Odds and ends for the end of April

Good news, I finally finished Connecticut in a poem starring Benedict Arnold, born in the Nutmeg State. We are left with Alaska as #50, DC and maybe something for the territories. (The index is at January 5.)

However, I’m not posting it. The poem is being workshopped this week. I will drop in a couple of light bits though just to keep you interested.

The book of the week is John Grisham’s nonfiction treatise, The Innocent Man. The volume is about several innocent men, all railroaded into prison in Ada, Oklahoma for murders they did not commit. I was surprised that the main innocent was basically a dirt bag, targeted because he was a druggie, alcoholic, troublemaker, indicted but not found guilty of two rapes…and a mental case.

The book will frighten you about how easy it is to be imprisoned for crimes you did not commit. One of the innocents is still in prison because there was no DNA evidence to exonerate him, even though the record is clear he was setup as much as the others.

Because of Grisham’s easy, almost conversational style, The Innocent Man would be a great beach read. In fact, it is best swallowed with some break in the read.

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Our governor Chris Gregoire has signed Substitute House Bill 1279, the long-awaited legislation that creates the position of Washington State Poet Laureate. The signing makes Washington the 41st state to have such a post.

Way to go, Gov.

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As frightening as The Innocent Man is this YouTube video of an UCLA student for “resisting arrest” in a school library and after he asked for their badge number…and at least four times.

Outrageous. You have to wonder what the cops would have done to the videotapper.

Even as sickening are the posts on YouTube.

And ever more disgusting is a proposal to allow school children to be handcuffed by school security guards AS YOUNG AS KINDERGARTEN.

What in the hell is this country coming to?

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And to really make your day:

Recently this week (of April 22), UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it "offended" the Moslem population which claims it never occurred. This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

I don’t get it.

The next thing you know they will quit teaching about Henry VIII because it might offend the pope.

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This week’s poems are CBEs, Chinese Brush Experiments, essentially poems written in one sitting with only minor typo and grammar changes.

CBE for Spring

The first wine-rose color
breaks out of the Queen’s buds,
soon to be in her regal glory

The first ringneck call
heard in at least two years
echoes through the canyon

Whether my old friend,
his children or stranger,
I will never and need not know

A dandelion spreads its bounty
around the neighborhood

Enough breeze blows to keep
me cool as I pretend to work

A bumblebee searches
for buttercups and honey

The sun shines as if it never left
and I sit before the window
unable to add squirrels to these lines

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Untitled CBE

the writer trapped
beneath a pile of ideas
none logical enough
to even satisfy Dali

the doors opened wide
to let the fresh air
in a slight breeze
disturbs the stack

of disparate words
desperate for attention
a poem begins to appear


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Until next Friday, peace. (We are going Portland brewery hopping next week.)

Gary
who has a grandson in kindergarten