Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Friday, 4 August 2017

Madness / Cherries

.
Untitled | by kanrapee.chok

[NYC]: photo by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon, 29 March 2017

Untitled | by kanrapee.chok

[NYC]: photo by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon, 29 March 2017

Untitled | by kanrapee.chok

[NYC]: photo by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon, 29 March 2017

Untitled | by Martín Molinero

Untitled: photo by Martin Molinero, 25 July 2015

syrian refugees | by anilaydn

syrian refugees [Izmir, Turkey]: photo by anilaydn, 2 May 2015

syrian refugees | by anilaydn

syrian refugees [Izmir, Turkey]: photo by anilaydn, 2 May 2015

syrian refugees | by anilaydn

syrian refugees [Izmir, Turkey]: photo by anilaydn, 2 May 2015

Family days... | by Roccantica

Family days: photo by Roccantica, 29 August 2007

Fishermen 5 | by SaumalyaGhosh.com

Fishermen 5 [East Midnapore, West Bengal]: photo by Saumalya Ghosh, 8 July 2017

Fishermen 5 | by SaumalyaGhosh.com

Fishermen 5 [East Midnapore, West Bengal]: photo by Saumalya Ghosh, 8 July 2017

Fishermen 5 | by SaumalyaGhosh.com

Fishermen 5 [East Midnapore, West Bengal]: photo by Saumalya Ghosh, 8 July 2017

Untitled | by Martín Molinero

Untitled: photo by Martin Molinero, 22 March 2016

OldBailey030717 | by streetmax

OldBailey030717: photo by streetmax, 3 July 2017

OldBailey030717 | by streetmax

OldBailey030717: photo by streetmax, 3 July 2017

OldBailey030717 | by streetmax

OldBailey030717: photo by streetmax, 3 July 2017

Sans titre | by Guy Le Guiff

sans titre: photo by Marco Giusfredi, 29 July 2017

Untitled | by cliftonbarker

Conroe, Texas: photo by cliftonbarker, 11 June 2017

Untitled | by cliftonbarker

Conroe, Texas: photo by cliftonbarker, 11 June 2017

Untitled | by cliftonbarker

Conroe, Texas: photo by cliftonbarker, 11 June 2017

Untitled | by Sun Lerdrakmongkol

Untitled: photo by Artyt Lerdrakmongkol, 3 July 2017

* | by Sakulchai Sikitikul

[Songkhla, Hat Yai, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 28 July 2017

* | by Sakulchai Sikitikul

[Songkhla, Hat Yai, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 28 July 2017

* | by Sakulchai Sikitikul

[Songkhla, Hat Yai, Thailand]: photo by Sakulchai Sikitikul, 28 July 2017

Untitled | by Martín Molinero

Untitled: photo by Martin Molinero, 15 April 2015

Untitled | by chrjs.0510

Untitled: photo by
Chu Việt Hà, 8 June 2017

Untitled | by chrjs.0510

Untitled: photo by
Chu Việt Hà, 8 June 2017

Untitled | by chrjs.0510

Untitled: photo by
Chu Việt Hà, 8 June 2017

Untitled | by Martín Molinero

Untitled: photo by Martin Molinero, 27 April 2017



#Kenya Mokoth, the chairperson for NASA, Kenya's National Super Alliance political coalition is pictured in Kisumu. Photo @Lerneryd #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017



Scenes of middle class and affluent life in Nairobi as Kenya prepares to choose a new president. Ph Siegfried Modola
: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017



GAZA CITY - Palestinians dine at dusk at a restaurant made from a beached boat, by the coast in Gaza City. Photo @mohmdabed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017



A Chinese construction worker walks on a street in #Shanghai #China #Asia #Photography #DailyLife @AFPphoto: image via Chandan Khanna @Chandanphoto, 3 August 2017


MEDITERRANEAN SEA -Members of the Aquarius rescue ship prepare to load a body bag of a dead migrant.@atzortzinis #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017



#Rwanda A supporter of Paul Kagame laughs as he gathers with others to attend the president's campaign closing rally in Kigali. Photo @mlongari
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017



