I’ve written in this space on the great American poet Samuel Menashe, on one or two occasions. In the latest edition of the magazine Poetry, the erudite Ozzie (long transplanted to Britain) Clive James has some reflections on is work, as part of an essay titled “A Deeper Consideration.”

All Menashe’s poems give the sense of having been constructed out of the basic stuff of memory, a hard substratum where what once happened has been so deeply pondered that all individual feeling has been squeezed out and only universal feeling is left. The process gives us a hint that the act of construction might be part of the necessary pressure: if the thing was not so carefully built, the final compacting of the idea could not have been attained. There could be no version of a Menashe poem that was free from the restrictions of technique, because without the technique the train of thought would not be there. Even when he writes without obvious rhyme, he has weighed the balance of every syllable; when he uses near rhymes, the modulations are exquisite; and a solid rhyme never comes pat, but is always hallowed by its own necessity.

Indeed.

On a personal note, I’ve found that both the brevity and religiosity of Menashe’s poems makes some of them rather ideal for use as reflective “graces” before meals. One I’ve grown to like in that role, for instance, is titled Whose Name I Know. Menashe is Jewish, and the special sacredness of the name of the Lord from the Hebrew Bible is the inescapable and imponderably resonant context here.

WHOSE NAME I KNOW

Whose name I know

Published in Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems (American Poets Project).

From section: Shorts

That’s it. The end. For real and forever. Now that you know, how does it make you feel, exactly? As published in the journal Science, and summarized below by the BBC:

Astronomers used the way that light from distant stars was distorted by a huge galactic cluster known as Abell 1689 to work out the amount of dark energy in the cosmos.

Dark energy is a mysterious force that speeds up the expansion of the Universe.

Understanding the distribution of this force revealed that the likely fate of the Universe was to keep on expanding.

[...]

Eventually it will become a cold, dead wasteland with a temperature approaching what scientists term “absolute zero”.

Professor Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University, a leading cosmologist and co-author of this study, said that the findings finally proved “exactly what the fate of the Universe will be”.

Hmmm. And how does Professor Natarajan feel about that, I wonder? She seems happy enough to be the messenger, and I suppose it is quite the feather in her cap.

You would think that this news about the ultimate fate of the Universe and everything that it has ever contained — including all of our lives, legacies and dreams — would be getting more attention, and indeed perhaps it will once it filters out through the rest of what’s going on in the headlines today, like the baseball player Roger Clemens being indicted for perjury and the salmonella-induced recall of 340 million eggs in the United States. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Faith, News

The poll getting all the attention this morning is on what Americans believe about President Barack Obama’s religious faith. From the AFP:

Nearly two years after Barack Obama’s election as US president, a growing number of Americans misidentify his faith as Muslim, according to a new poll released Thursday. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics

At a town hall meeting, Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) answers a voter’s concerns about the constitutionality of ObamaCare, and the implications of this kind of power grab by Washington, by wearily asserting that, “The federal government can do most anything in this country.”

Just live with it: that seems to be his message. All that stuff about “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,” blah blah blah, well, that’s just stories for children. We’re grown-ups now. Welcome to the United States of America in 2010.

It’s not your father’s republic anymore.

From section: Shorts

Anne Rice, famous for her novels about vampires, underwent a spiritual conversion and returned to her Roman Catholic faith over ten years ago, as she described in her recent book Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession. She wrote a novel called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt about the young Jesus from his own point of view, and it was quite well received by many. [Read more →]

From section: Shorts

First, Elton John plays at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding. Then, he defies the pressure to boycott Israel and plays in Tel Aviv. Now, he’s played a gig in Arizona and taken the time to lash into those who would boycott that state because of the recently-passed law vis-à-vis illegal immigrants.

From the Arizona Daily Star: [Read more →]

From section: Shorts

Leonard Cohen continues his unlikely latter day barnstorming of the world, kicking off a new tour in Zagreb, Croatia, the other night. The video below, taken by a fan, is of the song Ain’t No Cure for Love, which originated on his 1988 album, I’m Your Man. [Read more →]

From section: Shorts

Those attending Christian churches this morning following the most common Lectionaries would, I think, have heard from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11 (KJV):

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

[Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Faith

Take it where you find it: Democrats Shelve Climate Bill (at least until after November when a lame-duck Congress may prove the most reckless and destructive ever).

And Charlie Rangel is (finally) charged with multiple ethics violations. The former Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, flouting the very tax law he wrote, and whatever else he could find to flout, is apparently going to receive a genuine wrist-slap. Ah, justice.

From section: Shorts

Geert Wilders is a Dutch political leader who has attracted most attention for his uncompromising warnings about and his courageous stand against the Islamification of Europe.

The other day, a website and forum called MuslimsDebate.com asked him point-blank “why he became anti-Islam and what is his message to the Muslims?”

His answer is highly worth reading. It serves as both a brief and clarifying summary of why he believes Muslims need to liberate themselves from Islam.

Read it at the forum, or in a rather easier-to-read font at Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch website. Or read some of it here: [Read more →]

From section: Shorts