Art Of Hip Hop

Armed with chalk
and a canvas the length
of their sidewalk,
the eight year old takes
creative control to
paint boxed footsteps
from one to ten.

Aim and balance
go hand-in-hand when
perfectly placed,
a stone’s advancement
requires a similar
hop of one leg or both
into the bullseye.

Determined, four
children hopscotch up
and back again,
storks all or perhaps
wobbly sailors,
with arms extended
into open wings.

The ghost of
childhood competitions
awoken, a few
uncles also flap forward,
each intent on
mastering the forgotten
art of hip hop.

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being / Milan Kundera

Set primarily in Czechoslovakia in the period before and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when Russian tanks rolled into the country to seize control of it, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a novel that is both philosophical and political in nature.  It focuses on two specific couples and their relationships, their separate desires and needs, and the elusive quest for happiness. Czech novelist Kundera unfolds their personal stories, entwined with the strict repressions forced upon them by the Communist regime.

Tomas is a surgeon and a womanizer who sleeps with a young woman, Tereza, and finds to his surprise that after his one night stand, she has become a permanent fixture in his world.  Even so, unable to give up other women, he carries on affairs with others, even though his life has no meaning without Tereza in it.  One of those affairs is with an artist, Sabina, who later leaves him to get involved with a married man.  Heavy on the philosophical nature of life, the book contrasts the base desires of the body with the mind’s loftier nature.

It is a complex work, and its plot is never straight forward as it describes the unanswerable meanings of its characters’ lives.  At times pretentious and cloying, nevertheless Kundera does a masterful job of capturing human nature at a personal level, making his flawed, damaged characters worthy of the reader’s respect.  Daring at the time it was written for its frank tackling of human sexuality, The Unbearable Lightness of Being deserves its status as a classic novel.  Using a mixture of styles in its presentation, the book challenges the reader to not only admit to our base natures, but to celebrate our quest to rise above them.

What Makes Sammy Run / Budd Schulberg

What Makes Sammy Run, published in 1941, is fast paced, never dull, and funny, while at the same time it’s a serious character study on the desire for success at any cost in this country.  Upon introduction, Sammy Glick is a cub news reporter with big dreams at a New York City newspaper.  Always on the run, intent on making a name for himself, he rises from humble beginnings to become a kingpin in Hollywood.  To do so, he unabashedly double-crosses and stabs other professionals in the back to advance his own career.  It does not bother him in the least that in his wake he leaves wrecked careers and promises broken.

The novel’s narrator is Al Mannheim, a report who first meets Sammy in the newsroom and later follows him to Hollywood where, in fascination, he watches his climb to the top at a movie studio.  Even though Mannheim is repulsed by the tactics Glick uses to get ahead, somehow he finds himself adopted as Sammy’s one and only friend.  Mannheim in this story is the voice of conscience, intent on solving the puzzle of “what makes Sammy run.”  The tale he presents is not only of the man himself, but also a critique of the desire to get ahead no matter who gets stepped on in the process.

Sammy is a despicable person, and as such is a classic anti-hero who has intrigued readers in the generations since the book’s publication.  This is the tale of a person who has blinded himself from self-reflection and who is unable to stop running to enjoy the fruits of his labors.  Sammy’s greatest fear is that if he does slow down, he will be overthrown by someone even more ruthless.  This was Budd Schulberg’s first novel, and its immediate success made his career as a writer.  Having been raised in a family involved in film making, he knows the industry well, and the funny potshots he takes at the mystique of Hollywood carry a truthful sting.  The novel is a delight to read, and beneath the surface, is a sobering one as well.

Childhood Lessons

Your parents warned of
the stone within the cherry
but did not mention
beneath its bright temptation
taste buds’ tart discovery

There in the kitchen
candy sitting in a bowl
and sweet to the eye
the bite of cranberries teach
a bitter lesson spit out

Who would ever think
despite the absence of bees
a rose bush’s pink
invitation could sting and
draw blood if fingers inspect

Bedtime Story

In a pink tutu
bucking the current
the salmon
leaps off the page
to swim
in the sleepy calm
of her eyes

In formal attire
as it backstrokes
the penguin
kicks a beach ball
over the fold
where breath held
she hurries me

In a pristine
ermine overcoat
the polar bear
ambles towards
“The End” as
beyond the print
she follows

The Bleachers

In the Bloomer High gym
the bleachers have been pulled out.
Parents and relatives are
filling the place, the majority being
of German descent,
with Swedes and Norwegians too,
and still proudly wearing
their difficult to spell last names,
a few Poles mixed in.
Not that you can tell them apart
when seen from afar.
Shrugging off heavy winter coats,
breathless from the climb
up to their chosen row and seat,
they look worn out after
a long work week, but still game.
Some congregants have
already imbibed at a local tavern,
and the farm families,
even after showering, still carry
a whiff of livestock.
Wives instantly begin to chatter
with each other, content
in knowing that their husbands
are men of few words,
and most of those monosyllabic.
It is hard to believe
that the lanky, athletically gifted
sons down on the court
can claim any of them as parents.
But rising for the anthem,
a melting pot united, this crowd
tonight cheers as one.

