If I had some happy pills
I�d swallow them right down,
then they would work their magic
and turn this frown around.
Yes, I wish I had some happy pills,
that�s what I�d like most,
and not just one or two
but a fucking overdose.
. . .Originally appeared in the newsprint pages of Half-Truth, #13, 1993. Actually, it originally appeared, no doubt, in a Mead spiral bound notebook, sometime between 1990 and 1992.
Monday, June 02, 2003
Saturday, May 31, 2003
Well, let's take a trip around Google and Alternet and catch up with recent developments in The George W. Bush World Conquest Tour, Shall we?
Former FCC chairman: Deregulation is a right-wing power grab
The Federal Communications Commission will meet in Washington on Monday for a historic vote on the future of media ownership in the United States. By all accounts, the Republican-dominated commission will ease long-standing rules so that more and more of the nations newspapers and broadcast stations can be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Underlying that agenda, Clinton-era FCC chairman Reed Hundt sees something more primal unfolding: an extraordinary conservative power grab that could shape the political landscape for generations.
For all the philosophical conflict over diversity in the media and the efficiency of the free market, Hunt told Salon this week, the vote is really about an alliance of interests between the political right and the corporate media. "Conservatives," he said, "hope � that the major media will be their friends."
- Salon -
According to The Center for Public Integrity Bush's FCC is already pretty friendly with the media:
Well Connected: FCC and Industry Maintain Cozy Relationship on Many Levels
Those findings come from the Center for Public Integrity�s unprecedented examination of the telecommunications industry, the centerpiece of which is a first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable database containing ownership information on virtually every radio station, television station, cable television system and telephone company in America.
The database reveals that broadcasting and cable behemoths such as Viacom, Clear Channel and Comcast already dominate many of the nation�s media markets, even as the Federal Communications Commission moves to further relax media ownership rules at a meeting scheduled for June 2.
*
The report also explores the close relationship between the FCC and the interests it regulates. FCC officials have taken more than 2,500 trips paid for by companies and trade groups from the telecommunications and broadcasting industries, and the agency increasingly relies on industry-generated data to justify sweeping deregulation proposals.
- The Center for Public Integrity -
The loss of the ether to the corporate Beast will be experienced by the oft evoked entity known as The American People as nothing but a burst of data from the flickering, ever flashing TV screen. A tiny fact, maybe, passing soon into memory and then into nothing at all. If The American People happen to read about the passage of what is rightfully theirs into the hands of The Wealthy Elite in a newspaper, the memory may linger a bit via the medium of newsprint smudged blackly on the fingers. Perhaps they will experience the tragic loss of information as nothing more than a slight touch of dyspepsia disturbing, a moment only, dreams of Freedom.
Ah yes, freedom . . .
Privacy wanes with Patriot Act
Under the USA Patriot Act, signed in 2001 by President Bush in the aftermath of Sept. 11, police agencies now can pry, sometimes without legal probable cause, into personal computer hard drives, request private and personal business and bank records and can solicit a patron's list of library books.
*
The act states that the person under investigation does not have to be a suspect in a crime or the target of an investigation. The act requires that all requested records must be rendered to investigators without a court hearing.
Domestic and international intelligence agencies have these surveillance powers. The act also allows the FBI and CIA to tap into telephones and computers without a court order.
- Venicegondolier.com -
Your Rights: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em
Under current legislation, if you are "suspected" of terrorist activity, you can be picked up and held indefinitely, without charges and without access to a lawyer. If your loved ones call to find out where you are or if you are okay, they will be told nothing. After all, to disclose your whereabouts would infringe on your right to privacy. Don't bother clutching your passport to your chest; this law applies to all U.S. citizens.
And, if currently proposed legislation � PATRIOT Act II � passes, you may no longer even be a citizen. Under PATRIOT II, if you attend a legal protest sponsored by an organization the government has listed as "terrorist," you may be deported and your citizenship revoked. This is true even if you are only suspected of terrorist activity and nothing has been proven. More specifically, according to FindLaw's Anita Ramasastry, a U.S. citizen may be expatriated "if, with the intent to relinquish his nationality, he becomes a member of, or provides material support to, a group that the United Stated has designated as a 'terrorist organization.'"
*
If all this weren't enough, currently proposed legislation would increase the PATRIOT Act's powers. The Center for Public Integrity (www.publicintegrity.org) lists the full provisions of the act, which include, beside the deportation of citizens who are suspected of consorting with or supporting terrorists:
Immunity from liability for law enforcement engaging in spying operations against the American people;
Immunity from liability for businesses and employees that report "suspected terrorists" to the federal government, no matter how unfounded, racist, or malicious the tip may be.
Furthermore, PATRIOT II explicitly allows the indefinite detention of citizens, incommunicado, without charges, and without releasing their names to their own family members.
- Alternet -
Bullets and bombs liberated many Iraqis from Saddam Hussein and some from their lives. Fearmongering and sneaky politics (is that redundant?) are the order of the day here in The Homeland, where The American People, that oft quoted but seldom seen creature, are being liberated from Democracy while they dream of protecting it, all the time not even knowing what it means.
Stone upon stone I see piled upon the fair chest of Lady Liberty.
But wait, what is this I see? Ah, it is that one last in Pandora's box, Hope. . .
100th Civil Liberties Safe Zone!
Hawaii Is the First State to Defy Ashcroft
On May 6, the commissioners of Broward County, Florida, in a unanimous vote, passed the 100th local resolution in the United States proclaiming "a civil liberties safe zone."
These resolutions are directed at the Bush-Ashcroft war on the Bill of Rights. However, the undeterred Attorney General is planning to introduce in Congress USA Patriot Act II, which would much more radically reduce individual liberties in the holy name of national security.
*
In the spirit of Jefferson, on the same day that Broward County became part of the Resistance, it was joined by San Mateo, Marin, and Sausalito counties, all in California. On April 25, Hawaii's legislature passed the first statewide resolution to preserve and protect the Bill of Rights. Alaska followed on May 22. On May 29, Philadelphia became the 116th town or city to pass one of these resolutions.
According to Nancy Talanian, director of the original Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Northampton, Massachusetts�where this grassroots renewal of constitutional democracy started�the term civil liberties zone means "a locale whose local government has passed a resolution declaring its commitment to protect the civil liberties of its residents."
- Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice -
Former FCC chairman: Deregulation is a right-wing power grab
The Federal Communications Commission will meet in Washington on Monday for a historic vote on the future of media ownership in the United States. By all accounts, the Republican-dominated commission will ease long-standing rules so that more and more of the nations newspapers and broadcast stations can be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Underlying that agenda, Clinton-era FCC chairman Reed Hundt sees something more primal unfolding: an extraordinary conservative power grab that could shape the political landscape for generations.
For all the philosophical conflict over diversity in the media and the efficiency of the free market, Hunt told Salon this week, the vote is really about an alliance of interests between the political right and the corporate media. "Conservatives," he said, "hope � that the major media will be their friends."
- Salon -
According to The Center for Public Integrity Bush's FCC is already pretty friendly with the media:
Well Connected: FCC and Industry Maintain Cozy Relationship on Many Levels
Those findings come from the Center for Public Integrity�s unprecedented examination of the telecommunications industry, the centerpiece of which is a first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable database containing ownership information on virtually every radio station, television station, cable television system and telephone company in America.
The database reveals that broadcasting and cable behemoths such as Viacom, Clear Channel and Comcast already dominate many of the nation�s media markets, even as the Federal Communications Commission moves to further relax media ownership rules at a meeting scheduled for June 2.
*
The report also explores the close relationship between the FCC and the interests it regulates. FCC officials have taken more than 2,500 trips paid for by companies and trade groups from the telecommunications and broadcasting industries, and the agency increasingly relies on industry-generated data to justify sweeping deregulation proposals.
- The Center for Public Integrity -
The loss of the ether to the corporate Beast will be experienced by the oft evoked entity known as The American People as nothing but a burst of data from the flickering, ever flashing TV screen. A tiny fact, maybe, passing soon into memory and then into nothing at all. If The American People happen to read about the passage of what is rightfully theirs into the hands of The Wealthy Elite in a newspaper, the memory may linger a bit via the medium of newsprint smudged blackly on the fingers. Perhaps they will experience the tragic loss of information as nothing more than a slight touch of dyspepsia disturbing, a moment only, dreams of Freedom.
Ah yes, freedom . . .
Privacy wanes with Patriot Act
Under the USA Patriot Act, signed in 2001 by President Bush in the aftermath of Sept. 11, police agencies now can pry, sometimes without legal probable cause, into personal computer hard drives, request private and personal business and bank records and can solicit a patron's list of library books.
*
The act states that the person under investigation does not have to be a suspect in a crime or the target of an investigation. The act requires that all requested records must be rendered to investigators without a court hearing.
Domestic and international intelligence agencies have these surveillance powers. The act also allows the FBI and CIA to tap into telephones and computers without a court order.
- Venicegondolier.com -
Your Rights: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em
Under current legislation, if you are "suspected" of terrorist activity, you can be picked up and held indefinitely, without charges and without access to a lawyer. If your loved ones call to find out where you are or if you are okay, they will be told nothing. After all, to disclose your whereabouts would infringe on your right to privacy. Don't bother clutching your passport to your chest; this law applies to all U.S. citizens.
And, if currently proposed legislation � PATRIOT Act II � passes, you may no longer even be a citizen. Under PATRIOT II, if you attend a legal protest sponsored by an organization the government has listed as "terrorist," you may be deported and your citizenship revoked. This is true even if you are only suspected of terrorist activity and nothing has been proven. More specifically, according to FindLaw's Anita Ramasastry, a U.S. citizen may be expatriated "if, with the intent to relinquish his nationality, he becomes a member of, or provides material support to, a group that the United Stated has designated as a 'terrorist organization.'"
*
If all this weren't enough, currently proposed legislation would increase the PATRIOT Act's powers. The Center for Public Integrity (www.publicintegrity.org) lists the full provisions of the act, which include, beside the deportation of citizens who are suspected of consorting with or supporting terrorists:
Immunity from liability for law enforcement engaging in spying operations against the American people;
Immunity from liability for businesses and employees that report "suspected terrorists" to the federal government, no matter how unfounded, racist, or malicious the tip may be.
Furthermore, PATRIOT II explicitly allows the indefinite detention of citizens, incommunicado, without charges, and without releasing their names to their own family members.
- Alternet -
Bullets and bombs liberated many Iraqis from Saddam Hussein and some from their lives. Fearmongering and sneaky politics (is that redundant?) are the order of the day here in The Homeland, where The American People, that oft quoted but seldom seen creature, are being liberated from Democracy while they dream of protecting it, all the time not even knowing what it means.
Stone upon stone I see piled upon the fair chest of Lady Liberty.
But wait, what is this I see? Ah, it is that one last in Pandora's box, Hope. . .
100th Civil Liberties Safe Zone!
Hawaii Is the First State to Defy Ashcroft
On May 6, the commissioners of Broward County, Florida, in a unanimous vote, passed the 100th local resolution in the United States proclaiming "a civil liberties safe zone."
These resolutions are directed at the Bush-Ashcroft war on the Bill of Rights. However, the undeterred Attorney General is planning to introduce in Congress USA Patriot Act II, which would much more radically reduce individual liberties in the holy name of national security.
*
In the spirit of Jefferson, on the same day that Broward County became part of the Resistance, it was joined by San Mateo, Marin, and Sausalito counties, all in California. On April 25, Hawaii's legislature passed the first statewide resolution to preserve and protect the Bill of Rights. Alaska followed on May 22. On May 29, Philadelphia became the 116th town or city to pass one of these resolutions.
According to Nancy Talanian, director of the original Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Northampton, Massachusetts�where this grassroots renewal of constitutional democracy started�the term civil liberties zone means "a locale whose local government has passed a resolution declaring its commitment to protect the civil liberties of its residents."
- Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice -
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Proof of Providence?
53 years ago -
your very first breath.
Happy birthday, Sarah.
I was born for you and you for me.
(sorry I was 17 years late but who am I to argue with Fate?)
53 years ago -
your very first breath.
Happy birthday, Sarah.
I was born for you and you for me.
(sorry I was 17 years late but who am I to argue with Fate?)
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
I wonder. . .
Am I a poet?
Or merely a stringer together,
as glass beads on a wire,
of all too gaudy words?
Though the metaphor is none too sure
it occurs to me that airplanes
and bats (on leathery wings!)
fly but are not birds.
Hah!
I have cast my baubles before she who sings,
I have struck pen over the flint of paper,
played with fire.
Word against word spitting sparks,
sentences glowing like tapers
in the dark
in the dark
in
the
dark. . .
Am I a poet?
Or merely a stringer together,
as glass beads on a wire,
of all too gaudy words?
