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Poems for Palestine by BRT
“I see poetry as spiritual medicine.” Mahmoud Darwish
Miscellaneous
Exactly what the concept of miscellaneous is needed for as reflected by the range of subject titles to the right.
Organizational Affiliations
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS
External Links & Websites
• Emerald Hollow
• Jewish Voice for Peace
• MAPA – Racial Justice & Indigenous Solidarity
• Move To Amend
• MPAOC
• Native Land Conservancy
• Orleans Conservation Trust
• Progressive Democrats of MA
• Unconvention
• We the People
Sports Writing
When the game is afoot, I find the field of sports to be a great source of inspiration and entertainment.
SPORTS WRITING
The Chief
This is where I share stories of a man of magnificence, a person of power, and a character I call The Chief. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_Society
Coyote in the House
coyote strolls into the house,
on a balmy night
after the rains have ended,
a night remembered for the sound of crickets
and coyote’s toenails|
tap tapping on the wooden floor.
coyote smells everything,
old newspapers,
the knitting,
the bowl of fruit she finds
with one paw up on the counter,
when she also notices me –
having hoped for mice,
or duck pate –
and instead gotten human.
then, so as to detain her briefly,
i slide the door closed,
holding in her beauty,
as moonlight breaks through the cloudy night sky,
a ban on nuclear weapons is announced,
health care is guaranteed to everyone as a fundamental right,
palestinians and israelis form one democratic state,
music appreciation classes are funded and returned to the curricula of public schools,
and a symphony orchestra of children under twelve
serenades our congress
while coyote walks round my bedroom,
squatting to pee near the bookcase,
as i pull the quilt up to my neck
and fall asleep
trusting in dreams
Poetry
- 99 Gratitudes in 3 Minutes – A Yoga Chanting Poem
- A Poem is Born
- After The News
- Alan
- Alan Is Dead
- American Wedding, 2011
- Ask the Sphinx – 2 approaches
- Baggage Claim
- Beach Plum Jam
- Beau Dies
- between spiders
- Burnt Wood – for Bubi
- Call it what it is
- Conversation With A Ladle
- Coyote in the House
- Crow’s Song
- Day break
- Death Factories
- Death of the Dolphin
- Furry Bug
- Gospel of the Redwood
- Insects in Amber
- It: In Honor of Dr. Seuss
- Journey to Standing Rock
- Kevin Garnett in Africa
- Life among the barbarians
- Long ago, perhaps yesterday
- Mandalay Hills
- Mesquite Dunes
- Miles’ Ashes
- Miles’ Journey
- My First Yoga Teacher
- One Drop of Rain
- Salton Sea
- Self Love
- Sunrise
- The Love Life of Clams
- Throwing Away
- Uncle Sol
- What The Stones Say
- when spring arrives ice flows out of the bay
- Whispering Among The Gods
- Willow
- Winter Fog
- Work and Love are What Really Matter: a reunion poem for the BHS class of 1958 reunion
Poetry
Beach Body by Publius Ovidius Naso
Mane erat: egreditur tectis ad littus; & illum
Moesta locum repetit, de quo spectarat euntem,
Dumque moratus ibi; dumque, Hic retinacula solvit,
Hoc mihi discedens dedit oscula littore, dicit:
Dumque notata oculis reminiscitur acta, fretumque
Prospicit; in liquida spatio distante tuetur
Nescio quid, quasi corpus, aqua; primoque, quid illud
Esset, erat dubium. Postquam paulo appulit unda;
Et quamvis aberat, corpus tamen esse liquebat;
Qui foret, ignorans, quia naufragus, omine mota est;
Et, tanquam ignoto lachrymam daret, Heu, miser, inquit,
Quisquis es, & siqua est conjux tibi! fluctibus actum
Fit propius corpus. Quod quo magis illa tuetur,
Hoc minus, & minus est mentis. Iam iamque propinquae
Admotum terrae, iam quod cognoscere posset,
Cernit: erat conjux. Ille est, exclamat: & una
Ora, comas, vestem lacerat: tendensque trementes
Ad Ceyca manus, Sic, o carissime conjux,
Sic ad me, miserande, redis? ait. Adjacet undis
Facta manu moles: quae primas aequoris iras
Frangit; & incursus quae praedelassat aquarium.
Insilit huc: mirumque fuit potuisse; volabat:
Percutiensque levem modo natis aera pennis,
Stringebat summas ales miserabilis undas.
Poetry
- 99 Gratitudes in 3 Minutes – A Yoga Chanting Poem
- A Poem is Born
- After The News
- Alan
- Alan Is Dead
- American Wedding, 2011
- Ask the Sphinx – 2 approaches
- Baggage Claim
- Beach Plum Jam
- Beau Dies
- between spiders
- Burnt Wood – for Bubi
- Call it what it is
- Conversation With A Ladle
- Coyote in the House
- Crow’s Song
- Day break
- Death Factories
- Death of the Dolphin
- Furry Bug
- Gospel of the Redwood
- Insects in Amber
- It: In Honor of Dr. Seuss
- Journey to Standing Rock
- Kevin Garnett in Africa
- Life among the barbarians
- Long ago, perhaps yesterday
- Mandalay Hills
- Mesquite Dunes
- Miles’ Ashes
- Miles’ Journey
- My First Yoga Teacher
- One Drop of Rain
- Salton Sea
- Self Love
- Sunrise
- The Love Life of Clams
- Throwing Away
- Uncle Sol
- What The Stones Say
- when spring arrives ice flows out of the bay
- Whispering Among The Gods
- Willow
- Winter Fog
- Work and Love are What Really Matter: a reunion poem for the BHS class of 1958 reunion
A Poem is Born
A poem is born
By describing what is sensed or seen
And never saying the word it
Without describing what “it” is.
