Thursday, May 25, 2023

A Room of My Own: My Book of Love Haiku

for Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock & Roll

tell my why, tell me why ...
heartwriting my book of love 
line by line, word by word 


FYI: FYI: Tina Turner's "Why Must We Wait Until Tonight" (live at the Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino, California, 1993)

...Tell me why? Baby. Why must we wait until tonight? Oh, yeah.
Tell me why? Why, when I've waited all my life?
You're touching me, I'm touching you...
Oooh, what should I do? Now tell me why, why must we wait 'till tonight?
You like to take it real slow.
Show me every little move you know.
Take a little love and watch it grow.
But I want to lay with you...darling.
Right now.
Make love all day with you baby.
And show you how...
Take my body, don't take my time.
Take your lips and make them mine...


Added: Game Show 2024, XX

Ain't No Sunshine
to Ron DeSantis whose political preoccupations are: “Disney-bashing, book banning, and policing who uses which bathroom" 

repeat after me
Make America Great again...
his baby babbling

amazing dad!
he teaches his toddler daughter 
to build the [paper] wall

2024 bid
just another Trump without
(sexual) baggage


FYI: The New Yorker, May 25: It Was More Than a #DeSaster: Ron DeSantis’s botched campaign launch suggests that he’s no Trump-killer

... when DeSantis’s official campaign launch, on Twitter, was mired with technical glitches.... both on Twitter and in a subsequent interview on Fox News, which boiled down to a lot of complaints about the ‘legacy media’ and little rationale for his candidacy.” DeSantis failed to mention Trump by name, and instead focussed on his own political preoccupations—which Glasser describes as “Disney-bashing, book banning, and policing who uses which bathroom.”


Added: This Brave New World, LXXXIII
written in response to Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial "Statesman"
and for Christopher Hitchens author of The Trial of Henry Kissinger that presents a series of arguments about alleged war crimes committed by his American “nemesis”.


Kissinger blows out
one hunderd birthday candles 
in the spotlight
as I imagine him being put
in the dock at The Hague

FYI: Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”

-- Anthony Bourdain, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines

For more, see Democracy Now, May 24Kissinger at 100: New War Crimes Revealed in Secret Cambodia Bombing That Set Stage for Forever Wars

And Rolling Stone, Nov.29: Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies

The infamy of Nixon's foreign-policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers. A deeper shame attaches to the country that celebrates him.

BBC News, November 30Henry Kissinger: China mourns 'a most valued old friend' and Time Magazine, Nov. 30: Why China Fondly Remembers Henry Kissinger.


Added

This Exceptionalist
on whom the musician Tom Lehrer famously remarked, “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Kissinger blows out
one hundred birthday candles 
in the spotlight
as I imagine him being put
in the dock at The Hague

goodbye for good
the American Century 
Incarnate!
the "peace prize" winner dies
with blood on his hands

FYI: I expanded "hundred birthday candles" into a tanka set, This Exceptionalist. And The Nation, Nov.29: A People’s Obituary of Henry Kissinger: For decades, Kissinger kept the great wheel of American militarism spinning ever forward.

And The New Yorker, Nov. 30: Henry Kissinger’s Hard Compromises

In 1973, when he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in brokering a ceasefire with the North Vietnamese, two members of the Nobel committee resigned in protest....The musician Tom Lehrer famously remarked, “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” ...He was known to greet a wary dinner partner with the opening words, “I suppose you are one of those people who think I’m a war criminal.

1 comment:

  1. The biggest contribution Kissinger made to US foreign policy was his advocacy for “realpolitik”. He believed that the US should base its foreign policy decisions on a clear and systematic assessment of power dynamics and the pursuit of geopolitical stability.

    It was an approach that emphasised the pragmatic pursuit of national interests instead of a strict adherence to abstract ideological principles.

    The key feature of this realpolitik was the importance of maintaining a balance of power, believing the US should actively engage with other major powers to prevent any one nation from gaining hegenomy or threatening US dominance.

    This approach shaped his handling of major geopolitical events during the cold war, such as the aforementioned normalisation of the relations with China as well as the development of a détente policy towards the USSR in the early 1970s. This perspective also emerged clearly in his approach towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    -- excerpted from The Conversation, May 26: Kissinger at 100: his legacy might be mixed but his importance has been enormous, accessed at https://theconversation.com/kissinger-at-100-his-legacy-might-be-mixed-but-his-importance-has-been-enormous-206470

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