Trip News:
Yesterday at the citadel in Amman, a short taxi ride from the hotel. Amman last night with the three quarter moon rising over the hills of the city. From this angle, Amman holds very little charm, square blocks of concrete and a grey stucco finish. Bleak almost Soviet style architect. None of the grace of the Ottoman period It was a backwaters city until the founding of modern Jordan in one of those post WWI rwanglings that was to give the Arab states full independence.
The Roman ampitheater on the hillside. The seven hills of Jordan, bleak and arid, looking more like a provincial capital. Too short of a time to make any assessment and real connection with Jordanians, as a tourist, there is a formality, I am the tourist and they are the local. Even with a modicum of Arabic I can leap over that threshold more easily than most, but my accent is Yemen with a weird inflection of Moroccan. When I told a guy I learned Arabic in Yemen he said, "Then why do you speak with a Moroccan accent?"
I was almost offended, but not. Like my French some years ago was a heavy Moroccan accent and such that when I spoke to Moroccans in France some thought I was trying to "rap like a home boy.
Anyway, the real juice of Jordan, is the Dead Sea, Jaresh the Old Roman city, and the stunning Petra. Part of me is feeling guilty that I am not in Egypt with the Gaza marches, but even as a leftist, I am a leftist to my own drummer. Yes, I do want to spend time and help draw attention to Gaza, but I want to do it on my own terms and what feels comfortable to me. Even though I like the politics of the left more, I hold the right and left with equal wariness. A healthy skepticism is my most sincere form of religion.
Political News
The news and the conversation about Palestine is in the air. The evening news from the BBC brings the brazen new of the Israeli's continued occupation and 700 new settlements in Jerusalem they declare a "special case." The special case is that the houses are on Palestinian land and it has been seized to make way for Israeli homes.
The moral outrage is seen in my new artwork that this genocide is inspiring. As Picasso spoke in Guernica, I in my way will speak. I will tell you more of the museum of Extinct Races: Special Exhibit The people who lived in the area West of the Jordan River before the Rightful Owners Returned After a two Thousand Year Absence.
After all, who doesn't hate the Palestinians? The Saudis are indifferent at best and are caught between the fear that their paper lion kingdom, the so called guardianship of Mecca is only sustained by oil and patronizing the Wahhabi zealots, and that it is unwilling to do anything truly substantial to help their Palestinian "brothers."
More to come. Listening, talking to people about life politics, love the area, like the language, even my stumbling attempts.
More to come
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
27 December 2nd day on the road
I am always the reluctant travel who is at the same time a total travel junkie. I am the one who loves sitting by his fireside in rural vermont watching snow and plotting revolutions. Though i am content in spirit to write at Blue Heron Pond, my sou is starving for the open road, new languages, new faces, I am dreadfully bored by the narrow aesthetic and the pablum served for Art.
Today I'm in Amman Jordan and meeting folks from the Gaza March. Thousands of folks will converge on the boarder of Gaza and Israel, thousands of folks from around the world asking that Palestinians have some basic human rights. Right now, the 1.5 Gaza people in a state of lockdown. Like an prison around the world. They cannot visit the West Best for work or congress, no work or food supplies come in. Kind of like the Ghettos of Warsaw. For years Ive been writing about Palestine, the pain of Palestine, and now... tasting it and seeing the suffering here in a way that I did somewhat remoetly.
We can all feel the pain of our brothers and sistens worldwide. The oppression of our muslim brothers and sisters, the opression in Egypt: the small fascist state of Israel with its wonderful political freedoms for white jews, but a gradual diminishment if you're a brown jew or god forbid ... a Muslim Israeli. It makes the apartheid system seem somehow rationale. Yet, the US gives 3 to 4 billion dollars a year to enable the occupation of all the people of Palestine. And of course the various other jewish charities and russian mafia that keeps this state afloat. Is this state really held afloat by the Russian gangsters, who may be jew in name, but makes his living as a gangster, or is Israel the gangsert state, stealing land and giving it to the settlers.
Why not find the setters a nice apartment in Tel Aviv or Haifa? Why take over a Palestinians home and move in an Israeli family? How would you, Western reader, to have a family that never lived there, suddenly moved in by the fiat of the state? Or, that you had been kicked out of the area for 2,ooo years, without title or papers, without even a clear idea of a village, and decided it was time to take over again.
If Israeli truly wants freedom...end the occupation of Gaza, end the occupation of Palestine, give Golan back, resettle Lebanese Palestinians in Golan, and make Jerusalem an international city for Jews, Muslim, and Christian. But I don;think that is the case.
Or I should refer to it as Al Quds ... the Land in Arabic... where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
But Israel is interested in maintaining the illusion of the victim. Playing on the anti semite card. "Oh, you don't agree with us? You must be an antisemite?" The vulgar truth of racism is the trump card here. Zionism, that proclaims all of the Palestinians areas as rightfully Jewish, is a racist proposition.
For example, Birmingham Ala in the early l950s Blacks were relegated to the back of the bus, not allowed to vote, had to step off the sidewalk when a white person walked by, or god help the young black man who smiled at a pretty white girl. The same exact racism pervades.
The racism after Crystallnacht that took away German Jews businesess, expelled them from the universities, the same barbarity that lead to the Holocaust, is being played out every day in the West Bank.
There are no Palestinians taking over Israeli homes. There is no massive imprisonments of Israelis by Palstinians. There is no destruction of Israeli culture.
Yes, the rockets of Gaza fired on to Israel, against the 4th largest Army in the world is a situation that should be pitied. FIghting Goliath with stones.
This writing does not serve Jew, Muslim, Christian, or any religion well. Religion is the refuge for the spiritually lazy cowards. Hiding behind theology, nostroms, prayers, and history versus standing naked -- physicially, emotionally, and yes spiritiaully... confronting god...declaring your own spirit and faith. Yes, I Namaya, worship trees and life, I worship the spirit of all life that sustains this planet. I pray in any church or meadow where the fundamental rights and dignity of each person can be preserved and nurtured. I want not part of a faith that denies the dignity, joy, and revelation of each person. I abhor war and hatred to mend and heal human differences. It is wrong to kill. Wrong to kill animals, and humans. It is wrong to harm or hit another person. It is a philosophy that brings me back to my Zen roots.
Zen such a profound part of my spirit, I rarely talk about it. MY ZEN, MY ZEN, with all of my hubris, ignorance, etc.is about LOVE. This is paradise. This place some of us call HELL is paradise. My zen spirit is alivened by the possibilities of what it is to be human. To have the capacity to love. The capacity to be FULLY HUMAN. Alive in the world. Compassionate and filled with reverence for each living creature. Filled with care in how we treat and treasure the earth.
Today in Amman, I worship the moon. Moon light three quarters full, though seen for millions of years, from the most barbaric neanderthal who also would sit in wonder...
Moon over Jordan
brown city with scarcely
a grain of green or serenity.
Two thirds moon hangs over
the city.
Moon is pregnant with possibility
Moon marks the same spot in Gaza
Where the future and each day,
grows bleaker
There is no pretty poem for
Gaza.
It is a moon painted red
Getting my bearings, brushing off the rusty arabic, getting ready for the trip into Westbank and Gaza.
Moreover, making my self ready to make the transition to living in Israel, As a jew by culture every fiber of my being is repulsed by the occuption and I know that given half a chance the Palestinians would have driven them to the sea. But now, in 2010 the SS component of the Israeli army is in a new process of Genocide. Not the obvious killings, but the genocide that destroys a culture and future. Life is so miserable that Pakestinian Arabs have to leave. This is the policy of genocide.
As a jew, a student of Jewish history and the diaspora, all the sins and evil of the occupiers in aeons past has now burned into the soul of Israel. Israel committed to a new collective genocide of jews. This kind of barbaric, hateful treatment by a government, sancitioned by the US, virtually ignored by the world, and suffered by Israelis will eventually be destroyed. As one visits evil on their perceived enemies, the blowback will be profound.
Wanting to meet some extended family in Israeli. There is a revulvsion to the Zionists who believe that this whole area from the Mediterannan to The Jordan north to Lebannon and down through Gaza was their empire. Hardly, Jews have had a very tenuous hold on the land, thrived, and then displaces. The same as hundreds of other cultures. Yet, remarkably Hebrews we have seemed to hold on to an identity through this exile.
Simply my sould screams this is not just. Faults, hatred from Muslims as well, atrocities in the past, but the jews are redefining barbarity and hatred. I, a jew by culture, a jew who values our history and culture, yet is repulsed by the barbarity of Zionism. An SS should be painting on each Mogen David. We have learned well from the Nazis. It is not enough to destroy the enemy, you must first break their spirit, you must break their will to live\\
Writing the pain at 3 in the morning. Half asleep, inspired by the moon. Trying to find the humanness in all this. Zoe and I have started in our tiny first steps. Meeting people, talking, and listening. Half English. Half arabic when I can. Good to be back in an Arabic speaking country, though I could have gone to Paterson.
Good to connect with Zoe. Enjoying our traveling time together, Great traveling buddy. I am a bit concerned, difficult for me to make schedules and appointments.
Tomorrow, the mooon rises, and the possibilities of tomorrow shed a bright light on us.
Today I'm in Amman Jordan and meeting folks from the Gaza March. Thousands of folks will converge on the boarder of Gaza and Israel, thousands of folks from around the world asking that Palestinians have some basic human rights. Right now, the 1.5 Gaza people in a state of lockdown. Like an prison around the world. They cannot visit the West Best for work or congress, no work or food supplies come in. Kind of like the Ghettos of Warsaw. For years Ive been writing about Palestine, the pain of Palestine, and now... tasting it and seeing the suffering here in a way that I did somewhat remoetly.
We can all feel the pain of our brothers and sistens worldwide. The oppression of our muslim brothers and sisters, the opression in Egypt: the small fascist state of Israel with its wonderful political freedoms for white jews, but a gradual diminishment if you're a brown jew or god forbid ... a Muslim Israeli. It makes the apartheid system seem somehow rationale. Yet, the US gives 3 to 4 billion dollars a year to enable the occupation of all the people of Palestine. And of course the various other jewish charities and russian mafia that keeps this state afloat. Is this state really held afloat by the Russian gangsters, who may be jew in name, but makes his living as a gangster, or is Israel the gangsert state, stealing land and giving it to the settlers.
Why not find the setters a nice apartment in Tel Aviv or Haifa? Why take over a Palestinians home and move in an Israeli family? How would you, Western reader, to have a family that never lived there, suddenly moved in by the fiat of the state? Or, that you had been kicked out of the area for 2,ooo years, without title or papers, without even a clear idea of a village, and decided it was time to take over again.
If Israeli truly wants freedom...end the occupation of Gaza, end the occupation of Palestine, give Golan back, resettle Lebanese Palestinians in Golan, and make Jerusalem an international city for Jews, Muslim, and Christian. But I don;think that is the case.
Or I should refer to it as Al Quds ... the Land in Arabic... where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
But Israel is interested in maintaining the illusion of the victim. Playing on the anti semite card. "Oh, you don't agree with us? You must be an antisemite?" The vulgar truth of racism is the trump card here. Zionism, that proclaims all of the Palestinians areas as rightfully Jewish, is a racist proposition.
