Superstition
gripped him, holding
evil
grasp on his freedom.
Said,
"My family is superstitious,
I
cannot escape it."
"Daily
anxiety creates fear
inside
so I do not go outside easily."
"Psychologists
have words for this thing
that
fetters my life."
His
testimony is honest,
seeking
freedom from the spirits
enslaving.
Now
after these confessions,
goes,
and I see him anew,
chained.
Audio reading of the poem by the poet is here:
After the incident on the quiet street in the perfect house
Peter Menkin - Jul 6, 2001
Daddy went into the night
in the nice neighborhood.
Too much stained glass,
making colors, cutting shapes.
I guess.
He was an artist.
The door was left open.
She yelled something, his wife
did.
When I passed the house
years ago, soon after,
there was something
that happened there.
Sad, bad night.
The worst I saw him do
was put his boots up on the glass
table in my living room.
He was larger than life,
wanting to embrace even
the Bay.
Pick it up! Golden Gate Bridge,
and all.
His!
He went to Berkeley, and then
you could hitchhike to the University
everyday to your job.
Ride share.
After the incident done
before the children,
he took a job as a deckhand
on the ferryboat. Larkspur, CA.
Madness. Disaster.
His mother was a doctor,
M.D. type, and so was his
father, M.D. type. She
talked to him, in the
family home--
He threw her television
set out the second story
window.
End conversation.
I hope he remarried
and had five more children.
Audio reading of poem by poet is here:
White House Rose Garden
by Peter Menkin
We the people dream you live sometime in rest visiting the rose garden at the White House, Mr. President,
part of a Presidential spirit that lives with almighty and ancient strengths brought to new world refreshment.
A hope that is America's desire for reason. A hope for Civilized republic and visions of history. More than one man of power living common desires for a better world
tended by providence's hand. The great spirit of nationhood comes upon the country this again, again.
Audio reading by the poet of the poem is here:
Please click the forward carrots again to hear
White House Rose Garden. Sorry for the technical problem.
The poem is the second of the recordings.
Friend of Man
Peter Menkin - May 21, 2005
For a long time weeks, day by day, a month, years... I set out to be friend of God.
There is darkness now, at this hour. The night tells me, who chooses. Even if I await the morning and call daystar, Oh, Lord, this is a day you made, I realize now my temerity and ignorance.
You choose, and You are the friend to me, man. Humility recognized. God is all.
The poet reads in audio the poem, here:
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Psychoanalytic experiences, inner spaces entered by Peter Menkin (2000)
The binding force friendship brings to tensions offers resiliancy in the face apparent and seeks the mask
for interpretation during deep analysis within the room
between two engaging psychoanalytic
concerns. Dialogues of inner
places encourage healing archtypes deep within the autonomic brain rising connections to frontal areas with surgical precisions and general practices the doctor's craft elicits.
Deftly within painful hurts, hidden disguises of psyches desires,
experiences known, and associations
releasing avenues to share among others a healing commonality that is more than one. So many Come into the room and out again.
Audio reading of this poem by the poet is here:
Here is my consideration of a brief poem of waiting in a hospital emergency room.
by Peter Menkin (2000)
Here is my consideration
of a brief poem of waiting
in a hospital emergency room.
The man from the Veteran's Hospital
was late, and the baby cried happily.
Two children wore the doctor's bandages
in the waiting room. Earlier at evening tide
there was a quiet conference in the
education center. The man who tip toes
through the tulips was pulling his car to
the main door of Marin General when I
arrived. The beep, the bio feedback, the
numbers 106 over, 95 over, oxygen 96.
The heart is monitored by machines, the
ticking clock sweeps from the hours through
Evening Prayer, and the long explanation of
conversation with God in a description begins.
Our Father, who, art in Heaven where the Lord
lives. Hallowed is a joy to us in song and in the
majestry of golden walls. Be thy name, a mystery
unspeakable, a land and a place oh joy of hymn.
Thy kingdom, a tree where we abide and sing,
along the branches like those whose life is tended,
as the lily is beautiful so we are without anxiety in
your Kingdom where there is clothing that we neither
work nor labor and Come. Thy will, your will be done.
