Fas•cism (noun) [fa’ shizzem]
Authoritarian political ideology where all individual and societal interests are inferior to the needs of the state.
Come!
O ghosts of misery!
Louder than the whole of God,
more wordless than humiliation
breathing hard upon our backs!
Bring forth your most depraved army
over the present carnage of man;
red tongued and in the making!
Come quick under the roaring sky
and lock away hope
in your manifest gulag
of scraggly goddamned vultures!
Thrash all pleasure and goodness
over attentive hearts of dust!
Split the flesh and soul with your shadows!
Program our youth
to cleave all life of what’s left
as hordes of black-shirted assassins!
Keep watch over them
like steely eyed wolves
and stay their dissent with mild anecdote!
In time they’ll be content
to simply live another day
with wet tongue
and fearful consumption...
I detest with all my being that this pillaging horde of scoundrels has twisted the world into a sightless giant of shrieking hell!
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
FRIENDLY FIRE
AP/Yahoo News Tillman’s Brother Blasts Military
Pat Tillman's brother accused the military Tuesday of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" in portraying the football star's death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.
"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing. "Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide," he said, contending that the military's misstatements amounted to "fraud."
CNN - Soldier Told to Lie about Tillman’s Death
The last soldier to see Army Ranger Pat Tillman alive, Spc. Bryan O'Neal, told lawmakers that he was warned by superiors not to divulge -- especially to the Tillman family -- that a fellow soldier killed Tillman.
Eschaton – Worm Dirt
In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States.
Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.
When the last merry gun had stilled
And the cannons no more their glee
The friendly hillside fully tipped
And poured forth a failing moan.
It was observed that the mad rally
Of murder had slung back its odd grief
Upon the valiant influence of dissent
And lifted away our Superman;
Breath snuffed, keen upon the plot.
Kindness stepped out with the news
Treading the living shores of home.
Soon the prayers had eaten enough foul lies
And their blind wrath monstrously grew
Into hell’s rumbling cavern of vengeance.
In this cave there are no friendlies,
No shape, but that of fear and fury;
Our Superman when all else fails to stop
The torrent of reasonless cries and endless
Lies and hopeless wars and gathering storms.
Momentarily calming is the knowledge that
Death has visited yet another blameless child.
Blameless! O! Let this thirst be driven out of our
Hunger! Stop this; our firing into the shadows of
Rage! O! I wander through these blackened ruins!
I’m a friendly! Cease fire! I’m Pat F'n Tillman...
When the last merry gun had stilled
And the cannons no more their glee
The friendly hillside fully tipped
And poured forth a failing moan.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
GATHER AROUND
Iraq PM orders halt to Baghdad wall
Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, has ordered a halt to the construction of a barrier that would separate a Sunni enclave from Shia areas in Baghdad as Sunni-led Arab governments told him to step up reconciliation efforts with Sunni fighters if he wanted Arab support.
Al-Maliki said on Sunday: "I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop. There are other methods to protect neighbourhoods."
US troops began placing six-tonne sections of wall around Adhamiyah, a mainly Sunni Arab area surrounded by Shia areas in east Baghdad two weeks ago.
The construction drew sharp criticism from residents and Sunni leaders who complained it would isolate the community. (More...)
Let us lower all the flags to half-mast.
Let us begin now the somber trumpet.
Let us gather around with bowed heads
And recall this day as the butchered age.
Watch it trace across the gnarled lands,
Ascend the gate of our most everlasting
With the clatter of a filched kingdom
Bearing the ashen and eyeless face of war.
Let us erect a wall of rubbish and bones
Skyward surrounding all the arid breath,
Honoring our pursuit and its conclusion;
Empire and anguish; kingdom come.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
3 WAR
Because Ares, the Greek god of war, represented all of the worst aspects of warfare, battle, and slaughter, worship of him was not very common or extensive in Greece. These attributes of Ares should be contrasted with the warrior goddess Athena who represents more rational and orderly aspects of warfare. He does, in fact, often take the opposite side from Athena in various conflicts - for example, during the Trojan War.
Ares was more popular in northern Greek areas like Thrace, but even here temple sites are pretty rare - which also means that details about the worship rituals are scanty. At Sparta it is thought that human sacrifices were sometimes made to Ares, with victims chosen from enemy prisoners of war. Temples in Crete seem to have had sacrifices made to both Ares and Aphrodite.
There is also a site dedicated to him in Athens, Ares Hill at the base of the Acropolis (more commonly known as Mars Hill). Pausanias describes Ares Hill thus:
[At Athens] is a sanctuary of Ares, where are placed two images of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alkamenes, and one of Athena made by a Parian of the name of Lokros. There is also an image of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles. About the temple stand images of Herakles, Theseus, Apollon binding his hair with a fillet, and statues of Kalades, who it is said framed laws for the Athenians, and of Pindaros, the statue being one of the rewards the Athenians gave him for praising them in an ode.
~
1.
Men live such lies.
They march and rave,
Warring backward, spewing hate.
(It’d have been easier to witness
But for the slaughter of humankind.)
Do we not stand for anything?
