by George Held
Those goddamned oil-drenched dying pelicans
Are the prompt du jour for every deadbeat
Poet in the land.
Christ, pelicans have replaced grandmothers
As the hot topic for workshoppers
And other wannabes.
Poetic lamentations for those birds
Won’t help them survive any better
Than the Dodo.
Get used to them…they’re with us
For the next few decades. Turn your gaze
Elsewhere.
Besides, now that Bill Clinton recommends
Nuking the leak shut—destroying the Gulf
To save it—
There’ll be lots of photo ops of carcasses
Of pelicans, porpoises, even whales
And maybe people
To write about.
George Held has collected many of his New Verse News poems in The News Today.
___________________________________________________
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
IN OUR GARDEN OF GETHSEMENE
by Lillian Baker Kennedy
Lillian Baker Kennedy, author of Tomorrow After Night (Bay River Press, 2003) and Notions (Pudding House, 2004) practices law and lives in an old cape bordered by wild roses in Auburn, Maine. A part-time instructor at USM L-A, Kennedy is a Pushcart nominee and graduate of Stonecoast’s MFA program. Kennedy’s poetry has been anthologized, exhibited and published in numerous small presses and is forthcoming this fall in the Comstock Review and Puckerbrush Review. An interview, critical essay on poetics and some poems are available online.
_____________________________________________________
The brown pelican’s helpless
wings bare
a kind of cross.
We know that feeling
when, on our knees, we trusted,
even God, when (We -
“See. We go with them.”)
were dying; when
someone we loved
was dying.
We watched.
Piteous supplicant,
at Our Mercy.
wings bare
a kind of cross.
We know that feeling
when, on our knees, we trusted,
even God, when (We -
“See. We go with them.”)
were dying; when
someone we loved
was dying.
We watched.
Piteous supplicant,
at Our Mercy.
Lillian Baker Kennedy, author of Tomorrow After Night (Bay River Press, 2003) and Notions (Pudding House, 2004) practices law and lives in an old cape bordered by wild roses in Auburn, Maine. A part-time instructor at USM L-A, Kennedy is a Pushcart nominee and graduate of Stonecoast’s MFA program. Kennedy’s poetry has been anthologized, exhibited and published in numerous small presses and is forthcoming this fall in the Comstock Review and Puckerbrush Review. An interview, critical essay on poetics and some poems are available online.
_____________________________________________________
CHILDREN POUR LEMONADE INTO THE GULF OF MEXICO
by Sandra Ervin Adams
They cried the night they saw dying pelicans on TV.
In bed after saying prayers,
their little minds contrived a way to help.
The next day their little hands rolled lemons,
combined sour juice
with water
and sugar,
in an attempt to make a desirable drink.
They poured the mixture from a plastic pitcher,
sold it by the cupful,
told reporters of plans
to send their profits to coastal groups
benefiting birds, turtles, fish, and other sea creatures.
Youthful entrepreneurs, yes, but more so,
budding empaths who would grow
to be like their predecessors
several generations ago
who sold flowers
on street corners.
Sandra Ervin Adams lives in Onslow County, and her first chapbook was Union Point Park Poems. She is listed in A Directory of American Poets and Writers.
_____________________________________________________
They cried the night they saw dying pelicans on TV.
In bed after saying prayers,
their little minds contrived a way to help.
The next day their little hands rolled lemons,
combined sour juice
with water
and sugar,
in an attempt to make a desirable drink.
They poured the mixture from a plastic pitcher,
sold it by the cupful,
told reporters of plans
to send their profits to coastal groups
benefiting birds, turtles, fish, and other sea creatures.
Youthful entrepreneurs, yes, but more so,
budding empaths who would grow
to be like their predecessors
several generations ago
who sold flowers
on street corners.
Sandra Ervin Adams lives in Onslow County, and her first chapbook was Union Point Park Poems. She is listed in A Directory of American Poets and Writers.
_____________________________________________________
Monday, June 28, 2010
The CHENI@D:
Volume Eleven
by Bill Costley
Book CXXI: CHENEY LIKELY
[newspoem]
Dick CHENEYs daughter Liz says:
the hospitalized former VPOTUS
could go home on Mon. after receiving
meds. to treat a fluid buildup related to
his aggressive form of heart disease.
The 69-year-old VPOTUS ,
who has had 5 heart attacks,
was admitted to GWU Hospital on Fri.
after experiencing discomfort.
His last heart attack, described
as a mild one, was in Feb.
Liz CHENEY tells
"FOX News Sunday"
that her father is feeling better &
hopes to be released on Mon.
CHENEY's office says CHENEY
has received intravenous meds &
that he's "markedly improved."
Book CXXII: CHENEY DISCHARGED
[newspoem]
WASHINGTON -- Former VPOTUS CHENEY
has been discharged from GWU hospital
after his latest bout with heart-related trouble.
CHENEY was admitted to GWU Hospital on Fri.
after reporting that he wasn't feeling well. He
underwent testing & ultimately received
medication to treat a fluid buildup related to
his aggressive form of heart disease.
His office said on Sunday that the former
VPOTUS's condition has improved considerably,
& he left the hospital as expected on Mon.
CHENEY (69) has a long history of heart disease.
Book CXXIII: CHENEY’s NOFEAR™
CHENEY’s NoFear™ boggles:
“Don’t sweat it” says CHENEY,
“Steele’s in my pocket, Q-balls
safe & sound. Safer & sounder.”
What does CHENEY mean by it?
Can we decode his cryptic mind?
“What I don’t fear, I don’t doubt”
crypticizes big-daddy CHENEY,
“thanx 2 CHENEY NoFear™
America rules the whole world.”
