Starpoet by Lisa Jain Thompson
Newsflash:

Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VII, No. XLIV

Sunday, 29 October 2006 06:35 Last Updated on Sunday, 29 October 2006 08:27
The
 
Starpoet
 
Newsletter
 
Vol VII, No. XLIV
 
 
 
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Sunshine
Rain
October into November
Full moon high
Against clear winded heavens
The chilly morning
Wraps us
Arm
Leg and thigh
Reluctant to face
The risen sun
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2006
 
 
 
 
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The world series is over, winter looms.   Spring Training is four long months away.
 
 
 
 
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reading history
 
 
 
Chasing The Mongrel
 
 
 
Perhaps Archimedes is my some great grandfather,
How far is Syracuse from Palermo anyhow?
Everyone else left their seed in Sicily,
Why should he have been any different?
-- Geometry and war machines
Couldn't have taken up all of his time.
Perhaps Archi and Sappho had a fling
When she wandered isle to isle
(Or perhaps she did HIS grandfather
--The timeline is undefined).
In any event, I'm claiming him,
Prove me wrong if you desire.
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
 
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literature search
 
 
 
Pulp
 
 
 
Rebel Woman
Lesbo Lodge
All-Girl Office
Odd Girl Out
 
 
Lena is a she wolf,
Women are her prey,
Flesh so starved
For the touch of love,
No man can satisfy her.
 
Gee, we've come
A long way.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
 
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The More Things Change
 
 
 
When your organ is stiff, and a servant girl
Or a young boy from the houshold is near at hand
And you know you can make an immediate assault,
Would you sooner burst with tension?
Not me.
I like sex to be there and easy to get.
Horace
C. 35 B.C.E.
 
 
 
 
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studying Augustus
 
 
 
The History of Movement
 
 
 
Perhaps it is safer
To land at Brundisium
Than cross the Rubicon
With your legions intact;
But history remembers Caesar
As a martyr and a hero,
And Octavius as only the old man,
One the revolutionary,
The other the beneficiary
Of his father's bloody death.
 
 
Without Caesar,
Octavius has no platform;
Without Augustus
Julius would be a footnote,
Another populist led astray
By the excitement of the parade.
 
 
Perhaps it is better
To build an empire stone by stone
Than construct gaudy monuments
That only attract the assassin's blade.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
 
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Wars that grow in the dark like cancer
Need the light of public discourse
To sort out victory from defeat.
Silence only covers the tracks
Of those who may be guilty
Of profitting from a nation's destruction.
 
 
-- LJT
2006
 
 
 
 
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history a little closer
 
 
 
Billy
 
 
 
Billy's bones are in dispute
--Checking The Kid's DNA --
Garrett never quite got his story straight
About who he shot that day.
 
 
So legend has it, Billy's The Kid,
And Pat, the best friend who killed him:
 
 
But perhaps new science
Will confound old stories
And let Bonney escape once again.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
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The More Things Change II
 
 
 
Here, like an utter fool,
I stayed awake till midnight
Waiting for a girl who broke her promise.
Sleep in the end overtook me,
Still keyed up for sex.
Then scenes from a dirty dream
Spattered my nightshirt and stomach
As I lay on my back.
 
 
Horace
C. 35 B.C.E.
 
 
 
 
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Brain and Body Together
 
 
Written by TS-Si Science Access
 
 
". . . brain and body are never really separate,
and clearly they have evolved together. . . . they form a unit. "
 
 
There is a popularly accepted idea that it takes all types of sensory information to help us make sense of our environments. An Indiana University neuroscientist and University of Tokyo roboticist have now figured out a way to model this notion.
 
They created a mathematical framework, which they consider the first step toward the development of an explicit quantitative framework that unifies neural and behavioral processes.

Their findings, published in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Computational Biology on Oct. 27, could provide insight into how the brain operates and shed light on how it may have evolved.
 
"Really, this study has opened my eyes. I'm a neuroscientist, so much of my work is primarily concerned with how the brain works. But brain and body are never really separate, and clearly they have evolved together. The brain and the body should not be looked at as separate things when one talks about information processing, learning and cognition -- they form a unit. This holds a lot of meaning to me biologically."
 
 
Read More At
 
 
 
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pop psy 
 
 
Capability Gap
 
 
 
Stay the course
Is no longer operative,
The President has said
We are wrong,
He never said that,
At least he didn't intend
That the course should be
A marathon
With no end or destination
In sight;
He merely mispoke
-- If that's what we heard --
It's the words that are wrong,
Not him.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
 
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in the news
 
 
 
The Operational Environment
 
 
 
The enemy has started shooting back,
Which seems to have startled the President
Who expected his opposition
To stand up and salute
And kiss the bible in his hand.
 
 
Allah works in mysterious ways,
Abraham, Mullahs, and Koran;
The President works in Euclidean directions,
Straight lines, Jessus, and Double A.
 
 
Someone not a Texan or Iraqi
Might be a better choice
To extract us from this qrowing quagmire
Of ego, religious hubris, and testosterone.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
 
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I prefer to save their bodies
Before I begin work on their souls.
 
LJT
2006
 
 
 
 
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Something Horace would like
 
 
 
Capabilities Needs Analysis
 
 
 
If love,
Were love,
How am I to know?
Words and glances may deceive,
Whispered promises easily vanish
In the bright glare of the day.
 
 
What may be spoken in smokey bars
From lips still moist with drink,
May last no longer than moment's pleasure
Before memory succumbs to alcoholic haze.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
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back to the future
 
 
 
Battle Lab
 
 
 
The American Empire,
Such as it is,
Crumbles before us as we speak,
A product of intellectual vanity
And political avarice.
The bank is broken,
Yankee Dollar and good will:
No one will commit
To country over self-interest.
Politicians and citizens,
Young and old,
Care not for our future
But only the next election
Or government grant;
Who wins American Idol
Is more important
Than the future of America.
Damn us all.
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
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^^\/\/\/\/^^
 
 
 
The More Things Change III
 
 
What's come over you?
Is it that I am screwing the Queen?
But she isn't my wife, is she?
It isn't as if it's something new, is it?
Or has it actually been going on for nine years now?
What about you then?
Is Livia the only woman you shag?
Good luck to you if, when you read this letter,
You haven't also shagged Tertulla
Or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisemia,
Or all of them.
Does it really matter
And in whom
You insert your stiff prick?
 
Marc Antony to Octavius
C. 31 B.C.E
 
 
 
 
 
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public service announcement
 
 
 
Functional Capability
 
 
 
Every few decades
We need to relearn
That the government,
Our government,
Will lie to us
When it suits their interests
-- The President's
-- The Joint Chiefs'
-- The Speaker's and the Pro Tem's.
That's the nature of goverment:
Your congressman
Will lie to you
If he thinks
It will help him win.
The purpose of politics is power,
Theirs, not ours;
Those in power want more,
Which means the people
Will have less.
We do the same thing
When the power is ours:
Our lies are different,
But they are our lies
And we enforce them
For as long as
We are in power.
All power is local,
Those in power eventually lie
To facillitate
Staying in power.
They're human,
We're human,
Life goes on,
And democracy works,
However messy,
However awkward,
If the people stay alert
-- If not, you get
What you pay for
And those in power
Stay in power
Ad Infinitum.
 
 
 
Lisa Jain Thompson
October 2006
 
 
 
 
 
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VOTE
 
 
as if the lives
of your daughters and sons
depend on it
 
 
 
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Peace
 
 
 
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© Lisa Jain Thompson 2006
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