Dog Disputes the Existence of God

Dog, knowing his name spelled backwards
is God, still has doubts. Would a rational, beneficent

God create Pomeranians? Dog doesn’t think so.
Six of them tangle now on the other side of the fence,

a chaotic, irritating Pilobolus of ratdog fury, gone
berserk over the simple fact that Dog is lifting

his leg on the rhododendron in their front yard.
The sound is that of rabid mosquitoes on meth…

not pleasant. But with God, one never knows. Perhaps
they are yet another test, tedious as this gets, being

Job. Perhaps He has His reasons. Dog wanders
away from the glistening rhodi leaves, the nightmarish

noise and looks to the sky, pewter as usual. Why Pomeranians?
Dog asks silently, Why? He realizes this question, although

in other languages, other forms, has been asked
a million times before, and will be asked a million

times again. And that no answer will ever come, no
answer clear as a righteous bark on a moonlit night.

Dog Treads Lightly on the Day

Jewels in the trees
the asphalt glazed with ice

Dog treads lightly
on this world

Even his breath, soft
white cumulus huffs

is beautiful. Above,
four crows in one tree

squawk at seven crows
in the adjacent tree. Dog

gives them a look. “Chill,”
it says, “chill.” The day

is clear as ice, sharp
as glass.

Google Books vs Pierre Bourdieu

For anyone wishing to read an excellent description and forecast for Google Books (is it really going to evolve into the world's largest book business?) check out the article Google & Books by Robert Darnton, director of Harvard's Library, in the February 12 New York Review of Books.

Bail Out the Book Industry

Katha Pollitt's column makes a lot of sense, and good reading. Check it out.

Brave New World

Having just finished Huxley's disturbing dystopic masterpiece Brave New World, and then getting a moderate dose of Superbowl commercials, it seems we are devolving toward a similar future. Commercial (late capitalistic) America utilizes continual messaging (subliminal and not) that defines what a man and a woman in this culture should be. The picture is not pretty. Approved = young, perfectly formed/great looking (although remarkably similar in appearance), superficial, happy, consumptive, addicted to tactile pleasures; Disapproved = introspective/thoughtful, passionate, compassionate, diseased, frugal (or poor), different. While we are still a long way from the Contolled production of genotypes and slaves, there is a path blazed.