#Bangladesh A Bangladeshi labourer is reflected in water as he works in a dockyard beside the Buriganga River in Dhaka. Photo @uz_munir #AFP.
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017



#Kenya A man sells chickens by a road in Kisumu. Photo @Lerneryd #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


#11 | by Md. Imam Hasan

[Dhaka]: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 1 August 2017

Untitled | by Md. Imam Hasan

[Dhaka]: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 10 October 2016 

_MG_2084_s | by krysolove

_MG_2084_s: photo by Ilya Shtutsa, 18 July 2017


A girl and women ride on a bus in Tehran, Iran, August 2, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 2 August 2017

Untitled | by aliiosse

Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 23 July 2017

Untitled | by aliiosse

Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 23 July 2017

Untitled | by aliiosse

Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 23 July 2017

2016, Buenos Aires, Argentina | by https://www.instagram.com/marco.brecciaroli/

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2016: photo by Marco Brecciaroli, 27 March 2017

Island Grande, Colombia 2017 | by Kristian Leven

Island Grande, Colombia 2017: photo by Kristian Leven, 7 July 2017

_MG_4518 | by csapolajos1984

MG_4518: photo by Lajos Csapó, 23 July 2017

_MG_4518 | by csapolajos1984

MG_4518: photo by Lajos Csapó, 23 July 2017

_MG_4518 | by csapolajos1984

_MG_4518: photo by Lajos Csapó, 23 July 2017

 
#Kuwait A boy flashes the V sign at the Al-Qurain Martyr's Museum on the 27th anniversary of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait Photo Yasser Al-Zayyat: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


GAZA CITY - A Palestinian man plays with children in the water by the beach. Photo @mohmdabed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


#India Cyclists wade next to an auto rickshaw along a flooded street after heavy rains in Patiala Photo @AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


#USA The Empire State Building is reflected in the glass of the Bank of America Tower building near Bryant Park in New York. Photo @timothyaclary: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


#Cuba A barber cuts a client's hair in a barber shop in Havana. Photo Yamil Lage. #AFP #DAILYLIFE
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017



#China A man hanging flowers in a flower store in Beijing. Photo Greg Baker #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 2 August 2017


#Indonesia Seaport worker posing during his lunch break in Surabaya, eastern Java island. Photo @junipicture: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


#Bangladesh A Bangladeshi labourer works in a dockyard beside the Buriganga River in Dhaka. Photo @uz_munir #AFP.: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


Flames erupt as clashes break out during the constituent assembly election in Venezuela
: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017



#Philippines Residents flock around the dead body of an alleged drug user killed by unidentified assailants in Manila. Photo @herime23 #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 August 2017



SYRIA - A rebel fighter poses while sitting in a fortified position in the rebel-held town of Talbiseh. Photo @MahmoudTahaHoms #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 August 2017



#El Salvador A man uses his mobile phone in front of a wall decorated with graffiti at Santa Fe Community in San Salvador Photo @marvinrecinosAFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 August 2017



Children rest under a truck in Manila. Photo @herime23 #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 August 2017



Indonesians cover themselves as thick ash blankets Tiga Pancur following the eruption of Mount Sinabung volcano. Photo Tibta Pangin #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 August 2017


Fishers unload a fishing boat with the night's catch on Lake Victoria, Kisumu. Photo @Lerneryd #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 4 August 2017



Iraq's Yazidis mark three years since Islamic State launched what U.N. said was a genocidal campaign against them: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017


A family claiming to be from Haiti drags luggage over the U.S.-Canada border in an effort to claim asylum in Canada
: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017



Hezbollah captures most of area straddling Syria-Lebanon border from Nusra Front in joint offensive with Syrian army
: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017
Cherries



Funeral pictures of Firdous ahmad, a civilian who was killed by security forces near the encounter site at Harkipora in Pulwama.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 1 August 2017


Funeral pictures of Firdous ahmad, a civilian who was killed by security forces near the encounter site at Harkipora in Pulwama.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 1 August 2017


