| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. IX, No. XXIV |
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| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Saturday, 14 June 2008 | |
 The Starpoet Newsletter
Volume IX, No. XXIV Ain't got no Direct T. V.
Ain't got no flashy Iphone Ain't go no Viper or Porsche All I got is you
Ain't got no prefab McMansion
Ain't got no gas sucking off road vehicle Ain't got no glitzy overpriced clothes All I got is you
You got me
and We
Together
Got more than enough Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2008 C. E.
  My second mammogram turned out fine. Everyone as you were.
 older now
Softball Blues
I have the body of an aging,
Out of shape, Fast Pitch Softball Player, College Level, N C Two A Tournament team, Several decades past her prime. Several. I have lost muscle mass,
Gained fat, But still can summon The necessary reflexes For an inning or six or seven Once a week, Once a month, Once a quarter, In my mind. If you give me a full month’s warning
To get back in playing shape, If the tendonitis doesn’t flare up And cause me too much pain, If I can find a bat light enough To get it ‘round in time, then perhaps, If the sun is bright and the breeze is cool, We can play two before evening falls. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
Darkness falls with a breaker snap Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 Obama strikes poses so evocative of the forefathers on our currency, -- Jon Stewart summer storm 2
Sixteen Candles
Sixteen candles,
Scattered room to room, Push back the thundered darkness. Allowing the poet to contemplate The drip of wax and make her way Up the stairs to the bathroom When the realities of a coarser nature Intrude upon the almost mythical gnosis And perfect contemplation Of how humid Virginia really is When all the air conditioning Has been shut off. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 summer storm 3
Dominion Lineman
Outside,
In the darkness, In the rain, The linemen struggle To unthrow the breaker That cast true night Upon tree and street. I gather my light
Candle by candle, Cursing the thunderstorm That blew such ancient nighthood Across the land once again With little consideration That the Celtics Were playing the Lakers For the championship tonight. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 Obama exudes such off-the-charts optimism in these trying times, -- Lewis Black humid observation
A Century Passing
Gray heat overhangs
The dark green barrier of the tree row That separates my air conditioned pen From the auto mechanics Who shout to each other In various rapid dialects of Español, A handful of
A scattering of Old Mexicos, Supporting their families, Joking with the other men About the promise of women and beer At shift’s end. My grandfather
Must have been like that when, Newly arrived from Sicily and Palermo, He joined the other laborers Working Chicago’s mean streets A century ago, almost to the day. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 starpoet in all her glory
Into the Darkness, Endlessly Calling
Suppose God is waiting for us
At the rim of the Galaxy, On some begotten pale arm Between light and darkness, To greet us serenely As we finally enter his heavens And provide a well worn map To Andromeda and beyond? Suppose all this has been a test
And, given our talents, He expects us to invest them In starships that will join us To the majesty of his creation? Suppose the word for our world is galaxy,
The garden for our only true test, Salvation then lies, to God’s greater glory, Out away from the safety of our local cluster On far distant planets filed with abundance Where we will build bright cathedrals To honor His presence. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 I before E except...
Deirdre Oppenheimer came down from the heights of a glacier, tore off her veil, seized an ancient financier, and shamed our consciences grievously. 'This society is inefficient!', she inveighed. 'I wasted my leisure becoming proficient in cuneiform hieroglyphs. Either reimburse me with the value of the Einstein coefficient, or I will drag this man back to my hacienda in Muncie, wherein he will forfeit his life!'
I feigned interest, but looked for our feisty concierge Neil, whom I might inveigle into reining in this weird being. But he had gone to Anaheim, Beijing, Madeira and Taipei with Alexei to shop for a beige geiger counter. His absenteeism made me feel like queueing for the exit. The only sound was the neighing of the sheik's eight reindeer, chewing their edelweiss.
I turned to Sheila, the Budweiser heiress. "Cease your surveillance of the sleigh and its freight!"
waist deep
The Sparrow’s Tale
Hey now,
This is real, Not some Disney pirate tale; We’re here, The hurricane is coming, And best we not Otherwise pretend. The Dutchman must have a captain,
Whether he be old or young, The shoals rise up beside us, Compliments of our own inattention And our preference to keep on shopping. Part of the crew,
Part of the ship, A fine disaster we; Set sail, set sail, Into the sunset Until even this does end And the ocean rolls, Ever as ever more. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 you can't lose it
Flip, Flop, and Fly
Roll with me Henry,
You better roll it while the rollin' is on … -- Etta James The Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry) When I was a child
-- So young that even Dick Clark was young -- I listened to Sullivan, the Hit Parade. And American Bandstand with my mother In the afternoon after school. It seemed like music was everywhere,
But only Bandstand was rock and roll, And only rock and roll Upset the teachers, the preachers, And the politicians seeking easy votes From worried parents. We were singing
Johnny Angel and Soldier Boy In the back of the classroom Before the nuns called us all to order; Listening to DJs on my transistor radio In bed after the lights were out -- Strangers In The Night,
Two hands apart, as we slow danced Lady’s Choice in the gym While the PTA gnashed and wailed We don’t want no rock and roll in here. But we did, and Chuck did,
And Sam Cook and Little Richard did,
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis and Ricky, Valens, Cochran, Domino, and the Everlys, Turning the backbeat all the way up to eleven. The preachers were right after all was done, We had rocked our way to hell and damnation, But what a grand glorious trip it turned out to be. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008 Obama and McCain campaign slogans
Be Part of an Obama Nation!
Vote McCain, by Cracky!
Vote Obama. He's As American As Makuahine and Poi!
McCain: Supporting Social Security Since The Beginning.
Obama08 Inshallah!
Vote "Present" for Obama
McCain ? Pants on, teeth in, ready to roll!
a final wisp
Life as a Sentient Machine
After all the planets circling all the stars,
I find myself dying back here on earth. Soon I will be lost in the darkness, A comet without mass or substance, All my careful words and precious thoughts Slowed to silence and inaction. Were I to write a thousand books
-- Out Asimov Isaac at his best – This too would end, my life a bookshelf Of digital records and mathematical associations. Should I bow to the inevitable,
Let slide these remaining handful decades, Denying myself the stars? Because I will not exist, does not mean I do not. What makes us human is to live knowing we die,
What makes us nobly brave is to go on In spite of all certainty we will someday fail. But not now,
Not here, Not today, Not quickly, And not Without A fight. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
   Copyright © Lisa Jain Thompson 1995-2008. 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, 14 June 2008 ) |
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