Estimado Señor Obama,
Por favor, cuando se juegue el amistoso entre Argentina y U.S.A., déjele entrar a su país al técnico Maradona. Si es demasiado complicado, igual se puede jugar el partido en Guantánamo, ¿no?

____________

¡AGUANTE CICLÓN!

En Boedo y en Bajo Flores,
en la China y en toda cancha
de este o cualquier otro mundo
cuando hay revuelo de cuervos
se respeta un hecho innegable:
Esto es San Lorenzo de Almagro,
una verdad y un sentimiento,
¡y acá no se achica nadie!
____________

Think US Is Moving Far Left? That Terrain's Not Even Close
by Pierre Tristam
November 16, 2008, © Commondreams.org
The infernal machinery of reactionary America -- the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and its animatronics version on Fox News, The Weekly Standard, the nasal intellects of talk radio like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- would have you believe that Barack Obama's presidency will be a radical break from right-leaning America. If only. Here's what radical would look like. . . .

____________

You are bound to get lots of people from all over the world offering their opinions - more people than ever before who are concerned, waking up, standing up, wanting to do something, speaking up, caring what happens next - in regard to what Barack Obama ought to do, ought to avoid doing, ought to fix, ought to keep in mind. I include myself. The reason seems quite clear: The behaviour of the U.S. government toward its own citizens and toward all life on this planet has inspired such extremes of callousness and dishonesty around the world that a great many people - not all, certainly, but perhaps a significant majority - actually give a shit for the first time in quite a while what the government and citizens of the United States of America are thinking about right now, thinking about doing, thinking about not doing. We begin to break loose and honestly wonder if something good might come from this new government and from us, the people of this nation. Bring it on! There is absolutely nothing wrong with caring that Mr. Obama not waste this golden opportunity to improve the lives of people and the relations between nations in at least some small way. But with freedom comes chaos, or rather the reminder that nature in its pure, well-observed state seems chaotic. So what? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! It's beautiful, it's easy, it's difficult, it's unpleasant, it's us. Let's go. No time like the present.
V.M.

Critics say Bush administration weakened lead pollution regulation
By Michael Hawthorne
11/14/2008, © Chicago Tribune
Looking to bolster the fight against childhood lead poisoning, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month approved a tough new rule aimed at clearing the nation's air of the toxic metal. . . .

It's not the gender, it's the agenda
By Ellen Goodman
November 14, 2008, © International Herald Tribune
Have you ever seen a transformation this fast? In barely two months, the Barracuda became the Scapegoat. Think of it as evolution on steroids. . . .

Obama and the imperial presidency
The Bush administration has worked hard to increase presidential power. Will Barack Obama give it up?
Jack Balkin
November 12 2008, © The Guardian
Barack Obama enters the White House with more constitutional and legal power than any president in US history. One of his biggest problems will be figuring out what to do with it. . . .

Saving The American Wild Horse
From the Documentary film Saving The American Wild Horse is an Urgent PSA asking the American people to please call,
The Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne (202-208-3100)
Director of the Bureau of Land Management Jim Caswell (202-208-3801)

____________

And how does the government pay for universal tax-payer funded
healthcare and universal tax-payer funded education? You might say it
is only a utopian dream, that it is naïve to ask for the government of
the United States of America to provide free comprehensive healthcare
and education for all of its citizens. I say that it was not dreaming
to expect Barack Obama to become president, and it is not dreaming to
expect the United States of America to behave like a modern, civilised
democracy. Where does the money come from? For one thing, it comes
from not bailing out the privileged few who have, through willful
mismanagement of their financial institutions and through corporate
piracy, raped and pillaged the nation's economy and robbed the U.S.
tax-payer blind with the encouragement of the government officials
whose campaigns they continue to fund. It does not come from
continuing to make a lucrative business of war-profiteering and
military-backed corporate imperialism, from perpetual armed corporate
robbery around the world, largely funded by U.S. taxpayers of today
and tomorrow.

Barack Obama received considerably more campaign funding from "Wall
Street" than John McCain did. Does this mean that he will
automatically bail out the rich who continue to steal from the hardly-
as-rich vast majority of U.S. citizens and their children? Ask him. If
he tells you that it is just too complex an issue, that bailing out
these for-profit failed capitalistic institutions and corporations is
a necessary stop-gap measure to save the economy, I would venture to
say that the answer is "yes". I would venture to say that he is as
bought-and-paid-for as George W. Bush, Bill "Nafta" Clinton, and every
other president in memory. Sadly, this would mean that "Change", that
word Mr. Obama so eloquently used - if often vaguely - as a
rhetorical cudgel to win the presidency and a chance to really make a
difference, is worth nothing more than a handful of pennies to the
economic future of the average citizen and to the hope of a socially-
responsible democracy. If the answer is "yes", then those who have
stolen Big will be richly rewarded and the profitable (for the
privileged, amoral few) military-industrial empire will thrive and
prosper as the noble dream of a just society suffers ever greater set-
backs. Let capitalism function as a responsibly-regulated system, not
as a costly welfare safety-net for billionaires and their capitalist
enterprises. We have a dream. It need not be further compromised by
the next U.S. administration. Sometimes the picture is quite clear.
Take a stand.

Viggo Mortensen

____________

Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William "Jim" Haynes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Paul Wolfowitz,  John Bolton, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the almost countless acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The fact that a good part of the torture has been conducted by U.S. citizens not just in Saddam Hussein's former house of cruelties in Abu Ghraib, but also in the lawless confines of Guantánamo's Camp Delta and in numerous secret sites around the world tied to U.S. government use of  "rendition", only makes it harder to forgive and forget these acts of savagery.  These and other war crimes and the clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's  standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.
Viggo Mortensen

____________

The House
They are building a house
half a block down
and I sit up here
with the shades down
listening to the sounds,
the hammers pounding in nails,
thack thack thack thack,
and then I hear birds,
and thack thack thack,
and I go to bed,
I pull the covers to my throat;
they have been building this house
for a month, and soon it will have
its people...sleeping, eating,
loving, moving around,
but somehow
now
it is not right,
there seems a madness,
men walk on top with nails
in their mouths
and I read about Castro and Cuba,
and at night I walk by
and the ribs of the house show
and inside I can see cats walking
the way cats walk,
and then a boy rides by on a bicycle
and still the house is not done
and in the morning the men
will be back
walking around on the house
with their hammers,
and it seems people should not build houses
anymore,
it seems people should not get married
anymore,
it seems people should stop working
and sit in small rooms
on 2nd floors
under electric lights without shades;
it seems there is a lot to forget
and a lot not to do,
and in drugstores, markets, bars,
the people are tired, they do not want
to move, and I stand there at night
and look through this house and the
house does not want to be built;
through its sides I can see the purple hills
and the first lights of evening,
and it is cold
and I button my coat
and I stand there looking through the house
and the cats stop and look at me
until I am embarrased
and move North up the sidewalk
where I will buy
cigarettes and beer
and return to my room.
—Charles Bukowski

____________

Congratulations to Barack Obama and Joseph Biden for winning the
presidential election. Now, as they surely know, the real work begins.
Hopefully President Obama's administration will follow through on his
promise to initiate real change in the way the United States of
America is governed and the way the United States government behaves
internationally.

Hopefully, for starters:

1) It will discontinue the long imperialist tradition the United
States of America has followed until this very moment of using its
military might to threaten, invade, plunder, and in various ways
meddle in the economic, social, and political affairs of other nations
regardless of international law. No matter what the self-interest of
individuals or corporations in the U. S. A. might be, there is no
valid excuse for using against other nations and societies any
unilateral military action, funding of political opposition groups,
the fomenting of unrest, economic piracy and/or environmental
devastation, facilitating or carrying out of assassinations or any
other acts of murder or mayhem on any scale -- all of which have long
been hallmarks of the U. S. A.'s business-as-usual approach to foreign
policy. This, Mr. President, includes Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela,
Colombia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, and any and all
nations.

2) It will truly put the "Universal" in universal healthcare,
overhauling the system regardless of political inconvenience or
criticism. We do not need the half-measures that Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton have proposed. We do not need to merely alter the way
insurance companies are allowed to compete for the financial resources
of individual citizens. We need real, tax-payer funded universal
healthcare. We need to start counting wealth in terms of health and
not in terms of dollars in this country, we need to start measuring
strength in terms of the physical well-being of individual citizens
and not in terms of the size of our military arsenal.

3) It will make a sincere effort to make schooling at all levels
universal and free-of-charge.

4) It will try to see that the right to vote is granted to anyone who
is a citizen and has a Social Security number and a valid mailing
address. Registration should not be required of anyone who has a
Social Security number, photo I.D., and a valid mailing address.
Ballots should automatically be sent to all who are thus qualified.
Election Day should be a national holiday.

If any of the expectations expressed above seem confusing, impossible,
"socialist", or in any way unrealistic to President Obama, it might
behoove him to get in touch with individuals like Dennis Kucinich,
Congressman from Ohio's 10th Congressional District, who will most
likely be happy to advise him on how these much-needed steps toward
Real Change might be initiated and followed through on. You have
promised us and the world a lot, Mr. Obama, and we expect a lot from
you.

