OK, summer vacation is over for me. Now it's time to get into completing projects and preparing for the fall. I didn't get back from Hartford until around 8:30 PM on Friday. Plane delays because of the thunderstorms. The trip to Hartford went well. It was good to spend time with my Curbstone Press family. I enjoyed my Thursday reading in the Julia de Burgos Park that's across the street from the Curbstone building. The next person who will be reading in the park is Jim Scully. Curbstone just reprinted his book LINE BREAK: POETRY AS SOCIAL PRACTICE; it was first published in 1988. At my reading was the poet Jon Andersen. Curbstone recently published his book of poems, STOMP AND SING.
In September (25th) the press will be celebrating its 30th anniversary. A big celebration is being planned to take place. The anniversary posters are awesome.
You will want to frame it.
Also at my reading was Alison Meyers who runs the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.
www.hillstead.org. HU student Jennifer Steele works with Alison. Jen was at the reading too.



"An old world disappears, another one is being formed, and within this I am trying to conceal some good seed or other that will have its springtime."
- Pope John XXIII.


New Bob Dylan music is going to be released on Monday. Double- disc set.
BOB DYLAN: No direction Home.

Good buy - THE ATLANTIC magazine,FICTION ISSUE. On newstands.

Another new book by Curbstone:
THE SCORPION'S TAIL by Sylvia Torti. The novel explores struggles of indigenous people in Southern Mexico during the Zapatista rebellion.

I arrived in Hartford this morning. I spent the early afternoon at the Curbstone Press office. I have a radio interview and reading tomorrow...then it's back home for me.

Tonight I'm staying in my hotel room reading a stack of manuscripts I packed. Is this my summer vacation?

I've been monitoring (reading) about the backlash against Muslims in England. Many incidents reported. I'm certain a few things are happening in our own country too.
Tolerance and respect for others is so important. The actions of one, two, three, or more people should not send us backwards into history. I'm in middle age surrounded by the Middle Ages.

I met with Liz Lerman this morning at the Savory near the Takoma Park Metro. This is what Liz is doing:
toolbox.danceexchange.org

Liz was awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant" a few years ago.

It's amazing how quickly the London bombing moved from page one in the news. I did listen to some of the television "experts" talking about who might be responsible.
I immediately thought back to those "experts" who never suspected the identity of the two individuals who were shooting at people in the DC/MD/VA area, not too long ago. It's amazing how folks can't think out of the box, or try to place everything
into their little boxes of knowledge. Making bombs is just becoming too easy for the average citizen. It's like owning a gun. Does a person have a right to carry a bomb?
What about the guy who has a fight with his girlfriend and then wants to place a bomb on a bus - just because he had a bad day? Must we all suffer? We are faced with political terrorists as well as folks who might think "this" reality is just a game. That's the type of mind that unleashes computer viruses - just to mess with folks or see what that they can get away with. We also need to have more discussion about Islamic law. There are folks who want to live under it. There are folks that want everyone to live under it. That's where we have to draw lines. It's so important that we maintain a separation between church and state. Islamic law is just not going to keep an open door and protect people who might be Gay. How women are treated is still a serious issue of debate in a number of Muslim countries. So how do we confront people who don't want to compromise or even talk about our various differences? Difficult. Difficult. What do we do if someone is willing to terrorize our society because of what they believe? How much freedom will we sacrifice just to feel safe? Bert needs to know.

More news attention is begining to focus on the methamphetamine problem in rural areas.Many children are becoming orphans.This looks like another crisis in the making.

The writer James Haskins died last Wednesday. He was the author of many books on Black History for young adults. The first book he wrote was back in 1969. The title was DIARY OF A HARLEM SCHOOLTEACHER. The books I have in the African American Resource Center at Howard include:
ONE MORE RIVER TO CROSS: THE STORIES OF TWELVE BLACK AMERICANS
THE PICTURE LIFE OF MALCOLM X
JAMES VAN DERZEE: TH PICTURE-TAKIN' MAN
THE COTTON CLUB: A PICTORIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS SYMBOL OF THE JAZZ ERA

I have a busy week coming up. A trip to Hartford.
Tomorrow I'll speak to the teachers involved in the DC Writing Project. I'll share some new poems and talk about the writing life.
In the evening I'll meet with my friend Monica.

Today (Sunday) I went over to Georgetown University and watched my son play in the summer league. His team finally won a game. They are 1-4. The game went into overtime.
I saw Thompson (the elder) sitting on the otherside of the court, relaxing and checking things out. The guy is responsible for Georgetown's basketball reputation.

I watched the Nationals lose again. :-(
I think the arms in the bullpen are getting tired. The relief pitchers can't hold leads.

My friend Molly (from Bennington) was in town with her lovely family. We sat(after 5 PM) in a restaurant near DuPont Circle and had a nice time talking and laughing.
On the way home I stopped in Kramers and purchased a New York Review of Books. There is an article about Billie Holiday in the latest issue.

They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away
And just the pure at heart will walk her righteous streets someday

They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away
But if there is a God, we need Him now
"Where is your God?"
That's what my friends ask me
And I say it's taken Him so long
'Cause we've got as far to come...

Tell me people.
Why can't they say that hate is 10 zillion light years away
Why can't the light of good shine God's love in every soul

- Stevie Wonder



How long do sleeper cells sleep?
Who wakes them? Why?




Paul Cezanne celebration next year at the National Gallery of Art in Washington:
January 29 to May 7, 2006.
The show will include 87 paintings, 29 watercolors and 2 lithographs.


BiDil is going on sale soon. The first drug intended for African Americans. The maker is NitroMed. They claim as many as 750,000 African Americans suffer from heart failure and are candidates for the drug.
Any patient without prescription drug coverge will have to pay $25 a month. Poor patients might be able to get the drug free. Let's hope so...
This drug according to a study reduced mortality by 43 percent over 18 months.


Ichiro is back in form. He is now hitting .311. Look for him to raise his average a good 50 points during July and August.

Talking sports....my son is playing in the College and Pro Leagues. The games are played on the campus of Georgetown University. He played a good game yesterday evening. His next games are:
Today at 1:30 PM
Sunday (July 10th) at 12 Noon
Friday (July 15th) at 6 PM
Saturday (July 16th) at 4:30 PM
Sunday (July 24th) at 4:30 PM


I'm getting ready for my next Muse to Muse program. Wendy Rieger dropped by yesterday and we talked about the Irish poems she will be reading next month. I'll be posting things on my website. This event will be held at the new BusBoys & Poets
restaurant located at 14th and V Streets. It should be fun.

I'll try and complete the reading of A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA today. I have a couple of manuscripts to review, a book preface to write, and a book blurb for a forthcoming book. Ah...the weekend.

So my son and I went up to Silver Spring and had dinner. We also decided to catch a late night flick. We went and saw WAR OF THE WORLDS. You only need to watch maybe 30-35 minutes of this movie. This is a one sock film. You know how one always loses the other sock in the wash? I like the early humor and dialogue. Not much else. Dakota Fanning is good. She should get nominated for something. Cruise is just another helpless guy trying to figure out want to do. He lacks even the courage of his son.
Tim Robbins appears to be looking for the Idaho or the Texas border. It's a good thing the aliens don't say much in this movie. Cruise's son (Justin Chatwin) seems to be looking for the local Army recruiter. The guy wants to fight back even when he has no idea who he is fighting against. I guess since folks are trying to get to Boston it must be about patriotism. There are quite a number of flags in this movie.
So this is our 9/11 aftermath...The other shoe? Sleeper cells waiting to do us in.
Just waiting. Can anything good come out of New Jersey? And what's going on in London this morning?

The musical "The Color Purple" will open in New York on December 1st. Previews will begin at the Broadway Theater on October 25th.

"The Smallest Witnesses: The Conflict in Darfur Through Children's Eyes" will be on display through September 6th at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU.
Art work by children 8 -17, collected by researchers from Human Rights Watch.

The James Wright letters in APR are OK. If I have extra cash I might pick-up a copy of A WILD PERFECTION: THE SELECTED LETTERS OF JAMES WRIGHT. I read them during the holiday. I also spent time in my basement, cleaning and sorting stuff. I discovered a number of June Jordan items to ship to the University of MN. I also came across two pieces of correspondence from Reetika. I'll add it to her file.

I received a letter from Naomi Long Madgett in Detroit. They unveiled the bronze bust of her at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History on June 4th.
Madgett is a poet and publisher. She established Lotus Press in 1972. The press has published 87 collections of poetry. Ms. Madgett recently completed work on her memoir, PILGRIM JOURNEY.

Julie Fay's new book came in the mail today. The title is BLUE SCORPION. Julie teaches at East Carolina University. The new book is published by Truman State University Press in Kirksville, Missouri. The price is $14.95. Singing praise words on the back of Fay's book are Michael Collier, Diane Wakoski, Marilyn Hacket and Alberto Rios.

In the New York Times today their is an excellent review of Howard Bryant's JUICING THE GAME: Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball.
Bryant is African American and is a sports columnist for The Boston Herald. His earlier book was SHUT OUT: A STORY OF RACE AND BASEBALL IN BOSTON.

If you have the NY Times also checkout the Health section and the profile on Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer is the founding director of Partners in Health. Tracy Kidder wrote about Farmer in the book MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. Farmer is making a difference in the world - in places like Haiti and Rwanda.

