| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VII, No. XXXIV |
|
|
|
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Saturday, 19 August 2006 | |
|
The Starpoet Newsletter Vol VII, No. XXXIV fall
but for you i would be alone mornings empty
breakfasts silent
my bed half cold
if I sleep at night
but none of that
still happens
for you are here
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2006 C.E.
 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ <><><><><> Mid August shifting into late summer. Cool nights and county fairs. Children stretching the daylight with the school year just around the corner.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ childhood and such
Child and Poet
Such a nice girl, always was
Bright, friendly, a good conversationlist, All the traits one could wish for In a child, a daughter, or a wife.
If only she had been
A little less smart, A little less argumentative,
More willing to go blindly
Where she's told. Nobody's perfect, not even the poet,
'Tho there's times she's been damn close
Before she's grown bored and wandered off In search of her next great work.
Lisa Jain Thompson
August 2006 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ more poet
Cape Fear
Who is this poet that I've become,
This gifted woman aging gracefully? Would my words be greater yet
Before my mind would fail me. That is the fear that lurks within us,
That we will go on while our body lingers,
Our skills and memories slowly fading
'Til only our breathing husk remains.
Lisa Jain Thompson
August 2006
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ This Just In
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- A scuffle broke out Thursday between saffron-robed monks and anti-war demonstrators at peace rally in Sri Lankan capital.
About six or seven monks from a right-wing Buddhist faction had stormed the stage during a peace rally attended by about 1,000 people in the capital, Colombo, shouting pro-war slogans, an AP reporter at the scene said.
A member of Sri Lanka's parliament was addressing the crowd when the monks climbed on stage.
The monks unfurled banners reading "Take your protest to Kilinochchi," referring to the de facto rebel capital in northern Sri Lanka where hundreds have been killed in the last week.
Angry protesters then pulled the monks from the stage and burned their banners, local television showed. There were no reported injuries.
__/\/\/\/\__ new thoughts and definitions
9 or 12, + or -
A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity
to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet. --International Astronautical Union
Why do we need three more planets in the solar system
When nine were good enough for sixty five hundred years? Are we to think that God left a window open on creation
And let these strange new worlds come stumbling in Like some hungry church mouse when winter comes? I liked it better when God keep his heaven straight,
Neat and orderly, and did not test our faith With liberal scientists and atheist researchers
Who claim to know more than the bible has revealed.
Twelve planets indeed – Satan’s Science Fiction!
Still another reason for believers to vote Republican!
Lisa Jain Thompson
August 2006 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ out in the world
Give and Take
Early morning from the Metro to the office,
Walking the inner halls of the Pentagon, I register each set of male gazing eyes Noting the rank on their center of gravity.
Would seem I'm favored by full bird Colonels,
And General Officers who flirt a lot, Gentlemen of substance and position
With graying hair and some money. I am a bedding prospect secured with clearance,
Certified safe and professionally discrete, Used to the ways of the military mindset With knowledge of both rank and acronyms. Nor do the Brothers neglect me,
Those of a certain carriage and age, My rather plump body attracts sociable looks From men wanting for sturdy underpinning. If I was younger, I might be offended
To find myself occularly fondled, But now I find that I really quite enjoy Any attention that reminds me I'm alive. Besides, it's not as if I'm not looking,
Not checking out packages and such: I'm Sicilian and not entirely immune To the attentions of amorous men.
Lisa Jain Thompson
August 2006 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ If I were advising the Democrats,
I would tell them to directly challenge the President on national security
pointing out Iran's expansion of their nuclear arsenal, North Korea's missile tests, the quagmire that in Iraq, Somalia and the Horn of Africa,
and that he has fueled greater Arab hatred
and created more terrorists.
We are losing the war on terror,
and five years after 9-11
the world is more dangerous
because of GW Bush's policies.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Getting Back
Full Semester Load
When I was young and away at college, Free at last of the Sisters and Brothers, The war waged endlessly taking the men Across the ocean to death and foreign lands. Women were still majoring in marriage degrees, While Steinem and MS. were all the rage In hip intellectual circles and university parties Among the pot-smoking girls of a certain age. We roiled against the war, supported the boys Who draft-dodged with their full semester loads; We railed against injustice, read our Millet and Greer, Then listened to Stokley speaking on the quad.
When I was young the trendy SDS Was not overcome with bombs and weathermen; The Black Panthers were a poster on my bedroom wall,
Elvis without sequins but carrying guns;
The Beatles and Stones gave way to White Rabbits And Merry Pranksters roaming While the women talked of sexual liberation And doing hairy girls instead of pretty boys. Nixon won, the war went on, I graduated from university;
I got married, exchanged philosophies for babies, And spent decades living within the reality of family Before arriving before you, a humble poet, sweetly tongued. Lisa Jain Thompson August 2006 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ metro observation #509
Focus
This train doesn't stop at the cemetery,
We don't have time for the dead and buried;
This train carries all the shakers and movers
Who run the government deep in the bowels. We don’t have time for this train hesitating,
Pretending someone visits Arlington at 6 A.M; So we whiz past the heroes with their tiny little flags,
Preferring the larger one adorning the White House.
Lisa Jain Thompson
August 2006
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ More Gene
New York: "It takes a lot of nerve to assume there's a god out there who ignores all the prayers for world peace, an end to hunger, etc., to take time out to find a stuffed elephant."
Who said we can understand God's plan? Given his supposed omniscience, omnipotence, and ineffability, it would be arrogant for us to assume we can understand His mind, that He views the world the same way we do. We are promised that he answers every prayer -- but there are no guarantees he answers it the way we want him to. Sometimes, the answer is "No."
Gene Weingarten: Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that there is no God. No sentience at all behind everything that Is, except immutable physical laws. An implacable, uncaring universe. A place where the only goodness comes from what we make of it. Okay? A thought experiment here.
In such a scary place, wouldn't it make sense that humans -- particularly primitive, superstitious humans -- would invent a God, so as to tame their fears, give them hope, explain the unfathomable? And when things happened that seemed to contradict logic or defy the notion of a good and loving God -- genocide, for example, or enormous natural disasters -- or when developing science seemed to serially contradict things contained in scripture and taken for granted -- wouldn't religious people quite naturally respond by saying things like "God works in mysterious ways?" Or, "God is doing this to test our faith" ? There is ALWAYS an answer when one begins with an unshakable presumption that stands not on rationality but on magic and mystery. I'm just saying. __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ big finish
Blond/e
Twice this past week
On the escalator at the Pentagon They've been going down While I've been going up A cute, blond/e-haired person
With pretty made-up eyes, A shy, glance down demeanor As they are sliding by. This morning, our eyes met,
This sweet boygirl in slacks, She knew that I knew that he knew And we lingered as we passed.
As for their direction,
Whether going up or going down, I can fathom no intention
Other than simply going on. When next in early morning
Our eyes focus on the other, I will smile, nodding slightly, And see what treasures they may offer. Lisa Jain Thompson August 2006 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ PEACE
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Send your letters and postcards to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it © Lisa Jain Thompson 2006
Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized.
|
|
| Last Updated ( Sunday, 27 August 2006 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|