Culture

Two Poems — "Ghazal: America" and "At the Banquet"

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by Alicia Ostriker
GHAZAL: AMERICA
My grandfather’s pipe tobacco fragrance, moss-green cardigan, his Yiddish lullaby
when I woke crying: three of my earliest memories in America
Arriving on time for the first big war, remaining for the second, sad grandpa
who walked across Europe to get to America
When the babies starved, when the village burned, when you were flogged
Log out, ship out, there was a dream, the green breast of America
My grandfather said no President including Roosevelt would save the Jews in Europe
He drew out an ample handkerchief and wiped away the weeping of America
One thing that makes me happy about my country
is that Allen Ginsberg could fearlessly write the comic poem “America”
Route sixty-six entices me westward ho toward dreaming California
I adore superhighways but money is the route of all evil in America
Curse the mines curse the sweatshops curse the factory curse the boss
Let devils in hell torment the makers of bombs over Baghdad in America
When I video your rivers your painterly meadows your public sculpture Rockies,
When I walk in your filthy cities I love you so much I bless you so much America
People people look there: grandpa please look: Liberty the Shekhina herself
Welcoming you like a queen, like a mother, to America
Take the fluteplayer from the mesa, take the raven from his tree
Now that the buffalo is gone from America
White man, the blacks are snarling, the yellows swarming, the umber terrorists
Are tunneling through and breathing your air of fear in America
If you will it, it is no dream, somebody admonished my grandfather
He surmised they were speaking of freedom in America
AT THE BANQUET
For Dunya Mikhail
I am making a banquet of death
I am swallowing the six million plus
gypsies homosexuals the feeble
the sixty million and more
as Toni Morrison declares in the dedication
to Beloved yes there are things we eat to live
and things we eat for entertainment
all the wounds the pollutions in my country
my good body takes them in plus
Vilna Dresden Nanjing Nagasaki
Palestine Memphis Baghdad the Congo
The former Yugoslavia
And the other Americas the gold and silver vanished
La Virgen weeping Los Indios bleeding
And here I am sucking that blood
in the land of the free
in the land of the free and the drugged
in the nation of money
all of us shoppers all of us holy innocents
all of us readers and writers of righteous tweets
all of us vampires and voters, all of us sports fans
sucking it up brushing our capital teeth

Rethinking Religion

Gratitude

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One regret, dear world, that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough. –Hafiz
I am currently writing a book tentatively titled, Spirituality: What it is and Why it Matters. The book’s central idea is that the common theme of the enormous variety of traditional and contemporary spirituality is a set of virtues–habits of mind, emotion, and action–which provide long-lasting personal contentment and lead us to compassionate and generous action towards others. Here is a tiny excerpt from the working draft of Spirituality, on one of the most important of those virtues:
Gratitude plays a powerful role in spiritual life–as much in the contexts of traditional religion as in the more eclectic, less traditionally oriented spirituality of the present. Contemporary Catholic spiritual teacher David Stiendl-Rast tells us that “Gratitude is the heart of prayer.”

Judaism

Spiritual Wisdom of the Week: Shavuot

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This week’s Spiritual Wisdom is about Shavuot, the Jewish holiday celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments (actually more literally translated as “10 Speech Acts”). Shavuot begins this year on Tuesday night, June 7, and goes through June 9. The tradition is to stay up all night June 7th studying, so as to be prepared for the moment of revelation at dawn Wednesday, June 8. Beyt Tikkun synagogue will hold a Sunrise Shavuot service in Berkeley, California, from 5:45 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. (including bagel and lox breakfast) at the westernmost end of the Berkeley pier at the westernmost end of University Avenue. If it rains, it will be moved to 951 Cragmont, Berkeley.

Christianity

Spiritual Wisdom of the Week

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This week’s spiritual wisdom comes from Rev. Sarah Ray. She writes about her personal experience with God and gives insight to how we can find love in God, others, and ourselves. Looking into the Eyes of God
by Sarah Ray
Will the Universe implode if I tell you this? This ultimate secret? I hope not.

Politics & Society

Is Christopher Hitchens a Religious Apologist?

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The popular atheist writer/blogger Greta Christina calls one of Hitchens’ ideas about religion a “terrible argument.” You know that Christopher Hitchens is not a fan of religion. If you had any doubt you can read his best-selling book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, watch him debate leading Christian and religious theologians (on one occasion four of them at a time) or read any of the numerous articles he’s written on the subject. Yet, despite his public outcry and comparison of religion to child abuse and labeling it a “menace to society” readers may be surprised to discover that he is actually indifferent to religion as long as it produces good behavior. Shocking I know.

Humanism

Nonviolence and Killing

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In the wake of Osama Bin Laden’s killing a very active discussion emerged on the email forum used by the community of trainers certified with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. One thread of this conversation has been about responses to the particular event, and especially how to relate to the people celebrating Bin Laden’s death. This exploration was the primary inspiration for my previous entry (to which I still intend to come back). Another thread has focused on a more general question: can killing in any way be compatible with nonviolence? This is by far not a new dilemma in human affairs.

Education

Attend a Free Peace Conference in New Jersey: Move the Money – Turn Swords into Plowshares!

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At a time when people are suffering from the economic downturn, political battles are still raging over how to cut the budget and the nation is still involved in several wars, we believe our nation’s priorities need to change. FY 2011’s military budget is the largest since the end of World War II, even though the Cold War is over and there is no longer the threat of aggression from a major power. The purpose of the “Move the Money” conference is to help change our nation’s priorities by promoting the reduction of military spending by at least 25% and “Moving the Money” from nuclear weapons, their support systems and unnecessary defense items to humanitarian, social and environmental needs. Ultimately all nations will need to greatly reduce their military spending and eliminate nuclear weapons in order to address human needs and make the world safe for our children. Here’s the info:
MOVE THE MONEY: TURN SWORDS INTO
PLOWSHARES

Saturday, June 4, 2011
From 9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Hosted by:
The Jam-e-Masjid Islamic Center in Boonton
110 Harrison Street
Boonton, N.J. 07005
To help achieve these goals, at the conference we will also promote the advancement of the Global Marshall Plan, a key element to a sustainable just world based on our shared human values of compassion and justice, which our keynote speaker, Jonathan Granoff, will talk about.

Christianity

We're Here, We're Queer, We've Got Work to Do!

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Two decades ago someone like me wasn’t allowed to serve in the U.S. military openly, so after eight years of service, I left. Back then someone like Derrick wasn’t allowed to openly serve as a deacon, elder, or minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, so he joined a congregation that fought against that ban. That congregation, the First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, had a long history of working for peace and social justice. Along with fully accepting Derrick and me for who we were, the people there also introduced us to the power of nonviolent resistance against injustice in all its forms, and opened our eyes to the many ways we were called to make the world a better place. By truly embracing us as individuals AND as a couple, they also set us on a path to where we are today.

Environment

Frog Spring

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It is a cold spring here in Chicago, all rain and anticipation, and, like everyone in the city, I am still pretending that eventually things will change, that if we hope hard enough, and have enough faith, the world will warm up and bloom. Our good intentions haven’t brought it yet. But, I’ve lived here for sixteen years of cold springs. And, as you might notice from that history, I am happy here among my neighbors waiting for flowers — partly because I adore people of good intentions who believe fervently that they are capable of making the world a better place. I love the Shakers, whom my father revered.