Have we such hate?
A rage of spangle-toothed graves;
(Our humanity’s winnings
In pain’s pragmatic deliverance.)
Isn’t it time for us to be heard.
Have we not the will to be free;
For now we are slaves to apathy.
(March forward with lips wet of hope
And legs heartened by liberty.)
2.
Ares was more popular in northern Greek areas like Thrace, but even here temple sites are pretty rare - which also means that details about the worship rituals are scanty. At Sparta it is thought that human sacrifices were sometimes made to Ares, with victims chosen from enemy prisoners of war. Temples in Crete seem to have had sacrifices made to both Ares and Aphrodite.
There is also a site dedicated to him in Athens, Ares Hill at the base of the Acropolis (more commonly known as Mars Hill). Pausanias describes Ares Hill thus:
[At Athens] is a sanctuary of Ares, where are placed two images of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alkamenes, and one of Athena made by a Parian of the name of Lokros. There is also an image of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles. About the temple stand images of Herakles, Theseus, Apollon binding his hair with a fillet, and statues of Kalades, who it is said framed laws for the Athenians, and of Pindaros, the statue being one of the rewards the Athenians gave him for praising them in an ode.
~
1.
Men live such lies.
They march and rave,
Warring backward, spewing hate.
(It’d have been easier to witness
But for the slaughter of humankind.)
Do we not stand for anything?
Have we such hate?
A rage of spangle-toothed graves;
(Our humanity’s winnings
In pain’s pragmatic deliverance.)
Isn’t it time for us to be heard.
Have we not the will to be free;
For now we are slaves to apathy.
(March forward with lips wet of hope
And legs heartened by liberty.)
2.
Is there logic to war?
Ask the solemn-jawed sky,
May I put a hand on you?
Ask a snipers swift bullet,
Will you warn me before you do?
You are clear to engage the building.
We have personnel on the ground.
Ask a little boy,
Can war have both your legs today?
Ask a little girl,
May war slice your tiny arms away?
Ask a grieving mother,
Which of your children should we take?
People are exiting the mosque.
Do not engage.
Ask a proud father,
Can this bomb murder your sorrow?
Ask a prayer set free
If war might end its journey.
Ask an angry brother,
Will you miss your sister tomorrow?
Clear to level it and engage personnel.
Roger that.
Ask a plummeting bomb
If war is reasonable on the way down...
3.
I believe in the truth
I believe in goodness
I believe in beauty
I believe in happiness
I believe it to be
In all people
Dark hands
Seek the pasty white face of our hope
Cultivating fear and loss and greed
These hands are impudent, coarse
Having in them death’s venom
They wait for nothing
A garrote upon day’s shadowy war
I am tired of the child’s howl
I am tired of the mother’s tear
Tired of the father’s motionless yowl
I’m sickened by these horrid truths
Tired of the mistreated seas
Tired of the seething wave
Of trembling earth and air
I’m tired of our white treachery
AWAITING
The student who shot dead at least 30 people at Virginia Tech sent a package to the US TV network NBC News on the day of the shootings, police said.
The package contained "disturbing" photographs, video and writings, NBC said, posted from the college campus between the two rounds of killings.
Cho Seung-hui is shown pointing guns at the camera, and ranting angrily.
A total of 33 people, including the gunman himself, died in shootings at two locations on Monday.
"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," the 23-year-old gunman said angrily, in an excerpt shown on NBC Nightly News. (More...)
4 bombs kill 178 in Iraq
By Sinan Salaheddin The Associated Press
Baghdad - Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad today, killing at least 178 people and wounding scores - the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings "horrifying" and accused al-Qaida of being behind them.
In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 122 people and wounding 148, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.
The package contained "disturbing" photographs, video and writings, NBC said, posted from the college campus between the two rounds of killings.
Cho Seung-hui is shown pointing guns at the camera, and ranting angrily.
A total of 33 people, including the gunman himself, died in shootings at two locations on Monday.
"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," the 23-year-old gunman said angrily, in an excerpt shown on NBC Nightly News. (More...)
4 bombs kill 178 in Iraq
By Sinan Salaheddin The Associated Press
Baghdad - Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad today, killing at least 178 people and wounding scores - the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings "horrifying" and accused al-Qaida of being behind them.
In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 122 people and wounding 148, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.
When sorrows come,
they come not single spies,
But in battalions.
-W. Shakespeare
They are scattered all around us
Smeared on windshields and sidewalks.
Look now upon your hands and feet;
The ashes of this unfortunate world.
Up and down the streets they blow
From church to church and home to home
Awaiting the repeat of solemn gunfire
To devour the bodies down in yearning.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
-W. Shakespeare
Coursing ever so steady comes our bewilderment
Leading us into much that is relief
For their names may well have been our own
Crouched upon the merciless floor.
It moves inside of us like some dead thing
Giving crumbs to nourish our imaginings
Of those and their private room of horror,
But all of our shelter is paralyzed by battle.
Give sorrow words.
The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o're-fraught heart,
And bids it break.
-W. Shakespeare
Calling out now to clergy our urgent need for comfort.
