Tempted to define.
Where have I been?
Is it really all about time?
I find myself wondering then.
What works?
What is success?
What things are eternal?
How much would already survive the fire?
The thrust of transition
The engine of the past
Our watered-down condition
Building memories to last?
Who is remembered?
Where are all our fears?
Can anything be buried
Amidst all of our tears?
Who am I?
Can others know more?
What will we find?
Is there rhythm in store?
December 31, 2010
December 30, 2010
A Poet
Who is he?
What can he say?
What does he see?
Will it be today?
Sometimes words can turn your eyes
In ways to make you touch the skies.
Giving things up
can help you see
what you have.
Hope that is seen is not hope.
Desires already filled mean blindness.
Incompleteness can complete.
Leaving things open can
What can he say?
What does he see?
Will it be today?
Sometimes words can turn your eyes
In ways to make you touch the skies.
Giving things up
can help you see
what you have.
Hope that is seen is not hope.
Desires already filled mean blindness.
Incompleteness can complete.
Leaving things open can
December 29, 2010
Sleep
That separation of days.
That connection between thoughts.
To begin what another ended.
To end what may never be begun.
With variation of placement.
That invariable necessity.
The slowest of beginnings.
The fastness of completeness.
That connection between thoughts.
To begin what another ended.
To end what may never be begun.
With variation of placement.
That invariable necessity.
The slowest of beginnings.
The fastness of completeness.
December 28, 2010
Heaven
White
It is pure.
Gold
It is rich.
Blue
Am I looking up or down?
Purple
Why do things blend on the end?
Red
The price has been paid.
Green
Life is abundant.
Orange
He goes throughout the land.
Black
Is no more.
It is pure.
Gold
It is rich.
Blue
Am I looking up or down?
Purple
Why do things blend on the end?
Red
The price has been paid.
Green
Life is abundant.
Orange
He goes throughout the land.
Black
Is no more.
December 27, 2010
The Winds
A mystery for the ages.
A metaphor for no comparison.
An unstable presence.
The definition of movement.
A testing by tension.
The setup for appreciation
Of peace.
A thing of direction
Counted by others
From the south it is warm.
From the north it is cold.
These are the times.
And then we get old.
Age is for the youth.
Youth are for the ages.
The young hate their title.
The aged would gladly accept it.
The stone is cold year round.
The wind blows over it from any direction.
An unstable presence.
The definition of movement.
A metaphor for no comparison.
An unstable presence.
The definition of movement.
A testing by tension.
The setup for appreciation
Of peace.
A thing of direction
Counted by others
From the south it is warm.
From the north it is cold.
These are the times.
And then we get old.
Age is for the youth.
Youth are for the ages.
The young hate their title.
The aged would gladly accept it.
The stone is cold year round.
The wind blows over it from any direction.
An unstable presence.
The definition of movement.
December 26, 2010
24,000 days ago: Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated
At death camp, Obama says evil must be confronted
By MARK S. SMITH, Associated Press Writer
June 5, 2009
WEIMAR, Germany – President Barack Obama witnessed the Nazi ovens of the Buchenwald concentration camp Friday, its clock tower frozen at the time of liberation, and said the leaders of today must not rest against the spread of evil.
The president called the camp where an estimated 56,000 people died the "ultimate rebuke" to Holocaust deniers and skeptics. And he bluntly challenged one of them, Iranian President Ahmadinejad, to visit Buchenwald.
"These sites have not lost their horror with the passage of time," Obama said after seeing crematory ovens, barbed-wire fences, guard towers and the clock set at 3:15, marking the camp's liberation in the afternoon of April 11, 1945. "More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished."
Buchenwald "teaches us that we must be ever-vigilant about the spread of evil in our own time, that we must reject the false comfort that others' suffering is not our problem, and commit ourselves to resisting those who would subjugate others to serve their own interests," Obama said.
He also said he saw, reflected in the horrors, Israel's capacity to empathize with the suffering of others, which he said gave him hope Israel and the Palestinians can achieving a lasting peace.
Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp. It was, in part, a personal visit: His great-uncle helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, in early April 1945 just days before other U.S. Army units overran Buchenwald.
Earlier in Dresden alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama pressed for progress toward Mideast peace. The U.S. "can't force peace upon the parties," he said, but America has "at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart."
The president also announced he was dispatching special envoy George J. Mitchell back to the region next week to follow up on Obama's speech in Cairo a day earlier in which he called for both Israelis and Palestinians to make concessions in the standoff.
Fresh from visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama said that while regional and worldwide powers must help achieve peace, responsibility ultimately falls to Israelis and Palestinians to reach an accord.
He said Israel must live up to commitments it made under the so-called "Road Map" peace outline to stop constructing settlements, adding: "I recognize the very difficult politics in Israel of getting that done." He also said the Palestinians must control violence-inciting acts and statements, saying that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "has made progress on this issue, but not enough."
Merkel, for her part, promised to cooperate on the long-sought goal. She said the two leaders discussed a time frame for a peace process but did not elaborate.
"With the new American government and the president, there is a truly unique opportunity to revive this peace process or, let us put this very cautiously, this process of negotiations," Merkel said.
Elie Wiesel, a 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and Holocaust survivor whose father died of starvation at Buchenwald three months before liberation, and Bertrand Herz, also a Buchenwald survivor; accompanied Obama and Merkel at the camp. Each laid a long-stemmed white rose at a memorial. They were later joined by Volkhard Knigge, head of the Buchenwald memorial.
