Posts

Showing posts from March, 2011

Jingles

Image
This week produced two very fine slogans. Sometimes, someone says something in a few words that just shoots through all the other verbiage and makes nothing else necessary. Such was the case when a recent blog written by Peggy Robertson used the line,"I will not feed you, but I will test you." What's useful here is that all those critics and pundits, and the billionaires who think they can do education reform, must face the fact that poverty is deeply embedded in any crisis in education we currently face. They never want to see that. This summer, at the million teacher march in Washington D.C. I expect to see small children holding signs with those few words. Maybe then some folks, with other agendas will get that about 23% of this country lives in poverty. As always, real poverty is invisible. Poor people wear the mask well and it takes a thousand forms. Back in the 60s there was a neat little slogan that went, "the poor pay more." In Texas, during my

Paper? Plastic? ...Poetry

Image
c2010 B.L. Greene Poetry and Groceries I. My grocery store offers more than food, Fiery temptations to taste aged cheese, compare olive oils, or sip free trade grinds, So I take time, deter impulse, advance ideas, In the WholeOatsWildSeasonsNewFoods grocery store hides a magazine rack, Beyond health and current affairs, sidestepping Gourmet, Outside, and Harpers My eyes rest on Poetry Northwest, Two chairs, like campfire stumps, invite. I read poetry before buying toilet paper, admire similes before spinach. II. Yesterday, while camped, a poet takes me to Market Street at dusk, riding the streetcar into the amber breast of darkness, looking for a lover in red shoes. I must not forget to pick up milk. The boundaries of age and wisdom make me an observer now, Each day youth depreciates like an oak desk, An atrophied bank account, A fine wine,

Near and Far Sided

Image
Sometimes I wonder if cartoonist Gary Larson ever lived in Portland. Some of the Far Side images he draws seem to appear in this town. I see them everywhere. If not at bus stops, on the sidewalks, in the grocery stores, and most definitely in the pubs, bars, and coffeehouses so abundant here. Last night I took the 10 minute drive from my home to Three Friends Coffeehouse to see the weekly Monday evening program and try out a couple of new poems during the open mic they always have. Gary Larson would have loved this audience. Just enough one-of-a-kind folks to give him material for another year. But then that's Portland. Where else can you get two hours of poetry, original music, and a few inexplicable other "performances" for very little cash? I arrived at 7:00 just in time to catch Robert Griggs, an 82 year old former Beat poet who has called Oregon his home for many years. Griggs read for about 20 minutes, saying at one point," Here's a poem I wrote 5

Coalition

Image
On Friday, March18, we went to a memorial service at the Japanese Garden in Portland. It was a simple ceremony and vigil in memory of the loss of life in the recent earthquake and tsunami. This garden is arguably the most peaceful place in Portland. It lies at the base of the west hills and features an overlook where it is possible, on a good day to see both Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. It was not a good day for viewing the mountains, but the small crowd assembled was not about sight seeing. A local Buddhist monk chanted, and then we were offered the opportunity to take a small bit if incense and place it into a burner, as is the custom. This we did. Participants in the service were also encouraged to walk the grounds of the garden and reflect/worship/mediate/contemplate...in their own way about the recent tragedy. The location resembles one big Zen garden. There is also a small stream that empties into pools filled with Koi. Other events were simultaneously taking place in th

All Things Japanese

Image
The world is watching all things Japanese these days. If the nuclear radiation worsens, it seems as if we'll remember the events of March, 2011 for the meltdowns, rather than the Tsunami. Like others, the minute I saw the videos and the photographs, the minute I heard the voices that told the stories...In that moment in time, I thought of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even if the nuclear reactors were safe I'd have thought the same. The devastation is similar. So too is the massive dignity of the Japanese people. I sense that scientists and geologists will learn a good deal from these events. So will anyone who follows the story. That story is one of heroism, stoicism, discipline, and always hard, hard, work. My best friend in high school, Tomio Nishimura, first showed me those values. Like me, he was soft spoken but passionate about learning and living. It wasn't until I had studied history at the University of California that I learned of the Japanese American experien

Why They Don't Know

Image
"They don't know what they don't know." That's a phrase often heard when I discuss how complicated and difficult it is to be a full time teacher today under the present circumstances. In supervising beginning teachers these past few years, I've heard myself say it a few times. Case in point: two of my student teachers have previously taught on the college level and severely underestimated how much more work teaching high school can be. When you add in nuanced approaches to dealing with adolescents, their parents, some school administrators, and the current climate, you begin to get the picture. Not knowing is a useful definition of ignorance. We can't blame people for being ignorant if they were never in a position to learn, grow, question, and/or receive accurate information. Too bad the term ignorance has such stigma attached because we might be able to use it without it being a pejorative. When arrogance links itself with ignorance you get a dif

Trifecta

Image
Astrologers call it a grand trine. It's when 3 planets align 120 degrees apart giving the appearance of an equilateral triangle. I'm not the best at math, and hardly into astrology, but it's an intriguing metaphor for the current state of affairs. At one end we have the current wave of democracy rolling over the Middle East and North Africa. Powerful stuff; definitely an idea whose time has come. Libyans now rebelling know full well that they are in for the fight of their lives. This is no Egypt. But they will not turn around now. Their inspiration is currently igniting fires in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Point two on the triangle is none other than Charlie Sheen. He's chosen to place his bi-polar self on the airwaves every day for pundits and pseudo-journalists to pick apart. He too inspires the immature, the uneducated, the duped. They admire his "life-style," his obscene income, and his choice of female companionship d'jour. Finally, the