... And a few steps back

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage.

If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal... in 1967. 1967. The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry...black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized. You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are... gay. -- MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Nov 10, 2008



The sad news from last Tuesday concerns rollbacks in rights for gay and lesbian people across the country

Arizona and Florida approved anti-gay marriage propositions, and Arkansas approved an Initiative barring unmarried people from adopting children.

The big loss, however, was in California, with the passage of Proposition 8, reversing the California Supreme Court's decision approving gay marriage.

Fingers are being pointed over the loss -- many of them pointed at African Americans:

"African American voters in California voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8, writing anti-gay discrimination into California’s constitution and banning same-sex marriage in that state. Seventy percent of African American voters approved Prop 8, according to exit polls, compared to 53% of Latino voters, 49% of white voters, 49% of Asian voters.... I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there — and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum — are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color." -- Dan Savage

"Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, 'Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!' A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were 'very disappointed with black people' and 'how could we' after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn't matter because "most black people hated gays" and he was "wrong" to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay." -- "Ronald" at the marriage equality rally in Los Angeles, reported by Rod McCollum (More follow-up from Rod here)

Many Gay Rights organizations continually just don't get it when it comes to people of color, as Andres Duque points out:

"Let me say this: I don't have much money but I have donated to the "No on 8" campaign to support their efforts (as well as "No on 2" in FL and "No on 102" in AZ); I also know that they have attempted to make inroads among Latino communities; but I was less than thrilled by their discourse in media during these last few days on the issue of Latino voters and not too impressed by their ads targeting Latino media."

From the VivirLatino website:

Gloria Nieto had a sense of those demographic forces, too. When Nieto, a lead organizer for the No on Proposition 8 campaign in San Jose, wanted to distribute campaign signs in Spanish and Vietnamese this fall, she had to get them made herself because the statewide campaign only had signs in English.
What this suggests to me is that communities of color have their problems--but largely white organizations seem to not value those communities until the time comes when they need them for their own agendas, and even then not so much.

I have been wanting to comment about this since November 5, but everytime I start I get extremely upset (okay, as La Familia would attest, the right word for me to use here is not "upset" but "livid"). I probably would have come out with something similar to Ernest Hardy's long and 'colorful' response to Mr Savage, or it's followup

I'm upset at the racism of some members of the white gay community

I'm upset at the homophobia of some members of the black community

I am saddened and disturbed by the 'white' "Gay Community" for their lack of understanding of non-white communities. As well as the fact that there's little to no realization from many of them that people can be BOTH black and gay.

And I'm mad at both groups for playing directly into the hands of Right Wingers who would deny ALL of us of our rights if given half a chance.

There's more than enough 'blame' to go around. For example, some folk would have been attacking Catholics if one could tell religion by looking at someone, for, as blogger JoeMyGod points out:

The last Field Poll, conducted a week before the election, showed that weekly churchgoers increased their support in the final week from 72 percent to 84 percent. Catholic support increased from 44 percent to 64 percent - a jump that accounted for 6 percent of the total California electorate and equivalent to the state's entire African American population combined. The shift in Catholics alone more than accounted for Prop. 8's 5 percent margin of victory.

I'm glad to see folks are challenging the Morman Church, which poured huge amounts of money across the border from Utah into California to pass Prop 8. (They should all watch the very moving film "Latter Days" to get some idea of what it might feel like to be a young gay Mormon)

I also agree with some friends who think the idea of having voters decide on the rights others should have is an extremely bad idea. A lot of American's wouldn't vote for the Bill of Rights in the US Consitution either! And I doubt that there would be school desegregation, Civil Rights Acts of 1964 or '65, nor legal-all-across the US interracial marriage if they had been put to a vote either.

So: rather than get mad, lemme DO something

National Fight the H8 rallys at city halls across America, Saturday November 15, 2008
As poet C Dale Young says:

You don't have to chant. You don't have to carry a sign. We just want you to stand with us. If you have ever loved someone enough to want to marry them; If you have ever married; If you thank God every day for your husband or wife; If you ever wonder how you would get through the week without your significant other, stand with us. Everyone deserves the right to love someone and be treated with dignity. Everyone deserves a chance at happiness. None of us want to be treated like second-class citizens. So stand with me for Love. Stand against H8.

