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Saturday, 31 May 2008 19:00
Last Updated on Saturday, 31 May 2008 19:30
The Starpoet Newsletter
Volume IX, No. XXII
Volume IX, No. XXII
Summer come
Spring go
Slowly
Reluctantly
Spring go
Slowly
Reluctantly
Something about global
And the best laid plans
Of Republicans and other Xtians
Oil men
TeXans
Presidents of the YOU Knighted States
Fundamentally Good
Business Administration Good
Rich Man Oil Man
Bottom line good
You can't fool all the people
All of the time
All of the time
But you can try
Try Try Try
And sometimes it works
Even when you are wrong
And you know you are wrong
And you know you are wrong
Money talks
Money listens
Money listens
Money goes bump in the night
And lot of things happen
And lot of things happen
Some good
Some bad
Some a freight train coming down the track
With no fluid in its brakes
With no fluid in its brakes
And no one at the controls
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2008 C. E.
memorial day come and gone, baseball in full swing
something hot for summer
Crossing Paths
Does my voice sound familiar to you,
Sultry whiskey and smoke?
Sultry whiskey and smoke?
Do I feel familiar,
My lips,
My breasts,
The wet warmth between my legs?
Do you remember?
You were older,
I was younger,
We shared a layover in O’Hare.
It was the worst of timing,
But the moment was very, very good.
Wasn’t it now, darling,
Wasn’t it?
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
all things ...
And Fairest, He Laid His Head
ever the queens and ladies wept…
The last brother, slipping away
As age as always plays it tricks
On a body that was working fine,
Working well a few years past
When all the world was new
And all things were possible.
As age as always plays it tricks
On a body that was working fine,
Working well a few years past
When all the world was new
And all things were possible.
Before the bullets flew,
Before the weight of years,
Before the family overrode
All considerations and goals,
All our futures gave promise
To a bright new world that vanished
While the moment still consumed us.
Before the weight of years,
Before the family overrode
All considerations and goals,
All our futures gave promise
To a bright new world that vanished
While the moment still consumed us.
Who shall we loudly rail against
After the last rattling grows silent?
Who will remind us of our better angels
Once the great sword sinks into the lake?
This agéd barge, with oar and sail,
From the shoreline slowly moves,
Like some white mantled Gaelic chieftain
Singing his battle song less death prove him
Too easily to tears before the stormtide
And last he drifts upon the floodwaters.
After the last rattling grows silent?
Who will remind us of our better angels
Once the great sword sinks into the lake?
This agéd barge, with oar and sail,
From the shoreline slowly moves,
Like some white mantled Gaelic chieftain
Singing his battle song less death prove him
Too easily to tears before the stormtide
And last he drifts upon the floodwaters.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
Believing in aliens not opposed to Christianity, Vatican's top astronomer says
Catholic News Agency. Father José Gabriel Funes, S.J.Vatican City, May 13, 2008 / 01:59 pm (CNA).- The Director of the Vatican's Observatory, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, said in an interview with the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, that believing in the possible existence of extraterrestrial life is not opposed to Catholic doctrine. The 45-year-old Argentinean priest heads the Vatican Observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII with offices at Castelgandolfo, near the Apostolic summer palace, and another in Tucson, Arizona. Fr. Funes has been in charge of the Observatory since August 2006.
The astronomer began the interview titled, "The Alien is my Brother," by saying that, "Astronomy has a profound human value. It is a science that opens the heart and the mind. It helps us to put our lives, our hopes, our problems in the right perspective. In this regard, and here I speak as a priest and a Jesuit, it is an apostolic instrument that can bring us closer to God", said Fr. Funes in the interview.
Regarding the beginning of the universe, Fr. Funes says that he personally believes that the "big bang" theory seems to him the most plausible, and that it does not contradict the Bible. "We cannot ask the Bible for a scientific answer here. At the same time, we don't know if in a near future the 'Big Bang' theory will be superseded by a more complete and precise explanation of the origin of the universe."
When he was asked about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the Director of the Vatican Observatory responded that "it is possible, even if until now, we have no proof. But certainly in such a big universe this hypothesis cannot be excluded." Asked is he sees a contradiction between the Catholic faith and believing in aliens, he said, "I think there isn't (a contradiction). Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures over the earth, so there could be other beings, even intelligent (beings), created by God. This is not in contradiction with our faith, because we cannot establish limits to God's creative freedom. To say it with St. Francis, if we can consider some earthly creatures as 'brothers' or 'sisters', why could we not speak of a 'brother alien'? He would also belong to the creation."
Fr. Funes says that taking the image of the lost sheep in the Gospel, "we could think that in this universe there can be 100 sheep, equivalent to different kinds of creatures. We, belonging to human kind could be precisely the lost sheep, the sinners that need the shepherd. God became man in Jesus to save us. In that way, assuming that there would be other intelligent beings, we could not say that they need redemption . They could have remained in full friendship with the Creator."
"But if they were sinners?" L'Osservatore's journalist asks.
