barbtries a blog: May 2005

barbtries a blog

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

MoveOn PAC

MoveOn PAC
5 pm on the west coast, 8 pm on the east coast

- posted by barbara @ 5/24/2005 02:33:00 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 22, 2005

unblocked

maybe it is not sensible and i should sleep on it. if you read it
let me know your thoughts i appreciate that a lot. the thing to me
is that, i wrote it. then i wrote another poem immediately thereafter,
one which may or may not find its way to the blog. when i first wrote
it i knew it would; now i am tired and wondering if it does warrant
being published, even if this one does...so yay! i wrote, and damn
i despise my twisted ego.

the Wonder: Epiphany

"I hear my being dance from ear to ear." - Theodore Roethke, TheWaking

2:17 am 5/22/05

Working on the book, again, and reading. Back to poverty we go
equipped with technology and a chihuahua, and the tears roll
placidly down my face on a regular basis.

Bekah - you are the primal scream. You are the lesson for always.
You are the caution and the glee, the worry and the fulfillment.

YOU are the angel the turtle the damnation the redemption.

You are the wise and the silenced, and the smile that guides by
its light, the hand i hold as i tentatively step out to the
dance...from ear to ear.

You - Bekah - have vanquished years, strained belief, inspired
that entire gamut, that rainbow, that two sided coin upon which
the spectrum of human feeling twirls twists mixes up wails wonders knows

and still... questions.

You - Bekah - You - light my way with the radiance no death
could touch -

You - the object of my desire you hold a finger to your lips
maybe giggle under your breath -
Your breath is a flood of light an eddy of butterflies

And they smile they look like you. They flit they have
endured metamorphosis and chosen to emerge as a moment's
wonder, and you, Bekah

You are that wonder; in my mind though,
You still look like a young woman,

One whose demeanor has just shed its girlhood,
presenting a woman

Who is a credit to her sex, a joy to her people,
a woman who will

Accomplish great things, learn the truth within the mysteries
large and encompassing, she will, you will,

Demonstrate ways to be, further the good, will

Always. Always you -

be Joy expansive profound beyond language as it serves
the human at this point in time. You are

the Joy that has been

as bereft as pained as suffering as __ .. __
a mother whose child has died.

With you because of you with apologies thanks and the
eternal debt to you

Your mother

Perseveres, brims, flows and overflows, spills and contains

that WHOLE range, dances barefoot upon a range inclusive
of all climes, ALL from subsistence grade heat barren blowing
sand to

the arctic ice caps even glaciers where barely a bird
touches down, and wherever I may be, from ear to ear I
am led by the radiance of my most cherished remaining desire
and that..

gorgeous smile she sports...
Posted by Hello

- posted by barbara @ 5/22/2005 12:05:00 PM 0 comments

Saturday, May 21, 2005

The Idea-smithy

I build defenses against the best moments haven't learned this poet's name yet, but i do notice that she has noticed that thought is perpetual.

- posted by barbara @ 5/21/2005 02:06:00 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 20, 2005

blanche and maybe hedrick

blanche and maybe hedrick
Originally uploaded by barbtries.
my grandmother and, i think, her brother. early 20th century. :)

- posted by barbara @ 5/20/2005 04:25:00 PM 0 comments

Hash_024.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

hope the link works...it's a podcast, by cc chapman. great voice, new music, enthusiasm, talent, fun. and it played nicely today.

- posted by barbara @ 5/20/2005 03:37:00 PM 0 comments

AlterNet: Bush: Worst President Ever?

George Bush is the worst president of the United States of America, ever. Hands down.

i agree...read this to see why.

- posted by barbara @ 5/20/2005 01:56:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Negative Subspace

i don't want him to go away again...

- posted by barbara @ 5/19/2005 01:56:00 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 15, 2005

red leaf
Posted by Hello

- posted by barbara @ 5/15/2005 05:37:00 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 13, 2005

Body Counts - Newsweek The War on Iraq - MSNBC.com

The Pentagon secretly keeps track of many grim statistics in Iraq. The numbers are not encouraging.

PEACE

- posted by barbara @ 5/13/2005 09:13:00 AM 0 comments

t r u t h o u t - Army Concealed Grim Details of Tillman's Death

The first Army investigator who looked into the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan last year found within days that he was killed by his fellow Rangers in an act of 'gross negligence,' but Army officials decided not to inform Tillman's family or the public until weeks after a nationally televised memorial service.

it's not just that a travesty occurred, but that the people in charge of running this country are so outrageously and routinely cavalier with the TRUTH. they just save it, ignore it, blow by it, anything but report it and act upon it if it does not serve their ends.

they hide a lot, and a lot we may never know. but what i struggle with is how much is known, and yet gw holds the highest office in the land and his frighteningly immoral, unethical, faithless, warmongering associates still run what almost adds up to the world, their power is so extensive. just as corrupt.

