I haven't posted an ALP selection in a while. I hope you like this one. Enjoy.

American Life in Poetry: Column 138

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

You've surely heard it said that the old ought to move over to make room for the young. But in the best of all possible worlds, people who love their work should be able to do it as long as they wish. Those forced to retire, well, they're a sorry lot. Here the Chicago poet, Deborah Cummins, shows a man trying to adjust to life after work.

At a Certain Age

He sits beside his wife who takes the wheel.
Clutching coupons, he wanders the aisles
of Stop & Save. There's no place he must be,
no clock to punch. Sure,
there are bass in the lake, a balsa model
in the garage, the par-three back nine.
But it's not the same.
Time the enemy then, the enemy now.

As he points the remote at the screen
or pauses at the window, staring
into the neighbor's fence but not really seeing it,
he listens to his wife in the kitchen, more amazed
than ever--how women seem to know
what to do. How, with their cycles and timers,
their rolling boils and three-minute eggs,
they wait for something to start. Or stop.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Deborah Cummins, and reprinted by permission of the author. Deborah Cummins' most recent book of poetry is "Counting the Waves," WordTech Communications, 2007. Introduction copyright (c) 2007 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.


... is currently playing: Time On My Hands from the album Billie Holiday: Portrait.

... is laugh to keep from crying.




... is currently playing: All Cried Out from the album Alf by Alison Moyet.

... where he buys Laura the "Empress Carlotta Necklace" ??

I think this can safely be filed under "What the %#& was she thinking?"




... is currently playing: I Feel Pretty from the album West Side Story- Original Broadway Cast with Carol Lawrence and Marilyn Cooper.

A small sample but it still speaks volumes ...





iTunes is currently playing: Are You Going With Me? from the album Offramp by Pat Metheny Group.

What about the idiot homeowner who went to sleep with a kerosene lantern burning with pets in the house??

Dog Saves Family From Fire Blamed on Cat

GREENVILLE, Maine - Thumper, a black Labrador retriever, is getting credit for saving a Greenville man when a fire swept through his home. Roland Cote said his wife and their 7-year-old grandson were away when the blaze started early Sunday in a converted two-story garage. He said Thumper grabbed him by the arm to wake him, leaving just enough time for him to dial 911 before fleeing the fast-moving fire.

While the dog is the hero, a cat is the bad guy in this story.

Cote said the fire marshal investigator believes the blaze was started when Princess, the family cat, tipped over a kerosene lantern. Cote says he and his pets escaped safely, but he says Princess did get her tail singed by the flames.



iTunes is currently playing: Burning Down The House from the album Stop Making Sense: Special New Edition (1984 Film) by Talking Heads.

iTunes is currently playing: Dixie Flyer from the album Land of Dreams by Randy Newman.

From the L.A.Times:





iTunes is currently playing: Windswept from the album Boys and Girls by Bryan Ferry.

... dragged into her dorm kicking and screaming, doesn't it. Actually, she could hardly wait until she got her ID/key card so she could move her things in. The first thing she did was to add accessories to the bay window in her room, which she claims is the main reason she applied to Skidmore.

I added an album of pictures from our trip to Skidmore. Click here to go to my Album page OR here to go directly to the Skidmore page.





iTunes is currently playing: Brand New Day from the album Brand New Day by Sting.

... and I don't mind admitting that publicly, even though I will probably get another email message from a certain relative reminding me that I am a racist.

Meanwhile, the OPEN BORDERS folks might want to look for a better spokesperson than someone who says moronic stuff like this:

In speaking to the Mexican Congress about her deportation from the United States, Elvira Arellano claims that "the United States is the one who broke the law first by letting people cross over without documents. By letting people pay taxes."



iTunes is currently playing: Home Again from the album Tapestry by Carole King.

... about dog killer Michael Vick:

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/29/07): About 200 people braved rain and thunderclaps outside the Georgia Dome on Sunday to condemn the country, the media, Nike and, most of all, the Atlanta Falcons for treating Michael Vick like a dog. "We Support Vick a Human Being Over Dogs," was the message of one placard to honking passing cars on Northside Drive. Other supporters said they believed Vick should be given the benefit of the doubt until his day in court.

