Filed under: Poetry
So cute
She could
Cut
Hurricane winds
So we named her
Isabelle
You may call her
Izzi or Belle
Altogether
Star bright as new light
Yet still sleep
Walking in the midst
Of waking up from
Yesterday’s goodnight
Having just crashed an Ultimate Punch, Kick & Choke Championship fight, Marge Simpson stands in the middle of an arena and pleads on behalf of non-violence:
I’m not leaving until you tear down this septigon… [0:07:01]
The all-male crowd vehemently reacts with jeers and boos, for which Marge admonishes the men:
Guys, please, when you yell like that no one can hear me! [0:07:13]
Whether you like the show or not, you got to admit, Marge rocks like Bedrock!
*episode airing at eight o’clock EST on October 11, 2009
David Gregory:
Welcome to all of you. So much to get to this week; war and peace, as I said at the outset. But let’s talk about the politics of war, and I think it’s striking. Here we are in October of 2009, and it was October of 2001 when President Bush made the decision to go to war. In October of 2009, another president has to make another big decision about troops in Afghanistan, and look how the politics have changed. This was a USA Today/Gallup poll about views of sending more troops, and what you see here is a huge political divide: Democrats, 36 percent for it; Republicans, 73 percent for it. Opponents on the Democratic side, 59 percent to 23 percent. Bob Woodward, what’s different? What are the politics here for this president?
Bob Woodward, Assistant Managing Editor of The Washington Post:
Well, I, I think what’s interesting, instead of trying to figure out the future, what’s going on in the White House now? It’s extraordinary series of very long meetings. One of the big criticisms of Lyndon Johnson during Vietnam was he wouldn’t listen, and Obama is listening. He’s on a listening tour, and everyone is getting their say. And he’s got to, he’s got to make a giant decision not about troop numbers, but what’s the strategy? And I think, you know, this is, this is the test for him. Can he come up with some consensus so the military doesn’t feel wounded, so his own party doesn’t feel wounded? And if he does that, you know, a lot of people, even if they don’t agree with the final decision, will say he did something — again, George W. Bush, in deciding to go into Iraq, the model there was he decided…
But, but — and I think to everyone’s benefit, including the president’s, including the military and certainly the, the public. Look, if we had had the secret report on WMD in Iraq before the war and published that, history might have been different. It’s very important to know, if you can, what these classified memos say. And in the, in this case we have it, and people are talking about something very concrete.
In order to take a quasi-siesta from the dissertation, let me note the trope of listening in Bob Dylan’s interview with Paul Zollo, reprinted in Songwriters on Songwriting (de Capo Press 1997):
There’s enough songs for people to listen to, if they want to listen to songs. (73)
Poets don’t drive cars. [Laughs] Poets don’t go to the supermarket. Poets don’t empty the garbage. Poets aren’t on the PTA. Poets, you know, they don’t go picket the Better Housing Bureau, or whatever. Poets don’t …poets don’t even speak on the telephone. Poets don’t even talk to anybody. Poets do a lot of listening…and usually they know why they’re poets! (74)
To Woody Guthrie, see, the airwaves were sacred. And when he’d hear something false, it was on airwaves that were sacred to him. His songs weren’t false. Now we know the airwaves aren’t sacred but to him they were [...] Now nobody even knows what radio is anymore. Nobody likes it that you talk to. Nobody listens to it. (78-79)
Modern twentieth century ears are the first ears to hear these kind of Broadway songs. There wasn’t anything like this. (80)
For myself
Fore
most
Cause it changes things
Always turning
Me into We
Only to extract
That we
from
This me
Cause it reminds
Me: We’re alone
Cause it kills
Me: To be without
Cause it tells
Me: I love you
Excluding
all doubt
Cause it hurts to
But even more so to not
Cause it contains
All the moments forgotten
Cause you are, were, always will be
A
part
of my heart
Cause without you
Who could
Be