- posted by barbara @ 5/13/2005 08:58:00 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond? :: 9/11 CitizensWatch :: We are concerned citizens challenging the official story o

9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond? :: 9/11 CitizensWatch :: We are concerned citizens challenging the official story of 9/11

please read this. draw your own conclusions. i don't know what i believe right now; i am about halfway through reading this story. i clicked to it from another site from another site etc., starting with the story about blair and bush having a secret meeting in which they agreed that there would be war on iraq. etcetera

an excerpt from the speech given at the University of Wisconsin and broadcast on C-Span:

Shortly before the current Bush administration took office, a document entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses was published by an organization called the Project for the New American Century,44 founding members of which included Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld. This document focused primarily on getting more tax money allocated for the technological transformation of the US military, with the centerpiece of this technological transformation being the US Space Command’s project to weaponize and thereby control space. Because this transformation of the US military will be very expensive, the document said, it will probably proceed very slowly--unless America suffers “some catastrophic and catalyzing event--like a new Pearl Harbor."45 It is interesting that on the night of 9/11, President Bush reportedly wrote in his diary, “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.”46

In any case, earlier that evening, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was on message. We might assume that he would have been disoriented by the fact that the Pentagon had just, on his watch, suffered an unprecedented attack. Instead, he was ready to use the attacks to obtain more money for the US Space Command. In front of television cameras, Rumsfeld berated Senator Carl Levin, then chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying:
Senator Levin, you and other Democrats in Congress have voiced fear that you simply don’t have enough money for the large increase in defense that the Pentagon is seeking, especially for missile defense. . . . Does this sort of thing convince you that an emergency exists in this country to increase defense spending . . . ?47

This strategy worked. Congress immediately appropriated an additional $40 billion for the Pentagon. Since then, furthermore, the president has gotten every additional appropriation he has sought for the so-called war on terror.

- posted by barbara @ 5/11/2005 07:56:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

face36
Posted by Hello

- posted by barbara @ 5/10/2005 01:49:00 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 06, 2005

- posted by barbara @ 5/06/2005 03:25:00 PM 0 comments

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Dear Mr. President Letters

this sounds like it has got to be good.

there is too much acquiescence. we should be marching in the streets or at least writing to our congressmen, or at the very least sticking bumper stickers decrying the multiple tragedies associated with the current US president. or at the very, very, least blogging to letters written to gw, and being pissed.

i have me tongue somewhere in the vicinity of my cheek. but in all seriousness he needs to be gone ASAP and hopefully it's not too late to restore democracy over here, formerly land of the brave, home of the free.

my favorite so far:

Dear Mr. President,

I think what you have done to the United States is despicable.

I live in New York. The way you treat the rest of the world has painted a target on our city. And yours. I am amazed, sometimes up to three times a day, at the stupid, stupid, stupid things you say and do.

After being amazed, I am often depressed, then scared.

Thanks a lot.

Sincerely,
John Mark

- posted by barbara @ 5/06/2005 10:16:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, May 05, 2005

94. Tasting the Earth. James Oppenheim. Modern American Poetry

looking for a quote for my book, i found this poem. i think i love it, though i've only read it the one time so far.

IN a dark hour, tasting the Earth.

As I lay on my couch in the muffled night, and the rain lashed my window,
And my forsaken heart would give me no rest, no pause and no peace,
Though I turned my face far from the wailing of my bereavement....
Then I said: I will eat of this sorrow to its last shred,
I will take it unto me utterly,
I will see if I be not strong enough to contain it....
What do I fear? Discomfort?
How can it hurt me, this bitterness?

The miracle, then!
Turning toward it, and giving up to it,
I found it deeper than my own self....
O dark great mother-globe so close beneath me...
It was she with her inexhaustible grief,
Ages of blood-drenched jungles, and the smoking of craters, and the roar of tempests,

And moan of the forsaken seas,
It was she with the hills beginning to walk in the shapes of the dark-hearted animals,
It was she risen, dashing away tears and praying to dumb skies, in the pomp-crumbling tragedy of man...
It was she, container of all griefs, and the buried dust of broken hearts,

Cry of the christs and the lovers and the child-stripped mothers,
And ambition gone down to defeat, and the battle overborne,
And the dreams that have no waking....

My heart became her ancient heart:
On the food of the strong I fed, on dark strange life itself:
Wisdom-giving and sombre with the unremitting love of ages....

There was dank soil in my mouth,
And bitter sea on my lips,
In a dark hour, tasting the Earth.

- posted by barbara @ 5/05/2005 12:47:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Daily Breeze - Associated Press

OH my gawd. someone got what they deserved for a hit and run. abandoned and malignant hearts beware. the people are beginning to be on to you.

- posted by barbara @ 5/04/2005 02:57:00 PM 0 comments

Indie Journal Presents the Poetry of Barbara Bales

been doing it since 1997 bless him...

- posted by barbara @ 5/04/2005 03:14:00 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

bitterness

- posted by barbara @ 5/03/2005 07:30:00 AM 0 comments

- posted by barbara @ 5/03/2005 07:27:00 AM 0 comments

Monday, May 02, 2005

sugarfused.net

deb is the kindest, most thoughtful person...i don't think i would have believed there was enough time in a day for someone to think of as much and take the efforts she does.

and check out her baby granddaughter...

thank you {{{deb}}}

- posted by barbara @ 5/02/2005 09:04:00 PM 0 comments

Who am i, what am i
A picture's worth

moon phases

I stand on the sand, and I'm rocking grief to sleep in my arms.

issues
Poetry roll
Comments by: YACCS

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