A BLUE FLOWER
Beautiful as a blue flower
hand painted on an antique vase
is the valley that bore me, brought me forth,
beautiful as a blue flower
hand painted on an antique vase
lovelier than the infinite labyrinth
of phrases found in a period -
dripping with the blood of an age.
Countless times disappointed, discouraged
only to try again, renewed, returned
to this rain effaced, green garlanded land
so rich so yielding, so poor
like half-hearted Summer skies bled of color.
Beautiful as a blue flower
hand painted on an antique vase,
heavy as their guilt that will not wash away -
a livid memory that will never decay.
Finally, in our last hour, when life becomes profound,
when we become one with everyone
and so no one -
we will sleep in its bitter embrace.
REFLECTIONS AT CHRISTMAS
The hour is midnight,
outside a half moon castes its feeble light,
but fails to dispel the darkness
that covers the Earth.
A few scattered stars
are weakly shivering
in the indifferent coldness
of outer space,
where time and space
exist eternal and infinite;
they ensconce every object
including our own insignificant blue spec.
If not for you, and the love we share,
darkness would dominate our universe.
You take time and string it
into a necklace of luminous pearls,
making it into something precious and fine.
Its there we sit, perched on the eternal
pinnacle of now, between the twin fates
that hold us fast - the past and the future.
PATHETIC TOYS
Pathetic toys my child once had
sit alone and abandoned feeling oh so sad!
Seeing them for an instant torments me anywhere
overwhelming my heart with utter despair:
They long to feel those little hands, and so do I;
and, so will I until the day I die.
Eternal sleep now oppresses
my child who used to hate laying down for even short rests.
Every game, ball, nursery rhyme and child show
are now worth exactly nothing.
You were robbed of walking down an aisle, to see how
it feels to stand up and exchange marriage vows.
Your poor heart broken Mother! She hoped for more
for you than what your small piece of Earth has in store.
Oh plain pine box, unadorned lid and simple walls, so still:
gently hold the innocent little one they brutally killed.
THERE IT IS
Quick, look - there it is!
Tumultuous din of laughing, dancing and singing,
forests, oceans, deserts and cities
a fleeting reflection and then its past - Life.
Furnaces grumble, music plays
and cars glint in the sunlight,
and fearful lips that whisper,
always whisper - what do they say? Be happy?
Yea, be happy, and blessed, too,
and that’s joy, and that’s sadness,
and that’s pain, now and forever; white haired waves,
desolate ruins and spontaneously sprouting cities.
And, when will I end,
taking all this with me:
and, wake, a humble mendicant dreaming,
quietly in the dove gray twilight beside some sacred river?
A POINT OF VIEW
You pull over at a view point, get out of the car,
and limp to the plaque that tells you what you’re seeing,
stunned you stand stiff after the hard drive.
Your eyes are tired of looking and body is sore.
But, there it is stretching out before you - the sea,
wet, vast and blue, covered with waves, sound
clambers over massive rocks - and immediately
the numbing noise of the road is quite forgotten.
Sitting on a patch of grass, you listen to sounds of life,
leisurely you get high on the scent of the sea,
gazing without a thought at the distant horizon
where the blue sky meets the gradually curving sea;
when, unfortunately,
from over a vast distance
a voice calls out,
“Its time to go.”
DEATH DEPRESSES CHILDREN
In the reeds by the river, a cold wind startles awake,
jumps up and flees away up the hillside and through the woods.
Dawn pensively breaks; just as death
depresses children.
And, the water reflects the blood red sky’s
tracks. In me pain was a gnawing mist
prowling nocturnal shores, moving to
night’s syncopated heart beat.
The enduring ancient misery wails:
weep for the wee ones
hurriedly discarded in the slough,
black and bitter Styx, during the constant Winter rains.
The impassive Earth teems with worms
whole cities of worms who wait for the feast
in the grieving breast, where my voice is heard,
and each word is given full measure.
You played in its lattice
and time twists and turns down mirror lined labyrinths;
and sadness, too, in the silence touched with
sweetness, incense and white flickering candles.
In this tomb’s towering stillness, swiftly devouring,
don’t deceive me with common place cant,
I stand alone in an abyss of gray day -
now that you resurrect in me, you who are two more slaughtered innocents.