The Best And The Brightest / David Halberstam

The Best and the Brightest is considered by many to be the definitive book explaining how the United States got involved in the Vietnam War and why we found it so difficult to extract ourselves once it became evident we were fighting a losing battle.  Published in 1972, David Halberstam does a masterful job of introducing a lengthy list of key players on the American side, along with their past histories and motivations.  While many of the people highlighted will not be familiar to a younger audience, for anyone who grew up in the 1960s, they are remembered all too well.  His cast of characters include Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, and General William Westmoreland.  But just as important, and maybe even more so, are the highly educated government officials who served under both presidents, referred to at the time as the country’s best and brightest.

A major driving factor leading to our involvement goes back to the Communists’ taking control of China in 1949, while the Democrats were in power in the U.S.  This segued to the Republicans taking over the White House in the 1950s and the rise of Red Scare McCarthyism during the 1950s.  After the Democrats regained power in 1960, they were determined not to be shackled with the blame should Vietnam follow China and go Communist as well.  But just as important was the hubris of the government officials under Kennedy and LBJ.  Despite a wealth of evidence suggesting otherwise, it was believed that, once we were involved militarily, victory was assured because of our superiority in weapons and manpower.  What they failed to realize or admit was that the conflict had little to do with the spread of Communism and more to do with local Vietnamese nationalists seeking to reunite their country.

Clearly highlighted in the book is how we tiptoed, piecemeal, into the conflict, first with advisors, then with a steady influx of American soldiers.  At each step along the way, it was thought that we could easily back out, not understanding that once our troops were on the ground, we’d stepped into a quagmire that would require continued escalation simply to save face.  One would like to believe that the lessons from the Vietnam War would prevent our country from making similar mistakes in the future.  Yet in reading this book today, the parallels with our recent involvement in Afghanistan are striking.  While The Best and the Brightest, with its 688 pages in small type, is by no means an easy read, it is a study that remains just as relevant now as when it was first published.

Ceramic Bowl

Craving is like
a fine ceramic bowl,
delicate and
exquisitely painted,
easily chipped
if used carelessly
at every meal.

Best brought
out from the mind’s
cupboard for
special occasions,
cradled by
hands when carried
to the table.

If mishandled
and burdened with
daily wear,
asked to hold too
much, its
transparent beauty
finally cracks.

Brotherless Night / V.V. Ganeshananthan

In this novel’s opening pages, Sashikala Kulenthiren, the story’s narrator, is a sixteen year old student living in the majority-Tamil city of Jaffa, a city in northeast Sri Lanka.  She is a student preparing to take exams that will allow her to go to medical school.  The year is 1981 and in the following chapters, Sashikala describes the beginnings of Sri Lanka’s three decades long civil war and its effects on her family, community, and personal life. 

The civil war, sparked following anti-Tamil pogroms carried out by the country’s majority Sinhalese population, has led to the formation of militant groups demanding the creation of an independent Tamil state.  One of these, the Tamil Tigers, soon becomes the dominant force in and around Jaffa, and two of Sashikala’s brothers plus a close friend decide to become members of the group.  While she is sympathetic with the rebels’ cause, she is deeply troubled by the Tamil Tigers’ ruthless suppression of community members who refuse to take part in the rebellion or who dare to question the terrorist tactics they are using against the government.  This leads to the killings of a number of professors and other people she knows in the years following.

Brotherless Night describes Sashikala’s moral journey as she tries to navigate her way through the unfolding conflict.  A gifted storyteller, Ganeshananthan captures this young woman’s dilemma as she is forced to decide on how much support to provide the Tamil Tigers as a physician, and whether or not to remain silent against their terrorist tactics and the brute force they employ to keep citizens in line.  For those wishing to know more about the Sri Lanka civil war, this novel vividly captures its complexities and presents a heartrending portrait of the conflict as seen through one woman’s eyes.  I whole heartedly recommend this haunting read.