Me in thee and thee in me. On earth as it is in heaven,
the cherubim and the archangels sing a constant hymn
of song in worship and adoration in this holy spirit that
yours is. Give us this day, to begin and say this is the
day the lord has made, let us
be glad in it. our daily bread to eat as a manna from
heaven a promise of which we are not worthy, oh, I
have denied thee, and loved thee, for you are a rest
to me and a comfort. Forgive us as we ask this of you
in your grace of giving this question to us this evening
the hour turns towards nine o'clock and the doctor is
waiting the nurses are coming. I am thirsty, and listening
now in another room. As we forgive those who trespass
against, for this is a prayer against another, in the wrestling
that is our lives, in struggle and in toil, my heart beats,
breath and practice bio feedback.
Us, whom we think about. The us of the hospital, the patients,
the nurses, the paramedics who are in their blue uniforms.
Cool and so well waiting. Someone has died. I sense it,
for I practice discernment, Oh Lord of my life, my love in
testimony, I seek thee. Thou art here, where can I go from
thy presence. For thine is the kingdom, and the power.
I meditate upon this and contemplate the beep of the system,
the pressure on my arm, the woman with her husband, her
marriage in Christ, and the closeness of their concern in
love of waiting, the glory, oh, yes, thine is greater than the
cosmos of imagining. A creation beyond of goodness, a place
of beginning that is where the I am that I am for you have
come across me and the saints are living presences among
the waiting in the rooms curtained one from another. Forever
and ever. Amen. I ponder, I contemplate, I look for meditation,
the baby is a joy to everyone. Whose heart is this saint's? A
charity of visitation, a transfiguration of compassion, a
continuation
of a journey in prayer. The lady across the long room wants
me to say confession for her.
Yours sincerely.
Audio reading by poet of his work is here:
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Gratefully Yours, poem by Peter Menkin
Did I not say gratefully yours in my letter that I said that is a prayer that I said when I spoke to you in Church this evening among my friends, others with whom I'd spoken this same evening that I said gratefully yours, I love you Lord and give thanks for the gifts you've given me. It's taken so long to recognize these gifts of love and friendship. For I am gratefully yours, and sorry I did not realize that I thank you this day for my creation and preservation.
Audio reading by the poet is here:
My website is here:
http://www.petermenkin.com
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Notes and report on ordination class of 2010 -- Roman Catholic by Peter Menkin
For some years the general talk regarding people entering the Catholic Priesthood has been that numbers are declining, especially Americans seeking a vocation as Priest. Fewer Americans are interested in becoming a Priest, entering the Vocation that is so central to the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests” beginning with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus June 19, 2009. The year will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the Holy Father from June 9-11, 2010. The website for the “Year for Priests” is here.
Many Priests serving Roman Catholic parishes are from other countries than the United States. In a report published in “Catholic San Francisco,” this description:
Nearly one third (31 percent) of the ordination class of 2010 was born outside the United States, the largest numbers coming from Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Poland and Vietnam. Between 20 and 30 percent of ordinands to the diocesan priesthood for each of the last 10 years were born outside the United States.
As part of the celebration of ordination to the vocation of diocesan Priest, this YouTube was made and this writer inserts it here for its dramatic and documentary value:
ORDINATION 2009 August 18, 2009 — Archbishop Dolan Ordains 5 new priests to the Archdiocese of New York
Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports, In a message to youth, Benedict XVI put special emphasis on the importance of reaching youth with God’s Word. Priests are needed who are “…courageous announcers of the Gospel and, at the same time, reveal the merciful face of the Father."
The Pontiff invited young people "to not be afraid to respond to the complete gift of their own existence to the call that the Lord makes to them to pursue the way of priesthood or the consecrated life."
The Holy Father also recommended a return to "lectio divina," the reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer, because "the Word, believed, announced and lived pushes us to solidarity and sharing." This in December, 2009.
Pope Benedict XVI concluded his message by expressing his wish that the 25th anniversary of World Youth Day, to be celebrated March 25, 2010, be a day of "reflection and invocation to obtain from the Lord the gift of numerous vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life."
In 2006, CNA reports, There was the Second Vatican Council's universal call to sanctity. In each generationBenedict XVI said, Christ "calls individuals to take care of His people; in particular He calls men to the priestly ministry to exercise a paternal function.“
He stressed that “The priest's mission in the Church is irreplaceable. Therefore, even though some areas suffer a shortage of clergy, we must not lose the conviction that Christ continues to call men" to the priesthood.”
