Poet's Musings

Friday, November 4, 2011

Regarding Math

*
*
*

Regarding Math

(problems, indeed)

Among his several problems with mathematical equations
was that he had no trouble letting x be x and y be y. He
silently advised them to remain letters. He did wish for them
that they didn't have exponents sitting on their shoulders
like unseemly growths. Also a problem is that he saw

both sides of an equation as art--assemblages of parentheses,
letters, numbers, and other symbols--and he didn't care
what they stood for. They stood for the image they created.

Then there was the problem of his seeing--there, in the middle--
an equal-sign. He thought, if each side is content to be equal
to the other, who am I to intrude on this amicable truce?
They were the same, apparently, so let them be. He didn't

care to know their secrets. Forced to solve an equation,
he did so, but it never felt like success, and he never
recalls anyone explaining why equations had to be solved.

He does remember sitting next to pretty girls in math class
and smelling their hair and their thin sweaters, and looking
at their painted nails, and thinking, "Let these girls
stand for beauty. Yes, let's equate them with allure."

Copyright 2011 Hans Ostrom

"When It's Cold and Raining," by Rumi

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Harvest Blade

*
*
*
*

Harvest Blade

Hockey players in uniform float
down a river enlarged
by a massive ice-melt far away.

They hold their sticks high,
rudders without boats. Look, now:
they're followed by last year's

Queen of the Adrenalin Parade,
dressed in a gown of
acetylene blue-and-white.

She rides on a raft made
of synthetic whale-bones.
Violinists from broken

orchestras line the river-bank,
serenading all things that pass
on floods. In shallows,

fish hear strings' vibrations, shimmer;
and shiver. And the glare from the sun
is a blade. It is a harvest blade.

Copyright 2011

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady

This short video is amusing--Neal Cassady seems to perplex Allen Ginsberg as Cassady speaks of Armageddon and "extremists," which probably include Ginsberg:

Ginsberg and Cassady

Monday, October 31, 2011

Questions for Republican Candidates

Some questions I'd like to hear asked of the Republican presidential candidates--or any candidates [Congress, President Obama, e.g.]--in debates:

1. Do you have any close friends who live at, below, or near the poverty-line?

2. What manual-labor jobs have you held--what kind, when, and for how long?

3. Would you explain why the trickling in a "trickle-down" economy is a good thing for those being trickled upon?

4. According to generally accepted economic theory, what is the greater source of economic growth, consumer-demand (from, for example, the middle class) or very rich people?

5. Who is your favorite American poet, and why?

6. Do you have any close friends who are gay or lesbian?

7. What is a favorite novel of yours not published by an American?

8. Why do you think the budget deficit increased during the Reagan years?

9. Who is or was one of your favorite blues performers, and why?

10. In your view, does humanity face an environmental crisis? If not, please say why. If so, please provide a few details about that crisis.

11. What is one of your favorite comic feature-films, and why?

12. What is one of your favorite foreign feature-films, and why?