One Chance to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Kelly sent me a couple of poems by email during the month.... trying to grease the skids and get me thinking about National Poetry month.   Alas, it did no good.

But just today I read the last of them and thought about taking the time to celebrate an art form that has always touched my heart.  Sat for a little while and thought about poets who have reached back in time... to those they learned from, to those poets who have touched their hearts.  Poets do get mawkish about other poets.

And so I remembered a contemporary poem that I loved, because the poetess fell in love with poetry when she read Neruda.   As did I.   So I went looking, to take the opportunity to have one last celebration of the month I ignored....one print of a poem I love.  In, it, she personifies Neruda, as though he were here with her.  Great visualization!   And here it is:



Neruda's Hat

   by Kelli Russell Agodon


On a day when weather stole every breeze,

Pablo told her he kept bits of his poems

tucked behind the band in his hat.



He opened the windows to nothing

but more heat, asked her to wander with him

down to the beach, see if their bodies

could become waves.



When they returned he placed his hat,

open to sky, in the center of the table.

She filled it with papaya, figs, searched

for scraps of poems beneath the lining.



By evening, the hat was empty

and his typewriter, full

with pages that began something about ocean,

something about fruit.



And they didn't notice the sky, full of tomorrow's

stars or the blue and white swallow

carrying paper in its beak.



They sat outside until the edge of daylight

stretched itself across a new band of morning,

the shadow of a hat washing onto the shore.

    Enjoy.   Quid

Another March Madness Almost Gone. And, It's April.

Louie, Louie!

Congrats to Louisville with both Men's Crown and
Women's finalist.  I had Louisville men winning it all in my
parlay.... and Connecticut women.  I figured it would actually
be Baylor, but I never bet against the Huskies (women, only).

So, I could be a double winner!  It's been an exciting tourney. 

If it's March, it's Madness!

NO TIME FOR ANYTHING BUT BASKETBALL THIS WEEK!

Lots of 12 seed upsets, and Oregon looks like its for real.   Michigan and Mich State are also looking pretty fearsome. 

Looking forward to my fave Florida Gators to beat Minny sota.

Here's a great link to Bleacher report, they have some great slides of the highlights so far.  Catch up!

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1578477-no-3-florida-vs-no-11-minnesota-march-madness-preview#/articles/1574801-the-best-moments-of-the-2013-ncaa-tournament

Arkansas, Arkansas, tsk, tsk

Arkansas overrode their governor's veto of a ban on all abortions after 12 weeks.  This is the most restrictive law in the nation.   Clearly, the new law is unconstitutional, or perhaps that's just my opinion, until the injunction.   The legislators were aware, and were aware that the ACLU will lead the suit to block the law.  The injunction should come at once, as soon as papers are signed, and the law will be in limbo until the court fight is over. 

Arkansas can join the state of Oklahoma (state court, State Supreme court, now going to the US Supremes),  Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, North Dakota, North Carolina in spending the state's money for lawsuits. 

Colorado, California, South Dakota, Oregon and Mississippi saved some money by passing their own restrictions and letting them be overturned by the voters.  It only cost the money for the elections (some of these states have voted "no" 2 or 3 times).  Still, better than a lawsuit.

Altho Florida has shied away, we are still waiting for the lawsuit tab on the state's law that was going to force welfare recipients to pee in a cup.  Florida does not understand the concept of "reasonable suspicion".   $46,000 was spent on the drug tests in the month and a half the law survived before a federal court declared it unconstitutional.   108 people (of 4,100 were caught).  So we spent about $450 per person to catch them.  Oh, wait.... without lawsuit expenses.  We have not gotten the info needed on how much the lawsuit cost us.   Several states are trying to enact this law right now.  Makes sense, no?

Life is good when we spend money on "laws" that are so invasive to privacy that the state legislators are either voted down by the voters or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars going to court to have the law overturned.

An example of "small government" efforts in some of our redder states.  We don't want to regulate corporations, but we feel it is our duty to overturn civil rights in a person's individual healthcare decisions or to take their bodily fluids.  :)

Turn the Radio On

My morning "talk" DJ disappeared after a long stint in Tampa... leaving the morning show in 2012 in order to just do his nationally syndicated political talk show in the afternoon.  He had been on the air almost 7 hours a day before he finally made this difficult decision.

I went into withdrawal...he did a little shock, a whole lot of funny, and both local and national vignettes in the morning hour, with a raucous crew.  I started listening to him in 1996, so it felt as though an old friend disappeared. 

I went to I-Pod and CD's in the car after that, but I really craved the talk.  Started trying to find a new FM station that had local flavor and narrowed it down to 2.  The one I listen to most, I listen to because the guy in charge, Orlando...has a real gift.  However, he plays rap-pop, and lately I have found myself humming tunes in the middle of the day that have words in them like:

    "gangsta"      and  "popping tags"

That can't go on.  I'm in human resources.

The most likely candidate for a show is the one that replaced my old radio personality.  I don't mind the guy in charge... but unfortunately, it is a Top 40 musical format.  You know what I hate about top 40?  There are always a couple of songs I like, and then the station kills them by playing them about 5 or 6 times an hour.

One such tune, that I truly love (I would input the You Tube...but am not at my own computer...which broke down; and I can't access the You Tube site from here -- if you do watch it, catch the version that was done live for a show called "Star Academy", which is for a French audience) is from a guy is who is really a talented song writer; a ballad.  He's had quite a few hits that are ballads (which is sort of a dying art form).  The words:

Bruno Mars..... "When I Was Your Man"

"When I Was Your Man"

Same bed but it feels just a little bit bigger now
Our song on the radio but it don't sound the same
When our friends talk about you, all it does is just tear me down
Cause my heart breaks a little when I hear your name

It all just sounds like oooooh…
Mmm, too young, too dumb to realize
That I should have bought you flowers
And held your hand
Should have gave you all my hours
When I had the chance
Take you to every party
Cause all you wanted to do was dance
Now my baby's dancing
But she's dancing with another man

My pride, my ego, my needs, and my selfish ways
Caused a good strong woman like you to walk out my life
Now I never, never get to clean up the mess I made, ohh…
And it haunts me every time I close my eyes

It all just sounds like oooooh…
Mmm, too young, too dumb to realize
That I should have bought you flowers
And held your hand
Should have gave you all my hours
When I had the chance
Take you to every party
Cause all you wanted to do was dance
Now my baby's dancing
But she's dancing with another man

Although it hurts
I'll be the first to say that I was wrong
Oh, I know I'm probably much too late
To try and apologize for my mistakes
But I just want you to know

I hope he buys you flowers
I hope he holds your hand
Give you all his hours
When he has the chance
Take you to every party
Cause I remember how much you loved to dance
Do all the things I should have done
When I was your man
Do all the things I should have done
When I was your man

 

 

 

Kind of a heart breaker... (I'm a little blue today) but just done beautifully.  If you haven't heard it, try to catch it before Top 40 radio plays it 300,000 times in the month of March.

 

quid