January 1, 2002
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Die for the cause or watch the world die for lack of it On a heap of human carcasses In Nature's graveyard Die As if you and I, like gurus and buddhas and christs Might somehow convince humanity Might somehow light a light Then die And where, oh where, has my childhood gone My hopes and dreams and loves of life Buried in the boneyard of cares and despair Where? When I was five years old I pulled down Santa's beard and pissed off the whole family and shocked mirthless my siblings. Thereafter, I delighted in the discovery and exploration of secret, unopened, finely wrapped gifts treasured away in the cold, dark corners of our family attic. I became an adept sneak, a bastard poltergeist; the ghost of Xmas past and the prophet of Xmas morning. The Easter bunny was cooked on arrival. From those first steps on this journey through the depths of humanity's selfish cavern, the synchronicity of cosmos gathered dreams of this moment; dreams that poets call love and spirit calls home. Full circle, this child of fifty has found his voice again, albeit deeper and gruffer and angrier than ever. 5,000,000 people are starving and freezing in and about Afghanistan. Puke your Xmas pudding. Michael W. Stowell is chairperson of both the City of Arcata, Humboldt County, CA, Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission and the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Arcata Library. He is the producer/editor/videographer of numerous public access television programs; he is a naturalist, a gardener, a bicyclist and a Swans' columnist. [Ed. Note: The City of Arcata, incorporated in 1858, is located in Humboldt County, on California's Redwood Coast, at the juncture of California Highway 101 and 299 West. The city is approximately 289 miles north of San Francisco, 150 miles west of Redding and 760 miles north of Los Angeles. The 1990 census reported Arcata's population as 15,197 and the county population as 119,118.] Please, DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work on the Web without the expressed written authorization of Swans, which will seek permission from the author. This material is copyrighted, © Michael W. Stowell 2002. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |
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This Week's Internal Links
2002 Predictions - by SWANS
The Government That Cries Wolf - by Stephen Gowans
Measuring Life in Scrap Metal - by Jan Baughman
Why War Now? - by Milo Clark
War as Punishment Risks Splattering - by Milo Clark
Russia's Sept. 11 - by Stephen Gowans
Who Turned Out The Lights? - by Alma A. Hromic
Letters to the Editor (On "Un-American, Fly-Shit Melody" and Gilles d'Aymery)
Michael Stowell's Commentaries on Swans
Barbarians of Our Own Dark Ages? Debunking the Myth Behind the Nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (December 2000)