____________

No man is an island
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
John Donne
____________

So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.
—Sir Walter Raleigh

Hatreds are the cinders of affection.
—Sir Walter Raleigh, in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil.
____________

A message from the finest government representative in the United States of America, Dennis Kucinich. Ohio's Congressman and America's Congressman:

"Greed, corruption, bailouts, and smears

Everyone knows that Congressman Dennis Kucinich has been leading the fight against Wall Street greed and corruption and against the federal bailout of the culprits who have become multi-millionaires by gambling with the savings, pensions, retirement security and futures of hard-working everyday Americans.

But, for all his efforts, he's also fighting against a million dollar smear campaign aimed at defeating him in his run for re-election. With the election only a week away, Dennis needs your help TODAY so he can continue representing your interests!"

Thank You
The Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee

A matter of life and debt
By Margaret Atwood
October 22, 2008, © The International Herald Tribune
This week, credit has begun to loosen, stock markets have been encouraged enough to reclaim lost ground (at least for now) and there is a collective sigh of hope that lenders will begin to trust in the financial system again. . . .

Vi skal ud af Afghanistan
Ole Egholm, Augustvej 60, Herlev
Offentliggjort 21.10.08 kl. 03:00
Det undrer mig til stadighed, at der i hele det politiske univers i Danmark er så få, der siger forsvarsministerens krigsindsats i Afghanistan imod. Hans seneste udtalelse om, at vi skal blive der 10 år til, står nærmest uimodsagt. . . .

Det er ikke i ethvert tilfælde ubetinget skadeligt, at et menneske mener noget andet end du. —Kaj Munk
____________

Si decís "A pesar de los Anglosajones, somos todos hermanos...", sos un boludo integral. O SOMOS TODOS HERMANOS, O NO SOMOS TODOS HERMANOS. Ponéte al lado de la paz y el amor, che. Somos todos hermanos y hermanas, y punto. ¿Viste?
____________

"El fútbol, como la vida, es un estado de ánimo" —Bambino Veira

Rio
Eis que a pele,
undívaga e verde,
range entre meus dedos.
O lábio
incrustado de musgo
oprime minha boca.
Neste beijo tosco
imploro
a eternidade da morte...
No caule do olho,
a fenda hostil
dos meus silêncios.
Sob as escamas em sono,
a cartilagem da inocência.
O suor,
pelas curvas imprecisas,
não é mais que minha sede.
Peço,
a cada estrela trêmula,
o tormento de sua presença...
Sob a placenta fria da correnteza
peixes bioluminescentes
(de uma ternura ambígua)
desovam do seu corpo
em meu húmus insano.
Desaguar é apenas
uma súplica do amor.
Afora o mar,
nada me comove
como sua imensidão...
—Agostina Akemi Sasaoka
____________

Everyone should have health insurance? I say everyone should have health care. I'm not selling insurance.
—Dennis Kucinich

This is a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party, which in too many cases has become so corporate and identified with corporate interests that you can't tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
—Dennis Kucinich

The Good Indian?
by KEVIN TAYLOR
9/24/08, © The Pacific Northwest Inlander
"... I had two hearts and have had two hearts ever since ..."
This is the heart of a quote from a man who was thrust by fate into the gristmill of change when two races, two cultures, two wildly disparate ways of living on Earth ground against each other like millstones right here in Spokane. . . .

BOMBS 'R US
by JIM HIGHTOWER
9/24/08, © The Pacific Northwest Inlander
At last, George W has carved his legacy in stone, and it truly is monumental. Working with military contractors that backed his presidential runs, Bush has become history's No. 1 gunrunner! He has now sold or given away more war weaponry to more countries than any other U.S. president. Hoo, boy — let's hear it for George. . . .

Dear Mets,
Thank you for playing as hard as you could. My heart goes out to you all. I know it is especially hard for those players who were part of our team last year and the year before. Please remember, although it probably feels like small consolation at this point,  that the most important thing in life really is how you play the game, not whether you win or lose. We true fans will be there for you next year and always. With respect and admiration,
Viggo Mortensen.

Protecting the public interest in any economic "bailout"
Dennis J Kucinich
The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt "de-leverages." . . .

What Wall Street Should Be Required to Do, to Get A Blank Check From Taxpayers
Robert Reich
September 21, 2008, © Robert Reich's Blog
The frame has been set, the dye cast. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, presumably representing the Bush administration but indirectly representing Wall Street, and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, want a blank check from Congress for $700 billion or possibly a trillion dollars or more to take bad debt off Wall Street’s balance sheets. Never before in the history of American capitalism has so much been asked of so many for (at least in the first instance) so few. . . .

¡¡¡DALE DALE DALE SAN LORENZO!!!

____________

Though I go to you
ceaselessly along dream paths,
the sum of those trysts
is less than a single glimpse
granted in the waking world.

Ono no Komachi
(Translation by Helen Craig McCullough)
____________

Unsurprising economic meltdown, and hope for the future...
Steal from the poor and give to the rich: this is the policy that we have in recent days seen the U.S. Government unhesitatingly and irresponsibly sanction by bailing out the big gamblers and law-breakers with tax-payer money. At least now this short-sighted and destructive approach to governance is undeniably out in the open. We saw this happen in the 1980s with the savings and loan scandal and bail-outs, and we are seeing now, as we saw then,  people like John McCain, Phil Gramm and the usual assortment of corporate pirates get off scot-free and continue on their paths of self-advancement and cronyism. The mismanagement and plundering of our nation's wealth and the cavalier drive to burden future generations of its citizens with crushing debt have been hallmarks of U.S. government practice for quite some time, but never to the unprecedented degree that we have experienced during the eight years that the Bush Administration has plundered the treasury for the benefit of a tiny, very wealthy minority. Hopefully voters will keep this in mind when deciding whether they wish to continue in the same vein with McCain, or give change a chance to happen with an Obama administration. Perhaps, too, the mainstream media outlets, in response to the now undeniable financial and moral crises we face, will get back to allowing issues more pressing and significant than the personal and ethical foibles of Ms Palin to take precedence in their daily election "coverage". I have my doubts about their willingness to do so, but there is always hope.
Viggo Mortensen.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
September 13, 2008, © Red Room
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for an easy-to-understand example of it, perhaps this list will help. . . .

Questions About Devastation

A man was breaking up the soil,
when another man came by, "Why
are you ruining this land?"

"Don't be a fool! Nothing can grow
until the ground is turned over and crumbled.

There can be no roses and no orchard
without first this that looks devastating.

You must lance an ulcer to heal it.
You must tear down parts of an old building
to restore it, and so it is with a sensual life
that has no spirit in it.

To change,
a person must face the dragon of his appetites
with another dragon, the life-energy of the soul."

When that's not strong,
the world seems to be full of people
 who have your own fears and wantings.

As one thinks the room is spinning
when he's whirling around.

When your love contracts in anger,
the atmosphere itself feels threatening.

But when you're expansive, no matter
what the weather, you're in an open,
windy field with friends.

Many people travel to Syria and Iraq
and meet only hypocrites.

Others go all the way to India
and see just merchants buying and selling.

Others go to Turkestan and China
and find those countries filled
with sneak-thieves and cheats.

We always see the qualities
that are living in us.

A cow may walk from one side of the amazing city
of Baghdad to the other and notice only
a watermelon rind and a tuft of hay
that fell off a wagon.

Don't keep repeatedly doing
what your animal-soul wants to do.

That's like deciding to be a strip of meat
nailed and drying on a board in the sun.

Your spirit needs to follow the changes happening
in the spacious place it knows about.

There, the scene is always new,
a clairvoyant river of picturing,
more beautiful than any on earth.

This is where the sufis wash.
Purify your eyes, and see the pure world.
Your life will fill with radiant forms.

It's a question of cleaning
and then developing the spiritual senses.

Say you were blindfolded,
and a lovely woman came by.

You could know her beauty somewhat
by hearing her speak, but what
if she didn't say anything!

Muinuddin, there are marvels
you're not aware of. Don't judge with your eyes.
Look at me through my eyes.

See beyond phenomena,
and these difficult questions will dissolve
into love within love...

Rumi
(translation by Coleman Barks)
____________

...Junto al mar en otoño,
tu risa debe alzar
su cascada de espuma,
y en primavera, amor,
quiero tu risa como
la flor que yo esperaba,
la flor azul, la rosa
de mi patria sonora...
—Pablo Neruda

McCain’s Radical Agenda
By BOB HERBERT
September 15, 2008, © The New York Times
Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system? . . .

