A POET EDITS WASHINGTON

History is subjective. History is written by victors. History can be a lie. All these are old topics. But none of these imply (recorded) History cannot be redressed.

And it is redressable (is that a word? Nevuh mind, Moi is a Poet...) by education. And it is important that what is learned are not falsehoods. As John Bloomberg-Rissman observes in his participation in the forthcoming POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION blog,

"The lower the level of education, the more likely a voter is to take seriously racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-science, religiously fanatical, etc etc candidates."

All this is to say, one of the tourist attractions we visited recently was the Memorial to the U.S. Marines. Here's one aspect, the famous coverage of Iwo Jima:



Now, notice the inscriptions beneath the statue. The words refer to all the wars in which Marines have participated. See the reference to the U.S.-Philippine War. They call it the "Philippine Insurrection."

No. Americans: please learn your history. The U.S.-Philippine War was not an "insurrection", which would imply that the Filipinos rebelled against the Americans. The more acccurate term would be "Invasion"--that is, invasion by the United States over the Philippines. That's right, the Philippines already had declared its independence against its prior colonial master Spain. Not only did the Philippines declare its independence, after 300-plus years of colonialism the Filipinos actually had defeated -- that's DEFEATED -- Spain. So it earned its Declaration of Independence. The Philippines was already an independent country.

Then the United States invaded (a lot of money in sugar and coconut in those islands, yah?). And that's how the ex-colony became a colonizer, too.

So. Go ahead. Read this post. And if there were justice in this world (not to mention monies left in the federal budget), that text of "Philippine Insurrection" would be edited to what it actually was and is historically true: "Invasion of the Philippines."

Listen to this Poet who, by the way, donates to the Disabled American Veterans Association (so please don't consider this an unpatriotic rant but an attempt for more Truth).

Hay(na)ku!
Different shit--
Same ol' dawg!

IN THAT MOST MAPLESS SPACE

and I'm not just talking poetry but the adoption experience. One of the challenges of curating POETS ON ADOPTION is the balancing act of what can or cannot be revealed and/or articulated. There are privacy issues, and there are anguishes too much to yet be captured in words. The latest contributor, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, was adopted as a biracial baby in South Africa in 1966, at the height of apartheid. Phillippa did not have to say anything more than one sentence -- "Under apartheid people of colour were ruthlessly segregated -- to bring forth all the complications and pain of her (and her birth country's) experience.

And if you look at Nick Carbo's memory of elementary schoolmates' response to being picked up by his adoptive parents at his school in Manila, thus making his classmates aware for the first time of his white parents, you can glean so much more when he also observes that such was his "first inkling about racism" and that such came from U.S.-Americans but not the Filipino or Spanish communities in which he lived.

I'm plucking out these two examples which show just how much circumstances and histories out of our (individual) controls become ... controlling factors in one's lives. This is true beyond adoption, and yet its risks are heightened by adoption.

I sometimes learn more than what gets posted in the blog. I appreciate that you poets are trusting me, whom you've mostly never met, with your stories.

So far, ten new poets have shared contributions in April (almost one poet per day!). And there are more poets still to come! I'm loving how the site can feature a range from a poet laureate to someone never published before. Do visit the site -- there's much to learn, and not just about poetry but (among many other things) about the effects of love, or its lack, on human development.

Last but not least, Joy Katz's fabulous--just FABULOUS!--contribution puts forth another motivation for adoption that's not as prevalent in the adoption world. She also writes what is arguably my favorite poem yet featured on the site: "HABIT." Indeed, adoption aside, her contribution is a wonderful example of poetry-in-progress (a subject close to my heart as that was what my very first book, BLACK LIGHTNING, explored). And how she conflates the heroin experience with mothering is a wonderful example of the imagination's fertile expanse as well as, simply, brilliant. Check it out! Check them all out!

SMALL PRESS TRAFFICS WITH BIG HEARTS

Because I believe in gratitude, I want to post that last Friday's SPT reading was special for so many reasons besides being able to share Michael's first English-language poem. Like my co-reader Susan Gevirtz who read in part from her new book which I am now enjoying: Aerodrome Orion & Starry Messenger (Kelsey).

--Rebeka who I thought was in Mexico but is in the Bay Area for now and stopped by with, among other things, Spanish and bilingual Spanish-English books for me and Michael to enjoy! Fabulous y gracias. (Rebeka is helping on that bilingual edition of The First Hay(na)ku Anthology which would be lovely as the English first run is out of print.)

