(for the current newsletter, click here; for previous newsletters, here; archive of Manufactured Mailbag, here)
Although poetry appeared in ”The CampChuck Reviewer” before 9/11/2001, page three of the annual Academy Awards newsletter in March 2002 took on a heightened thrust since then. Two short poems stood beside a non-movie-related opinion.
the sound of the sky
four distintegrated planes
still fly over head
- - -
the rains fall upstream
ten thousand things flow downstream
sounds of the waters
The core of that opinion appeared after the two poems. (See the right-side columns.)
National Security, Homeland Security – these recently heightened topics all necessarily filter through practical economics.Investing in not needing the Middle East’s oil may be the single healthiest security initiative we could commit.That investment concept is way more compelling than expensive (and vulnerable) straws and pipes in Alaska and American coastline.
Perhaps the most profitable anti-hatred commitment we could sell internationally (starting at home) is a “practical vision of enough.”Yes, I said “profitable.”I said “sell.”Most notably, I also said “enough.”(Webster’s says enough means necessary, desirable and tolerable.)
The seeds aleady exist to radically produce more while using radically less.We have barely begun planting a sustainable garden.We can all (spell ev e r y bo d y) benefit from a naturally capitalistic harvest.The heart of the strategy … is not sacrifice, it is a radically productive shift to sustainability.
In the February 2004 edition, the poetry with prose commentary continued.
the current climate floats now unto now
the climate averages all of the nows . . . . what prevails over time is the currency that matters
do unto now as you would have the current flow unto you
...2001...2002...2003...2004...
March 2001, The CampChuck Reviewer first referred to the "current climate." In March 2002, CampChuck said that the "current climate was no longer "merely dealing with an undeclared recession." In 2003, apparently, positive economic momentum is the current climate. This begs the question whether most people's lives feel better off economically than three years ago. Do people feel more vulnerable than ever before with industries like fear, aggression, and arrogance fueling economic recovery?
The page three commentary continued, but it wasn’t until February 2007 that it accompanied another poem.A poetic companion to commentary then appeared in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
There is no such thing as a moonless night
The full moon does not reflect the Earth
It is the empty moon that reflects our plight
Only in darkness can we know what the Sun is worth
Reflections off the Moon
Last year, I shared in this space a stance that needs re-emphasizing: We need a well-led moon-shot-style national commitment to energy independence, and more fully, sustainability in general. John F. Kennedy led a 10-year galvanized commitment that got us to the moon. An analogous commitment to energy independence is more than inspiringly possible. It is an engine of economic robustness that can lead the world in a way that war mongering cannot. Our current horizon holds tragic consequences as sure as sunrise. Beyond that horizon, there is balance that can thrive despite such consequences.
2008 on page 3 of The CampChuck Reviewer
February 29th washes away
faster than footprints
at the edge of the ocean
and returns every day
in every wave of time
Cyclic Adjustments
Every four years is a leap year. Every leap year is a presidential election year. The United States is sorely in need of a leap.
February 29 is just one day, a dependably corrective day. Election day is just one day, a potentially corrective day. Between those two days, campaigns drone on. You may think the leap can happen on election day, but it can only happen from grounded devotions by leaders with a vision of a sustainable future and followers that guide their leaders more than 1 or 2 days a year. After this leap year, it will take more than touted experience or elected hope, and surely more than imperialism stretched thin, to better secure the future.
2009 on page 3 of The CampChuck Reviewer
America, You Black now.
Haw. You always Been Black.
Naw. Ain't no taint.
It always Been yo' Potential.
President, Precedent, Prescient
Barack Obama now leads the fact and tone of America's example. We, the People, carry the fact and tone of that example in the way we follow our leaders and lead our leaders. President Obama is the symbol of America. Not of hope and change. OK, that, too. Obama is part White and part Black, and in America, that means you're Black. Issues of race symbolize the United States, crystallize the complexity of the example America sets for an ever shrinking world.
Along with that soul of truth, the engine of America's truth has always been the entrepenurial spirit. We need it thriving now. We need it to be well led and well followed. The color of that spirit leads Green. Not the color of money. OK, that, too.
2010 on page 3 of The CampChuck Reviewer
asleep with our belts tightened
still the rich have us dreaming
that we might get richer as they are
Recovery / Re-covery
We are recovering from a huge hangover. Re-covering, which is to say, we are concealing, once again, the behaviors that caused the painful, debilitating circumstances. Actually, we hardly bother to conceal the booming behaviors that bust us.
Those rich-getting-richer types may symbolize our behavior, but we are all collectively consuming and enabling in a way that cannot be sustained. Booms are worth the busts ... or else why would we keep acting that way? They're worth it until they're not worth it anymore. They're worth it until what's busted can't be put back together again.
Poetry made it onto the cover page of the March 2003 edition.CampChuck had just published a volume of poetry called haiku triples. The following group of three sibling haiku served as a sample.
Factory Outlets Simple Recipes Human Nature For Power
boundaries anyone defying abound will do the odds
we manufacture break this rule defying limits break that rule authority Or they're all break crossing lines defective the golden rule of can't
As far back as the March editions of 1997, 1998 and 1999, samples appeared from what was developing to be haiku triples.
Oregon Attitude, Opus #3.1
renting a hilltop
across from higher hilltops
owning thoughts between
Adjusting to the Light
a new light a shadow reflections shining casting bouncing
hold it light understanding you cannot hold it light inside out in a dual role
see it teller lightening see in it bookkeeper angles
Much of the poetry in The CampChuck Reviewer appears in the special travel oriented editions, for instance the following haiku triples in the July 1995 (Nevada, Utah, and Colorado) and the September 1996 (Andalucia in Spain) special editions.
Aspen Leaves Aspen Forests Aspen Town
chlorophylled neatly spread is this rich jewels cream trees or what
sparkling whispers gather yup light the wind the luscious greenscape or some kind of fools' gold
and crisp by breathing or maybe the stillness the snow fooled gold
Our Pueble Blanco, Cave Drawings La Serrania Montejaque at La Pileta de Ronda
a donkey tag rocky ridgetops clip clops the Marks of Man watch
streets, where rough riding a car width pre-history mountain bikers (or less) wide ended and quaint tourism smooth sailing village bustle began clouds
Lit. 101
I read by the light
The light swings The light flickers
I keep on reading
The typical approach to poetry at CampChuck – haiku – appear, respectively, in the following special travel editions: 1999 (California, Nevada, and Utah), 2001 (Nevada, Utah, and Colorado), 2002 (central California coast), 2002 (Mt. Lassen, California), and 2003 (LakesBasin in California) and again after a stretch without a travel edition, 2010 (Olympic National Park and Victoria, BC).
traveling the roads
we went straight turned right turned left
many times we stopped
black mountains, black trees evening glows on gray water stillness fills the lake
amidst the tall pines
woodpecker tap tap tapping
I have a headache
Cold Air, Warm Canyon
Bouncing bead hailstones
skitter down a Zion cliff
how April can dance
Communing again
Just another waterfall
May of the new year
Waterfall Sounds
inside white I hear silver gray clear as sunshine singing me rainbows
This haiku triple in the September 2002 special travel edition (Mt. Lassen in California) was written after the book,haiku triples, was published.
awake can't get back random in the night to sleep memories
scanning the light memories long agos in the dark of this and that and recentlies
random itchy this sleeeep sleep memories odd that sleeeep sleep sss
Yes, poetrythat becomes part of CampChuck often tends to haiku.Here’s an exception in the September 2003 special travel edition (Lakes Basin in California).