Funeral pictures of Firdous ahmad, a civilian who was killed by security forces near the encounter site at Harkipora in Pulwama.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 1 August 2017


Funeral pictures of Firdous ahmad, a civilian who was killed by security forces near the encounter site at Harkipora in Pulwama.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 1 August 2017


The pregnant Wife of a civilian Firdous Ahmad, weeps during his funeral procession at Begumbagh in Pulwama district on 1 August, 2017.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 2 August 2017


Kashmiri protester throws a wooden plank at Police and Paramilitary men during clashes in Srinagar.
: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 25 July 2017


Authorities impose curbs in parts of Srinagar in view of a strike called by separatist groups against the arrest of seven leaders by the NIA: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 25 July 2017


Authorities impose curbs in parts of Srinagar in view of a strike called by separatist groups against the arrest of seven leaders by the NIA: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 25 July 2017


Authorities impose curbs in parts of Srinagar in view of a strike called by separatist groups against the arrest of seven leaders by the NIA: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 25 July 2017


There are times When alone is the best place to be.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 23 July 2017

 
First batch of 840 Kashmiri Hajj set off for the pilgrimage to the holiest place for Muslims to perform this year's ritual. @lookaround81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 25 July 2017


First batch of 840 Kashmiri Hajj set off for the pilgrimage to the holiest place for Muslims to perform this year's ritual. @lookaround81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 25 July 2017


A Kashmiri Hajj pilgrim breaks down ahead of her departure to Mecca from Srinagar for making a pilgrimage on July 25, 2017. @lookaround81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 25 July 2017


 
Authorities have disallowed congregational Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar for the Sixth consecutive week.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 28 July 2017


Kashmiri men row their shikaras on the waters of Dal Lake on a sunny day in Srinagar. : image via BASIT ZARGAR @BASIIPJ, 25 July 2017


Photograph by @lookaround81 Cherry harvest in Srinagar, Kashmir: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 24 July 2017


Photograph by @lookaround81 in Srinagar Kashmir - One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste. (Johann Wolfgang): image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 23 July 2017

India Kashmir Violence

A masked villager holds a wooden stick and stones during a protest following the funeral procession of Akeel Ahmed Bhat, a teenage boy in Haal village, about 47 Kilometers (29 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. A fresh strike called by anti-India separatists to protest the killings of two top rebels and a civilian shut down disputed Kashmir Wednesday while a teenage boy died a day after he was wounded by government forces.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 2 August 2017

India Kashmir Violence

A masked villager holds a wooden stick and stones during a protest following the funeral procession of Akeel Ahmed Bhat, a teenage boy in Haal village, about 47 Kilometers (29 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. A fresh strike called by anti-India separatists to protest the killings of two top rebels and a civilian shut down disputed Kashmir Wednesday while a teenage boy died a day after he was wounded by government forces.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 2 August 2017

India Kashmir Violence

Kashmiri villagers run for cover as Indian policemen fire pellets during a protest after the funeral procession of Akeel Ahmed Bhat, a teenage boy in Haal village, about 47 Kilometers (29 miles) South of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. A fresh strike called by anti-India separatists to protest the killings of two top rebels and a civilian shut down disputed Kashmir Wednesday while a teenage boy died a day after he was wounded by government forces.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 2 August 2017

 India Kashmir Violence

Kashmiri villagers run for cover as Indian policemen fire pellets during a protest after the funeral procession of Akeel Ahmed Bhat, a teenage boy in Haal village, about 47 Kilometers (29 miles) South of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. A fresh strike called by anti-India separatists to protest the killings of two top rebels and a civilian shut down disputed Kashmir Wednesday while a teenage boy died a day after he was wounded by government forces.: photo by Dar Yasin/AP, 2 August 2017

Indonesia Volcano

Villagers gather in front of a house as they watch Mount Sinabung releasing a pyroclastic flow during its eruption in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The volcano blasted volcanic ash as high as 4.2 kilometers (2.6 miles), one of its biggest eruptions in the past several months of high activity.: photo by Endro Rusharyanto/AP, 2 August 2017