Though the metaphor is none too sure
it occurs to me that airplanes
and bats (on leathery wings!)
fly but are not birds.
Hah!
I have cast my baubles before she who sings,
I have struck pen over the flint of paper,
played with fire.
Word against word spitting sparks,
sentences glowing like tapers
in the dark
in the dark
in
the
dark. . .
Saturday, May 24, 2003
It's beginning to appear more and more as if the Bush Administration were rather creative with the data they presented concerning Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction".
CIA to review Iraq intelligence for bias, accuracy; House lawmakers question whether data was manipulated to justify war
The CIA review, coupled with the letter sent to Tenet by the House intelligence panel, follows criticism that the Defense Department, particularly a new Pentagon intelligence office, and other parts of the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to make the case for war in Iraq.
- Washington Post via SF Gate-
*
Blix suspects there are no weapons of mass destruction
Dr Blix, who retires next month, has previously condemned as "shaky" the evidence presented by British and American intelligence before the war, and said that it was "conspicuous" that they had failed to make significant discoveries after the war.
But in yesterday's interview, he went further. He said: "The main justification for the war was weapons of mass destruction, and it may turn out that in this respect the war was not justified."
-Guardian-
If there is such a thing as a just war, Bush's Iraq adventure was not it. The invoking of weapons of mass destruction as a justification for the invasion of Iraq was clearly a tactic employed to frighten and deceive. I'm sure this space has seen me denouncing the flimsily manufactured "evidence" for these weapons before. I am not even the tiniest bit surprised that these frightening weapons of mass destruction have yet to be unearthed. What surprises me is that no "evidence" of this dissipating justification for war has been planted in the Iraqi sand by the US or it's agents. Yet.
Meanwhile, as the story of Saddam's arsenal unravels, the Bush administration mounts a stunning campaign of military hypocrisy.
House approves GOP plan for nukes
The House vote followed Senate approval late Tuesday for a nuclear bunker buster dubbed the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, and for loosening a 1993 ban on development of low-yield nuclear weapons.
While the provisions won't be signed into law for weeks, the House and Senate votes within two days granted the Bush administration the most aggressive change in U.S. nuclear policy since the Cold War.
-Tri-Valley Herald-
*
Tiny nukes: big problem- Itsy bitsy Armageddons
The US Senate has bowed to the Dr. Strangelove dream of Donald Rumsfeld, and lifted a ten-year-old ban on research and development of smaller battlefield nuclear weapons. The action paves the way for the creation of a whole new range of numerous small, "usable" nuclear weapons.
-Greenpeace-
The sheer gall of Bush and his gang never ceases to amaze me. Invade a sovereign nation on the pretense that they possess weapons dangerous to the world and then propose the development of nuclear weapons. But perhaps there is no hypocrisy there, really. Saddam, after all, might have had weapons of mass destruction, Bush is rallying for weapons of limited destruction. Tiny little warheads much like his own.
Little Guns
Tiny people, with little guns
Little armies march, to little drums
What do they want?
What do they want?
Tiny soldiers, with little guns
Little tanks, no bigger than your thumb
They want you
Little people, with tiny brains
Little bullets flowing, in their veins
What do they want?
What do they want?
Tiny people with little guns
Little armies march, to little drums
They want you, you
You, you, you, you
Little airplanes, with tiny bombs
Little squadrons, dropping thimbles of Napalm
They want you
What do they want?
What do they want?
Tiny people, with little guns
Little armies march, to little drums
You, you
You, you, you, you
Tiny people, little guns
Tiny people, little guns
Tiny people, little guns
-Oingo Boingo-
CIA to review Iraq intelligence for bias, accuracy; House lawmakers question whether data was manipulated to justify war
The CIA review, coupled with the letter sent to Tenet by the House intelligence panel, follows criticism that the Defense Department, particularly a new Pentagon intelligence office, and other parts of the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to make the case for war in Iraq.
- Washington Post via SF Gate-
*
Blix suspects there are no weapons of mass destruction
Dr Blix, who retires next month, has previously condemned as "shaky" the evidence presented by British and American intelligence before the war, and said that it was "conspicuous" that they had failed to make significant discoveries after the war.
But in yesterday's interview, he went further. He said: "The main justification for the war was weapons of mass destruction, and it may turn out that in this respect the war was not justified."
-Guardian-
If there is such a thing as a just war, Bush's Iraq adventure was not it. The invoking of weapons of mass destruction as a justification for the invasion of Iraq was clearly a tactic employed to frighten and deceive. I'm sure this space has seen me denouncing the flimsily manufactured "evidence" for these weapons before. I am not even the tiniest bit surprised that these frightening weapons of mass destruction have yet to be unearthed. What surprises me is that no "evidence" of this dissipating justification for war has been planted in the Iraqi sand by the US or it's agents. Yet.
Meanwhile, as the story of Saddam's arsenal unravels, the Bush administration mounts a stunning campaign of military hypocrisy.
House approves GOP plan for nukes
The House vote followed Senate approval late Tuesday for a nuclear bunker buster dubbed the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, and for loosening a 1993 ban on development of low-yield nuclear weapons.
While the provisions won't be signed into law for weeks, the House and Senate votes within two days granted the Bush administration the most aggressive change in U.S. nuclear policy since the Cold War.
-Tri-Valley Herald-
*
Tiny nukes: big problem- Itsy bitsy Armageddons
The US Senate has bowed to the Dr. Strangelove dream of Donald Rumsfeld, and lifted a ten-year-old ban on research and development of smaller battlefield nuclear weapons. The action paves the way for the creation of a whole new range of numerous small, "usable" nuclear weapons.
-Greenpeace-
The sheer gall of Bush and his gang never ceases to amaze me. Invade a sovereign nation on the pretense that they possess weapons dangerous to the world and then propose the development of nuclear weapons. But perhaps there is no hypocrisy there, really. Saddam, after all, might have had weapons of mass destruction, Bush is rallying for weapons of limited destruction. Tiny little warheads much like his own.
Little Guns
Tiny people, with little guns
Little armies march, to little drums
What do they want?
What do they want?
Tiny soldiers, with little guns
Little tanks, no bigger than your thumb
They want you
Little people, with tiny brains
Little bullets flowing, in their veins
What do they want?
What do they want?
Tiny people with little guns
Little armies march, to little drums
They want you, you
You, you, you, you
Little airplanes, with tiny bombs
Little squadrons, dropping thimbles of Napalm
They want you
What do they want?