For example, Birmingham Ala in the early l950s Blacks were relegated to the back of the bus, not allowed to vote, had to step off the sidewalk when a white person walked by, or god help the young black man who smiled at a pretty white girl. The same exact racism pervades.
The racism after Crystallnacht that took away German Jews businesess, expelled them from the universities, the same barbarity that lead to the Holocaust, is being played out every day in the West Bank.
There are no Palestinians taking over Israeli homes. There is no massive imprisonments of Israelis by Palstinians. There is no destruction of Israeli culture.
Yes, the rockets of Gaza fired on to Israel, against the 4th largest Army in the world is a situation that should be pitied. FIghting Goliath with stones.
This writing does not serve Jew, Muslim, Christian, or any religion well. Religion is the refuge for the spiritually lazy cowards. Hiding behind theology, nostroms, prayers, and history versus standing naked -- physicially, emotionally, and yes spiritiaully... confronting god...declaring your own spirit and faith. Yes, I Namaya, worship trees and life, I worship the spirit of all life that sustains this planet. I pray in any church or meadow where the fundamental rights and dignity of each person can be preserved and nurtured. I want not part of a faith that denies the dignity, joy, and revelation of each person. I abhor war and hatred to mend and heal human differences. It is wrong to kill. Wrong to kill animals, and humans. It is wrong to harm or hit another person. It is a philosophy that brings me back to my Zen roots.
Zen such a profound part of my spirit, I rarely talk about it. MY ZEN, MY ZEN, with all of my hubris, ignorance, etc.is about LOVE. This is paradise. This place some of us call HELL is paradise. My zen spirit is alivened by the possibilities of what it is to be human. To have the capacity to love. The capacity to be FULLY HUMAN. Alive in the world. Compassionate and filled with reverence for each living creature. Filled with care in how we treat and treasure the earth.
Today in Amman, I worship the moon. Moon light three quarters full, though seen for millions of years, from the most barbaric neanderthal who also would sit in wonder...
Moon over Jordan
brown city with scarcely
a grain of green or serenity.
Two thirds moon hangs over
the city.
Moon is pregnant with possibility
Moon marks the same spot in Gaza
Where the future and each day,
grows bleaker
There is no pretty poem for
Gaza.
It is a moon painted red
Getting my bearings, brushing off the rusty arabic, getting ready for the trip into Westbank and Gaza.
Moreover, making my self ready to make the transition to living in Israel, As a jew by culture every fiber of my being is repulsed by the occuption and I know that given half a chance the Palestinians would have driven them to the sea. But now, in 2010 the SS component of the Israeli army is in a new process of Genocide. Not the obvious killings, but the genocide that destroys a culture and future. Life is so miserable that Pakestinian Arabs have to leave. This is the policy of genocide.
As a jew, a student of Jewish history and the diaspora, all the sins and evil of the occupiers in aeons past has now burned into the soul of Israel. Israel committed to a new collective genocide of jews. This kind of barbaric, hateful treatment by a government, sancitioned by the US, virtually ignored by the world, and suffered by Israelis will eventually be destroyed. As one visits evil on their perceived enemies, the blowback will be profound.
Wanting to meet some extended family in Israeli. There is a revulvsion to the Zionists who believe that this whole area from the Mediterannan to The Jordan north to Lebannon and down through Gaza was their empire. Hardly, Jews have had a very tenuous hold on the land, thrived, and then displaces. The same as hundreds of other cultures. Yet, remarkably Hebrews we have seemed to hold on to an identity through this exile.
Simply my sould screams this is not just. Faults, hatred from Muslims as well, atrocities in the past, but the jews are redefining barbarity and hatred. I, a jew by culture, a jew who values our history and culture, yet is repulsed by the barbarity of Zionism. An SS should be painting on each Mogen David. We have learned well from the Nazis. It is not enough to destroy the enemy, you must first break their spirit, you must break their will to live\\
Writing the pain at 3 in the morning. Half asleep, inspired by the moon. Trying to find the humanness in all this. Zoe and I have started in our tiny first steps. Meeting people, talking, and listening. Half English. Half arabic when I can. Good to be back in an Arabic speaking country, though I could have gone to Paterson.
Good to connect with Zoe. Enjoying our traveling time together, Great traveling buddy. I am a bit concerned, difficult for me to make schedules and appointments.
Tomorrow, the mooon rises, and the possibilities of tomorrow shed a bright light on us.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
26 December 2009 Fears and Hopes
Initial notes, spirit and heart opening wide. Though I had thought that I would do a lot of planning, having a complete program of activities, instead i have the basic outline of what I want to do and accomplish. First to observe, listen, absorb, breathe, and savor the complex pathos of Palestine.
For several years I had been writing a series of travel articles under the broad title of Geometry of Time. I had been in Venice, old Cairo, Prague, Taj Mahal, and other buildings and cities shaped by the slow conversation of time, from aeon to aeon, buildings and city created with an intention in the best plans, but a city that has soul, character, and life is one that is shaped by the passage of time and people.
Some cities are easier to see this, like Venice, where the hundreds of years have
Today, and for the past few days, the predominant emotion is a fear, not of travel or even death, but leaving before I've finished what I need to do and say. Some regrets over the vast amounts of time squandered in making a living, away from writing. Now at 55 a fairly good body of work, but not the complete scope of what I want to leave.
Yesterday with nieces and nephews, appreciating their growth as people, conner, annique, kenny, and jg. A poignant and whistful sense as I saw Annique in the years to come. As a mother and her transformation. Wanting to be witness first hand this change.
As with all travels, time to go to the train, on to NYC. Web in NYC on Park Avenue.
More of the whistfulness. A full month of travel. Yes initially, I hate to travel and then when I put my feet on the ground I am ready to roll.
Hopefully, time to chat tomorrow. Plane flight tonight to Paris, but not 2 0r 3 day layover. A perfect treat of Paris.
For several years I had been writing a series of travel articles under the broad title of Geometry of Time. I had been in Venice, old Cairo, Prague, Taj Mahal, and other buildings and cities shaped by the slow conversation of time, from aeon to aeon, buildings and city created with an intention in the best plans, but a city that has soul, character, and life is one that is shaped by the passage of time and people.
Some cities are easier to see this, like Venice, where the hundreds of years have
Today, and for the past few days, the predominant emotion is a fear, not of travel or even death, but leaving before I've finished what I need to do and say. Some regrets over the vast amounts of time squandered in making a living, away from writing. Now at 55 a fairly good body of work, but not the complete scope of what I want to leave.
Yesterday with nieces and nephews, appreciating their growth as people, conner, annique, kenny, and jg. A poignant and whistful sense as I saw Annique in the years to come. As a mother and her transformation. Wanting to be witness first hand this change.
As with all travels, time to go to the train, on to NYC. Web in NYC on Park Avenue.
More of the whistfulness. A full month of travel. Yes initially, I hate to travel and then when I put my feet on the ground I am ready to roll.
Hopefully, time to chat tomorrow. Plane flight tonight to Paris, but not 2 0r 3 day layover. A perfect treat of Paris.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Updates December 2009
Happy and Safe Holiday to all.
I'm pleased to share with you two books: On the Island of Binga Bonga The War that Never Was
that is at - http://www.vermontpoet.com/books.html
It is a free download of a book and story for children. My friend and colleague Naomi Bennett has
made this into a play that she is performing with children in Cambridge. I saw the preliminary play
it was fun.
Also, Journal of the Plague: Living and Working with AIDS. The first chapter is on line. It is the story
of the patients and my work as a nurse working on end-stage AIDS ward at a Veterans Hospital.
Also, the new video, How to Make a Child a Suicide Bomber.
BEATNIK CAFE:http://www.vermontpoet.com/beatnikcafe.html. Will debut in NYC on 11 April 2010
Sunday 7 PM. At the Richmond Shepard Theater. Directed by Naomi Bennett. Buy tickets early!!!
Kulandia: Our space- sci fi ecological performance is on YOU TUBE at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG0swEwNQf0
This has now been turned into a full length play that we are hoping to debut in 2010 it
is called LOVE FIRE REDEMPTION. Naomi directing this circus, sci fi eco story!
New Play FOUR PROPHETS is in the final stages. Part installation project, part play. Jesus, Mohammed, Moses,
and Satan meet in a public restroom to discuss what has failed - religion, the disciples, or humans.
Peace Garden/ Land Mine Project: Peace Garden installation fountain for Sarasota made of old military weapons
is in the early stages in Florida. Possible installation of Land Mine Garden in Cambridge.
$680 Billion Dollar Projects: Series of projects on the outrageous military US budget of $680 billion dollars. We actually
spend far more. Stay tuned. Looking for volunteers to help. We need to invest and rebuild America
Grace Cares: New projects at our not for profit http://www.gracecares.com/ new projects scheduled
for Morocco a reforestation project, on-going projects in India.
GREAT HOLIDAY PRESENTS: You can support Grace cares directly or purchase VERMONT ART POETRY http://www.vermontartpoetry.com/
posters, poems, books VERMONT MY HOME and GOD SEX POLITICS. GREAT CHRISTMAS/ Holiday presents. For every donation
to Grace Cares we will send you a book or poster!
On going updates at www.vermontpoet.blogspot.com
APPLE SEED HEALTH in 2010: Grass roots patient education for holistic health care modules. 20 top ailments
with common sense treatment, herbal, homeopathic. Cost of the course, each participant has to train 10 others.
Need volunteers to help. Please. Fun project.
Off to Jordan, Israel, Palestine December 26 to Jan 23.
Our Annual Holiday Letter
http://vermontpoet.blogspot.com/2009/11/2009-letter.html
A few updates and hope everyone is well, safe, and joyful in the new year
Namaya
Real Joy
Give me a *Christmas of joy
and keep all those useless toys.
Tinsel and wrap, just more trash,
now listen to my rap and stash
Forget Donner, Comet, Blitzen
and those other fancy kibitzens.
The elves are underpaid midgets
for sweatshops to make widgets!
Scrooge or curmudgeon my name?
Humbug!
Dig my crazy Christmas dream.
Every child who hungers would be fed,
loved and each night sleep well in their bed.
The homeless would wake safe and snug
with a sleepy contented smiled on their mug.
Every prayer of peace would be answered
and every single aspiration for hope heard
truly at last, through the land
we can call out
A merry Christmas to you all.
Ho! Ho!Ho!
++++++
***Happy Christmas, Pagan Solstice, Hanukkah,etc.
namaya
www.vermontpoet.com
www.thejazzpoet.com
I'm pleased to share with you two books: On the Island of Binga Bonga The War that Never Was
that is at - http://www.vermontpoet.com/books.html
It is a free download of a book and story for children. My friend and colleague Naomi Bennett has
made this into a play that she is performing with children in Cambridge. I saw the preliminary play
it was fun.
Also, Journal of the Plague: Living and Working with AIDS. The first chapter is on line. It is the story
of the patients and my work as a nurse working on end-stage AIDS ward at a Veterans Hospital.
Also, the new video, How to Make a Child a Suicide Bomber.
BEATNIK CAFE:http://www.vermontpoet.com/beatnikcafe.html. Will debut in NYC on 11 April 2010
Sunday 7 PM. At the Richmond Shepard Theater. Directed by Naomi Bennett. Buy tickets early!!!
