An Aesthetically Pleasing Opportunity

If you're looking for an exciting new venue for your poetry, fiction, or artwork (including photography), then take a look at Aesthetica Magazine. This is an interesting and lively publication based in the UK, and every year they publish a Creative Works Annual. You can submit work to the Creative Works Annual through August 31, 2009. And, when you submit, you'll receive a free digital edition of the 2009 Creative Works Annual.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2009 Annual. It's very nicely done. The selection of poetry is wide-ranging, as powerful as it is sensitive, and much of it, I felt, really honored language in its technique and structure. Hard to pick a favorite in this section, but I must say that "Invasion" by Anthony Watts is one of the most memorable poems I have ever read, and "Ash Wednesday" by Andy Humphrey stood out to me due to its intelligent and poignant handling of a Christian subject.

The artwork section represents many visions. I particularly liked "Chryse" by Portuguese artist Sonia Oliveira and "Lost" by Lara Prior. To learn more about Aesthetica Magazine and the Creative Works Annual, click here.

(Wonderful) Cover photo by 17-year-old Jacquelyn Noelle Unpinco.

Starring Poetry from the Lone Star State

The 2010 Texas Poetry Calendar is now available. I've just received my copy, and it's quite a treat! Editors and publishers Scott Wiggerman and Cindy Huyser did a wonderful job. Kudos also go to David Meischen, Managing Editor, Kristee Humphrey, Cover Designer, Photographer Gerald R. Wheeler who created the cover photograph, and last but not least to Texas Poetry Calendar Judge Poet Mark Doty, whose wonderful poem "Iris Catalogue" opens the calendar / poetry collection. You can order your own Texas Poetry Calendar at dosgatospress.org or check your local Texas bookstores. (Links are in purple.)

I believe a rose

is as much a journey as a flower. Have you traveled with a rose lately? I highly recommend it.

Don't Send Madoff to Jail

That's right. Send Madoff to work, instead. He could spend months helping the charities his investment schemes ruined. He could collect cans with Ms. Sigman, who was interviewed today on NPR and who, having lost her life savings, is collecting cans for recycling fees, among other activities to make ends meet. He could help build homes for the people who lost theirs, due to "investing" with him. Or, he could just get a plain old job, like so many Americans have to do, and then turn over every dime he makes until the day he dies to the people he robbed. It's a win-win. He doesn't take up space in prison at the expense of tax dollars, he has a chance to atone, and it's bound to help him feel better as a human being. Jail is the wrong answer. Put this man to work instead.

Hellth Insurance

Yes, I believe that is how it should be spelled these days. Hell-th insurance. I was amazed yesterday at the hypercritical and plain gossipy questions President Obama fielded on this topic. (And grateful for his intelligence and eloquence as he answered those questions.) One reporter asked and insinuated: "Won't a public health insurance plan put private insurers out of business?" What planet does that reporter live on?

Private insurers are not interested in the public welfare, or one or more of them would have made an effort to offer some kind of decent coverage to self-employed, under-employed or even unemployed persons--certainly at least to children. The convoluted underwriting guidelines of these companies makes it clear that they have no sense of mission to the masses. My case is a great case in point.

As an employee, I was insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield for five years. In the 30 days after leaving said employ, I applied for individual coverage with BCBS. I was denied. They sent me a letter stating that due to a change in one of my medications, I could not be granted coverage. I switched from one prescription drug to another, and that's all it took to make me uninsurable in their eyes. Yet, the group of employees I had once belonged to included a person who had had major intestinal surgery and another with leukemia. They continue to be insured simply because they are part of a "group." I am functional. I have not missed a day of working in years. I have not been hospitalized in 17 years for any reason. But I the Individual cannot be insured by the same company that had provided my insurance for five years. Make sense? Of course not.

Now, when I do find new insurance, I can be sure that it will not cover any existing condition I have, however small, for at least 12 months--and perhaps never will cover them. So, I will be paying basically for a possible hospitalization coverage just to keep from going bankrupt should that happen. That is, of course, if I can obtain said coverage at all.