Indonesia Volcano

Villagers gather in front of a house as they watch Mount Sinabung releasing a pyroclastic flow during its eruption in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The volcano blasted volcanic ash as high as 4.2 kilometers (2.6 miles), one of its biggest eruptions in the past several months of high activity.: photo by Endro Rusharyanto/AP, 2 August 2017


#Greece A boy stands next to a car crushed under rubble near the port of Kos following a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. By @lgouliam @AFPphoto
: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 4 August 2017


India Hindu Festival

An idol of Hindu goddess Dashama stands among offerings and worship materials on the bank of river Sabarmati after the end of Dashama festival in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The ten-days festival celebrated in the Shravan month of the Hindu calendar culminates with the immersion of the idols of this deity who is worshipped in this western Gujarat state.: photo by Ajit Solanki/AP, 2 August 2017

India Hindu Festival

An idol of Hindu goddess Dashama stands among offerings and worship materials on the bank of river Sabarmati after the end of Dashama festival in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The ten-days festival celebrated in the Shravan month of the Hindu calendar culminates with the immersion of the idols of this deity who is worshipped in this western Gujarat state.: photo by Ajit Solanki/AP, 2 August 2017

#Yemen A member of a sniper force loyal to the Houthi rebels takes part in a military parade in #Sanaa. By Khaled Abdullah @reuterspictures: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 4 August 2017


#Ukraine A serviceman fires towards positions of the armed forces of the Donetsk People's Republic in Krasnohorivka By Maksim Levin: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 4 August 2017

Robert Bly: The Teeth Mother Naked at Last (1970)


For Decades, the Media Have Ignored the #Rapes Behind a Famous Vietnam War Photo #myLai: image via Winter Thur @winterthur, 31 October 2013

                                               I
Massive engines lift beautifully from the deck.
Wings appear over the trees, wings with eight hundred rivets.

Engines burning a thousand gallons of gasoline a minute sweep over the huts
with dirt floors.
The chickens feel the new fear deep in the pits of their beaks.
Buddha with Padma Sambhava.

Meanwhile, out on the China Sea,
immense gray bodies are floating,
born in Roanoke,
the ocean on both sides expanding, "buoyed on the dense marine."

Helicopters flutter overhead. The death-
bee is coming. Super Sabres
like knots of neurotic energy sweep
around and return.
This is Hamilton's triumph.
This is the advantage of a centralized bank.
B-52s come from Guam. All the teachers
die in flames. The hopes of Tolstoy fall asleep in the ant heap.
Do not ask for mercy.

Now the time comes to look into the past-tunnels,
the hours given and taken in school,
the scuffles in coatrooms,
foam leaps from his nostrils,
now we come to the scum you take from the mouths of  the dead,
now we sit beside the dying, and hold their hands, there is hardly time for good-bye,
the staff sergeant from North Carolina is dying -- you hold his hand,
he knows the mansions of the dead are empty,
he has an empty place inside him,
created one night when his parents came home drunk.
He uses half his skin to cover it,
as you try to protect a balloon from sharp objects. . . .

Artillery shells explode. Napalm canisters roll end over end.
Eight hundred steel pellets fly through the vegetable walls.
The six-hour old infant puts his fists instinctively to his eyes to keep out the light.
But the room explodes,
the children explode.
Blood leaps on the vegetable walls.

Yes, I know, blood leaps on the walls...
Don’t cry at that.
Do you cry at the wind pouring out of Canada?
Do you cry at the reeds shaken at the edge of the marsh?
The Marine battalion enters.
This happens when the seasons change,
This happens when the leaves begin to drop from the trees too early
"Kill them: I don’t want to see anything moving."
This happens when the ice begins to show its teeth in the ponds
This happens when the heavy layers of lake water press down on the fish’s head,
and send him deeper, where his tail swirls slowly, and his brain passes him
     pictures of heavy reeds, of vegetation fallen on vegetation. . . .

Hamilton saw all this in detail:
“Every banana tree slashed, every cooking utensil smashed, every mattress cut.
Now the Marine knives sweep around like sharp-edged jets;
they slash open the rice bags, the reed walls, the mattresses . . . .
Marines kill ducks with three-hundred-dollar shotguns
and lift cigarette lighters to light the thatched roofs of huts.

Old women watch the soldiers as they move.
They watch the old women warily.



File:MyLai Haeberle P33 BodiesNearBurningHouse.jpg

Unidentified bodies near burning house. My Lai, Vietnam, March 16, 1968: photo by Sgt Ronald L. Ronald Haeberle, from Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations in the My Lai Incident; image by bcs78, 31 December 2006

                                                  II
Excellent Roman knives slip along the ribs.
A stronger man starts to jerk up the strips of flesh.
"Let’s hear it again, you believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?"
A long scream unrolls.
More.
"From the political point of view, democratic institutions are being built in Viet Nam, wouldn’t you agree?"

A green parrot shudders under the fingernails.
Blood jumps in the pocket.
The scream lashes like a tail.

"Let us not be deterred from our task by the voices of dissent. . . ."
The whines of the jets
pierce like a long needle,

As soon as the President finishes his press conference, black wings carry off the words,
bits of flesh still clinging to them.

                                               * * *
The ministers lie, the professors lie, the television lies, the priests lie.
What are these lies?
They mean that the country wants to die.
Lie after lie starts out into the prairie grass,
like enormous caravans of Conestoga wagons crossing the Platte.

And a long desire for death goes with them, guiding it all from beneath:
"a death longing if all longing else be vain,"
stringing together the vague and foolish words.

It is a desire to eat death,
to gobble it down,
to rush on it like a cobra with mouth open.
It’s a desire to take death inside,
to feel it burning inside, pushing out velvety hairs,
like a clothes brush in the intestines?

This is the thrill that leads the President on to lie.

                                               * * *
Now the Chief Executive enters, and the press conference begins.
First the President lies about the date the Appalachian Mountains rose.
Then he lies about the population of Chicago,
then the weight of the adult eagle, and then  the acreage of the Everglades
Next he lies about the number of fish taken every year in the Arctic.
He has private information about which city is the capital of Wyoming.
He lies about the birthplace of Attila the Hun,
Then about the composition of the amniotic fluid,
He insists that Luther was never a German,
and that only the Protestants sold indulgences,
He declares that Pope Leo X wanted to reform the church, but the
     liberal elements prevented him.
He declares the Peasants' War was fomented by Italians from the North.
And the Attorney General lies about the time the sun sets.

                                               * * *
These lies mean that something in the nation wants to die.
What is there now to hold us to earth? We long to go.
It is the longing for someone to come and take us by the
     hand to where they all are sleeping:
where the Egyptian pharaohs are asleep, and our own mothers,
and all those disappeared children, who went around with us
     on the rings at grade school. . . .

Do not be angry at the President --
he is longing to take in his hand the locks of death hair:
to meet his own children, dead, or never born. . . .
He is drifting sideways toward the dusty places.


Photo: Guerre du Vietnam, le Massacre de My Lai #myLai #vietnam #guerreduvietnam: image via Forum Vietnam @ForumVietnam, 25 March 2015

                                                 III
This is what it’s like for a rich country to make war
this is what it’s like to bomb huts (afterwards described as "structures")
this is what it’s like to kill marginal farmers (afterwards described as Communists")
this is what its like to watch the altimeter needle going mad:

Baron 25, this is 81. Are there any friendlies in the area?
81 from 25, negative on the friendlies. I’d like you to
take out as many structures as possible located in those
trees within 200 meters east and west of my smoke mark.

diving, the green earth swinging, cheeks hanging back,
red pins blossoming ahead of us, 20-millimeter cannon
fire, leveling off, rice fields shooting by like telephone
poles, smoke rising, hut roofs loom up huge as landing
fields, slugs going in, half the huts on fire, small figures
running, palm trees burning, shooting past, up again
. . . blue sky . . . cloud mountains . . .

