Sunday Morning
by Wallace Stevens
Complacencies of the penoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
Sunday mornings are the only times I sit down and have lox and bagels and thick slices of Vidalia onion and read the newspaper. Today, Stevens’ poem pops into my mind. (I know the beginning by heart because I ‘performed’ it as my final project for a graduate course in ‘Oral Interpretation of Poetry.’ Funny that after 43 years I still remember those lines.)
My local newspaper is filled with headlines that point toward new catastrophes:
— Munitions explosion kills Iraqis: Blast at U.S. military encampment infuriates Baghdad citizens.
— Shiites prepare to impose Islamic law on Iraq: Many among oppressed majority stand ready to force rest of nation ot bow to ayatollahs.
— Rumsfeld hads to Persian Gulf with a message: He says U.S. is committed to working toward democracy in the region.
— Iraq’s neighbors face U.. clout: new dominance puts America’s traditional alllies in uneasy roles
— Corruption needs our apathy to keep thriving: In our public lives, the line between notable and notorious seems to have vanished. Those who debase our society end of hosting a TV dating show or a radio talk show.
My mother calls to tell me that she’s watching a TV program on the life of the Pope.
After breakfast and blogging, I will go back to the supermarket to return a bottle of Clorox cleaner that my mother insisted was the one she wanted as we made our slow way up and down Hannaford’s aisles yesterday. Today she insists it’s not the one. She’s gotten very spacey lately. Sleeps on and off all day long. Obsesses on her few shares of stock in the Polish Community Center back ‘home.’ She’s wearing me down, wearing me out.
But activist/pacifist Grace Paley has been named Vermont State Poet, and that’s good news.
Here
by Gracy Paley
Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face
how did this happen
well that’s who I wanted to be
at last a woman
in the old style sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt grandchild sliding
on off my lap a pleasant
summer perspiration
that’s my old man across the yard
he’s talking to the meter reader
he’s telling him the world’s sad story
how electricity is oil or uranium
and so forth I tell my grandson
run over to your grandpa ask him
to sit beside me for a minute I
am suddenly exhausted by my desire
to kiss his sweet explaining lips.
—————
But I am still stuck in Sunday Morning:
We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable.

The weblog community is very much like a neighborhood. We know who are neighbors are, know which ones we like and like to visit. We don

On the eve of their U.S. tour, the Dixie Chicks — who raised a ruckus last month with lead singer Natalie Maines’ comments about President Bush and the war in Iraq — have blasted back with both barrels, CNN reports.
I missed their interview with Diane Sawyer last night because I got a free last-minute $176 ticket to the Eton John-Billy Joel

I wasn

I should be “working,” but I couldn’t resist posting this from here (with a few typos corrected):
George W. Bush Resume
Past work experience:
–Ran for congress and lost.
–Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
–Bought an oil company, but couldn’t find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
–Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.
–With father’s help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
Accomplishments:
–Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history.
–Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.
Accomplishments as president:
–Attacked and took over two countries.
–Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
–Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
–Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
–Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
–First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
–First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
–First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
–After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
–Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
–In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
–Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
–Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
–Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
–Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
–Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
–Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
–Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
–Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
–Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. (http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/)
–Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
–My presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.
–Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the ‘poorest’ multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
–First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
–Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
–First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
–Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
–Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.
–First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.
–First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.
–Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
–Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
–Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
–Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
–First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).
–All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
–My biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
–Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
–First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
–First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
–First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
–Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
–With a policy of ‘dis-engagement’ created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
–First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
–First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
–Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
–Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
–Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden ‘dead or alive’.
–Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
–In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
–Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
–In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
–Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
Records and References:
–At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).
–AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war.
–Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
–All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
–All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
–All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
–Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review.
For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)
I strongly suggest saving this so that you can distribute it broadly come election time.

That is, help preserve Burningbird’s weblog. While I temporarily join the workforce to give me a few bucks above my pension, Shelley Powers is struggling to find money enough to pay to keep her web presence fired up. Jonathan Delacour launches a campaign to keep the bird burning. There are lots of us who agree is with Jonathan:
I hate the thought of losing Shelley