IN THE EGG, by Gunter Grass

We live in the egg.
We have covered the inside wall
of the shell with dirty drawings
and the Christian names of our enemies.
We are being hatched.

Whoever is hatching us
is hatching our pencils as well.
Set free from the egg one day
at once we shall make an image
of whoever is hatching us.

We assume that we're being hatched.
We imagine some good-natured fowl
and write school essays
about the colour and breed
of the hen that is hatching us.

When shall we break the shell?
Our prophets inside the egg
for a middling salary argue
about the period of incubation.
They posit a day called X.

Out of boredom and genuine need
we have invented incubators.
We are much concerned about our offspring inside the egg.
We should be glad to recommend our patent
to her who looks after us.

But we have a roof over our heads.
Senile chicks,
polygot embryos
chatter all day
and even discuss their dreams.

And what if we're not being hatched?
If this shell will never break?
If our horizon is only that
of our scribbles, and always will be?
We hope that we're being hatched.

Even if we only talk of hatching
there remains the fear that someone
outside our shell will feel hungry
and crack us into the frying pan with a pinch of salt.
What shall we do then, my brethren inside the egg?

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 10, 2008 9:43:26 PM | 101

lizard

wiould love to know more about the influence of kees & kees himself

here the old masters maiakovski, nazim hikmet, adonis, elytis - the greeks of this century & also the arabs- from many places but especially syria & iraq - affect the way i work here

i rest fond of rozewicz but he seems to have gone towars polish catholicism in his old age - english poetry i wouldn't piss on if it was on fire & in europe generally it is a cold & formal academicism which dominates

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 10, 2008 9:45:18 PM | 102

the above poem was translated by Michael Hamburger and Christopher Middleton from an anthology edited by Carolyn Forche called AGAINST FORGETTING: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 10, 2008 9:46:06 PM | 103

strange no - we must have been thinking over the same matters, lizard close to simultaneouslly

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 10, 2008 9:49:28 PM | 104

'giap: i am inexcusably light on the masters you cited and classics in general, despite a pricey degree.

Weldon Kees on the other hand i can offer a few details. Born 1914 in Beatrice, Nebraska, Kees graduated from the university of nebraska in 1935, and eventually made his way to New York, becoming a contributing member of the Abstract Expressionists. Just as DeKooning and company were taking off, Kees slipped away in 1950 from the scene and shot over to the other coast. In 1955 he disappeared, and his abandoned car was found by the golden gate bridge.

Kees has been widely unrecognized in america; only recently has his sparse collected poems been reprinted after a long hiatus. he worked often within traditional forms, like the villanelle, using repetition to reinforce the bleakness of his landscapes, which didn't appeal to the trend setters. Also, like Frank O'Hara, Kees loved the cinema, and mixed "low" culture with "high" culture in a way that, despite his penchant for conventional forms, was ahead of his time.

here's an example of Kees at his most acidic

INTERREGNUM
Butcher the evil millionaire, peasant,
And leave him stinking in the square.
Torture the chancellor. Leave the ambassador
Strung by his thumbs from the pleasant
Embassy wall, where the vines were.
Then drill your hogs and sons for another war.

Fire on the screaming crowd, ambassador,
Sick chancellor, brave millionaire,
And name them by the name that is your name.
Give privilege to the wound, and maim
The last resister. Poison the air
And mew for peace, for order, and for war.

View with alarm, participant, observer,
Buried in medals from the time before.
Whisper, then believe and serve and die
And drape fresh bunting on the hemisphere
From here to India. This is the world you buy
When the wind blows fresh for war.

Hide in the dark alone, objector;
Ask a grenade what you are living for,
Or drink this knowledge from the mud.
To an abyss more terrible than war
Descend and tunnel toward a barrier
Away from anything that moves with blood.

see what i mean? anyway, he's an interesting poet who has slipped through the cracks for too long. glad you inquired, 'giap.

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 10, 2008 10:33:30 PM | 105

yes, a flurry of cross posting...

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 10, 2008 10:35:46 PM | 106

...and why should we even bother writing politically conscious poems when a poem about the formula of a political poem is more powerful then the regurgitated cliches that often worm into the overt attempts of poets addressing the absurdity of amerika's dangerous political fantasy land where the "big decisions" get made?

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 10, 2008 11:10:16 PM | 107

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

—William Carlos Williams
"Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"

Lizard: thanks for the introduction to Kees; I'll have to look him up. Yeow, escaping Beatrice for NYC and SF. I grew up in Nebraska and only escaped to Phoenix (ugh) and Oregon (ah).

Posted by: catlady | Jun 10, 2008 11:23:49 PM | 108

barkeep! i'll have some of what the world bank's chief economist is smoking, please

No cheap oil for years, says World Bank

CAPE TOWN — Oil prices were likely to recede from their high levels to between $104 and $108 a barrel only in three to five years as world demand contracted and production increased, World Bank chief economist Justin Lin said yesterday.

New technologies, increased energy efficiency and lower consumption would drive down demand and prices, Lin said at his first media conference since taking office.

