real things

you can find truth
in the peel of an orange.
can read about it on the back
of cereal boxes.
everything is truth.

reality
is what days look like
(but without the
fog.)
in reality
voices
swell and sound waves
do not cross
anymore.

this is reality.
it's not cloaked in lace,
not eden.
that's the truth.

ain't workin' for the man no mo'

I got "laid off" today. Not really that surprised. I do, afterall, work in the fast-paced and adrenaline-pumping temporary worker industry. I already called my Temp Agent and she has two possible positions for me, so that seems alright, we'll see how it goes. I just hope I find something soon because I have bills to pay and an epic journey to save for. Maybe I'll find a job working on the railroad. I'd be overwhelmed and overmatched but I think I could do it. I guess I have some phone calls to make.

This job uncertainty is reason I cannot wait to go back to school. Now I just need to finish and send off those applications. And that there is what this weekend will be dedicated to.

By the way, I'm totally blaming President-elect Obama for my job loss. Look at that, elect a socialist and I get fucked. This obviously proves capitalism is the only model for success

....

a new day

america. you feel new. sure, everything is the same on the surface. i came to work today like i have for the past few months. and i still have some of the same worries. but you feel renewed. rejuvenated. there is promise. it may not deliver fully. but things have changed forever.

poem

dear jim
on sidewalks
no one treads.
wolves and pumpkin
smashers creep.

dear jim
it is 3:15.
all day
has been office gossip
and top 40 radio.
neither remind me of you.

i sit in the bathroom
and let the absurdities
of reality
fall.

dear jim
it is no time
for watch-making.
niceties are an
angry sea.
i drown.
my eyelids,
replete with salt,
sting and i
sing.

we are sailors
and horizons
leave us
affluent.

dear jim
there is a ship
sinking in port.
it means the
most to
me.

Keepin' the flame alive

gray day

it makes me feel such a specific feeling. I don't know what that feeling is but it is detailed and intricate. I feel enclosed which sometimes makes me feel claustrophobic. gray makes it seem like we are in a bubble and all trudging through the day together. it feels like camaraderie

blue days makes me feel open and unending. that too can be overwhelming but mostly it is freeing.

today I am feeling a bit anxious. I don't know what color day that is.

Obama on Urban Policy

per Gotham Gazette

"...[T]he Obama platform explicitly states that cities should be seen not as the problem but as the solution. But he means the metropolitan regions, not the central cities. With this in mind, his specific solutions include: creation of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank funded to the tune of $10 billion over 10 years; regional clusters for economic innovation; business incubators; workforce training; and green technology and green jobs.

Obama's platform still offers something for the older central cities. In housing and community development, areas of considerable concern to central cities like New York, Obama would restore rent subsidies and public housing operating funds that were cut under the George W. Bush administration - actions that might help the
New York City Housing Authority balance its budget and prevent privatization. He would restore and increase Community Development Block Grant funding and create 20 "Promise Neighborhoods" that comprehensively deal with poverty. The Obama platform supports homeland security and community policing but requires police to be attentive to issues of accountability and brutality. Broader economic policies such as increasing the minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credit are also listed as part of Obama's urban policy.

Obama addresses the "livability of cities"-- particularly public health and environmental concerns -- by calling for efforts to combat inefficient low-density suburban sprawl through "smart growth" around higher density urban centers. Smart growth has been a major goal of urban planning professionals in the nation.

"Our communities will better serve all of their residents," says the Obama campaign, "if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives." This could lead to federal support for recent efforts by the New York City Department of Transportation to improve the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. In the Senate, Obama sponsored the
Healthy Places Act requiring federal agencies to evaluate the health impacts of urban policies."