This is what it’s like to have a gross national product.
This is what it’s like to send firebombs down from air-conditioned cockpits.
This is what it’s like to be told to fire into a reed hut with an automatic weapon.
It’s because we have new packaging for smoked oysters
that bomb holes appear in the rice paddies

When St. Francis renounced his father's goods,
when he threw his clothes on the court floor,
then the ability to kiss the poor leapt up from the floor to his lips.
We claim our father's clothes, and pick up other people's;
finally we have three or four layers of clothes.

Then all at once it is fated, we cannot help ourselves,
we fire into a reed hut with an automatic weapon.

It's because the aluminum window-shade business is doing
     so well in the United States
that we spread fire over entire villages.
It's because the trains coming into New Jersey hit the right
     switches every day
that Vietnamese men are cut in two by bullets that
     follow each other like freight trains.
It's because the average hospital bed now costs two hundred
     dollars a day
That we bomb hospitals in the north.

It is because we have so few women sobbing in back rooms,
because we have so few children’s heads torn apart by high-velocity bullets,
because we have so few tears falling on our own hands
that the Super Sabre turns and screams down toward the earth

It’s because taxpayers move to the suburbs that we transfer populations.
The Marines use cigarette lighters to light the thatched roofs of huts 
     because so many Americans own their own homes.


gas 'n go (view from an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III about to receive fuel from a KX-10A Extender on a training mission above southern Oregon): photo by Robert Couse-Baker (**RCB**), 25 September 2013


                                               IV
I see a car rolling toward a rock wall.
The treads in the face begin to crack.
We all feel like tires being run down roads under heavy cars.

The teen-ager imagines herself floating through the Seven Spheres.
Oven doors are found
open.
Soot collects over the doorframe, has children, takes courses,
     goes mad, and dies.

There is a black silo inside our bodies, revolving fast.
Bits of black paint are flaking off,
where the motorcycles roar, around and around,
rising higher on the silo walls,
the bodies bent toward the horizon,
driven by angry women dressed in black.

                                           * * *
I know that books are tired of us.
I know they are chaining the Bible to chairs.
Books don’t want to remain in the same room with us anymore.
New Testaments are escaping . . . dressed as women . . .
     they slip off after dark.
And Plato! Plato . . . Plato
wants to hurry back up the river of time,
so be can end as a blob of seaflesh rotting on an Australian beach. 




Iconic Vietnam photo was a training example of a post that should be removed, two former employees told @Reuters: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 28 October 2016

                                               V
Why are they dying? I have written this so many times.
They are dying because the President has opened a Bible again.
They are dying because gold deposits have been found among
     the Shoshoni Indians.
They are dying because money follows intellect,
And intellect is like a fan opening in the wind.

The Marines think that unless they die the rivers will not move.
They are dying so that the mountain shadows will continue to fall
     east in the afternoon,
so that the beetle can move along the ground near the fallen twigs.

 

 INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS
TIME
10/04/1963
p. 9

Celanese Plastics advertisement
: Time, 4 October 1963 (via Gallery of Graphic Design)

                                              VI
But if one of those children came near that we have set on fire,
came toward you like a gray barn, walking,
you would howl like a wind tunnel in a hurricane,
you would tear at your shirt with blue hands,
you would drive over your own child’s wagon trying to back up,
the pupils of your eyes would go wild.

If a child came by burning, you would dance on your lawn,
trying to leap into the air, digging into your cheeks,
you would ram your head against the wall of your bedroom
like a bull penned too long in his moody pen.

If one of those children came toward me with both hands
in the air, fire rising along both elbows,
I would suddenly go back to my animal brain,
I would drop on all fours, screaming,
my vocal chords would turn blue; so would yours,
it would be two days before I could play with one of my own
     children again.



[synthetica.jpg]

Synthetica: A New Continent of Plastic
: Fortune, October 1940 (via Limited, Inc.)

                                              VII
I want to sleep awhile in the rays of the sun slanting over the snow.
Don’t wake me.
Don’t tell me how much grief there is in the leaf with its natural oils.
Don’t tell me how many children have been born with stumpy hands
all those years we lived in St. Augustine’s shadow.