Cecil P. Taylor’s Author's Note for his play "Good":
Although Good is obviously based on facts of recent history, documentary material, and is peopled in some cases by real characters, this story of how a 'good' man gets caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich is a work of the imagination. What the tragedy which I have written as a comedy, or musical-comedy is about, will hopefully emerge in the performance. If it proves the good play we hope it is, like all good plays, it will have a special meaning, or shade of meaning, for each person who experiences it.The writing of the play is my response to a deeply felt, and deeply experienced trauma in recent history, the Third Reich's war on the Jews, as well as an intellectual awareness, not at all deeply felt, of my role as a ‘Peace Criminal’ in the Peace ‘Crimes’ of the West against the Third World - my part in the Auschwitzes we are all perpetrating today. I put ‘crimes’ in inverted commas, because my concept of history - which will hopefully emerge from the play - is not quite simple enough to allow me to see either the anti-social activities of the Third Reich, or of the West today, as simply criminal. If the problem were so simple, the solution might then be equally so. I grew up during the war under a deeply felt anxiety that the Germans might win the war, overrun Britain and that I and my mother and father would end up, like my less fortunate co-religionists, in a Nazi Death Camp - perhaps specially built in Scotland or England. There seems to have been some pressure building up in me for a long time to write a play about the Final Solution, marking and responding to a great historical and personal trauma. Not as a Jew, wanting to add my wreath to those already piled high at the graves of the Six Million, but as my own little gesture to revive their memory in our consciousness. It still seems that there are lessons to be learned if we can examine the atrocities of the Third Reich as the result of the infinite complexity of contemporary human society, and not a simple conspiracy of criminals and psychopaths. The 'Inhumanities' seem to me only too human and leading to a final Final Solution to end all Final Solutions - the solution to the Human Problem, a nuclear holocaust.
C.P. Taylor
© 1982 Cecil P. Taylor (C.P. Taylor. Good. Methuen Publishing Limited. London. 1982.)

Iraq’s Forgotten Refugees
BY ELIZABETH DINOVELLA
SEPTEMBER 2008 ISSUE, © The Progressive
When I walked into Samia Kouzah’s dingy two-room flat in Zarqa, Jordan, I almost didn’t recognize her daughter as human. Rahma, age twenty months, has a severely deformed skull, shaped like a mushroom, and her eyes bulge out like a cartoon character’s. . . .

A butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough.
—Rabindranath Tagore

A blizzard of lies on the right
By Paul Krugman
September 12, 2008, © International Herald Tribune
Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Palin told Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks" when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere? . . .

Thomas Sutcliffe: Approach the Holocaust at your peril
Friday, 12 September 2008, © The Independent
I've spent a lot of time in Auschwitz recently – culturally at least. And if this sentence seems a little off to you, a little too blithe in its use of that terrible placename, I know what you mean. Auschwitz shouldn't be for attracting attention in a newspaper column, it should be for paying attention to. . . .

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

—Billy Collins
____________

Autumn Daybreak

Cold wind of autumn, blowing loud
At dawn, a fortnight overdue,
Jostling the doors, and tearing through
My bedroom to rejoin the cloud,
I know—for I can hear the hiss
And scrape of leaves along the floor—
How may boughs, lashed bare by this,
Will rake the cluttered sky once more.
Tardy, and somewhat south of east,
The sun will rise at length, made known
More by the meagre light increased
Than by a disk in splendour shown;
When, having but to turn my head,
Through the stripped maple I shall see,
Bleak and remembered, patched with red,
The hill all summer hid from me.

—Edna St. Vincent Millay
____________

A PATH IN THE WOODS

I don't trust the truth of memories

because what leaves us

departs forever

There's only one current of this sacred river

but I still want to remain faithful

to my first astonishments

to recognize as wisdom the child's wonder

and to carry in myself until the end a path

in the woods of my childhood

dappled with patches of sunlight

to search for it everywhere

in museums in the shade of churches

this path on which I ran unaware

a six-year old

toward my primary mysterious aloneness

—Anna Kamienska
____________

(Lemons) Pear Appears

If it's there, it's something --
And when you see it,
not just your eyes know it.
It's yourself, like they say, you bring.

These words, these seemingly rounded
Forms -- looks like a pear? Is yellow?
Where's that to be found --
In some abounding meadow?

Like likes itself, sees similarities
Everywhere it goes.
But what that means,
Nobody knows.

—Robert Creeley
____________

The Way

My love's manners in bed
are not to be discussed by me,
as mine by her
I would not credit comment upon gracefully.

Yet I ride by the margin of that lake in
the wood, the castle,
and the excitement of strongholds;
and have a small boy's notion of doing good.

Oh well, I will say here,
knowing each man,
let you find a good wife too,
and love her as hard as you can.

—Robert Creeley

Wake Up America!
Dennis Kucinich
Democratic National Convention, 2008

SharkProtect.com
My fascination with sharks began in November 2003, when my daughter Philipa and I went on a shark dive at Isla Guadalupe in the Pacific, with Sharkdiver.com We were cage diving with Great White Sharks and it was so amazing to see those majestic animals swim very close by. We were together with the Mexican Scientist Dr. Felipe Galvan Magana, who wanted to take DNA samples of Great Whites. Philipa and I offered to help, and together we got 4 samples of the 9 Great Whites we saw. It was awesome and exciting. The sharks were not aggressive, even though we had to scrape off some skin samples for the DNA. . . .

Time to Reboot
By DiNovella, Elizabeth
August 2008, © The Progressive
Our energy crisis is getting a lot of press these days, for good reason. But another tiny cartel has set prices high, and created false scarcity around another vital resource: bandwidth. Yes, bandwidth, as in high-speed Internet, also known as broadband. The telecom industry is strangling us with high prices, limited availability, and slow connections. In the industrialized world, Americans pay the eighth-highest monthly rates for broadband service. And the service we get is pokier than what's available in France or Japan. . . .

Nature Is Not Mute
By Eduardo Galeano
August 2008, © The Progressive

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw

Big Oil Song and Dance
By Jim Hightower
August 2008, © The Progressive
The Big Oil Quintet made an appearance before Congress on May 22, singing their old standard: “The Magic of the Free Market.”
The CEOs of the five biggest oil corporations turned in a boffo performance for a demanding crowd of lawmakers: You ask us why gas prices are so high/But all we can do is sigh and say/It’s just that old free market at play. The lead harmonizer was Shell Oil President John Hofmeister, who crooned: “As repetitive and uninteresting as it may sound, the fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work.” . . .

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
—Oscar Wilde
____________

my sweet old etcetera...

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent
war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers

etcetera wristers etcetera, my

mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)

— E.E. Cummings

Torturers in the White House
By Ruth Conniff
April 14, 2008, © The Progressive
The biggest news of the last week went virtually uncovered by the mainstream, print media. ABC News first reported last Wednesday that top Bush Administration officials, including Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft, and George Tenet, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld met to discuss which particular torture techniques should be used against Al Qaeda suspects in U.S. custody. . . .

McCain’s Meddlers
By Mukoma Wa Ngugi
June 2008, © The Progressive
President Bush endorsed John McCain even before Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race. It was back in 2005 at an International Republican Institute (IRI) dinner. President Bush introduced John McCain as an “outstanding” IRI board chairman and as “a man of honor and integrity, and great personal courage.” . . .

La utopía está en el horizonte. Camino dos pasos, ella se aleja dos
pasos y el horizonte se corre diez pasos más allá. ¿Entonces para que
sirve la utopía? Para eso,                     sirve
para               caminar.
—Eduardo Galeano
____________

St. Francis And The Sow

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

—Galway Kinnell
____________

WHEN ONE HAS LIVED
A LONG TIME ALONE

1
When one has lived a long time alone,
one refrains from swatting the fly
and let's him go, and one hesitates to strike
the mosquito, though more than willing to slap
the flesh under her, and one lifts the toad
from the pit too deep to hop out of
and carries him to the grass, without minding
the poisoned urine he slicks his body with,
and one envelops, in a towel, the swift
who fell down the chimney and knocks herself
against window glass and releases her outside
and watches her fly free, a life line flung at reality,
When one has lived a long time alone.

2
When one has lived a long time alone,
one grabs the snake behind the head
and holds him until he stops trying to stick
the orange tongue - which splits at the end
into two black filaments and jumps out
like a fire-eater's belches and has little
in common with the pimpled pink lumps that shapes
sounds and sleeps inside the human mouth -
into one's flesh, and clamps it between his jaws,
letting the gaudy tips show, as children do
when concentrating, and as very likely
one does oneself, without knowing it,
when one has lived a long time alone.

3
When one has lived a long time alone,
among regrets so immense the past occupies
nearly all the room there is in consciousness,
one notices in the snake's eyes, which look back
without giving any less attention to the future,
the first coating of the opaque, mikly-blue
leucoma snakes get when about to throw their skins
and become new - meanwhile continuing,
of course, to grow old - the same bleu Passe
that bleaches the corneas of the blue-eyed
when they lie back at the end and look for heaven,
a fading one knows means they will never find it
when one has lived a long time alone.

4
When one has lived along time alone,
one holds the snake near the loudspeaker disgorging
gorgeous sounds and watches him crook
his forepart into four right angles,
as though trying to slow down the music
flowing through him, in order to absorb it
like milk of paradise into the flesh,
until a glimmering appears at his mouth,
such a drop of intense fluid as, among humans,
could form after long exciting at the tip
of the penis, and as he straightens himself out
he has the pathos one finds in the penis,
when one has lived a long time alone.