I've posted Obama's policy stances because not only is his candidacy the one I am most interested in but also, his proposals and viewpoints on urban policy are much more aligned to what I believe is how a city should be handled. His proposals (or policy positions) are progressive, intelligent, and empathetic. Predictably, McCain offers more of the same program-slashing and budget-cutting of generic Republican ideology. There is no doubt that under a McCain administration cities and their inhabitants, particularly low income residents, would be slapped in the face and forgotten, much like the record of the Bush administration and any Republican administration since the inception of the Great Society programs under Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson.

yesterday evening i smoked a cigarette for the second time in nearly two weeks. my fingers are not yellowed anymore. i'm sure they will be soon. i stepped out on the backporch where rain had cautiously been collecting all day long. it wasn't frozen, it is only October afterall, but it was close to it. (once the temperature gets to a certain low degree things might as well be frozen, i will die just as much at 40 F.) i lit my smoke and smelt the air. it was devoid of scent. it was winter air. i had a premonition of snow. not nice heartland snow or quiet adirondak snow but dirty snow, snow that is old within a day. it wasn't depressing. i wasn't upset. i accepted the automotive trails in the crisp white with solemnity. i thought of manhattan. and walking on a silent downtown street through sneaking snow; of coming up out of the 34th St A station and seeing the empire state building at the top of the stairs, surrounded by a flock of snowflakes. i thought of brooklyn and waking up to heaps of snow, henry st was like courier and ives and i thought i was in old brooklyn, walt whitman may have been on the banks of the east river at that moment. and i thought of amsterdam and prins hendirkade and wandering, stoned, in late december as the first european snow of my life fell. after all this thinking i felt warm. eventhough i knew that all those other snows that i spent alone were not wasted i knew last night that i wouldn't be cold in the next snow and all snows that will follow.

how to stay positive

1. read poems throughout the day
2. find books that I want to read
3. look at a map of the United States
4. think about going home and being in love
5. read an urbanism essay
6. find something fun to do in the evening
7. figure out what to cook for dinner
8. traverse the avenues of self-improvement
9. reform and adjust age-old behavorial habits
10. talk to and get in contact with people I like

a poem for going and being gone

snow did not come in this early month.
fog masked the morning.
it was cold
and I saw my breath
in this small town.
it was the first year outside of
my youth.
tears froze on my cheek.

you left in a flurry
of corporate phraseology
and complacency.
my mind followed you-
trailed you,
I was the bloodhound.
you were beaten
and smiling.

we broke promises
and that is alright.
where the winter does not come
you will go.
I will meet you there.

Vertical Farm Going Up in Singapore

[via ecofriend]


"Eco-minded architecture firm TR Hamzah & Yeang, has come up with a skyscraper design for Singapore, dubbed the EDITT (Ecological Design In The Tropics) Tower."

"855 square meters of the area of this tower will be covered with solar panels that will generate enough energy to fulfill about 40% of its energy demands. The designers will also be trying to include an energy plant in the skyscraper that will convert human sewage into biogas. Another fascinating feature included is the ability to remove and add walls and floors according to demands."

"Approximately, half of the surface area of the tower will be covered with organic local vegetation. The building will have its own rain water harvesting and gray-water systems that will not only provide water for the vegetation but also for toilet flushing. "

This is good. One of the reasons that food prices are high is due to transportation costs. Also, this is interesting because it finally allows for the rural and urban to integrate. The age-old divide between these two demographic and lifestyle sets is turned on its head and used not only as an innovative food source but also as an example of how to be responsible architects.

It's a shame that America can't get their act together and bring this sort of headline-grabbing innovation back to our shores, instead we're being shown up by a city-state.

the continuity of my moods

so I have a cold. it's not very serious. I make it seem like it's much more serious than it actually is. either because I am a wuss (probably) or because I like the attention (most definitely.) and today it is gray outside. and when I came down stairs this morning to go to work the streetlamps were still on and they were casting a glow off the pavement. it had been raining all night. and it was drizzling then. I like the weather to match my mood. it's like finding the right song to play on a 5 minute drive. it just needs to match. this idea of having my stimuli match my mood is the continuity of a mood. sometimes it can have a detrimental effect. if I'm nervous and there is continuity I might just stay nervous. but usually, when there is continuity I am happy. not necessarily because my mood is bright. but because my life and the life that surrounds me is in sync.

a poem - autumn in five parts

autumn,
creeping,
robber of heat
thief of sky lights that
break into dinner windows.
twisting locks not open
but closed.
for winter good.
for cold good.

autumn I love thy name.
you are a stolid
iron-plated morning.
I am downcast in your
drizzle
(and I like it.)
I listen to slow guitars
at slower bars.
I eat.
fast.