Continuing Updates on Prop 8 and protests at Towleroad

Some resources for our us and our Straight Allies to help discuss heterosexism/homophobia within the Black community, courtesy of the all-across-the-spectrum-of-sexual-orientation poets of Cave Canem:

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack II: Sexual Orientation
Daily effects of straight privilege


How Homophobia Hurts Everyone: A Theoretical Foundation by Warren J. Blumenfeld (PDF)

"Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" by Adrienne Rich

Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch by Dwight McBride

Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism by Patricia Hill Collins

Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity and Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South by E Patrick Johnson (Performing part of Sweet Tea here)

Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing edited by Catherine McKinley & L. Joyce DeLaney

Redbone Press' Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity

Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent by Thomas Glave

DVDs
Marlon Rigg's Black Is...Black Ain't

Cheryl Dunne's The Watermelon Woman

Brother to Brother

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin

Last but most decidly NOT least, Keith Olbermann's emotional Special Comment, which asks a question I ask myself -- what the hell's it to YOU if Gays and Lesbians want to get married?



Thank You, Keith

The First Reader

Some friends and I are doing the 'happy dance' over this:

Obama spotted carrying poetry book
CHICAGO, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama was carrying a book of poems while leaving the Chicago school of his daughters, witnesses say.

The U.S. senator, fresh off his Election Day victory, presumably had time to enjoy some poetry while visiting his daughters' school Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

While the Illinois Democrat was not spotted reading the book of poems by Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, he personally carried the new-looking book to an awaiting car.

Versifyers around the world rejoice.....

This New Tomorrow

The New Era of Obama

We did something remarkable Tuesday, but our work isn't done. The challenges we're facing are great, and the obstacles to progress won't disappear overnight. We all have to remain active and engaged if we are to realize the promise of yesterday's election.

--Joan Blades, co-founder MoveOn.org

I believe that historians will look back on 2008 as the end of the Reagan conservative era and the start of a new period of progressive federal activism.

-- Robert Dallek, author, presidential historian

He has the chance to overturn Bush administration policies that compromised basic human rights. One of Obama's first actions should be to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay and either transfer its inmates to federal prisons or release them. Guantánamo is an international embarrassment and has become a symbol of America's violations of international law.

Obama also needs to immediately rescind Bush administration policies authorizing torture, permitting renditions that violate international law, and authorizing extrajudicial spying on Americans. From the moment of his inauguration, Obama must declare that the United States will comply with international law and follow its own Constitution.

-- Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California Irvine School of Law

Yes, it's historic and incredible that a black man is president of the United States. But, dang it, it's just as important that a black woman is the first lady. Think about it. Jackie O! Lady Bird Johnson! And Michelle Obama in her Gap dresses! Please don't discount the cultural power of the first lady. I am very excited to see how Michelle Obama also revolutionizes the White House.

-- Sherman Alexie, novelist and poet

Ladies & Gentlemen, your new First Family

Madelyn Dunham (1922-2008)

“It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.”

Thank you for raising a remarkable young man. Our thoughts and prayers are with Barack and his family at this time.


Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Grandparents:

One of the big mistakes we make when we look at the history of race in this country is to focus on big people and big events. What should be remembered is that, though our racial history is mired in utter disgrace, though the deep cowardice of post-reconstruction haunts us into the 21st century, at any point on the timeline, you can find ordinary white people doing the right thing

Do Your Duty

(From designforobama.org)

And for our California friends

No on 8

While you were voting....

It seems obvious that the Bush administration is determined to be evil to the end: not only have they saddled their successor with a quagmire of a war and a wreck of an economic system, this article in the Washington Post notes that they also wish to gut a number of rules and regulations before Dick and Dubya leave office, further tying the next president's hands.

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January..... would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.

Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis....

!Evil!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently visited us, and my partner decided not to attend, in part because he didn't want to 'slip' and tell her how upset he was over her decision not to impeach George W Bush. It took me a while to get around to agreeing that impeachment proceedings should have been seriously considered by the House. It now seems obvious that, for the sake of the nation, our Constitution, and our future, throwing the bums out truly was the way to go.

We all need to closely watch the current administration from now until the moment the next president takes the oath of office in January 2009. I wonder, for example, who will get a traditional end of year/end of administration pardon?

Sunrise in America

Watching Barack Obama's half-hour campaign 'infomercial' last night, my first thought was "Ronald Reagan." Obama and his team have obviously learned quite a bit from "The Great Communicator" about production, stagecraft, and putting a message across. From the opening shot of the 'amber waves of grain,' followed by some purple mountains in the distance above fruited plain to the end, as an animated sun rose over a multicolored arc to turn into the Obama "O".....amazing. What can I say? It's "Morning in America" again!

I'm not saying this to be negative. I'm saying this because I'm very impressed -- and enjoy the irony of how tactics and techniques of the GOP's favorite president have been turned against them. And there was not a dry eye in our house during the segment concerning the elderly black couple where the cost of medication for the wife's severe arthritis forces her 70+ year old husband to work at WalMart (having cared for older relatives that one almost makes me teary just thinking about it).