He added that "Another special vocation occupying a place of honor in the Church is the call to consecrated life.”
This consecrated life is a life of living a loving Christ, so it is explained. Though not a decision described as one of secular nature, but a Call by God to work and live as a Roman Catholic in Christ’s way and light.
Religious live the concecrated life, and religious include monks and nuns.
Referring in that 2006 World Day of Prayer for vocations, Benedict XVI is quoted by Catholic News Agency saying:
…[T]he principle aim of their lives, as the Code of Canon Law says: 'Contemplation of divine things and assiduous union with God in prayer is to be the first and foremost duty of all religious'."
As he concluded his message, Pope Benedict issued a call to pray "for vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life,” saying that “The Church's sanctity depends essentially on her union with Christ and her openness to the mystery of grace at work in the hearts of believers.”
“For this reason,” he said, “I would like to invite all the faithful to cultivate an intimate relationship with Christ, Master and Pastor of His people, imitating Mary who guarded the divine mysteries in her heart and contemplated them assiduously."
Part of the 21st Century Roman Catholic story, the recent report in the newspaper, “Catholic San Francisco,” offers that the median age for the ordination class of 2010 is 33.
Benedict said in 2006, through the centuries, men and women, "transformed by divine love, have consecrated their lives to the cause of the Kingdom," and "through Christ have known the mystery of the Father's love."
Facts about ordinands in 2010 by the Roman Catholic Church reveal, The vast majority (92 percent) of men being ordained to the priesthood report some kind of full-time work experience prior to entering the seminary, most often in education. Three in five (60 percent) ordinands completed college before pursuing the priesthood, with one in five (20 percent) also receiving a graduate degree. One in three (34 percent) entered the seminary while in college. So a press statement in April, 2010 reports.
What else of this problem about a shortage of Priest’s in the Roman Catholic Church, as this report on ordinands in 2010, and brief examination of the need and call to Priesthood continues?
Catholic News Agency in 2005 quotes Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, who celebrated the mass that Saturday evening for the three-day Serra Club Great Lakes Regional Convention in that year. During his homily, the bishop shed some light and cast some fears on the issue of current priest shortage in the Catholic Church. That is five years ago, so we know the issue is not just today’s issue in 2010.
According to limanews.com, he said it is easy for people to worry that Catholicism is on the downswing in an era of increased secularism, but he pointed to the words in the Gospel of Luke-"The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few"-and said they were still true today.
There exists a strong base of good people in the Church, of laborers that include priests and other clergy, he reportedly said. There will always be a need for priests, but there will always be a harvest, too.
"A vocation is never just what we do, it’s who we are," he was quoted as saying.
During the period of discernment, and even in the earlier days of life of the current ordinand which many said began for them as young as 18, a process of knowing God’s call becomes the formal and revealing mystery and center of the life of the future Priest.
In 2004, during the presentation of Pope John Paul’s Letter to the Priests, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and Archbishop Csaba Ternyak – said that priests who are faithful to their vocation are an inspiration for new vocations among young people.
During the presentation of the Letter, which the Pope traditionally releases on Holy Thursday, Cardinal Castrillon emphasized “the intimate connection of the sacrament of the Eucharist with the ordained priesthood,” as well as “the irreplaceable nature of the ordained ministry.”
So reports Catholic News Agency.
This is the seminarian’s and the future religious’ journey towards holiness. For holiness means by one definition set apart from others, and this writer offers that the special nature of the minister, the spiritual leader, the pastor, the Priest in the Roman Catholic Church, as demonstrated in this article created from a series of reports over 6 years, is marked by a seriousness and “life experience to ministry.” The “Catholic San Francisco” article notes, “One important trend evident in this study is the importance of lifelong formation, and engagement in the Catholic Faith.
Images:(1) Pope Benedict, source unknown; (2) Anchorite, by Henry Worthy, Oblate Camaldolese Order of Saint Benedict. Henry lives in London and is an amateur photographer; (3) Icon of Christ by Zalewski.