autumn does not rhyme with
my style.
does not jive with
my handshake.
brings white wine
when the occasion
calls for red
or even blush!
sleeps in past the alarm,
borrows my books
steals my poems
sneaks in through
the cracked door.

autumn smells.
so does spring.
but spring smells
like
being born.
autumn smells like
orange.
and fleeting birds.
and grade school.
and pig-tailed girls
who giggle
and giggle.
and cry in secret.

autumn is a hard time
to be alive
or dead.
it's purgatory.
I don't have a chance to make it right.
I will burn and burn and burn
on through january
until april drops her rain.
until days are new
again.



oh, and like sam cooke said...a change is gonna come, yes it is

I'm ready

something to remember

a great quote by former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

“I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”


amen.

this won't become a habit

but here's some tidbits on the two of my most impassioned interests

Election: These are the most current poll numbers per The Note, take them with a grain of salt though, polling doesn't always accurately reflect the way people vote in the privacy of the booth.

National Polls:

'WSJ/NBC: Obama 49, McCain 43

CNN: Obama 53, McCain 45

CBS (a tighter race): Obama 47, McCain 43

From the Battleground States:

The rest of the numbers from Time/CNN:
Ohio: Obama 50, McCain 47
Indiana: McCain 51, Obama 46
New Hampshire: Obama 53, McCain 45
North Carolina: Obama 49, McCain 49
WI: Obama 51, McCain 46 '

and...

the Economy:

it sucks, it will rebound, no one knows when or how....maybe a new new deal?

late to the game

Well, I'm converted. Actually, I was never a non-believer, just more of an uninterested and cautious bystander. Last night we listened to two shows about television. We sat at the dining room table and listened and laughed, then layed in bed and listened and laughed some more. It felt good to be entertained like Americans used to be, listening to people tell stories about how Americans are entertained now. I felt like we were antiques that have worn very well with age. Or like two people grasping for something that once was and actually getting a grip on it.

sometimes, for all times

I have a propensity to not finish things. I start a project, get very excited about it, and then it just gets consumed in my excitement for something new. I'm afraid that I won't complete my applications for graduate school. I'm afraid I will do so poorly on the GRE that I won't be able to go where I want. These things cannot happen. Not only does the completeness of my future depend on them, but now I'm responsible for someone else as well. And I'm thrilled about that responsibility. The burden lays on me and that is what I need to actually get things done.

Outside of the responsibility for my future studies, the relationship that I am in is not only filled with extreme love but also inspiration. I've known that I want to be involved in social urban affairs and community development for some time now but not until recently have I been able to define my ideals so pointedly.

I want to learn about the ways a city works (and fails) so that I can go to communities within the city and teach people there how to fix the problems themselves. I do not want to bulldoze a neighborhood, I want to re-seed it and give the watering cans to the people. I want to help create a sense of community by providing an open and public space where people can congregate for political and social events, I want the sidewalk to be safe and alive, I want to help small and local business grow and prosper by providing not only business-related incentives but also by providing incentives for consumers, I want to create affordable housing so that once the community begins to prosper the people who are the community don't have to leave due to increasing rents and high-priced goods/development. I want there to be amenities that are reachable by foot and bicycle, and for the amenities that are not, I want to develop infrastructure that allows for inexpensive bus rapid transit that is efficient and for everyone's use. Ultimately, I want to re-weave the urban fabric of America that has gone unwashed and that has decayed over the past 40 years.

I think that these things are achievable for our society and that I can be one of the people to help acheive them. I might be able to do it alone; that is, go to graduate school, get my degree, find the right organization and begin. However, I don't want to do it alone. I never did want that. I've always wanted a partner who has the passion that I do and the ambition to put the passion into practice. I've thought about working and loving with someone who can be the left hand to my right and who can add something new and important to an aspect of a problem that I didn't know existed. As independent as I am and as much as I want to venture into this world with nothing but my own mind, I want and need the support of someone else; especially someone else as impassioned and excited as myself.

If capitalism has taught me anything, it's that sometimes you don't know you want something until it shows up right in front of you. Sometimes you turn your head and keep walking.