If Senator Obama wins next Tuesday (and I hope and pray that he does), I'm expecting to see four - to - eight years of speeches, podcasts, e-mail blasts, and YouTube video from a President poised to join Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and yes Ronald Reagan (although somehow his messages were always lost on me), as one of the truly finest 'communicators' ever to use the Bully Pulpit of the White House. And considering the amazing network of supporters that have joined together for the campaign (all ready and waiting to continue to work after the election) it's going to be a very interesting administration, not only in Washington, but also (especially?) out here in the 'grass roots.'

Poem: Palinode, Once Removed by Kyle Dargan

In honor of a missed connection between myself and Kyle Dargan last week (and today, too, since I was supposed to be off but.....), here's one of Mr. Post No Ills' poems from Bouquet of Hungers, winner of the 2008 Hurston Wright Legacy Award in Poetry.







Palinode, Once Removed
Bloomington, Indiana

The Negro is America's metaphor
Richard Wright


The girl from Martinsville sets her eyes on me
like they are elbows -- intently boring
at my cheeks. This sentiment bleeds
throughout my class. Slouched, heads
tilted, they wait for the day I come in,
pull out a handkerchief, a vial of alcohol,
and wipe this vexing complexion from my skin.

Before I left home, Uncle called -- said,
"You're going to teach them people, huh?
Well, teach 'em.:

The day we pursue metaphor, I will
teach them about the brain -- how there is a center
to catch discrepancy between the expected
and the perceived. Stimulate the mechanism,
you are working in metaphor.

Though surprising
I am not a metaphor. This is: I am a period,
small and dark. If you read me correctly,
you are to stop. Pause. Breathe.

Colin Powell, All-American

"Now, I understand what politics is all about. I know how you can go after one another, and that's good. But I think this goes too far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for. And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign and they trouble me. And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration. I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

"I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."

Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.),
'Meet the Press,' October 19, 2008



Spc. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, 1987-2007

Blog Action Day 2008

The Bean Eaters


They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.

Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.

And remembering . . .
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that
is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.

Gwendolyn Brooks


What does it mean to be poor? For the most part, people focus on the homeless, those we see sleeping on the street or begging for change on corners and outside (and sometimes inside) stores. This is as it should be perhaps, those we see in dire straits are the most in need, and deserve our focus and attention.

But there are others, possible millions of others, hidden from sight, who are struggling. And sadly, while our Presidential candidates are doing a lot of talking about the Middle Class and what the definition of "Rich" is, there has been next to no discussion about the Poor, working or otherwise. Very troubling. There's little we can do about the problem if we don't see that there is a problem. One of the first steps we can take is to open our eyes.

Faces of World Poverty

What we can do to help end poverty in the Third World

Help eliminate poverty – invest in women

On The Working Poor

Poor & Elderly

Health care for the Poor and Elderly

More Poverty Fighting ideas . (I am a big fan of the idea of Microlending, as well as the venerable Oxfam America, and regularly contribute to the local Maryland Food Bank)

Blog Action Day 2008

Crisis? What Crisis?

Heartiest Congratulations to economist and NYTimes columist Paul Krugman, Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics! (Now all you need to do is become Governor of Maine and it's on to The West Wing!)

Although Krugman's selection is based on his economic theories (explained here and here), considering his high profile as a liberal public intellectual , the choice, combined with the selection of Martti Ahtisaari, Former President of Finland, as the Peace Prize winner for his work as “'an outstanding international mediator' whose efforts “have contributed to a more peaceful world and to ‘fraternity between nations’," strikes me as also being yet another needle jabbed at the Bush Administration from Sweden.


So, since the Stock Market soared today, thanks to the global embrace of...well, Socialism, actually..., is it time to pop the champagne and move on to the next crisis? I don't think so. It took a while to get into this mess, and it will take some time to get us out. Now is the time for all of us to take some deep breaths and get ed-u-ma-cated.

There have been a number of places to find good, solid information about what's going on in banking, housing, and on Wall Street lately. Here are a few I've found particularly enlightening. Some can be relatively long and complicated, but since we're going to be in for one hell of a time for at least the first two years of the next president's administration, we have some time to savor them. Also considering the artificial 'sweeteners' needed to pass the Bailout Bill, when we were threatened with nothing less than The Apocalypse, perhaps its best that we try to slow down a bit and actually consider what we should do next.

Paul Krugman's Blog at the New York Times (Wonder what he's going to do with Mr Nobel's $4million in prize money?)