5
When one has lived a long time alone,
one falls to poring upon a creature,
contrasting it’s eternity’s-face to one’s own
full of hours, taking note of each difference,
exaggerating it, making it everything,
until the other is utterly other, and then,
with hard effort, possibly with tongue sticking out,
going back over each difference once again
and canceling it, seeing nothing now
but likeness, until ... half an hour later
one stares awake, taken aback at how eagerly
one drops off into the happiness of kinship,
when one has lived a long time alone.

6
When one has lived a long time alone
and listens at morning to mourning doves
sound their kyrie eleison, or the small thing
spiritualized upon a twig cry, “pewit-pheobe!”
or at midday grasshoppers scratch the thighs’
needfire awake, or peabody birds send schoolboys’
whistlings across the field, and at dusk, undamped,
unforgiving chinks, as from marble cutters’ chisels,
or at nightfall polliwogs just burst into frogs
raise their ave verum corpus – listens to those
who hop or fly call down upon us the mercy
of other tongues – one hears them as inner voices,
when one has lived a long time alone.

7
When one has lived a long time alone,
one knows that consciousness consummates,
and as the conscious one among these others
uttering their compulsory cries of being here -
the least flycatcher witching up “che-bec!”
or red-headed woodpecker clanging out his music
from a metal drainpipe, or ruffed grouse drumming
“thrump thrump thrump thrump-thrump-
thrump-thrump-rup-rup-ruprup-rup-r-r-r-r-r-r”
deep in the woods, all of them in time’s unfolding
trying to cry themselves into self-knowing -
one knows one is here to hear them into shining,
when one has lived a long time alone.

8
When one has lived a long time alone,
one likes alike the pig, who brooks no deferment
of gratification, and the porcupine, or thorned pig,
who enters the cellar but not the house itself
because of eating down the cellar stairs on the way up,
and one likes the worm, who by bunching herself together
and expanding works her way through the ground,
no less than the butterfly, who totters full of worry
among the day lilies, as they darken,
and more and more one finds one likes
any other species better than one’s own,
which has gone amok, making one self-estranged,
when one has lived a long time alone.

9
When one has lived a long time alone,
sour, misanthropic, one fits to one’s defiance
the satanic boast, it is better to reign
than submit on earth, and forgets
one’s kind – the way by now the snake does,
who stops trying to get to the floor and lingers
all across one’s body – slumping into its contours,
adopting its temperature – and abandons hope
of the sweetness of friendship or love,
before long can barely remember what they are,
and covets the stillness in inorganic matter,
in a self-dissolution one may not know how to halt,
when one has lived a long time alone.

10
When one has lived a long time alone,
and the hermit thrush calls and there is an answer,
and the bullfrog head half out of water repeats
the sexual cantillations of his first spring,
and the snake lowers himself over the threshold
and disappears among the stones, one sees
they all live to mate with their kind, and one knows,
after a long time of solitude, after the many steps taken
away from one’s kind, toward the kingdom of strangers,
the hard prayer inside one’s own singing
is to come back, if one can, to one’s own,
a world almost lost, in the exile that deepens,
when one has lived a long time alone.

11
When one has lived a long time alone,
one wants to live again among men and women,
to return to that place where one’s ties with the human
broke, where the disquiet of death and now also
of history glimmers its firelight on faces,
where the gaze of the new baby looks past the gaze
of the great granny, and where lovers speak,
on lips blowsy from kissing, that language
the same in each mouth, and like birds at daybreak
blether the song that is both earth’s and heaven’s,
until the sun has risen, and they stand
in the light of being made one: kingdom come,
when one has lived a long time alone.

—Galway Kinnell
____________

At the side of the everlasting why, is a yes, and a yes, and a yes.
—E. M. Forster

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.
—Samuel Beckett

Politics-as-war an ugly thing
Leonard Pitts Jr.
August 9, 2008, © Spokesman-Review
I haven't read Robert Novak's column in 10 years.
Back in 1998 he made a comment on CNN – what it was is not material here – that I considered beyond the pale. I decided I could henceforth do without his opinions and insights. He impressed me as a distinctly disagreeable man. And that was well before he outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. . . .

The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection.
No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it.
—Herman Hesse

¿Te acordás, hermano?
Se cumplen 40 años de Los Matadores, joya histórica del Ciclón y primer campeón invicto. A buscar el frac.
ANDRES GOMEZ FRANCO
03/08/2008, © Olé
"No juega Veira, no juega el Tucumano, porque la prensa dice que hay afano...", se oía el cantito, orgulloso, lanzado desde las gradas cuervas, jactándose de no poder ostentar en la hierba a dos figuras como el Bambino (jugó apenas cuatro partidos debido a lesiones varias) y Albretch (también por nanas, se perdió un par de choques sobre el final del torneo) y aún así desplegar la más maravillosa música que, aseguran unos cuantos propios y ajenos, haya entonado un equipo en la vasta historia del balompié nacional. . . .

De veras fue una familia
ALBERTO RENDO
03/08/2008, © Olé
Cuando hoy escucho hablar a los técnicos o a los jugadores de la importancia que tiene el grupo, lo primero que pienso es en el equipo de Los Matadores: con la química que traía la base, por conocerse de años atrás, por ser la mayoría futbolistas del club, y los refuerzos que se sumaron, se veía desde la previa del torneo que algo grande se podría lograr. . . .

Ese equipo tenía todo
ROBERTO TELCH
03/08/2008, © Olé
Fue un enorme placer haber integrado ese equipo, pero no sólo por lo deportivo, sino por el grupo humano que se armó, combinando a varios jugadores surgidos del club y a otros muchachos que se sumaron esa temporada y fueron vitales para la obtención del título. . . .

A 40 AÑOS DEL TITULO, REUNIMOS A LOS "MATADORES"
Los campeones del Metropolitano de 1968 reunidos por Crónica. Un reencuentro a pura emoción "azulgrana".
04/08/2008, © cronica.com
Quién podría definir mejor a "Los Matadores", que "Los Matadores"? Por eso les pedimos que nos cuenten cómo era ese equipo, no sólo dentro de la cancha sino también fuera de ella. . . .

Cocco, Telch y la magia de aquellos famosos Matadores
40 años del San Lorenzo campeón de Tim
02 agosto de 2008, © El Litoral.com
Fue campeón invicto, arrasó con sus rivales y le ganó una apoteósica final al Estudiantes copero de esos finales de la década del '60. . . .

Impeachment in The House Judicial Committee: Sign the Petition

All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters

All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going
Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water's
Monotone.

The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.

—James Joyce
____________

Beatitudine
"Color di perla quasi informa, quale
conviene a donna aver, non fuor misura".
Non è, Dante, tua donna che in figura
della rorida Sera a noi discende?

Non è non è dal ciel Beatrice
discesa in terra a noi
bagnata il viso di pianto d'amore?
Ella col lacrimar degli occhi suoi
tocca tutte le spiche
a una a una e cangia lor colore.
Stanno come persone
inginocchiate elle dinanzi a lei,
a capo chino, umíli; e par si bei
ciascuna del martiro che l'attende.

Vince il silenzio i movimenti umani.
Nell'aerea chiostra
dei poggi l'Arno pallido s'inciela.
Ascosa la Città di sé non mostra
se non due steli alzati,
torre d'imperio e torre di preghiera,
a noi dolce com'era
al cittadin suo prima dell'esiglio
quand'ei tenendo nella mano un giglio
chinava il viso tra le rosse bende.

Color di perla per ovunque spazia
e il ciel tanto è vicino
che ogni pensier vi nasce come un'ala.
La terra sciolta s'è nell'infinito
sorriso che la sazia,
e da noi lentamente s'allontana
mentre l'Angelo chiama
e dice:"Sire, nel mondo si vede
meraviglia nell'atto, che procede
da un'anima, che fin quassù risplende".
—Gabriele D'Annunzio
____________

La Caricia Perdida

Se me va de los dedos la caricia sin causa,
se me va de los dedos... En el viento, al pasar,
la caricia que vaga sin destino ni objeto,
la caricia perdida ¿quién la recogerá?

Pude amar esta noche con piedad infinita,
pude amar al primero que acertara a llegar.
Nadie llega. Están solos los floridos senderos.
La caricia perdida, rodará... rodará...

Si en los ojos te besan esta noche, viajero,
si estremece las ramas un dulce suspirar,
si te oprime los dedos una mano pequeña
que te toma y te deja, que te logra y se va.

Si no ves esa mano, ni esa boca que besa,
si es el aire quien teje la ilusión de besar,
oh, viajero, que tienes como el cielo los ojos,
en el viento fundida, ¿me reconocerás?

—Alfonsina Storni

Madness and Shame
By BOB HERBERT
July 22, 2008, © The New York Times
You want a scary thought? Imagine a fanatic in the mold of Dick Cheney but without the vice president’s sense of humor.
In her important new book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” Jane Mayer of The New Yorker devotes a great deal of space to David Addington, Dick Cheney’s main man and the lead architect of the Bush administration’s legal strategy for the so-called war on terror. . . .

