Pedicab for sale at a brocante at Chatou, France.
At Truthdig Marie Cocco writes about Seven Years of Scandal. Infuriating and mind-boggling.
Nancy Pelosi takes a principled stand. If only more people in government displayed such courage!
On a lighter note, my friend Tangobaby has posted some great photos taken in the Sunset District in San Francisco - which just happens to be my old neighbourhood. Yes, I am homesick!
When traversing the Paris Metro on Tuesday, I learned a little about the plight of an Iraqi refugee and her young daughter. The contrast of the woman's pitiful state with two American women, dressed in furs and Gucci made me want to scream at the far-reaching and terrible implications of George W. Bush's war. Tonight I opened the book Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds to find Naomi Shihab Nye's poem, which struck a chord:
"Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
"Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
"Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend."
What a powerful and a poignant poem, Tara - thank you for sharing it. So much truth in there - thank you, kind friend~XOXO
Posted by: tinker | 12 April 2008 at 01:29
Wonderful poem, very potent... could not get the Pelosi piece to come up but wandered over to SF then got lost in some of her very funny links!
Posted by: stephanie | 11 April 2008 at 19:36
Oh kindness is such a virtue. That poem is incredible. There but for the grace of God, goes I...
We think it can not happen to us. We feel so comfortable. The suffering of others is just a news story.
xo
Posted by: Gillian | 10 April 2008 at 14:25
That was an amazing poem Tara! Thank you for sharing her poetry. Don't you wish this could be shared on TV instead of "reality TV?"
Her golden gates await you! XXOO
Posted by: Tammy | 10 April 2008 at 03:17