McClatchy Newspaper's "Economy in Turmoil" series

The Brookings Institute on the US Economy (Full Dislosure: As a fresh-out-of-college Poly Sci major, I lusted after a job at Brookings, but lacked the self-confidence to go for it!)

Salon's "How The World Works"

Although we are on opposite sides of the politial spectrum (he thought Congress should eliminate the Capital Gains Tax, for example), I have a lot of respect for the personal finance tips of Dave Ramsey.

JD Roth's "Get Rich Slowly" blog and his List of Financial Literacy Resources



(Cartoon from The New Yorker)

Nobel Thoughts

Congratulations to the newest Nobel Laureate in Literature, novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. I don't know his work, but am very happy for him (...although, to be honest, my first reactions upon hearing he'd won were; 1)"Jean-Marie Who?" and; 2)isn't Michel Tournier still alive?)

Much was made of recent comments by Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, attacking US writers for being "too isolated, too insular...Europe is still the center of the literary world..."

Uh, yeah, right....This is so wrong on so many levels it's hard to know where to start. Help me out here John....

Also, seems to me as a reader, that, depending on what you mean, there is either NO "Center of the Literary World" (shades of The Death of the Author!), or that The Center 'floats', and the location where the most vital and interesting work comes from changes. During "El Boom" (and after) it was Central and South America; writers from the Indian subcontinent have been 'must reads' in recent years (a few here -- although I don't count politically proto-European grandee Nobelist VS Naipaul -- and here).

Personally I wasn't entirely sure that any of the US writers who are on my shortlist (Philip Roth, for example, or Joyce "Stop Me Before I Write Another Novel Before Breakfast" Carol Oates -- Just kidding, JCO, us Mike Tyson Fans have to stick together...) had a ghost of a chance this year. What has been obvious to many of us for quite some time is that American writers should put the Nobel completly out of their minds as long as George W Bush occupies the White House. The anti-Bush/anti-US occupation of Iraq feeling is so strong in European literary circles now that we scribblers are being punished so that there could be zero chance of The Academy being seen as 'rewarding' the United States in any way.

Yet another reason to Vote Obama!

Finally on this year's award: No offense to fiction, but -- What's up with Poetry? In 1995 and '96 when the Swedish Academy went wild and voted in two poets back to back ( "Famous Seamus" Heaney and the luminous Wislawa Szymborska). Since then, novelists and playwrites. I was thinking that this might be the year for Tomas Tranströmer, although the Swedes are sensitive of giving The Big One to one of their own, Bei Dao -- or, say, Adonis (or Mahmoud Darwish if he'd lived) both for the quality of their work and as yet another way to needle the Bush Administration. Again this year, Stockholm sent regrets to John Ashbery, Claribel Alegria, Jay Wright (whose Polynomials and Pollen: Parables, Proverbs, Paradigms, and Praise for Lois is making me cry right now), and on and on and on ......

Come on Academy: What did us versifyers ever do to Sweden?

The Verdict on Presidential Debate #2

Debate Postscript Extra Credit Question

("It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where—where do they go?")


Listening to the debate, and then perusing the transcript, I wonder: Is it really too much to ask that a person running for elected office in 2008 be able to speak comprehensible English (right there, also)?

Slate diagrams the sentences of Sarah Palin (hat tip and eternal love to the amazing Tayari Jones)

Here's to the new Veep, same as the old Veep....

....strike that: make it WORSE than the current VP


(portions of the transcript of the vice-presidential debate between Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gov. Sarah Palin in St. Louis, 2 October 2008, as recorded by CQ Transcriptions)

IFILL: ....We're going to move on to the next question. Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day.... But tell us now, looking forward, what it is you think the vice presidency is worth now.

{...}

PALIN: No, no. Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. John McCain and I have had good conversations about where I would lead with his agenda. That is energy independence in America and reform of government over all, and then working with families of children with special needs. That's near and dear to my heart also. In those arenas, John McCain has already tapped me and said, that's where I want you, I want you to lead. I said, I can't wait to get and there go to work with you.

{...}

IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also.


Governor, meet the Constitution; US Constitution, Governor Palin:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. (US Constitution, Article I, Section III)

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President (US Constitution, Article II, Section I)

How will your representative vote?

Poetry Bailout Will Restore Confidence of Readers

By Charles Bernstein

Chairman (David) Lehman, Secretary (Robert) Polito, distinguished poets and readers—I regret having to interrupt the celebrations tonight with an important announcement. As you know, the glut of illiquid, insolvent, and troubled poems is clogging the literary arteries of the West. These debt-ridden poems threaten to infect other areas of the literary sector and ultimately to topple our culture industry.