--meeting such lovely SPT staff and volunteers, including the gracious Robin Tremblay-McGaw

--the indefatigable Sean Labrador y Manzano who, arriving late but in time for my reading, had to be escorted by security back to the auditorium where the reading was taking place (the security was confused as most of the attention at CCAC that night was on the end-of-year art exhibits by the students). So did the cops stay for poetry...?

--and last but not least, hearing CA Conrad's introduction of Moi, to wit I replicate below:

In her poem "Purity" Eileen Tabios writes, "After the fall of Miletus, the poet Phrynichos staged a drama about it. But the play's performance was forbidden by Athenians who fined him 'for reminding them of afflictions which affected them intimately.' I consider my search for unrelenting intimacy—a search I conduct despite my heart's cocoon of encaustic. I consider how a grid is supposed to eliminate gesture from paint. Although paint, finally, must return to its nature and flow like a menstruation—ooze with a viscous intensity unmitigated by geometry." In the current democratic empire of the United States of America, it is forbidden to be a foreigner of color, without papers, in Arizona, especially if you LOOK Mexican. OF COURSE, if you LOOK British you can destroy one of the most fragile animal wildlife refuges in the world with tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil and no one's going to arrest you. You'll be scolded. You'll be chastised, you may even be called names, but you can still fly to Phoenix if you're British and have lunch, take a stroll, enjoy the lovely day, completely unmolested by police. No holding cell for YOU. No, it's joyous.

I like this intro--there's nothing random at all about it. It gleaned my Babaylan Poetics.

SPRING VS. SPRING BREAK

So, we arrive at the end of spring break and not just because it poured rain this weekend. Today, as Michael and I read about the history of Rome, we came across this statement

Empire inevitably had political consequences at home. In the first place it made it even more difficult to ensure participation--that is, the participation of poor citizens--in government

, at which point, Michael interrupted his reading to shrug his shoulders and say, "That's normal..."

I looked at my son who's so far spent the majority of his life in an orphanage, and wondered yet again what he's seen with his childhood eyes. More than once as we read about early Rome, I kept remembering how Jonathan Carroll once wrote,

"our youth is where the only gods we ever created live".

On that note, spring break ends. But hopefully, Michael's true spring has ... uh ... sprung!

For instance, today, we had his (and the hubby's!) first piano lesson....! We moved forward what was initially intended to be a retirement purchase because we wanted to give the kid lessons to play this now gracing the living room:



As for Moi, I'm now trying to remember what I learned from once taking piano lessons almost everyday for two years under Catholic nuns....geez: moi fingers need yoga bootcamp!

THE POWER OF AN AWARD

If -- and that is an if -- there is a problem with the Nobel being awarded to Pres. Obama, the problem is not in the giving of it. The problem would be in the accepting of it. One need not be the brilliant articulator that he is to be able to say something that begins, "I am honored to receive this award and thank the Nobel Committee blah blah blah ....However, I must respectfully decline as [words to this effect:] I haven't (yet) done diddly to deserve it et al."

In not declining this award, the Prez reminds me of many, ahem, very many poets.

Which seems like a nice way for me to lobby, please, for an award I'd love to receive:

                  The Ig Nobel Prize Winner for Poetry

I notice from the link there's no category for Poetry -- I detest how "Literature" categories often subsume/ignore "Poetry"; one of my books once received "Honorable Mention" in some award I didn't enter but was tossed at me while the top and only other winner was, if memory serves correctly, a work of nonfiction. So can someone inaugurate this ignoble category by giving Moi the Nekkid Bird Attempting To Swallow The Egg sculpture? My citation can run along the lines of:

Poetry: Eileen Tabios, Galatea, California. After writing 102 poetry books, many of which received honors and critical acclaim in addition to wreaking ecological devastation on much of the planet's forests, the poet concedes, "I've failed. I have yet to write a Great Poem."

Vote for Moi, please.

Oh, wait. Apparently, this Ig Noble Prize is only determined by "genuine Nobel Laureates." No vote for the common tao? There go the 9 billion votes moi peeps were going to relay. But, hey, I should at least get Pres. Obama's vote. After all, his Nobel also fits the Ig Nobel's goal: "first make people laugh and then make them think."

CARING ABOUT HEALTH

I appreciate all the emails regarding moi prior post on health care, including Michael Well's email which I also appreciated because I appreciate people who know their history. With his permission, I'm posting it:

Eileen:

An insightful look at the health care delivery system in America. And as for your peep whom you quoted "I am concerned that the insistence on getting some kind of health care bill done this year is the wrong thing to do because speed is not allowing for a rational debate. I’d rather it get done next year and some real thought go into it — [though] I realize I am one of the lucky ones who is not facing the loss of a loved one or a home because of lack of insurance so I have the luxury of not needing urgent action.... I would respond by saying this:

I have an above average insurance plan. Still we saw premiums rise 29% two years ago, 20% last year and they are negotiating this years plan as I write this and our human resources department tells us it will likely be a double digit percent increase again this year. And while these premiums rise, so do co-pays and there are each year changes in drug formularies that rise our out of pocket costs as well as other reductions in services, all at greater expense.

There is a great fear among many who have coverage that the changes will be something they don't like and therefor, let's take this slow. Yet the increasing costs are continually shedding the insured from the rolls of those covered/protected. Today's insure d at these rates are likely tomorrows uninsured or under-insured. President Harry S Truman took up the cause of health care reform in 1945. Sixty-four years later we are being choked by the costs of health care (to say nothing of the declining quality thereof) and some people believe we are acting too quickly. That we are simply making knee-jerk reactions to a problem. Sixty-four years is hardly knee-jerk.

There are two distinct groups of people out there who are opposed to changing our health care. One is made up of people for who the system is kind of working and the thought of change evokes the fear of the unknown. The other group is made up of people who fundamentally oppose anything that suggests that access to health care is a fundamental right. For this latter group, tomorrow is too soon. They are only interested in continuing this debate till tomorrow because it never comes.

Meanwhile tomorrow there will be fewer covered. Tomorrow, health care will be closer to a commodity that is available to only the privileged.

I realize my comments are largely directed at the issues of access, not quality of care. I don't believe you can have the debate about one without the other. Changes in our health care delivery system must address both in order to achieve meaningful reform.

Thanks for sharing the stories your mother and father because they illustrate core problems within the health care system.

Best wishes,
Michael

GO FORTH AND DIE QUICKLY

My mother nearly died last week and if she had I wouldn't have been able to do anything over her medical establishment's lack of health care (pun intended).

Here's what happened: she'd been feeling poorly over the last several weeks, causing several calls to 9-1-1 and runs to the emergency rooms of Kaiser (which provides her coverage) as well as the local hospital (which is nearer to our house). When she ends up at the local hospital, as I understand it, Kaiser will have to reimburse that hospital for the health care costs WHICH IS WHY Kaiser wants -- and it's success indeed depends on being able to -- bring nearly all health treatment in-house.

But what's even more cost-effective to an institution like Kaiser, of course, is if its members don't get sick or (and it's not the same thing) don't get treated.

So, last Thursday, my mother called Kaiser for a check-up as she'd been feeling poorly all week. When she was received for said check-up, that doctor immediately referred her to their emergency room. Later in the day, I was told by Mom that Kaiser expected to keep her for overnight observation. All well and good as I had been watching her suffer for the past few weeks. Except that later that evening, the emergency room nurse called and said they wanted to discharge her as there seemed nothing wrong with her then.

Ridiculous, but the nurse wasn't interested in hearing my description of her recent ills. Much to her disgruntlement, I insisted then on talking with the doctor. I would come to have very interesting conversations with that doctor (he kept mentioning his 20-year experience and disgruntlement with emergency rooms becoming geriatric care facilities). But despite my warning him that I was sure that if they discharged Mom, I'd only be calling 9-1-1 within another 24 hours, he said she was "stable" and there was no other medical treatment to give her. That probably was true at the time, but I thought it'd be a good idea if Mom was further observed as there's obviously something wrong with her.

He said a lot of her conditions could be because of her age (Mom is nearly 80). I agreed over the distinct possibility of such, but also said that I wasn't convinced we were doing everything medically possible for her. Nonetheless, I couldn't persuade them to keep her and she came home after midnight (right, they couldn't spring for a bed for a few hours to prevent a near 80-year-old from traveling).

Well, it happened. Mom got poorly the following day, I called 9-1-1, and the ambulance took her to the local hospital. At the local hospital -- check it out: they immediately installed a temporary, then the next day, a permanent pacemaker. Absent that pacemaker, Mom would have died.

