Happy dreams, everyone. Taking another breather on this late night bumpy primary ride to offer up a chance to share some more poetry, yours or someone else's. I'll kick it off with one of my favorite writers, Sharon Olds and one of my favorites of hers poems, "I Go Back to May 1937" from her collection, The Gold Cell.

I teach poetry. I write poetry. I organize and participate in poetry readings. Most everyone I've ever talked with has at least one favorite poem or poet. Let's clear our heads a little and turn to the literary. Please share a poem you like. I'll start us off with a piece by Kim Addonizio. Kim was born in D.C. in 1954 and now lives in Oakland, CA. Of "Chicken," she says: "Sometimes I look at jokes and riddles as a kind of poetry: alternate universes of compressed narratives and lyrics where one is in a state of uncertainty, mystery, and expectation. They're structured for surprise, the aha! of revelation or sudden laughter. Like the riddle of the lightbulb, the simple, familiar riddle of the chicken has generated its own literary tradition, responsive to culteral changes (Why did the punk rocker cross the road?) and further elaborations of meaning (Emerson: She didn't cross the road, she transcended it; Mark Twain: The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated). The original, ur-chicken riddle has such an obvious answer that the answer fails to satisfy. Instead, it propels us into a deeper consideration of existential realities and of our inherently conflicted relationship to poultry. Why did she want to get to the other side? Is there a goal, a destination, a place to go? What about free-range chickens? Maybe this little riddle is a secular koan which could free us from our cages, from the maya of materiality."

Came across this, IMO, terrifically written and reasoned blog at Buck Naked Politics today. I think the writer is pretty spot on offering good answers on how we got to such an angry place as well as offering a clear and cogent warning flag.

Last week a diarist put up An Ode to Clinton's Narcissism. Setrak had the great idea that everyone should respond in poetry. I'm attempting to resurrect that idea. Here were my two entries into that thread: