| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VIII, No. L |
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| News - Newsletters | |
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Saturday, 08 December 2007 | |
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The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. L
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Snow and rain
Windy gray
The sky is filled with winter
My heart with love
That will still be here
When the waters rush with spring
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C. E.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ about to shift the circa come month's end -- everything rushing down hill to darkness and rebirth
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ a song for the season
Come The Morning Light
Sing we all our revels
Come joyous Christmas night,
For this day is born in the hearts of man A god of wondrous light. Sing we all tomorrow,
Amidst the grasp of dark winter's wrath, Of spring and sun and the earth's rebirth That dawns come Solstice morning. Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ with the season
The Rediscovery
The ancient winter celebration,
The sun is gone,
The sun returns,
Osiris is born into the world once again,
Is marked still
By holidays and thanksgiving.
Joy is upon the world,
The winter light grown bright,
Raise a drink and lift your voices,
Hope rises anew from the winter darkness.
Praise the heavens
And give thanks to Mother Earth, Tell one and all
Our good sun still lives.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Winter Solstice
As the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year due to the changing orientation of the Earth's tilted rotation axes with respect to the Sun. This The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth's equator correspond to the summer solstice and winter solstice, and the dates of sero tilt to the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox.
In the northern hemisphere, the Winter solstice is day of the year (near December 22) when the sun is farthest south. However, in the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged so that the winter solstice is the day on which the sun is farthest north. The winter solstice marks the first day of the season of winter. The declination of the sun on the (northern) winter solstice is known as the tropic of capricorn (-23° 27').
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day this day is a minimum for the year (not including the days when daylight savings time comes and meddles with the calendar and clock hours but not the actual number of daylight hours.
Source: Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ one of the side effects of Harry Benjamin Syndrome
Nobody Told Me
Strangely, without testosterone,
Football is nowwhere as interesting,
The life and death of the NFL,
A game played by boys pretending to be real men.
I still enjoy a well played game,
But my Sundays no longer revolve
Around whether the Redskins win or lose
Or how badly the season may be going.
I could just as easily have Clockwork on,
Bouncing in and out of Beethoven
For the umpteenth hundred time, Or Singing In The Rain
With Gene and Don and Debbie
Dancing across my screen While I work on Sunday dinner Or another poem for next week. It can't all be hormones,
But I no longer have to pretend
To be something I never was
(Except on the paperwork), Some macho, football loving Homos Sapiens. Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ a bit of starpoet
The Other Side of Starlight
A thousand stars away,
A dark-eyed woman walks a beach
Beneath a sliver of pale moonlight
Barely visible against dense galactic clusters. The soft slush of wave on sand
Is broken contralto voice by most ancient song Of a planet known as Manhome And cities well lost in deeptime. Her skin is tan, a shade of old olive,
Long hair stirring in the breeze,
Black as a coal sack in a sea of bright starlight,
Her footprints stain the tidewater as she remembers.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Lions Roar
Lions roar, eagles soar,
Leopards growl, cheetahs prowl, Snakes slide, eagles glide, Lizards crawl, jackals call, Monkeys leap, snails creep, Ants heap, fledgelings cheep, Birds sing, wasps sting, Panthers stalk, people talk. Traditional Zula Children's Song
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ another children's song
Another Day
It's raining, it's raining,
My clothes are getting wet,
There's the thunder,
There's the thunder,
My clothes are getting wet.
Shall I go inside
Where the fire is warm
Or stay out in the rain
Where my clothes are getting wet? It's raining, it's raining,
My clothes are getting wet,
There's the thunder,
There's the thunder,
My clothes are getting wet.
Someone, please someone,
Please tell me what to do.
Lisa Jain Thompson December 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ national geographic
The Lions of Darkness
The pride gathers on the savannah,
The cubs being nursed interchangeably,
All the mothers watching all their children,
The males preside, proud of their females,
Proud of their prowness, While the the lionesses go about the business
Of raising their cubs and feeding the pride.
So long ago our savannah,
So close in blood and family,
Our pride prevents our acceptance
Of our past and present history.
There are impala among the concrete,
Lone males without a pride,
We've exchanged the savannah for our cities,
But cannot remove the heritage
We struggle so vainly to deny.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ December 25th is the Winter Solstice on the Julian Calendar
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^^\/\/\/\/^^  __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ winter thoughts
Gray Lay The Land
Notice the ambulance
Notice the neighbors
Jimmie is walking over
Saying something through her tears
Your father died
Winston's dead
Cold and lying
In front of his ham set
Brain goes silent
Not a thought or word
I look at Jimmie
Until I hear her voice
Winston's dead
Your father's gone
Your mother's inside
Your father's on the garage floor
I need to see him
I need to feel him
Tears fall from my eyes
As I kiss him goodbye
And the long night begins
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^  __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ genius
God Only Knows
Brian Wilson hears voices
And thinks that he's insane, A poet hears a single voice
And thinks she is one with the muse.
We're both driven by the words inside our heads,
But for one of us, neurobiology
Interprets the voice as poetry,
The other, as aliens intent on destroying them,
Or some god commanding
Religious devotion and true faith.
Given the choice, I would rather be a poet,
The pay may not be good, but the long term prospects
Are much better, assuming, of course, you have a day job. Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ ,
it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later. Lewis Carroll
Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 1
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ sex and religion, what more can you ask for?
The Catechism
No sex before marriage,
The nuns were quite clear about that,
Good girls were virgins on their wedding night,
Fucking was something the devil did.
Lust was for boys, the nuns were quite sure,
We were to remain both pure and chaste,
Ever on the alert for boys' groping hands
Trying to slip into our panties.
Sometimes we let them,
But the nuns never knew, And the good Father's ears and lips
Were forever sealed by the confessional. Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ It is now the month of December,
when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business ....Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the toga. -- Seneca the younger
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ PEACE
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Copyright © Lisa Jain Thompson 1995-2007. Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized. Email your letters and postcards or visit her contact page at the Starpoet website.
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 December 2007 ) | |
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