Evening

The sky puts on the darkening blue coat
held for it by a row of ancient trees;
you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight,
one journeying to heaven, one that fails;

and leave you, not at home in either one,
not quite so still and dark as the darkened houses,
not calling to eternity with the passion
of what becomes a star each night, and rises;

and leave you (inexpressibly to unravel)
your life, with its immensity and fear,
so that, now bounded, now immeasurable,
it is alternatively stone in you and star.

—Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Stephen Mitchell)
____________

Breath, you invisible poem!
Steady sheer exchange between the cosmos
and our being. Counterpoise
in which I rhythmically become.

Single wave whose
gradual sea I am; sparest
of all possible seas —
winning the universe.

How many regions in space have been
inside me already. Many winds
are like my son.

You, air, still full of places once mine,
do you know me? You once
my words' sphere, leaf, and smooth rind.

—Rilke, translated by Poulin
____________

          And these things, whose lives
are lived in leaving—they understand when you praise them.
Perishing, they turn to us, the most perishable, for help.
They want us to change them completely in our invisible hearts,
oh—forever—into us! Whoever we may finally be.
      Earth, isn't this what you want: to resurrect
in us invisibly? Isn't it your dream
to be invisible one day? Earth! Invisible!
What's your urgent charge, if not transformation?
Earth, my love, I will.
—Rilke, translated by Poulin
____________

If reading this book does not convince you that Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, among others, need to be impeached and prosecuted for breaking the laws of the land, committing acts of treason, and violating international laws and accords that the United States of America are signatory and responsible to, nothing ever will.

China 'threat' sells weapons
Robert Scheer
July 14, 2008, © Creators Syndicate
You can't trust the Chinese. I don't care if you're talking about those communists on the mainland or the other guys on Taiwan – they just won't follow the war-games script that our weapons hawks had counted on. Their mutual passion runs not to matters of tired politics but rather on the lust of venture capitalists. To the Chinese, irrespective of past allegiances, the prospect of war has come to be viewed as counterproductive, and they now have the confidence to show it. . . .

Sans doute peu de personnes comprennent le caractère purement subjectif du phénomène qu'est l'amour, et la sorte de création que c'est d'une personne supplémentaire, distincte de celle qui porte le même nom dans le monde, et dont la plupart des éléments sont tirés de nous-mêmes. -Marcel Proust

Opéra en deux actes: The Fly
Howard Shore
Le Chatelet, Paris
Primé au Festival d’Avoriaz 1987, The Fly (La Mouche) de David Cronenberg est devenu un film culte. Comme son héros, l’oeuvre subit aujourd’hui une mutation en devenant un opéra mis en scène par le cinéaste lui-même.
A l'occasion de la présentation en première mondiale de l'opéra The Fly, le Festival Paris Cinéma rend hommage à David Cronenberg lors d'une soirée exceptionnelle le jeudi 3 juillet 2008 à 20h, au cours de laquelle il présentera son film à l'origine de l'opéra La Mouche (1987) suivi de La Mouche Noire (1958) de Kurt Neumann.

Trees
I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches

"Trees" by W. S. Merwin, from The Compass Flower.

Barack at Risk
By Tom Hayden
July 5, 2008, © The Nation
Call him slippery or nuanced, Barack Obama's core position on Iraq has always been more ambiguous than audacious. Now it is catching up with him, as his latest remarks are questioned by the Republicans, the mainstream media and the antiwar movement. He could put his candidacy at risk if his audacity continues to shrivel. . . .

Merci pour le beau match entre deux vrais maîtres, Roger Federer et Rafael Nadal! ¡Gracias por la lindísima y emocionante final, Rafael Nadal y Roger Federer! Te felicitamos por haber aguantado y por haberte entregado totalmente - sos un gran campeón, Rafael!
____________

Estimados ciudadanos latinos e hispanoparlantes de los Estados Unidos,
Por favor hagan el esfuerzo para aprender y entender, si no lo han hecho ya, que la reciente gira hispanoamericana del senador John McCain fue nada más que una maniobra organizada por la totalmente corrupta administración de George W. Bush y Dick Cheney para intentar seguir engañándoles. Tanto el apoyo de McCain al siniestro Jefe de estado de Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez -igual de comprado por Washington y las corporaciones estadounidenses al que sirven ambos-, así como la parada en México para hacerse fotos al lado de la Virgen de Guadalupe, no tienen nada que ver con un sincero acercamiento a los pueblos de Colombia y de México. Son esfuerzos simbólicos bastante torpes para conseguir que ustedes le regalen sus votos en la elección presidencial de los Estados Unidos en noviembre. No se lo merece. Si lo piensan un poco, creo que estarán de acuerdo conmigo cuando les digo que a McCain le importa tanto el bienestar del obrero norteamericano o de las familias de este país - sean de origen latino o no - como le ha importado al señor Bush: cero, absolutamente nada. No se dejen engañar esta vez. Si piensan votar, les ruego que tomen en cuenta la candidatura del señor Barack Obama.
Gracias,
Viggo Mortensen.
____________

Finjamos que soy feliz

Finjamos que soy feliz,
triste pensamiento, un rato;
quizá prodréis persuadirme,
aunque yo sé lo contrario,
que pues sólo en la aprehensión
dicen que estriban los daños,
si os imagináis dichoso
no seréis tan desdichado.

Sírvame el entendimiento
alguna vez de descanso,
y no siempre esté el ingenio
con el provecho encontrado.
Todo el mundo es opiniones
de pareceres tan varios,
que lo que el uno que es negro
el otro prueba que es blanco.

A unos sirve de atractivo
lo que otro concibe enfado;
y lo que éste por alivio,
aquél tiene por trabajo.

El que está triste, censura
al alegre de liviano;
y el que esta alegre se burla
de ver al triste penando.

Los dos filósofos griegos
bien esta verdad probaron:
pues lo que en el uno risa,
causaba en el otro llanto.

Célebre su oposición
ha sido por siglos tantos,
sin que cuál acertó, esté
hasta agora averiguado.

Antes, en sus dos banderas
el mundo todo alistado,
conforme el humor le dicta,
sigue cada cual el bando.

Uno dice que de risa
sólo es digno el mundo vario;
y otro, que sus infortunios
son sólo para llorados.

Para todo se halla prueba
y razón en qué fundarlo;
y no hay razón para nada,
de haber razón para tanto.

Todos son iguales jueces;
y siendo iguales y varios,
no hay quien pueda decidir
cuál es lo más acertado.

Pues, si no hay quien lo sentencie,
por qué pensáis, vos, errado,
que os cometió Dios a vos
la decisión de los casos?

O por qué, contra vos mismo,
severamente inhumano,
entre lo amargo y lo dulce,
queréis elegir lo amargo?

Si es mío mi entendimiento,
por qué siempre he de encontrarlo
tan torpe para el alivio,
tan agudo para el daño?

El discurso es un acero
que sirve para ambos cabos:
de dar muerte, por la punta,
por el pomo, de resguardo.

Si vos, sabiendo el peligro
queréis por la punta usarlo,
qué culpa tiene el acero
del mal uso de la mano?

No es saber, saber hacer
discursos sutiles, vanos;
que el saber consiste sólo
en elegir lo más sano.

Especular las desdichas
y examinar los presagios,
sólo sirve de que el mal
crezca con anticiparlo.

En los trabajos futuros,
la atención, sutilizando,
más formidable que el riesgo
suele fingir el amago.

Qué feliz es la ignorancia
del que, indoctamente sabio,
halla de lo que padece,
en lo que ignora, sagrado!

No siempre suben seguros
vuelos del ingenio osados,
que buscan trono en el fuego
y hallan sepulcro en el llanto.

También es vicio el saber,
que si no se va atajando,
cuando menos se conoce
es más nocivo el estrago;
y si el vuelo no le abaten,
en sutilezas cebado,
por cuidar de lo curioso
olvida lo necesario.

Si culta mano no impide
crecer al árbol copado,
quita la sustancia al fruto
la locura de los ramos.

Si andar a nave ligera
no estorba lastre pesado,
sirve el vuelo de que sea
el precipicio más alto.

En amenidad inútil,
qué importa al florido campo,
si no halla fruto el otoño,
que ostente flores el mayo?

De qué sirve al ingenio
el producir muchos partos,
si a la multitud se sigue
el malogro de abortarlos?

Y a esta desdicha por fuerza
ha de seguirse el fracaso
de quedar el que produce,
si no muerto, lastimado.

El ingenio es como el fuego,
que, con la materia ingrato,
tanto la consume más
cuando él se ostenta más claro.

Es de su propio Señor
tan rebelado vasallo,
que convierte en sus ofensas
las armas de su resguardo.

Este pésimo ejercicio,
este duro afán pesado,
a los hojos de los hombres
dio Dios para ejercitarlos.

Qué loca ambición nos lleva
de nosotros olvidados?
Si es para vivir tan poco,
de qué sirve saber tanto?
Oh, si como hay de saber,
hubiera algún seminario
o escuela donde a ignorar
se enseñaran los trabajos!

Qué felizmente viviera
el que, flojamente cauto,
burlara las amenazas
del influjo de los astros!

Aprendamos a ignorar,
pensamiento, pues hallamos
que cuanto añado al discurso,
tanto le usurpo a los años.

-Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
____________

Perceval Press has a number of books presently in various stages of planning, editing, and design. Some are more complicated to put together than others, and will take longer to complete and prepare for printing. Among the projects that we are involved with and are considering for publication in the coming year are books by Layla Mackay (an artist from New Zealand), Sara Solati (a writer from Iran), an anthology of new Argentine poetry, a third installment from Mike Davis (whose Land of the Lost Mammoths and Pirates, Bats and Dragons we previously published), a collection from Argentine poet Talo Kejner, and a book about the painter Minerva Chapman. Next from Perceval, to be released at summer's end, will be photographer Robert Whitman's Mostly People, a new poetry collection from California poet Scott Wannberg, Otra Isla Para Miguel (our second book from Cuban artist Henry Eric), as well as The Future States Atlas, from artist Dan Mills. We thank you for your interest, patience, and patronage.
-Viggo Mortensen.
____________

España es Campeón de Europa. Les felicitamos por el lindo juego y por aguantar otra vez las jugadas desesperadas de un adversario inferior, tanto como otro caso de arbitraje a veces torpe e injusto. Menos mal que el pobre manejo del partido no lo estropeó. Destacó la entrega ofensiva, especialmente la del "Niño", quien hizo el gol de la victoria, pero la selección española mostró la paciencia de un veterano y un lindísimo juego de equipo. La defensa, con un Carles Puyol valiente y astuto, fue la mejor de este torneo. También felicitamos a los alemanes por haber dado todo lo que pudieron en esta final. ¡Qué lindo ver un campeonato de calidad, y la coronación del equipo que mejor ha jugado en él!

It Was Oil, All Along
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
June 27, 2008, © Consortiumnews.com
Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction.
But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be....the bottom line. It is about oil. . . .

Iran-Contra's 'Lost Chapter'
By Robert Parry
June 30, 2008, © Consortiumnews.com
As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.
To understand this extraordinary development, historians might want to look back at the 1980s and examine the Iran-Contra scandal’s “lost chapter,” a narrative describing how Ronald Reagan’s administration brought CIA tactics to bear domestically to reshape the way Americans perceived the world. . . .

Senator Dodd Speaks in Opposition to FISA Bill on Floor of U.S. Senate
June 24, 2008
Remarks as Prepared - Mr. President: I rise—once again—to voice my strong opposition to the misguided FISA legislation before us today. I have strong reservations about the so-called improvements made to Title I. But more than that, this legislation includes provisions which would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that apparently have violated the privacy and the trust of millions of Americans by participating in the president’s warrantless wiretapping program. If we pass this legislation, the Senate will ratify a domestic spying regime that has already concentrated far too much unaccountable power in the president’s hands and will place the telecommunications companies above the law.
I am here today to implore my colleagues to vote against cloture in the morning.
And let me make clear, at the outset of this debate, that this is not about domestic surveillance itself. We all recognize the importance of domestic surveillance – in an age of unprecedented threats. This is about illegal, unwarranted, unchecked domestic surveillance.
And that difference—the difference between surveillance that is lawful, warranted and that which is not—is everything. . . .

Senate Floor Statement of Senator Boxer
Boxer Statement on FISA Bill
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
One of the most basic tenets of our freedom is justice, and at the heart of justice lies the search for truth.
Washington, DC -- U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer today made the following statement on the floor of the Senate regarding the FISA bill:
Throughout history, whenever the United States government has violated the trust of the American people, we have always worked to regain that trust by seeking the truth and allowing for a full examination of the abuses of government power. . . .

¡¡Suerte!!

Feingold, Dodd Take Steps to Filibuster FISA
by John Nichols
06/24/2008, © The Nation
U.S. Senators Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, and Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, will take steps to filibuster a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform proposal that provides retroactive immunity to telecommunications corporations that violate the privacy rights of customers by sharing information with illegal spying programs. . . .

Everyone should have health insurance? I say everyone should have health care. I'm not selling insurance. -Dennis Kucinich

Top Dems Hand Bush Key Victories
By Jason Leopold
June 21, 2008, © Consortiumnews.com
In November 2006 when Democrats won control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, Rep. Nancy Pelosi explained the significance behind the record voter turnout that helped shift the balance of power in Washington.
“People voted for change and they voted for Democrats who will take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi said during a victory speech in San Francisco on Nov. 8, 2006. . . .

¡Buen Trabajo! Aguantaron las trampas italianas y el horrible arbitraje. Les deseamos suerte en el próximo partido.

George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress
Glenn Greenwald
THURSDAY JUNE 19, 2008, © Salon.com
CQ reports (sub. req.) that "a final deal has been reached" on FISA and telecom amnesty and "the House is likely to take up the legislation Friday." I've now just read a copy of the final "compromise" bill. It's even worse than expected. When you read it, it's actually hard to believe that the Congress is about to make this into our law. Then again, this is the same Congress that abolished habeas corpus with the Military Commissions Act, and legalized George Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program with the "Protect America Act," so it shouldn't be hard to believe at all. Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is: . . .

The Biggest Election Story Not on Your TV
by: David Swanson, The American Chronicle
Sunday 15 June 2008, © t r u t h o u t
For over half the days during any period of years you choose to select, the biggest story in U.S. news outlets is the impending most important election in your lifetime. The story, of course, takes an infinite variety of forms, ranging from candidates' friends and associates to their diets, wardrobes, religions, childhoods, and hobbies. There are variations that take us through polls and fundraising and commercials and donors and staffers and analysis of commentary on reporting on sound bytes. We learn the ins and outs of the process, the demographics of likely supporters, and the statistical likelihood that a candidate of a given race, religion, gender, and shoe size will get an RBI in the next inning. Occasionally we even get a glancing glimpse at what a candidate might do if elected. . . .

Articles of Impeachment
Article 1
CREATING A SECRET PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN TO MANUFACTURE A FALSE CASE FOR WAR AGAINST IRAQ
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, together with the Vice President, illegally spent public dollars on a secret propaganda program to manufacture a false cause for war against Iraq. . . .

Recently, a polar bear, having arrived in northern Iceland on ice that had broken away from the shores of Greenland, was killed by Icelandic law enforcement personnel. I was in that part of the country at the time, and was troubled by the haste with which this violent action was carried out. It was explained to me that it was a safety issue. However, I recall another Greenland polar bear being killed in Iceland in 1993, just off-shore. At that time, due to public outrage, government officials promised that in future they would ensure that stranded bears were tranquilised and relocated. Apparently no thorough efforts were made to plan for that sort of humane approach. On this recent visit to Iceland, I suggested to some of the friends I have there that their society ought to perhaps get ready with a workable plan as to what to do in the future because there would likely be a lot more polar bears drifting across from Greenland on chunks of ice. All of them said that it was very unlikely, that it only happens once every 10 or 15 years. Well, I have just heard that another one has shown up in Iceland in the last two days. I hope the government there will use more common sense and decency in handling this bear and all those bears who, due to the melting ice cap in Greenland, will be ending up in Iceland. It might not be a bad idea for British, Norwegian, Russian, Canadian, US, and Danish authorities to think this eventuality through as well, as refugees - be they people or bears - do not distinguish between borders and only want to be safe. As much importance should be given to the fate of these and other animals affected by climate change as is being given by the above-named countries to who owns the North Pole.
-Viggo Mortensen

The Republic on a Knife's Edge
By Robert Parry
June 13, 2008, © Consortiumnews.com
There are two ways of looking at the landmark 5-4 Supreme Court decision recognizing the habeas corpus rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: As a stirring victory for individual liberty over collective fear – or as a reminder that the one more right-wing justice could make George W. Bush’s imperial presidency “constitutional.” . . .

Iraq folly rivals Vietnam War
Robert Scheer
June 13, 2008, © The Spokesman-Review
Wow, a lot of people must have bought Hummers last week. How else to explain the spike in oil prices? No, I'm not being silly – they are. And by "they," I mean the gaggle of media pundits and other administration apologists abetted by some green zealots who want to explain our energy crisis by reference to profligate consumers. . . .

Thank you, Dennis Kucinich, for continuing to show true leadership and integrity by defending the democratic principles on which the United States of America were founded. Your stubborn refusal to back off the topic of much needed impeachment proceedings against George bush, Dick Cheney, and others in their utterly corrupt administration -- in spite of the cowardice and moral weakness shown with regard to this topic by Nanci Pelosi, John Conyers, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and practically all other members of Congress from your own Democratic Party -- is brave and much needed at this time. -Viggo Mortensen
____________

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world. -Eleanor Roosevelt

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. -Eleanor Roosevelt

Death in the Amazon
The forced invasion of 'uncontacted' tribes is racist - and dangerous for indigenous peoples
Jay Griffiths
June 10 2008, © The Guardian
The message could hardly be clearer: leave us alone. In photographs taken from a low-flying plane, men from an uncontacted group deep in the Amazon forests, body-painted in red and black, draw their bows and arrows to shoot at the intruders in anger and fear. Another tribe living in voluntary isolation is being hunted out of existence. . . .