Cultural leaders have come together to announce a massive poetry buyout: leveraged and unsecured poems, poetry derivatives, delinquent poems, and subprime poems will be removed from circulation in the biggest poetry bailout since the Victorian era. We believe the plan is a comprehensive approach to relieving the stresses on our literary institutions and markets.

Let there be no mistake: the fundamentals of our poetry are sound. The problem is not poetry but poems. The crisis has been precipitated by the escalation of poetry debt—poems that circulate in the market at an economic loss due to their difficulty, incompetence, or irrelevance.

Illiquid poetry assets are choking off the flow of imagination that is so vital to our literature. When the literary system works as it should, poetry and poetry assets flow to and from readers and writers to create a productive part of the cultural field. As toxic poetry assets block the system, the poisoning of literary markets has the potential to damage our cultural institutions irreparably.

As we know, lax composition practices since the advent of modernism led to irresponsible poets and irresponsible readers. Simply put, too many poets composed works they could not justify. We are seeing the impact on poetry, with a massive loss of confidence on the part of readers. What began as a subprime poetry problem on essentially unregulated poetry websites has spread to other, more stable, literary magazines and presses and contributed to excess poetry inventories that have pushed down the value of responsible poems.

The risks poets have taken have been too great; the aesthetic negligence has been profound. The age of decadence must come to an end with the imposition of oversight and regulation on poetry composition and publishing practices.

We are convinced that once we have removed these troubled and distressed poems from circulation, our cultural sector will stabilize and readers will regain confidence in American literature. We estimate that for the buyout to be successful, we will need to remove from circulation all poems written after 1904.

This will be a fresh start, a new dawn of a new day. Without these illiquid poems threatening to overwhelm readers, we will be able to create a literary culture with a solid aesthetic foundation.


I’m Charles Bernstein, and I approved this message.

Poems Against War: Ars Poetica

Hot off the Presses:

It also seems to me that those of us on this side of the political spectrum have to do more than just be against something. Here in Baltimore we’ve seen a former mayor’s administration plaster posters and bumper stickers all around the city asking us to “Believe.” Fine – Believe in what? So too with those of us against the war: we are anti-war, but what do we believe in? What are we for? What does the alternative to war look like, smell like, taste like?

Poetry helps to answer these questions by giving both writers and readers visions of the possible. While giving comfort and pleasure to readers and listeners and speaking to what’s happening now, poets also help to create the future. Not that we versifiers know more than anyone else about what tomorrow will look like, but rather, through our work, we insist that there must BE a future, that there’s something out there worth living for. Something worth bringing the troops back home to.

The rest of my Ars Poetica: Roses in a Time of War, and work by Antler, Tony Hoagland, and others (with paintings Minás Konsolas) debuts in Poems Against War #7 at the Baltimore Book Festival Sunday (9/28/08).

The "S" Word

There's been a good deal of talk about Socialism lately, thanks to the recent collapse on Wall Street. However, as someone who has fancied himself leaning heavily toward being a Social Democrat or Democratic Socialist (yes there is a difference), I'm decidedly less enthusiastic about our government's move to bail out troubled financial institutions than one would think a 'pinko-Leftist' would be.

I'm pleased that Congress appears to have put the breaks on Henry "PowerPlay" Paulsen and his original plan -- give him $750 billion, he'll give it away and save us all, just don't ask him any questions. However, even with the modified plan, I still wonder, perhaps selfishly: What's in it for me? As a taxpayer, I'm going to be part owner of some of the troubled institutions 'non-liquid assets'. Does that mean the Other Half and I and rest of the family can move into one of these 'Non-liquid assets' since our place it getting kinda small? What guarantees do we have that $750 billion is 'enough'? Other than a (temporary -- everyone knows we're only putting a band aid on the problem right now) end to 'the current crisis' what do we get for our tax dollars -- and will we get some of the money back?

Sweden appeared to have had the right idea when it went through a similar problem a few years ago:


Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over the bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. Banks had to write down losses and issue warrants to the government.

That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well.

IMHO THAT'S the way to do it! The government doesn't just take over an institution, there are safeguards, guarantees, a reward for our national shared risk. But is something this on the table in Washington? Somehow I don't think so. Too "Socialistic" for our tastes in this country I'm afraid.

(Sigh) Oh well, I guess the [Class] Struggle continues: Back to the barricades!

Your Bill Sir, Ma'am.....

(Graphic from Reuters, by way of the Chrisitan Science Monitor)

I understand the need for (some) of these bailouts, but still, one day the bill will come due. Expect to feel the pinch on April 15th, and beyond.

The F.A.Q.’s of Lehman and A.I.G.

Remembering

Self-Portrait in the New World Order

You're walking down the street alone, absorbed
in the anticipation of a lunchtime salad
with that crusty olive bread you like so much,
and suddenly you're marching in formation
in a crowd, it's called a regiment.
You seem to be a soldier this time, you learn
to be at war. You're never really in danger
because you know you can't die
in your dreams, but sometimes
you wonder who told you that and whether
they could be trusted. The sidewalk is split
and uneven because of the shrapnel
and the artillery shells; yesterday
you didn't know the definition of artillery,
but today you know how to use it, all kinds
of field ordnance. "Ordnance" is a word
you'd never heard before. Every time
there's so much to notice, so much
to remember and write down. Here's
a little notebook with rubbed-down corners
for your back pocket. It's the little things
that distinguish one war from another,
tonight your shoes are black standard issue
marching boots that lace half-way up
your calves, whereas the other night
you had no shoes, or the shoes you'd lost
were beige bedroom slippers whose plush
offered no protection from the slush and rain
you trudged through. The subway crash
distracted you from that, now
you're climbing over the wreckage
to the next sheltered position, air thick
with morning mist (you're shivering), smoke
and a haze of acrid dust, it burns your lungs.
You're clambering through accordioned
cars, where are those twisted rails
that won't carry any passengers taking you?




Reginald Shepherd
from Fata Morgana

Orpheus from The Bronx

Reginald Shepherd

1963-2008

'I write because I would like to live forever. The fact of my future death offends me. Part of this derives from my sense of my own insignificance in the universe. My life and death are a barely momentary flicker. I would like to become more than that. That the people and things I love will die wounds me as well. I seek to immortalize the world I have found and made for myself, even knowing that I won’t be there to witness that immortality, mine or my work’s, that by definition I will never know whether my endeavor has been successful. But when has impossibility ever deterred anyone from a cherished goal? As the brilliant poet and teacher Alvin Feinman once said to me, “Poetry is always close kin to the impossible, isn’t it?”'

Reginald Shepherd, from "Why I Write (revised)"

I had a very unusual doppleganger-like relationship with poet Reginald Shepherd. Once an established poet came up to me during a break at a workshop to pass on how much the editor of a certain journal 'simply loved my work.' This confused me as that journal had in the past rejected every submission I'd sent them. I took the compliment, however, thinking that the comment was based on the poems I had recently sent them....No such luck: they were sent back as well.

Then in 2002 at Fire & Ink, someone came up to me saying, "Oh, I'm so glad you're here, I have all your books!" which was confusing because at that time I'd only appeared in anthologies. But I said okay. The gentleman then proceeded to pull out Some Are Drowning, Angel, Interrupted and Wrong. "No, no, no," I said. "I'm the OTHER Reginald. You want him," pointing out and then taking him over to introduce him to Mr. R Shepherd.

I suppose that 'doppleganger' relationship continued, because I found myself thinking about him last night at home, and discovered this morning via e-mail that he had passed away.

Reginald and I would send e-mails and letters to each other, talking about our work, poetry, and life, always starting and ending the missives with our name, "Reginald." He got a kick out of that symmetry, and also how it seems a bit like writing to yourself, while actually corresponding to someone else. I thought it was great because for most of my life the only other Reginald I knew was my father. It somehow seemed fitting that when we actually met face to face for the first time, it was in a hotel lobby where the young man behind the desk was also named "Reginald."

As a friend said today after hearing news of his passing, RS could be 'a piece of work.' There were times when he could be SO sensitive, SO dramatic, it was a bit exhausting. There were other times (AWP and other conferences seemed to bring out the best in him) when he was totally ebullient and filled with contagous joy, his never less than (almost intimidatingly) brilliant comments and questions tumbling over themselves to get out.

When we first started talking he was worried about the reception of him and his work among other African American poets (and other black gay writers in particular). Many had expressed 'problems' with what was for most our first introduction to him, his essay “On Not Being White” in Joseph Beam's seminal 1986 anthology In the Life. I think he got over that as time went on: Having that person pull out his books at Fire & Ink did wonders I'm sure, as did being part of the amazing Diversity in African American Poetry Conference at the University of Ohio in 2003 (poems and papers from that event are gathered in the wonderful Rainbow Darkness). He wanted to be part of the conversation when people were talking about American poetry and its various subsets and streams. I think he's gotten his wish.

