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Saturday, 20 October 2007 20:00
Last Updated on Saturday, 20 October 2007 12:04
The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. XLIII
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I was absent from our bed and still
I've given you this ill being
That devours our energy
That devours our energy
Clutching after our lungs
To rip us from breath
And even now
You love me
As we both
lay spent
in desperate spasm
lay spent
in desperate spasm
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C. E.
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I seem to be no longer dying from this year's crud.
The sleep last week consisted of watching movies, blanking out briefly before they end, and re-entering midway through the next film. Time was meaningless.
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pick a name
A Casual Holocaust
All the lonely, broken men
Sitting by themselves, nursing their drinks,
As the minutes and hours move slowly past
And night turns inevitably back to morning,
As the minutes and hours move slowly past
And night turns inevitably back to morning,
Draw us toward them in our optimistic belief
That we, of all the women in the world,
Are the one who can heal them,
As if that special tattoo on our thigh
Will make all the difference
And the weight of all the years, the bad childhoods,
And the weight of all the years, the bad childhoods,
The mischoices and the ill-thought decisions,
Will slide from his shoulders, the drink will be pushed away,
And yes love, at last, will finally win out.
Will slide from his shoulders, the drink will be pushed away,
And yes love, at last, will finally win out.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons
This child within me,
Constantly making her presence known,
Transforming my womb
For her own use and devices,
Tears each word from my flesh,
My blood, my life, staining these pages,
This umbilical fragment
That lingers between life and death,
This umbilical fragment
That lingers between life and death,
Screaming my name, demanding my attention,
Until I birth it all and am no more
Until she moves again.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.
- Albert Camus
- Albert Camus
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glimpses inside: a red flag waving
Sonnet Sans Politics
I understand being female to a man,
I understand in my brain
And in my chromosomes,
And in my chromosomes,
And in the aching of my empty vagina
As I wait for his return.
-- Not exactly current mode of P. C.,
But my body is not given to politics,
Preferring to be governed
Preferring to be governed
By my physical genes and evolution
Rather than some disconnected theories.
Rather than some disconnected theories.
I am equal but different and have no desire
For the various alpha male macho games,
I will chose my man, let him think he's the one,
For the various alpha male macho games,
I will chose my man, let him think he's the one,
And top him from the bottom as life intends us.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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while I wasn't sleeping
This Season's Virus
My lungs seem to think that coughing is good,
That ripping phlegm from my bronchi
Is beneficial and praiseworthy;
Is beneficial and praiseworthy;
The passages grow sore from explosive force,
My throat turns raw by hack and gasp,
Each spasm snaps my head and neck
As I inhale deeply and explode
As I inhale deeply and explode
Before drifting across a few hours
of disruptive sleep.
of disruptive sleep.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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Oddly,
I originally dated some of these poems 2008, a few 2006, and one 2005,
Even though they all are from 2007.
I originally dated some of these poems 2008, a few 2006, and one 2005,
Even though they all are from 2007.
Perhaps Lisa Jain has come unstuck from time.
-- LJT
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My sorrow, when she's here with me,
thinks these dark days of autumn rain
are beautiful as days can be;
she loves the bare, the withered tree;
she walks the sodden pasture lane.
-- Robert Frost
thinks these dark days of autumn rain
are beautiful as days can be;
she loves the bare, the withered tree;
she walks the sodden pasture lane.
-- Robert Frost
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the possibility of alternaties
Juliet In Love
Were I to bed William Shakespeare,
The poet and the man,
Would I find his rapier wit
As penetrating as his tongue?
Would I find his rapier wit
As penetrating as his tongue?
What sweetness would lie deep within
To be discovered by my playwright's hand,
What lines would speak as his eager Juliet
Arched and moaned beneath his lusty art?
To be discovered by my playwright's hand,
What lines would speak as his eager Juliet
Arched and moaned beneath his lusty art?
His acts are well fully written,
Mine but slowly coming,
My words flow amidst all his,
His sheets, stained with my blood.
If I were to bed Will Shakespeare,
All else follows.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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things a native american sicilian british daughter of the american revolution notices
Consider The Woman
Women of color tend to have full hips
And figures unlike a twelve year old;
And figures unlike a twelve year old;
Our skins do not need
The existence of tanning booths
To wash the sickly paleness from our flesh.
To wash the sickly paleness from our flesh.
Women of color are distinctly unfragile,
Putting up with the world and our men;
Putting up with the world and our men;
Our lives don't require
Some New York or Paris designer
To tell us how beautiful we can be.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away
and all the leaves away, and the trees stand.
I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
-- e.e. cummings
and all the leaves away, and the trees stand.
I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
-- e.e. cummings
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enough
The World of Light and Darkness
Coffee and the twisted smell
Of bacon crisping on cast iron,
The red coils of fresh bread toasting
While chicken embryos fry and slowly solidify,
Send vegans running for their holy waters
To cast this mortal sin from my soul.
To cast this mortal sin from my soul.
