Starpoet by Lisa Jain Thompson
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Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VIII, No. XIX

Saturday, 05 May 2007 20:00 Last Updated on Saturday, 19 May 2007 18:10
The
Starpoet 
Newsletter 
Vol. VIII, No. XIX
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
<><><><><>
 
 
 
scattered rain
tempers the pollen
allows the two of us
to kiss
without me sneezing
 
unbounded spring
o'erfilled with new hope
makes us both young
if over medicated
to calm
rowdy Histamine's rages
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C.E.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
A good decision poorly executed
Is little better
Than a bad decision
With good intentions:
Results are notoriously impervious
To political desires
Unconnected from the reality
Of human existence.
 
LJT
2007
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
 
 
Between early spring and Mothers Day, with neither warm weather or a mother within my reach.  If I had an ocean, a house on the beach, or a high sierra peak with snow and a cabin, I would not be here this morning.
 
 
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
the test
 
 
 
As Yet Unblooded
 
 
 
Would I die knowingly
To protect my freedoms;
Could I take my life
So others could live?
 
 
If yes, what purpose
Could weigh so heavily
That my will would end
All I'll ever be?
 
 
If no, why would I
Continue to live
If nothing was worth so much
That willingly I would die?
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 2007
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
 
observations on the world order
 
 
 
 
The XY Imperative 
 

I'm tired of being pushed around
By guys in a rush,
Using their superior size
To slide women aside
In their masculine haste and self-importance
As they enter a Metro car,
Scan themselves through a security gate,
Sprint up an up escalator
To validate their athletic prowness,
Oblivious to the world outside themselves
While they proclaim the superiority
Of their chromosomal pair over all others
And the insignificance of anyone's time
But their own personal seconds upon life's stage.
 

Lisa Jain Thompson
May 2007
 
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
Zola Taylor
 
 
 
Zola Taylor, 69, who broke gender barriers in the 1950s as a member of the Platters, harmonizing with her male colleagues on hits such as "The Great Pretender," died April 30 at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside County, Calif. She had complications from pneumonia.
 
Founding Platters member Herb Reed said he spotted Ms. Taylor, the sister of Cornell Gunter of the Coasters, rehearsing with a girl group in 1955 and knew immediately she had the charisma and vocal chops the R&B group needed.
 
"The Great Pretender" raced to No. 1 on R&B and pop charts in the United States and Europe, according to the "Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul."
 
"It was a great surprise to everyone," Reed said. "We were the first Afro-American group to have a girl singer. That was the talk of the nation. All of the sudden, other groups started looking for girls."
 
Ms. Taylor was back in the spotlight in the 1980s when she and two other women all claimed to be pop singer Frankie Lymon's widow and fought over his royalties. Lymon, a young sensation in the 1950s with such hits as "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," had died of a drug overdose in 1968 at age 25.
 
 
 
 
The Platters
 
 
 
yes I'm the great pretender (ooh ooh)
Just laughing and gay like a clown (ooh ooh)
I seem to be what I'm not (you see)
I'm wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending that you're still around
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
 
my reality
 
 
 
 
Wand'rest in the Shade
 
 
If I a hallucigen I did take,
My words would unscramble into post-mod madness,
An intellectual toy full of sounding fury but little content,
Content in my artifice and smugly certified in my superiority.
 

Alas! I am but an unlettered poet
Without proper sheepskin surrounding my feeble efforts
That spurt so wildly unenclosèd by dust or degree,
Making necessity serve without marble or gilded monument.
 
  
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 2007
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
reality #2
 
 
 
Balance
 
 
 
Halfway between nothing
I am everything I shall ever be,
No more or less
Than the sum of my ancestors
Give or take a few mutations
And the random throw of chance,
An improbable collection
Of synapse and connection,
An organizational pattern
Moving towards oblivion
Across the bright edge of chaos.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 2007
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
 
The free, unhampered exchange of ideas and scientific conclusions
is necessary for the sound development of science,
as it is in all spheres of life.
 
-- Albert Einstein
 
 
 
 
  
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
National Fill In The Blank Month
 
Lisa Jain Thomspon
© 2007
 
 
 
Judging from the posters that are on the walls where I work, May appears to be Asian Pacific American Month.  February was African American Month.  Mid September to Mid October is Hispanic Heritage Month.
 
You might think that the United States has covered all the possibilities of ethnic and cultural awareness months.  You'd be wrong.
 
Here, in no particular order, are some that the various government agencies have missed:
 
 
  • National Italians Who Are Not Members of the Mafia Month

  • National Olive Skinned People Who Are Treated As White Only When It Benefits Northern Europeans Month

  • National Americans Who Don't Own A Hyphen Month

  • National Middle Class And Rich Kids Who Hate The Patriarchy That Pays For Their Education And Makes The iPODS® And Cell Phones And All The Other Crap They Consume 24-7 Month

  • National I'm Not A Crossdresser I'm Transgendered Month


    (which is the straight equivalent of)

  • National I'm Queer, I'm Proud, I'm In The Closet Month


    (which is the gay guy equivalent of)

  • National Women Who Marry Women And Have Babies With Them But Are Not Officially Lesbians Month

  • National People Who Say They Are Greener Than The Sierra Club But Still Commute Back And Forth To Work In Their SUV Month

  • National People Who Are Too White To Have A Month


    (and finally)

  • National How Long Do My People Have To Be Here Before We Don't Need A Month Month
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
matters little
 
 
 
Short Cuts
 
 
 
1.
 
 
When Calamity and Wild Bill
In Cheyenne county did frolic,
The ground reverberated
All the way to Deadwood
And into grand mythic romance.
 
 
2.
 
 
I am a power woman,
Let me hold my stomach in;
A funnel neck jacket
With shape maker seams
Shows the world I'm feminine
With the balls to be president.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 2007
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
 
Our responsibility is to do what we can,
learn what we can,
improve the solutions,
and pass them on.
 
-- Richard Feynman
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
playing with my cousins
 
 
 
Midnight Never Come
 
 
 
If this were the 17th Century,
And I still in England,
Unmarried and unindentured,
There is no question
That London would draw me
 
From the country imprism'd world
To the straight heroin of global excitement,
My words feeding off his,
My tongue providing him pleasure
Even as I bring him to greater delilghts.
  
What a pair would we be,
Sweet Will and his sweeter Dark Lady,
Teasing Kit,
Tempting him to prove his lovely talent,
Ménage à trois, with Will and me,
A Faustian bargain if ever there were,
That even Bess might draw
Goodly satisfaction.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 2007
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
 
 
You eat and you play,
and pretend that there's not a giant piano
hanging by a rope just over the top of your head,
every minute of every day.

-- Carmella Soprano
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
  
 
 
 
PEACE
 
 
 
 
 
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
Copyright © Lisa Jain Thompson 1995-2007. Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized. Email your letters and postcards or visit her contact page at the Starpoet website.
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