His work can be difficult -- rewardingly so -- and I thought the direction he was headed in as expressed in Fata Morgana was very exciting. I'm glad I got the chance to tell him that. But like everyone else, I'm selfish: I want more poems, more essays, more essay-blog postings, more criticsm, more letters, more e-mails, more times to get together. More Reginald.

Reginald Shepherd, Poet:

Some Are Drowning, 1994
Angel, Interrupted, 1996
Wrong, 1999
Otherhood, 2003
Fata Morgana, 2007

All from the University of Pittsburgh Press

Editor John Gallaher has offered to send a copy of RS's 2007 chapbook to those who request it

Essayist:

Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry, University of Michigan Press, 2008

Editor:

The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries, University Of Iowa Press, 2004
Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries, Counterpath Press, 2008

Also check out his conversation with Christopher Hennessy in Outside the Lines: Talking with Contemporary Gay Poets, University of Michigan Press, 2005

Blog posts on Harriet, the Poetry Foundation website

Rememberances:

Ron Silliman

Christopher Hennessy

Emily Warn

Skin Trade

And then I said, That's what it means
to testify: to sit in the locked dark muttering
when you should be dead to the world. The muse
just shrugged and shaded his blue eyes. So naturally
I followed him down to his father's house
by the river, a converted factory in the old
industrial park: somewhere to sit
on threadbare cushions eating my words
and his promises, safe as milk
that dries the throat. If I had a home,
he'd be that unmade bed. He's my America
twisted in dirty sheets, my inspiration
for a sleepless night. No getting around that
white skin.
                  He throws things out the window
he should keep; he collects things
he should feed to the river. He takes me
down. While there, I pick them up.

The river always does this to me:
gulls squawking and the smell of paper mills
upstream, air crowded with effluents
like riding the bus underwater. I'm spending nights
in the polluted current, teaching sunken bodies how
to swim. My feet always stay wet. Sometimes
I leave footprints the shape of blood; sometimes glass
flows through broken veins, and I glitter.
Every other step refers to white men
and their names. The spaces in between
are mine. Back of the bus with you,
nigger. They're turning warehouses
into condos, I'm selling everything
at clearance prices: here's a bronze star
for suffering quietly like a good
boy.
                  River of salt, will I see my love again?
Cold viscous water holds its course even after
it's gone. Throw a face into it and you'll never look
again, throw a voice and you'll hear sobbing
all the way down. Narcissus, that's my flower
forced in January, black-eyed bells echoing
sluggish eddies. Who hit him first?

The muse has covered his face
with his hands. It's just a reflex
of the historical storm that sired him:
something to say, "The sun is beating down
too hard on my pith helmet, the oil slick
on the river's not my fault, when are you going
home?" What he doesn't want to see, he doesn't
see. In the sludge that drowns the river, rats
pick fights with the debris. He calls them all
by their first names, he's looking through his fingers
like a fence. They make good neighbors. His friends
make do with what they can. They drink beer
from sewer-colored bottles in the dry stream
bed, powdered milk of human kindness and evaporated
silt. They stay by the river till past
sunrise, crooning a lullaby
to help it to sleep. The words
of their drinking songs are scrawled on the ceiling,
Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin: a madrigal
for the millennium's end.
                                    I'm counting
down the days in someone else's
unmade bed, let these things break
their hold on me. The world
would like to see me dead, another gone
black man. I'm still awake.

from Angel, Interrupted, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996

Juno in Juneau

My apologies to Barack, who says we should lay off, but I can't reisist......


1: I wish I could take credit for the title, but that's from the Other Half.


2: As Liberal, I know that if this story were coming from the Democratic side of the campaign, the reaction of the Right Wing would be apocolypic


3: As a Black person, I know deep in my bones, that if this story were coming from the Democratic side of the campaign, we would be inundated with a spate of "Crisis in the African American Community" stories tomorrow....just as I know there will not be any similar "Crisis in White America" stories coming out

Palin's unmarried daughter is pregnant

Besieged by blog rumors about her 17-year-old daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — named Friday as running mate of John McCain — released a statement Monday saying her daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father. The governor and her husband, Todd, said their daughter Bristol plans to keep the baby.

I can say nothing better than what has been said by others:

'How about those family values? My problem here is not that a child is pregnant. It is that Sarah Palin wants to pass laws making abortion illegal EVEN IN THE EVENT OF THE RAPE OF HER OWN DAUGHTER. Yet the words "birth control" clearly have failed to make it into her own child's education. As someone with three daughters and a son, I find the hypocrisy breathtaking.Republicans claim they are for small government yet they always want to be in our bedrooms. Is it because they can't control their own?'

Heck of a job....