Kaiser sucks. And this incident of course reminded me of how Kaiser had treated my father in southern California. At one point, Kaiser discharged him from emergency room. My brother picked him up...and while driving home, Dad took a turn for the worse and my brother ended up driving to another Kaiser's emergency room! At that second Kaiser, a doctor asked, "Gee. Why did the other hospital discharged him?" (This incident is raised in the book I wrote for my father, The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes -- google yourself Kaiser and buy my book!) Kaiser's approach is to stabilize patients, then get them out. What this overall approach means is the disincentive to take a deep look at an individual's health situation and try to come up with a large-picture diagnosis -- not to say that there aren't Kaiser doctors who care enough to do this, but the institutional approach disincentivizes this more caring medical approach. In my mother's case, for example, she had been suffering for a while from a combination of diabetes, blood pressure problems and fatigue -- what did it take for a doctor to step back and assess proactively, before an "emergency", that she needs a pacemaker?

The only good thing that came out of this recent incident with Mom -- because this Kaiser management of her has been about cost! -- is that because they discharged her, they ended up losing the pacemaker business and will have to spend money reimbursing the local hospital.

So, I wasn't sure I'd be blogging about this but the news this morning carried this bit of hoo-haa of Democrat Alan Grayson of Florida castigating Republicans for their health care proposals that presumably can be summed up as "The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."

What Grayson is talking about is the Republicans' supposed lack of sympathy for the uninsured. I don't know enough about this particular hoo-haa to take sides, but what I note in this health care debate is the focus on the uninsured vs the insured. That's key, of course. But here's what I learned during this debacle with Mom which also caused me to have several conversations with health care professionals who are right there at ground zero of the debate.

What one doctor is hearing is that health care is moving towards the Kaiser model. I suppose the Kaiser model is more efficient than many other alternative models. But an exponentially high percentage of health care treatment occurs for a person when said person becomes a senior citizen. This is where the model breaks down. Death is inevitable and Kaiser is quite aware of that, and there's no economic incentive to keep prolonging life. Kaiser may be quite effective and fully capable when it comes to treating curable diseases or one-off issues (like cataract surgery), but not when it comes to prolonging life.

I hope my mother can survive being a Kaiser patient. My father didn't.

Meanwhile, any health care plan that doesn't adjust for the difference between geriatric care and other health care is inherently short-sighted (and perhaps that's why there's a generational gap in the amount of support, or lack thereof, for Obama's plan, with senior citizens not as supportive as the younger generations). But watch out, ye politicians: there's a difference between senior citizens whose health care is at risk, and, say, children whose education is also being harmed by political policies. Senior Citizens are more than old enough to vote.

DIGNITY

would be Grace
when the
ancient

body is rejected
from the
Emergency

Room because death
is, not
inevitable

but, uneconomic, thus
always ill-timed.
Grace--

a white flower
poking through
that

sidewalk crack everyone
avoids when
Bad

Timing is always
Bad Luck.
Approaching

is not that
hooded guy
wielding

a scythe. Approaching
are the
pencil-pushers

whose erasers always
transform the
perfume

of white roses
into antiseptic
septic.

UPDATE: Of course the above doesn't come near to addressing the complexity of health care. But I agree with one Peep who wrote in:

I am concerned that the insistence on getting some kind of health care bill done this year is the wrong thing to do because speed is not allowing for a rational debate. I’d rather it get done next year and some real thought go into it — [though] I realize I am one of the lucky ones who is not facing the loss of a loved one or a home because of lack of insurance so I have the luxury of not needing urgent action....

All of this reminds me of Winston Churchill’s statement about Americans when he was frustrated about FDR’s slowness in joining WW2. He said that Americans can always be relied upon to do the right thing, but only after they’ve tried everything else. Applying it to the health care dilemma, we will get a heath care bill passed, it will be a mess and will not provide a public option thereby allowing insurers to find loopholes on pricing and coverage, and we’ll have to go back in a few years and do the right thing in the right way — and since the Democrats do not have the balls to do the right thing by going it alone (or because a number of them are in the pockets of insurers and pharmacopia) they will end up being blamed for the ultimate failure of this year’s model.

REALISM POETICS

Strictly speaking, politics is illusion. But in relation to poetry, “political” means realism.
--Tom Hibbard, Introduction to Word For/Word

Word For/Word: A Journal of New Writing is out and it's a "Political Poetry" issue edited by Tom Hibbard.

