Welcome January 30 2012

Welcome to Mafe Castaño,  raibishni38,  DIANA,  JB HERO,  and also to  하나의 동지  into the group listed on the right.
You are all welcome to be the laboratory subjects upon whom I test my unauthorized and unapproved poetries. 

I was thinking about when I started this enterprise: a wish for peace, something-something about fasting, and various poorly defined goals washing about in my head. To use a metaphor, sloshing about in the soup tureen of my brain: various ingredients of the bouillabaisse of my discontent...
vague plans for peace floating like fish heads, religious impulses layered like crustaceans, secretive oysters, fame and its rewards goggling like the eyes of fresh shrimp...

No peace, no fame, just some hungry days. I had checked other peace blogs, and many had fallen by the wayside, and had not been updated for months and months and months... I think the people involved probably went on to better things, although they may have merely tired of the novelty of giving a rip about such things like blind Peace and his Brothers.
No matter. I believe "Fast Day 260" will be the mark of 5 years completed. I distinctly remember wondering if I had the "imagination" and the "wit" to do a poem-thing every bloody week. Well, some are pretty crude and some are awful, but at least I stuck to it, and I am glad for that. I really can't think of anything more depressing and more repellent than the evidences of thwarted good intentions... strewn about like empty peace blogs no one cares about.

I think sticking to the project matters. The outcomes might be far different from what we originally imagined: peace may not come in our lifetimes and we may not find a harmony of life, but we will find something, and it is that something that is important.
No efforts are wasted. We are Pioneers of the Future. We are the Stewards of the garden of the Earth, and we till and harvest it during our tenure. Our homes are like the homes of Pioneers where nothing goes to waste.  Our desires may not be fulfilled, our prayers may not be answered, but nothing that we do is in vain.
--

Fast Day 243 January 28 2012 {Adolescence}

Adolescence

Hitler was, like, the suicide guy
torn apart by dogs
his body scattered like a dark Osiris,
one part to each yawning country of the earth;
had a voice like a wolf, had a grey eye, too;
on cable, like, all the time
a total frikkin’ evil badass:
Doctor No with atom bomb drug needle,
waiting to throw into my hayrick.

Fight Club Bob stands nearby,
three hundred pounds
of self-improvement, self-destructive flab:
obese from too much yoga and playing catch-up
with meditation sessions
he had no time for,
and that Dalai Lama interview
he just recorded over
with the latest candidates’ debate.

My mother threw open
my closed bedroom door;
My teacher told me that kindergarten
kids no longer cry; the priest hushed me, saying that
I spoke my sins too loudly:
everyone could hear!
their steely faces began to melt,
they touched themselves in silent awe,
eye dilation on confessional jacuzzi!
leave fascist hearts behind!

--
notes

hayrick = haystack

Fight Club Bob = The character Bob in the film Fight Club

jacuzzi   =   an odd word, prone to anagrams...........

What I'm trying to accomplish:
(1) interest in powerful symbols, lack of historical education (our education system), and new symbols based on the old ones not properly understood... (like, what does it matter anyway? Symbols are way too big for our little problems.)
(2) the feeling of being an outsider, like a large person - Bob - who was almost too large for Project Mayhem. He became part of Project Mayhem, which made him an official outsider to normal society.
(3) sex and guilt and redemption.
--

Fast Day 242 January 22 2011 {When I Come Down}

Flock of Starlings

When I Come Down

When I come down, I land like youthful Saul,

who prophesied among the Sons of Prophets,

and did not then care for the price of cloth,

nor for the enticements of peace, and

still less the busy-ness of wars!

When I come down, I subterfuge hunting

eyes, and break Nets like a mighty ocean fish!

Leviathan balanced between the worlds:

returning and returning not…

not bound by air, unchained the deep!

When I come down, the opened snare of death

is set to dye earth’s green robe with my blood red;

I escape to the unmapped, roadless sky:

a flock of starlings’ swarming mind-

to dwell in freedom passerine!

--

Fast Day 241 January 15 2012 {Twelfth Night Wassail}

Children Wassailing

Twelfth Night Wassail

Saffron, Sage, Cloves, and Ginger;
Thistletop, Sweetmeats, Lentilpod,
and whitetopp'd fennel cakes;
within the kitchen Goldberry stands
and confects the wheaten, oaten, chickpea mix
with star of anise on sesame cakes.

Lavender and nectar draught
will make us merry in Winter:
a wassail of raisins and cinnamon and cloves-
the precious gifts from the Fragrant Isles;
candied violets in garlands strung!

Make festive this holy Twelfth Night,
mindful as we measure, so measured will it be.
Do not miser the honey-bread nor sesame biscuits!
Wanton the saffron-mingled cakes and walnuts;
sorb-apples wreathed in ivy crown:
her words the foam of nutmeg's dew!


--
notes

We approach Twelfth Night, the Twelfth Night of the Christmas season as observed by Orthodox, Coptic, and Armenian churches. This leads from Christmas to the Epiphany or Theophany, also called Little Christmas ( by my wife, at least).
Since the old Julian calendar was used by all Christendom until replaced in the West by the Gregorian, originally all the Christmas feasts were on the same days, and Twelfth Night under the old calendar would be around now. Wassail was a festive part of Twelfth Night:

The date of 17 January marks Old Twelfth Night, which is traditionally the date on which wassailing takes place.
Wassailing is an ancient tradition which sees people singing to trees in apple orchards in cider-producing regions of England to promote a good harvest for the coming

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/somerset/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9362000/9362050.stm

Twelfth Night for the Eastern Orthodox churches in the evening of January 18, and not January 17th as noted above; the quote is from the BBC and applies to Britain where, since the feast is no longer celebrated now due to the calendar change, a fixed date is used for the Wassail festivals.

The wassail sings to the apple trees to make them aware of the promised spring. Apples are ancient, and cider was probably a spirituous drink longer before any whiskeys or aqua vitae; which is why Johnny Appleseed was such a welcome fellow on the American frontier: the promise of harvest and the promise of fermented cider to warm the heart.

--

Fast Day 240 January 7 2011 {New Year's Street Eco}

New Year's Street Eco

It’s one week after

New Year’s laughter;

Spitting prayers: I once was paid,

but now I’m broke…

major depression with cognac and coke.

Colombian snort,

booze by the quart

that I stole from my parents’ Christmas:

I stole some money-

buy the drugs that killed my honey.

What day of the week?

I take a leak -

false zebra piss from once lion king;

I keep crashin’ late

in the day – some friggin’ ungulate!

I do not like this eco-system

where the dead-lights gather ante-mortem,

attempting to bring together and synthesize

reflections in dead men’s eyes…

and the Apocalypse was thirty years ago

when I began the ethnic cleansing of my soul,

and Death enzootic… snorts three lines…

of white and black extinction full!

False zebras on the plain

oppress my brain…

resident grazers of the street:

smoking, toking in the rain!

--

notes

Sorry if this is unpleasant; that's what came up;

written about some people I know.

ungulate   -   a hooved animal,  used because of the nature of untended finger and toe nails.

enzootic - (veterinary medicine)  afflicting animals in a certain area  literally  " in - living " 
Four syllables: en-zo-ah'-tic