5.31.2022 – as mysterious

as mysterious
as great the perpetual
rhythm of the tides

In “Notes for a Preface“, an essay written by Carl Sandburg for the the book “Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg“, Mr. Sandburg wrote, “The Spanish poet Lorca saw one plain apple infinite as the sea. “The life of an apple when it is a delicate flower to the moment when, golden russet, it drops from the tree into the grass is as mysterious and as great as the perpetual rhythm of the tides . . .“

According to Wikipedia: Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director.

García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of ’27, a group consisting of mostly poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature. He was murdered by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His remains have never been found.

In the poem, Ballad of the Water of the Sea, Lorca writes:

The sea
smiles from far off.
Teeth of foam,
lips of sky.

Folly Field Beach at high tide – Hilton Head Island May 30, 2022

Murdered by the nationalistic or Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War, those types of fellers have always had it for the poets and artists and such.

The smart people I guess.

I am reminded of the story of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.

When they took over Cambodia they knew they had to cut off opposition and the best way to do that was get rid of the smart people, the people who could think, the people who would ask questions and start other people asking questions.

And so they did.

They soldiers of Pol Pot went from town to town and executed all the smart people.

They knew who to get.

They started with anyone wearing glasses.

5.30.2022 – piece of cloth, a sound

piece of cloth, a sound
make something not cloth nor sound
totems of love, hate

Adapted from the passage:

A flag is a piece of cloth and a word is a sound,
But we make them something neither cloth nor a sound,
Totems of love and hate

From the poem, John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benét.

According to Wikipedia

, John Brown’s Body (1928) is an epic American poem written by Stephen Vincent Benét. Its title references the radical abolitionist John Brown, who raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in Virginia in October 1859. He was captured and hanged later that year. Benét’s poem covers the history of the American Civil War. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1929.

The photo is of my Great Great Grand Fathers grave.

When he was 18, he joined the 16th Michigan Volunteer Infantry and later fought in Virginia and wounded in action at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27, 1862.

Here is a larger extract from the poem.

One cannot balance tragedy in the scales
Unless one weighs it with the tragic heart.
The other man’s tragedy was the greater one
Since the blind fury tore the huger heart,
But this man’s tragedy is the more pitiful.
Thus the Eastern board and the two defended kings.
But why is the game so ordered, what crowns the kings?
They are cities of streets and houses like other cities.
Baltimore might be taken, and war go on,
Atlanta will be taken and war go on,
Why should these two near cities be otherwise?
We do not fight for the real but for shadows we make.
A flag is a piece of cloth and a word is a sound,
But we make them something neither cloth nor a sound,
Totems of love and hate, black sorcery-stones,
So with these cities.

Even today, We do not fight for the real but for shadows we make.

A flag is a piece of cloth and a word is a sound.

But we make them something neither cloth nor a sound, Totems of love and hate.

5.29.2022 – bastardization

bastardization
of the promise – Merced to
Bakersfield – who cares?

Reading the article, Train to nowhere: can California’s high-speed rail project ever get back on track?, I could not help but laugh out loud over a comment about the once $9 Billion Dollar high speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco that was funded in 2008 and planned to open in 2020 has so far cost $5Billions, might get a stretch of railroad (normal non-high speed railroad) open between the California cities of Merced and Bakersfield by 2030.

I am ignorant of much California geography without looking at a map but those two connections didn’t make much of impact on me.

The comment that made me laugh was made by an early advocate and cheer leader of the Cal High Speed Rail, Mr. Quentin Kopp, a retired former legislator and judge, who also felt that connecting Merced and Bakersfield did not make much sense.

Mr. Kopp said, ““Who cares about going from Merced to Bakersfield? I am appalled and angry over the bastardization of the promise to taxpayers … It’s a stupid waste of money. All this is doing is making contractors and engineers and bureaucrats fat and happy.”

The article goes on to explain that while other countries have implemented high speed rail, The United States, by contrast, has a highly decentralized system of government, with multiple competing jurisdictions jostling over land, water, electricity and other vital resources, and a political tradition, especially in the west, that celebrates personal freedom and private property over collective enterprises in the public interest.

In the words of Charlie Brown, “THAT’S IT!”

I propose that the United States Mint add something to our coins.

Where a coin is stamped, “E Pluribus Unum” I want an * added so it reads, “E Pluribus Unum*”.

E Pluribus Unum?

You remember that one don’t you?

One, out of many.

Then on the bottom of the coin, I want it to say, *The United States has a highly decentralized system of government, with multiple competing jurisdictions jostling over land, water, electricity and other vital resources, and a political tradition, that celebrates personal freedom and private property over collective enterprises in the public interest.

