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Terry Carter Irwin, my Forever Friend

November 18, 2019
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2019 1118 terry irwin

In December of 1967 Terry Carter, my classmate, was at the school dance wearing a shimmery silver dress. We danced either once, twice, or three times–I have memory issues now. The important thing is, we danced.

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, also wrote “Smith of Wootten Major.” His protagonist, a blacksmith with an enchanted star on his brow, made a journey through the land of Faery. Along the way he met a delightful, young-yet-ageless woman who ended up dancing with him. Before they parted company she told him to convey a message to Alf the Prentice: “The time has come. Let him choose.” Only after Smith, also known as Starbrow, completed his journey and delivered the message did he learn with whom he had danced.

So it is with Terry, so similar to the Faery girl. She hides her light under a bushel. She would rather I didn’t sing her praises. Yet I must.

Terry Irwin

TERRIFIC as a pre-dawn’s Hi
ENGAGING as a 3rd-act Sigh–her
Righteous WISDOM’s clear–and how
Refreshing as is Maui–Wow–I
Y•o•d•e•l as she earns Renown

Extractive Capitalism

September 10, 2019
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2019 0910 extractive capitalism

This post owes its existence to my friend of many years, designer Terry Irwin. She pointed her Facebook readers to an article in The Nation about Wendell Berry, perhaps the closest thing to a latter-day Thoreau that these times have produced. The article included the phrase “extractive capitalism,” which I have used as the acrostic.

What is Extractive Capitalism? It is exploitation without reciprocity. It is taking advantage and not giving back. Clearcutting and fracking and unsafe offshore drilling are examples, but the practice does not limit itself to Earthly riches: during the housing crisis in the late 2000s, Extractive Capitalism extracted dollars from middle-classers and gave it to banking executives and stockbrokers.

Wendell Berry’s wisdom may be found in this passage from the article: “The time is past when it was enough merely to elect our officials,” [Berry] argued in 1972 concerning the fight against strip mining. “We will have to elect them and then go and watch them and keep our hands on them, the way the coal companies do.”

Another valuable phrase in the article sums this wisdom up: “Participatory democracy.”

In my country the concept of Socialism is being demonized by the current administration. It is painted as Big Government taking and doling out, with hordes of parasites with their hands out. But true, RESPONSIBLE Socialism, where each individual seeks the best fit of meaningful endeavor and fair exchange as a participating member of the state, will be what saves us from climate change, corruption and waste, I think.

Here is my poem, with the acrostic aspect disregarded for clarity, and a word or two changed because of the freedom from stricture:

Extractive Capitalism

ENGULF! Be meteoric
Extend hegemony
A trawler-drag historic
Uproots anemone
I acey-deucey dare ya
It cash-enriches molders
A test run of malaria
Will Instashare the holders
I venture we’ll do Chasms
Enable Cash Orgasms

 

Agnostic Acrostic, and vice versa

August 20, 2019
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20190820_092116

A few days ago I had a dozen index cards, a pen, and an hour till the Sun would damage flesh in the Valley not so much. So I spent that hour, maybe a bit more, putting the bare beginnings of acrostic poems on those cards. This is one of them.

“Agnostic Acrostic.” This poem does not claim any insight into the nature of God-if-any. Its author does not think of himself as an Agnostic, nor a Gnostic, nor an Atheist. I once wrote “why i am not an anything” and believed it were so. Now I think of myself as a Glimmer, i.e. “one who glims.” I hope to fully explore–and explain–what that means before my time ends.

This page would not exist if not for my former classmate and lifelong friend Terry Irwin. It was she who told me about “Slow Knowledge,” which if my recollection serves is the projection of the effect on an action taken by a tribe on descendants up to the 7th generation. If the action was deemed of probable detriment to those descendants, the action was not taken, no matter what immediate good came from it. My phrase “slow wisdom” in this poem derives from this, and my poem cannot do without it. 

So, Terry, many thanks. This blog post is dedicated to you and the fine work done by you and your design collaborators.

This page also owes something to Rachel Carson, who warned us of what happens when we fool with Mother Nature. For more details, please see “Rachel Carson, Speaker for the Silent” elsewhere in this blog.

Agnostic Acrostic

Arming ourselves against bedbug & flea
Could lead to Brave New World‘s Streptocock-G
Ringing a change from peut-être to mais NON
Ogles the boggles and ROCKS Status Quo
Slowing our roll and our role in this mess
Takes the Slow Wisdom approach–we’d be blest
If God-notions don’t squeeze us dry–o terrific–I
Could harbor hope if we DON’T wax Deific

So–what does Agnosticism have to do with “this mess”? Relying less on “thoughts and prayers” and more on the wisdom of forethought can both ease future messes and help heal current ones. That’s this humble Glimmer’s opinion, anyway.

One more acknowledgment: Thank you to the quite youthful, peach-fuzzed Bob Dylan who wrote “With God On Our Side.” Bobby, you were wise beyond your years.