Kulandia: Our space- sci fi ecological performance is on YOU TUBE at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG0swEwNQf0
This has now been turned into a full length play that we are hoping to debut in 2010 it
is called LOVE FIRE REDEMPTION. Naomi directing this circus, sci fi eco story!
New Play FOUR PROPHETS is in the final stages. Part installation project, part play. Jesus, Mohammed, Moses,
and Satan meet in a public restroom to discuss what has failed - religion, the disciples, or humans.
Peace Garden/ Land Mine Project: Peace Garden installation fountain for Sarasota made of old military weapons
is in the early stages in Florida. Possible installation of Land Mine Garden in Cambridge.
$680 Billion Dollar Projects: Series of projects on the outrageous military US budget of $680 billion dollars. We actually
spend far more. Stay tuned. Looking for volunteers to help. We need to invest and rebuild America
Grace Cares: New projects at our not for profit http://www.gracecares.com/ new projects scheduled
for Morocco a reforestation project, on-going projects in India.
GREAT HOLIDAY PRESENTS: You can support Grace cares directly or purchase VERMONT ART POETRY http://www.vermontartpoetry.com/
posters, poems, books VERMONT MY HOME and GOD SEX POLITICS. GREAT CHRISTMAS/ Holiday presents. For every donation
to Grace Cares we will send you a book or poster!
On going updates at www.vermontpoet.blogspot.com
APPLE SEED HEALTH in 2010: Grass roots patient education for holistic health care modules. 20 top ailments
with common sense treatment, herbal, homeopathic. Cost of the course, each participant has to train 10 others.
Need volunteers to help. Please. Fun project.
Off to Jordan, Israel, Palestine December 26 to Jan 23.
Our Annual Holiday Letter
http://vermontpoet.blogspot.com/2009/11/2009-letter.html
A few updates and hope everyone is well, safe, and joyful in the new year
Namaya
Real Joy
Give me a *Christmas of joy
and keep all those useless toys.
Tinsel and wrap, just more trash,
now listen to my rap and stash
Forget Donner, Comet, Blitzen
and those other fancy kibitzens.
The elves are underpaid midgets
for sweatshops to make widgets!
Scrooge or curmudgeon my name?
Humbug!
Dig my crazy Christmas dream.
Every child who hungers would be fed,
loved and each night sleep well in their bed.
The homeless would wake safe and snug
with a sleepy contented smiled on their mug.
Every prayer of peace would be answered
and every single aspiration for hope heard
truly at last, through the land
we can call out
A merry Christmas to you all.
Ho! Ho!Ho!
++++++
***Happy Christmas, Pagan Solstice, Hanukkah,etc.
namaya
www.vermontpoet.com
www.thejazzpoet.com
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem?
The Palestinian problem has been an enormous thorn in the relations between Israel and the greater world. This has prevented a capable Western styled government from bringing the full fruits of its democracy to the Middle East. With the constant niggling and debate of rights, it is time for Israel to assert its full historic right to the full and final occupation of Greater Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River to Lebanon and south to Sinai. We can stop the illusion and fantasy of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. Historically, this land was Israel, with stretches of time occupied by every power in the region. Though we had left the area for two thousand years, does it matter whether it was two days or two thousand years? Of course not. It is now time to fully reclaim this land and come to a final solution to the Palestinian problem. The moral clarity of my argument and this solution will shatter any sentimental notions. How absurd the notion of Palestinians with any rights to their “ancestral homeland.”
Though one can object to some “final solutions” previously, there were merits to it. Ironically, Germany’s final solution, allowed for the creation of the state of Israel, and Adolph Hitler may have inadvertently done more for Jews than Herzog. Though it is easy to condemn Hitler, there was a grain of clarity to his final solution, and Netanyahu has copied Hitler’s unflinching moral clarity. Israel needs to stop depending on the United States for $3 billion dollars annually and to stop spending 45% of its GNP on military. This money can really bring back the Garden of Eden in the greater Levant. Before the creation of the state of Israel, the area was farms, fishing enterprises, and some minor industries, a backwards society that lived for generations tending the land. It was only when Israel took over the archaic farms and made them into modern agribusiness, created arms industries, one of the world’s largest armies, and yes, a very capable nuclear weapons system. It is time to rip off the veil of this illusion. Israel is the most powerful army in the Middle East and the sooner we take this necessary and, albeit politically awkward public relations problem of the Palestinians, the sooner we can get on with fulfilling the prophecies.
Gaza can be a beautiful beachfront resort once we relocate Hamas to Somalia or Sudan. We have worked diligently to get the world to see that this so-called National Liberation Movement is in truth a terrorist organization and that all of our actions to wipe out this scourge are a blessing for Israel and all peace loving democracies. Not all Gazans need to leave; there are many positions available in the service industry where we will need labor, but maintaining absolute fealty to the fatherland -- Israel. The genius of Israelis and labor of loyal Palestinians is a perfect answer to a previously backwards hot bed of terrorism.
All Palestinians who choose not to become citizens of Israel (of course not full citizens, since full citizenship requires conversion to Judaism, but a limited citizenship in the way that Black Jews and other Palestinians have been incorporated into our society) would be shown the bridge to Jordan. In the way that the US uses illegal aliens, we too need people to work our farms, wait on tables, and do the necessary manual labor. Of course, with the talented tenth, the extraordinary Palestinians who accept the notion of an Uber Israeli Jewish state we can accommodate them and integrate them into our society. After all, most Muslims in the region were Jews forcibly converted to that Mohammed or the Christian ideology. Those who chose not to participate in this great democracy will be removed to Jordan, which is already sixty percent Palestinian. This would also provide a great opportunity for the people who claim displacement in Lebanon to reunite with their families. Our vision of a pure homeland that allows for democracy and security to flourish in the context of a Jewish state is a logical conclusion: Wouldn’t you agree?
Though the removal will initially be traumatic the final solution in greater Israel will allow for unprecedented opportunities for Palestinians in Jordan or other countries in the Middle East. Unless there is the preposterous notion of Palestinians having their own fully functioning independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, which can peacefully, co-exist with Israel? Two state solution of Palestine and Israel, or choice of an Uber Israeli Jewish state? The choice is clear.
Though one can object to some “final solutions” previously, there were merits to it. Ironically, Germany’s final solution, allowed for the creation of the state of Israel, and Adolph Hitler may have inadvertently done more for Jews than Herzog. Though it is easy to condemn Hitler, there was a grain of clarity to his final solution, and Netanyahu has copied Hitler’s unflinching moral clarity. Israel needs to stop depending on the United States for $3 billion dollars annually and to stop spending 45% of its GNP on military. This money can really bring back the Garden of Eden in the greater Levant. Before the creation of the state of Israel, the area was farms, fishing enterprises, and some minor industries, a backwards society that lived for generations tending the land. It was only when Israel took over the archaic farms and made them into modern agribusiness, created arms industries, one of the world’s largest armies, and yes, a very capable nuclear weapons system. It is time to rip off the veil of this illusion. Israel is the most powerful army in the Middle East and the sooner we take this necessary and, albeit politically awkward public relations problem of the Palestinians, the sooner we can get on with fulfilling the prophecies.
Gaza can be a beautiful beachfront resort once we relocate Hamas to Somalia or Sudan. We have worked diligently to get the world to see that this so-called National Liberation Movement is in truth a terrorist organization and that all of our actions to wipe out this scourge are a blessing for Israel and all peace loving democracies. Not all Gazans need to leave; there are many positions available in the service industry where we will need labor, but maintaining absolute fealty to the fatherland -- Israel. The genius of Israelis and labor of loyal Palestinians is a perfect answer to a previously backwards hot bed of terrorism.
All Palestinians who choose not to become citizens of Israel (of course not full citizens, since full citizenship requires conversion to Judaism, but a limited citizenship in the way that Black Jews and other Palestinians have been incorporated into our society) would be shown the bridge to Jordan. In the way that the US uses illegal aliens, we too need people to work our farms, wait on tables, and do the necessary manual labor. Of course, with the talented tenth, the extraordinary Palestinians who accept the notion of an Uber Israeli Jewish state we can accommodate them and integrate them into our society. After all, most Muslims in the region were Jews forcibly converted to that Mohammed or the Christian ideology. Those who chose not to participate in this great democracy will be removed to Jordan, which is already sixty percent Palestinian. This would also provide a great opportunity for the people who claim displacement in Lebanon to reunite with their families. Our vision of a pure homeland that allows for democracy and security to flourish in the context of a Jewish state is a logical conclusion: Wouldn’t you agree?
Though the removal will initially be traumatic the final solution in greater Israel will allow for unprecedented opportunities for Palestinians in Jordan or other countries in the Middle East. Unless there is the preposterous notion of Palestinians having their own fully functioning independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, which can peacefully, co-exist with Israel? Two state solution of Palestine and Israel, or choice of an Uber Israeli Jewish state? The choice is clear.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
13 dead soldiers in Fort Hood -- Does it Matter?
Does it matter one more life is lost?
4,500 dead soldiers in Iraq
and Afghanistan?
Maimed?
Is it the price of Freedom?
Several hundred thousand
dead civilians.
Wounded?
Is it the price of liberation?
18,000 Americans dead because
of the lack of health care?
Is it the cost of democracy?
2 million homeless in American.
Is it the price of capitalism?
30 million without health insurance.
Is it the price of a global empire?
16,000 die every day due to
hunger?
Every 5 second another child dies?
Does it matter?
4,500 dead soldiers in Iraq
and Afghanistan?
Maimed?
Is it the price of Freedom?
Several hundred thousand
dead civilians.
Wounded?
Is it the price of liberation?
18,000 Americans dead because
of the lack of health care?
Is it the cost of democracy?
2 million homeless in American.
Is it the price of capitalism?
30 million without health insurance.
Is it the price of a global empire?
16,000 die every day due to
hunger?
Every 5 second another child dies?
Does it matter?
Monday, November 9, 2009
2009 Letter
Zoe and T -Creating Loving rEvolutions.
Holidays 2009
Dear friends;
2009 stared joyously for us knowing that a Democrat Obama was in the White House and therefore our 3 week trip to Australia would be pure fun and not relocation and job hunting. And “us kids’ did have fun exploring the spectacular natural and city wonders of the island continent. T made his Australian premiere in Sydney. Our good friends Vinay, Rachel, Maya and Ella deliciously hosted us in Melbourne which we used as a base to explore Victoria Coast (spectacular views as you can see from the postcard). Nature and wildlife was Z’s personal highlights. This included kayaking over 30ft surf to bond with the seals off the coast of Apollo Bay. T was singing “Yo soy marinero?” the whole way. We ventured to the northeast corner to oldest rainforest on earth dating back to original 1 continent 415 m years ago Pangaea. We luxuriated in a cabin at www.daintree-ecolodge.com.au (best ever spa experience, small, homey) the cabins have screened in front porches with hot tubs that let you camp “simply” in the rainforest. We moved on to simpler accommodations at http://www.capetribbeach.com.au/ located at the end of the dirt road in the Daintree at Cape Tribulation where the rainforest meets the great barrier reef.
