“Whoever controls the information, controls the imagination.” –George Orwell “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” –Albert Einstein “Imagine there’s no countries… It isn’t hard to do…. Nothing to kill or die for…. And no religion too…. Imagine all the people… living life in peace” –John Lennon Preludes “’We hold these truths to be[Read More…]
Indian Grandala birds, perched on thin, gray branches, against a gray-green background-sky– something like a mountainside; male and female, one supposes, wondering what songs they make, what harmonies their colors make– visual and audible. What lessons, too, they might inspire in fellow creatures, reaching higher– humans reaching from the mire of endless wars and desolation…? Can we reach beyond the[Read More…]
1. I went searching for the me of me! Who is it? What is it? How will I know? Is it unchangeable—a hyper-essence? If I found it, would I know God— In the infinitesimal form of me? I went to “Impeccable Dry-Cleaning.” “Can you take out this stain?” I wondered. “This is the stain of my living. This[Read More…]
Turmeric, turmeric– coppery-golden spice! Rubbed on fish, rubbed on chicken– it’s finger-lickin’ good! Add it to rice, drink it in tea– a little bit goes far! It can save your life, chase the blues away, reduce the stress and strife! Shake it out and give a shout– you’ve found a true elixir! Let the military band retire, let War and[Read More…]
What was it that they thought to own? Decades, centuries kept intent intact. And, still it calls us, stone by stone, To eke out meaning from mere fact. Observatory, temple, some Cheops’ whim, Or shaman’s riddle in which power hid? To appease the gods—or find them? They worshipped trees; dancing, they understood. We are mute questioners–beguiled; Token pilgrims properly impressed.[Read More…]
1. Putin! Putin! There’s really no disputin’! You’re a liar and a louse And you look like a mouse! Get out of our House! This House we call “Earth”! That’s ours from our birth! Don’t kill the babies With your kind of rabies! We’ve been thru this before— This plague we call “War”! The generals praise… While Earth rots and[Read More…]
“Footfalls echo in the memory/ Down the passage which we did not take/ Towards the door we never opened/ Into the rose-garden.” (T. S. Eliot; from, “Four Quartets”) 1. Recent, shattering world events, have prompted me to check my files to reconsider any past references I’d made to Ukraine. I found a short note to a correspondent/friend from about 10[Read More…]
“The President’s been shot!” he shouted, clamoring his way down the stairs in the dorm. The upper-classman! I was making my way to the third floor, and he was rushing down, letting our small world know—startled, young faces peeping from behind closed doors, aghast and in wonder. I got to my room, and my 2 freshman roommates were staring[Read More…]
The tree reaches…the way a hand Reaches–towards the sky, sunlight, rain, the moon; Towards all things known…and yet to be. Upward, Outward…towards our better selves…and others’ Better selves; towards new and old “realities”– What may be, and what has been. We can’t grasp All there is to grasp…but, open-hearted, We can reach all that is attainable. Wales’ tallest tree had[Read More…]
1. 75… and still alive! Just live to give; just yearn to learn! “To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.” But, can we be kind? Can we still build? Nourish… and flourish…. Take delight in a new insight? Recall old rhymes from childhood’s times? Can we be serious, not deleterious? Dialogue, not monologue? 2. 75 years Leak[Read More…]
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” –Pablo Picasso 1. First, he mastered the masters: From his earliest sketches at his father’s knees, Through Rembrandt, Velasquez and Goya. (El Greco and Goya he loved Almost as much as his father.) They stalked his[Read More…]
First, they came for our masks! Then they came for our muzzles! But… we’d been masked for so long We all felt naked without them! We’d been muzzled for so long, We couldn’t find our voices! Naked and voiceless, we wandered in darkness. “Didn’t there used to be a sun?” someone wondered, Pointing…. “Didn’t there used to be a moon?”[Read More…]
“A constant sacrament of praise….” –Wallace Stevens Give praise whenever you can! Praise: Sunrise on snow-capped mountains; Sunsets on marigold fields; Every act of kindness and solicitude; Children smiling in beneficence. Praise: The hard-earned wisdom of the old; Every great artist who ever lived; The almost-great who failed to fulfill their dreams The color green; amber; bees making honey;[Read More…]
Behind a screen of pastel petals That seem to make A dreamy, windchimes’ sound, She finds herself emerging in a world Where clashing cymbals echo all around, And yet… in peace, she stands her ground. Within this world of dissolutions, She holds vast secrets in her well-like eyes; Beyond the realm of disappearance, She abides; And, more than that, hides[Read More…]
Sweet apocalypse in the blood! Stephen-King nightmare in the brain! Mortar rounds at synapses! Invader of our personal stash! SweetSweet as Delilah’s lips! Cooing with the voice of Mom— Bubela, Bambino, come home, come home To peaches and cream and castles of fructose, To sugared hot cocoa and honeycombed words In hives of endearments buzzing on eardrums; To plaudits[Read More…]
1. Crackling Aging is like a multitude of doors, closing in back alleys—sunless… (or lit by a lamppost in a film noir script). You think you see a beautiful face—gas-lit, in a secret chamber— hair with a halo around it. You think you know the name of that face…. But… you have forgotten all names. And the face smiles back[Read More…]
A review of Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies: Critical and Lyrical Essays, by Edward Curtin. (Atlanta, GA, Clarity Press, Inc. 349 pp. 2020.) “There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear.” –Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth.” Happily receiving my review copy of Edward Curtin’s new book, the first thing I noticed, naturally enough,[Read More…]
By Giuseppa Cochiara and Gary Steven Corseri Food for the poor, Water for plants Rain for arid land. Everyone adds A pinch of hope To the dish of Life. It’s a rose-tinged feeling— Nourishing, supporting. Everyone hopes For a better day— A turnaround To something new. Love, success, pride…. Can we imagine them Without hope? [Read More…]
“…how beset we were with what…we had been taught….” –Kenneth Patchen. A poem for voices, with shakuhachi and koto…. (Sound of shakuhachi, a wooden flute–as though the instrument itself is breathing…and crying….) The Pilgrim Under the flush of cherry, in air as mild as breath, by the Ota’s tributary– five crooked fingers reaching into the Inland Sea–[Read More…]
(Author’s Note: Here’s a poem about US—and much of the world’s–politics in this “modern age,” in which the emphasis of our “hidden persuaders” (and, often, blatant manipulators) is not so much on what we think as on how we think—i.e., shallow thinking. Those who dare to chart their own course, probe deeply, think for themselves,draw their own conclusions, are too[Read More…]
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? –Langston Hughes Langston Hughes[Read More…]
(The title alludes to the photo by W. Eugene and Aileen Smith, in which a mother bathes her crippled, twelve-year-old daughter…. A hundred people died and nearly a thousand were crippled as a result of mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan.) “Daughter, my daughter, I will hold you with my strong arms and let the warmth of the water enter[Read More…]
1. “Girasole,” Italians say, accent on soul, “g” as in gyro, the last syllable, lay–a medieval song. In my uncle’s garden there were many (heads taller than I, taller even than the tomato plants he trained to staves heading towards trellises of overhead vines from which he squeezed–sweet!– grapes’ wine-dark blood). But these were different— golden, star-petaled…serene; yet…eerie how they[Read More…]
1. If I come back to earth as a movie star, I want to be that guy nobody knows. You know who I mean, don’t you? As a young man, he gets slapped around by Bogie in The Maltese Falcon. He’s Sidney Longstreet’s punk and foil. He’s got a pug nose and he makes you want to rub…him… out![Read More…]
I do not find it profitable to talk to the dead! They are so single-minded! They repeat old stories over and over Until one feels like screaming: “PLEASE MOVE ON!” The dead are ventriloquists. As soon as you think they’re silent, A living soul takes up their mantle, Suddenly nudging you: “Did you hear the one about…?” (And…you’ve heard it[Read More…]
God bless the cherry-pickers! They swarm upon the ground— picking, picking, picking what’s unerringly found. They love low-hanging branches where picking’s easily done. They abhor a wealth of chances. “Tough nuts” they always shun! They tell you what you’ve heard a hundred thousand times. They claim the final word is easy—and it rhymes! They know the way to Timbuktu. They[Read More…]
[Author’s Note:The 39thPresident of the United States (1977-1981), Jimmy Carter has been in the news recently, and we wish him well…. I consider him one of the great people I’ve had the honor of meeting. Following his too-brief tenure in the White House, Carter worked gratis for decades with “Habitat for Humanity,” physically building and refurbishing houses for those in need…. In[Read More…]
With Pilar Viviente, Gary Corseri and some esteemed friends Photo: “A Tower of Understanding”. By Pilar Viviente, Venice, 2019 “Life can certainly throw us some hardballs, that’s for sure! But that is the thing about life—unfathomable, mysterious, beautiful and ugly all on one plate, one sitting, one incarnation.” — Antonio C. S. Rosa “Nous sommecomme des nainsjuche sur des epaules[Read More…]
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha[Read More…]
I write for the men of a thousand years hence— and the women—and their healthy children. And…, if you are suffering, if night is day and day is night, I will drink the cup of despair with you, for I have tasted of despair. But…, if you are happy and wise, may my words animate your limbs; may[Read More…]
I know it sounds incredible, but this is how it happened…. I was flipping channels on my Fake News cable box, hunting/searching for a morsel of something tasty, digestible and real, when suddenly there was a strange buzzing in my ears, I felt a bit dizzy, I lay down on my sofa, and I heard a high-pitched, electronic-like voice—some[Read More…]
“Eureka! Eureka! (I have found it!)” –Archimedes “Having played with fire, one knows inner forms, inner function.” -–Kijima Hajime Let’s first debunk the “fake news”! Famed scientist and mathematician, Archimedes, probably did not cry out “Eureka! Eureka!” (Greek for “I have found it!”) when he sat in a public bath in Syracuse, Sicily, discovering one of his—and[Read More…]
1) Nothing. One hand cannot clap…. 2) Half the sound of 2 hands clapping…. 3) Air…. 4) A bowl of rice…. 5) A cup of tea…. 6) “A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou….” 7) A crazy old guy doing a jig on thin ice….[Read More…]
In 2007, Sotheby’s
auctioned a can of artist’s shit
for 180,000 dollars.