Book CXXIV: CHENEY’s LVAD
Former VPOTUS Dick CHENEY,
battling a lifetime of cardiac disease,
hasn't decided whether/not to seek a heart transplant,
but could use the device
surgically inserted into his chest
last week as permanent therapy for his condition;
according to a source
close to the CHENEY family
& to heart surgeons familiar with the treatment.
"He has not made any decision
yet about a transplant,"
He is totally focused right now
on recuperation & rehab
with his (current device)."
[The source asked not to be named
as commenting on private matters.]
The device implanted into the former VPOTUS' chest,
known as an LVAD (left ventricular assist device)
is often described as a temporary therapy
representing a "bridge" to a transplant,
fueling speculation that CHENEY, 69,
may be on the path toward seeking a new heart.
But experts said the newest models of the device,
essentially a pump, were considered "destination therapies"
that could last for years."There are patients who have been
having a wonderful quality of life for more than 5 years already,"
said Dr. Richard J. Shemin, chief of cardiothoracic surgery
at UCLA Reagan Medical Center. "Because it's
a more modern device, smaller, more efficient,
there is a lot of enthusiasm for it."
[Shemin has no direct knowledge of CHENEY's care.]
CHENEY, who suffered
his 1st of 5 heart attacks at age 37,
announced Wed. that he'd undergone surgery
last week to insert the device.
In a statement released by his office,
he called the procedure a new phase
of "increasing congestive heart failure"
but said he believed he would soon
resume an active life.
CHENEY may not be a good candidate
for a heart transplant,
primarily because of his age (69).
Due to the scarcity of available hearts,
surgeons typically prefer to reserve them
for younger patients with a longer expected lifespan.
Factors that could rule out a transplant:
uncontrollable cancer,
multiple organ failures,
chronic infection.
Book CXXV: WHISPERING’S HEARD
Whispering’s heard
from furthest right:
"A living donor for
VPOTUS CHENEY,
a new red heart to
propel him fwd to
rightest victory..."
Who steps fwd?
bakers’ dozens of
nearly-dead Wyomen.
Book CXXVI: TE@ P@RTY W@ILS
Mad as a whumping WWWalrus
roaring at a whacky-Hatter,
CHENEY raves: “NO tea!,
NO coffee! NO caffeine!
Can’t you see, hear, heart,
audiate my fix? NO, NO
caffeine! NO caffeine!”
“No caff, you fiend?” quips
the googly-eyed Hatter,
his whacky-grin absorbing
his unnaturalized smile.
The Dormouse burbles, as
The Tea-Pot bub-bubbles, &
The Tea-Party wails w/out, &
CHENEY clutches his metal heart.
Book CXXVII: CHENEY WOULD WOOD
CHENEY dreams of publishing
a sold-wood edition of his memoirs
suitable for cold WYoming evenings
before the blazing stone fireplace:
“Hell, they don’t have to read them;
they can just be warmed to the heart
as they feel the paper burn to ash:
The First Book you burn, not read!”
A deathly smile spreads across
CHENEY’s chilly jaws prefiguring
his long-desired DC-monument.
“They will come & kneel before me!”
(he thinks), “Kneel their gratitude!”
(dreaming of grateful generations.)
Book CXXVIII: MUBARAK A GOOD FRIEND
Ex-VPOTUS Dick CHENEY called
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
a good friend & U.S. ally & urged
the Obama administration to move
cautiously as turmoil continued
to shake that nation's government.
CHENEY said the U.S. should
take measured steps in public,
suggesting too much pressure
could backfire. "There is a reason
why a lot of diplomacy is conducted
in secret, good reasons for confidentiality
in (some of) those communications;
I think President Mubarak needs to be
treated as he deserved over the years;
he has been a good friend," CHENEY said,
on the centennial of POTUS Reagan's birth,
noting it can be difficult for some
foreign leaders to act on U.S. advice
"in a visible way" without appearing
compromised in their own countries.
“The bottom line is, in the end,
whatever comes next in Egypt
is going to be determined
by the people of Egypt."
Looking markedly thinner than
during his days in Washington,
sitting throughout his remarks:
CHENEY said Mubarak helped
the U.S. get military aircraft
into the region in the 1991 Gulf War,
& committed troops to fight alongside
U.S. forces in the liberation of Kuwait.
"He's been a good man, a good friend
& ally to the United States.
We need to remember that."
About a possible outcome:
"I don't know. There comes
a time for everybody
when it's time to hang it up
& move on. That's a decision
only the Egyptians can make."
Book CXXIX: CHENEY PYRAMIDS
Pyramids stonily rise
for the CHENEY family
by CHENEY's WY house
in CHENEY Valley(tm)
where the Bozell family
& other conservative
families are choosing
CHENEY pyramids.
You can too. Contact
CHENEY.pyramid.com
Click: [Great Families]
Great conservatives
deserve great pyramids.
Book CXXX: ON OSAMA’S DEATH
A wan, drawn CHENEY
said briefly on MSNBC:
“This really is a great day
for an awful lot of people
who worked very hard
for a long time.” [QED]
Book CXXXI: FROM THE CHENEY ROLLS
“Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers
— still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received
— about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction”.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,”
CHENEY writes: “But I was a lone voice. After I finished,
POTUS Bush said: “Does anyone here agree with the VPOTUS?’
Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure
to force the Syrians to abandon their secret program,
but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007.
CHENEY’s account of the discussion
appears in his autobiography,
“In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,”
due to be published next week.
A copy was obtained by The NYT.
CHENEY’s book, pugnacious in tone
expresses little regret about many of the most
controversial decisions of the Bush administration —
casting himself as an outlier among top advisers
who increasingly took what he saw as misguided…
on national security issues. Praising Bush
as “an outstanding leader,” CHENEY
whose guarding the secrecy of internal deliberations
was a hallmark of his time in office, divulges conflicts
with the inner circle: George J. Tenet, CIA director
resigned in 2004 just “when the going got tough,”
a decision CHENEY calls “unfair to the president.”