Sometimes you keep your sights aligned and just get lucky.

a song for all times

"...and the road's still long but you come along
and you hold my hand and you understand..."

my dutch life

oh, the lives one leads...

Study: Men with traditional views on gender roles earn more

Gender Roles and Pay Scale

"The study found that men with traditional views on the gender role in the society made an average of about $8,500 more annually compared to their more “modern-thinking” men. The same situation occurred in the case of couples who both tended to view the ideal place for a woman as the home. They had a significant earning advantage over those who disagreed. "

do they make more because these type of men tend toward industries that are male-dominated?

Regardless, I'd rather be egalitarian and poor than keep a housewife who doesn't think for herself.

Imperial Ambitions: Privatize 'dat shizz

Georgia negotiates $750m IMF loan

"The IMF has agreed in principle to offer financial help to Georgia amid concerns that its growth will be seriously hampered by the recent war.

The IMF said its loan would 'help sustain the confidence of markets and investors by supporting policies that will ensure continued macroeconomic stability and promote the recovery of private sector investment and economic growth.'"

This is what imperialism looks like. The West doesn't send fleets of ships filled with guns and soliders anymore (well, not that often atleast), instead we send huge sums of money that are to be spent based on a certain set of conditions that are set to a very particular ideology. In the case of the IMF (and World Bank) this ideology is privatization. By divesting out of the State and investing in the private sector, huge sums of money are to be made. The powerful do not benefit nearly as much when the supposedly 'corrupt and ineffficent' state are running public services, eg. healthcare.

While privatization boosts the GDP of a nation, the money that is boosting the GDP is coming from foreign investors and taking the power of commerce away local entrepreneurs. Also, in this World Bank research paper, the authors mention that state solidarity helps fend off conflicts. It can only be inferred then that privatization fragments a society and does not help maintain national solidarity in the face of an internal threat, thus keeping it in the conflict trap.

As far as the IMFs role goes though; imperialism is the mode of operation and conditionality is a large aspect of that mode. By lending money that can only be spent certain (ideological) ways, the IMF aims to 'help', so long as the West gets an economic ally, a.k.a. a state with cheap labor wages and a new market to sell export goods on.

thoughts and another poem

sometimes I hate that I write poems. as if I have nothing better to do? as if there is catharsis in only writing a few lines of words arranged in specific order to elicit a certain feeling? sometimes I wish the feeling would just beat it; get out the door and walk away. life would be easier if you didn't feel. but it would be boring. to completely contradict myself though, feeling is the only thing that keeps me moving. my ideals and me are constructed based around being affected; by injustice, by beauty, by horror, by camaraderie, by fragmentation. so if I didn't feel I wouldn't be me, but the feeling is so strong sometimes I feel empty, therefore a lack of feeling. I am just a bizarre carousel, aren't I?

anyway, the poem...it's untitled as of yet

because I say what I am
I say less
than you know.
to say is not thinking
but living.
autumn is my
worst nostalgia
and august 
my nightmare.
when heat does not rise
these days lay down.
i have been standing three months
straight.
we are not the best,
i have no such pride.
we are the best that we know
though.
what else is there
but to know what you know
and ignore the rest?

this time, every time

i want to forget about time,
all the time,
because it brings me down,
most of the time.
that's a lot of time
(not really,
never enough.)

my watch is not time,
i am.
and so are your eyes.
in them i am lost,
and time -
oh
forget it.



this one is poem two of my new book called '(because there is no story about you, only oral histories and folk tales)'

Dear Hillary

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Shocking (not really)

Here's another book I would love to read.
The Shock Doctrine: Rise of Disaster Capitalism




From listening to the authors, Naomi Klein, interview on Alternative Radio this afternoon it seems that the book is about how neo-liberal politicians have taken advantage of different kinds of disasters (Hurricane Katrina, fall of the USSR, etc...) to implement neo-liberal policies without opposition. When the disaster area is at it's weakest, privatization and pro-corporate policy can be ushered in without protest because of recovery efforts; Klein, from what I'm hearing in her interview, seems like an incredibly smart woman and the book looks really well researched. The historical examples she makes reference to are things I need further explanation in. I guess it's time to stop talking about it and get the book.