We made lots of friends especially the night critters at X’s walk. Read T’s amazing description on X’s website.http://vermontpoet.blogspot.com/2009/02/night-walking-in-cooper-creek-in.html T also got to see the Cassowary one of Australia’s biggest birds at 75 inches tall and 120 pounds. Just walking across the road
Though despite the drought, the incredible cities, nature and people of Australia we did decide to come back home and cheer on the Obama administration and experience the biggest economic recession in US history in person. After all our beloved Tegan (featured on our postcard) would miss us. Maybe some of you would too though you would likely come visit. But maybe you will visit us in Vermont at our home on Blue Heron pond (pic here of Blue of pond). We continue to think there is no better place on earth than our pond and its surrounding 75 year old hardwood and pine forest. We recently found out we have an elm tree one of the few to have survived the blight. And our Heron or is it the son or daughter of our original Heron keeps visiting us and now even lets Zoe swim in the pond while s/he remains there.
Z continues to focus on improving life for the 455 million men and women around the globe with OAB. This year she helped launch a new product for the condition Toviaz which comes with a behavioral change program offered as part of the treatment www.toviaz.com/yourway . We both have worked most of our lives in health care with a focus on trying to increase individuals’ self-responsibility for wholistic care as a focus so it is great to see these types of programs happening. Remember you are own best doctor- take care of yourself! Because who knows if health care reform will ever really happen. Amazing how every developed country, except the US, considers healthcare to be a basic right. If only Roosevelt had lived longer Americans too would have universal access to health care (link to FDR’s 2nd Bill of Rights).
Us gypsies also traveled this summer to Italy and Greece with nephew Conner and good friend Dean to explore ancient wonders, modern gelato and to search unsuccessfully for fresh Greek dolmades (unbelievably and disappointingly to Conner dolmades are not even on the menu). (NEED PHOTO OF FAB 4 HERE) Obviously we will have to return to Greece and continue the search. Maybe the islands next time? Too many exciting things happened in 2 weeks to go into here but do visit T’s blogspot XXXX for details. How can one be anything but delighted when sitting in Trevi fountain, splashing about in Piazza Navona, eating gelato in front of the Pantheon, walking the streets of Pompeii and Herculaneum, holding your breath (in wonder and fear) for an hour while traveling from Sorrento to Positano, swimming illegally in the blue grotto, watching the full moon over Delphi, climbing on My Olympus and Mt Parnassus (looking for Centaurs) swimming in the Mediterranean….ah yes. Our last day of the trip was magical we got to visit the newly opened amazing Acropolis museum where the glass floor lets you see the excavation below you and the windows have great views of the acropolis. We then had lunch at the canal cut through the isthmus of Corinth followed by a refreshing swim on the way to the ancient Epidaurus theatre to see Lady Helen Mirren in Racine’s Phedre. http://vermontpoet.blogspot.com/2009/08/mid-summers-night-dream-with-phedra-at.html#comments
The autumn has been long and spectacular in the northeast (enjoying global warming while we can) we were able to enjoy the colors on visits to Boston to see friends while T partners with a Director there who is putting on a stage version of his children’s story Binga Bonga. Z dances through her time there learning to be a www.nianow.com instructor. This fall T celebrated his birthday with a weekend long house party with new and old friends (some of who came all the way from the Congo) to sing in his new year.
We continue to support work in international health and community development. Z is on the board of directors of Behrhorst Partners for Development which helps rural communities in the Mayan Highlands with clean drinking water, safe water for crops and latrines. You can see celebrations at our most recent project by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZWmV81IcvM For only $80 you can help a villager get this package of services. Each villager will donate in-kind labor valued at approximately $40 to match your gift and improve the life and health of their village. If you donate at www.behrhorst.com a holiday gift card will be sent to your giftee.
Both of us remain on the Board of GRACE Cares a non-profit we started to help local heroes. Go to www.gracecaresvt.com to make a donation to education projects in India, food projects in the Dominican Republic or reforestation in Morocco. If you wish to give in honor of a friend this holiday season a gift card will be sent to them in your name.
2009 & 2010 FUN PLANNING
If you would like to mix fun with volunteer work the very experienced tour guide Ms. Z will be leading a tour to Guatemala.
May 28 (arrive for dinner) through June 2nd (departures) we will see the beautiful colonial sights of Antigua, market in Chichicastenango, Lake Atilan (Z’s plans on some kayaking), visits to villages in the Mayan Highlands where we will help with a project. You can do optional add on of visits to Tikal or fishing or sailing on the Rio Dulce. For more info go to http://www.behrhorst.org/tours and see a recent tour itinerary. Approximate cost is $900 excluding airfare. Please email me at: koppzoe@yahoo.com if I get 10 people to sign up I will start planning.
PARTY!!!
This year we will be having our 20th (Z’s 32nd ) annual tree trimming party on December 13th 2009 3:00pm. So come on up for the party or night.
February 14th at 3:00pm the 33rd annual Chocolate Lover’s Party will once again provide legal intoxication with some of the world’s finest chocolates.
As always wishing you joy and peace in the new year!
Namaya Shows Music/ Performance and Creative Space:
T had shows at the Jazz Mind in Honolulu, I enjoyed performing. Then on to Sydney at El Rocco cafe - Harry and Deb backed me -- good show there. Then down to Melbourne with wonderful hosting at Cafe Voltaire. Great environment for the arts in Australia. Though it is hot. The last day were there it was 45 C. Yes, 45C. Over 115 F!
T had shows at Magnet Theater, at 5 C Cultural Center in NYC, shows in Vermont, performances in Hartford, and making terrific connections with his new creative music colleague/friend Chris Bakriges. Also, he did a new short play this year called "Kulandia" about Ku Z monaughts that travel through space on the power of an orgiastic collective moan and arrive at the planet Earth devastated by nuclear waste. My friend Naomi Bennett directed this and it should be on the internet soon.
The new play "Four Prophets" where it is part installation project with Jesus, Mohammed, Moses on 3 toilets as Satan comes wheeling in on a pimp mobile rickshaw pulled by the head of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Citibank. They then have a conversation who is to blame for the insanity of mankind?
Vietnam: Past and Present
I was down in Sydney Harbor with a a Vietnamese Man mid 50's, and as we shook hands I felt an amazing sweep of history. I as a young sailor at the end of Vietnam War and where was he? Vietnam was a defining period in my life and many in my generation. Friends and acquaintances we knew killed and maimed in the war. During my service in the Navy I met several Quakers and came to readily see the merits of pacifism. As I said at a recent Quaker Meeting, I have been a Quaker in training for the past 35 years, but even for a Friend I am quite cantankerous.
Now in Sydney Harbor, this Vietnamese man and I casually chatting... all this hatred and killing by both sides. Vietnam suffered upwards to 2 million dead, the US 60,000, plus all the wounded. Yet, we were here on holiday in Australia. Could we have imagined this 35 years ago?
$680 Billion dollars and counting:
My thoughts, then and now turn to the subject of war. I find now at 55 with the INSANE MILITARY POLICY of the US, $680 billion dollars by Congress, plus perhaps another several hundred billion dollars, I feel a profound shame and loss. How can this nation with so much greatness and potential continue to squander it on the military? How can we rob all of the future generations of America? I find it beyond belief that anyone in my generation that went through the Vietnam era can not be outraged by this on-going madness.
Then in Australia I am looking through this same lens... here is a country that spends a relatively tiny amount of money on the military and it has the money for education, housing, and health.
The book "War is a Hoax" by Smedley Butler Major General in the Marines and two time medal of honor winner spoke eloquently that the only people who war benefits is the rich capitalists.
Palestine -We will be in Jordan, then over to Israel and Palestine from 26 December on. The situation on the ground in Palestine has been getting worse. Israel continues to build housing and settlements on Palestinian land. Taking land away from Palestinians and building on it. I went to a conference in September and the group was called "End the Occupation." We continue to support this and other groups that are looking to a two state solution where there can be a viable future for the people of Palestine and Israel.
Other travels: This summer with nephew Conner and our friend Dean we traveled to Italy and Greece for two weeks. Entries on the travel section on ORACLE OF DELPHI. There is a long section in the Travel blogs about this and seeing the English national Theater performing Phaedra at Epidorous. Loved traveling with Conner, we think he will be a traveling sort.
Books:
Infidel and Cage Virgin Aaayan Hirsi Ali.
Music
Chris Bakriges: With this wonderful jazz compositions based on a Meditation of Matisse.
Donna Creighton: Singer song writer from Canada. Love her work
Poets:
Marc Zegan in Cambridge
Namaya at 55: I am getting ready for the next part of my life. In the past year, I've been decluttering my life, physically, emotionally, financially, creatively, and spiritually. That is a tall order. But in essence it is looking at what has worked for me and what hasn't. What is demanding the most attention, what projects matter the most to me, and where do I need to focus on.
Though I really enjoy Homeopathy, I have been putting this aside for now to concentrate on the creative projects and writing. I will return to homeopathy in 2010 but in a different way with our program to educate people about health entitled "Apple Seed Health."
GRACE CARES supports small scale community development projects around the world. We have one project in India that teaches health care and English and based on that the project holders are slowly moving to a broader community health project.
Please check out some of my new art projects at www.vermontpoet.com/gallery and in the music and book section, as well as the section on Landmines. One project I’ve been designing is a Peace/ Meditation Garden using old military weapons and building fountains and art projects. It combines alternative energy, community development, and design.
Hope everyone is off to a safe and healthy new year.
Love
Zoe and T and Tegan who sends "meows"
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Blissful Moment of Creativity:
It is somewhat surprising that I haven't posted since the beginning of August 08 and this is one of the most creative and productive periods of my life for art/creativity as I'm making a significant transformation that has been a long time in coming.
Personally, it has been a delightful, and transformative experience. My sense of who I am is altered. Who am I? Poet? Artist? Installation Artist? Playwright? I’ve set aside all other business activities for the near term to focus on this process of emergence. The creative flood is unsettling, nevertheless, I am in the “river” of this flow and learning to relax, enjoy the ride, and sail with the current. The shores look appealing with their certainty, but as I am letting go of my expectations, the voyage is taking my in places I never knew existed.
For the past few months, I've been drawing and designing on average of a few hours a day, some days more than 4 hours. In terms of the fine artistry skills, Michelangelo should rest comfortably in his grave that he doesn't have to rise up and challenge me. I'm more than a bit mystified as to this direction of these large installation/ multimedia projects. For years, I've often been fascinated by modern installation art, and have often been more dismissive than admiring of it ie., a stack of Fluorescent light bulbs as one of the prize finalists for the Venice biennale; a chunk of oak on the floor of the MOMA; an iron bed with a strand of barbed wire hanging from the wall of the Barcelona Modern; the Madonna painted with Elephant shit, etc. and the list of specious projects goes on. Perhaps my plebian roots are showing?
However, in the midst of a plethora of art projects that are complete bullshit, I take my own foolish plunge into that world. I am very inspired, emboldened by so many artists, who are willing to put their fools cap on and dance a merry jig.
The core of my strength is when I can fuse my vision as a poet/ artist and social change activist. I was very inspired by Shepard Fairey’s show in Boston and how this artist very successfully blended his social political vision and his art.
The greatest gift to give yourself is the gift of time. The permission to create, to sit quietly, play guitar, take off in the middle of the day to play tennis, to lie back in a pile of leaves and watch autumn unfold, or a myriad of idle pleasures. Creativity happens in these unstructured moments, I’ve wasted too much of my life being busy and trying to make money. Now with 55 approaching in a few weeks, I am totally at peace by Blue Heron Pond, and cherish the time to write and create.