What do they want?
Tiny people, with little guns
Little armies march, to little drums
You, you
You, you, you, you
Tiny people, little guns
Tiny people, little guns
Tiny people, little guns
-Oingo Boingo-
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Friday, May 16, 2003
The thought that Sarah and myself ought to avail ourselves of local parks and resources more than we do has been gaining momentum in my head for some time now. We were going to investigate a local farmer's market and walk around Lake Merritt tomorrow but those activities have been scaled down to make room for a matinee screening of The Matrix:Reloaded at the historic Grand Lake Theater.
Ironic, isn't it, that I'm pushing back the real world to enter a fantasy one? Hah! At least the theater (and it is a fairly grand one) is within walking distance of the farmer's market and at least a portion of the lake (fairly grand too).
The Matrix, as you know if you read my last post, has been occupying my mind these days. I couldn't help but think of Agent Smith, for instance, when I caught up on some recent news:
Big-Fish Stocks Fall 90 Percent Since 1950, Study Says
"The impact we have had on ocean ecosystems has been vastly underestimated," said co-author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University and the University of Kiel in Germany. "These are the megafauna, the big predators of the sea, and the species we most value. Their depletion not only threatens the future of these fish and the fishers that depend on them, it could also bring about a complete re-organization of ocean ecosystems, with unknown global consequences."
- from NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM -
Humans Are Driving Birds to Extinction, Group Warns
Humans are singled out in a recent report as the cause of what many scientists believe is the biggest mass extinction of animals in 65 million years. Published by the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S.-based environmental research organization, the report says scientists' fears are backed up by plummeting bird populations.
- also from NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM -
Great ape populations are declining at an alarming rate world-wide. The continuing destruction of habitat, in combination with the growth in the commercial bushmeat trade in Africa and increased logging activities in Indonesia, have lead scientists to suggest that the majority of great ape populations will be extinct in the next ten to twenty years.
- from The Great Ape Survival Project -
What was it Agent Smith said to Morpheus in The Matrix about we humans?
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation I had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify
your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a
natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply
until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is
another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are
a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.
- Agent Smith sharing his ideas about humanity in The Matrix (1999, Warner Bros.) -
I must admit that during my more pessemistic moods/modes I have entertained thoughts about humanity very much like those of that sentient program and oppressor of humanity, Agent Smith. But, honestly, I will be rooting for Neo and the humans tomorrow in that darkened room, pictures flashing before my eyes. . .
Ironic, isn't it, that I'm pushing back the real world to enter a fantasy one? Hah! At least the theater (and it is a fairly grand one) is within walking distance of the farmer's market and at least a portion of the lake (fairly grand too).
The Matrix, as you know if you read my last post, has been occupying my mind these days. I couldn't help but think of Agent Smith, for instance, when I caught up on some recent news:
Big-Fish Stocks Fall 90 Percent Since 1950, Study Says
"The impact we have had on ocean ecosystems has been vastly underestimated," said co-author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University and the University of Kiel in Germany. "These are the megafauna, the big predators of the sea, and the species we most value. Their depletion not only threatens the future of these fish and the fishers that depend on them, it could also bring about a complete re-organization of ocean ecosystems, with unknown global consequences."
- from NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM -
Humans Are Driving Birds to Extinction, Group Warns
Humans are singled out in a recent report as the cause of what many scientists believe is the biggest mass extinction of animals in 65 million years. Published by the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S.-based environmental research organization, the report says scientists' fears are backed up by plummeting bird populations.
- also from NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM -
Great ape populations are declining at an alarming rate world-wide. The continuing destruction of habitat, in combination with the growth in the commercial bushmeat trade in Africa and increased logging activities in Indonesia, have lead scientists to suggest that the majority of great ape populations will be extinct in the next ten to twenty years.
- from The Great Ape Survival Project -
What was it Agent Smith said to Morpheus in The Matrix about we humans?
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation I had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify
your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a
natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply
until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is
another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are
a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.
- Agent Smith sharing his ideas about humanity in The Matrix (1999, Warner Bros.) -
I must admit that during my more pessemistic moods/modes I have entertained thoughts about humanity very much like those of that sentient program and oppressor of humanity, Agent Smith. But, honestly, I will be rooting for Neo and the humans tomorrow in that darkened room, pictures flashing before my eyes. . .
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Morpheus: . . . Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix?
- Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) introducing Neo (Keanu Reeves) to The Matrix (Warner Bros., 1999) -
I�m talking about The Matrix too. Often these days with the imminent release of Reloaded across millions and millions of movie screens and the simultaneous download of the movie into millions and millions of brains. It�s been many years since I have been so. . . well. . . excited about a big Hollywood movie. Or, as I think more accurately describes Hollywood�s typical fare these days, big commercial product. The Matrix, while certainly a money making venture for all or most involved is, I think, something more than typical big movie fare.
I never thought I would find myself saying such a thing about a movie starring Keanu Reeves but there you have it.
I did not see The Matrix during its theatrical release in �99 but soon after the film appeared at my friendly neighborhood video shop. Sarah and me watched and each of us was left with the same impression as the end credits rolled - what great ideas left cowering undeveloped in the shadows of mind warping special effects and adrenaline rush action scenes. Or something to that effect. Still, something drew me back to the beginning of the M�s in the Science Fiction section of my video rental place (in Orlando at the time) and I watched The Matrix a second time.
This second viewing was some weeks after the first and I happened to be reading at the time Joseph Campbell�s classic study of mythology, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell�s book illuminated the movie for me. I recognized myriad mythological motifs and archetypes not only threading the film but weaving it into being, the essence of the story itself.
Neo�s journey in The Matrix is one of awakening � what Campbell termed The Hero�s Journey. It is a journey we all must make and will take if we are following the true paths of our respective lives. Neo becomes a new, awakened man capable of amazing things within The Matrix and the most amazing thing of all is that, like a real Bohdisattva, he will remain within the illusion of The Matrix and point the way toward the real world for the rest of us:
Neo: . . . I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.
- Neo promising to liberate the mind from the machine in The Matrix (Warner Bros., 1999) �
The fact that this particular version of The Hero�s Journey includes eye bending, mind popping, envelope pushing special effects and catch your breath action sequences does not, of necessity, diminish the message of redemption, liberation and ultimate atonement at the heart of the story. Contrary, it is this fact that makes the movie such a potent and viable medium in this day and age for the tale of the hero within each of us.
There is much more going on in The Matrix than gee whiz effects and catch your breath action sequences. But don�t take my word for it. . .
Matrix Essays
Philosophy and The Matrix
Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix
These movies are stimulating a lot of action and most of it is not, fortunately, gun play or Kung Fu fighting but the energy created by brains firing and hearts stirring toward the greater truth pointed to by the Wachowski Brothers and countless tellers of tales before them.
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix?
- Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) introducing Neo (Keanu Reeves) to The Matrix (Warner Bros., 1999) -
I�m talking about The Matrix too. Often these days with the imminent release of Reloaded across millions and millions of movie screens and the simultaneous download of the movie into millions and millions of brains. It�s been many years since I have been so. . . well. . . excited about a big Hollywood movie. Or, as I think more accurately describes Hollywood�s typical fare these days, big commercial product. The Matrix, while certainly a money making venture for all or most involved is, I think, something more than typical big movie fare.
I never thought I would find myself saying such a thing about a movie starring Keanu Reeves but there you have it.
I did not see The Matrix during its theatrical release in �99 but soon after the film appeared at my friendly neighborhood video shop. Sarah and me watched and each of us was left with the same impression as the end credits rolled - what great ideas left cowering undeveloped in the shadows of mind warping special effects and adrenaline rush action scenes. Or something to that effect. Still, something drew me back to the beginning of the M�s in the Science Fiction section of my video rental place (in Orlando at the time) and I watched The Matrix a second time.
This second viewing was some weeks after the first and I happened to be reading at the time Joseph Campbell�s classic study of mythology, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell�s book illuminated the movie for me. I recognized myriad mythological motifs and archetypes not only threading the film but weaving it into being, the essence of the story itself.
Neo�s journey in The Matrix is one of awakening � what Campbell termed The Hero�s Journey. It is a journey we all must make and will take if we are following the true paths of our respective lives. Neo becomes a new, awakened man capable of amazing things within The Matrix and the most amazing thing of all is that, like a real Bohdisattva, he will remain within the illusion of The Matrix and point the way toward the real world for the rest of us:
Neo: . . . I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.
- Neo promising to liberate the mind from the machine in The Matrix (Warner Bros., 1999) �
The fact that this particular version of The Hero�s Journey includes eye bending, mind popping, envelope pushing special effects and catch your breath action sequences does not, of necessity, diminish the message of redemption, liberation and ultimate atonement at the heart of the story. Contrary, it is this fact that makes the movie such a potent and viable medium in this day and age for the tale of the hero within each of us.
There is much more going on in The Matrix than gee whiz effects and catch your breath action sequences. But don�t take my word for it. . .
Matrix Essays
Philosophy and The Matrix
Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix
These movies are stimulating a lot of action and most of it is not, fortunately, gun play or Kung Fu fighting but the energy created by brains firing and hearts stirring toward the greater truth pointed to by the Wachowski Brothers and countless tellers of tales before them.
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Downtown San Francisco (from the 38 Geary)
This side of the street:
a playground full of children,
laughing in the sun.
Cross over: LIVE NUDE GIRLS,
palace of porn, dark doorways.
This side of the street:
a playground full of children,
laughing in the sun.
Cross over: LIVE NUDE GIRLS,
palace of porn, dark doorways.
Sunday, April 27, 2003
A brief letter of thanks to Sinead O' Connor
Ms. O' Connor, Sinead if I may be so bold, I have not exactly kept up with you past your first two albums (The Lion and the Cobra, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got). I don't know why. Each of those albums maintains a special place not only in my CD collection but in my heart. Really. Your talent amazes me. Your voice awes me. Your heart of fire and love as revealed through your art and "politics" is an inspiration to me.
I have been aware of the controversy that has swirled around you. I didn�t see you rip the Pope in two but, I must say, I would like to. I admire the courage you have displayed throughout what I know of your life and your career. I admire the convictions from which that courage springs.
Through your music and your conscience you have made an impact on a world that needs more of both. Real music. Real conscience. You are an artist of the truest stripe.
Your desire to retire from the ever hungry public eye is understandable. I can�t imagine the fame you have known. It seems that it must be strangely liberating and suffocating to be so famous. For all that, you were never a Celebrity. Those convictions and that conscience I mentioned above precluded that for you, I think. You were and continue to be a real person with a beautiful heart and a voice like a heavenly choir.
Step out of the spotlight now if you must. May blessings light your way off the stage and on through life.
Thank you for singing your songs.
Singer Sinead O'Connor says she will retire in July
Ms. O' Connor, Sinead if I may be so bold, I have not exactly kept up with you past your first two albums (The Lion and the Cobra, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got). I don't know why. Each of those albums maintains a special place not only in my CD collection but in my heart. Really. Your talent amazes me. Your voice awes me. Your heart of fire and love as revealed through your art and "politics" is an inspiration to me.
I have been aware of the controversy that has swirled around you. I didn�t see you rip the Pope in two but, I must say, I would like to. I admire the courage you have displayed throughout what I know of your life and your career. I admire the convictions from which that courage springs.
Through your music and your conscience you have made an impact on a world that needs more of both. Real music. Real conscience. You are an artist of the truest stripe.
Your desire to retire from the ever hungry public eye is understandable. I can�t imagine the fame you have known. It seems that it must be strangely liberating and suffocating to be so famous. For all that, you were never a Celebrity. Those convictions and that conscience I mentioned above precluded that for you, I think. You were and continue to be a real person with a beautiful heart and a voice like a heavenly choir.
Step out of the spotlight now if you must. May blessings light your way off the stage and on through life.
Thank you for singing your songs.
Singer Sinead O'Connor says she will retire in July
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Inspired, perhaps, by my most recent publication in Short Stuff or, maybe, my happy finding of a Mead composition book just waiting for it's college ruled lines to be filled with my mad scrawl, I have recently begun keeping what I refer to as - for lack of a better title - a haiku journal.
I have kept a running notebook - in which I scribble poems, stories, odd thoughts and varied mental detritus - for more years than I could tell but this is different. How? While I have written haiku in my notebooks for years now, they have shared the pages with other works from my head such as metered rhyme and free verse dabblings in poetry and prose. I have never kept an exclusively haiku notebook - or, as I really prefer to call my experiments in the ancient Japanese art, haiku inspired forms (or HIF's).
My motivation in keeping this haiku journal is to keep a record in words of specific moments from this tiny life of mine. Scroll through the last four posts below and you will see examples from four different days. I aim to make regular entries, two or three a week at least. I have resisted imposing too strict a deadline on this as I have found that to be a creative burden in the past.
I have discovered in the two weeks since I started this experiment that, beyond a mere exercise in writing, this journal is becoming something akin to a meditation. Yes. My long time enthusiasm for zen and haiku has brought me at last to this ideal form of meditation (at the moment and for myself, anyway, who can never sit still long enough for Zazen) . The Way of Poetry.
Of course, this way is not new and is, in fact, well trodden. Basho, the father of the haiku form, laid this way long centuries ago and describes best what I, aspiring for unity, can only hope to achieve through the vehicle of poetry.
What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding, and, returning to the world of our daily experience, to seek therein the truth of beauty. No matter what we may be doing at a given moment, we must not forget that it has a bearing upon our everlasting self which is poetry.
- Basho, quoted in Matsuo Basho and Zen Haiku, brought to you by The Minnesota Zen Center -
Indeed! Every moment is Holy and through the awareness which the capturing of the haiku moment entails, one is made increasingly. . . well, aware of that single line of poetry that runs through everything. And I do mean everything.
Coughing up his soul,
our neighbor across the street.
Every day
a new piece lost. . .
- the first entry from my journal, 4/9/03 -
spin cycle rumbles
washing machine shakes and rolls
unbalanced load
- 4/13/03 -
From the life altering mundanity of illness to the daily chore variety, it is all worth something more than we can imagine. My goal in working with HIF's is to realize that and, what's more, to remember it every moment.
I have kept a running notebook - in which I scribble poems, stories, odd thoughts and varied mental detritus - for more years than I could tell but this is different. How? While I have written haiku in my notebooks for years now, they have shared the pages with other works from my head such as metered rhyme and free verse dabblings in poetry and prose. I have never kept an exclusively haiku notebook - or, as I really prefer to call my experiments in the ancient Japanese art, haiku inspired forms (or HIF's).
My motivation in keeping this haiku journal is to keep a record in words of specific moments from this tiny life of mine. Scroll through the last four posts below and you will see examples from four different days. I aim to make regular entries, two or three a week at least. I have resisted imposing too strict a deadline on this as I have found that to be a creative burden in the past.
I have discovered in the two weeks since I started this experiment that, beyond a mere exercise in writing, this journal is becoming something akin to a meditation. Yes. My long time enthusiasm for zen and haiku has brought me at last to this ideal form of meditation (at the moment and for myself, anyway, who can never sit still long enough for Zazen) . The Way of Poetry.
Of course, this way is not new and is, in fact, well trodden. Basho, the father of the haiku form, laid this way long centuries ago and describes best what I, aspiring for unity, can only hope to achieve through the vehicle of poetry.
What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding, and, returning to the world of our daily experience, to seek therein the truth of beauty. No matter what we may be doing at a given moment, we must not forget that it has a bearing upon our everlasting self which is poetry.
- Basho, quoted in Matsuo Basho and Zen Haiku, brought to you by The Minnesota Zen Center -
Indeed! Every moment is Holy and through the awareness which the capturing of the haiku moment entails, one is made increasingly. . . well, aware of that single line of poetry that runs through everything. And I do mean everything.
Coughing up his soul,
our neighbor across the street.
Every day
a new piece lost. . .
- the first entry from my journal, 4/9/03 -
spin cycle rumbles
washing machine shakes and rolls
unbalanced load
- 4/13/03 -
From the life altering mundanity of illness to the daily chore variety, it is all worth something more than we can imagine. My goal in working with HIF's is to realize that and, what's more, to remember it every moment.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Sunday, April 20, 2003
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Under the Patriot Act, librarians and booksellers are required to open their records to the FBI so the feds can trace a person's Internet activities and the books he's been reading and buying. Since these investigations are conducted in secret, the librarians and booksellers are bound under a gag order not to divulge one word of what the FBI is after, nor, indeed, even mention that they have received a visit from the FBI. Librarians fear criminal prosecution should they talk. . ..
-from Throwing the Book At Us by James Ridgway, The Village Voice-
Hmmmm. . . I'm a bit confused here. Who, exactly, is the patriot described by The Patriot Act in the above situation? Is it the librarians and book vendors being victimized by shadowy Federal Agents? Or is it the shadowy Federal Agents conducting secretive searches and seizures, often not only of information but of people as in the case of Maher Mofied Hawash:
Friends rally to free Hillsboro man in federal custody
Maher Mofied Hawash, a U.S. citizen since 1988, has been in federal custody since March 20, and authorities refuse to say why.
There's no public record of his arrest, the search warrants filed on his Hillsboro home or office are sealed, and a federal judge has ordered defense lawyers and prosecutors not to discuss it.
-MARK LARABEE, The Oregonian-
Or, perhaps it is people like the oft quoted of late Sgt. Eric Schrumpf of The United States Marines:
"We had a great day," said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines last Saturday (April 5). "We killed a lot of people."
He added: "We dropped a few civilians, but what do you do?" He said there were women standing near an Iraqi soldier, and one of them fell when he and other Marines opened fire. "I'm sorry," said Sgt Schrumpf, "but the chick was in the way".
- As reported by by John Pilger-
I'm really not sure about the others - the harrassed librarians and secretive Federal Agents, I mean - but a marine unafraid to kill innocent people sounds like a real patriot. And don't be modest Sgt. Schrumpf! A few civilians? The marines are better shots than that.
U.N. Condemns 'Incredible' Civilian Deaths
The rising number of civilian deaths in Iraq - caused mostly by heavy U.S. firepower - has evoked strong protests and condemnation by senior U.N. officials and global human rights and humanitarian groups.
. . .the 'New York Times' said Thursday that the number of civilians killed will never be known. . .
-Thalif Deen, IPS-
It's true that we will never know how many innocent people were liberated in the ultimate sense as a result of Bush's invasion of Iraq, but the folks keeping tabs at Iraq Body Count figure at least 1,160 individual lives have been given the freedom of the grave at the time of this writing by the U.S and it's allies.
And we're Cheering.
New Yorkers Gather to Rally US Troops
As many as 15,000 New Yorkers, mostly union workers, gathered Thursday at the site of the devastated World Trade Center, known as Ground Zero, for a rally in support of U.S. troops in Iraq.
New York Governor George Pataki led the flag-waving crowd in roars of approval for U.S. troops. Mr. Pataki reminded the crowd of the significance of the rally site.
