Thursday, October 31, 2019

Birmingham's Day of the Dead

On November 2,  Birmingham's Day of the Dead celebration will take place beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Matt Layne talks about Birmingham's Day of the Dead celebration
Setting aside some time to think about the dead need not be a maudlin or grim occasion. It can be a time to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have died.

In Birmingham, Alabama, the Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos) has been celebrated since 2003. On Talk of Alabama, Matthew Layne tells about the event and how it began. To see the video, go here.


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Wednesday, October 30, 2019

A Mortality Fable for the Day of the Dead

Woman by grave during Day of the Dead in San Andres Mixquic, Mexico City

Celebrating the Day of the Dead (Oct 31 - Nov 2) is a custom that would have seemed strange or even offputting to many in the American South when I was growing up. With the growing Hispanic influence in the U.S. today, we are being introduced to many new customs that we "anglos" can benefit from. For example, in American society, we tend to push death back. We don't really want to think about it. Even in the medical field, we are much more attuned to life-saving measures than we are at end of life care.

Setting aside some time to think about the dead need not be a maudlin or grim occasion. It can be a time to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have died. Having a day to recognize our mortality can certainly be beneficial in giving us a healthy perspective on life. The following meditation was first posted in 2015 and re-posted here in celebration of the Day of the Dead*.

A Meditation on Mortality


“I never thought I’d be eating in Heaven,” he said to his new-found guide. “Well, I’ll take that back. I did imagine that there might be banquets, but I didn’t think I’d still be going to the bathroom to take a crap – oh, I’m sorry, can you say ‘crap’ in Heaven?”

“You can say anything that applies to anything here. And yes, you’ll find that a lot of those concepts we learned, or assumed, in life are not really complete. Heaven and Hell are good examples: the idea that in the afterlife everything would be separated into good and evil, with everyone living with either reward or punishment. Purgatory came a little closer with the notion that aspects of Heaven and Hell could coexists in one place. William Blake may have come the closest, though, when he said that we each carry heaven and hell within us.”

“I guess I’m just surprised that the afterlife is so much like life on earth. I figured that if life did continue after death, it would be completely different – pure bliss and all that.”

“You’ll find that there are some differences,” his guide said, “mostly differences in quality and scale. Rest is more restful, joy is more joyous. On the other hand, pain can also be more painful. You will be continuing the trajectory that you began in life.

Before Life Began

“But if you find that things are similar in the afterlife,” the guide continued, “you must also realize how vastly different things were before life. You heard from your scriptures that ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ That was not really the beginning. It was in some sense, of course. That was your beginning. Those words harked back to where life began. Before there was life, however, there was heaven and earth. There was being itself. Pure being. It scattered across the vast reaches of space without limitation and without end. Except with pure being there was also chaos: turmoil and impulse with no direction. Pure being had no motivation, no guidance, no goal. It could rest listless for an eternity; it could also churn with strife for an eternity.

“Without form and limitation, pure being had no motivation, no hope, and no desire for growth. You can imagine this by looking at your own life. As a child you thought you had a very long time ahead of you. In your youth you knew that there was death and destruction, you just didn’t think it would happen to you.  A few years later you began to acknowledge your own mortality. That understanding of mortality affected what you did, how you learned, and what you deemed important. Your appreciation of friends and loved ones increased as did your appreciation of all of life; the beauty of nature, the joy of music, the wonder of existence.

“So in those distant ages,” his guide went on, “before God created the heavens and the earth, pure being was scattered throughout and would eventually become the framework for the universe. Yet with no end in sight, being had no motivation for growth or change. That is when God created the heavens and the earth. That is when limitations of life and death were set. And that is when things began to happen. In that sense, it was a true beginning.”

Mortality and the Trajectory of Life

“So you are telling me that creation was a beginning, but not the beginning?”

“That is correct. Most significantly, the advent of life and death became the most transformative event in the universe. Prior to life and death, in addition to there being no motivation or growth, there was constant conflict on a cosmic scale. The human race has distant memories of this state in myths such as Tiamet in Sumer, the Titans in Greek cosmology, and the vision of John the Revelator that there was war in Heaven.

“On the day of creation, when life and death entered the cosmos, everything changed. Conflict did not cease, chaos has never been fully contained, but form, meaning, purpose and direction took hold. In order for being to evolve, it must enter into the life-and-death process. That is why the world was made, that is how human civilization began, and that is how you and I came to be at this place at this time.”

“But what now?” he asked. “What happens from here?”

We’ll take some time to talk about how you lived and what direction that life set for you. First, talk to me about how you died.”

“Well, that part seems kind of meaningless. I died in an automobile accident. I was on my way to work, some car ahead swerved into the on-coming traffic, a diesel truck jack-knifed and there I was caught in the middle. I left home in the morning never to return. I know it’s cliché, but I thought I’d have more time. I figured I’d have that warning heart attack to tell me to slow down and that I’d die an old man.”

“And it is also cliché,” his guide responded, “to say that none of us can know how or when we’ll die. The important thing is that even though you may feel that you were snatched from life prematurely, while you were living you set your vision and trajectory. You accomplished in 50 years what pure being could not accomplish in an eternity. There are things we learn within the confines of even a short struggling life that can never be known within the context of infinity.

“Now that you have discovered your role in the life continuum, you will soon realize that you have already learned the most important things. The true wonder is not that life goes on. The wonder is in what you bring to the life continuum from that finite existence on earth.  Given the ongoing nature of life in a timeless universe, mortality is the only thing of value that can be added to existence.”

                                                                                                                        ~ Charles Kinnaird



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Matt Layne talks about Birmingham's Day of the Dead celebration


* It should be noted that in Birmingham, Alabama, the Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos) has been celebrated since 2003. On Talk of AlabamaMatthew Layne tells about the event and how it began.


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Monday, October 28, 2019

Monday Music: John Coltrane: My Favourite Things - East meets West

Winton Marsalis introduces this John Coltrane arrangement of Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things" performed by the Sachal Jazz ensemble from Lahore Pakistan. What an awesome mix: a jazz arrangement of a Hammerstein tune, performed with Indian and Western musical instruments!





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Saturday, October 26, 2019

Saturday Haiku: Homing



flocks find their way home
with the autumn sun setting
upon fallow fields




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Photo: Starling murmuration
Credit: Sharon Jones-Williams



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Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Aleppo After the Fall

There has been so much beauty and so much history in Syria. There are many beautiful and noble people, just as there are in any country. Unfortunately, the people have suffered too long under the wartime destruction brought on by continued conflict in the region. Think of the children growing up who know nothing but the desolation of war. Last week we witnessed yet another chapter in that tragedy as the U.S. moved out and Turkey moved in to begin the removal of the Kurds from their Syrian border.

The following poem is a lament that I first posted in June of 2017. I am re-posting it here in honor of those whose hardships and sufferings I can only helplessly grieve. We see once again that "victory is as dangerous as defeat."

Ruins near the citadel in Aleppo’s Old City. Credit Sebastián Liste/Noor Images, for The New York Times

"Aleppo After the Fall: As the Syrian civil war turns in favor of the regime, a nation
adjusts to a new reality  and a complicated new picture of the conflict emerges"
(title of article in The New York Times Magazine)



Aleppo After the Fall

In a city so ancient
That a merchant can stand on a street corner
Where his blood ancestor may have stood
Three thousand years before,
There comes a haphazard reprieve from war.

A weary silence falls
Where streets once bustled
With sales of fabric and spice
Amid the sweet cacophony
Of exuberant traders and pilgrims.

Like a shattered plate,
The courtyard of The Great Mosque
Now lies in fragments –
The hundreds of daily footsteps
But a prayerful memory.

Children play –
When they dare come out –
In the rubble-strewn side streets
While old men try to remember
The ancient pathways.

A flute still plays in the distance;
A dancer regains her steps.
The rest of us settle
Into a strange new world
Where victory is as dangerous as defeat.

                                                                      ~ CK




“On March 7, 2006, the sun rises on Aleppo. Aleppo, along with Damascus and Sana'a, is one of the three oldest inhabited cities in human history,  added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986.” (From The Atlantic Monthly, “Aleppo Before the War - Photo by Khaled Al Hariri / Reuters)




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Monday, October 21, 2019

Monday Music: Lenny Bruce (by Bob Dylan)

 "Lenny Bruce" was a track from Bob Dylan's 1981 album, Shot of Love. The powerful and poignant studio version is impossible to find online. The following is a live recording from Bob Dylan's 1981 concert in Avignon, France, set to clips and photos of Lenny Bruce. Still a powerful song.





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Saturday, October 19, 2019

Saturday Haiku: We Sat Together


we sat together
overlooking the river
while the clouds gathered




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Photo by Charles Kinnaird: At Gorahm's Bluff, Alabama, overlooking the Tennessee River



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Wednesday, October 16, 2019

The March of the Oligarchs

"A hopeful billboard in Montenegro" in 2016 (STEVO VASILJEVIC / REUTERS)
America’s real divide isn’t left vs. right. It’s democracy vs. oligarchy.”