A glass off freshly boxed orange juice
Washes down a handful of necessary pills
While the talking head Sunday mornings
Dance repeatedly with this weeks blonde,
Washes down a handful of necessary pills
While the talking head Sunday mornings
Dance repeatedly with this weeks blonde,
Remind us all that the trouble with liberals
Is their demand we kiss their blemish free asses
And the problem with all those righteous conservatives
Is their demand we kiss their blemish free asses
And the problem with all those righteous conservatives
Is the smugness of their consciously blind opinions.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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membering
Ages Past
When I was young
With my hair well past my shoulder,
With my hair well past my shoulder,
I thought the beach was the whole world
And summer, my rightful stage.
Later, at college, at parties
Filled with pot and serious conversation,
Filled with pot and serious conversation,
I chose to be vulnerable, the gifted poet,
Who delivered clever suggestions with her tongue.
Would I have laid all my best plans,
Surely I would have been pregnant or dead,
Surely I would have been pregnant or dead,
Babies were prevalent, AIDS just beginning,
And I, a woman child, with desire and needs.
Looking back, I was lucky,
If I had drifted to San Francisco,
My life would have been quite different
With Jerry, Janis, and all their friends.
My life would have been quite different
With Jerry, Janis, and all their friends.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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Have you noticed a pattern this week?
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Summer makes me drowsy. Autumn makes me sing.
Winter's pretty lousy, but I hate Spring.
-- Dorothy Parker
Winter's pretty lousy, but I hate Spring.
-- Dorothy Parker
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science intrudes
Loss of Status
One thousand five hundred copies
Of the Origin of Species
Sold out before publication,
Sold out before publication,
The fulcrum that changed the world.
No glorious end,
No higher purpose,
No special prospect of eternity
Other than the one we make for ourselves
Other than the one we make for ourselves
And our place as the most well adapted,
Most cerebral, most successful primate
That has yet emerged from all these
Generations of temporarily animated meat.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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the reality of existence: still another red flag
Male and Female
Men and women react instinctively
To the presence of the other,
Following patterns ingrained in species
By generations of evolution's history.
Our brains can override genetic tendencies,
Interposing our intellect for our body's reaction,
But civilization is no more than a gaudy overlay
On top of hormones and hard wiring.
On top of hormones and hard wiring.
The differences between us are less than we'd believe
But more than we are willing to admit,
But more than we are willing to admit,
For male and female are more than a theory
And more ancient than any primate cunning.
And more ancient than any primate cunning.
We insists we are a species greater than our peers
And seldom admit to our shortcomings,
We go so far as to deny what we all are
Rather than accept the animal within us.
Rather than accept the animal within us.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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I've run out of wit
and must needs substitute
and must needs substitute
these fragile breaths
-- LJT
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There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky,
which through the summer is not heard or seen,
as if it could not be, as if it had not been!
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley
which through the summer is not heard or seen,
as if it could not be, as if it had not been!
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley
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the poet's questions
Tumultuous Times
Why should I believe
In someone else's Jesus,
Some one who does not bear
The cross I carry,
Someone who offers me vinegar
And calls it comfort?
There are no simple answers
In tumultuous times,
In tumultuous times,
No sacred pathway
Leading to golden Nirvanas,
No vengeful angels
Carrying sharp enough swords
To still the waters of our existence.
Carrying sharp enough swords
To still the waters of our existence.
We are, God may be,
The Universe endures
With us residing in it
Until time no longer matters.
Until time no longer matters.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
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another bit i'd rather forget
Discontinuity
Back when I crashed the jeep,
I knew immediately
That time had developed
A Discontinuity.
I was there, now I'm here,
A clear violation of light speed
Unless I was suddenly a particle
Unglued from Einsteinian physics.
I was clearly in my body,
Coldly waking on the winter's ice,
Looking back at spinning wheels
Of a Jeep J-5 on its side.
So I got up, reentered the world,
Saw my hand bleeding and torn,
While the pain in my back
drew all my attention
And I waited for my life to return.
drew all my attention
And I waited for my life to return.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
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We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it.
Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
-- Chuang Tzu
Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
-- Chuang Tzu
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no more
Remembering Gettysburg
The war is not an article in Newsweek magazine
Or a photo spread in the Sunday paper,
Not even a full thirty on a 60 minutes segment
Or an endorsement from Fox News and CNN's war desk:
Or an endorsement from Fox News and CNN's war desk:
Legs, arms, shattered corpses
With mishapened skulls and missing entrails;
Children whose burned clothes
Have merged with their flesh;
Comrades who disappear, smoke and scream,
In noise and bright explosion;
Husbands and wives who stay in the kill zone
Long after their unmarked bodies are safely home;
Daughters and sons who take oath before the flag
And return with a spangled banner drapping their coffin;
The protesters who would protest
But surrender to shouts and chanted slogans;
The poet caught between her country and her president,
Struggling to give structure to the unthinkable
So that her friends and co-workers
Shall not perish from this earth.
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2007
October 2007
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Nothing is more fleeting than external form,
which withers and alters
like the flowers of the field
at the appearance of autumn.
-- Umberto Eco
which withers and alters
like the flowers of the field
at the appearance of autumn.
-- Umberto Eco
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PEACE
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Starpoetby Lisa Jain Thompson.
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