He was speaking during the annual World Bank conference on development economics which has drawn delegates — including policy makers, academics and researchers — from about 70 countries.

show me any serious predictions of oil demand contracting and/or consumption decreasing.

now i can sorta agree w/ this fella, outside of his support for lin's quoted stmts:

Nobel Laureate in Economics and Commission on Growth chairman Prof Michael Spence agreed with Lin, and argued strongly against any artificial attempt to reduce oil prices — which he said had to remain high to provide incentives for the production of new technologies.

Spence said the oil price would increase in the short run before the demand response kicked in.

He recalled the oil price spike in the ’70s which was followed by a significant fall in both demand and price.

“Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic really depends on whether you think our human ingenuity and technology, as well as our behaviour, are capable of adapting,” Spence said.

on the first 'oil price spike' in the 1970's, dilip hiro, in his book blood of the earth, writes:

The first Oil Shock [winter of 1973-74] highlighted several facets of the global economy and politics, and set off chain reactions in different spheres.

One, it validated Henry Kissinger's statement that "cheap and plentiful oil" was the "basic premise" on which post-World War II Western capitalism was built. Two, it illustrated dramatically oil's primacy in Western economics and politics. ... Three, the First Oil Shock left the global economy more volatile than before. Four, it underscored the West's dependency on Arab and Iranian oil. Five, it led to greater efforts to develop hydrocarbon resources outside OPEC and OAPEC. ... Six, high petroleum prices made many exploration projects in the hitherto inaccessible areas of the North Sea and Alaska economically feasible. Seven, expensive off-shore prospecting and drilling became economical. Eight, natural gas, which before was routinely burned, now became valuable.

Nine, for the first time Western governments took energy conservation seriously. ...

Ten, the overflowing treasuries of the oil-rich states led governments to nationalize Western petroleum corporations, thus dramatically reducing their hydrocarbon assets. Eleven, the nationalized oil companies enabled the rulers and their hangers-on in the Gulf monarchies and Iran under the Shah to line their pockets, thus increasing the already wide disparities between the superaffluent and the rest of the populace.

w/ crude oil now above $100/barrel, it indeed makes a range of alternatives more feasible, worth spending more time on. that being said, the major producing & potential oil reserves are essentially all owned by national oil companies now, and those NOC's are joining into strategic alliances, as the planet's powers divide into energy-surplus nations vs energy-deficit ones. i just don't see crude oil prices receding very much ever again. too much leverage over the old order of imperialist nations.

optimism about technological solutions & ingenuity, therefore, is basically a moot issue.

on behaviour, here's michael klare, from his latest book

In the emerging international power system [energy-surplus vs energy-deficit], we can expect the struggle over energy to override all other considerations, national leaders to go to extreme lengths to ensure energy sufficiency for their countries, and state authority over both domestic and foreign energy affairs to expand. Oil will cease to be primarily a trade commodity, to be bought and sold on the international market, becoming instead the preeminent strategic resource on the planet, whose acquisition, production, and distribution will increasingly absorb the time, effort, and focus of senior government and military officials.

---

to support my suspicion in #97 that the league/concert of democracies interventionist conspiracy is targeted at the SCO, the following is also taken from hiro's book:

The SCO adopted a new charter in May 2003, which was not immediately released. Its later publication showed that it pledged "noninterference and nonalignment" in international affairs while aiming to create "a new international political and economic order" -- implying thereby to end the role of the United States as the sole superpower.

Posted by: b real | Jun 11, 2008 1:31:27 AM | 109

two pro-western outlooks on china & oil

international crisis group: China's Thirst for Oil

and a largely incestuous backgrounder from the council on foreign relations - China, Africa, and Oil

Posted by: b real | Jun 11, 2008 1:41:39 AM | 110

Cryptome provides this link to the latest FOIA package
regarding detainee abuse documents. There's little new here, and lots
of blacked out passages. A few comments:

1. On Pages 4-5 we learn (parenthetically) of Saddam's prewar desire to avoid seeming to give aid to terrorists
   
2. On Pages 77-76 we receive the full text of Bush's infamous
   Presidential finding that gave the green light for torturers, naturally will a large dollop of hypocrisy "regarding" observation of the Geneva accords within the limits imposed by military necessity,
   
3. On Page 82 we get a Defense Intelligence Agency complaint
   about the "lawyers" who are missing the point. Presumably this is a
   reference to John Yoo's team-mates.
   
4. On Page 85 we learn of a (relatively minor) incident involving an Uzbek detainee
   
5. On page 89 poor old Rick Sanchez takes another hit, although
   it's difficult to imagine that he's anything other than a messenger for
   "anonymous higher-ups" who are pushing him
   
6. Pages 108-109 give a cryptic discussion regarding searches of
   detainee mail and e-mail, with an eye to preserving the possibility of
   future prosecution. When I first skimmed this I was hoping that they
   were talking about retaining U.S. government e-mail with the same aim,
   but, of course, that's only a dream since incriminating e-mail always seems to "get lost" in those cases.
   

I get the impression that this is the traditional defense establishment trying to cast the blame on the civilian leadership (the "few bad apples at the top of the tree").

Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Jun 11, 2008 3:57:45 AM | 111

Lizard, R'giap, catlady, et al...

On the Poverty of Internet Life: a Call for Poets

6.2 While the list-servs and blogs, low overhead internet magazines, desktop publishing and the falling cost of print publications have done much to vent some of the excessive energy among poets, and to create multiple, overlapping models of distribution in which work that otherwise might never have been seen finds readers, and in some cases, finds many, many readers, although this has been a fortuitous and powerful occurrence, two things must be kept in mind: 1) it will not last 2) no-one but poets care or know.

7.2 To my disgusted and enraged fellow poets who seek, like me, to confront the blood-soaked juggernaut of capitalism in its delirium tremens of addiction to surplus value, I say this: let’s continue doing what we are doing now—writing, posting to blogs, giving readings, publishing books. But let’s also devote some small portion of our energy to using our creative skillz for the injection of radical content into the public sphere at large—that is, the land-based public sphere. Perhaps this work would not be poetry qua poetry, since it is obvious to me at least that poems, frequently belonging to a different temporal order than politics, often do their most powerful political work (at least at the level of producing politicized knowledge) precisely by refusing the demand that they be political. I suspect, too, that to call something like this poetry or art from the outset often might limit its effectivity, and capitulate without struggle to the hardening effects of the commodity. But it would be words, something that poetry knows much about. It would be an improvement of, or de-sterilization, or re-politicization of public language. At one level, this might involve something as simple as the public service of improving the quality of bathroom, bus or subway graffiti. Or artfully replacing all of the newspapers at the newspaper stand. Or improving the nearest, and most painfully offensive, billboard. Credit card ads and military recruitment posters are good. The creative uses of yellow caution tape remain to be explored, in the constuction of detours leading to a sort of car-wash of the mind. Or campaigns for non-existent or dead people. Or for corporations. Home Depot for President, for instance....

Aggression

A Conference On Contemporary Poetics And Political Antagonism

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 11, 2008 4:46:29 AM | 112

These photos from the Waxman committee indicating how little Bush
was acquainted with Abramoff are of very poor quality, but interesting nonetheless. Only the small minded will wonder about the minors who are
"blacked out" of the photos. Presumably they are Abramoff's kids.
There's considerably more documentation at the Oversight Committee Website.

Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Jun 11, 2008 5:10:43 AM | 113

The Council on Foreign Relations has come to the following conclusion in its latest report on U.S.-Latin America Relations:

This report makes clear that the era of the United States as the dominant influence in Latin America is over.

Most certainly true.

From the same report:

Such a partnership would also promote U.S. objectives of fostering stability, prosperity, and democracy throughout the hemisphere.

Most certainly wrong. There are no such objectives.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Jun 11, 2008 5:39:31 AM | 114

Posted again, indi artist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJHdT1j6hH8>Lykke Li says it right:

I'm working, I sweat, but it's all good
I'm breaking my back but it's all good
'Cause i know i'll get it back
Yeah, i know your hands will clap
And I'm working,
Yeah, i'm working
To make butter for my piece of bun

And if you say I'm not OK
We mus-t go
If you say there ain't no way that i could know
If you say i aim too high from down below
Well, say you're not 'cause when i'm gone
You'll be callin' but i won't be at the phone

And i'm hanging around 'till it's all done
You can't keep me back once i had some
No wasting time to get it right
And you will see what i'm about

Posted by: anna missed | Jun 11, 2008 5:46:03 AM | 115

This BBC report may be of interest. It would be nice if this sort of thing became fodder for campaign rhetoric, but that probably won't happen "by common consent"
of the contenders.

Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Jun 11, 2008 6:43:14 AM | 116

She's good anna missed. Thanks.

Posted by: beq | Jun 11, 2008 7:42:49 AM | 117

it is a bit strange, I just visited Foxnews' website and searched for Kucinich and the articles of impeachment he read into the congressional record. nada, zilch. frankly I had not expected that.

I asked my colleague at work today if he had heard about it and he was flabbergasted. He then told me that he often could not believe my tinfoil hat conspiracies but after seeing for himself that Dennis had indeed started the impeachment process he was somewhat taken aback.

no one likes to believe that we are fed propaganda but this is perhaps the most stunning example of setting and controlling the news agenda that I have witnessed. Just imagine, making the impeachment of the president of the US a non-event.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 11, 2008 2:05:39 PM | 118

DoS: the silence is deafening. i'm finding "conspiracy" converts everywhere in my community. even my parents are starting to listen to my "rants"

catlady: thank you for the WCW quote. i have always backed WCW over that wanker-wannabe, Eliot (though i begrudgingly appreciate his verse too, because it is that good)

Uncle: thank you VERY MUCH for the links. makes me wonder how poetry--something kids inherently gravitate towards--has become so convoluted and meaningless in this country.

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 12, 2008 12:35:49 AM | 119