiel things, Strengthening what is already strong within them. When humanity is not caught up in its own cleverness and need, They will not be blindly led. For when nothing is sought, all will come to them. Lisa Jain Thompson Starpoet 1968 Poetry Cycles - Tao Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0100 http://starpoet.com/content/view/68/82/ 4 The continuum is an infinity of emptiness Filled with star and galaxy Separated by the unfathomed darkness Of the distant beginning That dulls all sharpness Until creation's tangle emerges From the background light That is hidden around us everywhere. What came before Precedes us And all of our gods. Poetry Cycles - Tao Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0100