"To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened," Obama said. "This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts, a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history."
It was a pointed message to Iran's Ahmadinejad, who has expressed doubts that 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis.
"He should make his own visit" to Buchenwald, Obama told NBC earlier Friday. He added: "I have no patience for people who would deny history."
Separately, the president told reporters: "The international community has an obligation, even when it's inconvenient, to act when genocide is occurring."
After the tour, Obama was flying to Landstuhl medical hospital for private visits with U.S. troops recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he was ending the day in Paris — reuniting with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, who planned a brief holiday in the City of Light after commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day invasion in France.
___
AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven in Dresden, and Associated Press writers David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Melissa Eddy in Dresden and Jochen Wiesigel in Ohrdruf contributed to this report.
By MARK S. SMITH, Associated Press Writer
June 5, 2009
WEIMAR, Germany – President Barack Obama witnessed the Nazi ovens of the Buchenwald concentration camp Friday, its clock tower frozen at the time of liberation, and said the leaders of today must not rest against the spread of evil.
The president called the camp where an estimated 56,000 people died the "ultimate rebuke" to Holocaust deniers and skeptics. And he bluntly challenged one of them, Iranian President Ahmadinejad, to visit Buchenwald.
"These sites have not lost their horror with the passage of time," Obama said after seeing crematory ovens, barbed-wire fences, guard towers and the clock set at 3:15, marking the camp's liberation in the afternoon of April 11, 1945. "More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished."
Buchenwald "teaches us that we must be ever-vigilant about the spread of evil in our own time, that we must reject the false comfort that others' suffering is not our problem, and commit ourselves to resisting those who would subjugate others to serve their own interests," Obama said.
He also said he saw, reflected in the horrors, Israel's capacity to empathize with the suffering of others, which he said gave him hope Israel and the Palestinians can achieving a lasting peace.
Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp. It was, in part, a personal visit: His great-uncle helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, in early April 1945 just days before other U.S. Army units overran Buchenwald.
Earlier in Dresden alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama pressed for progress toward Mideast peace. The U.S. "can't force peace upon the parties," he said, but America has "at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart."
The president also announced he was dispatching special envoy George J. Mitchell back to the region next week to follow up on Obama's speech in Cairo a day earlier in which he called for both Israelis and Palestinians to make concessions in the standoff.
Fresh from visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama said that while regional and worldwide powers must help achieve peace, responsibility ultimately falls to Israelis and Palestinians to reach an accord.
He said Israel must live up to commitments it made under the so-called "Road Map" peace outline to stop constructing settlements, adding: "I recognize the very difficult politics in Israel of getting that done." He also said the Palestinians must control violence-inciting acts and statements, saying that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "has made progress on this issue, but not enough."
Merkel, for her part, promised to cooperate on the long-sought goal. She said the two leaders discussed a time frame for a peace process but did not elaborate.
"With the new American government and the president, there is a truly unique opportunity to revive this peace process or, let us put this very cautiously, this process of negotiations," Merkel said.
Elie Wiesel, a 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and Holocaust survivor whose father died of starvation at Buchenwald three months before liberation, and Bertrand Herz, also a Buchenwald survivor; accompanied Obama and Merkel at the camp. Each laid a long-stemmed white rose at a memorial. They were later joined by Volkhard Knigge, head of the Buchenwald memorial.
"To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened," Obama said. "This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts, a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history."
It was a pointed message to Iran's Ahmadinejad, who has expressed doubts that 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis.
"He should make his own visit" to Buchenwald, Obama told NBC earlier Friday. He added: "I have no patience for people who would deny history."
Separately, the president told reporters: "The international community has an obligation, even when it's inconvenient, to act when genocide is occurring."
After the tour, Obama was flying to Landstuhl medical hospital for private visits with U.S. troops recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he was ending the day in Paris — reuniting with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, who planned a brief holiday in the City of Light after commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day invasion in France.
___
AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven in Dresden, and Associated Press writers David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Melissa Eddy in Dresden and Jochen Wiesigel in Ohrdruf contributed to this report.
June 27, 2010
Martin Ginsburg, justice's husband, dies
WASHINGTON — Ruth Bader Ginsburg called her husband, Martin, her "biggest supporter" and talked about him as if he was just as important in getting her on the Supreme Court as President Clinton.
Martin Ginsburg, 78, who died Sunday from complications of metastatic cancer, encouraged his wife to develop her pioneering legal career. She became the first woman law professor awarded tenure at Columbia University, founded the ACLU Women's Rights Project in 1972, and won five of six anti-discrimination cases she argued before the Supreme Court. In 1993, she became the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court.
When President Clinton announced Ginsburg's nomination in June 1993, the would-be justice highlighted the help she had received from her husband along the way. She called him "my life's partner … who has been, since our teenage years, my best friend and biggest booster."
Martin Ginsburg, justice's husband, dies
Martin Ginsburg, 78, who died Sunday from complications of metastatic cancer, encouraged his wife to develop her pioneering legal career. She became the first woman law professor awarded tenure at Columbia University, founded the ACLU Women's Rights Project in 1972, and won five of six anti-discrimination cases she argued before the Supreme Court. In 1993, she became the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court.
When President Clinton announced Ginsburg's nomination in June 1993, the would-be justice highlighted the help she had received from her husband along the way. She called him "my life's partner … who has been, since our teenage years, my best friend and biggest booster."
Martin Ginsburg, justice's husband, dies
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