Hello to the people at VLP
After the glad hands, and “we ought to do this again sometime” a 2 hour drive in the night brings out the true feelings of a curmudgeon.

fragments from beyond initial euporia (sic.)

Workshops were like mental play among children full of Mr. Roger’s feelgood-ism.

The conclusion to the day was a literary acquiescence to mass psychology judged by what gets left out to make it a success.

A poetry slam is like a Jerry Springer show with rhyme envy performed in front of a crowd drinking gourmet coffee sweetened with sugar coated cynicism–throw in some hubris for leavening and this thing was so light it could be disguised as stratus.

To put it in the local vernacular, it was a “cluster fuck among consenting adults”

What can I say? It was like, better than basket ball.

Again, thanks to the organizers and participants. Don't take the comments personal because I probably mean them and that is the my job.

There will more thoughtful and reflective critique later but right now I need a bike ride.

Remember the rules the question is (_____) is not the answer, but the answer is always Ride a Bicycle.
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(SUVs) are not the Answer
Ride a Bicycle

A Diabolical Game
SUVs in Spotlight at Senate Hearing

Observe the timeless dance
contempt and respect
warring and peace
killing and love
praying and bliss.
May nouns prevail where objects fail.


I write poetry because I am am a provocateur who believes dictionaries, libraries and the internet are wonderful inventions, but everyone needs prompts to inspire and challenge their intellect, beliefs, social norms, and authority. That is where I work.
Poems are like firecrackers–compact and explosive–capable of creating a small pop that spurs people to action either from fear or some other emotional response. Only by action can we achieve a state of being–it does not come without struggle. We protest the suffering so that we look and find new ways to struggle and approach inner peace, respect, love and bliss.
Flaws and mistakes make us wiser. Humans are bound to a material existence that we have the privilege to continually recreate. We are often objects, on-the-other-hand we are capable of seeing beyond the physical plane to a state of being. We can imagine and work towards those states with the aid of inspiration and questions. Poems are short and compact enough to permit the hearer to launch into a personal quest for a truth of their own. They can utilize the tools invented by humans for self-education instead of finding “all the answers” from some authoritative source of knowledge.
Thus in my preferred educational world, a learned person does not produce anything so perfect as a textbook with all the answers, that would be the antithesis of education and growing knowledge–no, not certitude but ambiguity, not diagrams but metaphor and allusion, not perfection but inspiration. Do not teach literary devices, use them so others can be enlightened by their efforts to understand them, i.e. poetry is too important to be left to poets.
(TV) is not the Answer
Ride a Bicycle

Today’s reading and meditation begins on
A Diabolical Game
The US In Bed With Terrorists and the question is Who is diabolical here?

Suggestion: Ride far enough to release an answer.
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Today’s comments can be classified under a new title: “Just when I had figured out the answers they changed all the questions.” That is a paraphrase of a caption to a cartoon I saw many years ago.

I talked about “poetsagainstthewar.org” in a previous blog(Feb 15). I thought it was a good idea, I still do, but the point has been made and it is time to move on with action. The anti-war message has gotten some attention and that is good but the war mongers are not just thinking “woe is me.” They have been playing this card all along, for example the Colon Powell and Ronald Dumsfeld pissing match, and they will not miss a chance to gain advantage. They are that vain and paranoid and apply the Hegelian model with impunity.

I read a letter from Stan Goff and an article from emperors-clothes.com from the Financial Times that clarified the unease I had been feeling about the extension of the Poets... anti-war efforts until March 5. This is an unease which can be characterized by the pithy phrase about winning battles and losing wars. Look it up. Somebody said it first but I don’t know the name or source so I cannot make it a quote, can I?

So in respect for the writer for whom this blog’s name-rhythm has been resounded, a poem of exception, critique and expose of the ‘force behind the farce’ has been added to the collection with a little help from my friend.

I attended the most amazing Conference yesterday.

The 11th annual SDSU conference on American Indian History and Culture

The keynote speaker was Winona LaDuke Winona LaDuke (she was the Green Party VP candidate in 2000)

and a representative from the American Indian Movement,Vernon Bellecourt (he spoke at the San Francisco peace rally)

Their anti-war message and the insight into the terrorist activities of the USA government against indigenous peoples was very well done. Their message included atrocities that were inflicted against Indians in South Dakota.

More people need to here what these people have to say and what it means for the future of our country and our planet. I encourage you to learn more about the heroic struggle these people wage in behalf of all of us.

I was encouraged by the large crowds and favorable reception these people received. If it can happen in South Dakota it can happen everywhere. It is a testament to their honest and just message.
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Some interesting reading that I ran across this week, The Jews and the Khazars I expect that this site is full of bias and probably downright falsehood but sometimes that is not necessarily a bad place to start if one is skeptical enough. The deception is less insidious than on some official source that has some authorized endorsements. Any feedback would be appreciated.

There are a whole suite of topics there. I see one about Leonardo Da Vinci’s mother, hmmm.