Tell me about the dust that falls from the yellow daffodil
     shaken in the restless winds.
Tell me about the particles of Babylonian thought that
     still pass through the earthworm every day.
Don’t tell me about "the frightening laborers who do not
     read books."

The mad beast covered with European hair rushes
     towards the mesa bushes in Mendocino County
Pigs rush toward the cliff.

The waters underneath part: in one ocean luminous
    globes float up (in them hairy and ecstatic men);
in the other, the Teeth Mother, naked at last.

Let us drive cars
up
the light beams
to the stars . . .

And return to earth crouched inside the drop of sweat
that falls from the chin of the Protestant tied in the fire.

Robert Bly: The Teeth Mother Naked At Last, 1970


#MyLai: @Seymour Hersh habla de la masacre que EEUU perpetró en 1968 y que él mismo denunció: image via Democracy Now! Es @DemocracyNowEs, 25 March 2015


Some of the empty bullet cartridges US military has used during the war in Afghanistan. Local dealers have put them for sale too.: image via sayed salahuddin @sayedsalahuddin, 2 August 2017


Images of U.S. military forces operating within Syria : image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 3 August 2017

Monsoon


A crazy #Monsoon photo as seen from our own Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs in the northwest #vegasweather (Photo via Cheryl Baldridge): image via City of Las Vegas @CityOfLasVegas, 25 July 2017


Beautiful day in the neighborhood on north side of the Santa Catalina Mountains in #tucson, Az. #clouds #OroValley #monsoon #weatherphoto: image via Ron Medvescek @ronmedvescek, 3 August 2017 


Monsoons over #Tucson! I don't know about you all, but I sure am enjoying my first #monsoon season! @TucsonNewsNow @ArizonaTourism
: image via JD @JDavid Photos, 1 August 2017

Calm before the storm | by VernsPics

The calm before the storm. The bay was beautifully calm but not far off the storm was heading our way. The two scenes though not far away from each other were total opposites. "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming with power and great glory". (Luke 21:27) [Vincentia, Jervis Bay, NSW].: photo by Vern, 24 April 2013

Calm before the storm | by VernsPics

The calm before the storm. The bay was beautifully calm but not far off the storm was heading our way. The two scenes though not far away from each other were total opposites. "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming with power and great glory". (Luke 21:27) [Vincentia, Jervis Bay, NSW].: photo by Vern, 24 April 2013

Calm before the storm | by VernsPics

The calm before the storm. The bay was beautifully calm but not far off the storm was heading our way.The two scenes though not far away from each other were total opposites. "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming with power and great glory". (Luke 21:27) [Vincentia, Jervis Bay, NSW].: photo by Vern, 24 April 2013

Nooksack River Valley | by jerrygabby1

Nooksack River Valley [Washington]. Looking east to the Twin Sisters with cumulus clouds forming into a nimbus over the peaks. The farm in the foreground is a raspberry farm.: photo by Jerry McFarland, 9 July 2017

Nooksack River Valley | by jerrygabby1

Nooksack River Valley [Washington]. Looking east to the Twin Sisters with cumulus clouds forming into a nimbus over the peaks. The farm in the foreground is a raspberry farm.: photo by Jerry McFarland, 9 July 2017

Nooksack River Valley | by jerrygabby1

Nooksack River Valley [Washington]. Looking east to the Twin Sisters with cumulus clouds forming into a nimbus over the peaks. The farm in the foreground is a raspberry farm.: photo by Jerry McFarland, 9 July 2017

Clouds 1 | by nickpix2012

Clouds I. A Norfolk sky.: photo by nick ford, 1 August 2008

Nimbus | by DocJ96 

Nimbus. Rain cloud out to sea. Jontien beach [Bangkok]: photo by Ian Jacobs, 13 August 2012


Bit of a sunset lightning show NW of town to wrap up July's #monsoon activity in #Tucson. #azwx: image via Mike Christy @wildcatphotog, 31 July 2017
Madness



Donald Trump just asked his supporters to sign a petition to build the border wall: image via Newsweek @Newsweek, 3 August 2017

Boy, mean anchor text really weakens this. Provocative enough w stats, tv junky and white trash implications. illo: @cjburton @coverjunkie: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 3 August 2017


People really dont like you to go to this trouble Donald (@realDonaldTrump) #trump #RussiaGate #TrumpRussia: image via Rob @Unpersuaded112, 3 August 2017


Its kellyanne, blond, dumb, arrogant potato headed schmuck @KellyAnnePolls #queenofcunts #loser #TrumpTrain #MAGA #Trump: image via Rob @Unpersuaded112, 3 August 2017


C-32A/757 serving as Air Force One today awaiting Pres Trump for flight to campaign rally this evening in Huntington, WV: image via Mark Knoller @markknoller, 3 August 2017 

 
Up next in the Roosevelt Room, Pres Trump to take part in @DeptVetAffairs telehealth event.: image via Mark Knoller @markknoller, 3 August 2017


Pres Trump looks on as @SecShulkin, an M.D. himself, demonstrates the Telehealth program being launched nationally today.: image via Mark Knoller @markknoller, 3 August 2017  

 
Pres Trump spotlighting how this equipment can provide clinical care to veterans great distances from VA Hospitals. (Photo @GregClugstonDC): image via Mark Knoller @markknoller, 3 August 2017


Thankful @POTUS has strong women like @Linda_McMahon  and @IvankaTrump on his team helping and promoting small biz.: image via Sarah H. Sanders @SHSandersr45, 1 August 2017
 

Senior Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump looks during a listening session with Military Spouses in the Roosevelt Room @IvankaTrump #jobs: image via Doug Mils @dougmillsnyt, 2 August 2017


Leaving dinner at the White House with @EricTrump and @LaraLeaTrump.  Thank you dad!: image via Ivanka Trump @Ivanka Trump, 2 August 2017


Training with America's militias: Inside a weekend training camp for self-described 'patriots' @jimurquhartpixs
: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017



Training with America's militias: Inside a weekend training camp for self-described 'patriots' @jimurquhartpixs: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 4 August 2017
 

Members of self-described patriot groups and militias run through shooting drills during III% United Patriots Field Training Exercise, which they describe as the largest patriot event in the country, outside Fountain, Colorado, July 29, 2017. Organizers estimate about 325 people from 15 states participated in the third annual event, held over three days in Fountain, Colorado. The weekend featured training on weapons skills, close quarters battles, tactical skills, communications, first aid, survival techniques and disaster preparation, as well as youth activities, a shot competition, a free spaghetti dinner, camping, raffles and entertainment. Photo REUTERS/Jim Urquhart: image via Reuters  @reuters, 1 August 2017


#USA A member of the Georgia Security Force III% militia points her rifle during a field training exercise in Jackson, Georgia Photo @b_smialowski
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 3 August 2017


null
Symbolic #JohnKelly pic arriving in W Va for #Trump  MAGA event. New sheriff in town #speakingwiththeirhands #saulloeb @GettyImages: image va Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 3 August 2017


Trump's music tonight is even louder than usual. I've seen a few people plug their ears to protect their hearing: image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 3 August 2017


For sale outside Trump's rally in West Virginia tonight...: image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 3 August 2017


For sale outside Trump's rally in West Virginia tonight...
: image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 3 August 2017


 

Hello from Huntington in far western West Virginia, where President Trump is holding a rally tonight... : image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 3 August 2017

 

Hello from Huntington in far western West Virginia, where President Trump is holding a rally tonight... : image via Jenna Johnson @wpjenna, 3 August 2017


#Bulgaria NATO paratroopers drop out of a US Hercules during the Swift Response 17 joint airborne military exer. By @dilkoff @AFPphoto
: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 4 August 2017



This is magical - the panel of swimming deer at Lascaux dating to the Magdalenian about 17,500 years ago #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward_, 31 July 2017