A boy shepherd in Syria from the Guardian website photos of the week
Day: February 4, 2017
A card to be their presidential meme.
Sometimes I am glad that you are gone
You would be startled to perceive the strange new scene
That a nation educated could choose one
A card to be their presidential meme.
Leonard Cohen hung on with his frail thread
But fell when dreaming of the latest polls
And you, too, are perhaps comforted in death
You don’t have to vote for shipwrecked fools
Yet we who’re strong must live and hope for good.
The virtues of the noblest minds aid ours.
We must cultivate the tender buds.
And not assume ourselves to be mere cowards.
For one good person, God would not destroy
The Sodom we’ve created in false joy.
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Is humorous poetry truly poetry?
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/serious-art-thats-funny-humor-poetry
“Carolyn Forché, someone who has never been accused of being a funny poet, has said “irony, paradox, surrealism . . . might well be both the answer and a restatement of [Theodor] Adorno’s often quoted and difficult contention that to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” But what did the philosopher and critic Adorno mean by this fatuous statement? No poetry? Or just a very, very serious and earnest poetry? Because, let’s face it–earnestness is almost always bad art. Good art makes us think; it has more questions than answers. Often, but not always, satire does this too. But earnestness almost never does this–that’s not its job. Earnestness is comforting. It wants to hug us. And we want to be hugged sometimes. But sometimes we want to laugh while poking holes in self-righteousness and oppression, whether it be literal political oppression or oppression of a quieter sort – cultural and aesthetic oppression. Irony and satire are such a good antidote to oppression because oppression needs to be earnest (or at least look earnest) in order to be feared by those it seeks to cow. Oppression cannot work alongside irony because it believes in its own righteousness and a monolithic concept of truth that must be asserted to the oppressed with a straight face. Irony and satire are the tools by which the oppressed get to make fun of the oppressors without the oppressors getting it.”
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Enchanted roots all tangled as were one
Who ripped his roots out from my fragile heart
And left me hollow ,bleeding and alone?
We who love know all humans must part.
Pain must touch us women who’re not stone.
Yet I did not understand what we’d become;
Enchanted roots all tangled as were one
When he died , the wound has made me lame.
For my roots bereaved seem almost to have gone.
I stand on tilted ground like a ship’s deck
When by squalls and gales it is besieged.
I picture in my mind my own such wreck
Yet death does not take all lovers who’re bereaved.
My roots will spread again when spring comes by.
Till then I lean and shudder lest I die
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I store that image in the web within
Slowly sleep unwraps itself from me
I pull the curtain back and see the sun,
I waken taken by dream’s imagery.
Once we stayed in Aldeburgh by the sea.
The sunrise showed the fishermen begin.
As slowly sleep unwrapped itself from me
The coloured boats looked beautiful and free
I store that image in the web within
I waken taken by dream’s imagery.
My peaceful eyes were washed by coloured sea.
The image murmured to its inner kin
Slowly sleep unwrapped itself from me
I sing of joy and sorrow and am free.
I hold no thoughts of conquest,death or sin
I waken taken by dream’s imagery.
That which is without is yet within.
As day ended so day shall begin.
Slowly sleep unwraps itself from me.
I waken glorified by imagery.
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Is it ok to punch Nazis?
“Put simply, democracies run on one set of values (civility, tolerance, etc.), and fascist states run on another (violence, appeal to social frustration, etc). And we start to encounter real problems when democracies sacrifice their ideals and start trafficking in the violence that belongs to fascists. This idea gets crystallized by Sheri Berman, a poli sci professor at Columbia, when she writes at Vox:
[F]ascists embraced violence as a means and an end. Fascism was revolutionary: It aimed not to reform but to destroy the modern world — and for this, a constant and probably violent struggle would be necessary. Violence was not merely the method through which revolution would be accomplished; it was valuable in and of itself, providing supporters with powerful ‘bonding’ experiences and ‘cleansing’ the nation of its weaknesses and decadence.
Vox then adds to this thought: If we condemn Nazis for “their use of politically motivated violence and then turn around and punch someone in the face because he’s a Nazi — and bond over it online through memes and jokes — [it] seems hypocritical.” And it damages democracy.”
How my heart sings 