THE PRICE OF POETRY
In words too
few,
In lines too
short,
In points too
sharp
With references
oblique.
With timing
strained
And rhyming
feigned,
With little
named
Or clear.
By metaphor and simile
And other
things so prettily,
By ear, some say, most music'ly,
they will take up
their lodging there.
....
It’s a device for traveling
While standing
quite still.
Some call it a
poem,
some others—a
bill.
ON BEING HUMAN
#2
Johnny
Cheesecake
and the Viral
Outbreak
On a dark wall,
lightning flashes
and thunder
sounds out like
the guns of
August.
Nearby our
patient lies,
his lungs
churned to the consistency
of his
favourite dessert.
“There’s
nothing more for it then?”
He gasps.
“Nothing left?”
Just me.
Lightning
lights up the room:
Spare
furnishings, functional.
“Who are you?”
You know who I
am.
“I suppose I
do.”
More flashes,
rain pelts against the window.
“You’ve been
here before,” he says, finally.
Yes. So have
you.
He holds his
breath at each flash,
waits for the
shock of white to pass.
He’s a child
now,
and can only
dream in the dark.
“You’re
relentless,” he moans.
And you love me
for it.
“Yes, I suppose
I do.”
SHAKESPEARE’S
KITCHEN WINDOW
A pot of
flowers on a broken sill
Is the foggy
keep of a Danish hill.
A dull knife
and plate turn dagger and shield
To save the King’s
blood, lest empires yield.
Those fat mice
that caper across the floor
Become fast
friends of kings, made ever more.
Shrill cries of
fish wives that hock in the street
Echo soft song
when true lovers will meet.
And a pane of
glass where sunbeams had shone
Did once light
a world the fairies had sown.
LOVE
It comes after
the wave’s crests and troughs,
when the moon
brings the shoreline higher.
It’s after the
suns of won and lost,
And after all
that we desire.
WHEN SHEEP
LOOK UP
When sheep will
gaze you in the eye
And day’s
roosters forget to call,
When spring
worms all, too ready, turn
And robins come
in fall;
When oysters
leave off oiling grit
And whale’s
teeth grow their sharpened points,
When snails do
guard their open doors
And crabs, their
king, anoint;
When night
winds grow cracked and tattered,
When the rains
they do truly weep,
When day-rise
inks the meadow-lands
in the blood
smiles of sheep—
Then, hats are
tossed into the rings
Where black
bulls are now matadors,
And odds are
given on how long
it takes to
even scores.
DAMAGED GOODS
To begin again.
To start over.
To start fresh
without any calling.
To peel away
old skins
and leave them
atop the midden pile.
To stand pure,
trembling, and newborn,
unburnt among
the ashes.
To do it right
this time.
Future, you
take my breath away!
UNDER A TREE
The bright sun!
The warm wind!
The laughing
Of speckled
leaves!
There’s too
much joy
to name them
all!
QUICK
And so,
around this
time
each day,
when the sun
comes
in my window
like that,
between the
buildings,
the way it
does,
why, then
NURSERY CRIMES
Cell-phone
ring-tone Baker’s mad!
Baking his
date, the best he ever had.
Slice her and
dice her. Put her in a pie.
Serve her up for
dinner along with stir fry!
....
“Mary, Mary,
with hair like snow,
How is it your
belly grows?”
“Through magic
potions found in pee,
Flushing nature
out to sea.”
…..
“Steven! Leave
Him! Touch him and cry!”
She’d said too
much and now she must die.
And when the
judge said, “Now you must pay.”
Steven! Leave
Him! ran away.
....
Little Jenny
Ginger sucks on Daddy’s finger.
Stains on her
sheets, tending there to linger.
How shall she
put it—the rest of her life?
How shall a husband
find her a wife?
....
Come Little Boy
Blue with your crown of thorns—
The corn’s in
silos for the upper-borns.
Why can’t you
see lines there, binding your place?
And how is it
pride’s there blighting your face?
....
Congo-bongo
coltan-rush,
coltan-rush,
coltan-rush!
Congo-bongo
coltan-rush.
My deaad
mine-ers!
....
Rock a dead
baby on your way back.
When the wind
blows—a sarin attack.
When the dam
breaks, all hell will break loose.
And watch out for
hard luck cooking your goose.
....
Rah-rah, grey
sleet, have you any snow?
No sir, no
sir—a long time ago.
Once for the
good earth, once for the sea.
Once for the
likes of you and of me.
....
There was a
crooked man, who lived on crooked land.
He walked by
crooked seas upon a crooked strand.
He bought a
crooked cat that ate a crooked mouse.
And they all
died together in a crooked, little house.
....
Arden-Alwen sat
on a wall.
Arden-Alwen had
a great fall.