“Speak of God. Why didn't he hold him from this rage?
Shroud the dead, place his hand over their cowering?”
Now the answer we’ve come to cherish, “God’s plan.”
Thirty-three? What of one hundred and seventy?
Does God find them worthy of nails through their palms,
To suffer a hell that can't be quenched in daily loss?
They are scattered about with our fingerprints upon them
And, as with so much of our beauty, a gun takes them away.
Our nation is somewhat sad,
But we're angry.
There's a certain level of blood lust,
But we won't let it drive our reaction.
We're steady,
Clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon
We'll have to start displaying scalps.
-W
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
HEMORRHAGE
The pain of the Massacre in Virginia is still raw as we try to make sense of it all. The airwaves are inundated with breaking news as we grasp for some reason, some way we could have prevented it, some sign we can identify to ensure it never happens again. When you consider the enormity of this incident, the impact it has had nationally and more specifically in Blacksburg and more significantly among those who knew and loved the 33 fallen souls it is easy to be overwhelmed. People are not supposed to die at the hands of disgruntled mad men for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Young college kids on the cusp of making a life for themselves should not be senselessly slain before having the opportunity to contribute to making the world a better place. And that is what happened.
And 6000 miles away a similar atrocity replays every single day. We so easily get caught up in the political rhetoric of being for or against the war in Iraq and our words have begun to sound hollow as we consider one lesson we can take from Virginia. The circumstances of death in Virginia and Iraq bear little in common but in the end the results are sadly similar. Families are mourning their dead. So I guess it doesn’t matter much if you support the President’s war in Iraq or oppose it so long as an end to the violence is your primary goal. In the week of March 21 – 27 the daily death count of civilians in Iraq were 58, 90, 54, 79, 26, 34 and 276. The mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters and the grandparents and grandchildren of Iraqi dead see death counts similar to those which have suddenly grabbed our attention as the rule and not the exception.
And 6000 miles away a similar atrocity replays every single day. We so easily get caught up in the political rhetoric of being for or against the war in Iraq and our words have begun to sound hollow as we consider one lesson we can take from Virginia. The circumstances of death in Virginia and Iraq bear little in common but in the end the results are sadly similar. Families are mourning their dead. So I guess it doesn’t matter much if you support the President’s war in Iraq or oppose it so long as an end to the violence is your primary goal. In the week of March 21 – 27 the daily death count of civilians in Iraq were 58, 90, 54, 79, 26, 34 and 276. The mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters and the grandparents and grandchildren of Iraqi dead see death counts similar to those which have suddenly grabbed our attention as the rule and not the exception.
Please pray for the families of the senselessly murdered students from Virginia but save a little prayer time for families in Iraq. (By Chris Wilcox)
Thirty-three crows strut crudely before me,
Their black beaks pounding the ground;
Echoes of a distant thinking
Rebelling against the wind.
Thirty-three far-flung voices climbed the sky,
Their stained hands groping plaintively near;
Spirits of the far-away land
Absently rasping the storm.
Thirty-three students prone upon their loss,
Hemorrhage in the shock of undue vacancy;
Stunned gasps rasp our ears
With a hollow astonishment.
Echoes of a distant thinking
Rebelling against the wind.
Thirty-three far-flung voices climbed the sky,
Their stained hands groping plaintively near;
Spirits of the far-away land
Absently rasping the storm.
Thirty-three students prone upon their loss,
Hemorrhage in the shock of undue vacancy;
Stunned gasps rasp our ears
With a hollow astonishment.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
DEATH NO MORE
(MICHAEL HOGUE/DMN)
Ernest Ray Willis set a fire that killed two women in Pecos County. So said Texas prosecutors who obtained a conviction in 1987 and sent Mr. Willis to death row. But it wasn't true.
Seventeen years later, a federal judge overturned the conviction, finding that prosecutors had drugged Mr. Willis with powerful anti-psychotic medication during his trial and then used his glazed appearance to characterize him as "cold-hearted." They also suppressed evidence and introduced neither physical proof nor eyewitnesses in the trial – and his court-appointed lawyers mounted a lousy defense. Besides, another death-row inmate confessed to the killings. (More...)
What do we want;
War and torture,
Atom bombs piercing remembrance
Exhuming the blue skies and rain?
To ogle the writhing shudder of innocence,
Flames to swallow up the green plain and sand
Where art once journeyed the sovereign distance
Now yearning to bunker down in eternal rest?
Where is our serene silhouette?
Our loving?
Ernest Ray Willis set a fire that killed two women in Pecos County. So said Texas prosecutors who obtained a conviction in 1987 and sent Mr. Willis to death row. But it wasn't true.
Seventeen years later, a federal judge overturned the conviction, finding that prosecutors had drugged Mr. Willis with powerful anti-psychotic medication during his trial and then used his glazed appearance to characterize him as "cold-hearted." They also suppressed evidence and introduced neither physical proof nor eyewitnesses in the trial – and his court-appointed lawyers mounted a lousy defense. Besides, another death-row inmate confessed to the killings. (More...)
DEATH NO MORE
What do we want;
War and torture,
Atom bombs piercing remembrance
Exhuming the blue skies and rain?
To ogle the writhing shudder of innocence,
Flames to swallow up the green plain and sand
Where art once journeyed the sovereign distance
Now yearning to bunker down in eternal rest?
Where is our serene silhouette?
Our loving?
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
HOLY ABYSS
Would you like to know what, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons we find this country seemingly plummeting toward the abyss?
Christian law school
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course (at the now ABA accredited law school) was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.
"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.
Yikes. This would be laughable... except for the fact that it's just so damned, unimaginably frightening. Same with this video...
Christian law school
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The title of the course (at the now ABA accredited law school) was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to preserve their Christian values.
"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law student warned.
Yikes. This would be laughable... except for the fact that it's just so damned, unimaginably frightening. Same with this video...
Pat Speaks of State-Church Separation: The Big Lie
There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore.-- Pat Robertson, address to his American Center for Law and Justice, November, 1993. Let's see, now: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." How could the prohibition against Congress making laws respecting an establishment of religion be anything but the separation of church and state?
They scream, "First Amendment." Of course, the First Amendment, as you and I both know, is a restriction on Congress.... So it really doesn't have anything to do with what you say or what I say, one way or the other.-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, December 10, 1990, deliberately misrepresenting what it means by "Congress shall make no law" by omitting mention of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and yet sniveling about the Supreme Court's state-church decisions.
There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore.-- Pat Robertson, address to his American Center for Law and Justice, November, 1993. Let's see, now: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." How could the prohibition against Congress making laws respecting an establishment of religion be anything but the separation of church and state?
They scream, "First Amendment." Of course, the First Amendment, as you and I both know, is a restriction on Congress.... So it really doesn't have anything to do with what you say or what I say, one way or the other.-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, December 10, 1990, deliberately misrepresenting what it means by "Congress shall make no law" by omitting mention of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and yet sniveling about the Supreme Court's state-church decisions.
Men and women out of the flames ascend
Rising like the cold grey breath of winter,
Praising "God" and life and death.
Their bones clack to Armageddon’s rhythm,
Their eyes perceive the Day of Judgment
Looming steady the bitter death of man.
Where is this rising of thy god?
Is it manifest in the blue?
Famine?
War?
Does it tread `neath the surging wave?
O! Bring out thy god and quench this thirst!
Summon thy god and feed this starvation!
O! Call unto it!
Have it burst forth and save the children!
Magnificent are men and women,
Humankind;
Mortal creatures and our gods.
Rising like the cold grey breath of winter,
Praising "God" and life and death.
Their bones clack to Armageddon’s rhythm,
Their eyes perceive the Day of Judgment
Looming steady the bitter death of man.
Where is this rising of thy god?
Is it manifest in the blue?
Famine?
War?
Does it tread `neath the surging wave?
O! Bring out thy god and quench this thirst!
Summon thy god and feed this starvation!
O! Call unto it!
Have it burst forth and save the children!
Magnificent are men and women,
Humankind;
Mortal creatures and our gods.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
Thanks to Thought Theatre via the Brad Blog for the video.
How Pat Robertson's law school is changing America
Previous Post - POP-UP HAMLET
Thanks to Thought Theatre via the Brad Blog for the video.
How Pat Robertson's law school is changing America
Previous Post - POP-UP HAMLET
GRAVITY
The flags aren't flying like they used to.
They're not riding on cars, fastened
To newly bent, molten beams
Wafting in the prickled air
Where gray spines of steel sliced
Open our fortified tranquility,
Where the most we had to fear
Was ourselves.
“Where is the wind?” we call out.
“Why do we still bury our poor
children in the flag draped caskets
of a rich man’s war?”
Have our principles plummeted
Into the craven jaws of gravity
Where a once proud people reveled
In the reasoned hope of humankind?
Where is the wind?
The pennants to their flying?
They’re not waving red, white and blue.
They’re not beaming over the living,
Or wafting in the haggled air
Where bodies coursed downward,
Hands empty of symbols.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
THE "NAPPY-HEADED HO" IS WE
(A Poetic Justice Photomontage
I've had just about enough of both the attackers and supporters of IMUS. I've seen and heard enough racism to last me a life time. What the hell is wrong with us?
The Rutgers team handled themselves like decent human beings, sad I cannot say that for the talking heads and for many of those commenting on either side of the aisle around the web.
Within this story of `yet another racist white man so easily slipping the slur’ lies a bigotry so prevalent that even those who dare not think themselves xenophobic are perpetuating the lie behind the stained mirror.
It is not that freedom of speech could be damaged because of the outrage or what have you, the ladies of Rutgers, the women of this world, and many of you are speaking out, so freedom of speech is safe (for the moment), it is the idea that the slur should somehow be legitimized or watered down for any reason, that it is somehow someone else’s fault, or to be written off as no big deal.
The fact is, if we looked at this in its totality, we might just see that the underlying bigotry in this very controversy is one of the primary reasons for the many troubles in the world today. Color. Race. Creed. Religion. Sex.