CHENEY believes SECSTATE Powell tried to
undermine Bush by privately expressing doubts
about the Iraq war CHENEY confirms he pushed
to have Powell removed from the cabinet
after the 2004 election. “It was as though he thought
the proper way to express his views was by
criticizing administration policy to people
outside the government. His resignation
“was for the best.”
CHENEY faults former SECSTATE Rice
for naïveté in her efforts to forge a nuclear weapons
agreement with North Korea, & reports he fought
with White House advisers over softening
the POTUS’ speeches on Iraq.CHENEY
acknowledged the administration
misunderestimated the challenges in Iraq,
but he says the real blame for the violence
was with the terrorists.
CHENEY defends the Bush administration’s
decision to inflict what he called “tough interrogations”
— like the suffocation technique known as waterboarding —
— on captured terrorism suspects, saying
— it extracted information that saved lives
— & rejects calling such techniques “torture.”
In discussing the much-disputed “16 words”
about Iraq’s supposed hunt for uranium in Niger
that were included in Bush’s
2003 State of the Union address
to help justify the eventual invasion,
unlike other aides, CHENEY saw no need to apologize.
SECSTATE Rice eventually came around to his view.
“She came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk
& tearfully admitted I had been right,” he wrote.
CHENEY’s book opens with an account of his experiences
during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
when he (essentially) commanded the government’s response
from a bunker beneath the White House while Bush —
who was away hampered by communications breakdowns —
played a peripheral role. CHENEY writes the did not want
to make any formal statement to the nation that day.
“My past government experience,” CHENEY writes,
“prepared me to manage the crisis
during those first few hours on 9/11,
but I knew that if I went out and spoke to the press,
it would undermine Bush & be bad for him and for the country.
“We were at war. Our commander in chief
needed to be seen as in-charge, strong, & resolute
— as POTUS George W. Bush was.”
CHENEY appears to relish much of the criticism
heaped on him by liberals, but reveals he had
offered to resign several times as Bush
prepared for his re-election in 2004
because he feared becoming a burden
on the Republican ticket. After a few days,
however, CHENEY said that Bush
said he wanted him to stay.
In the Bush administration’s second term,
CHENEY’’s influence waned. When Bush
decided to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as SECDEF
after the 2006 midterm elections, CHENEY
said he was not given a chance to object.
CHENEY praised Obama’s support,
as a senator from Illinois, for passing a bank bailout bill
at the height of the financial crisis,
shortly before the 2008 election, but criticizes Obama’s
decision to withdraw 33,000 additional troops
he sent to Afghanistan in 2009 by September 2012,
and writes that he has been “happy to note” that
Obama has failed to close the prison
in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as he had pledged.
CHENEY’s long struggle with heart disease recurs in the book.
he wrote a letter of resignation, dated March 28, 2001,
and told an aide to give it to Bush
if he ever had a heart attack or stroke
that left him incapacitated.
And in the epilogue, CHENEY writes that
after undergoing heart surgery in 2010,
he was unconscious for weeks & had
a prolonged, vivid dream that
he was living in an Italian villa,
pacing the stone paths to get coffee & newspapers.
Book CXXXII: WHERE {CHENEY} [HID]
exVPOTUS CHENEY now
admits he hid [in a bunker]
under his DC home "behind
a massive steel door secured
by an elaborate lock, w/a
narrow connecting hallway
lined with shelves filled w/
communications equipment,"
& @ Camp David, Maryland
& wayback home in Wyoming
Click here for Volume Twelve
Bill Costley has served on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco Bay area chapter of the National Writers Union. He lives in Santa Clara, CA.
_____________________________________________________
Click here for Books XXXVII-XLVIII.
Click here for Books XLIX-LX.
Click here for Books LXI-LXXII.
Click here for Books LXXIII-LXXXIV.
Click here for Books XLIX-LX.
Click here for Books LXI-LXXII.
Click here for Books LXXIII-LXXXIV.
Book CXXI: CHENEY LIKELY
[newspoem]
Dick CHENEYs daughter Liz says:
the hospitalized former VPOTUS
could go home on Mon. after receiving
meds. to treat a fluid buildup related to
his aggressive form of heart disease.
The 69-year-old VPOTUS ,
who has had 5 heart attacks,
was admitted to GWU Hospital on Fri.
after experiencing discomfort.
His last heart attack, described
as a mild one, was in Feb.
Liz CHENEY tells
"FOX News Sunday"
that her father is feeling better &
hopes to be released on Mon.
CHENEY's office says CHENEY
has received intravenous meds &
that he's "markedly improved."
Book CXXII: CHENEY DISCHARGED
[newspoem]
WASHINGTON -- Former VPOTUS CHENEY
has been discharged from GWU hospital
after his latest bout with heart-related trouble.
CHENEY was admitted to GWU Hospital on Fri.
after reporting that he wasn't feeling well. He
underwent testing & ultimately received
medication to treat a fluid buildup related to
his aggressive form of heart disease.
His office said on Sunday that the former
VPOTUS's condition has improved considerably,
& he left the hospital as expected on Mon.
CHENEY (69) has a long history of heart disease.
Book CXXIII: CHENEY’s NOFEAR™
for Peter Bates
CHENEY’s NoFear™ boggles:
“Don’t sweat it” says CHENEY,
“Steele’s in my pocket, Q-balls
safe & sound. Safer & sounder.”
What does CHENEY mean by it?
Can we decode his cryptic mind?
