Lawrence Ferlinghetti: POETRY AS NEWS

#25 [The world is a beautiful place]

          The world is a beautiful place
                                                       to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
                                        not always being
                                                            so very much fun
          if you don't mind a touch of hell
                                                        now and then
                    just when everything is fine
                                                      because even in heaven
                                            they don't sing
                                                                 all the time
                    The world is a beautiful place
                                                                 to be born into
          if you don't mind some people dying
                                                                          all the time
                                        or maybe only starving
                                                                      some of the time
                    which isn't half so bad
                                                       if it isn't you

Oh the world is a beautiful place
                                                       to be born into
          if you don't much mind
                                                 a few dead minds
               in the higher places
                                                  or a bomb or two
                       now and then
                                            in your upturned faces
   or such other improprieties
                                                as our Name Brand society
                                  is prey to
                                                  with its men of distinction
          and its men of extinction
                                                  and its priests
                    and other patrolmen

                                                  and its various segregations
   and congressional investigations
                                                       and other constipations
                  that our fool flesh
                                                  is heir to

    Yes the world is the best place of all
                                                            for a lot of such things as
          making the fun scene
                                                 and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
                                   and singing low songs and having inspirations
     and walking around
                                   looking at everything
                                                                     and smellng flowers
     and goosing statues
                                   and even thinking
                                                            and kissing people and
          making babies and wearing pants
                                                            and waving hats and
                                        dancing
                                                       and going swimming in rivers
                              on picnics
                                        in the middle of summer
          and just generally
                                      'living it up'

Yes
    but then right in the middle of it
                                                  comes the smiling

                                        mortician

Current

. . News Ticker . . .

The cover story of the latest issue of Green Pages details how the Florida Greens are working with other anti-nuclear activists to prevent the licensing of three new reactors. With a pro-nuclear President in the White House, it’s critical that Greens work with activists around the country to defeat the idea that the answer to climate change is additional nuclear reactors.

In From Hopenhagen to Nopenhagen Brian Tokar of the Institute for Social Ecology states “After the 2007 climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, the Bush administration tried to initiate an alternate track of negotiations on climate policy that involved only a select handful of the more compliant countries … Now that the Obama administration has adopted essentially the same approach …”

Also included are articles on the upcoming mid-term elections and obituaries for Bob Long and Dennis Brutus. As always; read, comment, distribute.

Winter 2010

Features

Florida faces nuclear threat
by Michael Canney

Arizona Greens triumph in federal court
by Claudia Ellquist

Robert “Bob” Long, Green Pioneer (1917-2010)
by Mike Feinstein

Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission follows Ten Key Values
by Bob Meola

Cynthia McKinney receives international peace award

Elections

Fairfax, California’s Town Council: The Green Party Majority
by Mimi Newton

Green-Rainbow Party Sets Sights on 2010 Races
by Dave England

Dozens of candidates file for the Green Party primary in Illinois

World

Green Ideology and Its Relation to Modernity: Including a Case Study of the Green Party of Sweden by Michael Moon
Reviewed by Angela Aylward, Green Party of Sweden (Miljöpartiet de gröna)

From Hopenhagen to Nopenhagen
by Mike Feinstein

Opinion

A vision for the midterm
by Brent McMillan

A tale of party oppression at the local level
by Deyva Arthur, New York State Green Party

Evergreen

Poetic obituary for Dennis Brutus
Stone Hammered to Gravel by Martin Espada

Poetry Corner
Overtime by Jackie Sheeler

Green Music by Tom
by Barbara Rodgers-Hendricks

A summary review of Forever Pleasure, a utopian novel by Theodore R. Eastman
by Barbara Rodgers-Hendricks

Reports

State Reports

About the logo on the cover illustration

With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil.

The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance.

International Atomic Energy Agency press release

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BLOGS

Frieda Berryhill: Nuclear Power (;-/) :: Solar Power! (:->)

Current

Winter 2010