See related article in The Nation

interior design doesn't always work

when you're overwhelmed and the things of life are in disarray, neatly making your bed does not ease the rest of the clutter.

a snippet to make hearts beat

here's an excerpt from a poem by Gary Fincke called The Sorrows

"In the pantry,
Among pickled beets and stewed tomatoes, were dark, honeyed liquids,
The vinegar and molasses sipped from tablespoons for sorrows
So regular they spoke of them as laundry to be smoothed by the great iron
Of faith which sets creases worthy of paradise."


my oh my I think I've died. those lines, to quote a fair lady, makes me knees weak

bang bang bang

Felice Brothers - Frankies Gun

heed this advice young men and women of the world

"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body..."

I may try and look the part and I can try and grow a long old graybeard and write words without borders and rule but when all is said and done, Whitman always says it best.

barclay and new york and me

I was at the South Street Seaport, watching all the tourists and listening to their European tongues and I saw him standing up against a door. I debated with myself for about 5 minutes before I walked up to him and asked if I could take his picture. He kindly replied that I could and afterwards, as I was thanking him for the photo, we started talking. We talked for 45 minutes about his life and my life and what he has learned over his 84 years on earth. Being filled with his life made me feel not like I was on the top of the world looking around at everyone else but that I was the world itself, holding everyone on it inside of me. The wisdom I was imparted with is invaluable and his story and his blue blue eyes are something I cannot forget. 

and just before Barclay's and my path crossed, I saw this on the 2 train

New Park at the Cohoes Falls

New Public Park in the area!!
as per Troy Record

"Area residents now have a new park to view the beauty of the Cohoes falls, the second largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River.

Spanning 1,000 feet across the Mohawk River, the falls created the large backdrop to the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, officially opening the new Falls View Park which is located adjacent to the hydroelectric plant on land owned by Brookfield Renewable Power."

This is great news. I'll be very happy to visit this new park and see what they've done. A good public space with a good view is always welcome.



Hopefully they have something at the park about the Mastadon skeleton that was found under the falls in 1866. Some interesting history will really spice up space. Hopefully this new park helps Cohoes resurge through it's depressed post-industrialism and make something interesting out of the great architecture, gridded streets, and history that they have.

oh, and here's a map of how to get there on your bicycle from downtown Albany

Oil Goes Up Up Up

Oil rose $6/barrel yesterday. Keep going up! We're close to the tipping point where people can't afford to drive anymore and have to take public transport; the only way people will realize that cars are not the only option in the future of transportation is when they can't afford to drive their bohemoths anymore.

Last night I was in Carland (Clifton Park center) and me and Jim were playing frisbee in the parking lot (because what other public space do we have?) and it was really enjoyable to watch the reactions of the people in cars who had no idea what to do with people moving around, on foot, outside of their car.

Eventhough I bought gasoline for $3.68/gallon I'm still disappointed that it's below $4. Although, maybe this will give local and regional transportation agencies time to prepare for the huge influx of riders when gasoline goes back up. I really just hope that everyone doesn't forget that this price slump is temporary and we need to figure out a viable way to get around other than using automobiles at single occupancy.

I want this book

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/garden/07books.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

It's about the authors personal search for authenticity. That very idea has been rolling around my head for a few years now. How am I authentic? Am I authentic? What does that even mean and does it matter? Not that I think I will be satiated after I read this book but it will be an interesting insight to what someone else thinks about the subject.

related/unrelatedly, last night some hip girl acosted me in my car. since I can't defend myself I willfully submitted...good choice.

Community and The Vine

"The purpose of The Vine is to rethink some of the underlying principles about the nature of community...Within each of us is an innate desire for a sense of connectedness - relationship - community. The places we create will either enhance or diminish this sense of community...The Vine is a growing network of creative people-architects, builders, planners, anthropologists, philosophers, artists, visonaries- innovative thinkers who gather to examine the nature of community and explore ways to change it for the better"

www.thevineconference.com

I love this

More About People
by Ogden Nash

When people aren't asking questions
They're making suggestions
And when they're not doing one of those
They're either looking over your shoulder or stepping on your toes
And then as if that weren't enough to annoy you
They employ you.
Anybody at leisure
Incurs everybody's displeasure.
It seems to be very irking
To people at work to see other people not working,
So they tell you that work is wonderful medicine,
Just look at Firestone and Ford and Edison,
And they lecture you till they're out of breath or something
And then if you don't succumb they starve you to death or something.
All of which results in a nasty quirk:
That if you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't have to work.

bikes and discontents

so I went to the bike rescue last night.

