Re Anthony Weiner's misdeeds.

As I write this post, it looks as if Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) may be getting the final shove off the cliff of resignation: there are revelations that Weiner chatted online with a 17-year-old female (junior in high school, to be exact).  And, given Weiner's previous lie-and-stonewall regarding his other cyber-and-phone activities, one hopes this time we can take at face value his statement that nothing inappropriate occurred between him and the teenage girl..

Of course, this news was first ejaculated (sorry) onto FoxNews.com before I read it on AOL/Huffington Post.

Personally, I'd only want to see Weiner resign if his sexual behavior was on government time instead of in the confined space of his own home.  It would be a good idea for Weiner to aim for keeping his House seat by getting some sex addiction-and-marriage counseling--taking a leave of absence for awhile.

But, given Weiner's Spitzer-esque penchant for making enemies (with the right, and presumably, the Obama "center"), plus his stupidity and recklessness, plus the kind of sneering, self-and-business-serving behavior from Andrew Breitbart (a lot easier for me to dislike than, say, Kenneth Starr, who seemed more sincere in his righteousness or self-righteousness), it's safe to guess that some kind of exit strategy will be devised long before a Nancy Pelosi-led investigation.

[UPDATE: Weiner's opting for treatment http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/11/anthony-weiner-treatment_n_875422.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%7C70084]

New poem: WITHDRAWAL

I'm trying so hard to withdraw,

to untie the rubber tube

and wrench the syringe of cable news

from my veins.

Don't want to see the CNN Saturday anchor

smile every time she reads something 

off the prompter.

Don't want to see MSNBC hosts

named Lawrence and Ed

competing for who can get the most headlines

to fill the ratings void left 

when Keith Olbermann was unjustly fired.

Don't want to see Chris Matthews

saying things about Anthony Weiner

"sticking it out."

Don't want to see Anderson Cooper

being a puppet of his writers and producers.

Don't want to see Fox News

unless I'm in a doctor's waiting room

where I have no choice.

And, even then, I want a magazine

to keep me from being irradiated

by Republican talking points

and facts twisted like Silly Putty.

Don't want to watch HLN

and hear Nancy Grace

snarl about Lady Justice.

Or, for that matter, 

Doctor Drew and his endless quest

to present himself

as a sober-minded moralistic ambulance chaser.

I just want to tear out the needle

and the syringe

and throw them across the room

hearing the breaking glass of the syringe

and pronouncing myself

cured of propaganda and endless distraction

from the news that really matters.

G. Murray Thomas reviews a poetry anthology from the publisher of his upcoming NEXT magazine anthology.

Since the poetry community in SoCal is small enough that a lot of people know a lot of other people, these grey areas sometimes occur: http://poetix.net/reviews.htm

RIP (likely) GENERAL HOSPITAL 1963-2012.

Take a look at this article from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER site:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/what-katie-courics-new-show-195183

I'm making a sort-of-educated guess that Disney/ABC will again manage for margins (i.e. low ratings don't matter as much if production costs are cheap--the rationale behind THE CHEW and THE REVOLUTION replacing ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE) and cancel their remaining soap opera aka "daytime drama."

New poem: LONDON POEM #2

It was an easy walk

from the Underground station

down the stairway

into the village of Kew

on the outskirts of London--

we're blessed with a bright day

and an understated village square.

Just a quick stroll 

down an upper-middle-class street

with mostly compact

and a few mid-sized cars.

(Gasoline is too expensive

to warrant an excess of 

low-mileage cars in the UK.)

Rows of standardized houses,

all of them

two-story affairs.

Then, buildings containing flats (estates?)

probably built

sometime after the war

that threatened to erase

villages such as Kew.

And finally,

we reach the massive Kew Gardens

with the recreations of

rainforests and desert climates,

plus the Victorian glass greenhouse--

and the knowledge that somewhere on the gardens' edge

is the River Thames.

There will always be an England.

And I'm ever so happy

to have seen a quiet, manicured corner of it

at this point in my life.

All the different permutations of poetry.

Posting this link here for everyone's benefit (including my own):
http://poetry.org/termsin.htm

Robert Pinsky's definition of reading poetry, "non-academic readings" etc. etc.-from RADIUS

Passing this along so you, the reader, can get an idea of how the upper tier of poetry live and what they yearn for:
http://www.radiuslit.org/2011/05/23/%E2%80%9Creading%E2%80%9D-pinsky-reading/

Re banishment, shaming and why I'd rather be "Joe Blow from Electra."

Here's a formative experience from my high school years:
Before the annual late-April trips to the Greater Southwest competition in Amarillo, TX, the band director would often tell us that, while out of town, "You're not Joe Blow from Electra, you ARE Electra."

In retrospect, it's one thing to represent the school when you're part of a large ensemble.  But to throw in admonishments that your behavior has to reflect on an entire town created a burden.  I was a shy teenager and had no trouble behaving, but not everyone else would toe the mark on the road.

Cut to almost three decades later:
I wasn't there to witness this, but a poet told me a story about a male poetry host (who co-hosted a then hugely-popular weekly reading on Melrose) arguing with a female poet.  The poetry host banned the female poet from his reading--rather fascinating since the argument was taking place outside a poetry venue in North Hollywood.

By now, you're probably wondering what the connection is between the two anecdotes above:
Banishment (or threats towards that end) is often a tool in poetry communities to enforce order and ensure dissent and troublemaking (which can sometimes be little more than not being completely gaga over a host and/or reading) carries a heavy penalty. 

And another tool in poetry communities is akin to the band director's "you ARE Electra" speech--to make people feel that, if they complain and/or refuse to accept the scene (warts, blemishes, egotism, bullying and all), you're bringing deep dishonor not only on yourself, but your fellow poets, your city and the institutions of poetry and literature themselves.

All further proof that the ethos of high school hamstrings you for much of the rest of your life--if you allow it.