"Jesus became man once and for all. The Incarnation is a single and unique event. So I am sure that also they, in some way, would have the chance to enjoy God's mercy, just as it has happened with us human beings."
poets, gravestones, and a pain in my back
Don’t Trust All The Old Women You See
Clean my gravestone, if you think about it,
Remember me in these words,
Ignore the academics with their doctorates,
I am here, not there at all.
Remember me in these words,
Ignore the academics with their doctorates,
I am here, not there at all.
If I am gone, I will be relaxed,
Unworried about the quality of these lines,
I won’t give a damn if I’m read or I’m not,
But right here, right now, I am.
Unworried about the quality of these lines,
I won’t give a damn if I’m read or I’m not,
But right here, right now, I am.
My ghost walks this page before you,
Haunting you with the memories of my thoughts,
Mourn not for the passing of still another poet,
Rejoice that you live to remember me.
Haunting you with the memories of my thoughts,
Mourn not for the passing of still another poet,
Rejoice that you live to remember me.
Epilogue:
If God exists and spends eternity reading poetry,
He knows I have a bone to pick,
We can spend the eons
Discussing Shakespeare and human suffering
And perhaps I will be able
To change his lackadaisical attitude.
Poetry works in mysterious ways.
He knows I have a bone to pick,
We can spend the eons
Discussing Shakespeare and human suffering
And perhaps I will be able
To change his lackadaisical attitude.
Poetry works in mysterious ways.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
starpoet
The Whole Damn Thing
Sometime the shark go away,
Sometime the human go away,
-- Quint, Jaws
The waves crash the shoreline
Along the star-cross seas,
The waters of confusion swirl,
Spirals of bright expectation.
Along the star-cross seas,
The waters of confusion swirl,
Spirals of bright expectation.
Children, cast aside by the storm tide,
Lie broken beneath the school yard rubble;
The shattered trees, offering little shelter
From either juntas or starvation.
Lie broken beneath the school yard rubble;
The shattered trees, offering little shelter
From either juntas or starvation.
The planet shudders, opens, collapses,
Sending buildings and people to oblivion,
Plucked from their families
For the gods’ own purposes.
Sending buildings and people to oblivion,
Plucked from their families
For the gods’ own purposes.
The universe spins on, expands,
Until its dying days and darkness falls
And our bloody tribulations,
An obscure, forgotten footnote.
Until its dying days and darkness falls
And our bloody tribulations,
An obscure, forgotten footnote.
Daylight’s wastin’, breathing grows fainter,
And time, our ally, bets against us;
Beyond the barrels’ edge and pulpit’s end,
A lighthouse beckons across diamond shoals.
And time, our ally, bets against us;
Beyond the barrels’ edge and pulpit’s end,
A lighthouse beckons across diamond shoals.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
An abridgement of a letter from Albert Einstein
January 1954
January 1954
... I read a great deal in the last days of your book, and thank you very much for sending it to me. What especially struck me about it was this. With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common.
... The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.
In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew the priviliege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolisation. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary.
Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, ie in our evalutations of human behaviour. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and 'rationalisation' in Freud's language. Therefore I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things. With friendly thanks and best wishes
Yours, A. Einstein
calendar
May’s End
Memorial Day,
End of Day,
Dinner done,
Daughters gone home,
Son getting ready
To return to
Iraq .
End of Day,
Dinner done,
Daughters gone home,
Son getting ready
To return to
We would pass our luck
To our son if we could,
But we can only hope
His own skills and common sense
Will bring him home again
And we will not be given
A carefully folded coffin flag
Anytime soon at
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
the years ahead
Turning Pages
Come June,
The summer can no longer be denied,
Assuming, of course,
That the weather can read a calendar
And Global Warming
Hasn’t screwed things up too much.
Then again, we can all pretend
That Global Warming
Is a figment of the tree hugging left
And grow up to be president some day.
That Global Warming
Is a figment of the tree hugging left
And grow up to be president some day.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
meanwhile on mars
Three for Mars
As Always, Mars
The
Phoenix descends,
Rockets flaring to soften its landing,
Onto the Martian plains,
Still another earthling
Searching for water and the future
Of the generations of humanity
That will follow
On our way through Sol’s system
To the stars.
Rockets flaring to soften its landing,
Onto the Martian plains,
Still another earthling
Searching for water and the future
Of the generations of humanity
That will follow
On our way through Sol’s system
To the stars.
Lisa Jain Thompson
The Wait
Once again the hardest part
Is waiting the last few hours,
The moments until we discover
If our best laid plans and intentions
Have landed the
Those long dead silent moments
Before the lander tells us
She has survived her final descent
And Mars is ours once more.
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 25 2008
Entry and Descent
Seven minutes, breaks on full,
Burning through the atmosphere
To Mars down below.
Burning through the atmosphere
To Mars down below.
Odyssey watches, safely in orbit,
As
The flaming plazma blackout
To the cool red sands of
Mars.
Touchdown,
Safety,
And
Phoenix says hello
From Mars.
Safety,
And
From Mars.
Lisa Jain Thompson
May 25 2008
Copyright © Lisa Jain Thompson 1995-2008. Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized.
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