“What I don’t fear, I don’t doubt”
crypticizes big-daddy CHENEY,
“thanx 2 CHENEY NoFear™
America rules the whole world.”
Book CXXIV: CHENEY’s LVAD
[newspoem based on
"Cheney's new heart device {LVAD} could be permanent"
by Kathleen Hennessey & Thomas H. Maugh II
Tribune Washington Bureau
Friday, July 16, 2010 12:00 am Updated: 10:30 pm.]
by Kathleen Hennessey & Thomas H. Maugh II
Tribune Washington Bureau
Friday, July 16, 2010 12:00 am Updated: 10:30 pm.]
Former VPOTUS Dick CHENEY,
battling a lifetime of cardiac disease,
hasn't decided whether/not to seek a heart transplant,
but could use the device
surgically inserted into his chest
last week as permanent therapy for his condition;
according to a source
close to the CHENEY family
& to heart surgeons familiar with the treatment.
"He has not made any decision
yet about a transplant,"
He is totally focused right now
on recuperation & rehab
with his (current device)."
[The source asked not to be named
as commenting on private matters.]
The device implanted into the former VPOTUS' chest,
known as an LVAD (left ventricular assist device)
is often described as a temporary therapy
representing a "bridge" to a transplant,
fueling speculation that CHENEY, 69,
may be on the path toward seeking a new heart.
But experts said the newest models of the device,
essentially a pump, were considered "destination therapies"
that could last for years."There are patients who have been
having a wonderful quality of life for more than 5 years already,"
said Dr. Richard J. Shemin, chief of cardiothoracic surgery
at UCLA Reagan Medical Center. "Because it's
a more modern device, smaller, more efficient,
there is a lot of enthusiasm for it."
[Shemin has no direct knowledge of CHENEY's care.]
CHENEY, who suffered
his 1st of 5 heart attacks at age 37,
announced Wed. that he'd undergone surgery
last week to insert the device.
In a statement released by his office,
he called the procedure a new phase
of "increasing congestive heart failure"
but said he believed he would soon
resume an active life.
CHENEY may not be a good candidate
for a heart transplant,
primarily because of his age (69).
Due to the scarcity of available hearts,
surgeons typically prefer to reserve them
for younger patients with a longer expected lifespan.
Factors that could rule out a transplant:
uncontrollable cancer,
multiple organ failures,
chronic infection.
Book CXXV: WHISPERING’S HEARD
Whispering’s heard
from furthest right:
"A living donor for
VPOTUS CHENEY,
a new red heart to
propel him fwd to
rightest victory..."
Who steps fwd?
bakers’ dozens of
nearly-dead Wyomen.
Book CXXVI: TE@ P@RTY W@ILS
Mad as a whumping WWWalrus
roaring at a whacky-Hatter,
CHENEY raves: “NO tea!,
NO coffee! NO caffeine!
Can’t you see, hear, heart,
audiate my fix? NO, NO
caffeine! NO caffeine!”
“No caff, you fiend?” quips
the googly-eyed Hatter,
his whacky-grin absorbing
his unnaturalized smile.
The Dormouse burbles, as
The Tea-Pot bub-bubbles, &
The Tea-Party wails w/out, &
CHENEY clutches his metal heart.
Book CXXVII: CHENEY WOULD WOOD
CHENEY dreams of publishing
a sold-wood edition of his memoirs
suitable for cold WYoming evenings
before the blazing stone fireplace:
“Hell, they don’t have to read them;
they can just be warmed to the heart
as they feel the paper burn to ash:
The First Book you burn, not read!”
A deathly smile spreads across
CHENEY’s chilly jaws prefiguring
his long-desired DC-monument.
“They will come & kneel before me!”
(he thinks), “Kneel their gratitude!”
(dreaming of grateful generations.)
Book CXXVIII: MUBARAK A GOOD FRIEND
[newspoem based on “Cheney Calls Mubarak a 'Good Friend’” SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – (AP)
Ex-VPOTUS Dick CHENEY called
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
a good friend & U.S. ally & urged
the Obama administration to move
cautiously as turmoil continued
to shake that nation's government.
CHENEY said the U.S. should
take measured steps in public,
suggesting too much pressure
could backfire. "There is a reason
why a lot of diplomacy is conducted
in secret, good reasons for confidentiality
in (some of) those communications;
I think President Mubarak needs to be
treated as he deserved over the years;
he has been a good friend," CHENEY said,
on the centennial of POTUS Reagan's birth,
noting it can be difficult for some
foreign leaders to act on U.S. advice
"in a visible way" without appearing
compromised in their own countries.
“The bottom line is, in the end,
whatever comes next in Egypt
is going to be determined
by the people of Egypt."
Looking markedly thinner than
during his days in Washington,
sitting throughout his remarks:
CHENEY said Mubarak helped
the U.S. get military aircraft
into the region in the 1991 Gulf War,
& committed troops to fight alongside
U.S. forces in the liberation of Kuwait.
"He's been a good man, a good friend
& ally to the United States.
We need to remember that."
About a possible outcome:
"I don't know. There comes
a time for everybody
when it's time to hang it up
& move on. That's a decision
only the Egyptians can make."
Book CXXIX: CHENEY PYRAMIDS
Pyramids stonily rise
for the CHENEY family
by CHENEY's WY house
in CHENEY Valley(tm)
where the Bozell family
& other conservative
families are choosing
CHENEY pyramids.
You can too. Contact
CHENEY.pyramid.com
Click: [Great Families]
Great conservatives
deserve great pyramids.
Book CXXX: ON OSAMA’S DEATH
A wan, drawn CHENEY
said briefly on MSNBC:
“This really is a great day
for an awful lot of people
who worked very hard
for a long time.” [QED]
Book CXXXI: FROM THE CHENEY ROLLS
Former VPOTUS Dick Cheney’s new memoir
claims he urged George W. Bush to bomb
a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007.
