Only On Sunday

Things have been a bit hectic around here and I haven’t had much time to post so I’m just going to throw a few bits and pieces together and float them out there for your amusement or disdain.

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On a sad note, I heard yesterday that the great Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish has died. Another important voice lost to us. What I find sadly interesting about this is the near total lack of coverage by the American press. The only American press coverage I found was on, of course, NPR. Are we Americans so self-centered, so selfish, that anything or anyone of any importance outside our own borders, excluding any war or conflict we might be engaged in, is somehow lacking the merit for coverage?

Poets are revered in other countries, looked upon as heroes. They are the voice of people who have no voice, eloquently expressing the pain and struggle inflicted at the hand’s of tyrants and mad men, and they all too often suffer the consequences of their words at those same hands. Here in America, with rare exception, the only poets of any note are those who write the cheesy greetings in Hallmark cards.

If you’d like to hear Mahmoud Darwish reading one of his poems in his native language, go Here. For BBC coverage, go Here.

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The larger of the two stories I mentioned in The Story Zone post a few weeks back won the Backspace contest. That felt good though it also meant I had to come up with the parameters for the next contest and I hate coming up with parameters. The name of the story is Turnbuckle and I’ve been working on it whenever time permits. At the rate it’s expanding, it may well become a novella soon.

Meanwhile, I’m working on two other stories as well. One for the new Backspace contest and another that’s been wandering around in my head for so long I just want to get it out of there and on paper. I can’t talk about the first one, don’t want to give it away before the contest ends, but the second is called Descansos Man. I suppose, in a way, it’s for my daughter.

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Continue Reading Sunday Brunch - 08/10/2008

Technorati Tags: Palestinian Poet, Mahmoud Darwish, NPR, Backspace

I don’t exactly have a positive history regarding long-term, marital type relationships. Been there, done that, three times, none of em worked. My first was open warfare, starting with the first salvo fired about an hour before we tied the proverbial knot and more or less ending with her stripping the house down to, and including, the dirty shag carpet five years later and carting it all off. She didn’t even leave me a pillowcase. Nor a pillow for that matter.

My second went a bit smoother. We lived together without benefit of legal formality for nearly two years, decided to do the nuptial thing and subsequently broke up less than a year later. I spent several months wearing out Bob Dylan’s “If You See Her, Say Hello†before she once again appeared on my doorstep. Looking back on it now, I think I was reluctant to start things up again. But I did. And it didn’t work. Less than four years later she was gone again.

Continue Reading The Battleground of Marriage