Great Poem: Richard Jackson's "Cause and Effect"

I found this on poems.com. Now this is the type of poetry I want to write.


Cause and Effect
by Richard Jackson

It's because the earth continues to wobble on its axis
that we continue to stumble down the streets of the heart.
It's because of the loneliness of the first cell trying to swim
through its primordial pool that we are filled with a kind of
galactic fear. For example: one moment a rocket falls
capriciously into a square. Another moment, a rogue wave
turns over the fishing boat whose crew leaves their memories
floating like an oil slick that never reaches shore.
In this way we understand our dying loves scratching at the door.
In this way, each love creates its own theory of pain. Each love
gnaws the derelict hours to the bone. But because there are
so many blank spaces in history we still have time
to write our own story. Wittgenstein said our words have
replaced our emotions. He never understood how
we have to cleanse ourselves of these invisible parasites
of doubt and fear. We might as well worry about
the signals from dead worlds wandering around the universe
forever. Think instead of how the trees prop up the sky.
How the rain falls into the open eyes of the pond
bringing a vision no one expected. Here's mine: this bee
hovering over the pencil seems to bring a message from
the deepest flowers you inhabit. Because I don't know
where all this love has come from, because the clouds are
covered with our footsteps that know no time, I am
no longer surprised when each day comes from a new place,
because in this way, I can imagine these words getting lost
in your lungs, my fingers curling inside you as if I could
gather you inside my own heart, or tracing the slope of your hip
towards a whole other world. Don't worry. Like us the planet
wobbles because of the shifting hot and cold zones, high
and low pressures, the pull of tides. The stars that are
these words are always closer than we think despite
the theories of astronomers. In this way, I will always be there,
a rain falling into the sea, the abandoned light opening your eyes
despite the curtains of reason, the life you give each time
you turn to me, because the stumbling breaths we borrow
from each other are all we have to keep each other alive.

Great Poem: Jim Harrison's "Age Sixty-Nine"

Just found this poem. What a great finish it has.

Age Sixty-nine
By Jim Harrison

I keep waiting without knowing
what I'm waiting for.
I saw the setting moon at dawn
roll over the mountain
and perhaps into the dragon's mouth
until tomorrow evening.

There is this circle I walk
that I have learned to love.
I hope one day to be a spiral
but to the birds I'm a circle.

A thousand Spaniards died looking
for gold in a swamp when it was
in the mountains in clear sight beyond.

Here, though, on local earth my heart
is at rest as a groundling, letting
my mind take flight as it will,
no longer waiting for good or bad news.

Often, lately, the night is a cold maw
and stars the scattered white teeth of the gods,
which spare none of us. At dawn I have birds,
clearly divine messengers that I don't understand
yet day by day feel the grace of their intentions.

Fun with Google Maps: Tracking the Swine Flu in real time

It is indeed a strange, strange age. 

Great Quote

“There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.”- James Baldwin

Great Poem: W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts"

I just discovered this poem, and what a poem it is. It's an ekphrastic poem based on Auden's experience of seeing "Fall of Icarus" by Bruegel for the first time. It speaks to the apathy of humans in the face of individual tragedy, how what we feel as individuals is often not understood or ignored by the world around us. Pain is a solitary burden and something we must all deal with alone. It is something all the great poets understood. 

Musee des Beaux Arts

by W.H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Why Twitter is more valuable than Facebook

An interesting story in the New York Times today on the value of twitter: 

“Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care about instantly, as it happens,” said Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive and co-founder. “In the best cases, Twitter makes people smarter and faster and more efficient.”

Mr. Williams, along with the other founders, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, first envisioned Twitter as an easy way to stay in touch with people you already know.

In 2006, when Twitter was just starting, the three men felt a small earthquake in San Francisco. They each reached for their phones to twitter about it and discovered tweets from others in the city. At that moment, it dawned on them that Twitter might be most useful for something else — a frontline news report, not just for friends, but for anyone reading.

Indeed, the news-gathering promise of Twitter was most evident during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last November and when a jetliner landed in the Hudson River in January. People were twittering from the scenes before reporters arrived.

Great Quote

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering attitude of mind"- William J

Great Poem: Ranier Marie Rilke's "Autumn Day"

I know it's spring, but something made me think of this poem today. Beautiful.

Autumn Day

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense. Lay your shadow on the sundials and let loose the wind in the fields. Bid the last fruits to be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them to ripeness, and chase the last sweetness into the heavy wine.  Whoever has no house now will not build one  anymore. Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long  time, will stay up, read, write long letters, and wander the avenues, up and down, restlessly, while the leaves are blowing.

I'm sorry...

But this made me laugh. 

Great Quote

I was reading some D.H. Lawerence poetry on the internet, and I ran across this quote. I'm not sure I agree completely, but I always admire who can live and feel this passionately. 

" I am in love - and, my God, it is the greatest thing that can happen to a man. I tell you, find a woman you can fall in love with. Do it. Let yourself fall in love. If you have not done so already, you are wasting your life."- D. H. Lawrence

10 ten hottens 80s sitcom moms

Lori Loughlin i.e. Rebbeca Donaldson should be number one.