--NY Times, August 24, 2011 by Charlie Savage
[Reporting contributed by Julie Bosman from New York,
and Helene Cooper, Mark Landler, Mark Mazzetti
and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.]
claims he urged George W. Bush to bomb
a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007.
--NY Times, August 24, 2011 by Charlie Savage
[Reporting contributed by Julie Bosman from New York,
and Helene Cooper, Mark Landler, Mark Mazzetti
and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.]
“Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers
— still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received
— about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction”.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,”
CHENEY writes: “But I was a lone voice. After I finished,
POTUS Bush said: “Does anyone here agree with the VPOTUS?’
Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Bush chose to try diplomatic pressure
to force the Syrians to abandon their secret program,
but the Israelis bombed the site in September 2007.
CHENEY’s account of the discussion
appears in his autobiography,
“In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,”
due to be published next week.
A copy was obtained by The NYT.
CHENEY’s book, pugnacious in tone
expresses little regret about many of the most
controversial decisions of the Bush administration —
casting himself as an outlier among top advisers
who increasingly took what he saw as misguided…
on national security issues. Praising Bush
as “an outstanding leader,” CHENEY
whose guarding the secrecy of internal deliberations
was a hallmark of his time in office, divulges conflicts
with the inner circle: George J. Tenet, CIA director
resigned in 2004 just “when the going got tough,”
a decision CHENEY calls “unfair to the president.”
CHENEY believes SECSTATE Powell tried to
undermine Bush by privately expressing doubts
about the Iraq war CHENEY confirms he pushed
to have Powell removed from the cabinet
after the 2004 election. “It was as though he thought
the proper way to express his views was by
criticizing administration policy to people
outside the government. His resignation
“was for the best.”
CHENEY faults former SECSTATE Rice
for naïveté in her efforts to forge a nuclear weapons
agreement with North Korea, & reports he fought
with White House advisers over softening
the POTUS’ speeches on Iraq.CHENEY
acknowledged the administration
misunderestimated the challenges in Iraq,
but he says the real blame for the violence
was with the terrorists.
CHENEY defends the Bush administration’s
decision to inflict what he called “tough interrogations”
— like the suffocation technique known as waterboarding —
— on captured terrorism suspects, saying
— it extracted information that saved lives
— & rejects calling such techniques “torture.”
In discussing the much-disputed “16 words”
about Iraq’s supposed hunt for uranium in Niger
that were included in Bush’s
2003 State of the Union address
to help justify the eventual invasion,
unlike other aides, CHENEY saw no need to apologize.
SECSTATE Rice eventually came around to his view.
“She came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk
& tearfully admitted I had been right,” he wrote.
CHENEY’s book opens with an account of his experiences
during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
when he (essentially) commanded the government’s response
from a bunker beneath the White House while Bush —
who was away hampered by communications breakdowns —
played a peripheral role. CHENEY writes the did not want
to make any formal statement to the nation that day.
“My past government experience,” CHENEY writes,
“prepared me to manage the crisis
during those first few hours on 9/11,
but I knew that if I went out and spoke to the press,
it would undermine Bush & be bad for him and for the country.
“We were at war. Our commander in chief
needed to be seen as in-charge, strong, & resolute
— as POTUS George W. Bush was.”
CHENEY appears to relish much of the criticism
heaped on him by liberals, but reveals he had
offered to resign several times as Bush
prepared for his re-election in 2004
because he feared becoming a burden
on the Republican ticket. After a few days,
however, CHENEY said that Bush
said he wanted him to stay.
In the Bush administration’s second term,
CHENEY’’s influence waned. When Bush
decided to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as SECDEF
after the 2006 midterm elections, CHENEY
said he was not given a chance to object.
CHENEY praised Obama’s support,
as a senator from Illinois, for passing a bank bailout bill
at the height of the financial crisis,
shortly before the 2008 election, but criticizes Obama’s
decision to withdraw 33,000 additional troops
he sent to Afghanistan in 2009 by September 2012,
and writes that he has been “happy to note” that
Obama has failed to close the prison
in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as he had pledged.
CHENEY’s long struggle with heart disease recurs in the book.
he wrote a letter of resignation, dated March 28, 2001,
and told an aide to give it to Bush
if he ever had a heart attack or stroke
that left him incapacitated.
And in the epilogue, CHENEY writes that
after undergoing heart surgery in 2010,
he was unconscious for weeks & had
a prolonged, vivid dream that
he was living in an Italian villa,
pacing the stone paths to get coffee & newspapers.
Book CXXXII: WHERE {CHENEY} [HID]
exVPOTUS CHENEY now
admits he hid [in a bunker]
under his DC home "behind
a massive steel door secured
by an elaborate lock, w/a
narrow connecting hallway
lined with shelves filled w/
communications equipment,"
& @ Camp David, Maryland
& wayback home in Wyoming
Click here for Volume Twelve
Bill Costley has served on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco Bay area chapter of the National Writers Union. He lives in Santa Clara, CA.
_____________________________________________________
Sunday, June 27, 2010
A MILITARY WIFE'S SOLILOQUY
by Linda De Grand
As a good military wife, I have to ask -
Stan, Stan, how could you?
We were good. Visits short,
30 days a year give or take.
As a good military wife, I can sacrifice.
But now you’ll be on the home front 24/7.
You’re supposed to be awaaaay.
Not here on permanent leave.
As a good military wife, what am I supposed to do with you?
You eat one meal a day,
sleep four hours a night. (Don’t get any ideas……)
And run seven miles a day. Wanna make that more?
As a good military wife, I’ll pack lunch for you.
No need for gourmet treats
With your Jack-in-the-Box tastes.