Should the word money be added so that it reads, money, land, water …

Or is money understood to be included in that less vulgar term, vital resources?

It works either way and it seems to answer a whole lot of questions today about the United States of America.

Talk about a the bastardization of a promise.

What promise?

The promise that we WERE one out of many.

The promise the we were something new.

Novus ordo seclorum it says on the One Dollar bill.

The New Order of the Age!

The New Order of the Age?

Maybe that’s why it ended up on the $1.

All in all, it comes to Mr. Lincoln’s warning in his Dec 1, 1862 annual message to Congress when he said, “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

5.28.2022 – that means a firm grasp

that means a firm grasp
of what does and doesn’t work
how can be improved

Based on the amalgamation of words in the article, Hillary Clinton is right: the age of the showman leader has damaged politics, by Will Hutton in the Guardian on Sunday, June 5, 2022.

Mr. Hutton, in a commentary on politics in the United States, uses combinations of multi-syllable words and sentence construction makes me take my hat off and yell, SALUTE!

The paragraphs of the article in questions read thusly:

Political leadership in the 2020s needs to be recast, but old truths will out. Alternative reality may have allowed performative politics to trump content for a period, but for all the collective appetite to be entertained, citizens also want to be governed well. That means a firm grasp of what does and doesn’t work and how matters can be improved.

That in turn requires a viable political philosophy backed by evidence and turned into a programme that can be consistently applied across government, taking on power, privilege and vested interest where it is plainly necessary.

It’s palpably not what we have, but it’s obviously what we need and the wheels are already spinning to deliver it

And, readers of this blog will know that from time to time I struggle with the weight of effort of producing a daily Haiku and any thoughts I may have about the words and time that went in the Haiku that day.

This daily schedule of missing a day can bring on a personal mental paralysis wherein writing these entries becomes impossible.

I learned to deal with this by not dealing with it and let it go.

Then when I look at my register of entries and see blank days with no post, I will grab a topic or book or poem for a source and produce a series of Haiku to fill in those blank dates.

This is one of the great benefits of this effort being my blog and my blog, my rules.

It IS cricket because I say it is.

It is ‘according to Hoyle’ because I say it is.

Thus I have this series of haiku based on this article and the Mr. Hutton’s word choices.

I should also mention that this ‘lack of output’ coincided with a trip up to see our son and being away from a computer keyboard for a long weekend and I am playing catch-up.

Other haiku from this passage include:

avalanche of hype

that means a firm grasp

require viable

taking on power

reality for all

but old truths will out

5.27.2022 – I can find my name

I can find my name
tell me who I am, it don’t
tell me where I am

Sorry but I am all over the place this morning and find it difficult to focus on just any one thing.

The haiku is adapted from Robert Frost’s poem, “Snow”

I guess I know my way,
I guess I know where I can find my name
Carved in the shed to tell me who I am
If it don’t tell me where I am. I used
To play”

Through everything and all the news, one question does seem to cut through the clutter.

What the hell is going on here?

Where are we?

Where are we going?

In conversation with one of my brothers last year, he pointed out that when he was just out of college, the late 60’s and into the early 70’s, the hippie era, students were shot on a college campus. drug use was rampant, a US President resigned in disgrace and the war in Vietnam went on and on and the end of the world was predicted every other day.

To tell the truth, I was releived.

The current year, I guess, has always looked worse than last year.

And next year will probably be worse than this year.

Of late though I have to reconsider.

Nope, these past years have been really, significantly worse.

I would point to the turn of the century.

I would point to the internet and the world wide web.

I would point to the focus of the world on the word I.

My news is catered to me.

My day is curated by my actions and my phone to me.

I used an Ipod and an Imac.

I use an Iphone and an Ipad.

I can carry a gun if I want to.

I can wear a mask if I want to.

I won’t wear a mask if I don’t want to.

I watch what I want to when I want to on TV.

I listen to the music I want to when I want to.

(I am reminded of the story that when the manuscript of “The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt” arrived at the publisher, Scribner had to send out for more boxes of Upper Case I’s)

I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it and nobody BUT nobody is going to to tell me I can not do what I want to do when I want to do it!

I am in control.

I AM the master of my fate, I AM the captain of my soul!

I grew up on the University of Michigan football team under Bo Schembecler.

Schembecler had a saying about the three most important things in sport.

“The Team, The Team, The Team.”

Michael Jordan was told by his coach, “There is no I in Team.”

Jordon replied, “There is in win.”

I think back to another era or trial and tribulation.

I think of this poster of Rosie the Riverter.

Notice there is no I in WE.

Still don’t know where we are but it’s not a good place.

And I am pretty sure, there is no going back.