All the king’s
horses and all the king’s men
Can’t raise
that wall up, ever again.
....
Old Mother
Hubbard went to her cupboard
to make her
poor world a home.
When she got
there, the cupboard was bare,
leaving just
comets to roam.
....
Star light,
darkling sight,
last star I’ll
see this night.
I wish I may, I
wish I might,
take back the
wish I wished tonight.
ATTEND
Burn all your
expectations.
Leave the ashes
in a bowl.
Pray for rain.
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THE International Court of
Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, on Friday, issued it’s preliminary findings in the
South African complaint against Israel and its culpability in committing the
war crime of “genocide” in Gaza. On Thursday, 25
January, Scottish Journalist Craig Murray wrote on his blog:
“I expect
tomorrow will be a fudge. The court will say it will decide on the case in due
course, and in the meantime Israel should be careful to take all steps to
comply with international humanitarian law and to take all necessary actions to
crack down on incitement to genocide. Then nothing would change.
If, however,
the court does order a ceasefire on the grounds of a prima facie case for
genocide, then I do think you will see a serious moderation of the actions of
western politicians, including a reduction in armaments to Israel. That will of
course not stop Israel.” (Murray)
AND it looks like he may have
called it. On Friday, the ICJ ruled there indeed was a basis for the court to
begin deliberations into the charge of genocide against Israel for its campaign
against the Palestinian people of Gaza, now in its fourth month. To date, nearly
100,000 Palestinians have been killed, missing
or wounded since 7 October of last year. Over 31,000 have been killed, the
majority of whom are women and children, including 113 journalists and 295
health personnel. Over 61,000 have been injured or wounded.
IN A WIDE MAJORITY, the court
found there was enough credible evidence in the South African charge to
begin proceedings against Israel. It should be noted that the World Court deliberations
may take years to conclude. And, though some may be disappointed the court
did not call for an immediate ceasefire, the South
African FM, Naledi Pandor, said on Friday that the
orders the ICJ in its interim emergency findings issued to Israel—if they
obey the court's orders*—would necessitate a de facto ceasefire for their implementation to be successful.
SOME of the World Court’s immediate
orders are for Israel to:
👉"Avoid killing" Palestinians or
causing "bodily harm", or create "intolerable" living conditions in Gaza (i.e.,
carpet bombing, destroying infrastructure), or deliberately preventing Palestinian
births (bombing hospitals, blocking the arrival of medical supplies)
👉Israel is to initiate “immediate
and effective measures” to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
👉Israel is to “prevent and punish’
those who use language that would “incite violence” against Palestinians. (Israeli cabinet ministers have called for Palestinians to be "eradicated".)
THE ICJ RULINGS, now and in the
months and years to come, could have considerable impact on Israel,
not only in the court of public opinion, but also in international law, with
potential findings of genocide against the state of Israel and individual Israeli politicians, and
potentially other countries and politicians that aided and abetted Israel during this time.
ISRAEL may be forced to modify
its actions, especially if the Americans are compelled by domestic and world opinion to curtail their financial and military support (without which the Israeli military could not function). Note that the Americans could stop the slaughter tomorrow with a phone call, cutting
off the supply of American bombs and weapons. Shame on Biden and his
cabal of warmongers!
WILL the government of Israel
heed the preliminary orders issued by the ICJ. Not likely. Will the U.S.
stop sending bombs to Israel? Not any time soon. Will the U.S. once more
stand alone in the UN Security Council vetoing yet another ceasefire vote in the coming days? Probably. And while the ICJ proceedings seem
merely performative and without any teeth to compel nations to
comply, it should be remembered that Israel is a signatory to the 1948 United Nations’
“Genocide Convention” as are currently 152 other states (41 have yet to sign).
This means that the UN World Court has legal authority to stand in judgement over
the signatories. It remains to be seen if the ICJ rulings will have any effect on the outcome in Gaza. My own opinion is that
2.3 million Palestinians will be forcibly removed and the place turned into a
parking lot. But, we'll see.
A MORE OPTIMISTIC TAKE on the
court rulings are from international lawyer Francis Boyle who won provisional
measures against Yugoslavia at the ICJ in 1993. He said:
“This
is a massive, overwhelming legal victory for the Republic of South Africa
against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. The U.N. General Assembly now can
suspend Israel from participation in its activities as it did for South Africa
and Yugoslavia. It can admit Palestine as a full member. And — especially since
the International Criminal Court has been a farce — it can establish a tribunal
to prosecute the highest level officials of the Israeli government, both
civilian and military.”
Cheers, Jake.
______________________________________
* However, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s response to the court’s findings in a snarky X post: “Hague Shmague”, speaks volumes about how seriously the Netanyahu government will heed the ICJ’s orders. Shameful, of course.
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