(The fury in this country or the blind support for her is not just about oil or terrorism. The color of it, maybe.)
I only ask that you think beyond the yammering jaws and race baited rhetoric. Stir from behind the mirror. Stand facing it.
Our bland broadcast warbles the edge.
A bomb ignites upon the air.
Water drips between their silence
Riveting the sounds of our famine.
Then, out of the rain, a raw voice
Slurs again and sweeps through
Landing hard by. “Look over here”
And the hordes cut out their eyes.
The pungent yammer and pain
Soothes them; race, color, creed.
Forget about the offense. We’ve our own.
Suffering is subjective. “Look over here”
Think of it. We’ve the power. We.
Without eyes we fumble for nothing.
Laugh. Laugh. Laughing amusement.
It is best for covering our fetid truth.
Insults are systemic and bigotry reigns.
The ship’s bumped ashore our hapless face,
But, emptied of eyes, we flop on the deck
And “Look over here” we stagger.
“Ever worsening” “Twenty-three dead”
“Friendly fire” “Many wounded”
“Torture” “Somalians” without peace...
“Look over here” “Look over here”
The morning beams bring out our terror
And blind shepherds howl their horrors,
“Look over here” their refrain,
Planting eyes so we may reap the crumbs.
Blind depravity, self-mutilation, yammering
Toothless prayers to toothless gods,
“Look over here” A bomb ignites upon the air.
Words might mean something after all.
With my apologies to M.C. Escher
Previous Post - BREATHING ART
I've had just about enough of both the attackers and supporters of IMUS. I've seen and heard enough racism to last me a life time. What the hell is wrong with us?The Rutgers team handled themselves like decent human beings, sad I cannot say that for the talking heads and for many of those commenting on either side of the aisle around the web.
Within this story of `yet another racist white man so easily slipping the slur’ lies a bigotry so prevalent that even those who dare not think themselves xenophobic are perpetuating the lie behind the stained mirror.
It is not that freedom of speech could be damaged because of the outrage or what have you, the ladies of Rutgers, the women of this world, and many of you are speaking out, so freedom of speech is safe (for the moment), it is the idea that the slur should somehow be legitimized or watered down for any reason, that it is somehow someone else’s fault, or to be written off as no big deal.
The fact is, if we looked at this in its totality, we might just see that the underlying bigotry in this very controversy is one of the primary reasons for the many troubles in the world today. Color. Race. Creed. Religion. Sex.
(The fury in this country or the blind support for her is not just about oil or terrorism. The color of it, maybe.)
I only ask that you think beyond the yammering jaws and race baited rhetoric. Stir from behind the mirror. Stand facing it.
Our bland broadcast warbles the edge.
A bomb ignites upon the air.
Water drips between their silence
Riveting the sounds of our famine.
Then, out of the rain, a raw voice
Slurs again and sweeps through
Landing hard by. “Look over here”
And the hordes cut out their eyes.
The pungent yammer and pain
Soothes them; race, color, creed.
Forget about the offense. We’ve our own.
Suffering is subjective. “Look over here”
Think of it. We’ve the power. We.
Without eyes we fumble for nothing.
Laugh. Laugh. Laughing amusement.
It is best for covering our fetid truth.
Insults are systemic and bigotry reigns.
The ship’s bumped ashore our hapless face,
But, emptied of eyes, we flop on the deck
And “Look over here” we stagger.
“Ever worsening” “Twenty-three dead”
“Friendly fire” “Many wounded”
“Torture” “Somalians” without peace...
“Look over here” “Look over here”
The morning beams bring out our terror
And blind shepherds howl their horrors,
“Look over here” their refrain,
Planting eyes so we may reap the crumbs.
Blind depravity, self-mutilation, yammering
Toothless prayers to toothless gods,
“Look over here” A bomb ignites upon the air.
Words might mean something after all.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
With my apologies to M.C. Escher
BREATHING ART
Ceaselessly giving.
Art opens inward
The generous spirit of the heart.
Art widens the eyes,
The soul,
Then seeks you within it.
Rigid and hot,
It needs freedom, faith
To consider where it’s taken you,
Like dipping your mind’s brush
Into the cleansing water,
Thoughts swim, breathing like fish.
Now given to, submerged,
Bathed in the shape of it,
What wrangles your soul?
If you find your breath full...
Think not of the artist’s truth,
Think but of your own;
Spirit and the heart of hope
Weep
And question why…
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
BLOG AGAINST THEOCRACY (Loveless Power)
"Easter has less to do with one person's escape from the grave than with the victory of seemingly powerless love over loveless power" --Bill CoffinFlags now drape Easter’s unknown tomb
strapped `round rock
with metal’s twisted brooch,
sorrow stains the air
where steel spikes pierced hands and feet
slinging hope like a missile
out its cage of a valiant plot
into the mislaid reaches of cruelty.
Why must the sycophantic
heave and lick the powerless air
in death’s dark tongue?
The disconcerted
stand silent on dead-end streets
awaiting hope to unravel,
come undone.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
(BLOG AGAINST THEOCRACY) Twisted Sense
Guns steadied,
Sky’s sapphire,
Shooter shaken,
Under firmament.
Twisted sense…
If, in the beginning,
We’d have only sent more death-
If, in the beginning,
We’d have only sent more to die-
If, in the beginning,
We’d have simply and entirely strafed-
If only we’d have merely flattened them,
All of their lives…
Twisted sense…
Tell me, O mighty war,
That they did not suffer!
Tell me, O potent combat,
That they didn't needlessly die
For your mantle and plot!
O! Imposing fortitude! Reckless courage!
Noxious warfare! Collateral death!
Twisted sense…
Tell me all the victims
(Guns steadied)
Of our sleet and storm
Suffer less now for it.
That our hands floating
(Under firmament)
Over the distant water have not
Fetched agony and terror
More than before…
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman
Previous Post - VIDEO (Twisted Sense)
Sky’s sapphire,
Shooter shaken,
Under firmament.
Twisted sense…
If, in the beginning,
We’d have only sent more death-
If, in the beginning,
We’d have only sent more to die-
If, in the beginning,
We’d have simply and entirely strafed-
If only we’d have merely flattened them,
All of their lives…
Twisted sense…
Tell me, O mighty war,
That they did not suffer!
Tell me, O potent combat,
That they didn't needlessly die
For your mantle and plot!
O! Imposing fortitude! Reckless courage!
Noxious warfare! Collateral death!
Twisted sense…
Tell me all the victims
(Guns steadied)
Of our sleet and storm
Suffer less now for it.
That our hands floating
(Under firmament)
Over the distant water have not
Fetched agony and terror
More than before…
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman
More Blog Against Theocracy at APJ
CLEAN SKIN
Briton 'could stage another September 11'Interview: America's new homeland security chief tells Toby Harnden of his fears of 'clean skin' terrorists
• Toby Harnden's blog
• The godfather chaser
The United States fears that the next September 11-style attack on America could be launched by Muslims from Britain or Europe who feel "second-class citizens" and alienated by a "colonial legacy", according to the US Homeland Security chief.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Michael Chertoff, who arrives in Britain tomorrow for talks with John Reid, the Home Secretary, said the US was determined to build extra defences against so-called "clean skin" terrorists from Europe.
Mr Chertoff rejected the idea that the Iraq war had made the world more dangerous.
"Those that are inclined to be radicalised will find a reason to be radicalised no matter what's going on in the world."
More than some ashen membrane
Are the clean skin.
Tell me what they are?
Oh! How beautiful are these alien creatures!
They move with the wind
Under cover of night and sun.
Glowing and graceful they progress
Nearer my tenuous fear.
Seen and unseen,
Like I’ve just exited some dark room;
Under the sun everyone’s a ghost.
Phantoms, whose faces are washed away,
And whose hands are sickly white,
Blanched from unredeemed horrors,
Stand now, drumming rigid fingers
Across the consciousness
Under my clean skin.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
DETACHED FROM REALITY
...when Feingold stood up and advocated censure -- based on the truly radical and crazy, far leftist premise that when the President is caught red-handed breaking the law, the Congress should actually do something about that -- the soul-less, oh-so-sophisticated Beltway geniuses could not even contemplate the possibility that he was doing that because he believed what he was saying. Beltway pundits and the leaders of the Beltway political and consulting classes all, in unison, immediately began casting aspersions on Feingold's motives and laughed away -- really never considered -- the idea that he was motivated by actual belief, let alone the merits of his proposal.That's because they believe in nothing. They have no passion about anything. And they thus assume that everyone else suffers from the same emptiness of character and ossified cynicism that plagues them. And all of their punditry and analysis and political strategizing flows from this corrupt root.
Not only do they believe in nothing, they think that a Belief in Nothing is a mark of sophistication and wisdom. Those who believe in things too much -- who display political passion or who take their convictions and ideals seriously (Feingold, Howard Dean) -- are either naive or, worse, are the crazy, irrational, loudmouth masses and radicals who disrupt the elevated, measured world of the high-level, dispassionate Beltway sophisticates (James Carville, David Broder, Fred Hiatt). They are interested in, even obsessed with, every aspect of the political process except for deeply held political beliefs -- the only part that really matters or that has any real worth. (Read the whole post.)
When I heard about the coming war,
The occupation of Iraq,
I dug up a beautiful rock from my yard, a buried wish.
I picked it up out of the dirt,
Polished it vigorously
And held it up toward the bright midday sun.
I then observed the star
Rudely abandon my offering
And round up the clouds; his cheerless band of thieves.
I asked him why he was not pleased,
Wasn’t the rock pretty enough?
He just wrinkled his mug and stepped behind the haze.
I was hurt, but more determined,
I knew that war would incinerate the children;
Iraq’s pristine treasures hunkered down in trembling.
So I dug up another rock and another.
I dug until my fingers bled.
I dug at a furious pace; time was not on my side.
Soon I had three hundred rocks,
And no feeling in my hands.
Again I offered them to the veiled and sneering sun.
Again the superlative star mocked me,
And the clouds scoffed
Then commenced to spit upon my pleading expression.
