| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VIII, No. XXIX |
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| News - Newsletters | |
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Sunday, 15 July 2007 | |
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The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. XXIX
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ <><><><><> Aurora
Eye burning bright
Morning early sun, Warming the skin in The cool summer breeze;
Trees starkly lit,
Hot and subdued green,
Echo with the stylings
Of mocking bird and waking squirrel;
Jet airliners
Queuing along the Potomac,
Sunlight reflecting
Off plane and river; The clamor of newspapers
And backround iPods
Breaks the fingers Of Aurora's magic. Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C. E.
 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ moving through July, towards more responsibility, towards more money.
Learned this morning that another friend had died from terminal cancer. She had been in remission for a number of years but at her annual check-up the doctors discovered something, did the tests, and told her she only had two to three weeks
Life sucks at times like these.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ a meditation of sorts
Without Words
Bald men, balding men,
Men just beginning to go bald,
Jogging shorts, overhanging beer guts,
Sixpacks taut with muscle;
Yellow ties, dark blue ties,
Jeans and muscle tees,
Briefcases, dark work boots,
Young, old, tall, and short;
Sweat, cigarettes, testosterone,
A wiff of old spice cologne,
Clustered by the doorways, sitting down,
Assessing the women for possibilities;
A smile on eye contact, a brush on the breast
As I slip out of my seat towards the door,
The sureness of men, the closeness of male flesh,
Fills each breath with pheromones.
Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ progress
Amerli, South of Kirkuk
In the rubble of the mud-brick house,
All that remains are the broken fragments
Of a family's home: wife, children, grandfather;
All that's left are bits and pieces
Collected in a bag while the husband wept.
The army and the police cannot protect them
Against the common thugs and religious criminals
Who target bystanders and the innocent.
Fifty houses, forty-five shops,
Collapsed over their blameless inhabitants;
A trip to the market to buy the day's food,
Ending in twisted metal and a twelve foot crater.
This is our victory, our careless change of regimes:
A funeral in every household, our soldiers on every street,
A country unmanned, torn and blown wide asunder,
With no plan but the one to retire back on the ranch.
Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Having distributed such poor Xmas gifts as I had to those around me,
I have been looking for something for you. I send you some sweet violets
that I gathered for you this morning while covered with dense white frost that glistened in the bright sun like diamonds and formed a broche of rare beauty and sweetness, which could not be fabricated by the expenditure of a world of money. Yet how little it will purchase. But see how God provides for our pleasure in every way. May he guard and preserve you for me, my dear daughter. Among the calamities of war the hardest to bear perhaps is the separation of families and friends. -- Robert E. Lee
To his daughter Mary Custis Lee
Christmas 1861 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ call to arms
The Calling
Let us go then, you and I,
Into the breech once more,
Our aging bodies don't yet betray
Our talents and what needs be done.
Once more, once more, into the fray,
Call the heralds to loudly proclaim,
The battle wages, the lines are drawn,
The last great crusade rolls on.
Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ reportage
Hearts and Minds
Chaos and violence,
The political candidates
Debate forgotten lost causes
Without pause,
More interested in winning
Points for debating And quarter percentages In the straw polls.
Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Mary Custis Lee
1835-1918
 On June 13, 1902, Mary Custis Lee, eldest daughter of Robert E. Lee, Great-Granddaughter of Martha Washington, was arrested in Alexandria for sitting in the African American portion of the streetcar.
A conductor told her to move and she refused.
The conductor came back and she refused again. Lee was arrested and taken to the police station but when they found out who she was, she was released.
The headline in a newspaper read "BREAKS COLOR LINE." Another editorialized "It is nothing but petty tyranny for the state of Virginia to prohibit Mary Custis Lee from riding with negroes if she choose to ride with them."
Mary Custis Lee of Alexandria continued to find her own way for the rest of her life.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ lack of real I.D.
Unmembered
Brown shoe in the middle of the road,
No sock, no leg, no body;
Battered leather, still tied laces,
Who's to say where this road led
-- To death, to the doctors,
Or to the Salvation Army --
One shoe short of fully footed,
Leaving a mystery behind
In the left turn lane.
Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Lovely Obit
Jane Love, who danced on the marathon circuit in the 1930s, painted watercolors, wrote poetry and loved to parade around as a clown in Greenbelt, died June 8 at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park. She was 92. __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ So, if I have this right:
the 2008 election boils down to
a Republican Mormon, a Democratic black man, a scorned woman,
and an Independent Jew? __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ what I
Interplay
I like the feel of a body
Wrapped around me stronger than mine;
The force of a personality
Willing to take charge when I decline; Someone who will be there with me
When I stumble, Who will catch me before I
Hit the ground,
Someone who will stand strong
Where I am weak
And let me comfort them When they are in need; Most of all I want someone
Who will wake with me each morning
And hold me each night in bed
On those days I'm much less than perfect.
Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Bits and Pieces on Bad Science
I've heard that women don't really speak a lot more than men,
but that men think they do because any speaking women appears excessive. Men complain that women talk too much.
The reason for this is that men prefer to do all the talking, believing that women should just listen, awestruck by the brilliance of the male intellect. Men's conversations with women require greater clarity and nuance than the few grunts that often suffice when men are talking to other men. __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ big finish
Modern Times
When I was born, they must have thought
That I was the spawn of the devil: Too smart,
Too cute,
Too self-assured.
I’ve been told there are people
Who hold that opinion still: Too smart for my own good,
Too willing to use my smile and dimples,
Too arrogant and quickly dismissive.
I’ve been told that I scare people
In some gut wrenching way:
That my brain works far too fast,
My words come too easily,
And my consciousness,
These lightning synapses
That gifted me at birth, Link divergent facts
And transparent interrelationships Too rapidly for the comfort Of those I might encounter. There is no easy way out,
I cannot be less than I am
Despite what society might wish:
I apologize for the inconvenience
I may have caused you,
The feeling of cognitive dissonance
You might have had to endure
By my being who I am
Rather than the one
Whom you might be expecting,
But I will not accept the blame, The looks of hurt feelings,
The accusations of elitism
Because I admit you are not me.
I am who I am,
Neither god nor man,
A too smart, Too cute,
Too self-assured woman
In a world that demands
Everyone swim democratically In a sea of faceless egalitarians.
I shall not,
And for that, I am sincerely sorry:
My brother apologizes,
My mother apologizes, My father and grandfather
Apologize, and I apologize For letting me live
In this world You so clearly think you own. Lisa Jain Thompson
July 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ American failure to realise
that international sports competition even exists is a source of annoyance to those who want to stick it to Americans on the field. -- Steven Wells
The Guardian __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^  __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ PEACE
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