riverbabble 20, winter 2012

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riverbabble 20 --------winter 2012

Cambodia, 2011 by Christopher Novak

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riverbabble 20

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Poetry

Antony Adrian Pino:
Riverheart
Take Off Your Shoes!

Elizabeth Weaver:
Dreaming of Gram
In This Dream

Marion Boyer: Glosa On Thin Ice

Deepak Chaswal: The Mountains

j.d. daniels: Untitled

William Doreski: Long Soft Diagonals

Joanne Faries: Room to Grow

Rafael Jesús González: Consejo a José soñador/
Advice to Joseph the Dreamer

Sonia Hendy-Issac: Rescue

George Korolog: 60 Andrassey, Budapest

Miriam Kotzin: Back Silver

Ladan Osman: Parable of the Leaf

Phibby Venable: Hillbilly

Sandy Vrooman: Shifting Shapes of Saintiness

Prose Poetry

Luca Penne:
Dining Out
Unlucky in Love
For Love
Symphony in Vile

Fiction

Lila Evans: Black Creek Manor

Larry Lefkowitz: Pipe Dream

Dianne McKnight: Winter Story

Ladam Osman Half-Off

Jerry Vilhotti: One Light at a Time

Reviews

Bev Vines-Haines: A Review of My Zoo World

Photography

Christopher Novak: Cambodia, 2011

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A last lonely candle wandered up the sky from Mirus bazaar in search of funds for Mercer's hospital and broke, drooping, and shed a cluster of violet but one white stars. They floated, fell; they faded. The shepherd's hour: the hour of folding: hour of tryst.

JAMES JOYCE, Ulysses, p.310., 13, 1166-1169.

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2nd printing

available on Amazon.com

or from

the publisher: pandemoniumpress@gmail.com


_________________________________

Leila Rae, editor
riverbabble
http://iceflow.com/riverbabble/Welcome.html
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on stamps and other things

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Last week, I walked to the post-office near my home to buy stamps and, having been told that postage would increase the following Monday, I asked to see what "forever" stamps were available. I was told that they had only four designs available: the U.S. flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Ronald Reagan centennial, and the Mercury Messenger.

Finding none of them appealing, I thought, for a second, of asking for the Ronald Reagan centennial (I could paste them up-side down on the envelope, I thought, or pen a Hitler mustache on his upper lip, or simply jolt my friends into a response.)

My hatred of Ronald Reagan and all he did and stood for is known to all who know me. It is not, I must say, an abstract hatred, but a personal one: as governor of California he dared to invade my city, Berkeley, terrorize its citizens; tear-gas, beat, and jail us; and kill at least one of us, an innocent by-stander merely watching the action from the roof of a near-by theater near the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Dwight.

The two-bit actor went on to the biggest role in his life to become president of the U.S. and carried on his policy of terrorism on an international scale. What we have seen ever since through the last Bush administration and on into the present one has been the logical outcome of the policies he put into place during his term in office. Those policies have terrorized the world, concentrated its wealth in the hands of the few, violated the Earth, and ruined the economy. The suffering in their wake is beyond measure; many are now awaking to the fact. Let us make sure that Ronny Reagan and his legacy is not forever.

I ended up buying the Mercury Messenger stamp.

R. J. G.

Reader Supported News
Reagan's Hand in Guatemala's Genocide

[Bettman/Corbis photo]

Robert Parry, Consortium News
Parry writes: "If there is one consensus in the mainstream US news media, it seems to be that not a discouraging word can be spoken about Ronald Reagan. On those rare occasions when major US news outlets do make mention of the Guatemalan genocide of the 1980s, they circumspectly reframe the story to avoid mentioning Reagan's role."
READ MORE


------------En El Salvador


Las balas encuentran sus nidos
en los pechos de monjas y de maestros —

---hay sangre en las manzanas
---hay llanto en los telares.

En la Casa Blanca
el malo actor de vaqueros desempleado
come dulces de goma
y dice:
--- — Los derechos humanos no nos importan.
---No es negocio nuestro lo que
---pasa en esos países. —
Y envía rifles y municiones
a los generales.

---Hay sangre en las manzanas
---hay llanto en los telares.



-----------In El Salvador


Bullets find their nests
in the breasts of nuns & of teachers —

---there is blood in the apples
---there are tears in the looms.

In the White House
the unemployed hack cowboy actor
eats jellybeans
& says:
---Human rights will not be
---our concern. It is not our
---business what happens in
---those countries.
& sends guns & bullets
to the generals.

---There is blood in the apples
---there are tears in the looms.



-------© Rafael Jesús González 2012



(RiverSedge, Vol. IV no. 2; author's copyrights.)