"Look at what he has done for this city — he's made this city a ton of money every Sunday," said Hiram Melvin, 50 of Decatur. "This dogfighting has been going on for years. It's not something that just started. It's not a big deal." [Emphasis mine. kh]

Charles Steele, Jr., President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said that the SCLC "prefers to focus on Vick's redemption and plans to honor him for his community contributions at its convention [in August] in Atlanta." "We need to support him no matter what the evidence reveals," Steele said.



Anisa Wright, holding dog DJ, her mother Charita Wright, and Imani Wright show their support for Michael Vick.

[Dressing the dog up in a #7 jersey is a particularly classy touch, don't you think?]

The same article goes on to say that The New Order National Human Rights Organization, a non-profit group purportedly established to deal with human rights violations experienced by people of any "race, creed, color, or religion" but which appears to have only black members (based on the photos displayed on its web site), "is calling for a boycott and protest of Falcons games until Vick returns to the field — and season-ticket holders in the crowd plan to demand their money back." New Order President Gerald Rose says, "This is still his dome. This is still his house."

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From CNN.com (8/22/07): Atlanta NACCP President R.L. White says that Michael Vick's "mistakes" should not cost him his football career and that "he didn't understand the uproar over dogfighting, when hunting deer and other animals is perfectly acceptable."

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From Breitbart.com (8/22/07): New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury defended Michael Vick, calling dogfighting a sport and comparing it to hunting. "I think it's tough," Marbury said, according to Albany TV station Capital News 9. "I think, you know, we don't say anything about people who shoot deer or shoot other animals. You know, from what I hear, dogfighting is a sport. It's just behind closed doors .... I think it's tough that we build Michael Vick up and then we break him down," Marbury said. "I think he's one of the superb athletes, and he's a good human being. I just think that he fell into a bad situation." [Again, emphasis is mine. kh]

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And let's not forget Deion Sanders, former NFL player/current NFL Network analyst/part-owner of the Austin Wranglers (of the Arena Football League), who offered this take on the situation in a piece he wrote for the Florida News-Press on 7/02/07 (and who has since been silenced by the NFL based on the terms of a contract he signed, a situation that the News-Press is NOT happy about).

The potential impact [of the indictment] could be devastating.

This is all the result of perspective.

What a dog means to Vick might be a lot different than what he means to you or I. Hold on, don’t start shaking your head just yet. Listen to me.

Some people kiss their dogs on the mouth. Some people let their dogs eat from their plate. Some people dress their dogs in suits more expensive than mine, if you can believe that.

And some people enjoy proving they have the biggest, toughest dog on the street. You’re probably not going to believe this, but I bet Vick loves the dogs that were the biggest and the baddest. Maybe, he identified with them in some way.

Why are we indicting him? Was he the ringleader? Is he the big fish? Or is there someone else? The fights allegedly occurred at a property that he purchased for a family member. They apparently found carcasses on the property, but I must ask you again, is he the ringleader?

Are we using Vick to get to the ringleader? Are we using him to bring an end to dogfighting in the United States?

The only thing I can gather from this situation is that we’re using Vick.

I believe Vick had a passion for dogfighting. I know many athletes who share his passion. The allure is the intensity and the challenge of a dog fighting to the death. It’s like ultimate fighting, but the dog doesn’t tap out when he knows he can’t win.

It reminds me of when I wore a lot of jewelry back in the day because I always wanted to have the biggest chain or the biggest, baddest car. It gives you status.

The reason this is turning into a three-ring circus is that baseball is boring, basketball is months away, football is around the corner and we in the media don’t have a thing interesting to write about.

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The population in general seems to have strong negative feelings about Michael Vick and his behavior. However, I have spent a significant amount of time searching the Internet for examples of black individuals (prominent or otherwise) who have publicly condemned Michael Vick's behavior (even if the condemnation came after the announcement of his plea deal) and I have been unable to find a single example.

Is the media reporting on this situation in a way that makes it appear that most blacks are supportive of Vick when this is not the case? (And if so, why would they do that?)

OR

Do most blacks think that this is all much ado about nothing and Vick should be at training camp right now? (And if so, how do people grow up in the same country, surrounded by animals that are, to most of us, like members of the family, and end up with such different opinions about this issue, with those opinions split evenly along racial lines?)

OR something else???

What do you think? And why?

[I bet this is my longest blog post ever!]



iTunes is currently playing: How Could You? from the album Billie Holiday: Portrait by Billie Holiday.