The Golden Termite [Today's News Poem, March 4, 2011]

The Golden Termite [Today's News Poem, March 4, 2011]

It's always back and forth between deduction, induction, reduction, seduction; always a slip of the while to recover one's footing; capture one's balance to throw it akilter again. And we slither on tightropes; we slither as tightrope: slivers of quicksilver. Silver; everything bright is a gem or a metal refined to its limit; a thing to explore and deplete and discard. The object dissolves as we breach to the center of things—hear the ring of the harmony latent in spheres? Eve of our prayer to atom, we played in our garden of tin and its blossoms of soot; we reduced our perspective and drilled to the core, which exploded of course and enthralled us. It called us a name we have kept ever since: something like element, shapeshifter—termites that watch for their God in the timber, in cellulose. God of the termites. God as a termite.

"Gold futures rallied and silver hit its highest point in nearly 31-years Friday as jitters about rising oil prices amid Middle East tensions boosted the metals as refuge investments."
—Matt Whittaker Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES, The Wall Street Journal, MARCH 4, 2011, 2:38 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110304-710448.html

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Symposium of Gold and Plastic [Today's News Poem, June 29, 2010]

Symposium of Gold and Plastic [Today's News Poem, June 29, 2010]

The absolute value of anything's measured
By market demand and we seek as consumers
To swallow our purchase; becoming the item.
And Plato said beauty makes mortals possessive.
If alchemists coaxed from their gold what our chemists
Could draw from a barrel of petrol, they'd eat it;
Absorbing the spells from the states of that matter,
Transmuting themselves into something eternal,
Innate, with no context required to engage it.

“American McNuggets (190 calories, 12 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat for 4 pieces) contain the chemical preservative tBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleum-based product. They also contain dimethylpolysiloxane, “an anti-foaming agent” also used in Silly Putty. ”
– Christopher Kimball, CNN
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/25/a-tale-of-2-nuggets

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Autumn Stargazer [Today's News Poem, May 15, 2010]

Autumn Stargazer [Today's News Poem, May 15, 2010]

I panicked. I drank it. I sucked up the river.
The jungle was slimy, the ocean was salty,
The desert was arid; I lounged on the prairie.
I burped up the bones of the fish in the ocean.
The plankton consumed it, I'm certain they flourished.
And somewhere a creature subsists on my garbage.
I'm certain that something evolves in the sewer.
I claw through the mountains in search of my succor
In baubles; like rubies and diamonds. The treasure
In heaps in my pasture looks heady. The seasons
Are changing. My belly is full, but the omens
Are certain. I ponder my fate from my vista—
The oak—and I notice the cosmos are shining.

“On Friday there was renewed panic selling and the euro slid to an 18-month low against the dollar after reports that French president Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull his country out of the single currency to force Germany to agree to the multi-billion rescue plan. Trichet said: "There is always the danger of contagion in the market. And this can happen very quickly, sometimes within a few hours."”
– Julia Kollewe, The Observer, Sunday 16 May 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/16/european-central-bank-president-warns-crisis-war

“A $1 trillion rescue package unveiled at the week's start gave only temporary relief to investors, who are increasingly worried about the impact of the crisis on the global recovery and the euro. ”
– Caroline Valetkevitch, Reuters, May 14, 2010 8:48pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64D6NL20100515

“Four East African states have signed an agreement to seek more water from the River Nile - a move strongly opposed by Egypt and Sudan. ”
– BBC, 16:18 GMT, Friday, 14 May 2010 17:18 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8682387.stm

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The Empress Lends Her Clothes [Today's News Poem, April 1, 2010]

The Empress Lends Her Clothes [Today's News Poem, April 1, 2010]

“Gold, considered a hedge during times of high inflation and economic uncertainty, tends to follow oil and move opposite to the U.S. Dollar.”
--CoinNews.net on Apr 1st, 2010
http://www.coinnews.net/2010/04/01/gold-hits-two-week-high-silver-touches-18oz/

“Life & Style magazine claims Jesse James paid for sex. Sandra Bullock's biker dude husband reportedly often visited the San Diego strip club that employed alleged mistress Michelle ``Bombshell'' McGee.”
--The Miami Herald, Friday, 04.02.10 EST
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/02/1559508/jesse-james-scandal-gets-worse.html

Disease is just the price of doing business with a slut;
And likewise sorrow follows us, regardless of our cut
Of pleasure—call it love—but still we seek to find and claim
The peace that others promise waits for all who call its name.

The value floats: we gauge its worth by market force demand;
So when that feast of passion's gone and lover's taste goes bland,
We question whether love exists or whether it's deceit—
But happiness defies this notion—losing love's defeat.

We chase the golden mean in search of meaning in the gold;
In search of sign—not signified—and what makes value hold.
These treasures we can only know from inference at best;
And so we play along in hopes conformity has blessed

The others—never ill at ease—at least it seems that way.
And since the other option's worse, along we'll have to play.



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