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Year of the Dragon 4710

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Nine Dragons, Chen Rong, Sung Dynasty, 1244

Tanka for the Year of the Dragon


The sun's sky dragons,
the sea dragons of the moon
each grasps a fire-pearl,
for good fortune, too, is fierce,
to be welcomed with courage.



--------------© Rafael Jesús González 2012

Tanka para el año del dragón


Los dragones celestes del sol,
los dragones marinos de la luna,
cada uno coge una perla de fuego,
pues la buena fortuna también es feroz
para con valor ser bienvenida .



-------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2012

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Nine Dragons, Chen Rong, Sung Dynasty, 1244

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Aquarius

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------------Acuario


A Acuario,
---el airoso,
------fijo en su servicio,
lo vigila Urano desde lejos;
Saturno le pesa como plomo
y su luz como granate ardiente
destella en el cántaro de amatista
que carga Acuario,
----sus tobillos, sus pantorrillas
----bañados en el aire fijo
----de sus ideales luminosos.



---------© Rafael Jesús González 2012




-------------Aquarius


Aquarius,
---the graceful,
------at ease in his service,
is watched by Uranus from afar;
Saturn weighs on him like lead
& its light like a burning garnet
bounces sparks on the amethyst jar
that Aquarius carries,
----his ankles, his calves
----bathed in the fixed air
----of his luminous ideals.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2012
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Spillway #17 reading, February 4

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Spillway Magazine Reading

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

4:00 pm

Hosted by Editor Susan Terris

Celebration of the publication of Spillway #17,
which features over 25 San Francisco Bay Area Poets

Poets appearing will include:
Joan Baranow, Toby Bielawski,
Barbara Swift Bauer, Catharine Clark-Sayles,
Lucille Lang Day, CB Follett, Rafael Jesús González,
Dave Holt, Jodi Hottel, Janet Jennings, William Landis,
Gregory Mahrer, Myron Michael, Shawn Pittard,
Gregory Randall, Melita Schaum,
Jen Siraganian, and Gretchen Stengel.

BOOK PASSAGE

51 Tamal Vista Blvd.

Corte Madera, California 94925



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Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929–April 4, 1968)

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Martin Luther King Jr.
by Yousul Karsh

----------After the Lecture

---------------------------for Martin Luther King Jr.



A woman said I was not polite
to the opposition,
that I was harsh
and did not encourage
discourse.

Perhaps if I were Christ,
I could say, “Forgive them
----for they know not what they do.”
Or the queen, and apologize
for stubbing my executioner’s toes.

But only if I knew
the executioners
----were mine only.

What courtesy have I the right to give
to them who break the bones,
----the souls of my brothers,
------------------my sisters;
deny bread, books
----to the hungry,
----the children;
--------medicine, healing
--------to the sick;
roofs to the homeless;

who spoil the oceans,
----lay waste the forests
--------and the deserts,
violate the land?

Affability on the lips
of outrage
is a sin and blasphemy
----I’ll not be guilty of.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2012






--------Después del Discurso

------------------------a Martin Luther King Jr.



Una mujer me dijo que no fui cortés
con la oposición,
que fui duro
y que no animé
discusión.

Tal vez si fuera Cristo,
pudiera decir — Perdónalos
----que no saben lo que hacen. —
O la reina, y disculparme
por haber pisarle el pie a mi verdugo.

Pero solamente si supiera
que los verdugos
fueran solamente míos.

¿Qué cortesía tengo el derecho a darles
a los que quiebran los huesos
----y las almas de mis hermanos,
--------------------mis hermanas;
les niegan el pan, los libros
----a los hambrientos,
----a los niños;
--------la medicina, el sanar
--------a los enfermos;
techos a los desamparados;

que estropean los mares,
----que destruyen los bosques
--------y los desiertos,
violan la tierra?

Afabilidad en los labios
de la furia justa
es pecado y blasfemia
----de la cual no seré culpable.



---------© Rafael Jesús González 2012

Martin Luther King Jr.
by Tony Spina

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full moon: Full Moon After

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-----------Luna llena después


Lanzado el año nuevo,
después de las celebraciones
contando del nacer de un hombre-dios
anunciado por pandillas de ángeles
a toscos hombres entre sus ovejas,
reconocido en una estrella por reyes sabios
---— la luna llena todo ilumina.




---------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2012








---------Full Moon After


The new year launched,
after the celebrations
telling of a man-god's birth
announced by gangs of angels
to uncouth men among their sheep,
recognized in a star by wise kings
---— the full moon illumines all.



------------© Rafael Jesús González 2012
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