Words in the Mourning Time

1. The aftermath of a napalm attack by the South Vietnamese Air Force, June 8, 1972 (Year of the Rat) near Trang Bang, Vietnam. The running girl is Phan Thị Kim Phúc / Kim Phúc (b. 1963), along with relatives and fleeing ARVN soldiers (mistakenly bombed by their own side). Associated Press photographer Nick Ut (b. Huỳnh Công Út, 1953) earned a Pulitzer Prize for this shot; he also helped carry Kim Phúc to a hospital in Saigon, saving her life.

After the war, Kim Phúc attended university in Cuba and later defected to Canada, where, now in her mid-forties, she lives today. During the first Bill Clinton administration in the USA, she delivered a speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. She was and is a real person, a survivor of the Vietnam War.

2. Yesterday's post included an excerpt of a poem by Detroit-born Robert Hayden. Here's another one, from Words in the Mourning Time (1970):

Vietnam
bloodclotted name in my concsciousness
recurring and recurring
like the obsessive thought many midnights
now of my own dying

Vietnam
and I think of the villages
mistakenly burning
the schoolrooms devouring
their children
and I think of those who
were my students
brutalized
killing

wasted by horror
in ultimate loneliness
dying
Vietnam
Vietnam

Phan Thị Kim Phúc

1972.

The Night-Blooming Cereus

To make a long story short, my Night-Blooming Cereus needs some kind of perking up. It's a descendant of a plant from Mexico by way of London (1991) via other parts of the USA, and a couple of the leaves on this one have turned brown. Until now I've done nothing but water the poor thing about once a week. Perhaps it's just too far north for happiness in winter. In any case, Detroit's own Robert Hayden (Asa Bundy Sheffey, 1913-1980) wrote a fitting poem called "The Night-Blooming Cereus" (1972) and here's an excerpt:

And so for nights
we waited, hoping to see
the heavy bud
break into flower.

On its neck-like tube
hooking down from the edge
of the leaf-branch
nearly to the floor,

the bud packed
tight with its miracle swayed
stiffly on breaths
of air, moved

as though impelled
by stirrings within itself.
It repelled as much
as it fascinated me

sometimes--snake,
eyeless bird head,
beak that would gape
with grotesque life-squawk . . .

Today's Rune: The Blank Rune.

Ciao for now!

In the Year of the Rat

Happy Year of the Rat -- another wild one. To the above, add 1984, 1996, and 2008. Today is also the first day of Tet / Tết Nguyên Đán, Vietnamese New Year: we are already well into the fortieth anniversary of the Tet Offensive.


Year of the Rat, 1972 -- a bloody year in Vietnam and the second Nixon-Agnew election win. Before everything unraveled. Like it or not, the Vietnam War continues to haunt -- with a former POW running for President.



In 2008, the Euro is starting to be accepted as payment in New York City. The Canadian dollar is at parity with the US dollar.


Don't forget to buckle up . . .

Today's Rune: The Warrior. Yesterday's: Partnership.

Closing In

Debbie Harry for President!



Let's not forget that in 2004, Bush-Cheney barely defeated Kerry-Edwards: by one state (Ohio). Electoral votes: 286-251. Needed to win: 270. In 2000, Bush won by one state (Florida). Was it shady? Yes. Just like JFK's narrow win in 1960. This time . . . the Democrats need a convincing victory . . .



And the Democrats do have an opportunity to win big in 2008 . . . A Clinton-Obama combo could be a Crusher, like Clinton-Gore in 1992, though slightly different in how the states fall. McCain-Huckabee might hold the Red States shown immediately above, but not necessarily. Georgia and North Carolina could go Blue.

(Maps: Wikipedia/Wiki Commons).

Break Through In Grey Room

If, as Jim Carroll points out, it's too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate, it's also too late to vote for a Malcolm X and William S. Burroughs ticket. Still, tonight it's a real mixup between Obama and Clinton on one side (some might say the saner half of the body politic) and between McCain, Romney and Huckabee on the other. More will be revealed before this night is out.


And tomorrow, Ash Wednesday for the Catholic faithful, followed by Chinese New Year and an extra Leap Year day . . . (must be strange to have a birthday then on off years).

Three cheers for midweek coming -- and happy birthday to William S. Burroughs, RIP.

Patches

Six patches representing distinctive musical worlds. I snapped these up in London, 1981-1983 and then never did anything with them until now.

1. Jimi Hendrix created something more like his own universe, didn't he? Often still listen to him, anything from the popular tracks played on radio to unfinished instrumental bits.

2. Zappa. Probably the only one of these I haven't actively listened to in quite a little while, though he still reverberates in memory.

3. The Kinks. Their eclectic range and social awareness is so wide-ranging, plus they rock out every once in a while. The very English period from the mid-1960s to early 1970s is probably their most coherent form; from the late 70s on they tend to sound more Americanized.

4. Sex Pistols. "They made you a moron / a potential H-Bomb" about sums them up. Still have the records.

5. The B-52s. Good-natured, fun-loving party time! One of the strangest little live shows I ever saw was .38 Special opening for them in Chapel Hill. Southern rock and southern New Wave -- odd mix of fans thrown together at random.

6. The Pretenders. When they hit, they hit hard. Was most intensely into their early records, but saw them in Ann Arbor about five years ago, and was still blown away by their latter day intensity.

Now that they're scanned, what should I do with these patches?

Today's Rune: The Self. By tomorrow night, Fat Tuesday, we'll probably have a good idea of Obama vs. Clinton vs. McCain and who shall wear the party crowns . . . Never a dull moment: Giants won the Super Bowl, Ash Wednesday, and Chinese New Year -- the Year of the Rat!