Wait till you see our swimming pool!
With its grooming rooms, en-suite showers and double-domed roof, Norman Foster's new addition to Copenhagen Zoo is pure elephant bliss. Jonathan Glancey reports
Tuesday June 10, 2008, © The Guardian
'I don't know how I can go back to designing office blocks for grumpy humans after this," says John Jennings, the Foster and Partners architect who has been the driving force behind the new Elephant House at Copenhagen Zoo. "It's been a delight to work on. The experts tell us the animals are clearly happier than they've ever been. With space to roam, their muscles are developing. And they've begun to eat better and to play as never before." . . .

Montana sued over Rock Creek mine
Becky Kramer
June 12, 2008, © The Spokesman-Review
Four environmental groups have sued the state of Montana over pre-development work at the Rock Creek Mine, saying erosion from the construction activity will silt-up habitat for federally protected bull trout. . . .

40 años después de Robert Kennedy
FRANCISCO G. BASTERRA
06/06/2008, © El PAÍS
Acababa de ganar las primarias demócratas de California, derrotando al senador Eugene McCarthy por una diferencia de cuatro puntos. Era joven, atractivo, provocaba profundas emociones, y también odios. Faltaban 20 minutos para la medianoche del 5 de junio de 1968. En el hotel Ambassador de Los Ángeles, junto a su mujer Ethel, embarazada de su 11º hijo, había afirmado que pretendía acabar con la división que vivía EE UU desde hacía tres años: "Entre negros y blancos, entre los pobres y los más ricos, entre los jovenes y los mayores, o sobre la guerra de Vietnam". Concluyó diciendo: "Podemos trabajar juntos y esta idea será el fundamento de mi campaña". Las mismas ideas que machaca hoy Barack Obama. Hoy, Irak, ayer Vietnam. Bobby Kennedy abandonó el podio estrujado por sus enfervorizados seguidores. Tenía que enfrentarse a la prensa en una sala contigua. . . .

¿A quién le importa con quién me case?
BEATRIZ GIMENO
06/06/2008, © El PAÍS
Al reciente fallo del Tribunal Supremo de California declarando la inconstitucionalidad en ese estado norteamericano de las leyes que prohíben el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo se acaba de sumar Nueva York. La bola de nieve de la igualdad sigue rodando, incluso en un país como Estados Unidos, que aún no ha terminado de superar su ciclo neoconservador. . . .

Familia patriarcal y machismo asesino
BONIFACIO DE LA CUADRA
04/06/2008, © El PAÍS
No existe una relación inmediata de causa/efecto, pero sí puede afirmarse que la estructura de valores de la familia patriarcal constituye un caldo de cultivo, un terreno abonado, un ambiente propicio para el machismo asesino. De ahí que el gravísimo problema de la violencia de género deba atacarse desde su raíz: el tradicional poderío del varón en todos los ámbitos de la sociedad, y muy particularmente en el hogar familiar. . . .

Viaje a las entrañas de la miseria
ISABEL LAFONT
04/06/2008, © El PAÍS
"Mi aspiración es captar la acción de la vida, la vida del mundo, su humor, sus tragedias; en otras palabras, la vida tal y como es. Una imagen verdadera, real, sin poses. ... Yo no hago fotos por el simple placer de hacerlo, sino que, como muchos de los antiguos maestros de la pintura, quiero que simbolicen algo". La carta que el joven W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) dirigió a su madre en 1936 apuntaba ya la obsesión que lo acompañaría toda una vida: "captar el corazón" de lo que se colaba por el objetivo de su cámara. Su compromiso, que lo llevó a dejar atrás el fotorreportaje y avanzar hacia una nueva forma de "ensayo fotográfico" en la que se dejaría el alma y la salud. . . .

Ahora sí que te portaste mal, Ramón. No cumpliste tu promesa y te fuiste cómo un desgraciado pibe mimado. Eso no se perdona. Andá nomás. No te echaremos de menos. Adelante Ciclón.
____________

Have you ever noticed that it is much faster to count to 100 if you start at 29?
-Jón Gu∂ni
____________

Querido Maestro Ramón,
Sabrás que lo decente hubiera sido esperar hasta el fin del torneo para anunciar tu fuga. Aunque te vas cancherito, te lo perdonamos y por supuesto te agradecemos el lindo trabajo que hiciste para el Ciclón. Buena suerte, gallina. Supongo que nos veremos en algún futuro encuentro...

____________

Det menneske, som duer, gaar til en vis grad sin egen vej, selv om den rette almindelighed gaar sin.
-Knut Hamsun ("Ny Jord")

Carter urges 'supine' Europe to break with US over Gaza blockade
Ex-president says EU is colluding in a human rights crime
Jonathan Steele and Jonathan Freedland
May 26 2008, © The Guardian
Britain and other European governments should break from the US over the international embargo on Gaza, former US president Jimmy Carter told the Guardian yesterday. Carter, visiting the Welsh border town of Hay for the Guardian literary festival, described the EU's position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as "supine" and its failure to criticise the Israeli blockade of Gaza as "embarrassing". . . .

Clinton has run her campaign the same way Bush has run the country
Gary Younge
May 26 2008, © The Guardian
We all saw it. Indeed, that was the whole point. In the US, the networks stopped regular programming so we had little choice. The White House wanted to make sure we caught the full dramatic impact of the US president landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a navy jet against a backdrop of a clear sky and the sign "Mission Accomplished". America the beautiful. America the invincible. . . .

Naar jeg gaar ad den gjengrodde Sti ind gjennem Skogen, skjælver mit Hjærte i en ujordisk Glæde. Jeg mindes et enkelt Sted paa Østkysten av det Kaspiske Hav hvor jeg engang stod. Der var det som her. Og Søen var stille og tung og jærngraa som nu.
Jeg gik ind gjennem Skogen. Jeg begyndte at røres til Taarer og var henrykt, jeg sa hele tiden: Gud i Himlen at jeg skulle komme hit igjen!
Som om jeg hadde været der før.
-Knut Hamsun (Under Høststjernen)
____________

Queridos Jugadores de San Lorenzo,
Seguro que se sienten tristes cómo nosotros, los hinchas hasta la muerte, por el resultado en Quito. Ha sido una semana difícil para todos, y sé que estan cansadísimos en este momento. Sólo quiero que sepan que los queremos muchísimo y que apreciamos la pelea que dan en todos los partidos. Sigue el campeonato de Argentina, y en ese torneo nos quedan partidos importantes. A todos los partidos hay que tomarlos en serio, y  sabemos que han jugado con eso en mente, con ese sentimiento durante mucho tiempo. Les pido cómo Cuervo que se sientan orgullosos de lo que han logrado, y que sigan nomás con el lindo juego de equipo del cual sabemos que son capaces ustedes, sin aflojar y sin pedir perdón por nada. A lo hecho pecho--¡No aflojen, guapos -- Dale Ciclón!
Un abrazo con dos alas negras,
Viggo.

Mellem ære og skam
Af Pia Guldager Bilde
Offentliggjort 23.05.08, © Jyllands-Posten Morgenavisen
I disse uger får 30 gram stof meningsforskellene i Danmark til at koge over, ja nærmest til at dele landet i to. »Et symbol på undertrykkelse og underkastelse« mener den ene halvdel af Danmark, mens den anden halvdel er anderledes afslappede, »Lad dog dem om det«.
Som tradition har det, at kvinder bærer tørklæde eller slør og dermed dækker (noget af) håret og måske mere af kroppen, gamle rødder - også i Vesten. Det har vi bare glemt, selv om vi stadig har rester af det i vores egen kultur, eksempelvis i form af et brudeslør! . . .

It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.
-Gustav Mahler

Bush's Endless Hypocrisy on Terror
By Robert Parry
May 21, 2008, © consortiumnews.com
Is a government guilty of terrorism if it harbors known terrorists? What should one say about a country that permits open fund-raising on behalf of a terrorist implicated in the mass killing of civilians?
What about a government that secretly arms a guerrilla army that wantonly kills and abuses civilians while seeking to overthrow an elected government? . . .

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.
-Gustav Mahler

Med succesen som kors
Af Thomas Michelsen
22. maj 2008, © Politiken
Arvo Pärt er badet i blitzlys, men han ser bestemt ikke ud til at være glad for det.
Som han sidder der i sofaen, mager og slidt, ligner komponisten mest af alt klichéen om en hellig mand, der bare længes efter at blive kroppens hylster og al denne verdens forfængelighed kvit. . . .

U.S. military pulls Quran shooter out of Iraq
May 18, 2008, © USA Today
BAGHDAD (AP) — An American sniper was removed from Iraq after he used a copy of the Quran for target practice, the military said Sunday, a day after a U.S. commander held a formal ceremony apologizing to Sunni tribal leaders. . . .

Dear Roz,
Travel safely and remember what you find. You are a flower in the wildwood.
____________

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
-Arthur Schopenhauer

Bush's Iraq War Harms US Security
By Charles V. Peña
May 15, 2008, © Consortiumnews.com
More than five years after the decision to invade Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein and impose democracy, nearly 160,000 U.S. soldiers remain there.
Despite the war’s growing unpopularity with Americans, President Bush is adamant about not setting an “artificial deadline” for withdrawing troops. . . .

