Romanian Poetry via Contemporary Literary Horizon Magazine

Too few lovers of poetry are familiar with the work of Romanian lyric poet Ana Blandiana. She is one of Romania's most outstanding poets and is considered one of her generation's most significant literary voices. Her poems are both spiritual and patriotic. She writes verse of beauty and elegance. During Romania's communist period she was active as a prominent dissident and became a dedicated voice for freedom and democratic change.


AMALGAMATED PERSPECTIVES is pleased to present two of Ana Blandiana's poems which first appeared in the new Romanian literary journal CONTEMPORARY LITERARY HORIZON.

Childhood

A feeble being was watching me from the mirror
Its keyboard of ribs clear-cut,
The heart pressing hard against the keys
Trying to show itself in the mirror.

I've never seen her, but I sensed her obscure Presence,
as in a game of blind man's buff,
(Like the heart of the locust tree in the window
Turning the chest of branches into a leaf).

I wondered how she had learned it and if
Its everlasting song was real,
I would fear my drifting into sleep at night
Lest its song should die out in its sleep.

Copilărie

Din oglindă mă privea un trup firav
Cu claviatura coastelor distinctă,
Inima-apăsa pe clape grav
Şi-ncerca să-apară în oglindă.

N-am văzut-o niciodată, dar ştiam,
Ca-ntr-un joc de-a baba-oarba, că-i ascunsă
(Precum inima salcâmului din geam
Coşul pieptului de crengi o face frunză).

Mă-ntrebam de unde l-a-nvăţat şi dacă
E aievea cântu-i uniform,
Şi ca nu cumva în somn să tacă,
Mi-era frică seara să adorm.

~~~~~

Journey

I wander in myself
As if in a foreign town
Where I don't know anyone.
The evening streets fill me with fear
And in rainy afternoons
I'm weary and I shiver.
No wish for an adventure,
When the mere walk on the road
Is a true venture,
No memory of another era
Answering the question
"Why have I been brought here?"


Călătorie

Umblu prin mine
Ca printr-un oraş străin
În care nu cunosc pe nimeni.
Seara mi-e teamă pe străzi
Şi-n după-amieze ploioase
Mi-e frig şi urât.
Nici o dorinţă de-a călători,
Când şi numai trecerea drumului
E aventură,
Nici o amintire din alte vieţi
Întrebării
"De ce-am fost adusă aici?"


[Published in CONTEMPORARY LITERARY HORIZON, June 2009]


- Click to learn about Ana Blandiana -


- We found two more poems by Ana Blandiana
in CROSS-CULTURAL OUTLINE:
click here -

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Ship Shape Shoup

*****

The USS SHOUP (DDG 86) is the 36th ship in the Arleigh Burke class of Aegis guided missile destroyers, commissioned in Seattle, WA in June 2002, and supports the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).




The ship is named in honor of U.S. Marine Corps Gen. David M. Shoup (1904- 1983), a naval hero of World War II, a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions in the Pacific in 1943, who later became the 22nd commandant of the Marine Corps. (See his image on the poster.)

She measures 509.5 feet and displaces 9,200 tons.

The SHOUP was built to conduct simultaneous warfare operations in multi-threat environments to include air, surface, and subsurface targets and accommodates two SH-60 (LAMPS 3) helicopters.

She has a crew of 304-380 officers and enlisted, all of whom work and live together in very close quarters.

The ship's motto is
Victoria Per Perserverantiam Venit
"Through Perseverance Comes Victory"

The USS SHOUP has, to this date, never been deployed in active combat operations.

Since her commissioning her deployments have been manifold.

The SHOUP is authorized to conduct 'Visit, Board, Search and Seizure' (VBSS) with the mission "to board and search vessels suspected of transporting drugs and contraband, trafficking in persons, or harboring suspected terrorists." The largest cargo of narcotics was intercepted and confiscated on one of her VBSS deployments.

USS SHOUP is an active participant in Multi-National Search and Rescue operation exercises on simulated vessels in distress. These joint Search and Rescue exercises are one example of how the U.S. Navy continues its efforts to build cooperation and understanding with other navies worldwide using both surface and aviation assets.

As part of Operation Unified Assistance, the USS SHOUP immediately provided tsunami relief off the coast of Sumatra for the victims of the December 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami that struck 12 nations across the Indian Ocean region.



Navy doctors and corpsmen normally assigned to support their respective squadrons volunteered to fly into remote locations within the Aceh province of Sumatra, Indonesia, and set-up triage sites. They helped the victims that were evacuated from the coastal villages recover from wounds, infections and disease such as pneumonia and malaria.

Often, medical personnel shared cargo space with humanitarian aid shipments aboard the helicopters launched from the deck of the SHOUP, as vital food, fresh water and medicine supplies were ferried to the survivors.

"The military role is to provide its unique capabilities and significant capacity to provide immediate relief and save lives."
- Ralph A. Cossa, President of the Pacific Forum CSIS

The SHOUP is regularly tasked with goodwill diplomatic port visits throughout the year. These port visits are part of a dynamic program that reaches out to the civilian population on a national and international level.



USS SHOUP conducts training exercises off the Pacific Northwest coastline that involve the use of their AN/SQS-53C bow-mounted active search and attack sonar.

The SHOUP's sonar 'pings' are extremely powerful, at least 233 dB re: 1µPa repeated every 24 seconds at frequencies of 2.6 and 3.3 kHz, and have been implicated in whale stranding and other damage to marine wildlife.



[See also Taking a Tour of the Ship]


[Read about the long-standing conflict between Marine Mammal Protection

and the role of The Navy]

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Chokehold

Feasting on
the flesh and organs
of our fellow mammals?

Time to STOP and THINK

Mammals are warm-blooded, have hair (or fur) and possess a neocortex, a brain region that is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, and is unique to mammals. Only mammals give birth to live young and have mammary glands to suckle their offspring.
Mammals encompass approximately 5,400 species.
This includes humans.

In nature larger mammals prey on smaller ones for survival.
Humans, however, do not depend on red meat, rare, medium or well-done, as a primary food source.


Swallow this


A disproportionate demand for meat has been instilled and carefully nurtured in the general population by the livestock and meat packing industry which, like the tobacco industry, is using every marketing ploy and behavior manipulation trick in the book to make us consume their products and by-products in ever greater quantities. In collusion with the powerful fast food industry they exert an inescapable dominance over all other producers of foodstuffs and have us in a literal chokehold, targeting especially children.

Do we really need a regular intake of prime rib, steak, hamburger, pork chops, bacon, leg of lamb, venison etc.?

The answer is a resounding "No!"

In fact, consumption of beef and pork carries with it a bombardment of artery-clogging grease, secondhand steroids and growth hormones (used to fatten the animals prior to slaughtering) and residual antibiotics (used to control the spread of disease in feedlots and pigpens).
These contaminants seriously compromise our health and well-being.

Anyone who has bothered to find out about the brutal efficiency of 'factory farms', slaughterhouses and meat processing plants will think twice before biting into that 'juicy' hamburger patty.

Just for argument's sakeAsk yourself:
Would you raise, fatten up, slaughter, butcher, roast and eat a dog? Of course not.

Turns out that in our society dogs are the 'holy cows' while cows are a strictly utilitarian commodity...

Mammalian Hybrids of the Future

Add genetic experimentation to the food chain equation and you arrive at a nightmarish visualization like the one depicted below. As we are herded down the perilous road of corporate greed spawning mad science the question of 'Who eats What' may soon turn into a

WHO eats WHO



[See also: Harvesting the corpses of human beings in the name of Science]

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On Wellness

:




"The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being.

And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally
but also physically and spiritually."

Greg Anderson, Author and 'Cancer Conqueror': long-term lung cancer survivor



[Related: Doctors' Dilema]

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Freudian and Machiavellian