Great Poem: "The Long Boat" by Stanley Kunitz

I love this poem. There are many ways, I'm sure it can be interpreted, but I like to think of it as sort of a Buddhist poem. It's that feeling of when you let go of everything that is supposed to be you-- ambition, personality or whatever-- you can finally feel some peace.

The Long Boat
By Stanley Kunitz
When his boat snapped loose
from its mooring, under
the screaking of the gulls,
he tried at first to wave
to his dear ones on shore,
but in the rolling fog
they had already lost their faces.
Too tired even to choose
between jumping and calling,
somehow he felt absolved and free
of his burdens, those mottoes
stamped on his name-tag:
conscience, ambition, and all
that caring.
He was content to lie down
with the family ghost
sin the slop of his cradle,
buffeted by the storm,
endlessly drifting.
Peace! Peace!
To be rocked by the Infinite!
As if it didn't matter
which way was home;
as if he didn't know
he loved the earth so much
he wanted to stay forever.

White Music for Black People

Coates on the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album:

I think my opinions are shaped by basically missing any music created by white people during the mid to late 80s. Kids like me would have been dismissed as "acting white" for listening to a ban like the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs. OK, that's dishonest--I would have been the one doing the dismissing. What can I say? I was young and stupid, and thought the Bomb Squad and Marle Marl created the world. To get a listen from me, you had to run game--think George Michael who half my hood thought was black. We couldn't get cable in the city, and so we missed a lot of videos. (Hell, even Madonna got cut off, post "Get Into The Goove.")

Kenyatta, who did listen to a lot of white 80s acts, was saying how much of the stuff I'm digging today is derived from her childhood. I can vaguely hear that. But not really. The YYYs offer a shot at redemption, a chance at forgiveness for that imaginary black kid who I mocked as white because he dug Flock Of Seagulls. Forgive me Derwin. Everyone else, cop It's Blitz. Derwin already has it.

I agree with Coates, the album is quite good. It sounds sort of like a David Bowie album mixed with the Pretenders. And Karen O's voice is great. Like Coates says, it's not flashy but she never oversings. And her voice has this thing where it sounds like it's part of the rhythm section as much as it is part of the melody of the song. Just listen to her sing on "Soft Shock," which may be the best song on the album, and how she says the words "what's the time, what's the day, don't leave me?" Good stuff.

Benny Lava

This is simply brilliant. I couldn't stop laughing. 

Asian's Beware! Drinkers’ Red Face May Signal Cancer Risk

So I know a lot of Asian people whose faces turn red when they drink. I used to just make fun of them. I don't think I will anymore:

People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry — Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde. People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.

Paul Krugman keeps ripping the Obama administration's financial policies

You have to hand it to Paul Krugman, at least he's consistent. He knows far more about economics than I do, his criticism of Obama feels valid to me. But does anyone really know the correct solution to our financial crisis?

But the Obama administration, like the Bush administration, apparently wants an easier way out. The common element to the Paulson and Geithner plans is the insistence that the bad assets on banks’ books are really worth much, much more than anyone is currently willing to pay for them. In fact, their true value is so high that if they were properly priced, banks wouldn’t be in trouble.

And so the plan is to use taxpayer funds to drive the prices of bad assets up to “fair” levels. Mr. Paulson proposed having the government buy the assets directly. Mr. Geithner instead proposes a complicated scheme in which the government lends money to private investors, who then use the money to buy the stuff. The idea, says Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, is to use “the expertise of the market” to set the value of toxic assets.

But the Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt. So this isn’t really about letting markets work. It’s just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets.

The likely cost to taxpayers aside, there’s something strange going on here. By my count, this is the third time Obama administration officials have floated a scheme that is essentially a rehash of the Paulson plan, each time adding a new set of bells and whistles and claiming that they’re doing something completely different. This is starting to look obsessive.

But the real problem with this plan is that it won’t work. Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of household debt were no problem. They lost that bet. And no amount of financial hocus-pocus — for that is what the Geithner plan amounts to — will change that fact.

You might say, why not try the plan and see what happens? One answer is that time is wasting: every month that we fail to come to grips with the economic crisis another 600,000 jobs are lost.

Even more important, however, is the way Mr. Obama is squandering his credibility. If this plan fails — as it almost surely will — it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to persuade Congress to come up with more funds to do what he should have done in the first
place.

All is not lost: the public wants Mr. Obama to succeed, which means that he can still rescue his bank rescue plan. But time is running out.

Dalai Lama denied visa for South Africa peace conference

How do you deny the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize a visa so he can't attend a peace conference? Talk about irony:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg this week, a presidential spokesman said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Laureate did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend, said Thabo Masebe.

South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship it will host next year.

"We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet," Masebe said, adding that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China.

Great Quote

"The fact is, the marijuana law in the U.S. is a big lie. It's racist and classist. White rich people can smoke marijuana with impunity and poor black people get a record, can't get education, can't get a loan, and all of sudden go into a life of desperation and become hardened criminals. Why? Because we've got a racist law based on lies about marijuana.

There's 80,000 people in jail today for marijuana. We arrested 800,000 people in the last 12 months on marijuana. Even in my rich little white suburban community of Edmonds, Wash., 25 percent of police action is marijuana-related. Everybody knows it's silly. I'm not saying I'm pro-drug. I'm just saying it's parallel to alcohol prohibition. When they rescinded the laws against alcohol, nobody said booze is good, they just said it was stupid to make it a crime, that you're creating organized crime and people are dying," - Rick Steves, broadcaster and travel guru.

The difference between wisdom and intelligence

I was thinking about this today because of something someone brought up to me...

Intelligence is valued in our society. It combines knowledge, experience, innate reasoning skills, logic and more. It's very useful in work, solving problems; it is logical. Very few people think they're dumb, and assume their intelligent. This leads to a lot of arrogrance and grandiosity, to the idea that you have the right answers in life because you came to it logically. (This reminds me of Robert McNamara, the Security of Defense under Kennedy and LBJ. He was one of the brightest minds of any generation, and through logic and intelligence decided that the Vietnam War was a great idea. Worked out pretty well.)

Wisdom is something completely different. There is a belief in our world that somehow the older you get, the wiser you are. But, and this sounds condescending as hell, I've spoken to far too many older adults who may be very intelligent, but don't have any wisdom, and I learned long ago that while their advice is appreciated, it should be with a grain of salt.

Wisdom is not grandiose and arrogant like intelligence often is; it doesn't purpose to have the right answers like intelligence which will use logic, knowledge and experience to come up with the right answer. Wisdom is humble. It knows that there are no right answers in life. Wisdom doesn't come from the mind like intelligence does. It is deeper. Zen Buddhists believe it comes from the hara. It comes when we're able to turn of our minds and feel things deeply and calmly and with humility.

Intelligence, in my humble opinion, is overvalued. I try to think of the mind as a computer. It is great at solving problems. But should it be used for more? The deeper and most important things in life have little to do with intelligence. It's much more about humility and feeling things out. It comes from an understanding of not only one's self but the world around us.

Virginity rates among students by major

I think the lesson here is that if you want to get laid a lot in college make sure you're a liberal arts major of some type and stay the hell away from math and science.

Great Quote

Great advice... it's a reminder to me that despite all the advice you may receive from people and the conventions of society, that no one can fully understand the experience of each individual, and that too live honestly means accepting your reality for what it is-- all one's thoughts and feeling and perceptions-- and using that as your guide through life. Fuck what other people say, I say.

"We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it."- Ranier Maria Rilke

Jon Stewart destroys Jim Cramer

There's been a lot of hype about this, mainly because Jon Stewart showed video clips of Jim Cramer saying that you should buy Bear Stearns stock right before its collapse. If Jim Cramer knew better he wouldn't have responded (see Tucker Carlson). But he did, saying Stewart took his quotes out of context. And then Stewart ripped again. And again.

Here's the interview they had last night. I haven't actually watched it, but I hear Stewart owns him.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Great Poem: Stanley Kunitz's "Touch Me"

I just discovered this poem this morning. In an age were irony rules the day and sincerity is lost in the shuffle, it's wonderful for me to see a work of art were this direct & simple but beautiful and truthful. Amen for Stanley Kunitz.

Touch Me
By Stanley Kunitz

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that's late,
it is my song that's flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it's done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.

How To Twitter

A nice little story in the WSJ today about how to twitter. I must say I'm a believer, much more than any other internet phenomenon of past years like Youtube, Facebook and the such. The reason? Well the article spells it out:

But I have to admit I didn't understand the appeal of Twitter when I joined, at the prodding of friends, in November. One answer that explains its popularity: It's not about chatting with your friends -- it's about promoting yourself.

Sure it's narcissistic as hell. But there are few things at good marketing than twitter. Twitter provides an easy way to promote whatever it is you do, whether it's music, write, design websites or anything else. Unlike Facebook, which is mostly to maintain acquaintances, twitter has real value. And it's free.

The Company of Women over Men

(I know this is a bit of strange post, but I've been thinking about it and was curious if any other males out there knows what the hell I'm talking about)

For all of my life, I've been a guy's guy: sports, comic books, drinking beer, playing poker etc. (I'm still very much all these things.) Hanging out with girls, unless it was in hopes of a relationship or sex, just didn't seem like that much fun or very appealing.

But something has changed over the past two or three years. I'm not really sure what happened, but I find myself enjoying the company of women over men more and more.

I wonder why that is. It's not because of sex; sure I'm attracted to some of the girls I hang out with, but that's an afterthought when I'm with them.

It comes down to this, I think (I realize these are generalizations): women, in general, are more thoughtful than men, and are better able to express those thoughts, emotions and insights. This makes for more thoughtful conversations as a result. Women, it seems, are generally better listeners too, and allow the conversation to flow its natural course. With the "boys," everything is a joke, everything is fun, but rarely is it enlightening or thoughtful in some meaningful way.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to watch football and play poker and shit and I wouldn't give up hanging out with the "boys" for anything because it's a huge part of my personality.

But when I want to chill and enjoy someone's company, I am turning more and more to women these days. It's a strange thing for me. But it's also, I think, a sign of finally leaving adolescence behind and maturing a bit...