A Tune in the Void

About a year and a half ago, when I was taking a poetry workshop with Priscilla Becker, I was given the assignment to find a poem in another language and "translate" it without regard for the meaning of the words, only the sound and appearance of them. I knew the poem I wanted to do, because it had a great title, but I never got beyond the title, A Tune in the Void (from EEN TUIN IN DE AVOND.)
Yesterday I attended a reading at the new (so new it isn't yet open) Unnamable Books, on Vanderbilt, and bought a couple of poetry volumes. I haven't written anything in a long while. Reading some Anne Sexton just now, I decided to write my poem translation. It is...I don't know. Its inspiration follows it.


A Tune in the Void

There's gonna deepen here in these bended engines,
the wheel well,

and all the named ones on, a second warning

here, stated out loud, taut and barked, under apple blooms
their lights in our outdoors, in hot grass
they're coming out gilded with hot heads
here is our light for the strength

it goes better like this: a tune in the void

and what you now hurt and now fight-- the playing
war we kill, grooves in
death, hiding in good looking works

and versions of omens and nights set by will, a sign
for that which has been.



EEN TUIN IN DE AVOND
Rutger Kopland

Er gebeuren dingen hier en ik ben de enige
die weet welke

ik zal ze noemen en ook zeggen waarom

er staat een oude tuinbank onder de appelboom
er ligt een oude voetbal in het gras
er komen oude geluiden uit het huis
er is oud licht in de lucht

dit gebeurt hier: een tuin in de avond

en wat je niet hoort en niet ziet – de plekken
waar we kuilen groeven en
die huilend dichtgooiden

ik vertel dit omdat ik niet alleen wil zijn
voordat ik het ben


Also, I updated the season pages on my website, so go check them out tomorrow when you get bored at work!
Jen

and while i'm here

here is my second and failed attempt to germinate my seed of wanting to make a project out of drawings of Antarctica. With Max (who is incidentally the destroyer of the first attempt-- a traced map on a piece of a dress pattern) in the background.

all part of the process...

It's been so long...

But I am, once again, attempting to recommit myself to the blog. now that everyone is twittering (tweeting?), i decided to revive this thing. and i won't lie, i have been really impressed by zoe strauss's blog (thanks to nat for introducing me to her) and that also contributed. Anyway, I know that you have heard it before, but here it is again.

I wanted to introduce you to a painter named Joy Garnett because I just found and am in love with a series she has done on the Yangtse Three Gorges Dam
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73257&id=47320229387
This is one of them:




And I also wanted to share a talk by Mae Jemison on the subject of the falsely dichotomized fields of science and the arts.

Stimulate the Economy-- No to Prop 8

The wedding industry pumps about $40 BILLION into the US economy a year, and some put this around $70 billion. It's no secret our economy could use a boost, and this won't cost the taxpayers a dime. But in case you think that our society should uphold equality for all, that would be a better reason to vote no.

I do not live in California, but I believe in freedom and equality. Prop 8 is wrong for California and wrong for America. What's there to be afraid of, letting people be free to express their love?


From http://noonprop8.com:

OUR CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION -- the law of our land -- SHOULD GUARANTEE THE SAME FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS TO EVERYONE -- NO ONE group SHOULD be singled out to BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY.

In fact, our nation was founded on the principle that all people should be treated equally. EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW IS THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY.

That's what this election is about -- equality, freedom and fairness, for all.

Marriage is the institution that conveys dignity and respect to the lifetime commitment of any couple. PROPOSITION 8 WOULD DENY LESBIAN AND GAY COUPLES that same DIGNITY AND RESPECT.

Regardless of how you feel about this issue, the freedom to marry is fundamental to our society, just like the freedoms of religion and speech.

PROPOSITION 8 MANDATES ONE SET OF RULES FOR GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES AND ANOTHER SET FOR EVERYONE ELSE. That's just not fair. OUR LAWS SHOULD TREAT EVERYONE EQUALLY.

In fact, the government has no business telling people who can and cannot get married. Just like government has no business telling us what to read, watch on TV or do in our private lives. We don’t need Prop 8; WE DON’T NEED MORE GOVERNMENT IN OUR LIVES.

REGARDLESS OF HOW ANYONE FEELS ABOUT MARRIAGE FOR GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES, PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE SINGLED OUT FOR UNFAIR TREATMENT UNDER THE LAWS OF OUR STATE. Those committed and loving couples who want to accept the responsibility that comes with marriage should be treated like everyone else.

DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS are NOT MARRIAGE.

When you're married and your spouse is sick or hurt, there is no confusion: you get into the ambulance or hospital room with no questions asked. IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND ESPECIALLY IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS, DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS ARE SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH. Only marriage provides the certainty and the security that people know they can count on in their times of greatest need.

EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW IS A FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE. Prop 8 separates one group of Californians from another and excludes them from enjoying the same rights as other loving couples.

Forty-six years ago I married my college sweetheart, Julia. We raised three children -- two boys and one girl. The boys are married, with children of their own. Our daughter, Liz, a lesbian, can now also be married -- if she so chooses.

All we have ever wanted for our daughter is that she be treated with the same dignity and respect as her brothers – with the same freedoms and responsibilities as every other Californian.

