The Critics (The New Yorker)

The Critics

There was young couple.

He was a likable man

A talented, cunning suitor

Desirable and independent

with all the subtlety of a supernova.

She was likely to be awake.

A believer in strong voices,

She had taught The Boy

how to speak like a poem.

He lives here with his cat

and occasionally his wife.

The wedding was a mourning song

without death.

Their youth is apparent

with the ticking of clocks.

They lost focus,

Lacked vigor.

Generations passed

It grew harder to act.

And, in the end, could not resist themselves.

She did not want to be disturbed

He will change his view.

They fell apart.

It's not the space one has,

It's the time.

There is no end.

They will come to life again

after a good rain.

Music Under Attack (Rolling Stone)

Music Under Attack

Support the art,

and the truth that is music.

Explicit lyrics

explicit language

"nigga" "bitch" and "ho."

You can't improve anything

if you ban three words.

Increased regulation of obscenities

Opposition to censorship.

One man's vulgarity

is another's lyric

His fundamental right to express

To change people's lives.

People don't sing happy songs

if they're broke.

Fix our communities,

We'll fix our lyrics.

Jolting Innovation (New York Times)

Jolting Innovation

Declined outlook

weighed down

shouted down

by the misjudging weak.

Keep going

tighten the reins.

Jolted

Growing

Cutting

Making big cuts to everything.

Cutting waste, fraud, abuse

Cutting signs of weakness

that could slow and crimp the recovery.

We won't bring the down the curtain

don't fall out from the fight.

Set off investigations

Grab the headlines.

We're not at the end

We're at the beginning.

Think a bit about how

this world

should be changed.

We need a mind like his

to push, to be precise,

to glow.

The torch has been passed

Congratulations, have fun.

City Born Unpeopled (New York Times)

City Born Unpeopled

The tomorrowland version

built from scratch

is all but deserted.

Weeds are beginning to sprout.

Broad boulevards are unimpeded.

Office buildings stand vacant.

Pedestrians are in short supply.

"It's pretty lonely here."

I just wanted to reach across

the airwaves and the years

face-to-face.

I would love for you to consider

an apology

relatively small

not fully understood.

People say it's an empty city

but I don't find any inconveniences living by myself.

One day you will understand

why you did what you did.

Justice Asks for an Apology (New York Times)

Justice Asks for an Apology

The deadly attack into

the deadliest day

"don't ask, don't tell."

Three weeks before

he stood among

a litany of breakdowns.

A suicide at the base.

Help us.

Pray about this.

Seven killed

secretly leaving their sanctuaries.

Guerrilla factions fighting

the boarded and border bound

where they are believed to

enjoy at least protection

at least hope.

That will end of my watch.

"don't ask, don't tell."

Handwritten Murder (New York Times)

Handwritten Murder

He was not in the courtroom

to tell his tangled story

to avoid a death sentence.

For nearly three hours

the hushed courtroom

heard his life and crimes

slipped into, spattered across

prison writings He wrote.

My dark shadow was let loose

Self-serving, suicidal and grandiose.

He beat the sleeping father

with a baseball bat.

A calculated, cold blooded predator

passed through their fear

into the calm waters of abject terror.

He claimed that he had not

raped the younger child.

He praised the bravery of

her sister

who tried to escape.

Their mother had been

a coward.

I am no angel.

He used words like darkness

demons and depravity.

He said he had

been trying to kill himself.

The scars on my

soul have forever defined me.

he had never healed.

Spiritual Tourists (New York Times)

Spiritual Tourists

There is negative energy in the air here

emanating from the earth

keeping people away.

We're sitting on a graveyard

The tragedy, the woes

Shattering the tranquillity.

Questions about who did what to whom.

It's been a long process.

She is optimistic though.

This is about learning harmony

and appreciating life.

It will come back, in its own time

expanding our understanding

of life and death.

We are spiritual visitors.

He's so wildly imaginative

she suffers for lack of imagination.

She didn't want to come back at first

because of how long it's taken

to get to this level.

Art came from the depths

of his imagination.

All one needs is infinite patience

and an entire afternoon.

Powerful transition

could happen

anywhere.