Tuesday, March 31, 2009

April and The Time Of Yellow Smoke

April is National Poetry Month, established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to draw attention to the work of American poets, to highlight the many dimensions poetry brings to our lives and to increase it's visability and appreciation.

This year's poster features these lines from the T. S. Eliots poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" "Do I dare\Disturb the universe?", which also contains these lines, of which I am quite fond :

"And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea."


In addition to participating in A Poem In My Pocket Day , or the Free Verse project, there are more than 30 other ways to join in this celebration.


So, for all the questions dropped on your plate, for instance yesterday , remember poetry and dare to disturb.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Tea and Trivia

Do You know

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Urban Legends and Other Deceptions

There has been an e-mail circulating about a prayer the minister Joe Wright delivered to the Kansas House of Representatives. Or the Kansas Senate depending on whatever version you are reading. I see that it's now dancing the cotillion through several blogs these days as "This Pastor Has Guts". (I got over 250,000 hits on google.)

I Snoped this when I first got it and again when it started showing up on blogs recently. Few of these blogs tell you this is not exactly a current event but is rather a historical one.

Isn't that a little deceptive?

The prayer was actually given by Rev. Wright in 1996. Not this year, not at the start of a new legislative session in Kansas this year but in 1996 -13 years ago.

And according to newspaper reports at the time only one legislator, not many, walked out during the prayer although several did criticize it after the session closed. Who knows if 'The Rest of the Story' story is accurate or not but based on the above I'd say it's doubtful.


The prayer itself is pithy, brief, full of truth, enjoining us to engage in self examination and repentance, powerful enough to stand the test of time, un-gilded. And yes, that pastor did have guts in delivering the prayer.

The question is who has guts today?

I'm reminded of the story of the two little old ladies in church, who one Sunday morning were loudly seconding their preacher as he denounced cheating (Amen Brother), swearing (Amen Brother), stealing (Amen Brother), coveting (Amen Brother), dancing(Amen Brother), smoking (Amen Brother), dipping snuff - Now hold on a minute here, one said as she turned to the other, He's done quit preachin' and started meddlin' .

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Feeding Our Wolves

A book review in today's NY Times of a book by a guy known as Cadillac Jack reminded me of this little story a friend had e-mailed me some months ago:

The Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride,superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grand son thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wonder if these were "The Wolves at Evelyn" ?