Frank O'Hara

Today's poem is by the late great New York poetic chronicler, Frank O'Hara. This is the first time I've looked at this particular poem. It's tough, but rather haunting, too, and I just love the way he writes. Hope you do, too.

1951

by Frank O'Hara

Alone at night
in the wet city

the country's wit
is not memorable.

The wind has blown
all the trees down

but these anxieties
remain erect, being

the heart's deliberate
chambers of hurt

and fear whether
from a green apartment

seeming diamonds or
from an airliner

seeming fields. It's
not simple or tidy

though in rows of
rows and numbered;

the literal drifts
colorfully and

the hair is combed
with bridges, all

compromises leap
to stardom and lights.

If alone I am
able to love it,

the serious voices,
the panic of jobs,

it is sweet to me.
Far from burgeoning

verdure, the hard way
in this street.

Pablo Neruda

A love poem for Thursday, by Neruda.

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

To Be Gay and Eight, In Bahrain

The Gulf Daily News is reporting that Bahrain is trying to rid its nation of homosexuals (not yet holocaust-style, but stay tuned). Here's a snipet:

"SCHOOL students could soon be spied on under a campaign to stamp out homosexuality, under demands made by MPs yesterday...

MPs also called for regular inspections to root out homosexuals at massage parlours, health clubs and hair salons.

It also called for monitoring in schools and for pupils who veer towards homosexuality to be punished."

Just what a confused gay 8 year old in the Middle East needs...

William Carlos Williams

Today I bring you some William Carlos Williams.

The Last Words of My English Grandmother

by William Carlos Williams

There were some dirty plates

and a glass of milk
beside her on a small table
near the rank, disheveled bed--

Wrinkled and nearly blind
she lay and snored
rousing with anger in her tones
to cry for food,

Gimme something to eat--
They're starving me--
I'm all right--I won't go
to the hospital. No, no, no

Give me something to eat!
Let me take you
to the hospital, I said
and after you are well

you can do as you please.
She smiled, Yes
you do what you please first
then I can do what I please--

Oh, oh, oh! she cried
as the ambulance men lifted
her to the stretcher--
Is this what you call

making me comfortable?
By now her mind was clear--
Oh you think you're smart
you young people,

she said, but I'll tell you
you don't know anything.
Then we started.
On the way

we passed a long row
of elms. She looked at them
awhile out of
the ambulance window and said,

What are all those
fuzzy looking things out there?
Trees? Well, I'm tired
of them and rolled her head away.

On Bulldozers

I want you to look very carefully at this photo of Hillary Clinton's victory speech last night in Philadelphia. Maybe it's hard to see; a larger, clearer pic can be seen here.

Hillary won this primary because of seniors (she won them 63-37) and white women (66-34). Obama won African-Americans by 9-1.

So Hillary's celebratory crowd should have been very white, and skewed older... but it doesn't. Look at this photo. It's Obama's demographic. This is an overwhelmingly young, multi-cultural crowd.

Hillary won fair and square, but these photos present an image that is a lie. She should be surrounded by white people, mostly women, much older than the attractive, enthusiastic twenty-somethings standing behind her.

It begs the question, do the American people really want another President who lies to us?

In what is probably her most famous quip from last night, Hillary said, "You know, some people counted me out and said to drop out. But the American people don't quit and they deserve a president who doesn't quit, either."

I think that statement, combined with the photos ripped from the "Wag the Dog" playbook, perfectly sum up the kind of presidency we can expect from HRC, which would not be a return to Clinton theatrics, but a continuation of Bush Bulldozing.

Clinton's dogged pursuit of the presidency is starting to feel like Bush's dogged pursuit of the war in Iraq. There's no way Clinton wins her war, or Bush wins his, without engendering great hatred from vast swaths of the American public. In fact, nearly 70% of our nation disapprove of Bush and this war (or something outrageously high), and yet he soldiers on.

Is Bush not the very embodiment of a President who doesn't know when to quit? He bulldozes on because he fiercely believes in his vision for what the world needs. Despite the protests of so many nations, and so many in his own nation, he soldiers on... because Americans deserve a President who doesn't quit?

Well, Hillary, we've had almost 8 years of a President who doesn't quit. The last thing this country needs is four more years of a President who doesn't know when to quit, who soldiers on despite the great harm it will inflict on our nation, who gracelessly fights even when there is no way to win this battle without a lot of blood and a lot tragic loss, not the least of which would be the destruction of the Democratic party, and whose end result feels less like a victory than a supreme, aching loss.

Photos that reflect an alternate reality? Promises to never quit when winning fair and square has long since ceased to be an option? The fact is, the American people deserve a President who knows when to quit. We've had 8 years of the alternative, and the monstrous devastation can be seen throughout the world. Do we really, really need to be told that after 8 years of Bush, what we need is another prophet who knows better than we do what is best for us?

Michael Ondaatje

The author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, is also an accomplished poet. Enjoy this one, care of Knopf Poetry.

Bearhug

by Michael Ondaatje

Griffin calls to come and kiss him goodnight
I yell ok. Finish something I'm doing,
then something else, walk slowly round
the corner to my son's room.
He is standing arms outstretched
waiting for a bearhug. Grinning.

Why do I give my emotion an animal's name,
give it that dark squeeze of death?
This is the hug which collects
all his small bones and his warm neck against me.
The thin tough body under the pyjamas
locks me like a magnet of blood.

How long was he standing there
like that, before I came?

Different Rules, Different Winner

Ok, I fucking LOVE this:

"Former President Bill Clinton, speaking to reporters after his wife’s event in Pittsburgh, PA Monday, said that under the republican primary system –- his wife would be ahead by hundreds of delegates.
"I did not actually get the delegates necessary to have a first power of the nomination under the crazy system the democrats have," Clinton said. "If we were under the republican system which is more like the electoral college, she would have a 300 delegate lead "
-Eloise Harper, ABC News

Right, Bill. That's right. If Hillary WERE A REPUBLICAN and running in the REPUBLICAN PARTY she would be winning.

And if Ice Hockey were played in a baseball stadium then the NY Rangers would skate on grass.

I mean, is he serious? Is he fucking SERIOUS?

Either his point is that middle-of-the-road, never take a risk Hillary should have run as a Republican, or simply, the Democratic primary's rules are unfair.

Boo fucking hoo.

If you don't want to play baseball, then go play hockey, but stand on second base and tell me you'd be winning if you had ice skates on.