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TheNewVerse.News
Today's News . . . Today's Poem
The New Verse News
presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
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Sunday, May 28, 2023
CHAT GPT
Saturday, May 27, 2023
WANTED: THE MAN IN THE WHITE SHIRT AND BLUE PANTS
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The National Park Service is seeking information on a man who interacted with a newborn bison calf, which it said had to be euthanized after it was rejected by its herd. Credit: Hellen Jack, The New York Times, May 24, 2023 |
Friday, May 26, 2023
NOT QUITE SYNONYMS
in American Sign Language
is exactly the same as the sign
for Satan, according to my deaf
informants at the Florida School
for the Deaf and the Blind
in St. Augustine. The etymology
of that name-sign may have something to do
with the visual similarity (deaf people
are intensely visual, after all) between
the letters in Satan and the letters in Santis,
or it may have something to do
with the similarity of their policies–
for example, their shared affinity
for burning, and also their preference
for darkness and the benighted
over the light of day and the being fully
awake. Bottom line, if you ever happen
to eavesdrop on some deaf people
animatedly signing about Ron DeSantis,
it would be a forgivable and understandable mistake
if you thought they were talking about Satan,
because although they're not quite synonyms
they are unmistakably homonyms in ASL.
Thursday, May 25, 2023
OH, TO BELONG
I want to get on that Russia-list.
To be among those who can’t go to Moscow—
would be so Chekhovian, bittersweet
not to see the Cyrillic sights, or trade in
Gazprom futures, or pass gas in Red Square.
Here in the Times is a list of my peeps, my peers—
the Jews, the odd, the Kleptocrat wannabes,
the comedians, the gays, the left-wingers, a few right
who despise George Santos, his lies which
make them queasy, though wonder at how easy.
Some who grew up in Brighton, or 108th in Queens—
and here a Huckabee from Arkansas,
notorious for lying herself.
And others, much kinder, smarter—
actors, heiresses, entrepreneurs, free-thinkers
who submit clever Shouts to The New Yorker,
most never to be heard
except for an occasional squint
through that imperious monocle
All of us who would have been
red diaper-babes once upon a time
whose mothers never lived to see the day
our names had made the Russia-list
in The New York Times.
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
LIKE A HURRICANE
She blew in like a Hurricane
A river deep A mountain high
She ditched Ike Took over the mike
Blew our minds Broke our hearts
Tina Turner knew first hand
What love’s got to do with it
She told us what we needed
Knew what we wanted
Tina stamped her feet Released her hips
Danced like unleashed wind
She defied age Demanded respect
Broke the rules Exposed the fools
Tina wore Stiletto heels Spangled dresses
Split sexy skirts Spiky blonde hair
She even taught Mick Jagger
How to dance swivel shake
Tina shouted loud Made us proud
Said we’d better be good to her
She will keep on like a Hurricane
Turning Burning Churning
Tina was our Queen of Rock ‘n Roll
Simply the best Better than all the rest
CONSERVATISM
Conservatism
(n) commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation. (Oxford Languages 2023).
I wonder what we’re clinging to
a deluge of half-sunken flags
a little boy shot dead, his hand
forever blue in an ice cream cooler
his brother, the driver, wishes
he’d just trusted his sixth sense,
not gone so late, recalls seeing the future
suicided face of the murder-suicider
at the place on the corner that’s
supposed to be convenient,
& mom asks if it’s safe to go
to the Middle East.
I mention the latest mass shooting, not
the one in Texas or the car ramming from that weekend
a deluge of half-sunken flags
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
A PERFECT SLING
A 13-year-old Michigan boy who used a slingshot to save his 8-year-old sister from an attempted kidnapping said he was “freaking out” and simply reached for something that could stop the attack. “So I grab my slingshot and open the window and I grab two things—a marble and a gravel rock or something,” Police said Owen struck the 17-year-old assailant in the head and chest, and his sister was able to get away. —AP, May 19, 2023 |
Monday, May 22, 2023
HEADLINES
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“Springtime” Claude Monet 1886 Fitzwilliam Museum (University of Cambridge), Cambridge, UK |
Sunday, May 21, 2023
TWISTING THE DIAL
Down Radio Age’s Memory Lane of Childhood
Back when it’s nothing to scoot home alone—
a mile or two from school—I leave on the run—
to hear voices live bring to life Jules Verne’s
To the Center of the Earth—or pretend to be
Captain Nemo—in his 20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea. Nothing but imagination—no bot—
no screen—a few vacuum tubes—to illuminate
the colossal octopus strangling Nemo’s submarine –
or vessel boring—like a giant screw worm—
into planet’s core.
Some days I’m Buck Rogers—Others—Flash
Gordon dodging Ming the Merciless—rocketing
star to star—Back on earth—I run collie Lassie
and shepherd Rin-Tin-Tin, till my legs drop—King—
my huskie, never tires, as I play Sargeant Preston
of the Royal Canadian Mounties. You can almost
hear me in the street yell—“Stop—in the name
of the Queen!”—as King holds at bay one more
perp in snowy wilds.
Three o’clock in the afternoon and I turn
into sheriff Tennessee Jed, then Hopp Harrigan
piloting bombers over Germany. Back on ground,
I’m the Green Hornet, whose sting sends many
a gangster up river. Sundays see me as Nick Carter—
ace detective—followed by Lamont Cranston—
whose guise lets me know what evil lurks in hearts
of men—as I purge streets of crime—invisible—
but for my indelible shadow.
A lifetime ago—yet the characters—imbedded in
memory—enfolded in imagination—rise from the mists
as if from yesterday—I recall most how deeply I lose
myself in the spoken word—each syllable taking
on a life of its own—with each breath of my own—
Even beyond words—as I Toscanini—pencil in hand—
conduct a live rehearsal of Prokofiev’s Love of Three
Oranges—theme—poundingly militaristic—to radio’s
FBI, In Peace and War. Into which—come Thursday
nights—I again disappear.
Saturday, May 20, 2023
THE ULTIMATE DOT
friends say:
you will write about completely other things now
the war blanks flowers and butterflies
it blanks the old books and new plays
blanks the birds
blanks men
it blanks hunger
hungry people share their last crumbs with birds
becoming the birds themselves
disgusted to share their bread and life with occupiers
and fall into the ground as crumbs
instead of the grain
to sprout over the “i” in every staff of life
as the ultimate dot
Author’s note: Russians have no letter “i” in their alphabet.
Julia Bair is a Ukrainian poet, essayist and cultural critic writing on various topics, especially literature, fine art, cinema, and theater. Born and bred in a small town close to the Subcarpathian foothills and educated in the big city of Lviv at Ivan Franko National University, Julia travelled across Europe and lived in the USA for some years.