"I am proud of all of you, not just because you are here today," he said. "But for many of us in New York, the war in Iraq did not start when the bullets started in March. The war started right here on September 11, 2001."
Don't you mean the war on Iraq, Mr. Pataki? Or, perhaps, The war on Democracy? The War on Morality? The War for profit? Are our eyes, yours and mine, really possessed of such different vision that you see Good where I see Evil? That you see Saddam Hussein as a villain where I see him as a villain, yes, but also a convenient scapegoat and old friend of fearless Donald Rumsfeld?
The Saddam in Rumsfeld's Closet
In 1984, Donald Rumsfeld was in a position to draw the world�s attention to Saddam�s chemical threat. He was in Baghdad as the UN concluded that chemical weapons had been used against Iran. He was armed with a fresh communication from the State Department that it had "available evidence" Iraq was using chemical weapons. But Rumsfeld said nothing.
-Jeremy Scahill, Common Dreams-
Rumsfeld said nothing, indeed. Well let it stand on the record that I am saying something. This war is wrong no matter how right it may seem in ridding the world of a despotic scoundrel. With every bomb that drops we are sowing seeds that will bear poisonous fruit while their roots burrow deep and spread cancerous tendrils through the ground beneath our feet, honeycombing the planet 'till we are standing on shaky earth undermined by our own worst qualities.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,"--in those who harbour such thoughts hatred will never cease.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,"--in those who do not harbour such thoughts hatred will cease.
For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
-from The Dhammapada, Chapter I: The Twin-Verses-
-from Throwing the Book At Us by James Ridgway, The Village Voice-
Hmmmm. . . I'm a bit confused here. Who, exactly, is the patriot described by The Patriot Act in the above situation? Is it the librarians and book vendors being victimized by shadowy Federal Agents? Or is it the shadowy Federal Agents conducting secretive searches and seizures, often not only of information but of people as in the case of Maher Mofied Hawash:
Friends rally to free Hillsboro man in federal custody
Maher Mofied Hawash, a U.S. citizen since 1988, has been in federal custody since March 20, and authorities refuse to say why.
There's no public record of his arrest, the search warrants filed on his Hillsboro home or office are sealed, and a federal judge has ordered defense lawyers and prosecutors not to discuss it.
-MARK LARABEE, The Oregonian-
Or, perhaps it is people like the oft quoted of late Sgt. Eric Schrumpf of The United States Marines:
"We had a great day," said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines last Saturday (April 5). "We killed a lot of people."
He added: "We dropped a few civilians, but what do you do?" He said there were women standing near an Iraqi soldier, and one of them fell when he and other Marines opened fire. "I'm sorry," said Sgt Schrumpf, "but the chick was in the way".
- As reported by by John Pilger-
I'm really not sure about the others - the harrassed librarians and secretive Federal Agents, I mean - but a marine unafraid to kill innocent people sounds like a real patriot. And don't be modest Sgt. Schrumpf! A few civilians? The marines are better shots than that.
U.N. Condemns 'Incredible' Civilian Deaths
The rising number of civilian deaths in Iraq - caused mostly by heavy U.S. firepower - has evoked strong protests and condemnation by senior U.N. officials and global human rights and humanitarian groups.
. . .the 'New York Times' said Thursday that the number of civilians killed will never be known. . .
-Thalif Deen, IPS-
It's true that we will never know how many innocent people were liberated in the ultimate sense as a result of Bush's invasion of Iraq, but the folks keeping tabs at Iraq Body Count figure at least 1,160 individual lives have been given the freedom of the grave at the time of this writing by the U.S and it's allies.
And we're Cheering.
New Yorkers Gather to Rally US Troops
As many as 15,000 New Yorkers, mostly union workers, gathered Thursday at the site of the devastated World Trade Center, known as Ground Zero, for a rally in support of U.S. troops in Iraq.
New York Governor George Pataki led the flag-waving crowd in roars of approval for U.S. troops. Mr. Pataki reminded the crowd of the significance of the rally site.
"I am proud of all of you, not just because you are here today," he said. "But for many of us in New York, the war in Iraq did not start when the bullets started in March. The war started right here on September 11, 2001."
Don't you mean the war on Iraq, Mr. Pataki? Or, perhaps, The war on Democracy? The War on Morality? The War for profit? Are our eyes, yours and mine, really possessed of such different vision that you see Good where I see Evil? That you see Saddam Hussein as a villain where I see him as a villain, yes, but also a convenient scapegoat and old friend of fearless Donald Rumsfeld?
The Saddam in Rumsfeld's Closet
In 1984, Donald Rumsfeld was in a position to draw the world�s attention to Saddam�s chemical threat. He was in Baghdad as the UN concluded that chemical weapons had been used against Iran. He was armed with a fresh communication from the State Department that it had "available evidence" Iraq was using chemical weapons. But Rumsfeld said nothing.
-Jeremy Scahill, Common Dreams-
Rumsfeld said nothing, indeed. Well let it stand on the record that I am saying something. This war is wrong no matter how right it may seem in ridding the world of a despotic scoundrel. With every bomb that drops we are sowing seeds that will bear poisonous fruit while their roots burrow deep and spread cancerous tendrils through the ground beneath our feet, honeycombing the planet 'till we are standing on shaky earth undermined by our own worst qualities.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,"--in those who harbour such thoughts hatred will never cease.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me,"--in those who do not harbour such thoughts hatred will cease.
For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
-from The Dhammapada, Chapter I: The Twin-Verses-
Monday, April 07, 2003
"I can remember with perfect clarity Robert Creeley telling his students in 1968, 'If you don't have to write poetry, for God's sake don't.' And I loved it. I follow in a long line of Zen fools who love poetry and feel compelled to write it."
- Sam Hamill recollecting Creeley, from an interview in the Winter 02/03 issue of Rain Taxi -
I haven't written much poetry lately. But not for lack of love, or need. More accountable, I think, for the paucity of poetry in my pen (!) is a general malaise of the spirit - a product of the dark days we are wading through. Or, it could be my idle nature. I'm in love but I'm lazy as Paul sang so long ago. I am enamored of Poetry to the depths of my soul but she is a demanding mistress and I am a lazy thinker.
Is it my lazy ways that have led me in recent years to the reading and writing of haiku and tanka and an appreciation of the short and sweet in general? No, I don't think so. Haiku is not a lazy man's art. It is a sharpening of focus and an exercising of keen awareness which, paradoxically enough, is absolutely no work at all when done right. The lazy, however, will never know the essence of inaction that the haiku inspired poet or the Zen master channels into his or her "work" and life.
