Newsflash:
Thursday, 15 March 2007 11:17
Last Updated on Saturday, 07 April 2007 17:22
The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. XII
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when your fingers
slipped inside me
i thought my world had almost ended
i thought my world had almost ended
such was my quaking
if i could have spoken
my moans would echo across the darkness
like some titanic stellar nova
if i could have spoken
my moans would echo across the darkness
like some titanic stellar nova
jet spinning out of control
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C.E.
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approaching the reluctant equinox: a dozen and more before March ends
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watching the world spin
Red is the Rose
Clearing the winter garden
Spring sun dripping into my eyes;
Down from their nest
The squirrels shake their heads
As they pass by;
Spring sun dripping into my eyes;
Down from their nest
The squirrels shake their heads
As they pass by;
Sparrows chatter loudly,
Insistent at marking their territory;
Insistent at marking their territory;
A stray cat wanders along the tree line,
Looking for eary new borns
Who might have discovered gravity.
Looking for eary new borns
Who might have discovered gravity.
The poet sweats,
Hands clothed with soil instead of pen,
Plants a small rose
Where the north wind brought death,
Sets right the cycle
From life's end to beginning still again.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
March 2007
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decades past
3L Compression
I remember counting the dots
In the acoustic tiles
As I lay there on the gurney;
In the acoustic tiles
As I lay there on the gurney;
They really should
Put t.v.'s on the ceiling
(Wide screen, surround sound,
High Definition)
-- The boredom in the E.R.,
In some ways,
Was worse than the pain
In my back.
In my back.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
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-
The first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox?
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Forty days after the last party of Mardi Gras?
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Whichever morning mom places chocolate eggs and bunnies and marshmallow peeps in a straw basket filled with plastic grass and I get sick from eating all the candy?
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starpoet
Golden the Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh!
This brain, this body,
So recently discovered:
Upright we were
Long before we were human,
Our mind's convolution trailing
Our prowness with tools,
Our fondness for violence,
Our eagerness to be the predator
Rather than the prey.
So recently discovered:
Upright we were
Long before we were human,
Our mind's convolution trailing
Our prowness with tools,
Our fondness for violence,
Our eagerness to be the predator
Rather than the prey.
Out of the Savanna
Of all the modern great apes
-- Humans, chimps and bonobos,
Orangutans and gorillas --
We are the ones whose recent brains
Are punctuated with dizzying change,
Whose handful of differences
Lead to elaborate complexity,
Whose quick neurons
Doubled then redoubled
The speed of our wit's sharp flakes.
Of all the modern great apes
-- Humans, chimps and bonobos,
Orangutans and gorillas --
We are the ones whose recent brains
Are punctuated with dizzying change,
Whose handful of differences
Lead to elaborate complexity,
Whose quick neurons
Doubled then redoubled
The speed of our wit's sharp flakes.
Fifty thousand years ago,
The last diaspora found our tongues
Walking across the continents;
Six thousand years past or so,
In our fertile near east valleys,
We retimed our brains and began to build
Our first great cities upon the land.
The last diaspora found our tongues
Walking across the continents;
Six thousand years past or so,
In our fertile near east valleys,
We retimed our brains and began to build
Our first great cities upon the land.
Still we grow, wiser in our understanding,
Of where we have come
-- Hairless humankind --
The footsteps we have left,
The species' obituary we assiduously avoided;
The brothers who have lived,
The sisters who have died,
The children who have come and gone
As we stumbled through chance and time,
And who we are and who we are becoming
As we reach out to the stars above us.
Of where we have come
-- Hairless humankind --
The footsteps we have left,
The species' obituary we assiduously avoided;
The brothers who have lived,
The sisters who have died,
The children who have come and gone
As we stumbled through chance and time,
And who we are and who we are becoming
As we reach out to the stars above us.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
March 2007
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All modern great apes
- humans, chimps, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos -
engage in at least some aggression
as males compete for females.
- humans, chimps, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos -
engage in at least some aggression
as males compete for females.
-- David Carrier
professor of biology
University of Utah
professor of biology
University of Utah
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do the math
The Tomb at Talpiot
A plain white box,
A shroud woven from straw,
His bones scattered through time,
Stolen from the family sepulchre:
A shroud woven from straw,
His bones scattered through time,
Stolen from the family sepulchre:
Jesus, son of Joseph,
Husband of Mariamne,
Father of Judah,
Prophet, rabbi,
Revolutinary leader,
Everything but the god
Husband of Mariamne,
Father of Judah,
Prophet, rabbi,
Revolutinary leader,
Everything but the god
He never claimed to be.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
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Given the aggressive behavior of modern humans and apes,
we should not be surprised to find fossil evidence
of aggressive behavior in the ancestors of modern humans.
This is important
because we have a real problem with violence in modern society.
Part of the problem is that we don't recognize
we are relatively violent animals.
Many people argue we are not violent.
But we are violent.
If we want to prevent future violence
we have to understand why we are violent.
we should not be surprised to find fossil evidence
of aggressive behavior in the ancestors of modern humans.
This is important
because we have a real problem with violence in modern society.
Part of the problem is that we don't recognize
we are relatively violent animals.
Many people argue we are not violent.
But we are violent.
If we want to prevent future violence
we have to understand why we are violent.
-- David Carrier
professor of biology
University of Utah
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life goes on until it doesn't
On My Bare Breast
I'm bound for the waves,
The ocean calls me;
The stars above my head
Beckon me join them.
With my love, I will go
Across bright starry reaches
To worlds with dying suns
Caught in their late afternoons.
Caught in their late afternoons.
With my love, we shall seek
All the pleasures the universe holds
Until our voices grow silent
And our bodies, not gently,
Slip into the last long sleep
Where time forever ends
And slowly we are forgotten
Where time forever ends
And slowly we are forgotten
By those who still can breathe
The sweet air of the green-hilled earth.
We shall not weep,
We shall not cry,
In each other's arms
We shall happily die,
We shall happily die,
And then, whatever follows,
Will be reward enough
Will be reward enough
For once being alive
And in love with my darling.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
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We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure,
which is American lives.
which is American lives.
--John McCain
On David Letterman
28 February 2006
On David Letterman
28 February 2006
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the world outside my window
The Hum
Blackhawk heading back to base,
Pulsing through the window pane:
Pulsing through the window pane:
Terrorist patrol, National Guard practicing,
Someone getting flight pay on the weekend
Or shuttling some general back and forth
To meetings vastly more important than you are:
The noise in the background of everyone's target.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
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The older we get,
the more we tend to be victims of our own fixed worldviews,
unable to see how the younger creatures of our species
are at once us and also not us in the slightest.
the more we tend to be victims of our own fixed worldviews,
unable to see how the younger creatures of our species
are at once us and also not us in the slightest.
If you see it all through a lens of fear or lack of nimble perspective,
suddenly it's all drooling MySpace sexual predators
and binge-drinking frat-boy idiots
and millions of lost brain-rotted teens
snorting ketamine off each other's stolen iPods
and then shooting each other in the face
after playing 6 million hours of Grand Theft Auto,
one giant violent sexed-up gum-snapping body-pierced
eating-disorder STD-ready freak show
ready to implode at the drop of a hat
or the shave of a Britney.
-- Mark Morford
SF Gate
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efficiency
God’s MBA
Then God defined particles and waves saying,
“Let there be light!” and there was,
Somewhere between 380 and 780 nanometers
Or the vicinity of 450-750 terra hertz.
God looked at his visible spectrum
And saw that it was good.
Then He named his colors
“Let there be light!” and there was,
Somewhere between 380 and 780 nanometers
Or the vicinity of 450-750 terra hertz.
God looked at his visible spectrum
And saw that it was good.
Then He named his colors
-- violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red –
So that they would be easier
For humankind to remember them,
Adding ultraviolet and infrared
To cover those wavelengths
Just out of human ken.
Finding what he done to be good,
God looked at his work saying
“What a marvelous thing I have created,
But I cannot let this light escape me.”
And so God humbled all light to excruciating limits,
299,792,488 meters to be exact,
Per second that is, in a vacuum that is,
Assuming such a thing could be said to exist.
Then seeing the great light that shone upon the earth
And realizing what it is he had did God said
“Let there be Lean Six Sigma!” and there were
And all was right and good on mother earth.
For humankind to remember them,
Adding ultraviolet and infrared
To cover those wavelengths
Just out of human ken.
Finding what he done to be good,
God looked at his work saying
“What a marvelous thing I have created,
But I cannot let this light escape me.”
And so God humbled all light to excruciating limits,
299,792,488 meters to be exact,
Per second that is, in a vacuum that is,
Assuming such a thing could be said to exist.
Then seeing the great light that shone upon the earth
And realizing what it is he had did God said
“Let there be Lean Six Sigma!” and there were
And all was right and good on mother earth.
Lisa Jain Thompson
March 2007
March 2007
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There was a time when I understood the term "gay"
as having a meaning above and beyond its homosexual connotations,
and that it could be used
in a variety of contexts without being homophobic.
In many ways I still do.
Indeed, there are times
when you might catch me using the word "gay" myself.
But I'm increasingly aware
that there is a massive problem
with deploying these words in everyday discourse,
and that to do so contributes to a pernicious homophobia,
which remains the last tolerated prejudice in western society.
as having a meaning above and beyond its homosexual connotations,
and that it could be used
in a variety of contexts without being homophobic.
In many ways I still do.
Indeed, there are times
when you might catch me using the word "gay" myself.
But I'm increasingly aware
that there is a massive problem
with deploying these words in everyday discourse,
and that to do so contributes to a pernicious homophobia,
which remains the last tolerated prejudice in western society.
The language is part of a dull and lazy homophobia,
in which being gay is equated with weakness and inability.
in which being gay is equated with weakness and inability.
-- Alex Stein
In the Guardian
In the Guardian
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PEACE
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Starpoetby Lisa Jain Thompson.
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