It was about twenty-five years ago that I began to notice that global corporations were exerting more influence in both foreign and domestic affairs. I had grown up seeing how demonstrations in the streets by the people had led to more humane legislation, as in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (and before that, the passing of child labor laws and workplace safety legislation). I asked myself then, how much longer that legislative model could endure as a safeguard for the people as global corporations assert more power and influence.

The following poem was one of my journalistic poems first posted March26, 2017, during the first 100 days of the current White House administration.  – CK


The March of the Oligarchs
By Charles Kinnaird

When I was a child
I was momentarily confused
The first time my older brother
Brought out his chess set.
The game board
Was exactly like the one we used for checkers,
But the rules were entirely different.
                         -  -  -
Growing up during the Cold War,
We thought the threat
Was coming to an end
When the Berlin Wall fell
And the Soviet Bloc collapsed.
We were giddy
With thoughts of freedom –
Oppression had been lifted;
The “Communist Threat” was fading.

That giddy moment of freedom
Was soon seized by corporations.
They flew under the banner
Of free enterprise,
Thereby flying under the radar
That scans for
Enemies of the state.

Global corporations
Have become the prime movers,
Making governments inconsequential.
Seen as good for the country,
Essential for the economy,
Creator of jobs,
Granter of benefits,
And source of political spending,
Big companies hold Congress hostage.
Legislation may soon bear no more weight
Than nice ideas
Voiced by well-meaning folks
In a Sunday School class.

In today's political arena
The playing field is familiar.
The game board looks the same.
But the rules have changed.

                                              

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From the introductory post to my journalistic poetry series "Bearing Witness to the Times"

The best thing that poets can do is to bear witness to the times – articulate what is happening in the moment; speak to the real-life experiences of your people.  I am setting myself a goal to write a poem each week that reflects what I see and experience in the life of our nation... if I can write one poem a week there will be some chronicle of our sacred/tested/doubtful union.

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Saturday, October 12, 2019

Saturday Haiku: Summer's End









when the summer ends
and cicadas grow quiet
cricket sounds linger















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Photo by Charles Kinnaird: Hayfield near Montevallo, Alabama

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Wednesday, October 9, 2019

"What Virgil Said..."


Alabama School of Fine Arts (Photo by Erin Harney/Alabama NewsCenter)

I was glad to attend the Alabama State Poetry Society's Fall Conference last Saturday. The event was held at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Ala.

There were excellent sessions led by Kwoga Fagin Maples and Heidi Staples. Kwoga led a beautiful session on writing historical persona poetry, and Heidi told us about ecopoetry (poetry with an ecological message) and led us in visualizing and writing about things that make us hopeful.

We then heard winning entries in the Fall ASPS Poetry Contest. This one of mine got an Honorable Mention:

What Virgil Said in that Dream You Almost Remembered

Tell it –
Because no one heard it quite the way you did.

Describe it –
Because no one saw it quite the way you did.

Every soul bears its own unique witness;
Every eye carries its own vision of the world.

Tell your story
Because it is one part
Of the grand story of the universe.
Only when we have heard everyone’s story
Will we see the beauty
Of the whole.

Until then,
We make our way in a fractured world
Seeing only in part –
Waiting for the next piece
To fall into place.

So sit here now.
Move with the ocean
Breathe with the wind
And tell us what you saw
On your way over.

                                                          ~ CK



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Monday, October 7, 2019

Monday Music: Oh, Sister

From St. John's Cathedral in Knoxville, Tennessee, a remarkable cover of Bob Dylan's,, "Oh Sister."
Featuring: Amy Stafford - Violin, Aubrey Mullins - Vocals, Cord Johson - Upright Bass and Vocals, Travis Bigwood - Acoustic Guitar and Vocals






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Saturday, October 5, 2019

Saturday Haiku: A Saint Remembered

Yesterday, October 4, was the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.







though cast in stone
the saint is remembered
in living things










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Photo: Statue of St. Francis of Assisi at Aldridge Gardens
Credit: Charles Kinnaird



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Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Poem in October (Dylan Thomas)

Even though we are in the midst of an unusual heatwave in the southeast, October turns my mind to autumnal things.  Autumn is a wonderful time of year, invigorating with its cool mornings (surely they will be here soon) and colorful foliage. Autumn invites us to draw inward for a time.

This week I’ve been re-reading Dylan Thomas’ “Poem in October.”  He evokes such marvelous imagery, such as “heron priested shore,” and “a child's Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother Through the parables Of sun light.”

In the video below, we can hear Thomas reading his "Poem in October."





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