I really need to find a bike I love.
I don't love my bike. I like it.

but that's not enough.

hot town, summer in the city

...back of my neck feeling dirty and gritty.






going to the city for the weekend! talking and crashing into strangers will be stimulation overload.


today in washington park was stimulation overload.
I laid in green grass and felt bugs on my fingers.
I climbed a tree and cut up my arms.
I kissed a cute girl.
I forgot I existed.

I do exist!

poetry morning

it's a little early for miles' bitches brew but when it's put to a poem by frank o'hara I can't help but feel like a happy drunk slipping, and then catching himself, saving my tender knees for another cut-up night.

take it or leave it

I think when I made this I liked the way it looked and what it meant. And I still like the way it looks and what it means but in every new context it means something else. Thinking about time, I imagine things been less complex in the past but really they were just as complex and intricate and I wavered in the wind then too. This stencil got washed away by the UvA maintenance crew; it's bittersweet. I would love for it to have lasted forever but being washed away is the nature of the medium. Impermanence seems to fit the words I sprayed, in them things feel complete and incomplete at the exact same time.

A Force Field of Art

Rem Koolhaas, I love you and loathe you at the exact same time.

[via Life Without Buildings]

"Koolhaas will transform an industrial complex in the Italian city for the Prada Foundation, whose director says the project’s goal is “to create a force field in which all artistic languages might converge and radiate energies that reach beyond the walls containing them into the urban context.”

This seems like a cool idea but how exactly will the structure 'radiate...into the urban context?' The reality of the architecture is that the building looks more like a military complex than an open and public space. I just wish that Koolhaas would take the people living around and outside the building into account as much as he takes into account those who will actually be using it.

Two Characters in Search of a Country Song

buying veggies

kisses across america
an afro in merriam-webster, of course
the cutest picture. ever.

real emotional trash

for once in my life, written and verbal communication are not getting the job done. is there another way that I don't know about?

(I think I know another way and I have not been succeeding)

GM Takes Huge Hit, Sale of SUVs Plummeted

It was reported today that GM suffered $15.5 billion losses over the past quarter.


"It...included $1.3 billion worth of write-offs because of a decline in the value of GMAC Financial Services' portfolio of trucks and sport utility vehicles. GM owns 49 percent of GMAC, which has suffered big losses when leases end and it tries to sell the now-unpopular vehicles at depressed prices."


GM is the U.S.' biggest car supplier and with these recent failings, Toyota has the possibility of leading the market. Considering the huge amount of money that GM had to write-off for their SUVs and trucks losing value, Toyota and other fuel-efficient car markers have a chance to use the falling GM stock as leverage to gain ground.

Even though gas prices have recently(over the past two weeks) maintained stability, bicycle use is still increasing. From a Reuters Report, per Laurence O'Sullivan: "Giant, the Taipei-based maker of international bicycle brands such as Boulder, Yukon and Iguana, is reaping the profits. The company, which produced 5.5 million bikes in 2007, is expected to pull in $1 billion in sales this year, up 10 percent.”


These different pressures being put on companies like GM makes one wonder long it will takethe American car manufacturer to start designing and manufacturing cars like these for Americans:


(Ford Fiesta, 63.6 MPG, Euro Release Only)

Executive Power Curtailed

Per the New York Times

"President Bush’s top advisers must honor subpoenas issued by Congress, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in a case that involves the firings of several United States attorneys but has much wider constitutional implications for the two branches of government.

“The executive’s current claim of absolute immunity from compelled Congressional process for senior presidential aides is without any support in the case law,” Judge John D. Bates ruled in United States District Court here."

Finally some restoration of the power of the Constitution!

