Ive been recently reading about legends such as Kelly Johnson of Skunk Works, Abe Karem, Northrop, Lockheed (I believe, it was actually Loughheed).. Watching the movie "Aviator" set off that line of thinking and inquiry.. whats with americans and innovation, especially in aeronautics.. great guys, great work.. i found a glimpse of an answer in Obama's Audacity of Hope.. America first set up their higher education system with their land grant colleges and universities.. then they set up their industries.. they first taught their kids to think.. the rest they knew will follow... and it did...

Back for a new year...

I am now in a new setting.. new ambience... new juncture... there is less poetry, but more music... less action, more thought... should soon reverse that..

I promised you a poem of AK Ramanujan.. here is a lovely one...

Extended Family

Yet like grandfather
I bathe before the village crow

the dry chlorine water
my only Ganges

the naked Chicago bulb
a cousin of the Vedic sun

slap soap on my back
like father

and think
in proverbs

like me
I wipe myself dry

with an unwashed
Sears turkish towel

like mother
I hear faint morning song

(though here it sounds
Japanese)

and three clear strings
next door

through kitchen
clatter

like my little daughter
I play shy

hand over crotch
my body not yet full

of thoughts novels
and children

I hold my peepee
like my little son

play garden hose
in and out
the bathtub

like my grandson
I look up

unborn
at myself

like my great
great-grandson

I am not yet
may never be

my future
dependent

on several
people

yet
to come

Since I got started on poems, I thought I should have first paid homage to my favourite poet Wislawa Szymborska (ok, one of my fav poets.. it'll be AK Ramanujan next)

Here is one of Szymborska's.. I am puzzled as to why one of my favourite lines is missing in this poem... is it from a different poem? The line goes, "Forgive me distant wars, for bringing flowers home..."

Here is what I could pick from the web (Forgive me, the unknown translator, for stealing your lines for my pleasure)...

Under One Small Star
~
My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.

My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken, after all.

Please, don't be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.

May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.

My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.

My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.

Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.

I apologize for my record of minutes to those who cry from the depths.

I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at five a.m.

Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.

Pardon me, deserts, that I don't rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.

And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,

your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,

forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.

My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs.

My apologies to great questions for small answers.

Truth, please don't pay me much attention.

Dignity, please be magnanimous.

Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train.

Soul, don't take offense that I've only got you now and then.

My apologies to everything that I can't be everywhere at once.

My apologies to everyone that I can't be each woman and each man.

I know I won't be justfied as long as I live,

since I myself stand in my own way.

Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,

then labor heavily so that they may seem light.

Found this poem on the New York Times webpage. It's by Kay Ryan, the Poet Laureate of the US..

THE NIAGARA RIVER

As though
the river were
a floor, we position
our table and chairs
upon it, eat, and
have conversation.
As it moves along,
we notice — as
calmly as though
dining room paintings
were being replaced —
the changing scenes
along the shore. We
do know, we do
know this is the
Niagara River, but
it is hard to remember
what that means.

"Mersault was in love with a sun that leaves no shadows..." Camus... and no more of this shadows theme...

first posting

Thanks to a friend, this is my first blog... avoid the shadows and seek the light!