The theories established by Sigmund Freud (1858-1939), the 'Father of Psychoanalysis', opened a chanel to understanding the power of the unconscious mind as being the (secret) seat of all human fear and desire. This fear and desire, residing in the unconscious and often repressed, governs human behavior. Ergo, exploiting these hidden feelings enabled the manipulation of behavior.


Edward Bernays (1891-1995), the grand-daddy of mass manipulation and propaganda and Freud's nephew, most successfully applied Freud's theories. He did so on a large scale and mostly for the benefit of the large corporations and of the politicians who consulted him, including president Eisenhower.

This video documents such mass manipulation accomplished by tapping into human fear. It also extends to the justification of interference in the affairs of foreign nations, all under the guise of preserving American values. In actuality, however, the motives for such interventions were anchored in the safe-guarding of American corporate interests and profiteering.




Brainwashing a Nation by fabricating the 'Communist Threat', the 'Terrorist Threat' and so on

A very recent example of exploiting deep-seated human fear in order to justify political repression, military aggression and outright lies was demonstrated by the "Department of Homeland Security", a creation of president George W. Bush and his henchmen. In and around 2003-2004 the American People were kept in a constant state of fear fuelled by the regular issuance of various levels of "Terror Alerts".



[Also see Unmasking contemporary propaganda]


[More about Bernays' unethical activities: Engineering demand]

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Headlines - All the News shock-a-block

:







....all the news that's fit to post on the Internet.


Are you a visual person AND a news-junkie?

If so, you will appreciate this unique news aggregator that displays up-to-the-minute headlines in colour-coded blocks that are sorted by time and topic.

It lets you select the specific subjects that you are concerned about among a huge choice of headlines.

Each graded colour block will take you to the site-of-origin at a double-click. The sources for the articles range from Reuters, Market Watch, CNN, Earth Times and the Guardian (U.K.) to lesser known online news services like iAfrica.

: : Play hop-skip-and-jump on The Newsmap : :

Note: The link above takes time to load/refresh. If you have a slow connect speed, such as dial-up, you might not be able to capture this URL...:-(


[Loosely related and topical: Choose your candidate]

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The Second Quarter Of 2007

by our Editor

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We'll always have Paris... or so it seems. Between the relentless news coverage of Paris Hilton's incarceration and subsequent release from jail and the hype about Apple's much anticipated iPhone launch, one might reach the conclusion that nothing else of great concern was going on in the world.

We need to remind ourselves that long after Paris' peccadilloes have been forgotten, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and other parts of the world will still be there and will still matter. Not to mention the tragic and needless war in Iraq, now in its fourth year, which weighs heavy on our budget and our conscience (or at least on the conscience of those who still have one.) Incredibly, the Cost-of-Iraq-War-Calculator has reached a stunning $378 billion, halfway through fiscal year 2007.

However, global economic growth in general is strong and will continue to expand, fuelled by emerging and developing markets in China and elsewhere. But this is a force that cuts both ways, creating new demand for goods and services, but also creating strong competition for precious raw materials and human resources. This growth explosion is sure to present an additional strain on our already compromised eco-system.

Now more than ever, we must put in place stringent measures to halt global warming worldwide.

The challenges are many as we look down the road.

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[See also article about global warming on Wikipedia]

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[Read Check List on CROSS CULTURAL OUTLINE]

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April 2007 Featured Poet: Ana Elsner

The San Francisco Public Library presents,

Ana Elsner, Poet, Author and Translator

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In honor of National Poetry Month Ana Elsner will read from her poems on the state of affairs in contemporary America

:

Parks Branch, 1833 Page Street, SF on Tuesday, April 10, 2007, at 7 PM.

"The poet Ana Elsner contributes a unique new voice of personal insight and of literary significance to modern American poetry." - Nina Feday, Librarian,retired

After the reading there will be a poetry open mic.

- Click to see Ana Elsner's event listing at Poets.org, The Academy of American Poets -

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All programs at the Library are free.

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[Related: Ana Elsner - reading and book signing]

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Ein Gedicht von Ana Elsner

Die Rettung

von Ana Elsner, 2007

fast

schon

sanft

eingeschläfert

von den wiegenden Wogen

der Tiefe



und doch

wieder

hervorgebracht,



im Regenbogen

geborgen,



ans Licht

des Lebens


wieder

zu atmen


dessen

Kostbarkeit

-:-

© Ana Elsner

[Siehe auch: "Der Gerechte Weg" von Ana Elsner
aus Der Dreischneuß, Zeitschrift für Literatur,
Marien-Blatt Verlag, Lübeck]

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It happened in November

JIM BRIGHTWOLF

Visual Artist, Playwright, Art Activist, Writer, longtime Theater Director, Human Rights Advocate, Visionary, World-Citizen

1936 - 2006



"The arts and the Internet are the last free forms of media left for public power to express itself," - Jim Brightwolf

James Peter Brightwolf passed away in the early hours of Sunday, November 12, 2006, at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, California. He was undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer and died of a sudden unexpected heart attack.

Jim spearheaded the theater of public controversy. His passion for reclaiming the arts, both for social justice and for uncensored artistic expression, inspired people around the globe. In Stockholm, Copenhagen, London and Aachen, Germany, he protested the Viet Nam War through theater. In Johannesburg and Nairobi he worked against apartheid and assisted black South African actors to leave the country and join a world tour. He aided California Farm Workers and the Sanctuary movement, and put his Direct Action Theater techniques to the test in Sydney, Australia, with a commitment to free art from corporate and government control. Jim was always excited by the potential of San Francisco which he considered a world hub of freedom of expression.

"Jim, in his quiet but intense and dedicated way, was one of the most compassionate persons I ever knew and one who backed up his convictions with actions," - Ana Elsner

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[See also: Remember Abu Ghraib (with related links).]

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[Another tragic loss to the artistic community: poet, artist and musician Tony Vaughan]

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(Photo Credit: Marsha Bellavance)
(Special thanks to: Mia Stageberg)

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[A similar site: CROSS CULTURAL OUTLINE]

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