So I dug and dug and dug.
I was a madman, digging up grass and flowers.
And, as I dug, the hovering mob threw down their noise.
Lightening struck now,
Yet I was determined to find the perfect stone,
I was digging for all the marbles; the kit and caboodle!
And, “CLANK”, there it was, a door.
A beautiful and brilliantly shining silver door;
A most curious thing to find buried beneath the yard.
The sun peaked through
Inquisitive of this amazing find,
Even the clouds ceased their scoffing and gathered near.
I banged the shovel down upon it
And a massive echo rumbled deep.
The blood from my hands dripped upon the silver frame.
I looked now to the sun,
“Is this magnificence enough?”
But before he could answer there came a thunderous knock…
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
Glenn Greenwald - Why the Beltway Class Can't Comprehend Russ
Feingold Bill - Redeployment From Iraq
Vagabond's "Denial as a Political Philosophy"
Previous Post - WAR STORIES
THE DISTORTION OF EVE
(A Poetic Justice Photomontage)
BETMO sent me an email I thought I'd share... The inspired poem follows...
"Let's all shop at Sears!!! I assume you have all seen the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up?
By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement ! it well deserves. Pass it on.
So I, decided to check it out before I sent it forward. I sent the following email to the Sears Customer Service Department: I received this email and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your store. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item even if it was cheaper at the other store. Here is their answer to my email......................
Dear Customer: Thank you for contacting Sears. The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time."
THE DISTORTION OF EVE
Upon the homeward rumble of unkind supremacy;
The breathtaking leap of winter, and black sky…
Our marching lions return from their stalking submission,
Arriving champions, thrashing and pining for quiet
To pull open drooping eyes against the use of this globe.
When the warrior sleeps, and the higher peace consumes
And wraps around their grip, freeing the feel of the trigger,
And they know the bird’s touching down upon home
The screech of gears jostles them out of their sleep;
The vision of the children’s scattered brown skin
Surges now their scope like some distortion of Eve.
The planes tires have the shattering cries of the fallen
Breathing their last and now the ears pierce with humming;
They think, better to be home, than pleading in the shadows,
Than pulling the action and cutting strangers in two
Or seeing their own legs lying next to them…
Home! Home at last!
No more angry fingers clutching at roadsides.
No more the rigid fists of quagmire their reaping.
No more exploding flesh. No more! No more!
Let the harvest stray in the sand of that land!
Now stepping off to the touch of home,
To a streaming banner of never again.
To flag draped visions rising up chanting `hero’.
To faces stumbling among the fleshy fragments
Looking surprised, uttering unintelligible dread.
And the lion scans the gathering, piercing past the flesh
To walk through, to feel the defeated fingers of home.
Now the air broken with music blasting the newfound peace
And the mob of tears and applause consume the humming
As families look for one another to hold close this discord.
The music faded, photo snapped, banner down, they march home,
And, as the lions drift easily off to the first quiet sleep,
The rumble turns into the voice of a dark pleading,
Asking, “To what end?” “Where were you going?”
“This cloth we use to mop up the oil, wipe shame across the sand?”
The use of this realm, these three-colored banners,
Is all better washed than flown, burned or buried,
Than waved down the broken streets of home.
Even the lions now to their busy, restless lives;
Complacent and lockstep with the re-fragmenting horde.
"No! No! No! Goddmanit! We’ve yet to heal!
We’ve only managed to cover our wound and our wounding!
There’s been no aroma of peace wafting here!
Cease your goddamned marching! Cease!"
Upon the whistling street tosses the signs of conformity,
The smiling empty faces of greed and blindness.
The horrific film loop of deceitfulness.
The casting agents are auditioning our children
As extras in war movies that bow to beasts.
Will we now sleep through the harvest?
March down Old Glory Street?
Oh! Lion…
Step off your plane to the hush of peace...........
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
BETMO sent me an email I thought I'd share... The inspired poem follows...
"Let's all shop at Sears!!! I assume you have all seen the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up?
By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement ! it well deserves. Pass it on.
So I, decided to check it out before I sent it forward. I sent the following email to the Sears Customer Service Department: I received this email and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your store. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item even if it was cheaper at the other store. Here is their answer to my email......................
Dear Customer: Thank you for contacting Sears. The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time."
THE DISTORTION OF EVE
Upon the homeward rumble of unkind supremacy;
The breathtaking leap of winter, and black sky…
Our marching lions return from their stalking submission,
Arriving champions, thrashing and pining for quiet
To pull open drooping eyes against the use of this globe.
When the warrior sleeps, and the higher peace consumes
And wraps around their grip, freeing the feel of the trigger,
And they know the bird’s touching down upon home
The screech of gears jostles them out of their sleep;
The vision of the children’s scattered brown skin
Surges now their scope like some distortion of Eve.
The planes tires have the shattering cries of the fallen
Breathing their last and now the ears pierce with humming;
They think, better to be home, than pleading in the shadows,
Than pulling the action and cutting strangers in two
Or seeing their own legs lying next to them…
Home! Home at last!
No more angry fingers clutching at roadsides.