Make it an all day hike.
As a good military wife
I know all about the chain of command, but,
President Obama, how could you do this to a patriot –
a patriotic wife that is.
Linda De Grand is a business and creative non-fiction writer, living in Raleigh, NC.
_____________________________________________________
with condolences to Annie McChrystal
As a good military wife, I have to ask -
Stan, Stan, how could you?
We were good. Visits short,
30 days a year give or take.
As a good military wife, I can sacrifice.
But now you’ll be on the home front 24/7.
You’re supposed to be awaaaay.
Not here on permanent leave.
As a good military wife, what am I supposed to do with you?
You eat one meal a day,
sleep four hours a night. (Don’t get any ideas……)
And run seven miles a day. Wanna make that more?
As a good military wife, I’ll pack lunch for you.
No need for gourmet treats
With your Jack-in-the-Box tastes.
Make it an all day hike.
As a good military wife
I know all about the chain of command, but,
President Obama, how could you do this to a patriot –
a patriotic wife that is.
Linda De Grand is a business and creative non-fiction writer, living in Raleigh, NC.
_____________________________________________________
Friday, June 25, 2010
TREATED AND RELEASED
by Steve Hellyard Swartz
It's easy to focus on the stories of millions of fish and birds killed in the Gulf
But what about the ones which have been treated and released?
There may not be second acts in life elsewhere
But here in America
Where the shadow of the cross serves as starting line, finishing line
Target
Where life and afterlife are as cheap as it gets
And the bullet in the chamber, the oil in the marsh, the falling safe
Serve their function as comic interludes
As in:
Take America, please
As in:
Take Chicago, please
Where 40 people were shot over the weekend
Where, in the evocatively-named Shakespeare District
A lieutenant tells the Sun-Times Media Wire that the little girl who was shot was not seriously injured.
"She'll be fine," the lieutenant said. "She just got caught in crossfire, unfortunately."
And the 1-year old whose ear was grazed by a bullet?
She'll be fine, too
Yup - treated and released
True, seven people were killed
For them there is no second act
To you seven who succumbed
Like the moribund, oil-clotted pelicans
I find it very hard to grieve for you
For what you've done
Is so very, very un-American
Steve Hellyard Swartz is Poet Laureate of Schenectady, NY. He is a frequent contributor to New Verse News. Swartz is a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee for Poetry. His poems have appeared in The Patterson Review, The Southern Indiana Review, The Kennesaw Review, and online at Best Poem and switched-on gutenberg. He is the winner of a First Place Award given by the Society of Professional Journalists for Excellence in Broadcasting. In 1990, Never Leave Nevada, a movie he wrote and directed, opened at the US Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
_____________________________________________________
It's easy to focus on the stories of millions of fish and birds killed in the Gulf
But what about the ones which have been treated and released?
There may not be second acts in life elsewhere
But here in America
Where the shadow of the cross serves as starting line, finishing line
Target
Where life and afterlife are as cheap as it gets
And the bullet in the chamber, the oil in the marsh, the falling safe
Serve their function as comic interludes
As in:
Take America, please
As in:
Take Chicago, please
Where 40 people were shot over the weekend
Where, in the evocatively-named Shakespeare District
A lieutenant tells the Sun-Times Media Wire that the little girl who was shot was not seriously injured.
"She'll be fine," the lieutenant said. "She just got caught in crossfire, unfortunately."
And the 1-year old whose ear was grazed by a bullet?
She'll be fine, too
Yup - treated and released
True, seven people were killed
For them there is no second act
To you seven who succumbed
Like the moribund, oil-clotted pelicans
I find it very hard to grieve for you
For what you've done
Is so very, very un-American
Steve Hellyard Swartz is Poet Laureate of Schenectady, NY. He is a frequent contributor to New Verse News. Swartz is a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee for Poetry. His poems have appeared in The Patterson Review, The Southern Indiana Review, The Kennesaw Review, and online at Best Poem and switched-on gutenberg. He is the winner of a First Place Award given by the Society of Professional Journalists for Excellence in Broadcasting. In 1990, Never Leave Nevada, a movie he wrote and directed, opened at the US Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
_____________________________________________________
Thursday, June 24, 2010
AFGHAN MINERALS
by Bill Costley
Once gold, iron & copper were
Afghanistan’s fabled minerals;
then rare earth elements,
now niobium, lithium
for the world’s batteries;
soon: depleted uranium.
Bill Costley has served on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco Bay area chapter of the National Writers Union. He lives in Santa Clara, CA.
_____________________________________________________
for Bob Chute
Once gold, iron & copper were
Afghanistan’s fabled minerals;
then rare earth elements,
now niobium, lithium
for the world’s batteries;
soon: depleted uranium.
Bill Costley has served on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco Bay area chapter of the National Writers Union. He lives in Santa Clara, CA.
_____________________________________________________
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDIATION YANKED
Poem by Charles Frederickson; Graphic by Saknarin Chinayote
Walking the denial-floss thin line
Between anything but the tooth
And abscessed cavity unconvincing justifications
Frayed hangman’s noose tightening slipknot
Washington, DK whitening stained warwar tartar
Drill grinding to clenched halt
Dark McChrystal doomcast drooling saliva
Erosion slipping into cankered abyss
What the halitosis bad breath
Bleeding gums suffering uprooted canal
Trench mouth gingivitis scraping plaque
Periodontis prescribing sinking quicksand extraction
No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson & Saknarin Chinayote together comprise PoeArtry. Flutter Press has just published Charles’ new chapbook fanTHAIsies.
___________________________________________
Walking the denial-floss thin line
Between anything but the tooth
And abscessed cavity unconvincing justifications
Frayed hangman’s noose tightening slipknot
Washington, DK whitening stained warwar tartar
Drill grinding to clenched halt
Dark McChrystal doomcast drooling saliva
Erosion slipping into cankered abyss
What the halitosis bad breath
Bleeding gums suffering uprooted canal
Trench mouth gingivitis scraping plaque
Periodontis prescribing sinking quicksand extraction
No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson & Saknarin Chinayote together comprise PoeArtry. Flutter Press has just published Charles’ new chapbook fanTHAIsies.
___________________________________________
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
HOW SWIFTLY ALL THINGS FALL APART
by W.F. Lantry
How quickly our best times become the worst,
changing caresses into body blows!
We drink your health, believing that our thirst
could rearrange inevitable woes.
The ball goes rolling through the goalkeep's hands-
he's thinking lingerie instead of lines-
and as it settles in, he understands
he'll not be drinking salutary wines.
And BP, drilling, starts counting its gold
as quarterly reports and profits swell,
they're dancing in the boardroom as they're told
there may be minor problems with the well.
On sunny days we love the weather: warm
is good for punters, partying, and vice!
Who thinks of climate change? It's just one storm,
it's just a fissure in the Arctic ice!
When Father Murphy plays behind his screens,
he hums a little Wagner as he moves,
but when confessing sins, his penance means
he can't believe the Bishop disapproves.
Now Trixie's found her mark, and Jack his queen
or so each thinks, staring across pub smoke
into each other's eyes, neither has seen
his empty wallet or her tender yoke.
I've grabbed this meter from a man named Yeats
though we say 'Yates' when speaking of his song:
if you succeed at verse, each scholar greets
his colleague by pronouncing your name wrong.
Beware your greatest joy! It leads to loss
more quickly than a nightingale sings!
Grab what you can! Give it a healthy toss:
that's better solace than "Pied Beauty" brings!
W.F. Lantry received his Licence and Maîtrise from L’Université de Nice, M.A. in English from Boston University and Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. The recipient of the CutBank Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, and runner up for this year's UMB William Joiner Center Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize, his poems have appeared in The Wallace Stevens Journal, Prairie Fire, Ellipsis, The French Literary Review, Istanbul Literary Review and protestpoets.org: Writing for Human Rights. He currently serves as the Director of Academic Technology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
_____________________________________________________
How quickly our best times become the worst,
changing caresses into body blows!
We drink your health, believing that our thirst
could rearrange inevitable woes.
The ball goes rolling through the goalkeep's hands-
he's thinking lingerie instead of lines-
and as it settles in, he understands
he'll not be drinking salutary wines.
And BP, drilling, starts counting its gold
as quarterly reports and profits swell,
they're dancing in the boardroom as they're told
there may be minor problems with the well.
On sunny days we love the weather: warm
is good for punters, partying, and vice!
Who thinks of climate change? It's just one storm,
it's just a fissure in the Arctic ice!
When Father Murphy plays behind his screens,
he hums a little Wagner as he moves,
but when confessing sins, his penance means
he can't believe the Bishop disapproves.
Now Trixie's found her mark, and Jack his queen
or so each thinks, staring across pub smoke
into each other's eyes, neither has seen
his empty wallet or her tender yoke.
I've grabbed this meter from a man named Yeats
though we say 'Yates' when speaking of his song:
if you succeed at verse, each scholar greets
his colleague by pronouncing your name wrong.
Beware your greatest joy! It leads to loss
more quickly than a nightingale sings!
Grab what you can! Give it a healthy toss:
that's better solace than "Pied Beauty" brings!
W.F. Lantry received his Licence and Maîtrise from L’Université de Nice, M.A. in English from Boston University and Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. The recipient of the CutBank Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, and runner up for this year's UMB William Joiner Center Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize, his poems have appeared in The Wallace Stevens Journal, Prairie Fire, Ellipsis, The French Literary Review, Istanbul Literary Review and protestpoets.org: Writing for Human Rights. He currently serves as the Director of Academic Technology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
_____________________________________________________
Monday, June 21, 2010
UNDEAD MONEY
“coined” by John Michael Greer
by Catherine McGuire
You know it by the smell – rotten,
every penny – lurching
from deal to deal. Undead money
wants only to destroy.
No point in asking why – zombies
have no logic. Brainless,
it drags down the living, grabs
every reachable buck, crams them
into its unsatiable maw.
Undead money creates nothing
leaves the stench of decay behind –
every closed deal a dead business,
a failing bank, an empty town.
There are zombies among us – not hard
to spot. They refuse to die,
they “turn” the living; hate the productive act.
You can’t reform the undead.
Stake ‘em.
Catherine McGuire is a writer and artist with more than 120 poems published in venues such as The New Verse News, The Cape Rock, Green Fuse, The Quizzical Chair Anthology, The Smoking Poet, Portland Lights Anthology, Folio, Tapjoe and Adagio.
___________________________________________
Sunday, June 20, 2010
SOCCERSCAPE
Poem by Charles Frederickson; Graphic by Saknarin Chinayote
No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson & Saknarin Chinayote together comprise PoeArtry. Flutter Press has just published Charles’ new chapbook fanTHAIsies.