This report appeared originally on the web at San Francisco Examiner.com
U.S. Supreme Court says Mojave Desert Cross can stay--it is a War Memorial by Peter Menkin
A World War I memorial will be allowed to stay in the Mojave Desert, and though covered since 2002 because it offended some people as a religious symbol is now unveiled again. It was the United States Supreme Court that allowed the Cross, on private land owned by the Veterans of Foreign Wars to stay after a protracted controversy. The Cross has stood for about 75 years in the desert. The question came to, Is the Cross religious symbol for Christians solely, or War Memorial for American dead?
In California and even San Francisco’s Bay Area the subject of a cross in a remote desert spot in the Mojave was a highly controversial matter. What about the cross on public land? Does this not violate separation of Church and State? was hotly asked.
A religious symbol cannot be on public land, said Frank Buono who is now retired from the Park Service. He brought the case to The Supreme Court over a ten year period with the help of The American Civil Liberties Union. According to The New York Times, “The white wooden cross, roughly 5 feet tall, stands atop Sunrise Rock in California's San Bernardino County.” It is actually made of pipe today. The Supreme Court did not say whether this was a simple, dignified, and even popular War Memorial of little note but some popularity among the private individuals who visited it, and those who built it. The Court took on this almost humble case that to some appeared overblown.
The announcement of the Court’s result was made and reported in major newspapers April 28, 2010. Writing for the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said:
"The District Court concentrated solely on the religious aspects of the cross, divorced from its background and context. But a Latin cross is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs. It is a symbol often used to honor and respect those whose heroic acts, noble contributions, and patient striving help secure an honored place in history for this Nation and its people. Here, one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten."
The Veterans of Foreign Wars agreed. One could easily surmise that’s the real issue, the real case from their vantage point. Many veterans agreed.
Gabriel Nelson, writing in his blog in The New York Times, said, “The Supreme Court ruled today that Congress and the Interior Department acted properly when they used a land transfer to solve a dispute over a cross on display in the federal Mojave National Preserve.”
There was no big hullaballoo, but a minimal statement with dissent by the Supreme Court. Gabriel Nelson put it well in his low key remark on how the Interior Department had acted properly. This writer has taken some snippets from other newspaper reports that demonstrate all are in accord in their reporting of the facts, and as the Supreme Court noted it was the facts that led them to their conclusions on the decision.
In its brief on behalf of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Solicitor General Elena Kagan said the cross did not imply government sponsorship. The transfer of land to the Veterans of Foreign Wars that required the installation of a plaque dissociating the statue from the federal government, she wrote, satisfied the problem of Church/State religion (Christian).
The Christian Post said in its report, “The goal of avoiding governmental endorsement does not require eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. “This cross,” he wrote, “evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles.”
As a taste of the real argument in differences on the United States Supreme Court, it appears to this writer that Justice Anthony Kennedy caught the essence of the issue separating Justices. The Wall Street Journal noted in their report, Justice Stevens’s dissent argued that Congress wasn't taking action to memorialize veterans, but rather using their memory to justify maintenance of a religious symbol. He noted that the Mojave cross little resembles the prominent and nonsectarian markers erected for those who served in World War II, Korea or Vietnam.
JESS BRAVIN Wall Street Journal writer pointed out in his article, The cross—estimated at five to seven feet tall—stands on Sunrise Rock in a remote patch of desert. Veterans, some of whom had moved to the region for health reasons, first erected a cross at the site in 1934 and it was often used for Easter services. The current version was assembled from painted metal pipes in 1998 by Henry Sandoz of Yucca Valley, Calif.
Though The Wall Street Journal called the decision one whereby the Cross was determined more war memorial than religious symbol, the grass roots battle in California called for many statements that: Yes, it was significantly and first a war memorial, but it was a religious statement for the war dead. There the Supreme Court did not necessarily agree, but it did not make sweeping decisions. Justice Kennedy wrote, Because of the "highly fact-specific nature" of the case, it is "unsuited for announcing categorical rules."
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor joined Justice Stevens's dissent. Justice Stephen Breyer dissented separately.
Images: (1) Mojave Desert Cross, by Associated Press; (2) Mojave Desert Cross, by unknown.
This article appeared originally in The Church of England Newspaper, London
Friday, May 07, 2010
Some of the story of remembering the Fail Safe point and the Russians, an imaginary place no longer extant by Peter Menkin
Here is a salient part of the report in The Times about which this writer wishes to say something more personal making a statement of personal history as an American who served in The Strategic Air Command for four years (1965 to 1969).