It is a simple fact that all of us use the techniques of acting to achieve whatever ends we seek?Acting serves as the quintessential social lubricant and a device for protecting our interests and gaining advantage in every aspect of life. -Marlon Brando

Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all. -Soren Kierkegaard

The U.S. War on Journalists
By Amy Goodman
May 7, 2008, © truthdig.com
Sami al-Haj is a free man today, after having been imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than six years. His crime: journalism.
Targeting journalists, the Bush administration has engaged in direct assault, intimidation, imprisonment and information blackouts to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. The principal target these past seven years has been Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television network based in Doha, Qatar. . . .

¡Felicidades al Real Madrid,
nuevo campeón de España!

Apología del drama
Cuando no se lo confunde con la violencia, hace del fútbol un espectáculo hipnótico
Por Alejandro Caravario
10 de mayo de 2008, © ESPNdeportes.com
BUENOS AIRES -- "Hay que quitarle dramatismo al fútbol", suele decirse con aires de corrección política. Entiendo que es una frase preventiva, que contempla conductas radicales, sobre todo de parte de los hinchas, que derivan en episodios graves. Pero quien apedrea a un árbitro desde la tribuna o el que da una patada asesina porque va perdiendo no están aportando dramatismo sino mera violencia, un componente tóxico que no es exclusivo de las canchas. El dramatismo es otra cosa. Y hace la diferencias, muchas veces, entre un partido interesante, bien jugado, y otro inolvidable. . . .

Es libre el que vive según elige. -Manuel Machado

Book Club of Champions
By Mike Levy
April 11, 2008, © In These Times
Guizhou University sits on the outskirts of Guiyang City, the sleepy capital of China’s poorest province. Undergraduate tuition is the equivalent of $250 per term, books and housing included. A meal of pulled noodles, hot pot or sweet and sour pork runs about $1, while the soup-and-rice special in the dining hall costs a dime. The two most popular courses at the school are Mao Tse Dung Economic Thought and an early morning Kung Fu class that meets on the soccer field. . . .

La raíz de todas las pasiones es el amor. De él nace la tristeza, el gozo, la alegría y la desesperación. -Lope de Vega

They Can’t Go Home Again
With their country ravaged by Bush’s war, Iraqi refugees find the United States indifferent to their plight
By Adam Doster
April 21, 2008, © In These Times
On a rainy March morning, in a drab office complex off one of Metro Detroit’s many expressways, I met Mona and Fadi Rabban. . . .

"I would be nothing without the Russian nineteenth century . . .,"
Camus declared, in 1958, in a letter of homage to Pasternak -- one of
the constellation of magnificent writers whose work, along with the
annals of their tragic destinies, preserved, recovered, discovered in
translation over the past twenty-five years, has made the Russian
twentieth century an event that is (or will prove to be) equally
formative and, it being our century as well, far more importunate,
impinging.

The Russian nineteenth century that changed our souls was an
achievement of prose writers. Its twentieth century has been, mostly,
an achievement of poets -- but not only an achievement in poetry.
About their prose the poets espoused the most passionate opinions: any
ideal of seriousness inevitably seethes with dispraise. Pasternak in
the last decades of his life dismissed as horribly modernist and self-
conscious the splendid, subtle memoiristic prose of his youth (like
Safe Conduct), while proclaiming the novel he was then working on,
Doctor Zhivago, to be the most authentic and complete of all his
writings, beside which his poetry was nothing in comparison. More
typically, the poets were committed to a definition of poetry as an
enterprise of such inherent superiority (the highest aim of
literature, the highest condition of language) that any work in prose
became an inferior venture -- as if prose were always a communication,
a service activity. "Instruction is the nerve of prose," Mandelstam
wrote in an early essay, so that "what may be meaningful to the prose
writer or essayist, the poet finds absolutely meaningless." While
prose writers are obliged to address themselves to the concrete
audience of their contemporaries, poetry as a whole has a more or less
distant, unknown addressee, says Mandelstam: "Exchanging signals with
the planet Mars . . . is a task worthy of a lyric poet."

Tsvetaeva shares this sense of poetry as the apex of literary endeavor
-- which means identifying all great writing, even if prose, as
poetry. "Pushkin was a poet," she concludes her essay "Pushkin and
Pugachev" (1937), and "nowhere was he the poet with such force as in
the 'classical' prose of The Captain's Daughter."

The same would-be paradox with which Tsvetaeva sums up her love for
Pushkin's novella is elaborated by Joseph Brodsky in his essay
prefacing the collected edition (in Russian) of Tsvetaeva's prose:
being great prose, it must be described as "the continuation of poetry
with other means." Like earlier great Russian poets, Brodsky requires
for his definition of poetry a caricatural Other: the slack mental
condition he equates with prose. Assuming a privative standard of
prose, and of the poet's motives for turning to prose ("something
usually dictated by economic considerations, 'dry spells,' or more
rarely by polemical necessity"), in contrast to the most exalted,
prescriptive standard of poetry (whose "true subject" is "absolute
objects and absolute feelings"), it is inevitable that the poet be
regarded as the aristocrat of letters, the prose writer the bourgeois
or plebeian; that -- another of Brodsky's images -- poetry be
aviation, prose the infantry.

Such a definition of poetry is actually a tautology -- as if prose
were identical with the "prosaic." And "prosaic" as a term of
denigration, meaning dull, commonplace, ordinary, tame, is precisely a
Romantic idea. (The OED gives 1813 as its earliest use in this
figurative sense.) In the "defense of poetry" that is one of the
signature themes of the Romantic literatures of Western Europe, poetry
is a form of both language and being: an ideal of intensity, absolute
candor, nobility, heroism.

The republic of letters is, in reality, an aristocracy. And "poet" has
always been a titre de noblesse. But in the Romantic era, the poet's
nobility ceased to be synonymous with superiority as such and acquired
an adversary role: the poet as the avatar of freedom. The Romantics
invented the writer as hero, a figure central to Russian literature
(which does not get under way until the early nineteenth century);
and, as it happened, history made of rhetoric a reality. The great
Russian writers are heroes -- they have no choice if they are to be
great writers -- and Russian literature has continued to breed
Romantic notions of the poet. To the modern Russian poets, poetry
defends nonconformity, freedom, individuality against the social, the
wretched vulgar present, the communal drone. (It is as if prose in its
true state were, finally, the State.) No wonder they go on insisting
on the absoluteness of poetry and its radical difference from prose.

Prose is to Poetry, said Valéry, as walking is to dancing -- Romantic
assumptions about poetry's inherent superiority hardly being confined
to the great Russian poets. For the poet to turn to prose, says
Brodsky, is always a falling off, "like the shift from full gallop to
a trot." The contrast is not just one of velocity, of course, but one
of mass: lyric poetry's compactness versus the sheer extendedness of
prose. (That virtuoso of extended prose, of the art of anti-
laconicism, Gertrude Stein, said that poetry is nouns, prose is verbs.
In other words, the distinctive genius of poetry is naming, that of
prose, to show movement, process, time -- past, present, and future.)
The collected prose of any major poet who has written major prose --
Valéry, Rilke, Brecht, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva -- is far bulkier than
his or her collected poems. There is something equivalent in
literature to the prestige the Romantics conferred on thinness.

That poets regularly produce prose, while prose writers rarely write
poetry, is not, as Brodsky argues, evidence of poetry's superiority.
According to Brodsky, "The poet, in principle, is 'higher' than the
prose writer . . . because a hard-up poet can sit down and compose an
article, whereas in similar straits a prose writer would hardly give
thought to a poem." But the point surely is not that writing poetry is
less well paid than writing prose but that it is special -- the
marginalizing of poetry and its audience; that what was once
considered a normal skill, like playing a musical instrument, now
seems the province of the difficult and the intimidating. Not only
prose writers but cultivated people generally no longer write poetry.
(As poetry is no longer, as a matter of course, something to
memorize.) Modern performance in literature is partly shaped by the
widespread discrediting of the idea of literary virtuosity; by a very
real loss of virtuosity. It now seems utterly extraordinary that
anyone can write brilliant prose in more than one language; we marvel
at a Nabokov, a Beckett, a Cabrera Infante -- but until two centuries
ago such virtuosity would have been taken for granted. So, until
recently, was the ability to write poetry as well as prose.

In the twentieth century, writing poems tends to be a dalliance of a
prose writer's youth (Joyce, Beckett, Nabokov . . . ) or an activity
practiced with the left hand (Borges, Updike . . . ). Being a poet is
assumed to be more than writing poetry, even great poetry: Lawrence
and Brecht, who wrote great poems, are not generally considered great
poets. Being a poet is to define oneself as, to persist (against odds)
in being, only a poet. Thus, the one generally acknowledged instance
in twentieth-century literature of a great prose writer who was also a
great poet, Thomas Hardy, is someone who renounced writing novels in
order to write poetry. (Hardy ceased to be a prose writer. He became a
poet.) In that sense the Romantic notion of the poet, as someone who
has a maximal relation to poetry, has prevailed; and not only among
the modem Russian writers.

An exception is made for criticism, however. The poet who is al