    
Jack Foley
New member
Username: Foley
Post Number: 96
Registered: 01-2010
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 04:32 pm: | 
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SEPTEMBER SONG
(Septuagenarian)
US Army helicopters fly relief missions in flood-devastated Pakistan
Septuagenarian
Federal indictments charge US citizens with helping a Somali terrorist group
Septuagenarian
Agents check inside the mouth of a man arrested in a sweep near 80th Avenue and Hillside Street in Oakland
Septuagenarian
The federal judge who overturned California’s ban on same-sex marriage ended his ruling by saying the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians are being violated every day that Proposition 8 remains in effect
Septuagenarian
Ron Dellums ended his political career the same way he acted as mayor of Oakland—secretly and away from the public. The entire event was designed to create an alternate revisionist history that neither reflected the true nature of his work here nor the reality of the organizational chaos and daunting finances he’s leaving behind.
Septuagenarian
Google Inc. must stand trial in a lawsuit by a fired 54-year-old manager who said co-workers called him an “old man” and a “fuddy-duddy” while bosses told him he was a bad “cultural fit” in the youth-oriented company, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Septuagenarian.
The San Francisco city attorney’s office sought a court injunction Thursday against two street gangs whose bitter rivalry has left 10 people dead in the past three years in the city’s Visitacion Valley area.
Septuagenarian
The California Republican Party already challenged to win key races this year in a blue-leaning state, has a new problem to deal with: The two GOP gubernatorial primary candidates are still tangling two months later. Meg Whitman “apparently hasn’t gotten the memo that the primary is over.”
Septuagenarian
The Senate confirms Elena Kagan as the 112th U.S. Supreme Court justice on a mostly partisan vote of 63-37.
Septuagenarian
One day during training camp long ago in Rocklin, Jerry Rice was spotted in the cafeteria at lunchtime carrying a plate with sparse offerings: mixed fruit, small salad and possibly enough animal protein to fill the upside-down lid from a jar. A small jar. Sharpest knife in the drawer. Entering the Hall of Fame.
Septuagenarian
Heat plus humidity equals home runs? C’mon. That’s the easy way to explain the events at Turner Field on Thursday night. There’s more.
Septuagenarian
“More than anything, he wants to shake that stigma he can’t pitch in the heat,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He pitched a nice game tonight. That’s a tough club over there, and two pitches were the difference.”
Septuagenarian
Fairfax slaps a moratorium on PG&E’s Smart Meters.
Septuagenarian
“What name do you publish under?” “John Ashbery, though I occasionally use Robert Frost."
Septuagenarian
Back-to-School 2010. Night&Day door busters.
Septuagenarian
Kenya’s voters pass a new Constitution designed to curb abuses of power.
Septuagenarian
Ferrell is one of the stranger figures currently making movies and one of the stranger figures in the history of American film. Toward the outer limits of man-boy eccentricity. “Guys.”
Septuagenarian
A British drama that does more with three people than most movies do with a cast of thousands.
Septuagenarian
Chiara Mastroianni can’t save weak screenplay.
Septuagenarian
Dancing can’t help inept screenplay.
Septuagenarian
Why did this man renounce life and live 40 years like a grinch in a children’s story?
Septuagenarian
Monday: Sunny
Septuagenarian
“Earthsea” challenges longtime soundman
Septuagenarian
During the day, the housepainters. During the night, Netflix.
Septuagenarian
Blood sugar good. Pills. Periplum!
Septuagenarian
Friends. Darkness. Light. Overcast skies. Bright sunlight. Hybrid car. Son and daughter-in-law on way to Malaysia.
Septuagenarian
Something released from the world which I cannot change, cannot make better.
Septuagenarian
Horrible B.P. oil spill.
Septuagenarian
Cannot make anything better.
Septuagenarian
Dreams forgotten. Remembered sex. Kisses, tenderness.
Septuagenarian
”You’re the youngest septuagenarian I know.” “How many do you know?”
Septuagenarian
Work on time. In time. Time, says Hawking, is entropy. Ave. Vale. When Meshugge walks down the street. Sept (a long, long while). A long, long while.
Septuagenarian
*
After reading my poem, a friend wrote this:
Dude! Great to hear from you. Life is really wild chaos. Won't go into it all just yet. However, I relate to your 70 number issues. They must make my 51 number issues seem silly. In any case, one thing is sure. You've had a hell of a lot of fun reading, writing, performing, recording, etc. And your voice, for certain, is a perfect addition to the human poetic court-chorus-cast. Additionally, you've sustained a very long and meaningful marriage, which is a feat I can't even envision attaining in the remaining months/years I have left. I think life has been good to you. Now, I do think life sucks for most people, but I think you got a better-than-average deal. So, in general, I say that life isn't worth it for most people, but I think the cosmos has given you a relatively plush gig overall. Cheers!
I answered:
All lives
Are deceptions
Of ourselves
Of others
The only joy
Is to break through
(In what may be
Itself a deception)
To an illusory
Sense
Of “The real”
Patterns
Repeat
The only joy
Is always
And never anything other than
NOW—
This sudden, illuminating, vanishing, flourishing, empowering, fructifying
Moment
Is the only
Joy
The only time
When we can stand clear of error
(Or believe we do)
And it is open
To anyone
No matter what
His or her circumstances
It is to experience ourselves
Not as suffering, complaining, miserable, happy, dissatisfied, satisfied, terrified
“Creatures”
But as (in the root sense)
Beings
This moment is nothing less
Than the heart of joy
And can occur
Even in the acutest of suffering
All life, said the Buddha, is suffering
Except
For this
Except for
This
[My friend answered:
Dear Jack: Thank you for this, not just in the poetic sense, but also because this is the exact message my Buddhist priests try to get through to me, (with mixed success). Anyway, I found it quite edifying.]
*
Hearing Ella Fitzgerald sing an amazing version of “Perdido”—she had forgotten the lyrics—I wrote this:
When was it decided
That singing
Was something separate
From speech
When was it decided
That singing
Was anything other than
A mode of speech
When was it decided
That speech
Could be separated
From song
So that we could speak
But did not have to
Sing
When was it decided
When was that bad
Decision made
That birds
Sang but did not
Speak
That song
Was to speech
As soul
Was to
Body
When was it decided
That the sounds we make
As we walk daily in the air
Were anything
But
Song?
*
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