Also in the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure with working and exchanging ideas with the terrific jazz pianist Chris Bakriges. Chris and I are performing in NYC and planning on some tentative long-range projects. Also, Naomi Bennett, the director worked with me on a local 24-hour play festival that was a lot of fun. It was adventures on the planet Ku-Landia where "Kus monaughts" travel through the Universe powered by a collective orgiastic moan. It is a wee bit faster than Domino’s Delivery and twice as delicious. Naomi is also working on creating “On the Island of Binga Bonga” as a children’s play.
In preparing and thinking about the project “4 Prophets” I’ve been devouring books on Islam and Modernity, the Koran, the Bible, and pushing myself on this question: What is more pernicious: The religion? The Holy Books? Humanity?
New Projects in the works:
30 October 2009 8 PM: 5 C Café in NYC on Avenue C by Tompkins Square Park with Chris Bakriges, Ken Foliano, and myself. We will record the event and the following day spend time recording in Brooklyn. The show is Jaz Mu Experience.
On the Island of Binga Bonga: I’ve had the delight of working with Naomi Bennett on the children’s book that I have on line at www.vermontpoet.com. and she is translating that into a children’s play with her students in Boston.
Spring 2009: Jaz Mu Experience: ir Reveren’ jAz: Naomi is directing and designing a troupe of about 6 actors/ dancers to perform 5 new multimedia pieces: Schizophrenetica/ Jhesus Vivaldi; Love in a Minor Key of Ku; Colors of Imagination: Jazz is a Conversation.
Haiti: In the initial steps of working with a group called RE-THINK HAITI a community development project there
In my new creative projects I found some creative mojo:
Four Prophets: I’ve detailed this before of Mohammed (mo mo), Moses (Moishe), and Jesus (J-Man) and Satan as a blues singer meet in a public restroom to discuss the arc of faith, religion, spiritually, and the fate of Man.
Be All that You Can Be: The project of some 450 – plus marching through the streets of Washington to represent the some 4,800 US lives lost in the insanity known as Iraq Afghanistan: The 5th Crusade.
Land Mine: A 15 by 15 meter barbed wire area in a public space with sand. In it are buried de-activated landmines. The landmine area is barbed wired with pictures of children maimed and killed by landmines.
Rape the Bitch: Sexual Slavery in the 21st Century
Installation/ Multimedia/ Performance Project
There are according to some estimates a million to ten million women, girls, and boys trafficked annually for sex and slavery. Bought and sold like cattle for sex.
The project is the creation of a brothel in a public space/ museum. It will be roughly 25 meters by 25 meters depending on the space. It has the lairs and labyrinth
of a brothel, where you have live models of young men and women lying on small beds in tiny cubicles. Some are chained to the bed and others not. There are also clients in the room with the young men and women. The smells of cheap perfume, sex, unwashed bodies will permeate the rooms.
Clients, viewers are invited to walk through the rooms. Observe the prostitutes and customers. Some of the women will invite the customers back to the room and draw them into the lair.
Outside Structure: the structure looks like a stage set but at the entrance it looks like one of the main thoroughfares for the red light district of Bangkok. On the outside wall of the brothel called Rape the Bitch are posters promoting sexual tourism around the world, pictures of girls and boys in the sexual slavery business, customers coming into brothels.
Other Aspect:
Video Stream of all the pornographic websites on two large screens.
ALTERNATIVES:
Alternatives like Amsterdam were the sex trade is regulated.
Workers owned brothels and cooperatives.
Dinner Party at the World Economic Forum:
Installation and Performance Project:
This is a table setting for fifty place settings of the 50 largest corporations. On the table are beautiful servings of the world’s most precious resources: water, air, oil, natural gas, gold, medicine, education/ books, etc. The candelabras are made from machine guns. The chairs are oil barrels, toxic waste barrels, chemicals etc that fuel the first world economy. Dinner is served by men and women wearing rags, and they are white gloved (of course). The plates are gold and silver.
Surrounding the dinner table is a heavy velvet rope and barbed wire. Armed security, Blackwater, is posted every few meters. You can only come in if you are on the list of the VVVIP, are ultra wealthy white, one of the 1/10 of 1% who rule the world, or you’re a servant.
Music is baroque – Mozart – a bit of night music.
Some 15 meters away or more depending on the space is the 3rd World Village.
3rd World Village
You are invited to join the people for rice and beans and a glass of water from an open well. Music is a reggae steel drum. People are gathered at tables talking and playing. People on the outside are weaving, making pottery, tending babies, forging tools.
Project
It is designed as a teaching and learning project. The project will be created by students with a focus on international Human Rights/ International Development guided by the artist. As students are assembling the project they are learning of the inequities between First and Third World Countries. They are also learning about the positive elements of Third World cultures – community, affiliation, strong sense of family, less resource dependent, and more efficiently use materials. For example, the United States has about 5% of the world’s population but uses about 25% of the resources.
Personally, it has been a delightful, and transformative experience. My sense of who I am is altered. Who am I? Poet? Artist? Installation Artist? Playwright? I’ve set aside all other business activities for the near term to focus on this process of emergence. The creative flood is unsettling, nevertheless, I am in the “river” of this flow and learning to relax, enjoy the ride, and sail with the current. The shores look appealing with their certainty, but as I am letting go of my expectations, the voyage is taking my in places I never knew existed.
For the past few months, I've been drawing and designing on average of a few hours a day, some days more than 4 hours. In terms of the fine artistry skills, Michelangelo should rest comfortably in his grave that he doesn't have to rise up and challenge me. I'm more than a bit mystified as to this direction of these large installation/ multimedia projects. For years, I've often been fascinated by modern installation art, and have often been more dismissive than admiring of it ie., a stack of Fluorescent light bulbs as one of the prize finalists for the Venice biennale; a chunk of oak on the floor of the MOMA; an iron bed with a strand of barbed wire hanging from the wall of the Barcelona Modern; the Madonna painted with Elephant shit, etc. and the list of specious projects goes on. Perhaps my plebian roots are showing?
However, in the midst of a plethora of art projects that are complete bullshit, I take my own foolish plunge into that world. I am very inspired, emboldened by so many artists, who are willing to put their fools cap on and dance a merry jig.
The core of my strength is when I can fuse my vision as a poet/ artist and social change activist. I was very inspired by Shepard Fairey’s show in Boston and how this artist very successfully blended his social political vision and his art.
The greatest gift to give yourself is the gift of time. The permission to create, to sit quietly, play guitar, take off in the middle of the day to play tennis, to lie back in a pile of leaves and watch autumn unfold, or a myriad of idle pleasures. Creativity happens in these unstructured moments, I’ve wasted too much of my life being busy and trying to make money. Now with 55 approaching in a few weeks, I am totally at peace by Blue Heron Pond, and cherish the time to write and create.
Also in the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure with working and exchanging ideas with the terrific jazz pianist Chris Bakriges. Chris and I are performing in NYC and planning on some tentative long-range projects. Also, Naomi Bennett, the director worked with me on a local 24-hour play festival that was a lot of fun. It was adventures on the planet Ku-Landia where "Kus monaughts" travel through the Universe powered by a collective orgiastic moan. It is a wee bit faster than Domino’s Delivery and twice as delicious. Naomi is also working on creating “On the Island of Binga Bonga” as a children’s play.
In preparing and thinking about the project “4 Prophets” I’ve been devouring books on Islam and Modernity, the Koran, the Bible, and pushing myself on this question: What is more pernicious: The religion? The Holy Books? Humanity?
New Projects in the works:
30 October 2009 8 PM: 5 C Café in NYC on Avenue C by Tompkins Square Park with Chris Bakriges, Ken Foliano, and myself. We will record the event and the following day spend time recording in Brooklyn. The show is Jaz Mu Experience.
On the Island of Binga Bonga: I’ve had the delight of working with Naomi Bennett on the children’s book that I have on line at www.vermontpoet.com. and she is translating that into a children’s play with her students in Boston.
Spring 2009: Jaz Mu Experience: ir Reveren’ jAz: Naomi is directing and designing a troupe of about 6 actors/ dancers to perform 5 new multimedia pieces: Schizophrenetica/ Jhesus Vivaldi; Love in a Minor Key of Ku; Colors of Imagination: Jazz is a Conversation.
Haiti: In the initial steps of working with a group called RE-THINK HAITI a community development project there
In my new creative projects I found some creative mojo:
Four Prophets: I’ve detailed this before of Mohammed (mo mo), Moses (Moishe), and Jesus (J-Man) and Satan as a blues singer meet in a public restroom to discuss the arc of faith, religion, spiritually, and the fate of Man.
Be All that You Can Be: The project of some 450 – plus marching through the streets of Washington to represent the some 4,800 US lives lost in the insanity known as Iraq Afghanistan: The 5th Crusade.
Land Mine: A 15 by 15 meter barbed wire area in a public space with sand. In it are buried de-activated landmines. The landmine area is barbed wired with pictures of children maimed and killed by landmines.
Rape the Bitch: Sexual Slavery in the 21st Century
Installation/ Multimedia/ Performance Project
There are according to some estimates a million to ten million women, girls, and boys trafficked annually for sex and slavery. Bought and sold like cattle for sex.
The project is the creation of a brothel in a public space/ museum. It will be roughly 25 meters by 25 meters depending on the space. It has the lairs and labyrinth
of a brothel, where you have live models of young men and women lying on small beds in tiny cubicles. Some are chained to the bed and others not. There are also clients in the room with the young men and women. The smells of cheap perfume, sex, unwashed bodies will permeate the rooms.
Clients, viewers are invited to walk through the rooms. Observe the prostitutes and customers. Some of the women will invite the customers back to the room and draw them into the lair.
Outside Structure: the structure looks like a stage set but at the entrance it looks like one of the main thoroughfares for the red light district of Bangkok. On the outside wall of the brothel called Rape the Bitch are posters promoting sexual tourism around the world, pictures of girls and boys in the sexual slavery business, customers coming into brothels.
Other Aspect:
Video Stream of all the pornographic websites on two large screens.
ALTERNATIVES:
Alternatives like Amsterdam were the sex trade is regulated.
Workers owned brothels and cooperatives.
Dinner Party at the World Economic Forum:
Installation and Performance Project:
This is a table setting for fifty place settings of the 50 largest corporations. On the table are beautiful servings of the world’s most precious resources: water, air, oil, natural gas, gold, medicine, education/ books, etc. The candelabras are made from machine guns. The chairs are oil barrels, toxic waste barrels, chemicals etc that fuel the first world economy. Dinner is served by men and women wearing rags, and they are white gloved (of course). The plates are gold and silver.
Surrounding the dinner table is a heavy velvet rope and barbed wire. Armed security, Blackwater, is posted every few meters. You can only come in if you are on the list of the VVVIP, are ultra wealthy white, one of the 1/10 of 1% who rule the world, or you’re a servant.
Music is baroque – Mozart – a bit of night music.
Some 15 meters away or more depending on the space is the 3rd World Village.
3rd World Village
You are invited to join the people for rice and beans and a glass of water from an open well. Music is a reggae steel drum. People are gathered at tables talking and playing. People on the outside are weaving, making pottery, tending babies, forging tools.
Project
It is designed as a teaching and learning project. The project will be created by students with a focus on international Human Rights/ International Development guided by the artist. As students are assembling the project they are learning of the inequities between First and Third World Countries. They are also learning about the positive elements of Third World cultures – community, affiliation, strong sense of family, less resource dependent, and more efficiently use materials. For example, the United States has about 5% of the world’s population but uses about 25% of the resources.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
A Mid-summer’s Night Dream with Phedra at Epidorous
It was a mid-summer’s night dream with the full moon overhead as we saw the ancient play Phedra at Epidorous in
We had traveled through northern
Phedra, originally entitled Hippolytus by Euripides is a classic Greek tragedy. Racine, the French playwright created his version of the play with the name of Phaedra. This current incarnation of Phaedra adapted into English by the poet Ted Hughes is a tale that embodies the Greek tragedy, the human foibles of
In the play, Hippolytus, the son of King Theseus and stepson of Phaedra, in Theseus’ absence Phaedra falls in love with Hippolytus, but he rejects her as he is in love with Aricia. Phedra accuses Hippolytus of seducing her. Upon learning this, Theseus banishes his son and asks the god Poseidon to punish him. A colossal bull rises from the sea and frightens Hippolytus’ horses, which drag him to his death. Phaedra in remorse poisons herself.
The ancient amphitheater with its perfect acoustics enables the actors to perform without amplification to a theater that holds 17,000 people. This is one of the enchantments of the production, bare-bone theatre without a sound system, a minimum of lighting, five chairs placed in the fore of the stage and one simple table with a bowl of water as the only fixed props. The actors wore an odd amalgam of clothes, as if each actor had gone to a Thrift store and purchased their own costume. The soldiers and advisers dressed like fascist black-shirts, the nurse maid attired like an old crone, Phaedra in a contemporary simple purple gown, Aricia in a white short toga, Theseus in shirt and trousers, and despite the lack of overt coherency – it came off splendidly. The costumes were simple suggestions and didn’t overwhelm the performance or distract the audience.
The power of the play was the language -- glorious, rich, and well spoken. This is the soul of the National Theater where actors genuinely love the word and without artifice bring it to life. In a screen above the backstage, the English translated to Modern Greek.
Helen Mirrin gave a beautifully crafted performance -- emotions brought to life with a gesture or a rise in the voice, a mood evoked with a turn of the head, as she seamlessly worked with the other actors. Dominic Cooper, an accomplished actor played Hippolytus though sometimes not fully embodying the essence of Hippolotous’s profound contradictions. Theseus, played by the imposing Stanley Townsend, was superb, the voice and clarity of character filled the stage: He was every inch the king, the father, and Zeus. The sum of the performance by this stellar cast, with outstanding direction by Nicholas Hynter and set design by Bob Crowley, created a memorable theater experience measured by the hush and the awe of the crowd. At the end when Aricia, her white robes covered in blood, dragged the bloody corpse of Hippolytus on stage the audience was on the edge of their seats, lust and the tragic consequence of betrayal was there for us to see.
The applause was a slow rising tide that built to a crescendo, with three curtain calls, and a standing ovation as the audience was stunned realizing they had seen one of the finest theater performances of their life. The moon overhead, the Goddess Selene, twin sister of Apollo, illuminated the amphitheater of Epidorous. On leaving I heard at least a dozen languages spoken, excitedly talking about the play, slowly walking through the dark to the waiting cars. Perhaps like in the ancient days – during the times of festivals, wars were suspended. In a golden age yet to come, when the imagination is inspired and the magic of theater touches our soul, perhaps that enchantment will lead to an age of lasting peace.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
I want a Wise Latina on the Court
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” said Judge Sotomayor,
I want a Wise Latina on the Court
Justice is not blind, but it does see through a set of lens in the USA. If you are poor, disadvantaged, poor black or poor Latino, a shanty-town white Appalachian your experience with the law will be very different than if you are a rich white person and in the rare case a wealth black football player. The evidence is in the prisons overwhelmingly filled with Black, Latino, and poor whites. Occasionally, a wealth white guy will serve hard time… at one of those golf club prisons, but except in cases of extreme stupidity or greed, white rich guys get a free pass. As a white working class man I want a justice system that represents the diversity of Americans. Nevertheless, I don’t believe ethnicity or class gives you the sole advantage of perspective, but in the case of Judge Sotomayor, who through dint of integrity, intelligence, and hard work brought herself up from the hardscrabble childhood of the Bronx. This vantage point of a highly qualified wise Latina jurist is sorely needed on our Supreme court.
White wealthy Republican senators on the judicial committee are apoplectic that the subject of race is mentioned. From their ill informed perspective -- justice is blind, everyone is treated equally under the law, and though we wish that were true, the reality is to the contrary. White people, myself included, do not like being confronted on their racism, collectively or personally, and when the subject comes up we want to say, “But my best friends are…” or retreat into clichés of fictitious fraternity. Despite an African American president, the US is still a racist/ classist society, both by history and present reality. Though there’s been great strides, we are a society defined by this racism, and to not recognize it – is myopic at best, at worst it perpetuates the racism.
Though the selection of Justice Sotomayor will not instantly mitigate the racism or bias, the unique perspective of a jurist with the depth of her experience, knowledge, and the wisdom of a well qualified Latina jurist will well serve the Supreme court.
I want a Wise Latina on the Court
Justice is not blind, but it does see through a set of lens in the USA. If you are poor, disadvantaged, poor black or poor Latino, a shanty-town white Appalachian your experience with the law will be very different than if you are a rich white person and in the rare case a wealth black football player. The evidence is in the prisons overwhelmingly filled with Black, Latino, and poor whites. Occasionally, a wealth white guy will serve hard time… at one of those golf club prisons, but except in cases of extreme stupidity or greed, white rich guys get a free pass. As a white working class man I want a justice system that represents the diversity of Americans. Nevertheless, I don’t believe ethnicity or class gives you the sole advantage of perspective, but in the case of Judge Sotomayor, who through dint of integrity, intelligence, and hard work brought herself up from the hardscrabble childhood of the Bronx. This vantage point of a highly qualified wise Latina jurist is sorely needed on our Supreme court.
White wealthy Republican senators on the judicial committee are apoplectic that the subject of race is mentioned. From their ill informed perspective -- justice is blind, everyone is treated equally under the law, and though we wish that were true, the reality is to the contrary. White people, myself included, do not like being confronted on their racism, collectively or personally, and when the subject comes up we want to say, “But my best friends are…” or retreat into clichés of fictitious fraternity. Despite an African American president, the US is still a racist/ classist society, both by history and present reality. Though there’s been great strides, we are a society defined by this racism, and to not recognize it – is myopic at best, at worst it perpetuates the racism.
Though the selection of Justice Sotomayor will not instantly mitigate the racism or bias, the unique perspective of a jurist with the depth of her experience, knowledge, and the wisdom of a well qualified Latina jurist will well serve the Supreme court.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Farewell to Blue Heron Pond
Though on the surface I'm going away for only a two week period to Italy and Greece, there is a part of me that feels like I will never return. The poignancy of love, even new love where the departure is painful, and leaving BHP in the middle of summer is a mixed blessing. I have reached the point in life where I don't want to travel anywhere else, I don't want to voyage further, the only place I want to be is here at the pond. Though I will always wander in my soul and imagination, my spirit ever restless, it is by being rooted here that I find my greater clarity and purpose. I don't need to be the vagabond, wandering minstrel, I am satisfied with my voice and spirit as one part of the conversation of life on the pond. There are far more eloquent singers and poets here, the dozens of birds by the pond, with their chorale of life and birth. Conversations across the airwaves -- "Good morning, lovely day here at the pond." "Good eats down by the rock." "My hormones are ready today, let's mate" "Here my sexy song!" The voices of all of god's glorious creatures by the waters. Each song is enchantment and the crow's boisterous bellowing interruptions are quiet today, blue jay's screech gone, and the sweetness of the early morning birds are glorious. Even though I was awakened by them at about 5 this morning. I can still appreciate them.
Talking with Joe these past few days about life in Hati and the tremendous loss of nature and life, the depredation, and poverty. Yet, I am here by these waters, enjoying and savoring paradise.
I write to hold this prayer of Blue Heron Pond. To hold the songs in my spirits, to cherish each moment of this paradise. I send this blessing out across the airways, a private reverie and blessing from the birds and creatures by this pond. Is their song -- savor this paradise? Enjoy this corner of heaven?
Wherever you are today, in whatever part of the globe, find your small corner of paradise. A flower growing in a city sidewalk crack, let it be your garden, let the dreaming roots speak to your soul and the flowers inspire your imagination. Hug a tree, no matter how slender or modest, and feel its presence. Smell the air and find the sweetness of breath. Appreciate and savor for even an instant the miracle of life.
At Blue Heron Pond, this insistent quiet presence of the miracle of life is spoken in each tree, blade of grass, flower, bird song, and held in the wind - here in this sacred crucible.
I will miss this corner of heaven,as I travel, but as always to these that are dearest to our being, we keep them close in our soul. I cherish Blue Heron Pond this morning.
Talking with Joe these past few days about life in Hati and the tremendous loss of nature and life, the depredation, and poverty. Yet, I am here by these waters, enjoying and savoring paradise.
I write to hold this prayer of Blue Heron Pond. To hold the songs in my spirits, to cherish each moment of this paradise. I send this blessing out across the airways, a private reverie and blessing from the birds and creatures by this pond. Is their song -- savor this paradise? Enjoy this corner of heaven?
Wherever you are today, in whatever part of the globe, find your small corner of paradise. A flower growing in a city sidewalk crack, let it be your garden, let the dreaming roots speak to your soul and the flowers inspire your imagination. Hug a tree, no matter how slender or modest, and feel its presence. Smell the air and find the sweetness of breath. Appreciate and savor for even an instant the miracle of life.
At Blue Heron Pond, this insistent quiet presence of the miracle of life is spoken in each tree, blade of grass, flower, bird song, and held in the wind - here in this sacred crucible.
I will miss this corner of heaven,as I travel, but as always to these that are dearest to our being, we keep them close in our soul. I cherish Blue Heron Pond this morning.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Creative Journey
CREATIVE JOURNEY: Peace Art Work and Installation Projects:
Deeply inspired by "Found art"
Yesterday I spent about 5 hours working on new drawings and designs for installation and gallery projects. Though I do not have a "formal" background in arts and drawing, I have always drawn and designed, though very little I've shared with the broader public. I feel like the drag queen who's been in the closet too long and has been taking the tiniest steps forward to bring her true nature out to the world. Is that almost a mixed metaphor?
I was at
I've seen museum exhibitions around the world: Barcelona Modern where there was an iron bed on the wall with barbed wire, St.Francis with splotches of red and black, or the Venice Biennale where I felt like such a hillbilly. At the
On a positive note, I am drawn to creating works for public spaces. Public spaces are rooms for arguments, discussion, ideas, exchange of ideas, vigorous debates, confrontations of aesthetic, challenging our perceptions, challenging our sensibilities. In addition, yes, it is permissible and encouraged, when art appears as bullshit to call it that. You may not be right, but too much of modern art or conceptual work sets off my crap detector. The Venice Biennale with the first prize of two chairs on a track, I thought, JFC, “I am in the wrong profession.”
