<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476</id><updated>2011-12-09T03:21:11.059-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Starting Today: poems for the first 100 days</title><subtitle type='html'>"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America."
President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>15</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-142185540380351600</id><published>2010-04-22T13:40:00.004-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-22T20:12:20.589-04:00</updated><title type='text'>HAPPY EARTH DAY: Robin Beth Schaer reads her poem, day 93</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-ca98e21aea09f0d3" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v20.nonxt7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dca98e21aea09f0d3%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D1F7A6973229EF89B86FE85633695A2FE8D135BC8.821CC47BEBA3A77CCF4D41DE2597A93D67EAC309%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dca98e21aea09f0d3%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DfXcvQZpjZ2lGTY_2MPFRv-RJQOU&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v20.nonxt7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dca98e21aea09f0d3%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D1F7A6973229EF89B86FE85633695A2FE8D135BC8.821CC47BEBA3A77CCF4D41DE2597A93D67EAC309%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dca98e21aea09f0d3%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DfXcvQZpjZ2lGTY_2MPFRv-RJQOU&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Endangerment Finding&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Admit our sun is common, a Milky Way twin&lt;br /&gt;to a hundred million more. Even its end&lt;br /&gt;ordinary, no stellar explosion, it will snap&lt;br /&gt;hydrogen to helium then cool to a dense core.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You squint skyward, still wanting the corona&lt;br /&gt;of a bright god, the unconquered sun that chose us&lt;br /&gt;to spin around. But there is no need for tributes&lt;br /&gt;of maize and falcon wings while we burn&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;the oil of light left epochs ago. You may ratify&lt;br /&gt;the droughts and downpours, assign blame&lt;br /&gt;for melting ice and rising seas, but I can count&lt;br /&gt;more kinds of hammers than turtles;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;we need instinct, not law. The dogs of Pompeii&lt;br /&gt;howled for days, even snakes slithered&lt;br /&gt;from Helice. In the Gallatin Range, the bears&lt;br /&gt;left the forest. At night, a slice of mountain shook&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;down, sleepers drowned in their beds, soaked&lt;br /&gt;in waves off the lake. When the ground stilled&lt;br /&gt;the bears returned, covered with mud. Hush.&lt;br /&gt;Listen to our internal combustion rumble.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is more elegance in turning photon&lt;br /&gt;to electron to motion. Let us trade the old sun&lt;br /&gt;for the new one, sustain ourselves, wet and green,&lt;br /&gt;within this delicate spindle of axis and orbit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Robin Beth Schaer is the recipient of fellowships from the Saltonstall Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has appeared in &lt;i&gt;Denver Quarterly, Barrow Street,&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Washington Square,&lt;/i&gt; among others, and recordings of her poems are featured on &lt;a href="http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/robin_beth_schaer/index.shtml"&gt;From the Fishouse&lt;/a&gt;. She lives in New York City and works at the &lt;a href="http://www.poets.org/"&gt;Academy of American Poets&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on April 22, 2009&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-142185540380351600?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/142185540380351600/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-93-robin-beth-schaer.html#comment-form' title='7 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/142185540380351600'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/142185540380351600'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-93-robin-beth-schaer.html' title='HAPPY EARTH DAY: Robin Beth Schaer reads her poem, day 93'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>7</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-2596654012163807235</id><published>2010-03-12T06:06:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2010-03-12T06:06:00.140-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Catherine Wagner reads her poem, day 52</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-43d06e851e258e1f" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v4.nonxt5.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D43d06e851e258e1f%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D581CBDA65C688A57EB05EF6E1530E0AAF81F5CB5.7239555631EE8BBA4F515BC58431B09FBD33064%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D43d06e851e258e1f%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DeMBk73AOC3Xh27PCGxnhr31ro_w&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v4.nonxt5.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D43d06e851e258e1f%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D581CBDA65C688A57EB05EF6E1530E0AAF81F5CB5.7239555631EE8BBA4F515BC58431B09FBD33064%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D43d06e851e258e1f%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DeMBk73AOC3Xh27PCGxnhr31ro_w&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Oh&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the little painting of love&lt;br /&gt;Is a man repairing a fence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A little crap love-object&lt;br /&gt;And a too-big church in the background&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;near the sea &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp; by a strip of valley&lt;br /&gt;Lit up like surgical tape.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Metaphors can incline one&lt;br /&gt;Toward healing thoughts.&lt;br /&gt;I will have your experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The ocean uptaken in the wind&lt;br /&gt;Rolls inland.&lt;br /&gt;Heal, heal, fungus on toe, &lt;br /&gt;Heal, toe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I lose this job&lt;br /&gt;[I have other skills?/There are other workers].&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If we all lose our jobs&lt;br /&gt;We go to Ocean City&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and photograph ourselves&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;as human pyramids.&lt;br /&gt;My grandfather spent the thirties&lt;br /&gt;Thus on the beach.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Abundant poverty to live in. Many years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Between you and me is chestbone.&lt;br /&gt;No meshing.&lt;br /&gt;So eat my face for hours.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If a poem is active&lt;br /&gt;Its action aborts in you&lt;br /&gt;As colored light flies into black.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Keeps flying&lt;br /&gt;The light from long ago&lt;br /&gt;Until the night-blockade.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So shut the book.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The man who mends the fence&lt;br /&gt;Imaginary&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leaves a space for the caissons to roll&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;down valley from sea.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me eat your face, neighbor&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;who owns the Bagel and Deli on High&lt;br /&gt; and has two children,&lt;br /&gt;Lily and Garrison.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Catherine Wagner's latest book, &lt;i&gt;My New Job,&lt;/i&gt; is forthcoming from Fence. Her other books are &lt;i&gt;Macular Hole&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Miss America&lt;/i&gt; (both Fence). Recent chapbooks include &lt;i&gt;Articulate How &lt;/i&gt;(Big Game Books/Dusie, 2008), &lt;i&gt;Hole in the Ground&lt;/i&gt; (Slack Buddha, 2008) and the forthcoming &lt;i&gt;Bornt&lt;/i&gt; (Dusie). She teaches at Miami University in Ohio.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally Posted March 12, 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more2/"&gt;Click Here for the MP3 of this Reading.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-2596654012163807235?