WHY is CNBC using THIS MAN as an "expert" on disaster preparednes?

Brown on Gustav
Former FEMA director Mike Brown compares preparations for Katrina to preparations for Gustav

Let the Convention Begin

Sasha Obama at the podium, Democratic National Convention, Denver CO, 25 August 2008.

"All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do - that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be." -- Michelle Obama

Lost in a Cloud: Wordle

I don't remember when I first came across the idea of a 'word cloud' but my own first one was created by LibraryThing, the online catalog for those of us who have too many books at home. After 'tagging' them, you can see a visual representation of the subjects and authors on your bookshelves (or, for some of us "in this house somewhere....")

Wordle takes that idea and applies it to any text. And also makes it quite visually interesting and beautiful. Since I have next to no visual art talent (even drawing a straight line is a challenge for me), this may be the closest I can get to the amazing visual poetry of, say, the Calligrammes of Apollinaire, or the amazing work (scroll down to the Pushcart Prize Nominated "Swimchant of Nigger Mer-folk {An Aquaboogie Set in Lapis}" to see what I mean) of my friend Doug Kearney, and others.

Above is a poem that appeared (in slightly different form, as they say) in Issue 51 of DC's fantasmagoric annual journal Gargoyle (you can also hear how it sounds 'From the Fishouse')

Approaching Baltimore

(Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll
Got that Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll)

How the road leans
To where I’m from
—Approaching New York by Michael Beyer

…the imploded high-rise, empty
houses rows of busted teeth in
a crooked smile. Trash-filled corner
lots. Ghetto Chinese, Yat Gaw Mein
with ketchup, with or without egg.
Six wings and fries. Black-clad homeboys
swimming down the block, calling
loose ones, loose ones (Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll) as they
pull up sagging baggies, bop away: No

easy way into this ugly beauty, once
elegant lady in a tattered dress (Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll). No
sweeping vistas from any approach – The highway
curves and there: a tangle of overpasses,
bombed out streets behind a scrim of
abandoned steel mills and auto plants,
unused loading docks. (Magic!)

Learn to live with, love, imperfection,
the close enough to right, whatever
will make do (Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll). Handsome men with
knife scars across the face, exhausted
women dragging three tattered children
down the street. What happens to a dream

transferred, out sourced, shuttered, boarded
up? Which ways take you in, and which way out? And what grows there?

Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll Got that Magic City, Magic City, ya’ll

And here's what Wordle did with it
Pretty cool, no? Particularly for those of us who are 'graphically challenged', this is way neat...

And just what I needed, another website I can spend hours playing on when I should be working! Maybe if I tell myself I'm improving my design skills.....

Guest Post: "Sometimes the best stories have no easy endings."

I have a guest post over at the Maryland Humanities Council website, blogging about Cedric Jennings, main character of this year's 'One Maryland One Book' choice, A Hope in the Unseen


A Hope in the Unseen covers Jennings’ transition from Washington DC’s Ballou Senior High School to Brown University, a riveting, hope-filled account of his journey from the ghetto to the Ivy League. If the book were a novel or a film or made-for-cable movie, Jennings’ next move would have been to Wall Street, financial success, and a large happy family living in a house in the suburbs.

As the (Washington) Post reveals, the real story did not turn out that way. Cedric Jennings returned to the Washington area, and now works as a case manager for DC Child and Family Services. He is a success, he has “gotten out” — he just doesn’t fit the expected model of success.

Read the rest here.

World's Fastest Island

Usain Bolt -- and the rest of the field -- at the Men's 100 Meters in the Birds Nest in Bejing

Shelly-Ann Fraser points the way to victory for the rest of the 100 meters women.

Congratulations Jamaica, Home of the Worlds Fastest Humans: Usain Bolt, winner of the 100 Meters with an unbelievable 9.69 seconds, and Shelly-Ann Fraser, Golden Girl of the women's 100. Jamaican women swept the event with Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart in a photo-finish tie for the Silver. Brava ladies!



Bolt's performance was even more impressive, particularly since he basically *STOPPED RUNNING* a few meters from the finish line! (See for yourself here, Microsoft Silverlight download -- and commercial, unfortunately -- required). He could have easily set the World Record at 9.5-something, but as he said afterward, "I don't care about the World Record, I just wanted to win." (Spoken like a true 20-year old track diva!).

"Normally the premiere race of every Games, the men's 100 final received scant domestic publicity despite it's historic, thrilling result" -- I'm glad Someone Else picked up on this as well.


Brace yourself for an amazing 200 meter race later this week!




















All it takes to win: "Lightning" Bolt, Jamaican flag, gold track shoes.