The Mess

The baby’s diaper
attained the shape
of an igloo.

The exasperated mother
defenestrated
the mess, aiming at
the Westboro Baptists
on the front lawn.

Calmly, she applied
talcum
to the baby’s bottom.

I submitted a few poems to Children, Churches and Daddies earlier this week, and they’ve accepted two of them.

They appear now online for your viewing pleasure, however, the magazine also has monthly print editions, and they will appear in the May and June issues.

1)

I will submit at least one poem each week to a publisher.  (This is easier than it sounds since I have a backlog of poetry that I feel is of publishable quality.  It will , however, require some market research, and the writing of query letters.)

2)

I would like to win another poetry slam.  I won one last year, so it won’t be my first win. This is not completely within my control, but there are several actions that can improve my chances, including writing some new ‘slam’ poems.

3)

I will have JB and the MBS ready for submission by the end of January, and during 2012 I will finish writing its two sequels.  I’ve been revising JB and the MBS for awhile, so finishing it up by the end of the month is doable.  And I am only resolving to complete a draft of the sequels, so this isn’t a hefty resolution either.

4)

By the end of 2012 I will have either TS of TTC, or IKWYT ready for submission.  I haven’t decided yet which one I will tackle. This is my biggest writing challenge.  These are both novel-length.

5)

I will submit something to the 2012 Archon Short Story Contest.  This submission might be one of the sequels to JB and the MBS. (I submitted a version of JB and the MBS to the 2010 Archon Short Story Contest.)

A parody/response by Rabbi Jason Miller (a Conservative Rabbi from Detroit)

And a post I wrote back in July of 2002

Prayer in Public School

I’ve never been able to understand the complaint I hear from some quarters that the right to pray in public schools is being attacked. I know I was able to pray in my public school, and did so often, before every exam I took.

I’m not entirely joking. I often did pray. Yes, silently, to myself. No teacher stopped me. And I can guarantee no teacher would stop someone praying in that manner today. And if a teacher did try to stop a student, that student should go running to the nearest branch of the ACLU. They would love the publicity they’d get in taking that school to court.

Every court case that the critics bemoan has been about **organized** school prayer. Prayer where a school, a teacher, or another student decides on a prayer that all other students are going to be forced to recite, or at least listen to, regardless of whether they want to or not.

Can’t the critics see the difference between voluntary, and forced? It’s the same difference between the concepts of love and rape. If someone doesn’t want to swallow something, it shouldn’t be forced down their throats.

Sorry about the graphic image, but I think it is an appropriate analogy. For those of us who believe, G-d is someone we have a very close relationship with. But our relationships differ. If someone suggests to us that we should have a different sort of relationship with G-d, and tries to force that relationship on us, a negative reaction shouldn’t be surprising.

Public Schools can definitely assign their students to read the Bible as a source for many literary allusions. I studied biblical stories (Old and New Testament) in my Junior year of High School English. (Freshman year we had studied Greek and Roman mythology). American History courses should definitely cover the effect religion has played on American History. From the Puritans, to William Jennings Bryan. From the Scopes trial to Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

But that’s not the same thing as teaching scripture, reciting the Lord’s Prayer, or posting the Ten Commandments.

You might be surprised to discover your translation of scriptural passages, including the 10 commandments, aren’t identical with the translation used by other religions. If a school picks one translation, isn’t it in effect telling students of other religions that their religion is wrong? Heck, you’d even have to pick between Matthew’s and Luke’s Lord’s Prayer. I can’t say I know what lies behind that controversy, but I’ve read that some prefer one over the other.

Matthew 6:5-6: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men….when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret….”

I rarely ever quote the Book of Matthew. But ironically, he makes a lot of sense to me in this passage

As it Shall Be

Bobby, and Suzy, and Patrick
all get presents on Christmas.
They say Santa Claus
comes down their chimney
the night before
and leaves them cool stuff.
They can’t explain
how Santa doesn’t get burned

It’s not logical.
I don’t know who
gives them their presents
but I know where mine come from.

Shadrach, Meshach,
and that guy with the name
I can’t pronounce
I call him Abe.
They come down our chimney
not on Christmas eve
but the night before
the 25th day of Kislev
a month that appears
on a calendar that hangs
on the refrigerator
held by a magnet
with a six pointed star.

Many years ago
Shadrach, Meshach
and Abe
survived the fire
a mean guy
named Nebachasomething
threw them into
so it’s logical
they can survive
our chimney.

Dad says this guy
named Judah Maccabee
was the great great great grandson
of Abe, and Judah
fought against some Syrian Greeks
and saved our ancestors.

The Syrians are still bad guys
but they’re no longer Greek.

Mom says Dad is full of hooey
and that some Syrians
might actually be OK,
and Judah
isn’t really descended from Abe,
but Dad is a genealogist
so he would know.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!

My brown eyes
splash inside the pools
of your grays

heedless whether
anyone else gets soaked
in the process

I seek
forgiveness
for my selfishness

1. I’ve upgraded to the newest version of WordPress.  It’s been awhile since my last upgrade, so it was time.
2. I also changed the theme, and even changed the title of the blog.  Comments welcome.
3. Unfortunately, in the upgrade process, while it appears I successfully retained every post, it also appears I lost all the category tags.
4. The administrative interface is aware of what all the categories are, but none of the posts are tagged with any of them.
5. So some weekend when I am completely bored with nothing to do I’ll start reading old posts and tagging them.
6. I’ve only been blogging since 2002, that won’t take too long.

“The peacock is the third animal to escape a New York zoo this year.”

Is this a sign I need to return to chronicling The Great Animal Rebellion.?

It does seem others have noticed, such as Karl/Rotstan. Read about The Rebellion on his blog through March of 2011. He’s moved to Twitter.

“There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.” – Glenn Beck

Tuesday

“If we’re living in a society where we can’t say X in the same paragraph as Y and not be told we are comparing it, we are going to be a society of gas chambers.”

Maybe it’s not the two things being in the same paragraph, and maybe it’s your use of the words “sounds a little like,” which led people to think you were making a comparison. I don’t know, maybe just something for you to, like, consider.