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=43d06e851e258e1f&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/2596654012163807235/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-52-catherine-wagner.html#comment-form' title='11 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/2596654012163807235'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/2596654012163807235'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-52-catherine-wagner.html' title='Catherine Wagner reads her poem, day 52'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>11</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-3236810942155502637</id><published>2010-03-09T09:28:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2010-03-09T09:28:00.324-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Jeff Encke reads his poem from day 49</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-db036efd51a7b0b9" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v7.nonxt1.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Ddb036efd51a7b0b9%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D7461873F2424182764D38D0E412671E57153C6CF.3157D2F57BA58030903D7985FF2BAEACE3A715DC%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Ddb036efd51a7b0b9%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Detq7sCg3_xXqaCZXxTSPU8JO2mU&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v7.nonxt1.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Ddb036efd51a7b0b9%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D7461873F2424182764D38D0E412671E57153C6CF.3157D2F57BA58030903D7985FF2BAEACE3A715DC%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Ddb036efd51a7b0b9%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Detq7sCg3_xXqaCZXxTSPU8JO2mU&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Water in Which One Drowns Is Always an Ocean&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;“If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.”&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;–Barack Obama&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is the calm and silence that drown us.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some people can disturb words &lt;br /&gt;with a mere movement of the teeth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The pouch of the mouth strewn with roses&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;roofed with lost causes. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pumpkins and habits have a smell&lt;br /&gt;and breath is its beginning.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The womb carries on its shoulders &lt;br /&gt;a beggar wrapped in earth. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Absence washes&lt;br /&gt;away love, taking the tint of all colors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;From the well of envy&lt;br /&gt;the child teaches us to weep.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Every sickness has its herb.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Heaven is dark, yet quiet and limpid.&lt;br /&gt;Shovels of earth cannot quench a mountain.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scum rises to the top of the heart.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;A bubble on the ocean&lt;br /&gt;a taste the teetotaler will never know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do not pour on the strength of a mirage.&lt;br /&gt;Do not torture thirst with shallow water. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A merchant in the rain saves only himself.&lt;br /&gt;A shadow that always follows the body.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When your cheeks beg for fever&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;you are halfway there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Habit is the shirt we wear for a midday nap.&lt;br /&gt;Gray hairs its blossoms. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hope a pearl worthless in its shell.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Death answers: &lt;i&gt;I have a lot to say&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;but my mouth is full.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those destined to drown &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;will drown in a spoonful. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tears of strangers are only water. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jeff Encke has poems forthcoming this spring from &lt;i&gt;American Poetry Review&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Kenyon Review Online.&lt;/i&gt; In 2004, he published &lt;i&gt;Most Wanted: A Gamble in Verse&lt;/i&gt; (Last Tangos), a deck of playing cards featuring excerpts of love poems written to Saddam Hussein and other war criminals. He currently teaches literature at Richard Hugo House in Seattle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted March 9, 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more2/"&gt;Click here for an MP3 of this poem.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-3236810942155502637?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=db036efd51a7b0b9&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/3236810942155502637/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-49-jeff-encke.html#comment-form' title='25 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/3236810942155502637'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/3236810942155502637'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-49-jeff-encke.html' title='Jeff Encke reads his poem from day 49'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>25</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-8490639028804968031</id><published>2010-03-05T08:00:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2010-03-05T08:00:12.838-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Erika Meitner reads her poem from day 45</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-ba3f2da959cc8f96" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v16.nonxt8.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dba3f2da959cc8f96%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3DD3D2069817861140D9EDFDCC740A891072FED1F.5A7065504888087DBBCF68FBEA2D26069A19A9E5%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dba3f2da959cc8f96%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D-Pa2EeJgStJTsii2Y5GM0I-zu2s&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v16.nonxt8.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dba3f2da959cc8f96%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3DD3D2069817861140D9EDFDCC740A891072FED1F.5A7065504888087DBBCF68FBEA2D26069A19A9E5%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dba3f2da959cc8f96%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D-Pa2EeJgStJTsii2Y5GM0I-zu2s&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Slinky Dirt With Development Hat&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;O Mama.  Juice.  Pile of dirt.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sand pit where the workers stopped&lt;br /&gt;working.  Home is a backhoe&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;with no keys, silent, yellow.  Passing&lt;br /&gt;cars buzz the lots for sale that still&lt;br /&gt;have trees, have liens.  Our development &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;is mid-cul-de-sac.  There are half-moons&lt;br /&gt;carved into hills, and when we walk&lt;br /&gt;down the unpaved, unnamed road,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;past the upright pipes marking gas&lt;br /&gt;or sewer, there’s often a father and son &lt;br /&gt;joyriding on one four-wheeler, sans helmets.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They wave hello and we wave back.  &lt;br /&gt;There’s bankruptcy court.  A promised &lt;br /&gt;swimming pool.  There’s hope that bounces &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;down the stairs, slinks away, and hides &lt;br /&gt;under a chair.  My son pitches a fit &lt;br /&gt;when we pass a digger and I won’t stop &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;for the excavation; when the other children &lt;br /&gt;sing the alphabet he doesn’t join in.&lt;br /&gt;After two servings of milk, there’s &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;water.  Farther, further, father.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Mama.  Juice.  Pile of dirt,&lt;/i&gt; he calls&lt;br /&gt;from the car window to the bleached &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;frames, empty and bowed as a set &lt;br /&gt;of whale ribs, their cupped hands&lt;br /&gt;spilling sand and clay.  He presses&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;his red mitten to the glass and waves &lt;br /&gt;hello to our master-planned community,&lt;br /&gt;the houses that are just like ours, but for&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;the countertop finish, or optional bonus room&lt;br /&gt;above the garage, or guns in the cupboards &lt;br /&gt;beneath commemorative plates, tucked &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;next to receipts for winter and re-wear &lt;br /&gt;that coat one more year.  In the dusk, &lt;br /&gt;the mountaintops flatten themselves &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;to escape the calcified bulldozers&lt;br /&gt;that won’t come after them anymore. &lt;br /&gt;It is March and there’s snow crusted &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;over with ice.  Our jackets are too small, &lt;br /&gt;but the snaps still snap.  The zippers still &lt;br /&gt;zip.  We shiver and turn the heat up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.erikameitner.com/"&gt;Erika Meitner&lt;/a&gt;’s first book, &lt;i&gt;Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore,&lt;/i&gt; was published by Anhinga Press in 2003.  She lives in Blacksburg, VA, and teaches in the MFA program at Virginia Tech.  Her son Oz (age 2) regularly refers to Obama as “Omama.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on March 5, 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more/"&gt;Click here for the MP3 of this reading.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-8490639028804968031?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=ba3f2da959cc8f96&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/8490639028804968031/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-46-erika-meitner.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/8490639028804968031'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/8490639028804968031'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-46-erika-meitner.html' title='Erika Meitner reads her poem from day 45'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-1179789350751129036</id><published>2010-02-24T06:25:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-24T06:25:00.146-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Ann Fisher-Wirth reads her poem</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-7218a5033cd18d19" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v4.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D7218a5033cd18d19%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D69F8BB98F5CB8D591DE5EE80613E86618FC30C07.541C22827078E8987AF5CF4000E77B8B8949D488%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D7218a5033cd18d19%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DGNDszL6oDxe-NGw5bwcpDi20nnw&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v4.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D7218a5033cd18d19%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D69F8BB98F5CB8D591DE5EE80613E86618FC30C07.541C22827078E8987AF5CF4000E77B8B8949D488%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D7218a5033cd18d19%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DGNDszL6oDxe-NGw5bwcpDi20nnw&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;In Oxford, Mississippi&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite last week’s snow, the daffodils bloom&lt;br /&gt;in the dead winter grass of gardens and curbsides&lt;br /&gt;all over town; even two-days’ jackets of ice&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;couldn’t kill them. The Bradford pears and plum trees,&lt;br /&gt;the quince like drops of blood on thorny branches—&lt;br /&gt;I love them, I hang on to the thought of them&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;when I despair of humans, when one of my students,&lt;br /&gt;for instance, says welfare is for crackheads, and another, &lt;br /&gt;that the fix for capital punishment is public stonings and hangings—&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Thou shalt not kill,&lt;/i&gt; a third replies, &lt;i&gt;what do you answer to that?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I answer: the chainlink fence on that icy hill six years ago, &lt;br /&gt;the guards that ringed the American embassy &lt;br /&gt;when thousands marched in Stockholm, and I wanted to shout&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;to those uniformed boys, &lt;i&gt;Put down your guns and join us.&lt;/i&gt; &lt;br /&gt;My shame that year in Sweden at being American. &lt;br /&gt;Watching Powell on TV, as he tried to make the UN believe &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;those little dark blips of trucks carried weapons &lt;br /&gt;of mass destruction. That day in glistening springtime &lt;br /&gt;when we learned the tanks had invaded Iraq.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Grief has been our mother. Exhaustion and lies, our daily bread. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yet the daffodils, daffodils, reiterating sunlight. &lt;br /&gt;When I woke at five this morning, the birds &lt;br /&gt;and wind chimes were singing. The raccoon that lives &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;in our crawl space scuttered around on the porch, &lt;br /&gt;thumping and shaking the cat food bowl. I dreamed &lt;br /&gt;I’d forgotten to come back from Sweden, no longer knew &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;where home was, if I still had a job. But now I know&lt;br /&gt;home is Mississippi—where  William Caughy, age 75, &lt;br /&gt;said &lt;i&gt;Thank the Lord&lt;/i&gt; when I signed him up to vote &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;in the parking lot at Big Star last October.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;And Thadeus Jefferson, age 82: &lt;i&gt;Ain’t never voted. &lt;br /&gt;Ain’t never registered neither. Can’t register, &lt;br /&gt;ain’t permitted to. Long time gone did time for drug...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then, when I read him the voter rules: &lt;i&gt;What’s that &lt;br /&gt;you say? Time for drug not on the list? That’s good, &lt;br /&gt;but still can’t vote. Never did manage to learn how to read.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;—What’s that you say? You asking if I recognize ‘OBAMA’? &lt;br /&gt;Yes ma’am, I surely recognize ‘OBAMA’. &lt;br /&gt;Let’s sign me up,&lt;/i&gt; he chuckled, &lt;i&gt;so I can vote Obama.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ann Fisher-Wirth’s third book of poems, &lt;i&gt;Carta Marina,&lt;/i&gt; has just been published by Wings Press. Her chapbook &lt;i&gt;Slide Shows&lt;/i&gt; will appear from Finishing Line Press next winter. With Laura-Gray Street, she is coediting an international ecopoetry anthology, &lt;i&gt;Earth’s Body,&lt;/i&gt; which will be published in 2011 by Trinity University Press. Ann teaches poetry and environmental studies at the University of Mississippi. She and her husband have five grown children.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on February 8, 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more2/"&gt;Click here for the MP3 of this reading.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-1179789350751129036?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=7218a5033cd18d19&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/1179789350751129036/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-48-ann-fisher-wirth.html#comment-form' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/1179789350751129036'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/1179789350751129036'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-48-ann-fisher-wirth.html' title='Ann Fisher-Wirth reads her poem'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-6686472111231645504</id><published>2010-02-22T06:37:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-22T06:37:00.454-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Lisa Samuels reads her poem, day 28</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-5ce44603fa3cd6de" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v12.nonxt5.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D5ce44603fa3cd6de%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D1AD031CE6BCAF22345137D6C179B2CA0EB88A947.48ADA6F23B10C332BB549E88142762C50DF8238A%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D5ce44603fa3cd6de%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dxzl_jJFDuAwQ21Qs42PjzaeQDcg&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v12.nonxt5.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D5ce44603fa3cd6de%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D1AD031CE6BCAF22345137D6C179B2CA0EB88A947.48ADA6F23B10C332BB549E88142762C50DF8238A%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D5ce44603fa3cd6de%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dxzl_jJFDuAwQ21Qs42PjzaeQDcg&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;At the Save the World breakfast&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;the White House forward allies begged to ordinary &lt;br /&gt;foundered face objections got and tightly fraught &lt;br /&gt;with legislative Sunday morning&lt;br /&gt;when the breakfast passed with future skies&lt;br /&gt;in policy blue after the rollout tenderness &lt;br /&gt;the eager incapacity of the real to disoblige &lt;br /&gt;one’s prescient forbears of concern &lt;br /&gt;of loving’s yesterday a lack of sleep, forbearance &lt;br /&gt;to reform green element darling first year &lt;br /&gt;elocution modes rely on closure to prevent &lt;br /&gt;one’s aides from tripping after one unsteady kiss &lt;br /&gt;on light perfume of daylight tired throat performance &lt;br /&gt;held the market as it fell across his chair, the country &lt;br /&gt;off entirely eating weakened expectations on the broken &lt;br /&gt;backs of sofas with the Someone’s Out There rescue plan,&lt;br /&gt;a householder whose water income severance &lt;br /&gt;waits for no man’s one hand finds in close halls court&lt;br /&gt;intensive of the lot, the congress smiling with its apples, &lt;br /&gt;tactic engineers at breakfast loving to resurrect the flowers&lt;br /&gt;ides of confidence in his oath reform adjusting keys &lt;br /&gt;for doors whose open state relies on that neat knife &lt;br /&gt;closing on the loaf writ from the future edge &lt;br /&gt;of buttery admonition, after all a plan took more than hours&lt;br /&gt;or days with eyes across our backs blind total &lt;br /&gt;to ensure the stimulus fluffs its hair like a memorial &lt;br /&gt;to history, wherein tomorrow he’ll breathe out &lt;br /&gt;soft again and try his hand at Monday, facing spin&lt;br /&gt;return on protectionist America that wears a fashionable &lt;br /&gt;new cloak stitched from blue umbrellas when the sun &lt;br /&gt;shone cold comparing one man at breakfast with the lonely &lt;br /&gt;trade winds on approach, one’s whole body as earthquake &lt;br /&gt;to affairs, a rapt comparison when ties are put on necks &lt;br /&gt;to prove the throat’s constricted life beliefs, &lt;br /&gt;short thinking’s bread plate put up unilateral to a risk without &lt;br /&gt;provision for a febrile wish, a solution without question &lt;br /&gt;he has to fetch himself from his admirers&lt;br /&gt;with body noises while the game set rules go down in dozens &lt;br /&gt;orthodox, wherein we frame the months with tremor &lt;br /&gt;portents all the way from Valentine’s lost cabinet &lt;br /&gt;to the beds and tables whereon tender bodies fetch &lt;br /&gt;as gain and aperture the House whose own first choices &lt;br /&gt;train the face whose mirror has a thousand keeps &lt;br /&gt;and civil animals unrest for urging selfhood to cut down, &lt;br /&gt;realizing all the guys have you tied up with paper threads &lt;br /&gt;whose works will cusp in balance on that still &lt;br /&gt;he is getting up in the morning sigh re-shape the world (again) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lisa Samuels is an American in New Zealand, teaching at the University of Auckland. Her new &amp;amp; forthcoming poetry books are &lt;i&gt;The Invention of Culture&lt;/i&gt; (Shearsman 2008), &lt;i&gt;Throe&lt;/i&gt; (Oystercatcher 2009), and &lt;i&gt;Tomorrowland&lt;/i&gt; (Shearsman 2009), and her current projects include &lt;i&gt;Metropolis,&lt;/i&gt; a fantasy of urbanization. She wrote this poem imagining a moment of President Obama’s mind at breakfast on Sunday morning.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on February 16, 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more/#"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Click here for the MP3 of this poem.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-6686472111231645504?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=5ce44603fa3cd6de&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/6686472111231645504/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-28-lisa-samuels.html#comment-form' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/6686472111231645504'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/6686472111231645504'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-28-lisa-samuels.html' title='Lisa Samuels reads her poem, day 28'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-8626256494232275632</id><published>2010-02-18T14:10:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-18T14:22:56.203-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Joshua Marie Wilkinson reads his poem from day 41</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-ab3a35a99a291e14" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v18.nonxt5.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dab3a35a99a291e14%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D7B1DEEB5019C505F8E14A88EC84BF7936C6CB5F3.8094602D7E7F3636DA54AF57D8591ACCB3B0DF75%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dab3a35a99a291e14%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D8INjwXC52ybsKwuDxta8Om3rg4k&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v18.nonxt5.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dab3a35a99a291e14%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D7B1DEEB5019C505F8E14A88EC84BF7936C6CB5F3.8094602D7E7F3636DA54AF57D8591ACCB3B0DF75%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dab3a35a99a291e14%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D8INjwXC52ybsKwuDxta8Om3rg4k&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Poem for Barack Obama&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ten envelopes &amp;amp; forty-thousand a&lt;br /&gt;day to go—so here’s mine.  Funny &lt;br /&gt;to think we thought you’d read&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;our blog. Forfeiting, tanked &lt;br /&gt;villains on the twitter, &amp;amp; your &lt;br /&gt;coin face on some 1-800 &lt;br /&gt;supplies while they last.  It’s not that &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;everything got weirder,&lt;br /&gt;it’s weird that we’re already&lt;br /&gt;used by it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, let’s see: Have you put &lt;br /&gt;the wars to bed? Did you do &lt;br /&gt;all of our homework?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know it sounds stupid here, but&lt;br /&gt;I’m sorry your friends aren’t to &lt;br /&gt;call you up anymore.  There’s no way &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;to talk to you directly, I guess, &lt;br /&gt;so I’ll evince that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s a poem. (Actually, see &lt;i&gt;Hughson’s &lt;br /&gt;Tavern&lt;/i&gt; if you want to break all the way down&lt;br /&gt;for an evening.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since you left town, some&lt;br /&gt;good things have happened:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rae Armantrout got famous. Noah&lt;br /&gt;got a job.  Johannes’s comments on &lt;br /&gt;Harriet are still better than tv. &lt;i&gt;Tuned&lt;br /&gt;Droves&lt;/i&gt; dropped, and it’s haunted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even Spicer’s &lt;i&gt;Collected&lt;/i&gt; went platinum,&lt;br /&gt;so the ocean’s not so tough after all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe your assistants can help you with&lt;br /&gt;the references.  It’s just a poem.  That’s&lt;br /&gt;part of its work to point to other shit.  Of &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;course we want to hear about your kids’ dog. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Joshua Marie Wilkinson (Chicago, IL) was born and raised in Seattle. He is the author of four collections of poems, most recently &lt;i&gt;The Book of Whispering in the Projection Booth.&lt;/i&gt; A new anthology of poetry, conversations, and poetics, called &lt;i&gt;12 x 12&lt;/i&gt; and co-edited with Christina Mengert, is just out. He was in Grant Park on election night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on March 1, 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more/"&gt;Click here for an MP3 of this reading. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-8626256494232275632?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=ab3a35a99a291e14&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/8626256494232275632/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-41-joshua-marie-wilkinson.html#comment-form' title='7 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/8626256494232275632'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/8626256494232275632'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-41-joshua-marie-wilkinson.html' title='Joshua Marie Wilkinson reads his poem from day 41'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>7</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-6241202531642604912</id><published>2010-02-17T15:50:00.011-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-21T06:36:23.176-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Laurel Snyder reads her poem from day 19</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-2fdcd4ff8cd36500" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v18.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D2fdcd4ff8cd36500%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D3D82CFAB71BD52DE4A26274BC915070735768AB1.E0870C6F8E8D721D4373DDBF6AD638BCE280930%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D2fdcd4ff8cd36500%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dp5bM98lJdOdffzfwb41F_tZRj8I&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v18.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D2fdcd4ff8cd36500%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D3D82CFAB71BD52DE4A26274BC915070735768AB1.E0870C6F8E8D721D4373DDBF6AD638BCE280930%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D2fdcd4ff8cd36500%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dp5bM98lJdOdffzfwb41F_tZRj8I&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Greatest Public Works Program&lt;/b&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You’re passing &lt;br /&gt;some  shitty little &lt;br /&gt;town lost along &lt;br /&gt;the drear interstate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a dim afternoon &lt;br /&gt;downpour—&lt;br /&gt;with no gas, no &lt;br /&gt;phone, no family.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Windows open&lt;br /&gt;because the car.&lt;br /&gt;Because the fogged&lt;br /&gt;windshield hates you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wet and watching &lt;br /&gt;your map lift suddenly &lt;br /&gt;from the dash, whip &lt;br /&gt;through a slick window, &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;away, away, away,&lt;br /&gt;sodden, useless, gone &lt;br /&gt;forever  in the gray &lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;been left behind—&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And that’s the moment &lt;br /&gt;you face the road,&lt;br /&gt;the constellation of &lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;ahoy and already,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;see the map waiting&lt;br /&gt;beneath your tires.&lt;br /&gt;That’s when a swell, a rising, &lt;br /&gt;the promise of there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That’s when you know  &lt;br /&gt;ahead will be else, other,  &lt;br /&gt;at least not &lt;i&gt;here.&lt;/i&gt; Maybe &lt;br /&gt;even dry, with coffee.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That’s when, driving &lt;br /&gt;on fumes, tired &lt;br /&gt;past  gone, you notice &lt;br /&gt;the sky pink up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rain lifts, clouds &lt;br /&gt;scatter, and you suddenly&lt;br /&gt;remember—Hope &lt;br /&gt;has no rearview, &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;can’t live in memory. &lt;br /&gt;Hope wakes starving &lt;br /&gt;in the storm, &lt;br /&gt;to off and hunt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://laurelsnyder.com"&gt;Laurel Snyder&lt;/a&gt; (Atlanta, GA) is the author of &lt;i&gt;The Myth of the Simple Machines&lt;/i&gt; (No Tell Books), &lt;i&gt;Daphne &amp;amp; Jim: a choose-your-own-adventure-biography-in-verse&lt;/i&gt; (Burnside Review Press) and a bunch of books for children. But mostly, she’s a mom.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on February 7, 2009&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/starting-today-blog-more/"&gt;Click here for the MP3 of this poem.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-6241202531642604912?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=2fdcd4ff8cd36500&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=84d35f8ba5fe92&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/6241202531642604912/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-19-laurel-snyder.html#comment-form' title='7 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/6241202531642604912'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/6241202531642604912'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-19-laurel-snyder.html' title='Laurel Snyder reads her poem from day 19'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>7</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-2673857921244153412</id><published>2010-02-14T07:38:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-14T07:38:00.331-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Diane Wald reads her poem from day #27</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-ae051314ba631cfd" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v16.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dae051314ba631cfd%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D7FF56B6B25DB15F6F7B3F5AEDD3D12B86C52407.671D0ED86C871FA3885B2E1EA5EC87AB14B095F3%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dae051314ba631cfd%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DL41vuyzxHHNlCBZjlunEQ9Bqjh0&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v16.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dae051314ba631cfd%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D7FF56B6B25DB15F6F7B3F5AEDD3D12B86C52407.671D0ED86C871FA3885B2E1EA5EC87AB14B095F3%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dae051314ba631cfd%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DL41vuyzxHHNlCBZjlunEQ9Bqjh0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;nonromantic obama valentine for america, february 14th, 2009&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;let us just make a note of one thing before traveling too far on:&lt;br /&gt;obama eats the camera.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;in every single photograph where he is smiling&lt;br /&gt;the presidential teeth&lt;br /&gt;require a taming of light, a scrooching in of every aperture&lt;br /&gt;so the picture is not too far bedazzled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;in honor of this i send all america this nonromantic obama valentine command:&lt;br /&gt;thou shalt smile!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;for our president&lt;br /&gt;is smiling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;just a man.&lt;br /&gt;openly smiling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;not smirking.&lt;br /&gt;not leering sneering grinning or baring clenched military teeth.&lt;br /&gt;not snickering dickering &lt;br /&gt;lying through pearls&lt;br /&gt;not hooting snorting cackling or falling&lt;br /&gt;all over himself like a word with a back-assward meaning or&lt;br /&gt;a sentence all twisted up in itself&lt;br /&gt;like pretzel dough gone wacko in the oven.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and if you have seen him in person you will say&lt;br /&gt;he verily streams with wide openness&lt;br /&gt;with a wild candor worthy of walt whitman&lt;br /&gt;and no one is afraid.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;let him beam.&lt;br /&gt;let his raw laughter flow where the fruited plains have faded, have dried.  &lt;br /&gt;let them slowly soak it up, that nurturing laughter.&lt;br /&gt;let all the hillsides bloom with colors that no one’s seen for eight long years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;let obama laughter ring.  long may it.&lt;br /&gt;let it flood the high skies and tie sparkling wonder all up in a silvery bow&lt;br /&gt;like aretha’s magnificent inaugural hat!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;let the hearts that illumine this day of the pagan saint val&lt;br /&gt;start throbbing anew, start pulsing&lt;br /&gt;in a sweetly smiling america.  well of course&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;we can’t pull all that off every day.  and surely&lt;br /&gt;we can’t ignore oceans of sadness and need&lt;br /&gt;when they’re flooding in all around us.  but sometimes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;we can smile again in america and now at least we have&lt;br /&gt;a person in the white house who knows honestly how to do it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Diane Wald has been writing seriously since JFK was in office; before that, not so seriously.  She works for animal welfare and lives in Massachusetts with her husband, the writer/photographer P. Carey Reid.  They share their home, Spoonrest, with five fine cats.  Look for:  &lt;i&gt;The Yellow Hotel, Lucid Suitcase, and faustinetta, gegenschein, trapunto.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;Click here for the MP3 of this reading.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on February 15, 2009&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-2673857921244153412?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=ae051314ba631cfd&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/2673857921244153412/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-27-diane-wald.html#comment-form' title='8 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/2673857921244153412'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/2673857921244153412'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-27-diane-wald.html' title='Diane Wald reads her poem from day #27'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-1203031574182834307</id><published>2010-02-12T10:16:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-12T10:51:58.486-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Caroline Klocksiem reads her poem from Day #15</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-1f8af2f781ba3d7a" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v16.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D1f8af2f781ba3d7a%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D69A292D7F2343330796935C0BB40E5FBE2D5FFD3.5ECB83BE08590F8420D2441247FDD1427EDD226F%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D1f8af2f781ba3d7a%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D6rH5isEo7NYFT3cC2Yor7CCbESk&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v16.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D1f8af2f781ba3d7a%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D69A292D7F2343330796935C0BB40E5FBE2D5FFD3.5ECB83BE08590F8420D2441247FDD1427EDD226F%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D1f8af2f781ba3d7a%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D6rH5isEo7NYFT3cC2Yor7CCbESk&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Do-Over Like Sky&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;For Steve and Ezra&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;—Under which in Iraq sandflys pop like confetti, cotton in ears to lock them out. Woodside&lt;br /&gt;sings lullabies to Declan in his head at the same time as Kate back home hoping in her robe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ezra in Afghanistan dreams on expensive oil paints, writes to Fay &lt;i&gt;When I get back I’ll paint you&lt;br /&gt; the best apple I ever ate and plant an orchard in Washington, crowned with rubies.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Dear friends— I’ve put together a package for each of you, and a duplicate I’m &lt;br /&gt;sending to the whole wide world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I bought you this magazine with tits on the cover for the sheer American "because I can" of &lt;br /&gt;it. And pure sugar Pixy Stix to fling like streamers into crowds of children. I have to tell you&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;about the white stock boy at Winn Dixie who saw my pin and whispered to me did I think&lt;br /&gt;we’d win. The way he looked around before. And I don’t know what all I said to this kid... &lt;br /&gt;just stunned by his flaring red cheeks and secret of hope.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’m sending wild rose petals, just in bloom. And this painting more real than the news&lt;br /&gt;to show what’s waiting back home for you—&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Cardinals flaming the air with &lt;i&gt;cheer&lt;/i&gt;, and the &lt;br /&gt;people no longer look behind but now relentlessly upwards at it, this gift we’ve been&lt;br /&gt;making and opening ever since. Shelter reclaimed, painted blue, renamed &lt;i&gt;New Sky&lt;/i&gt;—&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Caroline Klocksiem grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and recently moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow and Poetry Co-Editor for the online journal &lt;a href="http://42opus.com/"&gt;&lt;i&gt;42opus,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt; with poems most recently published or forthcoming from &lt;i&gt;Slurve, Hotel Amerika&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Drunken Boat&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;Click here for the MP3 of this reading.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Originally posted on February 3, 2009.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-1203031574182834307?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=1f8af2f781ba3d7a&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/1203031574182834307/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-15-caroline-klocksiem.html#comment-form' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/1203031574182834307'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/1203031574182834307'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-15-caroline-klocksiem.html' title='Caroline Klocksiem reads her poem from Day #15'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-2228795636751704498</id><published>2010-02-05T06:27:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-05T11:27:58.858-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Day #26: Nin Andrews reads her poem</title><content type='html'>&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-5374ee3d1a612a04" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v17.nonxt6.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D5374ee3d1a612a04%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3DF9006354B15C0E625B65CCD612BCC97E06B817B.7C53445FFFB8A5FFAD7424EDBAC90929E1118BB4%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D5374ee3d1a612a04%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DlsKWzPIgZvadmlTt5Vm6t3U2HSY&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v17.nonxt6.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D5374ee3d1a612a04%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311310%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3DF9006354B15C0E625B65CCD612BCC97E06B817B.7C53445FFFB8A5FFAD7424EDBAC90929E1118BB4%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D5374ee3d1a612a04%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DlsKWzPIgZvadmlTt5Vm6t3U2HSY&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Hoi Polloi&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were seven of us eating enchiladas at the Casa Romera when Tony Papadakis stood up in the middle of the restaurant, raised his fist and shouted &lt;i&gt;Obama is a man of  the fucking hoi polloi!&lt;/i&gt;   We all stopped and stared as he left, the door swinging behind him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Who are the hoi polloi?&lt;/i&gt;  Sarah asked. No one was sure. Three women thought the hoi polloi were the rich, sort of like the hotsty totsy, and three men said the hoi polloi were the poor.  We all agreed that being a member of the hoi polloi was not a good thing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Does that mean we love men to be rich and women to be poor?&lt;/i&gt; I asked.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;No,&lt;/i&gt; Steve said. &lt;i&gt;It means it’s best to be neither-nor.  We Americans love those who take the middle path.  Sort of like Goldilocks, we want to find the bed or bank account that’s not too big or too small, like the bowl of porridge that’s not too hot or too cold.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;But Goldilocks was a burglar and a thief,&lt;/i&gt; Molly argued.  &lt;i&gt;Which is something both the rich and the poor are accused of being from time to time.  They’re always taking from others what doesn’t belong to them. Feeling entitled.  Making themselves at home in a world that doesn’t love them.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tom disagreed. He said the hoi polloi are the average men and women, the kind no one wants to be.  They’re the faceless masses, the passers-by, like the extras on movie sets. They’re designed to look so familiar that no one notices them. Their job is to be everyone in general and no one in particular so that the heroes and heroines can star in their own lives, forever enjoying the distant sound of our applause.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nin Andrews is the author of several books including &lt;i&gt;The Book of Orgasms,  MidlifeCrisis with Dick and Jane, Dear Professor, Do You Live in a Vacuum?,&lt;/i&gt; and  &lt;i&gt;Sleeping with Houdini.&lt;/i&gt;  Her next book, &lt;i&gt;Southern Comfort,&lt;/i&gt; is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press.  She lives in Poland, Ohio.  Yep, that's right.  And Poland, Ohio went for Obama. (This poem was originally posted on 2/14/09)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;(Click here for a link to the MP3)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-2228795636751704498?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.rachelzucker.net/2010/?page_id=4' title='Day #26: Nin Andrews reads her poem'/><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=5374ee3d1a612a04&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/2228795636751704498/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-26-nin-andrews.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/2228795636751704498'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/2228795636751704498'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-26-nin-andrews.html' title='Day #26: Nin Andrews reads her poem'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-8542093912180435456</id><published>2010-02-01T03:07:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-01T15:08:18.675-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Day #4: Aimee Nezhukumatathil</title><content type='html'>Hear Aimee Nezhukumatathil read "Overwinter"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-b7ba899224998796" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v6.nonxt3.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Db7ba899224998796%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311311%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D17E265A727DB1B4CB41AB9B3396ED8D871A7216D.3E8AB984A7EC3A0FD22BCF6D8C33FDE0E9B63DE4%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Db7ba899224998796%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DAKiNiPO-DkMkLMH9MB4boBcIdBU&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v6.nonxt3.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Db7ba899224998796%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311311%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D17E265A727DB1B4CB41AB9B3396ED8D871A7216D.3E8AB984A7EC3A0FD22BCF6D8C33FDE0E9B63DE4%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Db7ba899224998796%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DAKiNiPO-DkMkLMH9MB4boBcIdBU&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;Or click here for a link to the Mp3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Overwinter&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have been waiting out the winter&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;for eight years. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I don’t pretend &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;to talk for you &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;or my neighbors—&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;but I have been given &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;permission &lt;br /&gt;to speak &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;on behalf &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;of mollusks, insects, &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and various wily birds. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;This is the price &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and the &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;pleasure &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;of a new president:&lt;br /&gt;those who were hushed &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;now feel &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;like they can finally &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;chatter and natter— &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;flex wing &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and leg freely. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The clutch &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;of snails on the fencepost &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;near &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;my house can finally &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;unclench &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;retreat to &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; damp underboards &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;of &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;tool shed. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;And I have it &lt;br /&gt;on good authority &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;at least one &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;spicebush &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and three swallowtails&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;have promised &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;to arrive &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;a few weeks &lt;br /&gt;earlier from their Southern &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;holiday.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Those who &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;overwintered have returned.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Those who fell asleep &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;are awake.&lt;br /&gt;I myself risk it all: &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I climb to the top &lt;br /&gt;of a blade &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;of grass&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; the aperture &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;of my wingshell &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;opens and closes &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and opens again.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.aimeenez.net"&gt;Aimee Nezhukumatathil&lt;/a&gt; (Fredonia, NY) is the author of &lt;i&gt;Miracle Fruit&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;At the Drive-In Volcano&lt;/i&gt;. She is associate professor of English at SUNY-Fredonia and lives in Western NY with her husband and son.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(Originally posted 1/23/09)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-8542093912180435456?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=b7ba899224998796&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/8542093912180435456/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/01/day-4-aimee-nezhukumatathil.html#comment-form' title='24 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/8542093912180435456'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/8542093912180435456'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/01/day-4-aimee-nezhukumatathil.html' title='Day #4: Aimee Nezhukumatathil'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>24</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-1047005765209177267</id><published>2010-01-28T19:44:00.005-05:00</published><updated>2010-01-31T15:29:49.212-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Marvin Bell Reads his poem</title><content type='html'>In honor of the one year anniversary of the inauguration and in anticipation of the publication of the &lt;i&gt;Starting Today&lt;/i&gt; anthology, I will be reposting some of the poems along with links to MP3s of the poets reading their poems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-d7b31ab69f86736e" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v3.nonxt4.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dd7b31ab69f86736e%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311311%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D2B20D88EBF95C01956E1308C541663B4ED1E4694.74CDD31BC98CFCC5C166D3016244358F1FDAA662%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dd7b31ab69f86736e%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dxd3AgUaktdaOO6wML3UHoqHIt3c&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v3.nonxt4.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3Dd7b31ab69f86736e%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311311%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D2B20D88EBF95C01956E1308C541663B4ED1E4694.74CDD31BC98CFCC5C166D3016244358F1FDAA662%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Dd7b31ab69f86736e%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3Dxd3AgUaktdaOO6wML3UHoqHIt3c&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Marvin Bell reads his poem from day 51.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;Or click here for a link to the MP3.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Book of the Dead Man (Day 51)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Live as if you were already dead.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Zen admonition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;1. About the Dead Man and Day 51&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is Day One of the second half of the first one hundred days of a new president,&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;and the Dead Man is counting.&lt;br /&gt;The dead man tabulates the war dead this good president cannot restore to life.&lt;br /&gt;He counts up the pins in the map where alliances must be reborn.&lt;br /&gt;This dead man is not the writer of &lt;i&gt;Ulysses&lt;/i&gt; paring his fingernails in the&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;background.&lt;br /&gt;The dead man would go if called, he would enter the Halls of Congress without&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;disturbing the decay on either side.&lt;br /&gt;He would slide inside with the care of a porcelain potter, hoping to raise up an&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;aggregate of minorities.&lt;br /&gt;He would sidestep the partisan princes of darkness and the merchants of war.&lt;br /&gt;For the dead man carries his bifocals like Diogenes his lantern.&lt;br /&gt;It could be Woden’s day or Mercury’s, the Quaker Fourth Day, Ash Wednesday&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;or Spy Wednesday when the dead man shows up.&lt;br /&gt;The dead man fancies midweek, Hump Day at its crest.&lt;br /&gt;It is Wednesday, when the way upward and the way downward are the same&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;way.&lt;br /&gt;It is March 11, 2009, the fifty-first day of something good to chew on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;2. More About the Dead Man and Day 51&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The dead man has been newly roused by a president of many colors.&lt;br /&gt;There has been a worldwide lifting of downcast eyes for good reason.