BCBS said I could apply through my state's Health Risk Pool for coverage. And guess who underwrites that coverage? Blue Cross, of course. They'll get money even from the people they deny coverage to . . . . what a great business model--for them.

Put the private companies out of business? Oh, if only.

I'm sure you have an experience and/or opinion on this subject, too. NOW is the time to let your government representatives know what that experience or opinion is. The land of the free and the brave should also be the land of the well, don't you think?

The very cool image above is from Heavenfelts, a very interesting site on energy, chakras, and other topics.

I don't get it

Some things make no sense to me.

There are more than 45 million Americans with no health insurance. Yet not one private insurance company sees this as a business opportunity. That's one large "pool," and many of these people have enough income that they would and could pay a reasonable premium, even if only for hospital care.

In my experience, only companies offering "minor medical" insurance at premiums that are border-line "reasonable" are taking advantage of the situation. Some in a good way, others in a bad way. I recently signed on with one of these programs and then received my "health discount documents" only to find out I'd been lied to about network providers. I can cancel only by phone, which I've tried to do--but no one is "available" when I call to cancel.

I'm one of the 45 million Americans unable to procure major medical insurance. Yes, I've seen doctors in the past 10 years for a variety of reasons. But I haven't been hospitalized in that time and never missed a day's work. Nor have I had a disease that could be considered even remotely life threatening. Why am I such a risk?

The government is left to solve this problem for us 45+ million--while insurance companies and other related business interests complain mightily. There are millions of us willing to pay a reasonable premium for health insurance. Why does the business universe not take advantage of this?

Another thing I don't get. Why would you want to be the president of a country when millions of people make it clear they don't want you, didn't vote for you, and are willing to risk their lives to protest your election by corrupt means? As I watch the events in Iran unfold, as my heart goes out to a valiant, intelligent, and beautiful people, I am amazed--not for the first time--how the drive to have power erases the human capacity for sheer embarrassment. Perhaps my Southern ancestors taught me too well that embarrassment is a state I want mightily to avoid. As a result, I don't understand why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is simply not too embarrassed to continue in his post without a recount or other verification. I also don't understand why Iran's supreme leader does not understand that a happy, expressive people whose basic phone service and whose votes are not tampered with are the best kind to guide and to "rule."

I just don't get it.


Image by Mil Lubroth, all rights reserved.

A Quote for All Time

I just received this from a friend and think it well worth sharing:

"Part with self-conceit, for it is impossible
for anyone to begin to learn
what he thinks he already knows." -- Epictetus

Un homenaje fotográfico

These photos by Argentinian photographer Eduardo Longoni are true works of communication. They provide a look at the life of author Mario Benedetti that is both intimate and respectful. Each is a story in itself. My thanks to Sr. Longoni for his permission to post these photos here. You can see more of his work at his website. (English and Spanish)

Mario Benedetti en El Café Brasilero, Montevideo, Uruguay

Estas fotos del fotógrafo argentino Sr. Eduardo Longoni son obras profundamente comunicativas. Nos ofrecen una mirada a la vida del escritor Sr. Benedetti que es a la vez íntima y respetuosa. Cada foto es una historia en sí, historias que se cuentan sin palabras. Gracias a Sr. Longoni por su permiso para colocar estas fotos en mi blog. Puedes ver más de su obra y aprender más sobre su trayectoria profesional y artística en su sitio web.

Escritorio de trabajo de Mario Benedetti / The writer's desk

Because everything we say and do is the length and shadow
of our own souls, our influence is determined by
the quality of our being.
-- Dale Turner

_______________________________________________________

Images, copyright Eduardo Longoni, all rights reserved.

Arrivederci, Sr. Benedetti

I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw the news on Letralia. The beloved author, poet, critic, and humanitarian Mario Benedetti left this earth on May 17. He suffered for some time from lung and other problems. He died at home in Montevideo, Uruguay--a country where he was not able to make his home for many years of his life.