Admiring yellow squash flowers
Among the riot of purple morning glories
In the gardens which greet the day.
Crows standing pensively
Rocking back and forth on their toes
In black wing tipped dress shoes
Hands intertwined behind their backs
Engaged in a familiar dialogue
About roadkill
The harbor
And their diving neighbors the cormorants.
Transplanting small sprouting vegetables
Who convey their gratitude for soil and love.
After a demonstration at the bank
Calling for corrupt lenders
To hold very long meetings inside federal jail cells.
After yoga, and music,
And even an unwelcome creeping sense of paranoia
That emerges of its own accord
And leaves the station on its own schedule.
At the end of a good day,
A present day,
Where pain and stiffness are at a minimum,
The mail is taken to the post office,
And you approach life and death with hands raised high
In the universal sign of surrender.
Welcomed home
By the lover you’ve awakened
Eating pumpkin pie made with home grown pumpkins
Roasted seed, and ginger.
.
Poetry
- 99 Gratitudes in 3 Minutes – A Yoga Chanting Poem
- A Poem is Born
- After The News
- Alan
- Alan Is Dead
- American Wedding, 2011
- Ask the Sphinx – 2 approaches
- Baggage Claim
- Beach Plum Jam
- Beau Dies
- between spiders
- Burnt Wood – for Bubi
- Call it what it is
- Conversation With A Ladle
- Coyote in the House
- Crow’s Song
- Day break
- Death Factories
- Death of the Dolphin
- Furry Bug
- Gospel of the Redwood
- Insects in Amber
- It: In Honor of Dr. Seuss
- Journey to Standing Rock
- Kevin Garnett in Africa
- Life among the barbarians
- Long ago, perhaps yesterday
- Mandalay Hills
- Mesquite Dunes
- Miles’ Ashes
- Miles’ Journey
- My First Yoga Teacher
- One Drop of Rain
- Salton Sea
- Self Love
- Sunrise
- The Love Life of Clams
- Throwing Away
- Uncle Sol
- What The Stones Say
- when spring arrives ice flows out of the bay
- Whispering Among The Gods
- Willow
- Winter Fog
- Work and Love are What Really Matter: a reunion poem for the BHS class of 1958 reunion
Indigenous Matters and the 2024 MA Legislative Agenda
It is important to the rebalancing that I imagine is possible that we acknowledge that we live on lands loved for millennia before us by people of the Massachusett, Mohican, Nauset, Nipmuc, Pawtucket, Pocumtuc, Seaconke, Pokanoket, Pocumtuk, Nipmuc, Abenaki, Wabanaki Confederacy and Wampanoag tribes and nations. I give thanks to the indigenous people who stewarded the land and waters of Massachusetts for more than 15,000 years. I acknowledge that I inhabit land seized and stolen from these indigenous people, whose descendants still live among us. I am committed to honoring their wishes for respect, restoration, and independence and invite you to join me.
The 2022 Massachusetts Legislative Agenda
You may think you know all about why to support the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda but there is still much to learn if you … WATCH THIS POWERFUL ONE-HOUR VIDEO OF THE JANUARY 11 INDIGENOUS PANEL SPEAKING ABOUT THE NEED TO SUPPORT INDIGENOUS-CENTERED BILLS IN MASSACHUSETTS!
And if you don’t have the time to be further re-educated and inspired …THEN JUST TAKE THIS ACTION STEP:-Go to https://bit.ly/SupportIndigenousBills and send an automated letter to the members of the legislative committees where the bills are currently sitting, asking that the bills be reported out of committee favorably. You can customize the letter if you want. Please share and get your friends and organizations to write, too!-Learn more about the bills and get updates via http://maindigenousagenda.org/-Email for more information: info@MAIndigenousAgenda.org or info@uaine.org
Move our bills out of committee before the deadline!
The 2021-2022 Indigenous Legislative Agenda includes 5 priorities: Remove Racist Mascots, Honor Indigenous People’s Day, Celebrate and Teach Native American Culture & History, Protect Native American Heritage, and Support the Education and Futures of Native Youth.
Join us in calling for each of these bills to move out of committee!
An Act prohibiting the use of Native American mascots by public schools in the Commonwealth. (S.2493/H.581) Currently about 30 public high schools in the state use Native American mascots. This bill would task the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education with establishing regulations to prohibit Native American mascots in MA public schools.
An Act establishing an Indigenous Peoples Day. (S.2027/H.3191 ) This bill replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in the Massachusetts General Laws.
An act relative to celebrating Native American culture and history. (S.382/H.651) This bill addresses the lack of Indigenous curriculum in Massachusetts public schools.
An Act providing for the creation of a permanent commission relative to the education of American Indian and Alaska Native residents of the Commonwealth. (H.582) As a State Education Agency, the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must engage in timely and meaningful consultation with stakeholders. Representatives of Indian tribes located in the state are explicitly identified as stakeholders.
An Act to protect Native American Heritage. (S.2239/H.3377 & S.2240/H.3385) This would ensure that Native American funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony (those of cultural, traditional or historical importance to their heritage) held in governmental, municipal or non-profit collections are not sold for profit.