The *realism* poem I got in it, "The American Nightmare," is a poem I writ in March while I was slogging through the nightmarish days of Bogota, awaiting the final adoption decrees for Michael. 'Twas a time when the newspapers were at high dudgeon coverage of the Great Recession. I thank Tom for pushing me to write a poem, and then presenting it in combination with a very apt painting by Joan Sloan:



(Yo, Ron: Message from this 16-percenter: Bad Link on your bloggie post today as regards the issue...)

(THE) PRESIDENT (AS) POEM

During the past 2 years, I saw a poem campaign: just as a reader reads significance/meaning into a poem, people projected themselves (their hopes) onto Obama.

I love that Ted Berrigan quote of a poem being a poet's best self. It's refreshing to have a President demanding the best in ourselves.

In moi household awake at 5 a.m. to begin watching T.V. coverage of the Inauguration, seems an apt time to recyle a poem written on January 3, 2008:

HIS DEFINITION OF “HOPE”

“I
am a
black man named

‘Barack Obama’ and
running for
President.”

The more difficult part is after the poem is engaged by its audience. The poem is a threshold into an experience that might not have occurred without its existence, and then its audience. "Obama, The Poem" will not just depend on the President but on the country's citizens.

It will be fascinating (and no doubt something else/more) to witness -- and be part -- of this unfolding poetry experience...

THE ELECTION ANTHOLOGY IS FRESH!

Obododimma Oha and Anny Ballardini are pleased to announce the new Anthology on the Poets' Corner:

While the He/art Pants: Poetic Responses to the 2008 American Elections. We wish to thank all the contributors who have made it possible, and invite you to read and spread the good news.

Here's an excerpt from Co-Editor Obododimma Oha's Editorial (click on excerpt for whole thing):

the 2008 presidential election was unique because it was the first time in the history of the United States that a person of Black/African descent was contesting for the leadership of the country (which, given the global position of the US, amounted to being the major leader in the world). As the election campaigns advanced and filled, not just the country, but the whole world with a strange sense of urgency, a significant dose of creative responses also came from artists both within the US and the outside. It was as if the US elections called for a different form of imagination, a startling form of expression, a new critical energy, which the global literary community must provide to prepare our minds to watch the whole performance. It was obvious that poets (taken in a broad sense) were ready to challenge Plato’s view that poetry which does not work in tandem with the ideals of his imagined republic, be censored and poets with narratives that critique the gods be banished. No, they seemed to have a different idea of “the republic,” and, also contrary to W.H. Auden’s assertion in his poem “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” that “…poetry makes nothing happen,” were anxious to show that, as far as that republic is not just a place but also an idea, in fact, a condition of mind, they could engage discourse in ways that invite the population back to the free marketplace of ideas. Grace Cavalieri, writing in an impressive epistolary style in this anthology, puts it wittily in her advice to the world out there: “You may be selling the bottles, but the poets own the water.”

And here's an excerpt from Co-Editor Anny Ballardini's Editorial (click on excerpt for whole thing):

It was out of his own political thought that Dante created one of History’s most impressive poetic masterpieces. Ezra Pound paid with Saint Elizabeth's for his political statements. Poetry on social, economic, and political matters. Anti-war poetry. Poetry for freedom and for justice. The Internet itself as a place where poetry can be shared, a Utopian oasis. And now poetry for the elections. For some of us all human activity is political. For others politics remains just one specific choice and quite unconnected with poetry, even if (as seems likely) politics is the very substrate of any art, inasmuch as any human behavior forms itself out of the substance of our language. I would like to mention Foucault's writings and the writings of Deleuze & Guattari. Though Nietzsche had already revealed the angle from which our own contemporary criticism should observe whenever we ask ourselves who are we? and of what substance are we made?

And the anthology's Contents/Participants:

