Tuesday, May 23

The Sky Must Open

Today I thought I'd post a poem I wrote some time ago but rediscovered this morning. I'm in a poetic and open frame of mind. Enjoy.

Princess, hero, god
For C

The saguaro rises tall
over the dust and scrubs,
the sky. Its long shadows
damp scraped valleys,
call jackrabbits.

She came to it wrapped
in a terry cape –
A princess or hero or god; a child
playing at imagination.
It was eaten by coyotes.

Intolerant desert, you are workworn
and tired. Rarely the cacti blooms
scarlet blossoms or spreads seed,
Each scorched flower is
squeezed from the sand.

Still, in the spring they whisper:
Even the desert is touched by gods.
The sky must open, the rain must fall.

Thursday, May 11

Articulating your pain

I revisited my blog recently to find a strange post. Something about Bill Clinton. Did I write that??

Apparently I did. And now that I think about it, I may have written that after drinking perhaps more wine than I should have.

In fact, Bill WAS inspiring during his speech at the BIO 2006 convention. Yet after reflecting a month later on his 45 minute eloquent, effortless delivery about how biotech can address two major crises - food shortages and the need for alternative energy sources - I realize now that Bill is interchangable with any person in power. He's just better at hiding his willingness to make the "hard trades" behind a pink tie and a well articulated but feigned interest in the wellbeing of the rest of the world. I was surprised, for example, that he would bring up during his speech the 1994 crisis in Rwanda. I would have chalked up the bloody deaths of some 800,000 people at least in part to the Clinton Administration's gross failure to act. After the killings started, Clinton spoke to the press and said the following:

"... I mention it only because there are a sizable number of Americans there and it is a very tense situation. And I just want to assure the families of those who are there that we are doing everything we possible can to be on top of the situation to take all the appropriate steps to try to assure the safety of our citizens there."

(according to a Frontline report, which can be found here): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/

Like most good politicians and people of power, Bill has an aptitude for saying what people want to hear anyway. And so in that way, he was and is perhaps better at articulating your pain than feeilng, and actually addressing, much of anything.