Never before in history have active-duty American troops been invited to march in the Victory Day parade, according to the United States military. The occasion is the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, a date that carries an almost sacred meaning in Russia. Russian leaders have taken pains to explain that the Americans — along with contingents from Britain, France and Poland — were invited as representatives of the “anti-Hitler coalition.”
Of course, The Strategic Air Command was a part of the United States Air Force and my job was to be a computer operator. It was a normal activity everyday (7 days a week) to run special reports for B-52s and the SR-71. We supported the mission of bombers flying to the then Soviet Union making their Fail Safe point, and then returning home. We helped ensure they returned home. Of course.
In those years the Vietnam War was going on, and our commander was General Curtis LeMay. “Bomb ‘em back to the Stone age” Curtis LeMay smoked a cigar. To give the reader an idea of General LeMay, the story goes at least once we flew a B-52 around the world (stopping to bomb Vietnam), just to demonstrate it would be done. Of course, it had to do something other than fly the world non-stop. It had to carry real bombs and bomb a real enemy, and return home safely. You get the way Curtis LeMay thought. I mentioned this to a friend recently, and he remarked that act must have chilled the Soviet Union.
Those in the Strategic Air Command I knew, and today that Command is defunct, said of themselves in an ironic way they were, “SAC trained killers.” Part of the irony was though we were on the ground, far away, and it felt like a peaceful job, the reality was we were bombing them from the skies. And our planes flew with nuclear bombs, make no mistake about that. They flew to their Fail Safe point outside the Soviet Union. They did these, as I say, everyday, everyday many times everyday it seemed so that always there were the bombers on their way, 24 hours a day. Maybe you weren’t there.
I want to give you another taste of our willingness to defend the United States and make the streets safe for Democracy. (No kidding!) When I with others saw the satiric and shocking movie “Fail Safe” where the end of the world occurs, I think we were young, and laughing, and maybe in a strange, (eerie) way amused and even a little proud as we were frightened. We were frightened, for if one thought about it, one was living with the “bomb.”
Curtis LeMay reminded this writer of General Patton, in an American movie watcher way. I did like movies. In the Patton film there is a moment that must have been days when the skies for air cover for D Day were bad weather skies and General Patton called for a man of the cloth. (Christian) This writer thought it a real event, of course. But remember that as a young man an important reason for joining the United States Air Force was I liked the uniforms.
General Patton asks for a minister that is in good with the Lord. Though he doesn’t articulate that in a scene, when clear skies and the good weather allow for the air cover, he declares in the minister’s presence something like, “Keep that minister close by, for he is in good with the Lord.” The man of the cloth’s prayers work in the movie.
Here is the God part of this remembrance as we come to the presence of American and Allied soldiers becoming a reality as they march with Russians to the Kremlin in what was the Soviet Union for a commemorative Russian parade celebrating victory over Hitler. This writer thinks secretly, and you get a young man’s view of this kind of thing as this writer remembers, that General Curtis LeMay had some minister nearby who was in good with the Lord. We were on God’s side.
A very good friend of mine who on his discharge as a conscientious objector from active service returned home to Connecticut where he is now retired many years later, was as a devout young man doubtful about nuclear bombs; in fact Philip didn’t want to process any more checks to buy nuclear bombs and began refusing to do so in his work as a finance clerk. Philip had his doubts and more so a sense that God wouldn’t approve of flying to the Fail Safe point and back. Maybe they’d keep going in.
To make a long story short about his moment of revelation that was likened to St. Paul’s, he was discharged after being sent to do other work to finish two of his four years in Greenland. Not everyone agreed Curtis LeMay and God and his religious minister colleague were doing the right thing.
Let us hope that what I did not expect in my lifetime, Americans and Allies marching in Russia, that someday we will find ourselves with even friendly skies between the countries. For I remember that one man I knew who has now passed away fought as an American with the Canadians, flying from Great Britain across the water in a fighter plan dozens and dozens of times during the Second World War and lived. He cut a dashing figure, let this writer tell you. And he was glad to do it for a number of years, miraculously. Amazing! He was an ally of the Russians. History is a funny thing.
There is no Fail Safe point today. Thanks be to God.
This memoir originally appear in The Church of England Newspaper, London, here.
experiences known, and associations
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