Damn, too many media and too confusing for this old gray mare! I just left a comment on this entry/poem on your Facebook page where it is also posted, sort of. I think I can only master one social networking application at a time (and by "master" I mean barely struggle my way through and not screw up too much). Anyway, this is a wonderful, moving poem. Here's what i wrote "over there": Wow, that's as moving as some of your best poems! Now I really wish that I'd arranged to jet out there for your reading tonight (or you'd agreed to come read here with Nancy Rybczynski in May). It has been quite a journey, and I wish you continued godspeed for the leg in MT. I couldn't resist looking up the Ignatow poem (obviously he had quite a different childhood environment than yours, just from the two poems!) but then associated to Mary Oliver's "The Journey." Her entry in Wikipedia even has the ending of it in a side box: You strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do, determined to save the only life you could save. From "The Journey", in Dream work (1986) and then: Damn those automatic post endings! I just wanted to say "bon voyage" and "godspeed" again, and break a leg, but not a beer glass tonight!

No, she di-int. She couldn't possibly have said that. You're making that up. You just said that to make my head explode. But then Obama hugged a black Harvard Law professor once. And that proves he's a radical Socialist. Finally, we have proof. Or something. I cannot even follow their batshit crazy thinking anymore (and I'm using "thinking" very loosely here). Pleeeeeease make it stop!

Ann, I'm glad you've found a unique ritual for your Lenten practice that's meaningful to you--and fits within your religious tradition (with updating, it seems). As you know, I've given up such things (and not just for Lent), but I'm glad I got the notice for your page and could come here to see what you're doing. And I also got to read Jack's comments, which cracked me up! I need Laughs for Lent! Since Jack's given up ridiculing Rick Santorum for lent, I guess I'll have to take over the task: see my Facebook page. Talk to you real soon. Can't wait to make plans!

I know I'm late to this discussion but just saw it and cannot agree more! I can't stand Chris Matthews--not very bright, egotistical, and extremely rude! The only think he wants to hear is his own voice. The comparison to O'Riley seems apt. Yes, Rachel is the best on prime time, but the very best one they have is Chris Hayes, on with great panels Saturday and Sunday mornings. I've caught part of his shows the last few weeks and have not seen better discussions--ever! My 2 cents and I'm sticking to it!

Makes perfect sense to me. But you forgot the part where he's then going to turn our country (the one where the Founding Fathers abolished slavery) over to his Muslim comrades--you know, the ones he grew up with in Kenya. You are following this, aren't you? Jon Stewart was on Dave Letterman's show tonight and Jon said he thinks the country "over-corrected" when they went from Pres. Bush to Pres. Obama. Waaaaay over-corrected for some of us; just went way over their heads (that are stuck you-know-where) for some of them. They are way through the looking glass, so none of it has to make sense!

"The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind; the answer is blowing in the wind." I'm the one who made Ms. Markle see "Winter's Bone" and she said "Well, that was pretty awful," because it was so depressing. It WAS depressing; bleak, I'd call it. Very, very bleak. Jack, you will probably love it! Actually, it's really stayed with me, but it's still very bleak. I love Elizabeth Warren; I want to marry her and have her baby. Oh, I just remembered the answer: “And she lets the river answer. . . That Jesus was a sailor When he walked upon the water And he spent a long time watching From his lonely wooden tower And when he knew for certain Only drowning men could see him He said 'All men will be sailors then Until the sea shall free them' But he himself was broken Long before the sky would open Forsaken, almost human He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone.” And so we’ve come full circle because the references to [watch] towers and [rolling] stones clearly reveals that Mr. You-Know-Who had all the answers posed by all the songs of the ‘60s! (So, it wasn’t found in playing the Beatles songs backwards after all.) Any more stupid questions? Anon, and now to bed, to sleep off all the silliness I've just said!