Here are some links where you can learn more about Sr. Benedetti:
Letralia a wonderful literary magazine published in Venezuela (Spanish). CBC News Story (English). A Wikipedia entry (English) gives an overview of his works and short biography. Click on the photo above to visit the Cervantes Institute page on Benedetti (Spanish).

Here's a video with Mario Benedetti reading, "And if God were a woman?". The poet uses Juan Gelman's question as the starting point for this poem. Warm and comforting as it is confrontational and startling, this poem speaks straight to Men about the Divine Feminine--not as a replacement for the Divine Masculine, but as its necessary and fulfilling complement.

Although I would have chosen different art for the first half of the video (the sketched female that "comes to life" during the first half does not speak to me at all of the divine), fortunately, the video leaps from this too "fashionable" and earthly portrait to more heavenly and artful ones. Or--forget the images; just close your eyes and listen to Benedetti's voice--it lands inside you. It is a voice that, once heard, cannot be forgotten. Something I can affirm, even as I cannot explain it. Haz clic aquí: Si Dios fuera mujer (vídeo) en el blog de Marna Luz.

To see what fellow Uruguayans are blogging about this literary lion, visit Global Voices, where you will find interesting Spanish comments with English translations, posted by Eduardo Ávila.

Here is a beautiful video with Sr. Benedetti reading his poetry, produced by Cadena de Lectores de Alfaguara in Mexico. It also includes excellent and evocative images of the poet.

This blog post, Don Mario no vino a la oficina by Jorge Gómez Jiménez may be my favorite "pedazo" que he encontrado en línea hoy, mientras buscaba "cosas de Don Mario" para--¿para qué?--no sé exactamente-- quizás para sentir que alguien más compartía mi "shock", la pura sensación de una pérdida personal. Creo que cuando encontramos consuelo y sabiduría en las palabras de un escritor en nuestros propios "tiempos revueltos", aquel escritor deja de ser un desconocido para nosotros. Es verdad que el lector no le va a conocer en persona, pero sí, en un nivel profundo, se conocen personalmente el escritor y su lector--quizás sea el escritor que llega a "conocer" al "desconocido" lector, por la manera en que sus palabras llegan, tocan, y fortalezan la vida de la persona que hojea su obra. Nadie da la mano, ni besa la mejilla, pero los dedos tocan el papel que lleva la verdadera esencia del escritor y del ser humano. Encontré mi consuelo aquí, en esta nota que dice tanto con un mínimo de palabras.

Two more videos worth watching:
Palabras Verdaderas is a documentary on Benedetti's life. A good film, although the soundtrack online is not the best. If you can bear the less-than-optimal sound quality, however, you will be rewarded with a rich and detailed look at the poet's life.

You can see an excerpt of this video in which Daniel Viglietti and Mario Benedetti perform "Desaparecidos" (The Disappeared Ones). A moving and courageous work of words. It also includes a few more fragments from the longer documentary. Un buen aperitivo.

One of the lines in the video says, "Usted sabe que puede contar conmigo." And so it has been for thousands of readers who came to count on Sr. Benedetti as una voz de inspiración, una fuente de perspicacia y valor, un compañero para muchos, y en muchos sentidos. Uruguay's Ministra de Cultura María Simón said, "I don't think we should be talking of a loss, because he will be with us forever."

Que así sea.
Grazie e arrivederci, querido señor, espíritu, y escritor.

Flower image, copyright Ysabel de la Rosa

May Flowers

This tulip appears to be in prayer, folded inward, becoming ready to open,
and then to bless the eyes lucky enough to see it blossom.

How do I love hydrangeas? I could not count the ways! Their bounty amazes me, great clouds of flower, made up of small and perfect blossoms. Colors ethereal, pastels never had such strength
as in the petals of this flower.

A mum in spring. I like the contrapuntal thought of this, paired with the hardy Peruvian Lily.

And one of the world's great treasures: the interior world
of the iris.

***

How glad I am to have the company of these creations,
to be in the presence of
their color, their light, their beauty.


Images, copyright Ysabel de la Rosa, all rights reserved.