Even though there is always a struggle over the balance of power between our three branches of government, the past eight years have been especially damaging to the system of checks and balances. President Bush's use of signing statements to circumvent certain aspects of bills brought to his desk has eroded the rule of law governing all citizens, including those in the executive branch.

Going further than the signing statements and invoking Richard Nixon, the Bush White House has repeatedly used executive privilege as a way out of answering to the deeds they have committed. This ruling by Judge Bates, a 2001 Bush appointee, re-establishes, albeit "very limited," an important detail to the system of checks and balances and allocates lost power back to Congress.

While the history of power struggle amongst the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government has been raging since the United States' founding, seeing such people as Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, and Harriet Miers brought in front of a Congressional committee to answer for their disregard of the rule of law will be particularly satisfying.

people friendly san fran

poem

sent with me, letters
make their date.
i am on time,
on fog,
i roll spokes.
you ain't a saint.
green is your color.
july is alive in
our street shadow.
breathless i am left,
your breasts are letters,
q and z,
hidden until adjectives,
shyly,
reveal them.
you've conquered stoops
and fire escapes.
i walk.
and i walk.

seeing

I have seen.
so have many.
animals see me.
a white skunk aims to be seen.
the blind possum has never seen so many things
and never will see me.
forget me and this poem.
I am a wavering leaf
in thunderstorm wind,
a frantic observer of you.
you who have seen,
do not see me.
see the wind that stands me outright;
an independence day flag.

people will be seen there
and it will be alright.
pride fills every belly of every beer-bellied man,
and this will be no exception.
see the shadowed sky.
feel and taste and smell and hear it too,
but please make it seen.

see each other as nothing, everything,
as yourself.
see me in my blue jeans and feathered hat;
I will see you in yours.
if you visit a zoo,
stop to see the animals.
do not touch though.

you as a paint palette

I.

your typical eyes are not mirrors here.
if you were true blue you'd be gray.
color however is an ankle-deep pond.
(I've spent whole summers fishing it!)

II.

you may be more than the sum of your colors
if I were calculating
or accomplished at arithmetic.

III.

when the air is brown
my face is red—
color is not as shallow
as I once said.



-spring 2008

touch

do you know the tender touch?
did you know that touch is touch
(and it feels good?)
I did not know either.
I did not know myself.
myself is not of touch;
myself, tender like a razor,
feels good.
I did not know that
neither sight nor touch
knows not one,
but all.
there is no good,
just is.
I did not know that rivers flow
uphill sometimes.
some they ripple, some decay,
in others nothing sinks.
the water, unstill, one can touch;
cannot hold.
they told me the brink of war is not of touch.
that death is not of touch.
the brink of war one cannot feel.
death, I do not feel you,
but touch, there you are.


-june 2008

rain poem 1

the water I run in
is the water I am in
and is in me.
I flow in threadbare centers of cities
and grow moss in mountain cracks.
air surrounds me and passes through me,
I wish it were not so cold.
I wish I could be this cold.

I am futile, spitting at all umbrellas.
feet are not my mode;
it is the air in which I mingle.
brother fog escorts this morning
and he is myself and snow—I do not know the form that I will take.
my nature is undetermined.
I am of gravity.
I am unrelenting and spry.
I am of gravity.

golden day come

all I want is blue skies
instead of you
bruised my eyes;
what I want is all.
sometimes the bridge is up
and I think of swimming
in the morning
I wink and am thinking
that you are not an exciting color.
olive green, probably.
I own many green shirts,
I like to dress for the revolution.
I like to look
but my sight is poor,
the cool fog is a thief or the bank
insured my legs for all the walking,
not my fingers for all the sounds I write, all the words I speak
do not dig sharply in my ear for gold or definition
is constraining! I want us to wear
no wordy handcuffs 'round our wrists and drown
every dictionary you know
that I still love your glow
but today I want atmosphere
still and blue.

old tongue, new ears

I've been speaking spanish to myself
more often than usual.
waking up in the morning
with arriba! as encouragement
is foggy and fresh.
I've never seen a spanish town
with spanish architecture,
(neither of which I know anything about,)
but the language is slippery and warm
and the city air is sangria.
I only know ten or so words though;
even my pronunciation is out of key.
I wonder what I would sound like to a set of
new ears?