Blogger sold to Google. Better load up the Spyware. Google is such shill for government spooks. There must be too many sites like this one showing up, aye?
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Quite a week of anti-war protests. I am getting pretty tired of the allegations by war mongers that protestor are supporters of Saddam. As if an unjustified American led war is the only way to secure cheap fuel for the freedom to drive anything the rich of the world want to drive. Then again maybe it is the only thing they can think of. The international militarists who are trying to scare the public into supporting insanity in service of corporate profits have finally met those who persist in telling the truth. Keep up on what is really happening.

Forget about what the commercial networks are trying to delude us into thinking. Log on to What really happened and read some alternate information from all over the world.

For example, read about public media misrepresentation
2/17/03 CNN leaves 750 words out of Blix transcript How in the world do you trust a 'news' organization like CNN, when they offer what purports to be a full transcript of Hans Blix' address to the UN Security Council but they leave out nearly 800 words - and those words just happen to be the ones where Blix refutes Colin Powell's 'smoking gun' presentation from earlier this week?

I have been gone from the post for a few days taking care of some details that peace loving veterans think is important, such as February 12, 2003. A special day of war protest for Veterans.

One of the things that I did during that time was discover that one of the poets I follow had posted to Poets Against the War. I am sure you heard about first lady laura rescinding the invitation to poets to read at an event sponsored by the White House because there might be some anti-war protest in addition to several poets declining her invite.

Your can read my offering, Hydrocarbon Holocaust
by searching for Glen Shorts in the index of poems.

Try a new form of travel. See what we are doing at
Adventure Cycling

I want to say hi to all the little pards out there. The feathered ones are in your debt. Here is something I found in the junk drawer.

Stop and Wonder

Soon the waning moon announces
the season of snow goose renewal–
A new dance beginning

A spot of water brings new life
where anonymity prevailed
and humans reside.

These feathered beings descending
into the void of childless play
while holiday light fades.

Motion in an outdoor symphony
directed by a calm reverence
anyone could have missed.

I am still working on the look and feel of this site. It has been awhile since I programmed in HTML.

I wrote a couple of poems while I was studing Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. It is another example of thoughts that came out of the wild mind of Leonardo. He must have been the link between Persia and the West.

A thought to ponder while I study:
Isn't it singular that no one ever goes to jail for waging wars, let alone advocating them? But the jails are filled with those who want peace. Not to kill is to be a criminal."
James Simon Kunen

Just to prove that Brigit is still “alive and kicking” there was finally some snow up here where winter is celebration and a cover for renewal. We are now nearly to the middle of “The rest and cleansing moon” know by Otter–a time for “‘when you can excel in communication, in developing your intellect, and uncover the bold, humanitarian, and gentle aspects of your own being.” (Sun Bear, et.al.)

The snow prompted a poem worth sharing:

Forgotten Pleasures

Roaring, screeching little pip-squeak snow blowers
stealing snow pleasures for commuting time.
Fathers send their children to do the work
we once knew as fun, and adults took pleasure
in a break from the everyday labors they knew.
Old farts, too proud to admit defeat, struggle
to recover an art created by nature and men.
Deafness, our ally, protects us with a stillness
that the young ones have never heard.
They must have another contrivance to hope for
Noise and clatter to goad them in a senseless quest
for reasons to make the future better than the past.

This just goes back to the whole idea of trading your time for wages so that you can keep the machine of the rich transferring wealth from those who produce it to those who don’t work because they can only be sated by power.

The powers of distraction are really in high gear in the past few days. People are getting too smart to swallow all the bull shit but still haven’t figured out that we feed their quest for power with a bad case of consumption.

Some things you should know about Brigid. Start at this web
site
It is a good source about this enduring goddess.

. War is not the Answer
. RIDE A BICYCLE

From HL:
I finally decided to do it. I have been thinking about what a good idea a blog is for about 5-10 years but I love to procrastinate. Then it happens. The time is right and you have all these ideas about how things should be–thus begins the construction phase. Since anything worthwhile has to have a cosmically appropriate launch now I have to wait for that too. Luckily, February 2 is not that far off and it is a good choice I think. It has significance for christians (the fuckin’ spell checker thinks that should be capitalized for god’s sake (sic), pagans (no nasty-grams on this one), and worshipers of stone circle lore and probably all the rest of Abraham’s cluster and who knows the ying and yang, but it is half way between solstice and equinox. That ought to be worth something even if it is by the western calendar. Thank you Avebury and the Celtic goddess of poetry and inspiration, Brigid, for providing the pre literate memory a stone lover can take to heart.

That ought to be enough for a beginning. No sense blowing your blog all in one day, aye?

To you:
The whole concept of these damn blog thing is freedom but respect for readers concerns me as well. Even though I am basically unorganized I will try to sort shit into piles (rhymes with files) so that readers don’t have to sort though a hay stack to find one or two gems. Besides this way you never know what your missing unless you do and it might as well takes some safe cracking on your part. No gain, no pain or is it the other way around.