| Home |
| Biography |
| Power Search |
| Contact Lisa Jain |
| Global Warning |
| Reviews |
| Fiction |
| Fiction: XenErotica |
| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VIII. No. LIII |
|
|
|
| News - Newsletters | |
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Saturday, 29 December 2007 | |
|
The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. LIII
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Still another women leader
Assassinated in a muslim country, Religious beliefs enforced
At the point of a gun:
How close are we
To our own fundamentals from concluding That a woman should be displaced
From participating in America politics?
Or do they fear a black man more?
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C. E.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ ASSASINATED
Benazir Bhutto
1953-2007 Former Pakistani Prime Minister
While running for election 27 December 2007
In Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Age 54 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ written in the midst of assassination, bringing back memories of Bobby and Martin and assassins who took democracy into their own hands and denied it to the rest of us, wondering what fundamental hatemongers lurk along our highways as we approach the 2008 elections.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ I am under house arrest in Lahore, barricaded in by Pakistani police with bayonets.
Despite Gen. Pervez Musharraf's announcement of a date for parliamentary elections, I doubt that we are in for a change. -- Benazir Bhutto
Washington Post 14 Nov 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ the other morning
Christmas Morning
Christmas Morning,
Sun out, bright and promising,
Breakfast slowly cooking on the stove,
Coffee in hand, pen on paper,
Watching A Christmas Story on the television.
Presents still wait around the tree,
While Ralphie's father lights his leg, Our red and white, smooth coat border dog Waits expectently for his Christmas egg,
Patiently enduring the odd holiday patterns of his owners.
Candles burning,
Rum and cinnamon scented,
Layered with the bacon's hungry come on,
A leisurely star-filled anticipation
We'll ornament in shiny memories. Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ watching the Kennedy
The Other Side of the Curve
When you are old enough to have your rock heroes
Receive Kennedy Center Honors, You're probably better than halfway there
A might ought to start getting your act together.
Either that or you best be picking out your funeral plot
And who should be getting your second best bed.
It will save the rest of us a lot of hassle
Come next Monday or so.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ We are witnessing a farce in Pakistan
-- Benazir Bhutto
Washington Post 14 Nov 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months and started the year on 1 March, which is still reflected in the names of some months which derive from Latin: September (seventh), October (eighth), November (ninth), December (tenth). Around 713 BC the months of January and February were added to the year, traditionally by the second king, Numa Pompilius, along with the leap month Intercalaris. The year used in dates was the consular year, which began on the day when consuls first entered office — fixed by law at 15 March in 222 BC[1], but this event was moved to 1 January in 153 BC. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, dropping Intercalaris; however, 1 January continued to be the first day of the new year.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ other decembers
On The Streets of Bayt Lahm
The traditional birthplace,
Ten klicks from
A thirty foot wall and military checkpoints
Separating one from the other.
In Manger Square
A stall sells boiled corn and roasted peanuts,
Another handicrafts – crosses, rosaries, and nativity scenes –
Still other vendors hawk beads and inflatable Santas,
Cotton candy, and Turkish coffee
While the residents watch from balconies and rooftops.
Tourists workers
Distribute sweets and flowers to reverent pilgrims
As Israeli soldiers pose for photos with vacationing travelers.
Outside the Church of the Nativity,
Before the priests and monks and tourists
Can mingle with Palestinian families and police,
Bomb squads walked the street,
Sweeping the cars and buildings for explosives
Christmas comes and goes,
For others a land of death,
Exclusion, occupation, and imprisonment.
Chaos and terror surround the crèche,
Fingerprints and document scanning
Are turning the city into a museum whose shops
Churn out respectful relics and cheap souvenirs
To sell to curious adventurers and the devoted.
There are moments of hope but soon
The fairy tale Christmas ends and the war continues,
Everything and everyone returns to the safety of status quo:
The Pope prays, the President wrings his hands,
That proclaims good tidings and great joy for all.
