Trotton Common. The whole common is covered in spider's webs and in the early morning light the dew-laden threads look almost frost like, a truly magical sight: photo by John Dominick, 19 August 2012
Anne Ridler: Now Philippa Is Gone
Now Philippa is gone, that so divinely
Could strum and sing, and is rufus and gay,Now Philippa is gone, that so divinely
Anne Ridler (1912-2001): Now Philippa Is Gone, from Collected Poems (1994)
LOST DUCK @ Trotton Bridge following AM training session Please Help us find Eric to race next week @southdownsvg2: image via Trotton Ducks @TrottonDucks, 31 August 2015
Manzanar cemetery: photo by Amanda Tomlin, 27 January 2009
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, in 2004.The granddaughter of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt assailed Donald J. Trump on Thursday for
citing internment camps set up by the Roosevelt administration in
defending his proposal to ban foreign Muslims from entering the United
States.“For Donald Trump to
cite my grandfather and internment as a defense of his own intolerant
and divisive agenda is reprehensible,” said Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.“Japanese-Americans,
who were loyal citizens and who served bravely in the U.S. military,
were scarred not only by the physical deprivation of internment but by
the denial of the dignity and respect of their own country. As a nation, internment weakened us all. It is a tragic reminder of
what happens when we allow fear and hysteria to trump our values.": photo by John Amis/Associated Press via The New York Times, 10 December 2015
Treasure
Island. Bay Bridges.: photo by Film and PhotoArchivist, 13 July 2014
Donald J. Trump has also gained some support in Britain, and a
counterpetition titled “Don’t Ban Trump From the United Kingdom” has
more than 10,000 signatures: photo by
John Locher/Associated Press, 10 December 2015
W. H. Auden: Epitaph on a Tyrant
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
A Donald J. Trump rally in Davenport, Iowa, last week. More than four in
10 Republican primary voters say the quality most important to them in a
candidate is strong leadership, and those voters heavily favor Mr.
Trump: photo by
Scott Olson/The New York Times, 10 December 2015
Donald J. Trump, in Raleigh N.C., last Friday, has caused the Democrats to try to figure out the roots of his appeal: photo by Ray Whitehouse for The New York Times, 10 December 2015
Tyskland (Berlin) (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)
Andrei Codrescu: A Play For The Chinese Theatre
Are you running away from China, Hsi?
Where should I put these flowers, Wong? The guns
are in the vase.
Put them here. No. Put them here. No. Not there. Here.
No Hsi. Here. Here Hsi. No. Not here. Here no Here no
Here Hsi.
Wong, these flowers are for you.
For me? For me? No. Not for me. Not for me no. No
Hsi. No. Not for me. Thank you, Hsi. Bless you, Hsi.
May God bless you, Hsi. He has blessed you Hsi. He
bless you again Hsi.
It is nothing, Wong. When one friend needs another
a vase is any good as other, as Lin Yee said.
Did Lin Yee say so? Did he? No Hsi he did not. He
could not Hsi. Did he? Did he Hsi? Did he? He did
he did Hsi. How good that he did Hsi. How happy I
am Hsi. He did Hsi. How happy that he did Hsi.
Yes, I agree. Now quickly, get behind the rock and
start calling Lee.
Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee!
Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee! Lee!
Andrei Codrescu: A Play For The Chinese Theatre, from Strange Faeces #17 (1974)
After the Beijing government sounded a red alert over air pollution, sales of masks and air purifiers soared: photo by Kevin Frayer /The New York Times, 10 December 2015
People in Beijing wearing face masks on Wednesday. Such masks have become an increasingly common sight in China in recent years.: photo by Kevin Frayer/ The New York Times, 10 December 2015
A coal-fired power plant on the outskirts of Beijing. Industrial coal
use is a critical component of the nation's rapid economic growth, but
it has also contributed to air pollution.: photo by
Kevin Frayer / The New York Times, 10 December 2015
Refugees and migrants wait for buses leading them to the city centre, after disembarking from a government chartered ferry in a port of Piraeus near Athens on Thursday: photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP, 10 December 2015
Evan Jayne, of France, competes in the bareback riding event during the seventh go-round of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas: photo by John Locher/AP, 10 December 2015
Demonstrators from NGO Oxfam wear big heads of world leaders, US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Francois Hollande, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in front of the COP21 conference center in Le Bourget, north of Paris, France on Thursday: photo by Yoan Valat/EPA, 10 December 2015
A paramilitary policeman wearing a mask stands guard in front of the giant portrait of Chinese late chairman Mao Zedong, amid heavy smog after the city issued its first ever “red alert” for air pollution in Beijing, China: photo by Reuters, 10 December 2015
Glenridding after the river in the town in Cumbria burst its banks again following continued rainfall overnight on Thursday: photo by Danny Lawson/PA, 10 December 2015
A building with a screen on it in Beijing on Tuesday was obscured by smog that led to the city’s top level of air pollution warning: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 8 December 2015
Members of the Syrian government forces sit in a tower at a military base, as hundreds of civilians and Syrian rebel forces began evacuating the last opposition-held district of Waer in the central city of Homs: photo by Louai Beshara/AFP, 9 December 2015
An Indian Sikh devotee takes a dip in the holy sarover (water tank) during dense fog at the Golden Temple in Amritsar: photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP, 9 December 2015
Palestinians run to take cover after Israeli security forces fires tear gas during clashes at the main entrance of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday after the funeral of Palestinian Malek Shahin in the Dheisheh refugee camp: photo by Musa Al Shaer/AFP, 8 December 2015
A man sits on rail tracks as migrants and refugees wait to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni on Thursday. Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees: photo by Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP, 8 December 2015
Donald J. Trump speaking at a rally on Monday on the aircraft carrier Yorktown in South Carolina: photo by Sean Rayford / The New York Times, 8 December 2015
Donald J. Trump, in Macon, Ga., last week: photo by Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times, 5 December 2010
Donald J. Trump on Monday aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: photo by Mic Smith/AP, 7 December 2015
Donald J. Trump, in Macon, Ga., last week, uses a harsh tone: photo by Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times, 5 December 2010
May 1st parade, Germany, 1930s: photo by Paul Walde; image by Andreas Praefcke, 2005
Journalists hover in a cage over fog covered Frankfurt am Main to watch the construction site of the Henninger tower in Frankfurt am Main, central Germany, on Tuesday: photo by Arne Dedert/DPA/AFP, 8 December 2015
Heavy smog surrounding the West Lake in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province in China on Tuesday. Because of industrial coal burning, Chinese cities regularly have among the world's worst air quality.: photo by China Daily via Reuters, 8 December 2015
On the happy side, Beijing is pioneering fashion for the late anthropocene era: image via Chris Buckley @ChuBailiang, 8 December 2015
Maybe Beijing should consider augmenting traffic lights with fog horns, relocated lighthouses: image via Chris Buckley @ChuBailiang, 8 December 2015
Beijing haiku: A man on a bench in code red smog / pulls down his mask / to drag on a cigarette: image via Chris Buckley @ChuBailiang, 8 December 2015
Two women take a photograph in heavy smog in Beijing: photo by Kevin Frayer/The New York Times, 8 December 2015
- A
video display on the side of a building shows a map of China amid heavy
pollution and fog in Beijing. Schools were ordered to keep students
indoors Tuesday after record-breaking pollution in the Chinese capital
soared to 36 times the safety levels.: photo by Mark Schielfelbein, 1 December 2015
Cripes, that's cool. "TV tower rises above fog in Budapest; taken from the top of Tubes Mountain" (Tamas Soki/MTI): image via pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee, 8 December 2015
It's Pearl Harbor Day and this photo of exploding USS Shaw with palm tree in foreground always knocks me back: image via pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee, 7 December 2015
Wow wow. Tomorrow's Philadelphia Daily News.: image via Daniel Dale @ddale8, 7 December 2015
Why do they always have funny haircuts? #TrumpOnCNN: image via miracle ninja @MiracleNinja777, 8 December 2015
In the streets of Berlin (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)
Children play football on the bank of the Ayeyarwaddy river in Mandalay, Myanmar on Tuesday: photo by Hkun Lat/AP, 8 December 2015
A Muslim man writes out verses from the Koran on a wooden tablet to
be used at a local Madrassa while sitting at a camp for displaced
persons hosted at the Central Mosque in Bangui on Thursday: photo by Marco Longari/AFP, 3 December 2015
Lorenzo Thomas: The Universe
What shines is your black body.
This is all truth. Reflected
in the dark space of my dark eyes
Or can it be the lighting in the room?
And thunder. If thunder says
"Listen, I am the Thunder.
I am the Solomon of a small space
And a sun blazing"
This is a hieroglyph.
Lorenzo Thomas (1944-2005): The Universe, from Sound Science (1978)
Tyskland (Berlin) (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)
Large crowds and decorated streets with Nazi banners, Labour Day (May 1st) in Berlin (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)
Large crowds and decorated streets with Nazi banners, Labour Day (May 1st) in Berlin (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)
Mount Fuji is seen behind cranes and buildings during sunset at a port in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday. Japan’s core machinery orders unexpectedly jumped in October by the most since March 2014: photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters, 9 December 2015
Mount Fuji is seen between cranes and buildings during sunset at a port in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday. Japan’s core machinery orders unexpectedly jumped in October by the most since March 2014: photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters, 9 December 2015
Great post, Tom, every word and pixel of it.
ReplyDeleteRidler, Auden, Andrei (brilliant & funny poem),Lorenzo---what a great little anthology of work. And the visuals capturing, as always, the terrifying, surreal, & comical world we all inhabit.
ReplyDeleteYes, this one's epic. And alas, it has history in it.
ReplyDeleteFrom one poem/image to another, a dream state, barely visible through the smog. Trump's manner reminds me more of Mussolini than Hitler, not that it matters. 50 years from now, if the schmuck gets elected, we'll be repudiating, apologizing, rebuilding our identity after the disaster of Trumpism, just as the German have had to do.
ReplyDeleteVery many thanks, friends.
ReplyDelete"And alas, it has history in it."
Aye, that's the rub.
Hilton, late thanks, hadn't seen yours till just now... and yes, the bluff "larger than life" manner does indeed recall Muss... I think Auden, in his poem, probably had in mind a composite of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, all of them populist demagogues appealing through low means to atavistic tribal instincts expressed in the kind of totalitarian violence that permits the aggressive nation state to retain and expand power.
ReplyDeleteImagining a world that will exist tomorrow is challenge enough, but imagining the shape of a world existing 50 years on from the election of Trump -- virtually impossible.
Great post and poems and yes, virtually impossible--one look at the mesmerized mugs smiling as if drugged by the sight of Trump’s feat (sic?) can only reinforce the feeling that the American people are in the final stages of a debilitating pox that is draining their bodies of what little sense they had to begin with.
ReplyDeletebrilliant juxtapositions, as always Tom, thank you again for all your effort and output...
ReplyDeletekind words from lovely poet friends Rx for bad case of seasonal sense-draining Debilitating Pox, surrounded by festive mugs mesmerized by terrifying sight of Trump's feet
ReplyDelete