No more the rigid fists of quagmire their reaping.
No more exploding flesh. No more! No more!
Let the harvest stray in the sand of that land!
Now stepping off to the touch of home,
To a streaming banner of never again.
To flag draped visions rising up chanting `hero’.
To faces stumbling among the fleshy fragments
Looking surprised, uttering unintelligible dread.
And the lion scans the gathering, piercing past the flesh
To walk through, to feel the defeated fingers of home.
Now the air broken with music blasting the newfound peace
And the mob of tears and applause consume the humming
As families look for one another to hold close this discord.
The music faded, photo snapped, banner down, they march home,
And, as the lions drift easily off to the first quiet sleep,
The rumble turns into the voice of a dark pleading,
Asking, “To what end?” “Where were you going?”
“This cloth we use to mop up the oil, wipe shame across the sand?”
The use of this realm, these three-colored banners,
Is all better washed than flown, burned or buried,
Than waved down the broken streets of home.
Even the lions now to their busy, restless lives;
Complacent and lockstep with the re-fragmenting horde.
"No! No! No! Goddmanit! We’ve yet to heal!
We’ve only managed to cover our wound and our wounding!
There’s been no aroma of peace wafting here!
Cease your goddamned marching! Cease!"
Upon the whistling street tosses the signs of conformity,
The smiling empty faces of greed and blindness.
The horrific film loop of deceitfulness.
The casting agents are auditioning our children
As extras in war movies that bow to beasts.
Will we now sleep through the harvest?
March down Old Glory Street?
Oh! Lion…
Step off your plane to the hush of peace...........
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
العراق - ما من فراغ NO VACANCY
*Isn’t psychosis dynamic?
1. Oil is environmentally friendly.
2. We can achieve peace through war.
3. We build by destroying.
4. Our hungry are better fed than Africa’s hungry.
5. In a health care grounded in miracles, not medicine.
6. There is no difference between a dead child and a broken doll.
7. The Book of Genesis is a scientific document.
*Gen'ls to Bush: Soldiers not props
A trio of retired generals concerned that President Bush might use his scheduled appearance this afternoon at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to try and score political points against Democrats, urged the president, via a teleconference with reporters, to focus strictly on the problems with military medical care.
The generals were spurred into action by news reports that suggested the president might use the event to take on Democrats as both sides clash over the Iraq and Afghanistan spending bills just passed by the Senate and House which include timelines Bush fiercely opposes for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
*Toll rises as Iraq attacks continue
At least 38 people were killed or found dead in bombings in Iraq on Saturday, taking the Iraqi death toll this week to almost 500 people.
The weekly death toll rose after Iraqi police announced that Tuesday's truck bombing in Tal Afar, northwest of Iraq, killed 152 people, making it the deadliest single attack since the war began
*Iraqi justice minister resigns
Iraq's justice minister says that he has offered his resignation to the prime minister as a series of bombings left at least 14 people dead across Iraq.
In the capital, Baghdad, on Saturday, a car bomb killed five people and wounded 22 others outside the al-Sadr hospital in Sadr City in Baghdad, police said.
*Iraqi towns bury violence victims
The Iraqi government says it is doing its best to stop Iraq reaching a "level of despair" after six days of violence that resulted in 508 people dead.
On Friday, marketplaces in Baghdad and in the towns of Tal Afar and Khalis - devastated by waves of bomb attacks - stood in ruins.
*Al-Sadr calls for anti-US protests
Muqtada al-Sadr has blamed the US for Iraq's current woes and called for a mass demonstration on April 9 to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall.
The Iraqi Shia leader in a statement on Friday also renewed his call for an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
"Fly Iraqi flags atop homes, apartment buildings and government departments to show the sovereignty and independence of Iraq," al-Sadr said in the statement.
"[Show]that you reject the presence of American flags and those of other nations occupying our beloved Iraq," he said.
العراق - ما من فراغ
There is no vacancy here,
You’d best move along.
No street musicians
Playing freedom’s song.
This country’s faded. Fetid.
So, let the red sun set,
The darkness strike.
Let it come running
Or bound at the wrist
Twisting in agony,
The truth hidden in gloom
And lies, their planning.
Let it enter strapped in might,
Plummet like a hawk,
Be over and done with,
Settled once and for all.
The laughter of oily whores
Spilling from the alleyways
With a siren’s throat,
Blow to blow the fist of men.
Let it come drumming,
Pounding like the heart of rage.
Let it be done.
Finish it;
The world’s sour blood.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
There is no vacancy here,
You’d best move along.
No street musicians
Playing freedom’s song.
This country’s faded. Fetid.
So, let the red sun set,
The darkness strike.
Let it come running
Or bound at the wrist
Twisting in agony,
The truth hidden in gloom
And lies, their planning.
Let it enter strapped in might,
Plummet like a hawk,
Be over and done with,
Settled once and for all.
The laughter of oily whores
Spilling from the alleyways
With a siren’s throat,
Blow to blow the fist of men.
Let it come drumming,
Pounding like the heart of rage.
Let it be done.
Finish it;
The world’s sour blood.
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
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