However, I’ve seen the
I have gone through such a long journey of exploration in arts and in this period reflecting how much I’ve absorbed over the years from the hundreds of shows and exhibitions both of modern and traditional painting and design.
This past week in San Francisco with my friend and wonderful!! performance artist and musician Idriss Ackmoor. He is writing and developing this amazing new work called "Breach." What an inspiration and I so savored the opportunity to catch up with this artist. His theater group is Cultural Odyssey.
I am attracted to the art of peace as an artist and as a Quaker. How is the theme of Peace an art form? In the last few months I’ve been sketching and designing a peace garden. I remember Mai Lin’s work when I first saw it. I was struck by its elegant power and beauty. Her design was drawn from the heart, it was a simple primal expression, as painful as the cry of a mother holding a dead child. As a nurse, I’ve heard that cry, and nothing is more painful than the loss of a child.
I wish to capture that savage brutal scream. I recall Yoko Ono’s wails that people found unfathomable, I think it was some of that pain of grieving. I like her work now with the imagine peace campaign. Also, the Peace of Wild Things with Jay Clayton is superb.
Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, it is a state of synthesis, drawing together the disparate parts. It is a time where the overt and active violence may cease, but it is a caesura, the time of reflecting and synthesis. Eros and Thanatos are the twin forces of nature. Human nature is conflict. Life is conflict. Conflict and the dynamic of change is imperative to growth. Otherwise, there is stasis.
It is unmanaged conflict that is the problem, the inability to engage constructively in conflict, and work with conflicting viewpoints there is a problem and ultimately war. I do not have a great deal of faith in humanity, the concept is wonderful, but the practicality and the embodiment of it leaves much to be desire. As Gandhi so archly said when he was asked what he thought of Christianity he said, “It would be a good idea.”
As a feisty Irish Quaker, I am always interested in the issues of peace and conflict. At one time I, though I was going to get my PhD in Peace and Conflict studies. After all, wouldn’t you have a person who intimately knows conflict to teach it? Well, maybe…
I am also witnessing the destruction of the USA from the ravenous desire to feed the military. I use a figure widely quoted of 22 to 25% of our GNP on military and related expenditures. Though I’m not sure I can help to mitigate it, I am called to respond to it through my art.
One of the large projects that has the most power for me is:
BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE: A PRAYER
Organizing 4,440 people, men, women, & children in ponchos, helmets, boots, painted in grey face, marching in front of the White House and to the Vietnam Memorial spot. Each cloth poncho has the name of a soldier US killed in
A simple prayer. Recorded. Held and cherished.
If I do this project it will take up to six months to a year. I do not know if it can happen quicker with all the twitter and blog work. I would do it as a movie versus a protest march. It is a prayer.
On the
This children’s story is www.vermontpoet.com in the gallery
If there were no more wars what would the children do?
This is a long simmering project that I wrote years ago as a play and now it is a movie installation and performance piece. It is about twenty minutes in length. It opens with a soldier’s boots, the martial music is thumping, and gradually when you look into the faceit is that of an eight year old boy. Then you see a group of children on the side of the stage playing. A drill sergeant calls out for the soldier to assume “Ready! Aim! Fire!” as he raises his gun at the children. And next?
Ironically, as I am writing this, a gun range about 2 kilometers from my house and someone is firing a shot gun.
COST OF MILITARY:
Community project where people in the community put a price ticket on the cost of war around town. A simple price tag on paper.
One M-16 = $
One bullet=
The lifetime care of a wounded soldier
The cost of a dream lost:
The cost of a burial:
Hunting: A
A photo exhibition inspired by a 12 year old girl smiling after she killed a deer. I was stunned. How could anyone smile after they killed something? How could you see an animal close enough to kill it and feel its spirit, and view it as a sport. There is a profound disconnect for me to see this.
The photography project is to shoot, every pun intended, a child on the hunt, the moment of her killing an animal, gutting it, and sitting down with the family to eat it.
Let the viewers decide.
Tommy Got His GUN:
A video that I've been sketching on a boy inspired by his video game and Columbine goes on a killing spree.
Summary
Now to the business of making some do re mi!
Deeply inspired by "Found art"
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
My Creative Journey: Vermont Our Home & othe work
The best part of my creative process can be seen in my daily journals. This year I am weighing in at 680 pages so far. I wake up each day by Blue Heron Pond and write for at least an hour to two hours, and lately, this has stretched out to as much as six hours.
As the philosopher Krishanamurti said, the flame of attention. This is my on-going daily meditation, my invitation to look at the world, to be awed by it with all of its flaws and beauty, and to pay attention to my own creative process.
I included a sample of this in the jAz mU entry below, I left it raw with its certain savage beauty intact. Though I like to make sure my writings are clean and flawless, unfortunately, I struggled with getting precise clean copy.
I feel always at the point between birth and dying. There is such clarity and beauty in the world around me. I will miss this amazing life and world, I will miss the friendships and family, I will miss the joy of waking up at Blue Heron Pond, the loves of my life, and as this moment draws closer – valuing each moment as my senses drink in the memory of this paradise called life.
I leave these words, stories, and journeys of the imagination. I hope they inspire you.
Creativity is freedom.
New works:
The show opens with GAIA the beginning of the day and the creation of the land. As the "day" begins the trees, the wind, the spirits, and animals roar to life. It is a celebration of this moment of creativity, when god/gods created this jewel of a paradise, blessed it with rivers filled with life, sunrises so glorious it inspired the birds to sing, mountains that converse with the clouds and the sky, flowers ecstatically vibrant with colors, and each part of this land a sensuous and joyful creation.
I love the story not only of the land but the people of Vermont -- the dairy farmers, the farmers, the craftsmen, poets, tennis players and sports people, the hip hop kids, rappers, artists, factory workers, stay at home moms and dads, all of these folks that make up our state. Our state motto is Freedom and Unity, and it has often given me pause to think what this means. It represents the values and traditions of tolerance and respect.
I have travelled to between 75 and 100 countries around the world and to most parts of the
We are having a ton of fun sketching out the ideas for Vermont Our Home and inviting other folks into the dialogue and discussion. A large project of kites and sails for the
Blue Skies over the
This is a LONG! term interest of mine and that I had created in the project called "Laundry list of wishes" at www.vermontpoet.com/gallery.` A poem or story speaks when Ï see it, when I taste it, and smell it. Even "classical" poems from the Cavalier period like to "Althea from Prison" or "To My Coy Mistress" you can feel and experience these on a visceral level. In my word/ art creations on banners and cloth/ glass/ other materials I try to add some of these dimensions of texture, motion, and light as they converse with the piece. The interaction and interplay between the pieces' environment shapes the piece. Truly, a phenomenological experience, the discourse between object and viewer.
GARBAGE:
Another project, which I designed, and haven't executed is "GARBAGE." Originally, this was designed based on the garbage dump in
Opus One:
Not Opus Dei, but at Opus 40 in Saugerties
Sweet Pond Eco Community
I've been inspired by architecture and design for years, but have done little to bring this perspective forward in a larger way until www.sweetpondecocommunity.com. This is our 9 unit eco-development in
This creative work with the Sweet Pond is an extension of my deeper vision as an artist, not confined by one medium or another, one convention, or style. The artists/creators who always inspired me with this boldness are Dali, Picasso, Da Vinci, Edison, Singer, and others who were/ are amazingly bold and refuse to be hemmed in by an ideology or convention. The world was their palette and the freshest colors drawn from the well of their imagination. Artists/ poets need to be actively involved in creating the world. Though Plato banned poets from the Republic they serve a vital role. I was distressed recently as I saw a project locally designed by a Civil Engineer, it had all the vivacity of a block of concrete. The fusion of form and function is the ideal design.
In this age of fragmentation we desperately need artists, poets, & creators. We rely on politicians, multinationals, military corporations, and oil companies to define our future. Though I am not sure that poet’s are the unacknowledged legislators, but poet’s need to take up the mantle, not only for their own personal aesthetic, but an aesthetic that embraces the social context they live in.
I am growing into a broader definition of who I am as a creative person and this is sometimes disorienting. We all like the certainty of our craft, but art is breaking down the certainty and expectation.
jAz Mu:
Installation Projects and Multimedia:
The jazz Mu installation project is called: jAz in a minor key of love. This is a 3 x 4 meter jagged board, fragments of glass, torn fabric with the jAz in a minor key of love.
On one side is the narrative and on the other are fragments on paper and parchment of the story. I was probably inspired by Dali’s work at the
It poses the question? What is story? What is narrative? How much depends on the reader? How does sound and texture influence our perception of story? What is a poem? Does it always need to be linear to “make sense”?
jAz Mu Journey:
This is a wonderful exploration and journey. This can be viewed at www.thejazzpoet.com and the www.thejazzpoet.blogspot.com. I had performed this in NYC not too long ago and in various venues. It is the direction of word, sound, art fusion.
It is jazz improvisation in the key of Ku, afflatus in the minor rifting of mU ology, the dance of Eros, the 4 car collision of Kali on cosmic cocaine, bits of stellar dander from a dying super nova, and ordinary madness that poses as revelation. William Blake with a hookah smoking opium with Tennyson, the Emperor Kublai Khan, and the Mad Hatter himself. Blake as the minor cool kat of kwa, Tennyson posing as a photon in charge of the light brigade, and the Mad Hatter needing no disguise – came in his usual drag of self-revelation. Blake was lying low and thumping on the bass, fingers deftly discerning the G minor of the key of ku.
The sweets fumes of the opium pipe sauntered in like a frail wearing a rhinestone evening dress and seduced by her own voracious charms. The reflective nature of love, the pool that narcissus drowned in, the oceans of desire, the infinity of sound, and the realization that the notes Charlie Parker played in l947 at Carnegie Hall are now reaching the periphery of the galaxy.
How could love be so cold and strange?
How could desire offer so much promise and never find its way to redemption?
I didn’t mean to rift, wander or leap through the window – suddenly appearing and dancing in the world of ku. The parting of the foam and sea, waiting for Venus to appear on the crest, dance beneath the harvest moon on a June bright night, morning howls in the rapacious excitation of a new day in
Inka Dinka do said the sailor by the Winken.
Binken and Nod slipped away into the evanescent stream of reverie. Too much of the madness in the world would compel any of us to tumble into that space of dream.
We are of clay and music, ash and start dust, and we dream and dream in the dream time world that defies order and sequence. The key of ku opens the immutable transformation of mU to unlock our souls. Released from our bondage what would we create? Would we create the paradise of madness? Could we bear the exquisite beauty of looking at the beloved face of god? A scarlet purple azalea as exquisite as the face of a new born child.
The world of jAz mu as tangible and tantalizing as the first spring tangerines that come to the markets of
of farewell from Madam Butterfly.
Jaz mU:
It is altogether too easy to slip into the stream and river of mU.
Transition:
Poetry is la lingua de mi madre, my first language, it is how I process and see the world. Poetry is my lens of clarity, reflection, meditation, and articulation. For a number of years I meditated and sat in Zazen, but I realized my language was poetry, and when I sit by the window at Blue Heron Pond my mind is clear, attention is riveted, and my senses are alive as I engaged.
But my creative energies are expanding. My confidence is growing. My experience always a ragged vestment of a good long and well lived life
This is a bit of my ragged story, unedited, as I am on the way to the airport, but I wanted to leave you a bit of my journey. Please download the music, the poems, stories, pass them on.
