Zonker's always had it right.

This piece has it all, if you weren't already paranoid enough. I feel helpless, helpless, helpless.

Stickernation (hosted by the incredible unamerican) has sweet deals for making your own stickers. I think "I love my cunt blood" is my favorite, although I might not put it on my car fender....

I've also been thinking about New Orleans, where hurricane parties are all the rage...

Right now I'm too broke even to get myself to NYC, but really I want this vacation. "It's like everyone just sat down together at a meeting and said, you know what? Let's just make freaking everything beautiful."

More on rights we've lost since 9/11.

Changes In Legal Rights

Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.

RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

– The Associated Press

New Poem

The language of this life pleases me. There’s a lot of silence
in it, and then the mention of things happening: longing,
healing, the rain.

I’m floating a little, petal in a puddle.
The mind is strong but badly wanting.
This boredom a curse, a haunting.

What else in this day?
I rattle it to find out.
Too tired to make choice or plan,
the minutes till midnight fewer than
the fingers on my hand.

A hollow is starting in me;
it is stopping me.

I’ll leave a little after you arrive.
Heart, a tiny hive. A slave
to the money you left on the bar,
your empty glass, your rain-wet jacket.
The way you turn,
away.

This air full of crows and sirens.

Shocking as it may seem, there are actually many ways in which the Bush Administration can be likened to Hitler's regime...and of course you know how the Bush family supported the Nazi regime financially for over a decade. Some of this information is very disturbing, some just fluff, but all of it means we must pursue information, read carefully, make our own judgements and vote whenever possible.

The American people lost the right to elect their president when the U.S. Supreme Court commited a coup d'etat by approving the stealing of the presidency by George W. Bush.

The 11/14/01 announcement that any person designated as a terrorist by the President is to be placed under the control of the Secretary of Defense and not allowed the aid of US or foreign courts.

Persons are being held in American prisons without being allowed to contact their attorney.

The consultations between persons in American prisons and their attorneys are being monitored by "justice" officials.

Men, women, and children can be murdered without compunction--as at Ruby Ridge and Waco--and the person ultimately responsible for these "police-state" atrocities will be promoted to become the head of the agency guilty of these crimes.

My digital library gets some press....

Atari History site! (I have been playing Centipede instead of updating. My cricket game is also improving. But proper updates are coming soon, rest assured.)

Origami Boulder artwork. Hilarious.

Terrorist cell block seemingly discovered just outside Buffalo....

The Cow of Plenty

These library quotes are pretty great.

"To be literate is to possess the cow of plenty."
-Motto of the Madras Library Association

lAST nIGHT...

I rocked the righteous mike at the "Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream" event at Nietzsche's. MANY poets, artists, musicians came up to raise money for the Western New York Peace Center. Mcarthyizm played, Many Fried spoke, Kristi Meal read ("peanut butter and jelly and fuck me"..."The arms of the trees move and I take it personally.") and Susan Peters read and sang, and it was a good time.

I read my Kali Yuga poem, two poems by Allen Ginsberg ("Hum Bom" and "After the Big Parade"), "Wisdom Tooth" by my friend Kazim Ali, and I sang part of Patti Smith's "People Have the Power".

Art by Bonita Z....

Lovelyday.

Happy because the breeze is light & cool & I am wearing a shirt I like & dancing to the CD I made for Emile (Richie Havens [I knew that was Emile drumming on Freedom at Glastonbury 2002!], Spearhead, Angelique Kidjo, India.Arie....) I made this CD and then devoted an hour to collage for the cover.

It feels so good to make things, just cause you want to. Their having a decorative purpose is satisfying too, but I love the feeling of making something, especially to give away, just because I can. I'll give it to him tonight between dart games, between glasses of bad red wine, between songs.

I'm also happy because I have been engaged to teach Writer's Circle again at City Honors. This is an afterschool writing group, mostly high school poets, which I attended as a student, then resurrected and ran for 5 years. I've now been away from it for 5, a full generation of kids. I've missed it terribly.

Another perk of coming home has been running into my old students. Nearly without exception, they still have writing as a part of their lives. This is all I ever wanted.

You know I love my life online. I love reading Kris' journal entry about her house, written just as I am pondering home ownership. I'm so grateful someone else is taking pictures of Western New York skies. I even love re-bookmarking my favorite pages to see if they have icons. I am loving icons. (Thanks, Jill!) Have you rebookmarked my page recently?

Have you checked out all the flavors Ben & Jerry's makes now? The Honey and Vermonty (maple syrup) ones are most intriguing to me. Even more interesting, perhaps, is the flavor graveyard. I don't generally eat much ice cream but I have all these Working Assets coupons & it's supposed to be wicked hot here the next few days, so....

Okay, I caved and pre-ordered The Sims Unleashed. This interview tipped me over.

One of my favorite poets/people, Kim Addonizio, writes this week about her musical ambitions. They ring a bell for me. I'm well known as a poet, also have mad librarian skillz, but at home I find myself practicing songs I could do at open mikes with a friend playing guitar, or sitting in just for one song with my local jazz band. (some of the songs: Suzanne Vega's "Caramel", Bob Dylan's "Up to me", Richard Thompson's "Persusion", though I'd have to fix the key into something singable.)

I've sung a fair amount in public, from chorus and performing ensembles from 5th grade on, all-girl punk bands when I was in junior high, with various folk singer songwriter friends, and with the Immoral Girls in the late 90's. When I arrived in San Francisco, Joe Todaro and I played one memorable open reading at Yakety-Yak's where I performed Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere."

But, like Kim, I really am a poet and don't want a band or to cut a CD. I just want my musical part to show a bit more, to be able to share it, participate when I can.

What revolution are You?
Made by altern_active
Huh, who'da thunk it? bnf.

I think I am in love with this book: Dictionary of word and phrase origins, by William and Mary Morris. Do you know where the phrase hunky-dory comes from? I do!

I think Punk Walrus is my new hero. Here is his very reasonable rant on How Not to Flake. (Instructions at the bottom of the page.)

Expect links on Thursday nights. Tonight I am amusing myself with Moby's journal (especially like his Photos). Other celebrity journal links can be found here. RuPaul's blog is pretty fun also.

I am loving this thread. But I do not yet have a title for my own superpowers. Care to propose one?

I am participating in a new blog, Joe Todaro's Composite Buddha (aka The Big Room). For me, it is a perfect outlet for some brewing things I have been seeking a way to articulate. Thanks, Joe!

What a good weekend this was, surprising me with its pleasures as I had planned nothing in particular. I read at Nietzsche's for Tim Baldwin's birthday, mostly stuff straight fromt he notebook, but which went over well. Neighbor barbeques which went late & featured live improvised music....babies, dogs....I went to the zoo for the first time in years with an entourage of toddlers. I had friends over to watch the inscrutable Woyzeck. Now I've a craving to see My Best Fiend again, Herzog's tribute (?) to Klaus Kinski.

These days also brought the gentle realization that the summer is ending, and that I am happy here, back home. I see that I am already woven back into this community of artists, musicians, teachers, people who like to gather and cook and drink some wine, who like to pass the baby & let the dogs play, who are eager to recommend the best book they've read recently.

Ode to the Neighbor Pup

O Rosie! My friend beyond the fence,
I hear the jingle of your tags from a distance.
Such torment! While The Woman types or sleeps,
I am denied your perfect company.
Soon, the shadowy spectre of a monster called Work
Shall separate us even further.
How I long to romp with you, chew upon you!
My yummy, thewy companion, our reunion will be a feast
Of fur and spittle. Yours in endless rambunctiousness, Mariah.