My wife and I never treated our children differently, we never loved them any differently and now the law doesn't treat them differently, either.

Each of our children now has the same rights as the others, to choose the person to love, commit to and to marry.

Don't take away the equality, freedom and fairness that everyone in California -- straight, gay or lesbian -- deserves.

Please join us in voting NO on Prop 8.


Samuel Thoron
Former President, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Julia Miller Thoron

800 lb gorilla in the campaign-- Please Read

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

Sep 13, 2008

By Tim Wise

Tim Wise's ZSpace Page / ZSpace
http://www.timwise. org/

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin
and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a
personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,
because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families
with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristo! l Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God"
in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding
fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from
holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband
who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to
secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one
questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and
your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being
disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
"second look."

White privilege is being ! able to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
! the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of r acism
and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
"trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything
at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
For review copies or interview requests, please reply to
publicity@softskull .com

Foreclosures, my uneducated response to a single article

This is an old article, one from March, but someone mentioned to me this aspect of the foreclosure crisis today, and I looked at this. It got me thinking, and what started as an email response spiraled into this. It isn't art, but I wanted to put it here; I hope no one minds.

The article's "take-away" element is this:
"Real-estate agents estimate that about half of foreclosed properties to be sold by mortgage companies nationwide have "substantial" damage, according to a new survey by Campbell Communications, a marketing and research firm based in Washington, D.C."
The article does not, however, offer any frame of reference for this statistic. For instance, I would like to know how many rental homes have "substantial damage" when the tenants move out and also what percentage of foreclosed homes had "substantial damage" before the start of the current 'foreclosure crisis.' The article also buries deep the fact that vandals often break into abandoned houses and smash things. Mortgage defaulters can hardly be considered responsible for that, yet these occurrences would fall into the 'nearly half' statistic they are using.
I would also add that, whatever the reasons for the damage (in some cases for money, other cases for 'revenge'), many of these homes are going to be purchased by the sorts of lowlife entities who put billboards up in low-income neighborhoods (like all over Oak Cliff, South Dallas, Brooklyn, The Bronx, etc.) advertising that they buy homes and property, for cash, in any condition. These companies and have a culpability in the housing boom that has helped bring us to this point by throwing up shoddy housing developments with ostensibly cheap houses that are a terrible blight on the urban landscape. Oh, and, as those of us educated enough to notice all the fine print will see, these little boxes are often sold with predatory adjustable rate mortgages and are no, in fact, 'cheap' in cost, only in quality. In short, I am not condoning the vandalism and theft of these particular mortgage defaulting no-longer-homeowners, for indeed in most states the stove they are selling belongs to the bank. HOWEVER, I do not feel much sympathy for the bank or the predatory development companies that will buy these mortgages from the bank, because they have helped to create this situation. They aren't going to lose their homes over a couple thousand dollars in damages. In fact, the CEO of Citibank won't even lose his summer home over it. Remember, that the 'victims' of this vandalism are not small time landlords. They are the institutions who, were they to possess a moral compass, would never have given these mortgages in the first place.

And the b) part is an important issue, when you consider what is and is not covered in the media. Of course it is part of the 'story' of the mortgage crisis, and it should be covered, but given all that is not covered by the media, I have gotten very interested lately in what is, and what function this selection serves. Maybe it is all the schadenfreude, maybe it's 'defaulter fatigue', or maybe it is that increasing rare instance in which our news media (not to single out the WSJ at all) is trying to give a balanced picture. I think it is something more, though.
It is my strong belief that people feel affirmed by stories like this one for the same reason so many people liked stories about crime and Katrina refugees (many of which were also overblown and decontextualized). These stories allow "us" to excuse the system by thinking, in some way, however small, that it is not such a travesty that these people have lost their homes, because as it turns out,they are petty, vindictive people who aren't taking responsibility for their own mistakes, but instead stealing and vandalizing. What this story serves to do is quiet that impulse in moral humans such as ourselves that says "This crisis came about for a reason, and there are many culpable parties, BUT I DO NOT THINK THAT I WANT TO LIVE IN A SOCIETY THAT IS ABOUT MAKING MONEY BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS, WHERE THE SUPER-RICH GET SUPER-RICHER OFF PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, A COUNTRY THAT IMPOSES INCENTIVES FOR 'THIRD WORLD' NATIONS TO HALT THEIR AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES, AND THEN PUTS THEIR FOOD IN OUR GAS TANKS." The media's emphasis on stories like this quiet our impulse to call for actual, substantial change in how we are in the world, as a nation and as individuals. Let's not quiet that.

summer summer summer

yes, it is still summer. and i'm ok with that.

blogs and boredom

Yesterday, Mary Button brought this to my attention. We had both already been like-hating Jezebel, but this article, which just intensified my existing feelings, was the straw that broke my back, if I may modify a cliche. So, what are to turn to in our restless boredom? Well, if you are too distracted for this, which at any rate is not updated very frequently, maybe try checking out the random blogs recommended by blogger. I just found this odd fellow here http://48thpennsylvania.blogspot.com/

Happy hunting.

Patrick Chamoiseau

from Childhood

"The man today has a melancholic weakness for rainy weather, damp winds, and nights turning to rivers. He might even have been a poet, perhaps, had these too blatantly beautiful preferences not been in such bad taste."