___________________________________________
World’s most popular sporting competition
Returns to native soiled taproots
Dating backgammon to 1862 Cape
Ivory Monopoly board inlaid ebony
African-can exuberant spirit pan-continental obsession
Townships raging with indomitable pride
Shared passion cheering national heroes
Crime unemployment disease poverty waylaid
There’s no freedom without equality
Fitting tribute to Mandela’s magnanimity
Political prisoner 46664 Robben Island
Security guards reconfigure tourist guides
Mahatma Gandhi re-dyed bleached saris
Multiversity slowly never surely progressing
Generation gaps neutralizing toxic landfill
Greatest legacy Freedom to Dream
Ploughshare furrows digging new ground
Enriched black-dirt sodding green turf
Weah Drogba Eto’o Messi Ronaldo
Soaring eagles unshackled glory daze
Caucasians still running Circus Minimus
Foreign coaches taming cagey lionhearted
Le sorcier blanc over-the-big-top faith healers
Conjuring spellbound elixirs mindset skullduggery
Returns to native soiled taproots
Dating backgammon to 1862 Cape
Ivory Monopoly board inlaid ebony
African-can exuberant spirit pan-continental obsession
Townships raging with indomitable pride
Shared passion cheering national heroes
Crime unemployment disease poverty waylaid
There’s no freedom without equality
Fitting tribute to Mandela’s magnanimity
Political prisoner 46664 Robben Island
Security guards reconfigure tourist guides
Mahatma Gandhi re-dyed bleached saris
Multiversity slowly never surely progressing
Generation gaps neutralizing toxic landfill
Greatest legacy Freedom to Dream
Ploughshare furrows digging new ground
Enriched black-dirt sodding green turf
Weah Drogba Eto’o Messi Ronaldo
Soaring eagles unshackled glory daze
Caucasians still running Circus Minimus
Foreign coaches taming cagey lionhearted
Le sorcier blanc over-the-big-top faith healers
Conjuring spellbound elixirs mindset skullduggery
No Holds Bard Dr. Charles Frederickson & Saknarin Chinayote together comprise PoeArtry. Flutter Press has just published Charles’ new chapbook fanTHAIsies.
___________________________________________
Saturday, June 19, 2010
FOREIGN AID
by Robert M. Chute
As the death toll passes one thousand
it is obvious even to experts
the war in Afghanistan’s an illusion
concealing our foreign aid which
voters would never approve in
straightforward dollars. War it seems
has always been Afghanistan’s
business. We support it with covert
generosity: the bodies collateral cost.
Robert M. Chute's book of poetry based on scientific articles, Reading Nature, is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
__________________________________________________
As the death toll passes one thousand
it is obvious even to experts
the war in Afghanistan’s an illusion
concealing our foreign aid which
voters would never approve in
straightforward dollars. War it seems
has always been Afghanistan’s
business. We support it with covert
generosity: the bodies collateral cost.
Robert M. Chute's book of poetry based on scientific articles, Reading Nature, is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
__________________________________________________
Friday, June 18, 2010
WELL OILED
by George Held
When I see an oil-blackened pelican
In the Gulf, I know I can’t help her
Any more than BP or government can.
But what can I do for those who suffer
In the Gulf? I can’t help the Other
Despite what Buber advised the Self,
So what can I do for those who suffer—
Laid-off shrimpers, riggers, dying wildlife?
Despite what Buber advised the Self,
We are cut off from the Other in the Gulf—
Laid-off clammers, crewmen, gasping wildlife—
Here in New York City, my native turf.
We are cut off from the Other in the Gulf;
Even with no car, even going green
Here in New York City, my native turf,
We have no power over that oily sheen.
Even with no car, even going green,
We depend too much on petroleum
And have no power over that oily sheen
While TV vends Gulf grief ad nauseam.
We depend too much on petroleum,
Not less than BP or government can;
When TV vends Gulf grief ad nauseam
We must see the oil-blackened pelican.
George Held has collected many of his New Verse News poems in The News Today.
___________________________________________________
When I see an oil-blackened pelican
In the Gulf, I know I can’t help her
Any more than BP or government can.
But what can I do for those who suffer
In the Gulf? I can’t help the Other
Despite what Buber advised the Self,
So what can I do for those who suffer—
Laid-off shrimpers, riggers, dying wildlife?
Despite what Buber advised the Self,
We are cut off from the Other in the Gulf—
Laid-off clammers, crewmen, gasping wildlife—
Here in New York City, my native turf.
We are cut off from the Other in the Gulf;
Even with no car, even going green
Here in New York City, my native turf,
We have no power over that oily sheen.
Even with no car, even going green,
We depend too much on petroleum
And have no power over that oily sheen
While TV vends Gulf grief ad nauseam.
We depend too much on petroleum,
Not less than BP or government can;
When TV vends Gulf grief ad nauseam
We must see the oil-blackened pelican.
George Held has collected many of his New Verse News poems in The News Today.
___________________________________________________
Thursday, June 17, 2010
INFESTATION
by Kate Bernadette Benedict
Seems there’s a bee.
Bees.
Seems there’s a siege of bees,
indoors, in cubes, in corridors,
beleaguering employees.
Seems there’s shadow on the air,
Africanized bees, diffusing something:
pollen, pods or seeds. Windows swarm—
murk and writhing.
Duck and cover. Freeze.
Seems there’s a breeze.
Bees in thousands.
Thousand thousand bees.
Kate Bernadette Benedict edits Umbrella: A Journal of Poetry and Kindred Prose and Tilt-a-Whirl: A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms. Her poetry collections are Here from Away (CW Books, 2003) and In Company, scheduled for publication in 2011.
_____________________________________________________
Seems there’s a bee.
Bees.
Seems there’s a siege of bees,
indoors, in cubes, in corridors,
beleaguering employees.
Seems there’s shadow on the air,
Africanized bees, diffusing something:
pollen, pods or seeds. Windows swarm—
murk and writhing.
Duck and cover. Freeze.
Seems there’s a breeze.
Bees in thousands.
Thousand thousand bees.
Kate Bernadette Benedict edits Umbrella: A Journal of Poetry and Kindred Prose and Tilt-a-Whirl: A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms. Her poetry collections are Here from Away (CW Books, 2003) and In Company, scheduled for publication in 2011.
_____________________________________________________
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