A Longhouse Birdhouse

Friday, January 27, 2017

Thursday, January 26, 2017

JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN ~

John Edgar Wideman

at Casa Mezcal in New York City in January 2017.

JOY REID ~

INTERVIEW WITH JOY REID

MORE !

CHARLES BLOW

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN ~

Greenpeace at work

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/

OCEAN VUONG ~

O C E A N V U O N G

Threshold

In the body, where everything has a price,

I was a beggar. On my knees,

I watched, through the keyhole, not

the man showering, but the rain

falling through him:guitar strings snapping

over his globed shoulders.

He was singing, which is why

I remember it. His voice —

it filled me to the core

like a skeleton. Even my name

knelt down inside me, asking

to be spared.

He was signing. It is all I remember.

For in the body, where everything has a price,

I was alive. I didn't know

there was a better reason.

That one morning, my father would stop

—a dark colt paused in downpour —

& listen for my clutched breath

behind the door. I didn't know the cost

of entering a song — was to love

your way back.

So I entered. So I lost.

I lost it all with my eyes

wide open.

_______________

OCEAN VUONG

Night Sky With Exit Wounds

Copper Canyon 2016

More Ocean

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Rosset was a wonderful storyteller as it shows
in this memoir, never mind one of the heralded
mavericks in the US Publishing: Grove Press
when it was really Grove Press; Evergreen Review,
Evergreen Films. Thank heavens for Barney Rosset
and the books by Samuel Becket, Jean Genet,
William Burroughs, Marguerite Duras
Hubert Selby and Henry Miller he and
some of his excellent editors like
Richard Seaver and Fred Jordan
brought forth.

Monday, January 23, 2017

THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO ANIMALS ~

Cup (remembering the old man)

We watched the thunderstorm

Blow over from the west,

Darken the upper hill of

Pasture, brush away

Daylight in barn

Windows, make it awful

Dark for two-in-the-afternoon

You said, now listen

And because you usually

Only spoke when you had

Something to say, I did

Listen, nearly held my breath

Waiting — looking up into

Your eyes and tiny white

Hairs in your nose and ears

And when the shower began

We heard it first in the

Wave of trees far off —

You looked and

Smiled at me

Hoping I had heard it —

Those few seconds in life

When earth, trees and even man

Turn their cup up to the rain

The Man Who Spoke To Animals

Today I heard Mason Weathers was put

Into the hospital a month ago after

A stroke, and I thought he was

Missing this fall when geese

Passed over his hill-farm’s steel roofs

Heading south with the river

Mason is always up and around those days

Even though he is two years retired from

Farming and is said to sit in a chair

Smoking cigarettes by his roadside window,

Wondering like a few of the old timers left —

What in the world has happened

To all this land and town he loves

Many years ago he gave up attending

Town meeting — was busy sawing logs for taxes —

But of course it was the new people

Now in the chairs of his dead friends

That drove him away, into deeper snow

Clutching a chain saw

One time I borrowed from Mason

His heavy snag of tractor rope

To do tree work for people he knew

In the village, and in my rush limbing

Sawed off a six-foot tail of that rope —

When I brought it back Mason met me

On his porch — with its pose over the

Valley — a smile on his muscular face,

Nodded and said, “It was all right, just

Six-feet shorter,” then walked back inside

They say today he has no memory for

That sort of thing. Sits up in a hospital

Bed with daily visits from his wife Ruth

Who tells friends back home Mason has

Been struck with sugar, and the stroke has

Left one side of his body blank as

A dead elm tree — imagine a man who once

Spoke to animals ending up this way

The Reason I Love to Build Stone Walls

and have for so long

is that I need few

tools to do the job

I could walk to work

free at hand

nearly whistling

until I arrive

(not wanting to

look too happy)

and the stones

are there lopsided

appearing miserably

out of place to

someone else

as I kneel

maybe with a 3 lb.

hammer I’ve brought

along for company

_________________

Bob Arnold

Once In Vermont

Gnomon

Sunday, January 22, 2017

DREAMS AND STUFF ~

Saturday, January 21, 2017

HOUSTON WOMEN'S MARCH ~

Here's a sign from the

HOUSTON WOMEN'S MARCH
21 JANUARY 2017

sent from a friend tonight
from the heart of
Texas

LOOK AT YOURSELVES, IT'S BEAUTIFUL ~

L O O K !

BE A SISTER ~

Here is a look at how many MARCHED ~

Washington DC 680,000 -1,000,000 (pending)
LA 750,000 +
NYC 400,000 +
Chicago 250,000
Denver 200,000
Seattle 175,000
San Francisco 150,000
Boston 175,000
Oakland 100,000
Madison Wi 100,000
Portland 100,000
St Paul 100,000
Atlanta 60,000
Austin 50,000
Philadelphia 50,000
Raleigh 18,000
Des Moines 26,000
Pittsburgh 25,000
San Diego 40,000
Phoenix, AZ 20,000+
Nashville 20,000
Houston 20,000
Santa Ana 20,000
Montpelier VT 20,000 (pop 7,700 many I 89 exits shut down)
St Petersburg 17,000
Tucson 15,000
Cleveland 15,000
Las Vegas 15,000
New Orleans 15,000
Oklahoma City 12,000 +
Birmingham Al 10,000
Seneca Falls 10,000 (birthplace of women's rights)
Lansing MI 10,000
Miami 10,000
Dallas 10,000
Portland ME 10,000
Helena MT 10,000
Kansas City,MO 10,000
Charlotte 10,000
Ithaca 10,000
Park City UT 8,000
Greensboro 8,000
Asheville 10,000
Albuquerque 10,000
Tallahassee 10,000+
Eureka CA 8,000
West Palm Beach 7,000
Little Rock 7,000
Orlando 6,000
Trenton 5,000
Fargo ND 5,000
Athens Ga 4,500
Wichita KS 3,000
Columbia, MO 3,000
Sioux Falls SD 3,000 +
Roanoke, VA 3,000+....
Springfield, MO 2,000+
Fairbanks, AK 2,000 (one of the many below freezing champions!)
Doylestown, PA 2,000.
Hillsborough NC (my town!) 2000
Rochester, NY 2,000
Winchester VA 1300 (birthplace of Patsy Cline!)
Wilmington NC 1200
Ketchum ID 1150 (pop 2689!)
Harrisburg PA 1,100
Astoria OR 1,000+
Jonesborough TN 1000+
Saskatoon 800-1000 (pop 260k)
Homer Alaska, 900+
Palmer AK 800
Moscow Idaho 750 +
Sharon PA 700
Twisp, WA 600+
Amarillo, TX - 675
Murray KY 700
Black Mt NC 400
Morganton NC 500
Houghton / Hancock Michigan: 300 +
Vancouver WA 200
Onley Virginia 70 (pop 516)
Accident MD 50 (pop 325) bus broke down,impromptu rally!
Stanley Idaho - 30. (pop 63)
and on and on and on plus millions more throughout the whole world (thank you sister marches) wow.(not a comprehensive list by any means and numbers can change feel free to add on in the comments)