A blissful day to you.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Church of Kindness
I like what the Dali Llama had said, my church is kindness.
Imagine what the church of kindness would look like? No walls, no boundaries, no membership, and the only requirement for entrance would be to allow yourself to be a bit kinder to yourselves. Allow the splendor of the day & this simple pleasure of being alive to radiate through out our being.
Be kind to yourself. Do something fun today! Do something playful! Do something silly. Or do nothing at all, but stare off into the blue sky, and celebrate the day.
Imagine a world where people were engaged in kindness to themselves?
I am working on being a bit kinder to myself as well.
Thank you
Namaya
PS: new work@ www.vermontpoet.com
Imagine what the church of kindness would look like? No walls, no boundaries, no membership, and the only requirement for entrance would be to allow yourself to be a bit kinder to yourselves. Allow the splendor of the day & this simple pleasure of being alive to radiate through out our being.
Be kind to yourself. Do something fun today! Do something playful! Do something silly. Or do nothing at all, but stare off into the blue sky, and celebrate the day.
Imagine a world where people were engaged in kindness to themselves?
I am working on being a bit kinder to myself as well.
Thank you
Namaya
PS: new work@ www.vermontpoet.com
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Blue Heron Pond Ever Glorious
Today the world away from Blue Heron Pond will be consumed by a lot of craziness that not even god's love can cure. God's love, from this panthiest’s perspective is nature. Nature and the beauty of her love can mend and cure so much madness in the world if we allow it. Imagine beginning the day, like here at the pond, taking a moment to listen to the birds, watch the flowers opening to the new sun, looking at the morning light and watching the miracle begin.
Today the possibilities are limitless: The reverence for life, the peace of waters, the kindness of the sun's warmth, the smile and laughter of an infant, a kind word from a stranger, mending a misunderstanding, or simply taking a moment to enjoy the special beauty of the day. Enjoy the day. Celebrate!
Monday, May 25, 2009
HEP CAT JAZ POET MYSTIC'S JOURNEY
The mystic’s journey is my journey as a poet, but I don’t think there is a job description for it. Though much folderol has been made of it as being enlightened or excessively wise (can one be excessively wise?), that may be a sage or a saint, I am neither excessively wise nor saintly; on the contrary, my sins are legendary, my impatience well known, and my sublime foolishness is a trait I cherish well. The mystic’s journey is merely “to see, to hear, to be aware” and my power as a writer is to harness that awareness. The Western African word for awareness is “hepi” to be aware and where we get the word “hep cat,” one who is cool and aware. I like that definition of a hep cat Mystic. Nevertheless, awareness doesn’t always translate to being enlightened. My awareness is through poems, the window of my reality, and I am enchanted by the world I am seeing.
The jAz poet thang’ is to see this world in terms of its extraordinary colors and compositions
I live in a sublime state of enchantment. The mystic is one who aspires to see the enchantment or if you will, the divine in each moment. As Blake said in Auguries of Innocence
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an Hour.
Dig the infinity of your imagination!
Creatve Imperative, Blogging. Dig the infinity of you
Namaya quiet? Hardly.
Namaya
It is remarkable that I have over 645 pages of journal notes since the beginning of the year, but no entries on the main blog page since 2 April 2009. The blog world is still a mystery to me, where people gush out their thoughts and feelings, largely unedited, first draft, and voila their thoughts are broadcast to the world. I am a far more agonizingly slow writer. Though that may come as a shock to people who see me perform and watch me virtually create an entire show on stage.
My writing is always too imperfect, I like when I’ve had a full six months to a year to view it from a myriad of angles. My best editing for poetry is to tape a new poem to the kitchen cabinet and while waiting for coffee or cooking. I look at the poem from a distance. A poem is best viewed in the same way you look at a painting – give it distance, step back, look at it from various perspectives, and compare it to other poems during that period. Is the poem fresh? Are there favorite words I always come back to? Is my structure too familiar? Does the smell of garlic influence the poem? Is the impatience of brewing coffee reflected in the poem? Do I too much “delight” in delight? Ecstatic in my sea of ecstasy? Am I surprising myself? What is the jewel in the heart of the lotus?
Writing is a quick sketch and inspiration, the sudden insight, and the slow realization. While I can dash off poems and stories, there is the inhibition that most writing, in fact, all writing, is better when it is left in a drawer for a few weeks to sit and stew. It is the mold effect. When you first write, all pieces look wonderful and creative, but if you let it sit in the drawer for a day or two the mold and the imperfections easily show. By the second or third week, it looks horrendous, a science experiment gone awry, and if you're lucky, very luck, maybe a few pieces will be golden on popping out of the creative oven.
Though I am quite, perhaps too, candid at saying pretty much what comes to mind, writing mad dash missives, the truer comment and the more accurate writing is the slower more deliberate approach. I've struggled mightily with writing for decades. Some sort of brain chemical lack of insight or the unwillingness or inability to write clear cogent sentences. subject verb agreement, right tense, etc. haunts me. Though I’ve written millions of words, far too few have been as flawless as I would like. Some writer's can turn out beautifully crafted, grammatically cogent and bold sentences that appear as flawless jewels, but almost all good writers agonize over their work. I should say, the writer's I admire, are not weighed down by the artifice of cleverness, clever for the sake of being clever (which if you read the jAz mu blog I can be accused of that), but live for the pure joy of writing clear vivid sentence and well crafted stories. I love well crafted writing whether it is Calvino, Octavio Paz, Neruda, Ishigura, TC Boyle, Voltaire, Dante, Rushdie (though I admit sometimes I think he does get excessively drunk on words-- what is that libation -- Erotomania?), Faulkner, Anais Nin, Charles Frazier... and the list goes on of all the writer's who inspire me to my core. However, I am immensely inspired by other artists and craftsmen/women -- the sculptor Michael Singer who has been able to translate his artistic vision into a viable business; my jazz buddy Chris Bakridge who is so insistently loving in his exhortation "Find your tribe!; and the world of artists who were insistent on pursuing their vision Dali, Matisse, and the thousands of obscure artists who followed that divine imperative - create!
In this short missive to you today, create, dig the infinity of your imagination. Write without fear. Create without boundaries. Sing without fear of missing a note. Dig the sublime bliss of being you.
Namaya
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Nigger Hating Rednecks
In our community in Southern Vermont a group of teenagers who call themselves, “Nigger Hating Redneck Association” (NHRA) has appeared. It is a powerful opportunity to really address how racism affects us as a society and on a personal level. The teens who espoused this “Nigger Hating Redneck Association” should be invited to an open forum to clarify their opinions. Though I disagree with their perspective, I’m grateful they aren’t in the closet. I suspect that for everyone of those youngsters in the NHR there are more behind them who say nothing. The problem is when “free speech” offends or hurts someone else, then the person’s right of free speech runs up against a wall. In no case should a person feel harmed or in danger because of offensive speech. This NHRA reflects a more fundamental problem in society, despite progress over the past decades, the United States is still a profoundly racist and classist society that is evidenced by a prison population that is over sixty percent Black and Hispanic or in Vermont where minorities are ten times more likely to be incarcerated.
I want to understand how the “Nigger Hating Redneck Association” gained their insight that African Americans are somehow harmful to them. Given the population of their hometowns of Brattleboro and Guilford, Vermont are over 90% White: Why do they perceive Blacks or minorities as a threat to themselves? What are they angry at? Or is there a deeper reason: Do they not feel valued or respected? Are they fearful or alone? I want to listen to them, and by genuinely listening to them, they may be able to hear my concerns about racism and how it affects my life.
Hate mongering bigots from O’Reilly to Limbaugh fill the airwaves with their verbal flatulence, but those are the obvious examples. In the recent campaign of Hillary Clinton versus Obama, I kept hearing the subtext of the Clinton’s campaign, which was that Obama was uppity – “the elitist,” as they called him. How can you call a black man whose white mother was on welfare and who grew up poor an elitist is baffling. Bill Clinton’s ranting of Obama as inexperienced and not ready – again, was the subtext that Obama was a boy? The neo-conservatives have no corner on racism. Racism and bias are as much a part of the USA fabric as the red, white, and blue on our flag: Democrat, Republican, Conservative, or liberal the racist rat lurks in every corner.
Let us consider the vilification of Reverend Wright who correctly pointed out that the USA is a society built on the bones of African American slaves, Chinese railroad workers, Mexican farm workers, the genocide of Native American Indians, and the list goes on. The New York Times on a front page rant, stopped just short of calling Reverend Wright “a crazy nigger,” but they were too politically correct to be so overt. If you listened carefully to him, he hit the nail on the head, we are a racist society, and as a black man he has lived that experience. Though the segregated water fountains have vanished, racism and classism are tightly woven into our experience as US Americans.
Martin Luther King asked, “Do we judge a person by their character or their color?” It is imperative as a community that we draw the students who are involved in the “Nigger Hating Rednecks” into a genuine dialogue. Even when racism is deep rooted there is the possibility for profound change; for example, CP Ellis a former KKK leader became a civil rights leader in Durham North Carolina. If a former Klansman can have the possibility of transformation, then we most also hold out that possibility for these teenagers in our community to be transformed as well.
I want to understand how the “Nigger Hating Redneck Association” gained their insight that African Americans are somehow harmful to them. Given the population of their hometowns of Brattleboro and Guilford, Vermont are over 90% White: Why do they perceive Blacks or minorities as a threat to themselves? What are they angry at? Or is there a deeper reason: Do they not feel valued or respected? Are they fearful or alone? I want to listen to them, and by genuinely listening to them, they may be able to hear my concerns about racism and how it affects my life.
Hate mongering bigots from O’Reilly to Limbaugh fill the airwaves with their verbal flatulence, but those are the obvious examples. In the recent campaign of Hillary Clinton versus Obama, I kept hearing the subtext of the Clinton’s campaign, which was that Obama was uppity – “the elitist,” as they called him. How can you call a black man whose white mother was on welfare and who grew up poor an elitist is baffling. Bill Clinton’s ranting of Obama as inexperienced and not ready – again, was the subtext that Obama was a boy? The neo-conservatives have no corner on racism. Racism and bias are as much a part of the USA fabric as the red, white, and blue on our flag: Democrat, Republican, Conservative, or liberal the racist rat lurks in every corner.
Let us consider the vilification of Reverend Wright who correctly pointed out that the USA is a society built on the bones of African American slaves, Chinese railroad workers, Mexican farm workers, the genocide of Native American Indians, and the list goes on. The New York Times on a front page rant, stopped just short of calling Reverend Wright “a crazy nigger,” but they were too politically correct to be so overt. If you listened carefully to him, he hit the nail on the head, we are a racist society, and as a black man he has lived that experience. Though the segregated water fountains have vanished, racism and classism are tightly woven into our experience as US Americans.
Martin Luther King asked, “Do we judge a person by their character or their color?” It is imperative as a community that we draw the students who are involved in the “Nigger Hating Rednecks” into a genuine dialogue. Even when racism is deep rooted there is the possibility for profound change; for example, CP Ellis a former KKK leader became a civil rights leader in Durham North Carolina. If a former Klansman can have the possibility of transformation, then we most also hold out that possibility for these teenagers in our community to be transformed as well.
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