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| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VIII, No. XLVII |
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| News - Newsletters | |
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Sunday, 18 November 2007 | |
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The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. XLVII
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ In sixteen sixty seven
We broke our bonds
And sent our family walking Over wave and mountain To a world unknown
In nineteen double aught
Give or take
The luxurious bottom holds
Of an Ellis bound ocean liner
Returned Sicily to me
All and everything
Lesvos to Palermo
London to the Colonies
Canada and Iroqouis
Gave birth to this poet
Who gives thanks
To all who went before her
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C. E.
 including the turkeys
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ there is a twenty-five pound heritage turkey enroute. The poet eats flesh <gasp!>, as did my ancestors and the ancient ones before that. I honor their incisors.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ you and I
The Space Between
The hollow aching of the space between us,
This separation we cannot cross
That marks us as human,
No matter how much we love.
This gulf that makes us individuals
Even when we make love,
Keeps our fragile sanity,
But wounds us greviously
When we tear ourselves apart
To work our single magic
In great battles.
Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ reliving history
Little Boots
Caligula, charming child of some social consequence,
Loved his sister more than Rome,
Preferring the theatrical of arrogance and glory
To the dreary day to day of ruling.
The first rush of the new emporer's reign
Hid the sickness lurking in his untrained mind
Beneathe the cheers and best wishes the Empire
And the feverish defense of its extensive borders.
Soon the depths of his bizarre lingering madness
Were evident to both his friends and his enemies And they swiftly removed him from his imperial office For the gods, for their country, and for the world.
Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007
that's a good 'un
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ I believe anyone who puts up a tree before Thanksgiving
is going to die before Christmas. I believe that is the rule. -- Gene Weingarten
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ the way things should be
The Emptiness Inside
God I want to have her baby,
Put her hand on my womb to feel it kicking,
But we're both too old
And the science isn't ready
To transplant my stem cell uterus
Inside my waiting body,
Not now, not this year, Maybe not even until the next decade,
But soon, the medicine will be ripe
And one of us will have our baby, Bringing nature's careless dissemblance
full closed.
Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ where we go
Pentadactyl Rhapsody
Sixty million years of thumbdom,
Seven to ten of hominid lineage,
On and on and on and on, So easily disturbed, yet here we are.
Count the bones.
Fourteen billion years of universe,
Five billion of the sun, four something of earth,
On and on and on and on,
As it was in the beginning, so shall it end. Count the bones.
Our ancestors would be proud
Of their hairless scruffy starchild
Who walks into the future eyes open,
Counting each glittering bone.
Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Julia Child’s Roast Turkey Good Morning America December 2000 Ingredients:
Turkey, Vegetable Oil, Salt and Pepper, Celery, Onions, Lemon (to season turkey cavity, if desired), Butter, Port or Madeira.
Defrosting Frozen Turkey:
Keep the turkey in its original wrapper. A 20-pound bird takes 3 to 4 days to defrost in the refrigerator, about 12 hours in a sinkful of water. Warning: Do not stuff your turkey in advance, since the stuffing could start to sour and spoil inside the bird; goodbye, happy holidays.
Servings: Count on 1/2 pound of turkey per serving, or 1 pound per person, with leftovers. Roast at 325 F (or see below for high- temperature roasting).
Cooking time: For unstuffed birds: 12 to 14 pounds, about 4 hours; 16 to 20 pounds, about 5 hours; 20 to 26 pounds, about 6 hours. Add 20 to 30 minutes in all for stuffed birds.
Internal temperatures: 175 degrees F at the thickest portion of the leg; 165 F in the breast; 160 F in the center of the stuffing. Stuffing amounts are 1/2 to 3/4 cup per pound of turkey, making roughly 2 to 2 1/2 quarts of stuffing for a 14 to 16 pound bird.
Ms. Child says that she prefers a flavoring in the cavity (salt and paper, and a thinly sliced lemon, a small onion and a handful of celery leaves), rather than a stuffing and she cooks the stuffing separately. Make turkey stock with the neck and scraps (see Turkey Stock recipe below). Save the liver, heart, and gizzard for giblet gravy (See Giblet Gravy recipe below).
Directions:
1. To prepare the turkey for roasting, cut out of the wishbone and cut off the wing nubbins.
2. Skewer the neck skin to the backbone, and skewer or sew the cavity closed or close it with foil. 3. Rub the turkey with salt and vegetable oil. 4. Roast breast up on an oiled rack, basting rapidly every 20 minutes or so. 5. Start testing rapidly for doneness 20 minutes before the estimated roasting time- and note that a sure indication of approaching doneness is that turkey juices begin to exude into the pan. Turkey Stock
1. Simmer the turkey neck and scraps in enough water to cover them, skim off scum that rises to the surface for several minutes, then salt very lightly.
