Month: May 2007

Hollo’s “Turn Off the News”

At his best, as in this poem

TURN OFF THE NEWS

anxiety gallops through chatter
fading century’s martial insanities
brain struggles to sum up “shut up”
articulation fails
walking shadow slides across faces

dusk over epitaphs
ash hair rusty litanies

dead friends and rain
paradise is an idiot
bones vines cold day
old vulture in airlock

scorpion dust
sneeze

Anselm Hollo seems like the Kurt Vonnegut of modern poetry, forcing us to see the world in new ways, that is, as it really is rather than as we’ve been told it is.

Our whole lives we’ve been told it’s important to watch the news, that our democracy depends on us doing so.

Hollo tells us, “It ain’t so. Turn it off.”

He’s absolutely right. I can quit feeling guilty about not watching the news. Of course, it might be that Hollo’s simply one more old crotchety guy whose backside starts to ache when he’s forced to sit too long.

It’s not a bad sign that the major network news programs are suffering a major decline in audience. It’s a good sign. Perhaps people realize just how meaningless the evening news has become. (Yeah, I know. That’s a stretch. But if they’re watching The Daily Show instead, it could be true.)

When’s the last time you actually learned something worth learning by watching the evening news on ABC, CBS, or NBC?

If you’re really convinced like the networks seem to be that the only good news is bad news, you probably deserve what you’re watching.

Unfortunately, at his worst Hollo also reminds me of The Daily Show, since it seems like many of his poems must have been written for a different audience than me. That’s probably the danger of any off-beat approach, humorous or not.

Hollo’s “A Town Dedicated to the Pursuit of Fitness & Inner Peace”

One of Hollo’s greatest strengths, if not his greatest, is his ability to effectively expose American follies in a humorous way.

You might appreciate this poem more if you’ve actually visited Boulder, Colorado where Hollo teaches at Naropa University. It’s a beautiful town located at the base of the Rockies with many delightful restaurants and interesting shops. Its mile-high altitude also makes it a mecca for athletes who are training for long-distance running.

A TOWN DEDICATED TO THE PURSUIT OF
FITNESS & INNER PEACE

says the headline so that’s where we are
that’s why they’re building
fifty new houses
right next door

now the telephone wants to tell me about a deal
on cleaning our carpets & upholstered things

I tell it “we don’t have any”
then replace it quite gently
in what I believe is called its cradle

yes among those alive today
we’re truly fortunate
to be living these charmingly specialized lives
in a town
dedicated to the pursuit of fitness & inner peace”
unlike the majority of the planet’s towns
which remain dedicated
to plain old pursuit of food
& staying alive a few moments longer

yes fortunate if a bit haunted by Kafka’s Fear
of waking up in less delightful state

but that comes & goes
just like the battles of light & darkness

old hats bursting out of their secret closets
to be stuffed back in to reappear thirty years later
empty as ever (no brains) but plenty of clout

very fit for his age
the Senator
enjoys
his inner peace

My son and his family moved to nearby Broomfield a few years ago and every time I’ve visited I’ve been amazed by the rapid growth in the area. I wasn’t, however, too surprised when I saw a recent story suggesting Colorado had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. The skeptic in me questions if such prosperity is really sustainable.

Or perhaps it’s the Burien in me,causing me to distrust neighborhoods that are too exclusive, too upscale, too Yuppie, even if I often find myself eating, and, occasionally, shopping in such places.

Perhaps the poem’s appeal is that right at the moment “fitness & inner peace” are my two major goals. Why else exercise two or three hours a day, go on long walks around to Puget Sound, and practice Tai Chi while New Age music plays on my iPod?

The least we can do is retain our sense of humor, and not take ourselves too seriously. After all, what does it really mean to be “very fit for [my] age?”

Reflections On a Cloudy Day

It’s been overcast nearly all day, with occasional sprinkles so I spent today playing around with this picture I took yesterday during sunnier weather.
After an hour and half at the club lifting weights and practicing Tai Chi and another half hour walking Skye, I doubt I would have been up for much of a walk anyhow.

Instead, I spent most of the day playing with my new version of Photoshop CS3. After all, if you’re crazy enough to spend $200 dollars to update a piece of software every two years, you’d damn well better use it occasionally.

Since commenting visitors (my favorite visitors) liked yesterday’s swallow, which looked a lot like last year’s swallow which many people also liked, I tried create a similar effect with a barn swallow that I also shot yesterday:

Unfortunately, barn swallows are almost always found sitting on railings, not on birdhouse or in trees like tree swallows. In other words, the background is invariably much more cluttered, and there’s very little I can except try to minimize the background as I’ve done here.