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Newsflash:

Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VII, No. XXXVII

Saturday, 09 September 2006 21:00 Last Updated on Sunday, 17 September 2006 08:10

The

Starpoet

Newsletter

Vol VII, No. XXXVII

Orion and Sirius greet fall cooly
Low in the sky before dawn's early fingers
Mist curls up from the rivers
Floats across the path
Leading towards our home

Where I left you in our bed

Still curled in the memory
Of my body's warmth
While I watch the sun rise
Alone

Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2006

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<><><><><>

Only when we understand our biological drives
Can we transcend them.

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

Early september, summer slipping away. Already leaves turn and the night grows too cold for tomatoes.

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

life goes on

Crocodile Dreams

Steve

Death by stingray

While swimming the coral reef,

All cameras rolling
For a nature documentary.

Six inches of stinger

Straight into the heart,

Fish and man surprised, one dies,

The luck of the draw.

Better to meet your end
Living as you wish

That rust away in safety
Braindead before your body.

Germaine

Germaine Greer,

In a fit of huffiness,

Has determined that Steve's death

Is a good thing:
Man should not fool
Around with Mother Nature

-- It's such a Male Thing, after all,

To go traipsing after animals.

The world should be New York,
And, if you please,
She would rather not know
About any Wild Things
That might disturb
Her intellectual serenity.

Life

This is all so fragile,

One moment you are alive,

The next you startle a stingray.

God, if he exists,
Has little to do with it,
Or, if he does,
Must spend his time

Inventing new ironies
For our deathly amusements.

Lisa Jain Thompson

September 2006

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

Biggest Win Since Our Database Kicked In

Couric's anchor debut on CBS is one of those milestones that coeds will be forced to memorize in Women's Studies 101 at universities around the country for the rest of time -- you know, the very first broadcast by the very first woman to get her very own network-TV evening newscast .

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change of season

Board Certified

Eyes open to lurking headache
No escape in sleep
Pain impervious to aspirin and caffeine

Submits only to codeine
Or some magic potion

That shoots through my veins
To separate mind and body
And let me slip back into my dreams.

Lisa Jain Thompson

September 2006

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

science stuff

Dimension

This eleven dimensional point
I reside in

Is not a spectrum.

My presence in discrete,

My consciousnes singular,

Existence is simultaneous

In all directions.

That I call that the past,

This the present,

Provides coordinates
For my persistent vision;

About, above,

Up and down,

Are useful tools

That anchor my sanity.

I am, I am not,

Notwithstanding my desire,

Is a binary;

Male or female,

Alive or dead,

At the beginning, at the end,

I, and the universe,

Move as one.

Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2006

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

OF CONCERN TO ACADEMIA

"The Effect of Education on Cognitive Ability" by Torberg Falch and Sofia Sandgren, working paper published by the economics department at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Two economists find that every year of formal education raises a student's IQ an average of about 3 points, regardless of family income or parents' educational levels, raising new doubts that genetics alone determines intelligence.

-- Alternately, IQ tests may not measure intelligence at all -- just how well you assimilate into the Educatoring Academia.

"The Effect of Ballet Dance Attire on Body and Self-Perceptions of Female Dancers" by Brena R. Price and Terry F. Pettijohn II, Social Behavior and Personality, Vol. 34, No. 7. Two Mercyhurst College researchers find that female ballet dancers hate the way they look in black leotards with pink tights and think they look better in loose-fitting clothes.

-- Doh, do you think I look better in the hideous black leotard and pink tights that outline my genitals or the cute yoga outfit?

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you gotta eat

Lunch in the Sun

Lunch,

Pentagon courtyard,

High skies, warm sun,

I find myself on sidewalk

Between 3-4 and 9-10,

Approaching the workmen

Relaxing on the benches

And watch my every step,

The way my hips move,

The length of my legs,

My eyes, my lips,

Betting whether I would or not.

I take a deep breath,

Continue walking

Without acknowledging their gaze

Or denying it;

As I pass,

They turn their attention
To the next one
Who dares traverse their territory.

Lisa Jain Thompson

September 2006

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

competition

Writing as Profession

Scott Fitzgerald may have another novel out,
Drunken fool that is he is;

Melville might still be chasing whales,

Searching for gods he can kill;

Somewhere another Shakespearean play
Lies lurking on the shelves,

And Sappho's parchment may still be found

In some dusty Vatican corner.

What we do slips through the cracks,

Slides between time's long edge,

Gone today, here tomorrow,
Long after we are dead.

What is it to be great
When you no longer hear

The cheers of the crowd
Or the whispers of your lover?

But that is the best
The world allows us,

For when we are here,

No one ever seems to care.

Lisa Jain Thompson

September 2006

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

BE SURE TO USE ONLY LICENSED ALTERNATIVE HEALTH PROVIDERS

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Tribal healers, often known as witch doctors, are to be permitted to give patients official sick days recognized by employers, the state media reported Wednesday.

Deputy Health Minister Edwin Maguti told a gathering of traditional healers and herbalists that only members of the 1,500-strong state-approved Traditional Medical Practitioners Council would be allowed to grant sick leave of up to a week, The Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said.

As government health services crumble in the ailing economy, the move was part of efforts to improve the collaboration of traditional healers in providing health care.

Maguti said medical doctors would also be encouraged to refer patients to traditional healers for additional treatments.

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revelations

Divine Right

God told me not to run for mayor,

Not to participate in Vietnam,

And to to eat fish on Fridays

-- He has a rather odd perspective.

God said I should walk with Martin,

Build houses with Cesar,

But, above all, please

Please stop maturbating

-- I caused all sorts of moral issues
When he watched.

On my first day, God said,
"Let her be Trannsexual,"

Then started constructing obstacles
To test my will to be so,

Sending religious disciples
And cross-dressing zealots

To protest my desire

To follow God's will

-- No one ever said
God didn't have a sense of humor.

If God wishes to stop me, he may

-- I could be dead tomorrow --

Some divinely designed worm

Could infiltrate my synapses
And bring my mind full stop;

But until then,
I will do what he intended
And be the best
Woman born transsexual
My human brain allows.

Lisa Jain Thompson
September 2006

__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^

Famous Last Words

Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter:

"Crikey!"

Psychiatrist Dr. Wayne Fenton who was shot to death by a patient:

"Why do you think you want to kill me?"

President George W. Bush:

"We are winning the war on death."

__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^

when the hurricane passed

Early Saturday Looking Out At The Rain

Lightless until dawn

Fingers the sun awake,

Gooses his bright rays

Through the remnants

Of the hurricane.

Without electricity
But not without power,
I write, pen and journal,

Scribble my imagination
On paper rather than electron,

Though the truth be told,
Both are the same
In everything that matters.

I would pun a layered metaphor,

Hint at correspondencs

Between earth, paper, and poet:

My web, like the poet,
Assembles on the fly;

My flesh fades like poor ink
On cheap, elementary paper;

My words, ethereal,

Vanish when the switch turns off.

Dawn should come quickly
Before the candle melts to carbon

And useless waxy drips.

Lisa Jain Thompson

September 2006

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^^\/\/\/\/^^

PEACE

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© Lisa Jain Thompson 2006

Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized.