I'm not even finished with "Henry Clay:The Essential American", and I am impressed!

     It is rather cold comfort, but the current time in America is not the only time when political parties and personalities destroy each other's reputations and ignore facts. Of course I knew that already, but the vehemence of the three decades before the Civil War comes out in David and Jeanne Heidler's destined-to-be-an-epic=unless-the-forces-of-revisionism-get-to-it "Henry Clay: The Essential American.
           https://books.google.com/books/about/Henry_Clay.html?id=ZCbNFvlnHNgC

    Abraham Lincoln admired Clay, and always valued the Kentuckian highly. Like all politicos, Clay had a large ego and made his share of errors. Upon his death in 1852, the train bearing his body from Washington, DC to Kentucky was routed through Philadelphia, New York, and Ohio so that crowds could pay tribute to him.

     There is one section from the book I want to quote now:

       "Rather than the often repeated adage that the victors write the history of an event,
    the story of anything is actually determined  by the unswerving adoption of one version
    of it, and the telling of that version by a determined cadre of writers. In time, the version
    with the most persistent adherents becomes the "truth/" Thus propaganda becomes history"
     Kindle locations 8059-62 in Chapter 11 "Three Campaigns"

      In a time when the media and Internet are filled with incessant repetitions of lies, calumnies, and half-truths, we have merely accelerated the process of political and civic stagnation and animosity.          Josef Goebbels' statement applies today as well, even in a democracy:

https://www.google.com/search?q=josef+goebbels+quotes&safe=active&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=599&tbm=isch&imgil=GI-J9XIc0BkyfM%253A%253B3AmP9TF_purFaM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fmindcontrolblackassassins.com%25252Ftag%25252Fjames-holmes%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=GI-J9XIc0BkyfM%253A%252C3AmP9TF_purFaM%252C_&usg=__Sk96i0t7plQw4vTaXL_5na6WqCE%3D&ved=0CDAQyjdqFQoTCO-Brr65hscCFUL0gAodxs8FfA&ei=z_q7Va_eCcLogwTGn5fgBw#imgrc=duRxvRZFSktaVM%3A&usg=__Sk96i0t7plQw4vTaXL_5na6WqCE%3D

    That is a long URL, isn't it? To conclude, Henry Clay is more than someone who officially ran for President three times and lost, and tried to run three more times but lost the nomination. He is more than a Harold Stassen (whose 1968 Republican Convention demonstration of support consisted of two people carrying signs). To see who Clay was, I heartily recommend the Heidlers' biography.

 

   

Open Mic at Tell the Truth, Tell it Slant- Richland County Public Library

   Here is the poem from tonight. I wrote it in class and revised it with some guidance from Ed Madden. The goal was to use an abstraction with a personage, real or fictional.

When Insight Comes to You as Batman

When courage comes to you as Batman,

You must count yourself lucky.

After all, he has no superpowers

Only a whole bunch of Bat-this

And Bat-that because

Bruce Wayne can afford it

And stately Wayne Manor

Has lots of storage space.

I play some relaxing music for him

Vaughan Williams string pieces

Since Batman is so stressed out.

He tells me to get over

Some perceived insult because

Nothing can compare to seeing

Your parents slain by dastardly criminals

Or dealing with villains

Repeatedly escaping from allegedly-secure

Prisons with frightful regularity.

Actually he does have a point I think

Putting out some beer and pretzels

And vow to ignore the people

Acting out of ignorance and/or jealousy.

They are non-entities, not archfiends like

Green-haired Joker, question-mark festooned

Riddler or umbrella-wielding Penguin.

I raise my mug, and exclaim

Holy Insight, Batman!” as

The Caped Crusader wipes

Foam from his mask

And reaches for a pretzel

With gloved hand.

Arthur Turfa, copyright 2015

 I also read one from my book  entitled Late Afternoon: The Pilgrimage Church

A fantastic class series. Tonight Some of my poetic mentors and friends were there, along with new friends. Wow!

First Rilke Post

     First of all, here is the edition I am reading: http://stephenmitchellbooks.com/translations-adaptations/the-selected-poetry-of-rainer-maria-rilke/

    Sadly, I saved nothing from the Rilke seminar I took at University of California-Irvine in 1977 from visiting professor Egon Schwarz of Washington University in St., Louis, Missouri. At the time I was not writing poetry and was preparing to attend seminary in St. Louis. I did reconnect with Dr. Schawarz, a very pleasant Viennese gentleman who left before the Holocaust.

     Recently I picked up the Mitchell book and became re-acquainted with Rilke's background. I do use some of his Orpheus sonnets in my high school Mythology class. He wrote all 55 in over a month, as he finished the Duino Elegies. That is simply amazing!

     I am going to make a comment or two about "Herbtstag" form the "Stundenbuch"/ ""Autumn Day" from "The Book of Hours".

   http://stephenmitchellbooks.com/translations-adaptations/the-selected-poetry-of-rainer-maria-rilke/

Pinter;s English translation is the one I like here; it captures the original as much as any translation could. What I like is the rhyme scheme and the sense of transition. It is not melancholy, merely factual.

New Zappa Documentary Coming and Other ThoughtsToday I post several links about Franz Zappa

     Today I post several links about Frank Zappa. A few days ago a high school posted the news about a coming documentary authorized by the Zappa Family Trust. Sometime in 2017, this documentary will be available. A few of us kidded around using references to Zappa songs. What is interesting is that over 40 years since graduation, we have been all over the world, have mutually incompatible political views, but still agree on music.

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/125884/Zappa-Family-Gives-Access-For-New-Frank-Zappa-Documentary

     In the United States Zappa received no AM radio airplay, and had a fair amount of exposure on FM Underground stations, but generally was seen as "weird" and not a seriously musician or composure. Some of us disagreed.

     However, behind the Iron Curtain, smuggled-in copies of albums inspired people yearning for freedom. I would hope that the documentary will show this influence., Here are some links to Zappa's influence in the former Czechoslovakia and in Lithuania:

     http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/frank-zappas-connections-to-prague The friendship with Vaclav Havel is particulary interesting.

     http://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/maryland/articles/from-maryland-to-lithuania-the-global-cult-of-frank-zappa/

   The image I post is from the Marzahn section of Berlin, which is in the eastern part of the city. In 2011 I had hoped to take a picture myself, but I ran out of time. After visiting the massive Museum with some friends from my Goethe Institut seminar group, we ended up at the venerable Josty's Restaurant. As one of our group was Russian, I think Frank would have appreciated it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073000690.html

    Usually I do not promote what I will post later, but perhaps the time is coming to share a poem about Zappa I have had in my Drafts section for some time.

It is Not Difficult to Get Some Facts Right

     Of course I have erred in this way, and in others! For instance, I do not like to proofread, but I have friends who do. But when one writes an interesting and stimulating biography of one of World War II's lesser-known figures, containing hundreds of names, it helps to get some things right.

     Richard Bassett's "Hitler's Spy Chief- the Story of Wilhelm Canaris" gives an excellent account of the many plots and counter plots in the intelligence services in both world wars. Some readers might be shocked at the duration and depth of Allied contacts with the Third Reich- such is Realpolitik. Which of us knows what is going on today on various international levels, I ask rhetorically.

     As much as I like the book, I have to shake my head at the error of listing Karl Bonhoeffer as someone executed with Canaris at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in April 1945. Of course it was Dietrich ; whose fame rightfully extends beyond Lutheran circles. Bassett also is rather imprecise about the location of that camp; it is not in the Palatinate, rather in the Upper Palantinate. By far better-known is the Rhine Palatinate (home of the Pennsylvania Dutch), far to the west. Had he said Northern Bavaria, I would not have been perturbed, or more perturbed, the omission of Dietrich's name having done so already.

     In June I watched a "documentary" on Netflix from Argentine  or Chile whose title translated as something like "Hitler's Escape." This alleged work of history had Canaris with Hitler on the U-Boat heading to Argentina.

     But read the book! I have it on my Kindle.

Another Great Workshop

     Tonight at Tell it Slant, Ed Madden had us work on three exercises. The overarching theme was how abstractions become concrete. i will tell you about the first exercise, and then share a neat poem I learned about.

     Make a list of abstractions, and then a list of characters, fictional or real.

      Love   Beauty  Truth Passion Envy

      Winston Churchill  Batman   Wonder Woman  Homer Simpson  Romeo

      and then start a poem in the form of.... When Passion came as Homer Simpson....

      Here is a link to the exquisite "The Weight of Sweetness" by Yi -Young Lee. My wife and I saw only yesterday some peaches very ripe for picking in some of the many orchards in our part of South Carolina.

http://gunrae.blogspot.com/2012/05/most-creative-weight-of-sweetness-by-li.html

Back to live action

     Getting ready for another poetry class from Ed Madden tomorrow night at the Richland County Public Library in Columbia, SC. And I will also make a dent in some of that reading.

     But here are some more pictures from the trip.   1. Emily Dickinson poem  2. Dionysus 3. Phryne