I don't claim to write haiku, of course, but what I call haiku inspired forms. I make this distinction because I take many liberties with the rules of traditional haiku, and perhaps with the modern form as well, while remaining true, I think, to the sense of moment that is the essence of haiku.
In any case, the folks at Short Stuff seem to think I'm doing something right. They've accepted two more pieces of my short poetry and brought them to light in the April '03 edition. I will, no doubt, add the link to the My Words on the Web section to the left but, until then, you can read them here if you, like Mr. Hamill above and myself, love poetry and think you might have a place in your heart for mine:
Two from me to you, Short Stuff (April 2003)
- Sam Hamill recollecting Creeley, from an interview in the Winter 02/03 issue of Rain Taxi -
I haven't written much poetry lately. But not for lack of love, or need. More accountable, I think, for the paucity of poetry in my pen (!) is a general malaise of the spirit - a product of the dark days we are wading through. Or, it could be my idle nature. I'm in love but I'm lazy as Paul sang so long ago. I am enamored of Poetry to the depths of my soul but she is a demanding mistress and I am a lazy thinker.
Is it my lazy ways that have led me in recent years to the reading and writing of haiku and tanka and an appreciation of the short and sweet in general? No, I don't think so. Haiku is not a lazy man's art. It is a sharpening of focus and an exercising of keen awareness which, paradoxically enough, is absolutely no work at all when done right. The lazy, however, will never know the essence of inaction that the haiku inspired poet or the Zen master channels into his or her "work" and life.
I don't claim to write haiku, of course, but what I call haiku inspired forms. I make this distinction because I take many liberties with the rules of traditional haiku, and perhaps with the modern form as well, while remaining true, I think, to the sense of moment that is the essence of haiku.
In any case, the folks at Short Stuff seem to think I'm doing something right. They've accepted two more pieces of my short poetry and brought them to light in the April '03 edition. I will, no doubt, add the link to the My Words on the Web section to the left but, until then, you can read them here if you, like Mr. Hamill above and myself, love poetry and think you might have a place in your heart for mine:
Two from me to you, Short Stuff (April 2003)
Friday, April 04, 2003
Congress moves quickly to give administration nearly $80 billion for war costs
80. . . billion. . . dolllars. . .
And that, no doubt, is only the tip of the tip of the financial iceberg that will be floating Bush's Iraqi adventure. Probably doesn't even account for the billions that were spent in deploying the troops to the gulf before they stormed Saddam's oil rich shores. It can only barely account for the relief and restoration that must follow in their bloody footsteps (if and when this war ever ends).
I'm no economist, it's true. I can't even tell you how many zeros there are in 80 Billion. Quite a few, I reckon. I do know that is an awful lot of money to be spending in foreign lands when one's own home is crumbling around one's ears.
State budget gaps soar
The deteriorating situation could prompt more cuts in a wide range of programs such as elementary schools, health care for the poor and more. Additionally, it will increase pressure on state lawmakers to raise taxes.
State budget deficits may mean health care cuts and worse
The budget deficits now looming over state governments will likely reach $60 billion to $85 billion in state fiscal year 2004 and constitute the largest state budget gaps in half a century, a Washington research and policy group reports. This worsening of state fiscal crises could force deep cuts in programs for low-income working families and especially in health care coverage. . .
108,000 U.S. Jobs Lost in March
The job market continued to deteriorate in March as the economy lost 108,000 jobs, the government reported yesterday, raising worries that the United States is closer to slipping into a recession than it has been for more than a year.
Fellow Americans, I don't know about your fair state, but here in California we can't even keep the school's running.
More school jobs slashed
In this most recent round of job slashing, the board voted to eliminate 37 full-time and 17 part-time positions.
School Programs Cut, Teachers Pink-Slipped
District officials are considering new cost-cutting measures that range from a reduction in elementary school library services to, in a worst-case scenario, the closure of two elementary schools and the elimination of school busing.
Dozens of educators may be laid off
Layoff notices have been landing all week on the well-worn desks of anxious teachers, counselors and principals across the Napa Valley.
$80 billion. . . One more reason why I will be marching tomorrow against Bush's war of aggression - it is a financial as well as a moral and spiritual disaster.
March and Rally in Oakland - April 5 -
No war on Iraq / No war on us
80. . . billion. . . dolllars. . .
And that, no doubt, is only the tip of the tip of the financial iceberg that will be floating Bush's Iraqi adventure. Probably doesn't even account for the billions that were spent in deploying the troops to the gulf before they stormed Saddam's oil rich shores. It can only barely account for the relief and restoration that must follow in their bloody footsteps (if and when this war ever ends).
I'm no economist, it's true. I can't even tell you how many zeros there are in 80 Billion. Quite a few, I reckon. I do know that is an awful lot of money to be spending in foreign lands when one's own home is crumbling around one's ears.
State budget gaps soar
The deteriorating situation could prompt more cuts in a wide range of programs such as elementary schools, health care for the poor and more. Additionally, it will increase pressure on state lawmakers to raise taxes.
State budget deficits may mean health care cuts and worse
The budget deficits now looming over state governments will likely reach $60 billion to $85 billion in state fiscal year 2004 and constitute the largest state budget gaps in half a century, a Washington research and policy group reports. This worsening of state fiscal crises could force deep cuts in programs for low-income working families and especially in health care coverage. . .
108,000 U.S. Jobs Lost in March
The job market continued to deteriorate in March as the economy lost 108,000 jobs, the government reported yesterday, raising worries that the United States is closer to slipping into a recession than it has been for more than a year.
Fellow Americans, I don't know about your fair state, but here in California we can't even keep the school's running.
More school jobs slashed
In this most recent round of job slashing, the board voted to eliminate 37 full-time and 17 part-time positions.
School Programs Cut, Teachers Pink-Slipped
District officials are considering new cost-cutting measures that range from a reduction in elementary school library services to, in a worst-case scenario, the closure of two elementary schools and the elimination of school busing.
Dozens of educators may be laid off
Layoff notices have been landing all week on the well-worn desks of anxious teachers, counselors and principals across the Napa Valley.
$80 billion. . . One more reason why I will be marching tomorrow against Bush's war of aggression - it is a financial as well as a moral and spiritual disaster.
March and Rally in Oakland - April 5 -
No war on Iraq / No war on us
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