2. Cover loosely and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, adding water if necessary. 3. You may also wish to include chopped onions, carrots, and celery. 4. Strain and degrease. 5. When stock is cool, cover and either refrigerate for several days or freeze. Giblet Gravy
1. First make a simple sauce, as follows. Have the turkey bones chopped or sawed into 1/2-inch pieces, and brown with a little oil in a heavy pan with a chopped carrot, onion and celery stalk.
2. Sprinkle on a tablespoon of flour and brown, stirring for a minute or two. 3. Add a chopped plum tomato, spices, turkey stock, and water to cover. 4. Simmer slowly, loosely covered for two hours, adding more liquid as needed. 5. Peel the gizzard and add it to simmer with the rest of the ingredients, removing it after about an hour, or when it is tender. 6. Mince it. 7. Sauté the heart and liver briefly in butter, mince them, and add to the finished sauce along with the minced gizzard, simmering for several minutes and adding, if you wish, a spoonful or so of dry Port or Madeira. 8. Strain, degrease and boil down to concentrate flavor. High-Temperature Roasting
1. In Ms. Child’s high-temperature roasting system, you start the roasting at 500 degrees F, and in 15 to 20 minutes, when the juices begin to burn, reduce the heat to 450 degrees F.
2. Next, add chopped vegetables (1/2 cup of chopped carrots and 1/2 cup chopped onions) and 2 cups of water to the pan, pouring in a little more water now and then as needed to prevent burning and smoking. 3. A 14- pounder will roast in about 2 rather than 4 hours. High heat makes a brown and juicy turkey, but you have little control in such a hot oven, and Child thinks the slower, longer cooking produces a more tender bird. Copyright © 2000 ABC News Internet Ventures.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ making music
Women I listen to
Women I listened to when I was a girl
-- Judy, Buffy, Joni, Emily Lou --
One is dead, the rest are older,
Still creating their individual magic,
I see no reason to surrender to the years,
Accept society's unspoken criteria
That a woman past forty might as well be dead
For as much as she can contribute to the world.
I am not a breeding factory,
Never was, never will be,
Or a toy for men to be pleasured;
I'm a parent, a writer,
A friend of movers and shakers,
More so than most any common man.
I will not go quietly off stage
So someone younger Can jack into my spot: You will have to fight me
If you wish to seize the day. Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Imagine a woman running for president who was on her third marriage (having dallied with husband number three while still living under the same roof as husband number two.)
Imagine also that she was estranged from her children, one of whom was working for another candidate.
Imagine a woman whose husband came down with cancer during her campaign, who decided to continue running for president for the good of the nation.
Imagine a woman candidate married to man nearly 40 years younger.
Imagine a woman whose husband suffered from multiple sclerosis out campaigning for president. Nobody talks about the Testosterone Card when the guys fairly climb all over each other to proclaim who's going to bomb Iran first or smack down any hapless immigrant who tries to sneak across the border. Nobody wants to be, in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a "girlie" man.
-- Caryl Rivers
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ for those of you holding your breath, some starpoet
Earthport on the Western Sea
Earthport on the western sea
Holds the skeletons and early attempts
To leave this valley of gravity
And stake claim to our space among the stars. The fairest of the daughters of old, old earth
Stood here, watching her golden ship grow ready, Fumes venting from the base and safety valves,
While she slipped into the glowing blue
That marked her as one of the chosen many.
The ship lifts, the engines thrust
Brightly against ocean and gray clouds, The ocean grows small, the shoreline vanishes
As earth itself is silhouetted by the stars and distant sun,
Until that too vanishes along with the brave daughter
Into the restless arms of creation's undending glory.
Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Impeach Bush!
Impeach Cheney!
I did, I did,
I taw a UFO! -- Dennis Kucinich __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ continued observations
The Consumers' Eye
A singles bar is a good place to examine
The manifestations of alpha-male pathology: The unblinking voyeurism of a couple mojitos Liberates civil pretense from testosterone And gives evidence of the animal core That lurks inside primal hominid behavior, Implicating the careful, unspeaking observer In a vast species-wide conspiracy that we Will all look the other way and pretend Our better angels and cultivated humanity Are fully in control of our deeper structure. Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ thinking about Tut's mummified face
Beneath the Cracked, Leathery Visage
History is full of dynasties and armies,
Documents and artifacts, mummies and skulls,
But lacks in deep time, the flesh of shared humanity.
Temples and tombs are decorated with sculpture,
Walls are painted with colorful murals,
Stylized paintings speaking to posterity,
Heralding the divine serenity of queens and kings:
Nefertiti's high cheekbones, Tut's hint of smile,
Caesar's far gaze and outstretched arm,
Washington's set jaw, Lincoln's rough crags,
Reminders of the unrecoverable antiquity
That moved us from cave to city
And launched a thousand ships to the stars.
Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
Abraham Lincoln
October 3, 1863 Proclamation of Thanksgiving __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Go have some Turkey,
Tofu if you must,
But find your friends and family
And be there.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ PEACE
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ |
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