PRIDE’S COVEN
Through gray Winter mists
this witch silently signifies, countenance crooked;
as if casting in a primordial element
that might merely, by her incantations,
burn Heaven with the fires of Hell.
At her malevolent eye’s insidious corner,
grow crows feet, like a landscape’s drainage system;
squinting spite cold as steel;
while two lyrical girl scouts sell cookies,
her tongue complains to ravens.
Searing the woolly air
over her skull’s crown;
no bullet compares to her malicious stare,
what arrogance abuses the little girl’s with amen,
and what an incendiary heart
desires to burn batter
rich with entrapping every perverted person;
alert, for a pittance,
to pillory owl-hours on shameful sheets
with licentious flesh.
Against God’s covenant,
this witch hypocritically baits with virgin fresh children;
to aid sick subliminally made images,
victims who are lovesick at last, listening to siren’s songs
while each child is trained into nasty viciousness;
they actually believe
that power’s convenient delusions make wrong right;
and, beyond their barbed wire and spot lights,
nothing else exists; so she gives all away,
to the black masters of darkness.
The worst sins and sadism compete with the prettiest princesses,
to see who will win the privilege of serving Satin;
stationed all over the nation
are thousands of precocious little whores
shrieking -
they burn like candles;
some burn quickly,
while others burn slow,
to late they wake,
stoked in pride’s coven.
CITIES OF MARBLE
Since poetry’s stern master is Truth, and demands
long hard hours shriving, I, somber and pale embassy
of a remote tribe that’s subordinated to this time’s sinister power,
hoping to distract myself dress and depart, alone,
and drive through subdued streets: to the library.
A steady rain soaks everything. New spikes of old bulbs
sprout in these morose neighborhoods, whose slogan “The City That Works”,
weighs ponderously down on gray rivers of rain drenched streets.
The thieves here arrogantly steal apples, leaving only orts behind for the rest.
Yet the feeling that ambushes from the mirror - this feeling of futility,
that’s the enigma.
Everything here is dark and cold and prepared for Winter: where long slumbers
produce dreams of Spring, leprous walls old people in overcoats,
and children whose clothes seem obstreperous. Hot coffee and tea.
And in dark corners dirt accumulates in layered soap scum.
Crows scold, thundering seconds tick off, oppressive norms, and piles of soiled laundry
accumulate.
The entire city is frozen. Comprehending the energy grid, gas consumption,
and corruption, I shake my sorrowful head and remember black shiny boots
and military vehicles the tired symbols of power.
Eagles descend on roadside kills,
once mighty predators now scavenge on decaying scraps.
One learns even the park benches, built with iron bolts, are anchored in cement.
Only the seabirds seem to be free - but, at a price.
Their plaintive cries compel us to take notice and develop plans of our own.
Horizons shrink like real wages purchasing power. Death is spawned by time,
who tolls unseen from the small loudspeaker perched on a squat building, while
the churches’ spires sit mute
Today one exists, in this Era of Deceit, where to be high minded and honorable
is almost impossible. And, the new age is as old as tyranny.
This new global order, which shrinks the Earth, diminishes us all
like parallel lines stretching away across the distance
converging together, until there’s no perspective at all.
Does my pen earn a living, as a hired hack; where erring is not only human,
but also absolutely a gold mine. Should I resurrect a second age of miracles?
In these modest domestic quarters it doesn’t matter what you do:
the game is a fraud - you’ll lose. And, your name
will simply vanish in the trackless water, in the trackless wind.
Now what opinion does the propaganda produce
about litigation and patient rights. The defendant has been charged, tried and convicted.
The outcome is a for gone conclusion: with the radical rights corrupt
subliminally induced plans, committed and convicted, criminals and victims -
due process and egalitarian safe guards have become an anachronistic joke.
Tomorrow, an indigenous element puts on his plastic spectacles
and reads the sordid details to an illiterate denizen lying down,
with face turned toward the wall; not sleeping doesn’t help
to protect someone: from the subliminally implanted images and dialogues,
in their bunker brain beneath the perforated skull.
The blindness of Today takes root in eternity,
which is chiaroscuro and populated with vague hulking forms,
between dilapidated nurseries and barren second hand stores.
There are plenty of overpriced restaurants, where indifferent waiters remind one of
Gorbunov and Gorchakov
who watch while Rozencrantz and Guildenstern muck about hopelessly out of their
depths.
And that is what saddens me most of all: there is no one who knows what question to ask,
let alone, how to answer. Today, the brightest are corrupted,
or intimidated, or dulled into a dead end conformity.
Arise studies of obsolescence, here we approach the end of our tale.
For the naïve head there’s nothing left but echoes and cliff dwellings
in cities of marble.
BYRON’S LAST VOYAGE
It was twilight, when Byron came to pay his way,
over the black cavernous waters, to Charon,
whose bony white fingers clasped the rudder,
and calmly stared proud as Xerxes.
Sorrowfully, with heads bowed and rumpled clothes
the forms of divans swayed against dusky skies,
winding away behind him restless as the sea
like moaning cattle quietly led to slaughter.
Here, impudently grinned Lucan, waiting to show him around,
and, here gawked the common herd, brutish and ignorant,
those dead who hadn’t died yet,
who queued up waiting their turn to fill the holes of Hell.
Pale and trembling, the beautiful Augusta came
discretely veiled, to view her illicit lover.
She stood silently waiting for a last look
such as warmed the weary Winters of their youth.
Rising huge above the helm, stood a granite figure
terrible it towered over the frail ship that cleaved the profound flood:
but, Byron stood impassive, leaning against the bulkhead;
and, calmly gazed ahead, disdaining to turn around for one final glance.
RUMOR MILL
There are many other issues that need addressing mentioned at King George Jr.’s state of the union speech here are but a few the Rumor Mill would like to present to you for your consideration. Rumor Mill does not pretend to have all the answers, this is merely a partial record of what some believe. I t is hoped that it may help us reach a greater understanding of the truth, on these very important issues. And, become better citizens, who are closer to God; however, they conceptualize the “God head” to be.
Rumor Mill thought that watching King George Jr. give the state of the union speech was like watching the emperor wearing new clothes. How can someone make plunging the country into a major depression and then engaging us in a fraudulent war designed to distract the public and shore up their plummeting approval ratings look good. George Jr. tried, but failed. He made a speech that centered on two themes the first was the war on the contrived terrorist threat, and the second was the economy. Rumor Mill would like to look analytically at both of these topics.
As to his so called War on Terrorism, King George Jr. said that he was spending $30,000,000 a day on that production number. A political stance in opposition to terrorism is like saying your against tooth decay - who isn’t. The bill to the American public so far is in excess of $ 1,000,000,000. No where in the speech was the name Lindhe mentioned, and its no wonder, for without Lindhe its extremely difficult to fully understand the true nature of this terrorist threat. Lindhe is the misguided youth who grew up in California, and at 16 yrs. decided to convert to Islam. He then pushed his beliefs over the extremist edge and became fanatical. He caught a flight to Pakistan and from there made his way to a terrorist training camp. According to an affidavit he was recruited for the Taliban and then in June he was approached, by the highest level of the terrorist organization, and informed about the upcoming attack on the World Trade Center that killed thousands of innocent American citizens in September. Please see previous Rumor Mill essay on the subject. Afterward Lindhe fought against U.S. troops, while attempting to defend Afghanistan. There are several questions that need to be raised if we are to spend $30 million a day fighting these terrorists:
1.) How could a green youth who had no experience with foreign espionage gain access to this plan without the radical right knowing all about it? Remember, the radical right is committed to infiltrating and compromising all significant terrorist organizations in all countries around the globe. This terrorist group had already attacked America’s military installations and certainly would qualify for being watched.
2.) The same question as # 1, except applied to the NSC and CIA.
3.) Obtained from the Lindhe story we learn that it was apparent that the terrorist group had no significant security, and would have been easy to monitor and infiltrate.
If the above points are true, then how could George Jr. not have known?
4.) Weren’t these the same terrorist training basis that were established during the Reagon/Bush administration and continuously funded from private sources of the radical right ever since?
Rumor Mill contends that this is not a case of negligence, but it seems more likely to be a case of duplicity.
Considering the Lindhe case, the Rumor Mill thinks that King George Jr.’s position on his so called war on terrorism is little more than a very expensive theatrical production complete with lavish sets and exotic locations. His proposed global coalition already exists. And, the war on the Tliban was for the radical right a question of playing both ends against the middle. The radical right had been backing the Taliban during its rise to ascendancy after they helped ouster the Soviet Union from Afghanistan during the Reagon/Bush years. And, the Rumor Mill contends that the radical right has been supporting George Jr., too. Unfortunately, in this case the middle is the American public. Once again the radical right wins, at the expense of everyone else - specially the U.S..
A brief look at the King George Jr.’s intention to shut down terrorist bases, which should be easy as shooting fish in a barrel considering their long standing ties with them. In previous essays the connection between Mid-East terrorism and the Reagon/Bush lead NSC & CIA has been well documented. At the conclusion of the Cold War, Hamas became displaced by our own intelligence community. This fact was so well known that Hamas became a synonym for the CIA. It then was no longer useful, so it was fragmented into national and regional groups like the Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Jaish-I-Mohammed, who recruited and trained personnel at the previously mentioned terrorist bases, all under the close supervision of our own radical right. A tie covertly maintained even in the post Reagon/Bush years. Thus contends the Rumor Mill.
To claim that Iraq and Iran and N. Korea form an evil terrorist axis is ludicrous.
Consider the fact that Iran and Iraq have, just over a decade ago, fought a bloody war that lasted for years against each other. Both of these countries are Moslem, and as such consider a communistic country like N Korea as being an abomination. How these three countries, with such profound differences, could form an axis is something which demonstrates, either the incredible ignorance of this administration. Or, this administration’s extreme duplicity in dealing with the American public. What it does do is serve up, to the American public, the specter of two bogus boogie men; first, the diabolical mid-east terrorist state; and, second, the evil communist state. No sense wasting years of propaganda shaping the American public’s opinions. But, it does nothing substantively toward increasing the American public’s understanding of the complexities facing this country in the arena of contemporary foreign affairs. Could it be that George Jr. really hasn’t a clue, and we have re-entered a new age of deniability?
EDUCATION: Here King George Jr. wanted to fully fund Head Start and early child development programs. Hello! Is any body home? The Head Start and early development programs were already fully funded during the Democratic administration of Clinton/Gore; and, unless these excellent programs have been subsequently under funded by King George Jr., this has already been done for years. A second point was raised, to upgrade teacher training. Once again, it seems the American public is experiencing a collective deja vu; because, this is another Democratic idea that was implemented during the Democratic administration of Clinton/Gore. It gives one a great sense of confidence in the capacity and concern of King George Jr. for our countries children that his knowledge base is so current and concise about something so important as the educational system of all our children. One can’t help but remember his dad, when he proclaimed himself to be the education President.
ECONOMY: George seems to think that the economy is the responsibility of Congress. His only proposal was to try again, what didn’t work before. Tax cuts for the rich. What wasn’t mentioned was that in addition to the already granted tax cuts he is going to give American business $75,000,000,000 in tax cuts over the next two years. All this while experiencing renewed budget deficits. We are the nation with the World’s largest debt. Once again, King George Jr. forgot to tell Congress and the American public that over Christmas there was a slight improvement of two tenths of one per cent. It was proclaimed on the front page of the propaganda machine that no further tax cuts could be expected from the FED in the near future for fear of over heating the economy. If this is true, then why do we need further tax cuts to revitalize the American economy? What makes more sense is that King George Jr. is being less than honest and because of the return of Republican budget deficits, and the continued accumulation of massive debt, he is forced to keep interest rates higher than otherwise would be optimally beneficial.
HEALTH CARE: Rumor Mill would like you to consider what the tax cuts will mean in the area of Health Care. Consider the fact that King George Jr. has already had to increase Medicaid by $5 Billion for poor working Americans this year alone. He is proposing to increase the health care benefits for vets. He is proposing a VOUCHER (he calls it a credit) for uninsured workers, which is welfare for the insurance industry. Consider what happens to a poor person who goes to a HMO with their voucher/credit. First, they probably do not go to the 15 min. medical exam, because they can’t afford the co-pay. Second, if they goes they can’t afford the medical tests. Third, if anything were wrong with them they couldn’t afford the specialist fees. The voucher (credits) system is free money for a FREE RIDE for the insurance industry. And, this is what King George J r. calls Welfare Reform. Rumor Mill thinks its theft. No wonder our health care system is rated as the most unfair in the World. No wonder our health care system is the most expensive to operate in the World. And, no wonder our health care system gives worth health to 50% of its participants who are poor, elderly, or chronically ill. PATIENT’S BILL OF RIGHTS (WRONGS) ALERT!!! This has been nothing more than a ruse by the you know who to steal from the American public their only leverage over a health care system that’s gone out of control with greed: the right of legal redress.