“Sophisticated,” “cultured” types
clamored to buy a tin of shit
an auction house called “Art.”
In the intro to this dialogue between Paul Kurtz and Vince Salandria–poignantly intercut with JFK’s own words on his goals and hopes for salvaging the human race from the prospects of nuclear suicide-homicide–, Kurtz refers to Salandria as “razor-sharp.” Engrossed for some 20 minutes, I concluded the same…and much more. Octogenarian Salandria is one of the best people I’ve[Read More…]
Please help the people in Houston, Lord.
And, while You’re at it, in Palestine, too!
Though worlds apart, they are kindred,
as all suffering creatures are kindred.
Dogs live in a world of smells— succulent, sensual: a melange of sexuality–known and unknown, friendly and prohibitive. They’re color-blind, love blindly, lead the blind (when so inclined). Dogs live in the world of Now—leaping catching frisbees, canines gripping, tail-wagging; or—snarling, menacing, loyal to a fault—and faultlessly alert to guard their master’s home; their master’s spies, their[Read More…]
To lie closer, they folded their plicate wings,
ate blood and shit and the sweat of each other,
retched their names in history’s spittoon,
lay blear-eyed, dreamed-out, dreamless at last.
During our recent “celebration” of Memorial Day, I heard the rumblings of muscular motorcycles outside my window, on the streets below my apartment in Washington, D.C. There seemed to be many such displays in public places or on TV. A former judge in my apartment building told me about “festivities” taking place at the Kennedy Center, to mark the 100th[Read More…]
The computer whined
a kind of laugh….
“You’re on a biometric leash!
We know your thoughts before you strew them
haphazardly about.”
While Obama and Cameron take “selfies,”
shedding crocodile tears
at Nelson Mandela’s final farewell,
our Lady Mandela gazes over
the path she has made by her walking.
1. Dah! It’s true! Every time I come upon some clever turn-of-phrase, they’re in my brain, they’re at my screen— hacking, hacking, hacking! Every metaphor I write they claim is Dostoyevsky’s! Every simile is Tolstoy’s! Every irony—you guessed it! Chekhov’s! They turn my language inside-out. I write moon-June love poems, and they turn them into treatises[Read More…]
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (from “The Sermon on the Mount”) [Interviewer’s Note: A man who has published more than 150 books and 1500 articles on peace and related issues; the founder of TRANSCEND: A Peace, Development and Environment Network; a man who has worked as a mediator with the U.N.[Read More…]
To see the planet whole;
To know our place upon it;
To nurture and restore it;
To abide in moderation,
With compassionate humility;
That the arts might consecrate us—
I voted.
Share the bounty of the Earth!
Make a joyful sound!
A teaspoon’s worth
can give new birth;
let the hills resound–
there’s plenty to go around,
sharing in rebirth.
Peace Plays is a splendid book: a lens with which to contemplate our modern world of foibles, follies, self-and-mass destruction. It’s a book to read, and re-read, and savor. It is whimsical and sobering; grating in a positive way; uplifting and transformative
When Jesus and the Buddha met
in a meadow of larkspurs, on a balmy day,
the bees of the valley went mad with love,
the sky and the sun were a glaze.
“Let us sit on the grass,” said Buddha.
And they rested their traveling bones.
One in cambric, the other in saffron,
and the air was the color of amber.
I recall from my early teens, the “Judgment at Nuremberg” movie, which made a big impression then about “justice” and the “rightness and virtue” of the Allied cause. But when I watched the movie on TV, years later, it was the Richard Widmark character–one of the prosecuting colonels, I believe–who made the deepest impression because, by the end[Read More…]
Have I been out-Trumped?
(He doth bestride the narrow world like a Collosus!)
Out-Foxed by one “extremely careless”?
Oh, what Ailes me now? What Ailes us all?
But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East–and Jill Stein is the sun!
US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
75,000 Climate Protesters Marched In New York With Demand To End Fossil Fuels 
On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 
Zelensky Faces Difficult Time In Washington D.C. 
Stumbling Towards Old Age And Looking for Someone to Lean On 
Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