On the streets of
As it has since long before Alexander rode through the dusty wayside
On his way to
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ NOVA
AAVSO Alert Notice 364
NOVA VULPECULAE 2007 NO. 2 = V459 VUL
December 26, 2007
Event: Nova
Discovered Independently By:
- Hiroshi Kaneda, Sapporo, Japan (reported by S. Nakano, Sumoto, Japan)
- Akihiko Tago, Japan (reported by Nakano) Discovery Magnitude:
- Kaneda: CCD magnitude 8.7, through thin clouds and using a Nikon D40 digital camera (+105-mm f/2.5 lens), 3 frames - Tago: CCD magnitude 8.3, using a Canon 20D digital camera
(+ Pentax 105-mm f/3.2 lens), 2 frames Discovery Date:
- Kaneda: Dec. 25.35 UT Position:
19:48:08.87 +21:15:26.8 (equinox 2000, USNO-B1.0 1112-0430634 from VSX)
AAVSO Chart:
A chart for V459 Vul is available via VSP (Variable Star Plotter) on the AAVSO website.
and enter the name V459 VUL. A sequence will be available soon. Report Object to the AAVSO as: V459 VUL (Designation 1943+21)
Observations Reported to the AAVSO:
Dec. 25.357 UT, 8.2 CCD, Kaneda (real brightening uncertain due to clouds in discovery images); 26.342, 7.1 CCD, K. Itagaki, Yamagata, Japan,
confirming observation; 26.355, 7.7 CCD, Kaneda; 26.38, 7.8 CCD, Nakano
(measurement of jpeg image by Tago);
Spectra:
Spectroscopy by several Japanese observers indicate that the object is a classical nova,
probably pre-maximum, and may be considerably reddened. __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Judges, lawyers, human rights activists and students across the country
are in prison or under house arrest.
The independent media have been shut down,
television stations stopped from broadcasting news.
Several foreign journalists have been expelled.
Thousands of political activists, a majority from my Pakistan People's Party,
have been arrested.
-- Benazir Bhutto
Washington Post 14 Nov 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ the history present
Wintarmanoth
Low lying fog lies along the road near the water
Beneath gray clouds and the misting rain,
This cool, new year's month grows warmer
Throughout the
When Caesar conquered the days and weeks,
Winter remained fixed still firmly, The months much colder across the empire. Gradually the snow has left us to find winter on our own,
Leaving us with these damp cold, late rising mornings Followed by their foreshortened, heathered afternoons
That gather on all sides around the solstice. No magic prescriptive of mulled wine and whiskey possets,
No crackling fire no matter how precisely built and tendered,
Can drive the dark chill from the weathered soul's grasp Or fill the skies with a multitude of crystalline water ice. The winds and clouds move of their own accord,
Bringing us an ancient, forgotten, archival winter More suitable for dinosaurs and other small mammals Than humanity's parsimonious collected memories. Whatever warms the globe, warms us, shifting patterns, Transporting the possibility of snow further west and north Towards the Great Lakes and rock-filled mountain states Far distanced from this river valley we find ourselves today. If all the gods were to decree that the snow and cold had ceased,
I would beseech them for few inches respite come Christmas next To remind us of the glacial epoch we so willingly left behind And retain our last vestigial link to our ice-bound ancestors. Lisa Jain Thompson __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Musharraf knows how to crack down against pro-democracy forces.
He is, however, unwilling or unable to track down and arrest Osama bin Laden or contain the extremists. This is the reality of Pakistan in November 2007. -- Benazir Bhutto
Washington Post 14 Nov 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ The Julian calendar was a reform of the Roman calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long.
The Julian calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries as a national calendar, but it has generally been replaced by the modern Gregorian calendar. It is still used by the Berber people of North Africa and by many national Orthodox churches. Orthodox Churches no longer using the Julian calendar typically use the Revised Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.
The notation "Old Style" (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style" (NS), which either represents the Julian date with the start of the year as 1 January or a full mapping onto the Gregorian calendar.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ A personal note
If I
Sometimes I wonder how it would have been,
If I had been able to run without my gimpy leg,
What life would have been like if polio skipped
And I was not slower than everyone else.
But then I might not have read as much
And my brain would be as stunted as my leg,
I got the better of that trade, I think,
Even if I didn't know it when I was eight.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ On top of a litany of assaults on the rule of law,
the general has unilaterally amended the Army Act of 1952 to grant the army the power to try civilians in military courts. Courts-martial will operate by military rules in secret, and defendants are not allowed legal representation. No attempt has been made to differentiate between
average citizens and terrorism suspects associated with militant groups. Many believe that these laws were passed to intimidate pro-democracy forces, not to try terrorism suspects. This is the "democracy" that Musharraf envisages.
-- Benazir Bhutto
Washington Post 14 Nov 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ deep into the mystic
Passages
In the middle of the night,
During that daydream between sleep and wake,
I heard my mother's voice
Telling me everything was alright
With my father right beside her saying
He wished they could be here to see me
Now that I am fully grown
And have become this warrior poet woman
Who leaps over non-existent buildings
Faster than the speed of light.
I told them I'd done them proud
With only a few minor adjustments
To the original plan that they gave me.
Mom smiled, Dad smiled, as did I,
Then we went our separate ways
Back down the dark twisted highways
And endless starry fields of night eternal.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, occurs every year on the new moon of the first lunar month, about four to eight weeks before spring (Lichun). The exact date can fall anytime between 21 January and 21 February (inclusive) of the Gregorian Calendar. Because the lunisolar Chinese calendar is astronomically defined, unlike the Gregorian Calendar, the drift of the seasons will change the range. Each year is symbolized by one of 12 animals and one of five elements, with the combinations of animals and elements (or stems) cycling every 60 years. It is the most important Chinese holiday of the year.
The Vietnamese New Year is the Tet Nguyên Đán which is for most times the same day as the Chinese New Year.
The Tibetan New Year is Losar and falls from January through March.
The Khmer, Thai, Laotian and Burmese New Year is called the SongKran and falls from 13th to 15th of April.
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew for 'head of the year') is a holiday commemorating the culmination of the seven days of Creation, and marking God's yearly renewal of His world. The day has elements of festivity and introspection, as God is traditionally believed to be assessing His creation and determining the fate of all men and creatures for the coming year.
The Islamic New Year occurs on 1 Muharram. Since the Muslim calendar is based on 12 lunar months amounting to about 354 days, the Gregorian date of this is about eleven days earlier each year. 2008 will see two Muslim New Years.
Other religions have other dates on which they celebrate the new years.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ a toast
Gone But Not Forgotten
Let us raise a cup to the new year coming,
For this is the face of two thousand seven:
Houses once for sale are now in foreclosure,
A president who wants to be on his ranch in Crawford
Leaving his mess for someone else to clean up,
A Republican Party who thinks we must all come to Jesus,
A Democratic who believes in all things and nothing.
Let's raise our voices to the new year coming,
Remembering the soldiers who are still in
Especially those who will never come back,
The broken bodies that will carry their battle marks
Long after we withdraw, having won or lost,
The torn and tattered minds that hold the scars of war,
Whose dreams cry out to free them from bloody memory.
Let's turn our eyes to the new year coming,
To the unconquerable sun and hope eternal
That rises unbidden with each new morning,
The hope that our children will have a far better life
And their children's children even better still,
That next new year will find us joyously alive,
Filled with the bright promise of a newfangled president.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ While living in America when I attended Harvard in the early 1970s,
I saw for myself the awesome, almost miraculous, power of a people to change policy through democratic means. Today I am seeing the power of the people coalescing once again.
Journalists, judges, and political and civil activists have joined together
against Musharraf's second declaration of martial law.
They see him as the obstacle to the democratization of Pakistan.
-- Benazir Bhutto
Washington Post 14 Nov 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ summing up
Risin' Sun Goin' Down
At the crossroads,
The devil asked me, Did I want to sell my soul?
I told him he'd have no No better luck than god did,
I believe in no one but myself.
Then I invited him over
To the Lost Weekend Cafe, Where I bought him a coffee
And a hot cheese danish
While we discussed quantum physics And Natural Philosophy As we waited for The Creator
To finally show his face.
He never did,
And the devil and I parted ways,
The devil to search for wandering souls
While I continued my journey
Down the road past the crossroads.
Lisa Jain Thompson
December 2007
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me. -- Woody Guthrie
This Land Is Your Land 1940 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ PEACE
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ 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. |
|
| Last Updated ( Sunday, 30 December 2007 ) | |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
