White Hole (Photo credit: coofdy)
As long time readers are aware, I occasionally get hung up on my hopeless singledom. I won’t say it invades my every thought and usually I can go weeks, even months without stressing about it. Last night was not one of those times however. Hence this weeks poetry.
As always, I will remind you of my fundraiser. I would love to be able to pay the bills by bringing you wonderful folks the best that I can. And now I give you your weekly verse: Continue reading
This blueprint of what La Belle would have looked like was created in the 20th century, after excavation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Welcome back, gentle readers, sorry there has not been a Friday Nite Poetry in a couple of weeks. Hardware problems have been vexing me and they are hopefully solved for some little while. You all already now about my fundraiser, and I will say no more about that besides the quick reminder.
What I will speak of is how easy it is to forget how truly amazing we are as a species. We have walked the moon, cured diseases, and for all the horror we have visited on each other, we have often raised each other up as well. We have a long way to go to realize our potential. We still get quite a lot of the easy problems wrong. We display a profound ability to make the simple complex and the complex simple. Still, I see a bright future, somewhere out there, it just may take longer to reach than we would like. We are all amazing, each and every one of the seven billion plus of us. We just need to be reminded from time to time. Continue reading
Tip Jar (Photo credit: EagerEyes)
Hello folks. I have been mostly offline for a week now due to hardware problems. I will begin blogging in earnest later this evening including a new installment of Friday Nite Poetry. The main purpose of this post, however is to let folks know about the fundraiser I have been talking on and off about for the past month. Continue reading
Abandoned subway (Photo credit: phill.d)
Hello again, gentle readers. I bring to you a pair of new poems. I will be sliding into, as I am wont to, my social justice mode of thinking for this week.
While I am here, just a friendly reminder that we are having a fundraiser here at Hand of Ananke. You can help out by hitting the donate button there and giving whatever you can. I don’t expect something for nothing, however. Help out with $5 or more and you get a free pdf of my chapbook Delicate Art of Saying Yes, help out with $10 and more and you get that, and can choose between a signed copy of either Ego Codex or Drawing Lines, and if you help out with $20 or more, you get all three. Your help will give me the ability to grow this blog so I can offer you more. Continue reading
Prehistoric man, Anthropos Museum, Brno, Czech Republic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last year, my good friend and mentor (yes I will always address him as such, as I have here in the past) Tom Holmes introduced me to paleo-poetics. Poetry about the experiences of prehistoric man, or about our understanding of him. We discussed this at length one evening, and by the end of the evening we came up with our own subset of paleo-poetics: neo-paleopoetry. It is something of an unintentionally ironic term as one of the rules we came up with for this new style was a ban on using any idea that would be completely out of place in the prehistoric man’s world. No mention of steel, bureaucracies or any invention, real or abstract, after the advent of the written word. We have both put out a few pieces and I even have a tag for it on Tumblr. Tonight I share my three newest pieces, and I hope they succeed, if not sterling examples of neo-paleopoetry, then as passable samples of paleo-poetics. Continue reading
English: Black History Mural, Reading This shows about half the mural which is on the side of the Central Club in London Street. It was painted in 1990 by Alan Howard and members of the club. The building behind, now the Great Expectations Hotel, is the former Everyman Theatre. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Five hundred years have gone by. Five hundred years of chattel slavery followed by brutal discrimination and demonizing. Half a millenia of erasure, excuses, hand wringing, and self-righteous, selfish argument. After all that, so many white people, not just in America, but around the world think wishing it all away is enough. We clap our hands and mouth “we love our black brothers and sisters” and think that does away with the systemic barriers created by five centuries of abuse. Continue reading