Lorenzo Thomas (Bio note): 1944-2005.
Poet and critic. He was born in Panama and grew up in New York. Educated at Queens College. His works appeared in many journals including African American Review, Partisan Review and Ploughshares. He was the author of Chances Are Few, The Bathers, Es Gibt Zeugen, Extraordinay Measures: Afrocentric Modernism and 20th Century American Poetry and Dancing on Main Street.
Thomas was the recipient of the Dwight Durling Prize in poetry, the Lucille Medwick Award, two Poets Foundation awards, and a fellowship with the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the director of the Cultural Enrichment Center and Professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown.

Lorenzo Thomas is gone. Ahmos Zu-Bolton introduced me to his work. Lorenzo's poem "Sounds of Joy" was the last poem in Hoo Doo # 1. This was the little magazine Ahmos was editing out of DeRidder, Louisiana. It was the early 1970s. In that first issue keeping Thomas company were Kalamu Ya Salaam, Antar Sudan Katara Mberi, Ron Welburn, Dudley Randall, May Miller and Pinkie Gordan Lane. But it was that last poem by Lorenzo that knocked me in the head. It rocked with the opening lines:

The firmament of my dungeon
shakes. And I recline back
into my dramatics of darkness
and doubts of reaching a night

Where there is nothing
But light. And I imagine
that stars beg my love
In her same soft tongue

Lorenzo Thomas had a cerebral quietness mixed with gunslinger cool. He was modest, humble and friendly. His critical work was needlepoint. You read it and wondered why it looked so good and was amazed by its depth. Lorenzo was providing the critical comments we needed on black poetry. There is a gap or black hole in this area. Much of the work has been around the novel; especially those written by African American women the last thirty years.
I think the success of Cave Canem is going to require that we begin to examine what's going on in African American poetry. I think Lorenzo Thomas pointed us in the right direction. This brother was a flag marking a new continent.
And let us not forget his own creative work - those poems that keep us dancing on Main Street.

So long Zo. The music never ends.

Sunday I sat in Cosi (DuPont Circle/R Street) and watched the world do what it does.
I read an essay Naomi wrote a few weeks ago. While sitting in the sun, Julliette and then Michon passed by. Juliette is doing ceramics: www.kanikakulture.com.
Michon is still editing the Roger Wilkins interview; it will be our next Humanities Profiled television show.

On the bus back home I read a few poems from Nathalie Handal's new collection of poems (THE LIVES OF RAIN).
Later I read some fiction by Flannery O' Connor.

I did catch the Nationals/Cubs game (from the 7th inning to the 12th). Man...these Nats could go all the way. Folks won't even remember last year's Red Sox.
Ichiro is back to .300 and playing much better the last 4 games.

I answered 12 interview questions and sent them back to a journalist in India.
I'll do some work on my poetry manuscript in a few hours.

$2.00 book sale. Good for school children. My son is making the following titles available. Send me an email if you're interested (emiller698@aol.com):

THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller
THE THEBAN PLAYS by Sophocles
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain
COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier
THE PRACTICE OF POETRY edited by Robin Behn & Chase Twichell
THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE by Forrest Carter
IF YOU COME SOFTLY by Jacqueline Woodson
OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck (2 copies)
OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING by Shakespeare
NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS
THE ILIAD by Homer
A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND by Flannery O'Conner
ALL MY SONS by Arthur Miller
JULIUS CAESAR by Shakespeare

Textbooks:
INTRODUCING CHEMISTRY (3RD Edition)
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT by Karen O'Conner & Larry Sabato
GEOMETRY
EN ESPANOL!
LIVING THE MESSAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT by Michael Pennock

But what about the politics in the Batman movie? Once again one finds a subtle attack against liberals. Checkout Bruce Wayne's father trying to solve urban problems. What was he talking about while on the train ride to the opera? Glad to see he was pushing public transportation. But it's often good to have a car or limo waiting when you want to go home late at night. His death is a result of not acting against the homeless guy with the gun. Yep, liberals always fail to act. That's what the bad guy in the movie will tell us. Wayne's father felt he could just give the guy cash and he would leave his family alone. Nope. Bang. Bang.

Batman is different from his dad. That's why the Wayne mansion had to be destroyed, and rebuilt with some structural changes (the Batcave).Is it a question of heart?
Remember how Bruce's father had him listening to his own heart? So Batman rebuilds and fights the criminal underworld. But what about the issue of class? Bruce Wayne gives a homeless guy his coat - seven years later the guy is still homeless and wearing the same coat. Go figure. But we do know that the new Wayne business will support Affirmative Action. The first person Bruce Wayne encounters when he returns to the family business is the black receptionist. He is caught trying to show her how to play golf. Maybe her knowledge of the game will get her into the board room. Hmmm. I like how Morgan Freeman got a new job. What will the Joker have to say about all this?


Do we just defeat the bad guys or do we try to solve the problems that create criminals? Bruce Wayne must be a Republican. Batman looks like the type of guy who won't vote in the next election.Where does that leave us? In the Batcave with Alfred?

The Batman Begins movie is pretty good. I like how the film attempts to explore the dark side of Bruce Wayne. The fights are shot really well. A nice visual quickness
that pulls the viewer in until one is almost forced to cover one's eyes. I like the sound of this movie too. Morgan Freeman was enjoying himself. It was good to see him "riding" with Bruce and not having to drive; especially since Bruce had already picked his "daisy" before heading up the mountain.

Karibu bookstores are expanding into the Baltimore area. New site is at the Security Square Mall in Woodlawn. Congrats to Simba Sana and Yao Ahoto. These brothers would make Garvey proud. Imagine if they were in charge of the Black Star Line?

After 12 years, center Shawn Bradley retired from the NBA. When did he ever really play? A tall story looking for a plot.

George Weah, soccer legend is thinking about running for president of Liberia. Goal.
Maybe stability won't be kicked across the field.

Ralph Wiley died last year at the age of 52.
You can still read his work - new book: CLASSIC WILEY: A LIFETIME OF PUNCHERS, PLAYERS, PUNKS & PROPHETS. ESPN Books. $24.95.

Luther gone
And every woman looks out a window at silence


This week, the historian and writer Shelby Foote died. He was an expert on the Civil War. We did the Charlie Rose Show together when the movie Glory came out.
It was a program I really enjoyed doing. So many people leaving this year...

O'Conner leaving.
Where is the Supreme Court going? Look for the Reagan social agenda to be put in place in a few years. Women in Afghanistan will be supporting the "new" women's movement in the US. So quickly our laws can be changed. This is something I always remember Malcolm X talking about. Folks taking away our civil rights because they have the votes. The struggle continues or maybe it's getting started again.

90th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, October 5- 9, 2005. Hyatt Regency Buffalo, 2 Fountain Plaza, Buffalo, New York. 716 856 1234
www.asalh.org

Bert is back! It feels good to relax and just put things around the house in order.
I might go to the movies tomorrow afternoon. I had fun in Boston. Last night I read at the Harvard-Epworth Church in Cambridge with Carolyn Forche and Bruce Weigl. It was so good getting a chance to see them again. I could listen to both of them read their work all night. We had a good crowd. I saw a couple of Bennies too. Earlier in the day I did a workshop over at the University of Massachusetts for the William Joiner Center. It was part of their 18th Annual Writers' Workshop. I did a session on how to move from writing poetry to doing a memoir. Things went well. Afterwards when I went back to the Copley House (where I was staying) I ran into Grace Paley.
We had a nice chat. She's such a beautiful person; a joy to be around.

During most of my stay in Boston I read Delville's book AMERICAN PROSE POEM: Poetic Form and the Boundaries of Genre.
Reading the book encouraged me to write "Tender Zippers." It's a funny, erotic poem that plays off Stein's "Tender Buttons." I read it last night and the feedback was good.

I need to get ready for my July 20th, NPR program. It will be a book discussion of A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA by Ursula K. LeGuin.

Tonight I'll sit down and read THE LIVES OF RAIN by Nathalie Handal and WHAT I WOULD DO FOR LOVE by Grace Cavalieri.

I've been reading more the last few days. Here are a few things you might want to look into:

- An article on Herman Kahn in The New Yorker (June 27, 2005). Kahn along with McLuhan shaped my thinking in the early 1960s. Kahn was my introduction to Think Tanks and thinking about the unthinkable.

- The New York Times on June 30th had an article on Marshall Allen trying to keep The Sun Ra Arkestra alive. Sun Ra's home in Philadelphia should be made into a historical site. The place would be a Mecca if this was Saturn.

Folks are getting ready for the G 8 Summit: www.one.org

Opening event: Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals, DeWayne Barton, "Forgotten Roots: African American Muslims in Early America."
Sunday, July 10, 2005, 3 - 5 P.M.
The Anacostia Museum
1901 Fort Place, SE
Washington, D.C.

A new book arrived in the mail while I was away. The title is:
The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in The 1960s and 1970s by James Edward Smethurst. It was good to see references to Henderson and Zu-Bolton. No reference to Miller. Hmmm. Folks will write you out of history if you don't have E-Notes. Enough already. Believe I'll run on and see what the end is gonna be.