· While the He/art Pants: (Poetic Responses to the 2008 American Elections)
· Editorial: Obododimma Oha
· Editorial: Anny Ballardini
· Edward Mycue · Jared Schickling · Bill Morgan · John M. Bennett · Conrad Reeder · Tom McBride · Gerald Schwartz · Farideh Hassanzadeh-Mostafavi · Russ Golata · Evelyn Posamentier · Gina Sangster Hayman · Matt Johnson · Susan Bright · Daniel Zimmerman · Fan Ogilvie · Henry Gould · Carol Novack · Joseph Duemer · Peter Ciccariello · Spencer Selby · Eugen Galasso · Grace Cavalieri · Amy King · Halvard Johnson · Raymond Bianchi · Lars Palm · George Spencer · Bob Grumman · Wendy Taylor Carlisle · Br. Tom Murphy · Annetta L. Gomez-Jefferson · Uzor Maxim Uzoatu · Jukka-Pekka Kervinen · David Howard · Obiwu · Afam Akeh · Jim Leftwich · Charles Martin · Luc Fierens · Eileen Tabios · Donna Pecore · Francesco Levato · Tony Trigilio · Terri Moore · Barbara Crooker · Vincent Francone · David-Baptiste Chirot · Julene Tripp Weaver · Daniela Gioseffi · Obododimma Oha · Judith Laura

WOOF: HOW CAN THERE BE ANY OTHER CHOICE?

One of Obama's most important political decisions will mark him as either dog-poop or dog-wise.

Let Moi give you a hint by waving the flag(s):


Really Mr. First Hawaiian President: is there any other choice?


Don't be fooled, Mr. First Skinny President, by those rats pretending to be dogs. We are among the smartest dogs in our genre and, surely, you recognize that you will need as much intelligence around you in the years ahead! (We may be ranked only No. 3 but surely the No. 2 ranker is too French while the No. 1 ranker doesn't do anything to bolster your foreign policy!)

BUY POETRY BOOKS AND GIVE PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA A STIMULUS SPENDING GIFT!

It was fun...and moving...to see two of my regular haunts serve as local voting precincts in St. Helena: the public library and the United Methodist Church. No long lines (behind the wine tourist trappings, St. Helena is a town of 5,000+ after all) but very nice to see small town politicking at work (and quite interesting to my still New York City mindset). The Methodists, smart activists that they are (remember this, our blog-based fundraiser?), also chose the opportunity to encourage voters to bring donations for the local food pantry which, like many food pantries across the nation, is hurting in resources even as they face rising need. So, sure, I brought a shopping bag of food over, but I also decided to do some stimulus spending as a gift to the new President who's going to have to wrestle with the detritus of his predecessor.

So here's the list of poetry books I bought below -- wouldn't it be nice if, especially if your candidate won, you address two birds with one act (weak poetry sales and the faltering economy which relies on consumer spending for two-thirds of its fuel) and you celebrate the impending change of administration with a poetry book purchase!:

NEW POETRY PURCHASES
PIECES OF AIR IN THE EPIC by Brenda Hillman

BRIGHT EXISTENCE by Brenda Hillman

ASTROMETRY ORGONON by Mark Lamoreaux

GRAVE OF LIGHT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, 1970-2005 by Alice Notley

IN THE PINES by Alice Notley

I can hear some of you Peeps hooting at me -- let Moi just say with absolutely no apology that selling poetry books is a difficult task and if I can get said sales going by generating some coattail effect from the U.S. Presidential election, so be it....besides, I think it's apt to discuss poetry when discussing the historical event that is United States President Barack Obama...!

HAY(NA)KU HISTORY, PART DEUX

Remember THIS from Jan. 3, 2008? Or:

HIS DEFINITION OF “HOPE”

“I
am a
black man named

‘Barack Obama’ and
running for
President.”

So let's see what this day shall reveal...

IS YOUR MULE BLUE?

Marc Weber is sending out feelers (which he calls "feelings", making Moi smile) to see if anyone has work that might fit in an issue of Sugar Mule entitled "The Blue Mule." Marc, the editor, welcomes poetry or prose submissions which might fit in "any way you interpret that title"! Send him stuff viz marclweber.com@sugarmule.com. Go ahead and bray...uh, blue-ly!

Also, if you click on the link, there's some pretty nifty prose about mules. Doesn't this one by Charles Darwin remind you of one of the U.S. Presidential candidates?:

"The mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate that
...--Charles Darwin
from The Voyage of the Beagle

POLITICS

Had to go to a museum-sponsored dinner last night. Ended up seated next to a curator's hubby, which was unexpectedly fun. While most peeps discussed the history of a certain mega-collector, he and I discussed "Empire" and its ramifications. He concluded at evening's end: "It's so refreshing to discuss politics at one of these affairs. Usually, I have to be careful..."

I can just imagine how he has to be careful discussing politics in the museum settings, though it turns out he writes political analyses for a living. That's the problem with contexts affecting fundraising -- politics is tricky when cash itself is apolitical. Then we discussed poetry. Doesn't follow poetry but doesn't shy away from it either. He appreciates Kay Ryan's -- "because it's not one of those poetries you gotta take a class in so that you can understand..."

Off to mail him a copy of the BRICK. I am thinking of inscribing it with, "I hope you enjoy this textbook..." (after all, it was most recently taught at U.C. Berkeley this summer, though interestingly the course focused more on "community" vs "creative writing").

Last but not least, TODAY I VOTE. Because none of us lives in a museum.

IF ELECTED PRESIDENT

I promise to protect the middle class from being objectified.

If I were Joe the Plumber, I'd be complaining about being used and abused with no sex involved. Now, Joe's got a gun in hand! And let me tell ya somethin' about Joe the Plumber: he's no Dick Cheney!

It's not too late for the true poetic and political Third Way! Remember:

If elected President, I promise a poet in every pot!

*****

More seriously, I've been obsessed for the last couple of weeks with watching the stock market ticker every morning. Being three hours behind NY time, I can catch most of the Dow's movements during my California mornings. And I have to say, short-term trading aside, there are a lot of idiots on, and pundits related to, Wall Street. Y'all have no business having significant rallies, folks, when you hadn't yet received the data on economic fundamentals that you knew was unfolding this week (and if you're a technician vs a fundamentalist, what about rallying ahead of the known unraveling of Lehman positions). Let me put it succinctly:

                  It's not the economy, Stupid. It is jobs, Stupid.

There, I've just given you more specificity than you've gotten from the two Presidential candidates. In other words, you can address the credit and housing crises all you want but you need more direct address on unemployment. No job? No demand for credit. (If that trickle-down effect hasn't worked, what makes you all think trickle-vertical is going to be sufficient? Yes, you need a more direct address of the issue.)

I am a trained economist but I do not approve of interupting my life as a blathering-drunken-poet to deliver to y'all this message.

ONE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POLITICS AND POETRY

I guess it's a sign of the times: I recently had the chance to print a new book either at a U.S. printer or through a printer based in another country. Decided to opt for the U.S. printer to help out the U.S. economy. Hmmm: as a poet, "Moi local is global". But when I choose to help out more local business, that is a political decision and as the saying goes, "All politics are local." I'm not blathering this matter with confidence, just so I'm not misunderstood. To wit, I continue to mull over the significance of this decision...

HOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE: A POETICS

I am celebrating my 22nd wedding anniversary today to "THAT ONE" (a fashionista-sigh over those eyeglasses that make him look like he's from the 1950s). Which reminds me to replay a question frequently asked of Moi:

What is the secret to a successful marriage?

I am pleased to share the answer, for Moi is here to serve: it's a one-word answer, to wit:

Apathy

And off she goes cackling over her morning coffee...until she pulls herself up to discourse: You know, the above is also my MOST MISUNDERSTOOD JOKE. And it wasn't until I was surprised recently by the amount of people who don't get the humor of a certain poetry hoax that I realized how much insecurity had to do with misunderstanding a joke. I'll, uh, leave it there....

....well, except to belabor the obvious: Moi is never insecure -- and, btw, this is actually part of my poetics experiments. That is, I've long noticed how so many poets are insecure so I wondered what it'd be like to have a poetic persona who is not insecure. Anyway, Moi is never--or tries never to be--insecure (if "I" is occasionally insecure, that be none of your bidness). In conclusion, another of my slogans (borrowed, of course) which I share at the risk of seeming Republican which I'm not:

Perhaps in error, but never in doubt.

GO SWAG YOURSELF

in MOISELF & MICHELLE!

For, what is a political campaign without swag!

Naturally, Achilles and Gabriela shall each get one of THESE. While Artemis and Missy Scarlet shall now lap at THESE.

I'm trying to figure out how many of THESE to order. So many girlfriends have I!

I should get Ron Silliman one of THESE for his linkie...He can wear it to go vote for Obama...

Last but not least, I'll share what the hubby will get this year in his Holiday Stocking. Poor Man.

Thanks for the continued support, Ernesto--you Campaign Instigator, I mean, Campaign Manager...

"FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN, THEN WE TAKE BERLIN"

Fresh from elevating the latest hoax by writing the best poem in it, I now cut to the chase: I AM RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD!..even as Lolabola aptly notes: "Why stop at World?" I love ambitious women whose first names aren't Sarah...

It's funny that Moi's World Presidency is Ernesto's dream. I actually dreamt of him last night....