&lt;br /&gt;The fog has lifted that hid the systemic violations of law, and the dead man feels&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;the ground shifting.&lt;br /&gt;Now the indigent can hope for more than weeping.&lt;br /&gt;For America was ambushed by the vile and the wicked.&lt;br /&gt;Quickly, it was midnight in America, and the chuckle-heads were in charge.&lt;br /&gt;The dead man is all for locking bracelets on the guilty.&lt;br /&gt;Let the naysayers wriggle, let the hefty lobbyists go on a diet.&lt;br /&gt;An age of chess and steak has become a time of checkers and soup.&lt;br /&gt;The dead man waits for his nation to heal the sick and teach the young.&lt;br /&gt;He welcomes home the armies that were the playthings of a presidency he is&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;well rid of.&lt;br /&gt;He carries the poor to the clinic, and reopens the laboratories.&lt;br /&gt;His is the hope a young president released.&lt;br /&gt;This president’s accomplishments will not be cheapened by the barking of the&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;far right.&lt;br /&gt;Check back with the dead man in four years.&lt;br /&gt;For after eight years without a past or future, after the infamy of the &lt;i&gt;de facto,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;the dead man may not soon lower his fist.&lt;br /&gt;The dead man is constructing a runway for the perps.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Marvin Bell's &lt;i&gt;Mars Being Red&lt;/i&gt; appeared in 2007. His latest book is a collaboration, &lt;i&gt;7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book,&lt;/i&gt; co-authored with the poets István László Géher (Hungary), Ksenia Golubovich (Russia), Simone Inguanez (Malta), Christopher Merrill, Tomaž Šalamun (Slovenia), and Dean Young. His two sons are, among other things, a country music singer-songwriter with a strong sociopolitical bent, and a trained ninja who helped guard the Dalai Lama in New York City. He lives in Iowa City, IA and in Port Townsend, WA.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;CLICK HERE for an MP3.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-1047005765209177267?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=d7b31ab69f86736e&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/1047005765209177267/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2010/01/marvin-bell-reads-his-poem.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/1047005765209177267'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/1047005765209177267'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2010/01/marvin-bell-reads-his-poem.html' title='Marvin Bell Reads his poem'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-6570048397260547972</id><published>2010-01-28T16:37:00.008-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-01T13:52:15.835-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Jeanne Marie Beaumont reads her poem</title><content type='html'>Jeanne Marie Beaumont (see text of poem below)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/projects/starting-today/"&gt;click here for a link to the MP3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-63875b1d4a2fe100" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/get_player"&gt;&lt;param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"&gt;&lt;param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://v5.nonxt8.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D63875b1d4a2fe100%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311311%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D6BC129A59C767B9A4F046D55F8E92E6E6D6744B1.27F063CD773A3541947CCC06BB7B625A9691C8A1%26key%3Dck1&amp;amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D63875b1d4a2fe100%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D1wJ7vOrnrMSZUgwW_idxcqgb1Ys&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;ps=blogger"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashvars="flvurl=http://v5.nonxt8.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D63875b1d4a2fe100%26itag%3D5%26app%3Dblogger%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1330311311%26sparams%3Did,itag,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D6BC129A59C767B9A4F046D55F8E92E6E6D6744B1.27F063CD773A3541947CCC06BB7B625A9691C8A1%26key%3Dck1&amp;iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D63875b1d4a2fe100%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3D1wJ7vOrnrMSZUgwW_idxcqgb1Ys&amp;autoplay=0&amp;ps=blogger"allowFullScreen="true" /&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-6570048397260547972?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=63875b1d4a2fe100&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='enclosure' type='video/mp4' href='http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=a872282b5c5be4a&amp;type=video%2Fmp4' length='0'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/6570048397260547972/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2010/01/one-year-later.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/6570048397260547972'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/6570048397260547972'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2010/01/one-year-later.html' title='Jeanne Marie Beaumont reads her poem'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7419984469998023476.post-5336897288025489602</id><published>2009-04-07T06:16:00.005-04:00</published><updated>2010-01-28T19:00:24.755-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Day #78: Jeanne Marie Beaumont</title><content type='html'>&lt;b&gt;Rite (to Forge Armor for an Orphan)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;                        &lt;i&gt;For Obama, home and abroad&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let cherry blossoms amass into a thinking cap,&lt;br /&gt;resilient as a helmet. Let candor be its visor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let mother armadillo offer her bony plates&lt;br /&gt;for impervious gorget and pallettes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let porridge pad your ribs as inner cuirass,&lt;br /&gt;and the Queen’s lamb fall to furnish jambeau.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let your elegant hand in greeting grip&lt;br /&gt;with a gauntlet of persuasive valor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From father terrapin borrow a shield;&lt;br /&gt;let honor inscribe its coat of arms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And should the glamour of stardom&lt;br /&gt;reproach your enemy, let it shine, let it shine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let mother porcupine give quills&lt;br /&gt;to stitch into a supple tuille.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let garden arugula arise for brassart&lt;br /&gt;and Swiss chard guard as sturdy cuisse.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The world is heavy freight, it shifts in transit.&lt;br /&gt;Let keenness be the keeper of equilibrium.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let sky mother bend to protect in transport&lt;br /&gt;each gallant motion of your head.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let father grass solder his longest blades&lt;br /&gt;into sollerets to strengthen your steps.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let all that thrives in air conspire to keep you safe,&lt;br /&gt;and character be wrought six-fold.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So let such armor prove disarming.&lt;br /&gt;Let it shine. Let it shine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.jeannemariebeaumont.com/"&gt;Jeanne Marie Beaumont&lt;/a&gt; lives in Manhattan and teaches at the 92nd Street Y, and in the Stonecoast MFA Program. She is also director of the annual Frost Place Advanced Poetry Seminar. Her books are &lt;i&gt;Curious Conduct&lt;/i&gt; (Boa Editions 2004) and &lt;i&gt;Placebo Effects&lt;/i&gt; (Norton 1997).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.rachelzucker.net/2010/?page_id=4"&gt;(CLICK HERE for the link to the MP3)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7419984469998023476-5336897288025489602?l=100dayspoems.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.rachelzucker.net/2010/?page_id=4' title='Day #78: Jeanne Marie Beaumont'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/feeds/5336897288025489602/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-78-jeanne-marie-beaumont.html#comment-form' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/5336897288025489602'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7419984469998023476/posts/default/5336897288025489602'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-78-jeanne-marie-beaumont.html' title='Day #78: Jeanne Marie Beaumont'/><author><name>Rachel Zucker</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11117121771276906718</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry></feed>