Rumor Mill would like you to consider the following. King George Jr. says he is for providing Senior Citizens with prescription drugs. But, if he cuts government. revenues, while already experiencing budget deficits and at the same time expands Medicaid
($5 billion + vouchers + vets + Sr. Citizens prescriptions)
then how will he be able to pay for it all without bankrupting our government and our government’s programs like Medicaid and Social Security. This becomes an effective way of indirectly attacking those very important and popular social service programs without experiencing negative political fallout!!!!
RUMOR MILL
THE HISPANIC CONNECTION: Shifting demographics will result in a larger percentage of the U.S. population being Hispanic, which is largely not affluent thus not Republican. The reason for this is simple, rich people rarely immigrate. What this means according to the Rumor Mill, is that the radical right, who support the Republicans, have to try to splinter the Hispanic vote; because, the Republican’s policies do nothing but exploit the poor.
1.) The Republican’s education will pay less for schools who don’t pass their tests. These schools will be mostly from poor school districts thus the Hispanic communities will get slammed.
2.) The Republican Party’s proposals will spend less money for Health Care that helps people; while, at the same time, spending more money, in the form of credits, for welfare for the insurance industry.
3.) The Republican party after their tax cuts can not afford to adequately fund public housing.
4.) The Republican Party’s deregulated energy markets mean 50% larger heating bills, and that is just the beginning.
5.) The Republican Party wants more oil not cheaper oil, which have resulted in greater transportation costs.
6.) The Republican Party are for huge agricultural business interests, which will result in oligopoly supplied food markets, and that means higher food prices for everyone.
7.) The Republican Party wants to Third Worldize American labor markets, which means smaller salaries and lower standards of living for approximately 80% of America’s population.
The above scenario, which constricts wealth to their faction and exploits the poor, means that the Republicans have very little to offer the Hispanic communities except help with immigration. This means the radical right will be trying increase their influence with vice and corruption, fraud and extortion.
In previous essays the Rumor Mill has presented its opinion about the radical right’s drug trade monopolies. The radical right provides drugs and dealers, which they plant in U.S. communities. Then, when there is no one to buy their drugs, they bring in immigrants to buy them, too. This creates the impression of a larger drug taking population than actually exists, and it gives them more support in shoring up their Latin American investments, with American tax dollars. The deal goes like this, they get dealers to go to the U.S. ,and then they help them locate a place in targeted communities, like Salt Lake, Tigard, and Astoria. Then, when they of course get busted, they receive a small cash payoff to help set themselves up back home with homes, trucks, taxis money towards small farms. All this for playing Judas, for some of their unwary amigos. In the North American and Latin American communities the radical right increase their influence by the fraudulent manipulation of these elements of society.
The Hispanic connection works two ways. First, they import drugs into the U.S.. Second, they export shame, with the falling off of the drug populations, the radical right subliminally induces violent crimes, and then have them flee into Mexico, where they are apprehended. This provides money to the Hispanic population, while saving them from undesirable criminal elements; which the radical right have hypocritically manufactured: they are the MASTER MIND CRIMINALS engaging in fraud and extortion; because, of the previously mentioned effort to splinter the Hispanic vote and gain greater influence in Latin America. It also provides the criminal behaviors (murder, robbery, rape and assault) and morally degenerative behaviors (prostitution, perversion and child abuse) that the radical right have become accustomed to prospering from. Also, it corrupts and conditions elements within the Hispanic communities towards the erroneous conclusions that oppression is profitable and abuses of power are beneficial. Another unfortunate negative consequence that the radical right experience from this activity, is to develop an unnatural appetite for perverse predation. It’s ironic that now the radical right have the temerity to claim that they engage in this evil corruption because they’re needed!!! Obviously, the radical right are dealing with creating false “perceptions” ,which they then utilize to increase their influence But, in reality these same false perceptions help spread corruption, crime and vice. False perceptions, which the radical right field operatives find useful in fueling their own self-serving, self-delusions. This is the basis for their arrogance, and their perceived utility to the community.