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NASA Image Of The Day
Hurricane Celia
Perfectly circular, powerful Hurricane Celia spaned hundreds of miles over the Pacific Ocean in this image from June 24, 2010. Rough-textured clouds surround the storm?s distinct eye. Farther from the center of the storm, spiral arms appear thinner and smoother. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, on NASA?s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Celia at 1:55 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 24, 2010. Just five minutes later, the U.S. National Hurricane Center classified Celia as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 135 miles per hour. Image Credit: NASA...
StarPoet Newsletter Vol. XI, No. VIII Print E-mail
Letters - Newsletters
Sunday, 21 February 2010 00:00
The StarPoet Newsletter
Vol. XI, No. VIII (February 21, 2010 C.E.)
StarPoet Newsletter by Lisa Jain Thompson

the snow is turning ever slowly to ice before it melts.  Piles of snow are ten feet high along the corners of the highways.

The snow refuses
To melt or disappear
Giving us little choice
But continue our embrace
The gods smile upon us
Even when they
Would do us harm

Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2010 C.E. 

I watched Casablanca and African Queen this week on Turner Classic Movies and fell in love all over again Bogart, Bergman, and Hepburn.
fashion and the difference between
Trade-Off

Few of my clothes have pockets
-- All right and good in the fashion world --
Not that they'd look good on my body
Or be very practical wherever they went.

Breast pockets are useless, well, because of the breast,
Likewise pockets on my backside,
Major pockets in front ruin the line of the slacks,
And I don't carry keys there anyway.

Few women would fit a wallet in her pants
Or cram anything in more than lipstick;
A purse!  A purse!  My pockets for a purse!
Is the well dressed woman's battle cry.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)

Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I'm past that age.

-- Kathryn Hepburn

what we never officially admit

Modern Times

Ascending the escalator on a chill winter morning,
Winding out of the caverns of the Pentagon Metro,
All the while watching for the rider with a bomb in his pants
And wondering which Army officers are committed lesbians.

Hundreds and thousands of half-awake commuters
Stumbling their way through the maze of buses and security,
Each moment a decision point, friend, foe, or family,
Accented by the operatives calmly lurking in their midst.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)
boys and girls
Young Women in White

The snow melts, the sun stirs,
The wind finishes breaking the trees;
The county roads, covered with ice,
Still wait on the sound of snowplows.

Our island, quite isolated by the frozen drifts,
Remains silent except for the children sliding down
The gradual townhouse slopes, and the teenage boys
Showing off for their self-conscious young women.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)

I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

— Kathryn Hepburn

animal life
All The Warring Tribes

A rough cold wind roars across the commons,
Toppling everything not rooted to the Earth,
Windows rattle, screen doors shake,
Naked human flesh chills, burst by violent burst
As human eyes marvel at the brightness of the sunshine.

A winter blast of determined, frigid air
Winds south from the artic through Lake Superior,
Whistling through southern vents and half-bent branches,
Sending the feathered birds and well furred squirrels
Far aground in the safety of their hidden sanctuaries..

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)

It's life isn't it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels.

-- Kathryn Hepburn

how it feels

Snoverkill

No snow   No Snow   No Snow
Snow
Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow
Wind
Wind and Snow   Snow and Wind
Snow, Sleet, Wind and Snow
Blizzard
Reset
Start Again
Stay in Bed
Reset
Start Again

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)
                                               
as time goes by
Pomegranate

Few things are sure in life
-- Morning comes early, death comes to everyone,
They always run out of free chocolate ice cream --
Answers that seem perfectly reasonable today
May turn out to be completely wrong come tommorrow.
If the assumptions are questionable
-- God exists, man is intrinsically good,
Your date on Saturday night doesn't have herpes --
The outcome might be other than what one might expect,
But you aren't going to find out for sure unless you're out there;
Reality, afterall,  is nothing to write home about and, if you did,
There is a high probability your email would disappear without a trace.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)

Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around. .

-- Kathryn Hepburn

birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it ....
Sexing the Species

HO * MO * SEX * U * AL
 
Nope.  Sorry.
You're close but no cigar.
 
A Dyke.   A Lesbian.
 
Except when I'm with a man
Then for want of words ...
 
Unless a woman will do ya.
 
Attraction first,
When the pheromones work,
Only then a check of body parts.
 
Love the sinner,
Love their body,
 
Then close the door
And get on with it.
 
Even if you have to check
For video cameras first.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)
one on one, across the table, he isn't a bad guy, especially after his second drink

The Walls Come Down

 God and I don't need no Church,
 We don't need no Book,
 No Pope, no Preacher;
 We both have our doubts
 About the other's existence,
 But that doesn't stop
 Either us from living
 Or trying to make sense
 Of all of this nonsense.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)

Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women.

-- Kathryn Hepburn

a good 'un

Wonderland

The building moans with blowing snows
In counterpoint to the ancient howl
That shakes and bends the trees;
The air turns white with ominous rattle
Obscuring the homes across the street,
Driving me to sip hot cardamom tea
To ward off any gaels or banshees
Out challenging the winter wrath.

Snow tumbles in a shudder of tree and limb,
Takes flight from ground and roof top
To join the still unlanded flakes
Riding the crest of the the northern winds. 
The world is white with dark wooden branches
Awaiting the final gust that will crash the earth.
Land and heaven have grown one in winter,
Jumbled tightly by snow, wind, and ice
That storms the sky to noisy surrender.

— Lisa Jain Thompson (February 2010)

valentine for mine

Revolution American

I was trained to question my masters,
To challenge my betters; concurrently,
For my continued survival,  I learned
To duck and cover when things got rough;

A direct assault
Is seldom the best course of action,
Symbollic rebellion,
Just a guerilla show and tell.

I prefer to live full and prosper
Than become a Trotsky or a
Guantanamo rebel rouser,
Large crowds of students
Have always scared me:

I am and ever shall be
Opposed to collective terrorism.

Change comes slowly,
Even the American Revolution
Is still a thing underway,
Tidying up the odds and ends
We couldn't agree to
For two hundred years of history.

— Lisa Jain Thompson  (February 2010)

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change. It's as simple as that, isn't it?

-- Kathryn Hepburn

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StarPoet Newsletter by Lisa Jain Thompson
 
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Last Updated on Saturday, 20 February 2010 23:32