Original Poetry by Terry Underwood: Recent Episodes
Terry Underwood, Poet-Musician
The tide may be shifting. How many Marjories does it take to destroy public education? I’m trying, breathing my words into the world, so damned woke I have trouble sleeping. I know if I feel this sense of something changing, others do. Secondhand woke. Share this 73 seconds of childishness.
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James Gee, a wise linguist, wrote about the moral obligation we share to interrogate our own personal ideology apart from groupthink. To interrogate ourselves critically, we must have built primary, personal descriptions of and explanations for reality—primary theories to warrant political action in and on the world. Otherwise, we must rely on removed theories, rooted in shallow soil, or even deferred theories—‘I don’t know but experts know.’ Where do roads come from? Any primary theories?
The existential work of primary theory in an ethical human community depends upon a red wheelbarrow, a commitment to the common good. James Gee (1996) clarified the predicate of this commitment through pointing to learned behavior, that is, learning to act in ways that work against your own self-interest if the cost is material or social loss to others. Make everyone whole. Gee argued that teaching this skill is the central reason for schools and schooling—a training manual for participation in an ethical human community.
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Twist it any way you can. Take the high road, take the low, take the Highway to Heaven. The GOP is hijacked by a cult; it is not a political party with a coherent ideology of any sort. It is a loose band of victims with an anti-ideology in the original sense of the word as per de Trace (1815). The GOP is dead, long live the GOP.
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I love clocks in poetic discourse. Clocks and windows. Time, time, time, see what’s become of me. I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Faulkner’s clocks had their own, often discrepant, time, depending on the space in which time was passing, mental or physical or even metaphysical. Measuring lives out in coffee spoons… talking of Michelangelo. The tick tock of the clock of justice in unmistakable cadences. We have been and remain in a dark period. We need our Muses more than ever. It’s a hard row to hoe…but in the meantime…
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I watched Fox News for a while this afternoon. Shortly after we learned that dear Donald is suspected of violating the espionage act by taking top secret nuclear documents, Fox News howled that Biden had weaponized the DOJ. Well, what is supposed to happen when a President takes documents that don’t belong to him that could get us into nuclear trouble? Does that mean Donald is entitled to have those top secret nuclear documents in his house? Or what? The Fox heads repeated ad infinitude the phrase “it is mind boggling.” That’s what I heard. Their minds were definitely boggled.
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Still I harbor a smoldering fear of dogs barking in the distance. Life’s lessons marinated in adrenaline have staying power. What is the equivalent of adrenaline in AI?
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Public schools. Reality. Science.
Churches. Belief. Serenity.
Responsibility. Interdependence. Cocoons.
Manipulation. Breach of trust. Misanthropes.
Civilizations riiiiiiiiiise and faaaaaaaall
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
I offer this poem in homage to the spirits of Abraham Lincoln and John McCain, two American heroes who exemplify the true meaning of Republican. Hats off to Adam, Liz, and Cassidy. They’ve secured their invitations to the pantheon.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
The setting for the drama in which the black cat’s tactically sophisticated, genetically hybrid, mysterious intelligence fails to set its breakfast table with fresh black bird.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
When I was in high school, I lived mostly alone, by myself, in a house on Main Street in a town of 20,000 people. After my father died, my mother spent long weeks away in different states with her older children in Florida or Wisconsin or her sisters in Phoenix. She was free to kick up her heels and, I’m pleased to say, did. I managed my own time quite nicely between 1968-1971; so I chuckled at the high school vs university distinction in the conclusion of the poem. Enjoy.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
One thing for sure: The United States in all its turbulent history has at least tried to perfect itself as a space where sanity has a chance of carrying the day. If sanity loses the day in the current historical formation, we shall all be searching for a tolerable space in eternity. Now is the time to preserve the Union. Later will be too late.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
Who wouldn’t love to have access to a brand spanking new personality test—for free! Testing personalities is a roaring moneymaker, but the profit for the Monkey goes deeper than money. It’s love that makes the Monkey’s muse. Enjoy the spoken anchor poem. For the full experience, look on as you listen. Visuals are on Substack.
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I’m trying to see all sides of this distortion we are living.
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Poetry in motion.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
Professor James Scrimgeour, who taught me to write poetry after I made my way to the university in the olden days, thought that writing a poem every day could do better for our minds and bodies than a daily fortified vitamin. Jim was the best teacher! Takes a commitment or it’s just another thing ya’ gotta do. It’s a demanding regime, sort of like training for a marathon. I don’t produce many pieces daily worthy of a place on the workbench to check for intonation, fret wear, dead strings, etc., to polish and prepare for publication in my garage. But it gives me options and leads. Otherwise, my poems, such as they are, would not stand a chance at a life of their own. This Substack outlet has been a nice switch up.
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This poem emerged from a growing sense of empathy I have for the Founding Fathers. As voters of America prepare for a June deliverance of a trainload of evidence that sedition has infected the Republican Party, I’m heartened by the words George W spoke to me during the composition process as reported in Part XII. We are a nation of hands. We fix things. We can fix this.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
Art: jyfmuseums.org
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com
People who are not American citizens are either disturbed or overjoyed by what looks like the slow demise of this country as we know it. America could not fail. Oh?
Make America Safe Again—if it ever has been top shelf safe, though it’s not seen total insanity since the Civil War, notwithstanding DJT.
If in 2022 we, citizens, decide to sustain the Originalist veto power over human progress held by those who believe it’s the economy, stupid, failure could come quickly. It really is like Putin holding veto power over the UN Security Council. Something is seriously askew.
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Donald Trump stands at the nexus of evangelicals (abortion), white supremacists (civil rights), and the NRA. As a collection, these groups constitute the base of his political power.
If he were to do the right thing and leave the political stage, his base would dissolve, or at least lose its focus. He would have no water for his fire hose.
All patriots who value religious freedom, equal protection under the law, and a well-regulated national militia with regulated access to arms for citizens—write 45 DJT an open letter. I’d like to see a hundred million of them.
We are at a crossroads again. The ruthless spirit of colonial supremacy is riding through the land.
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I won’t repeat my spoken words, but therein I do provide a bit of context for the title and the genesis of the dramatic monologue. I may do more of that in future podcasts, very briefly. My thanks to Randy Newman for his song Sail Away, which inspired this writing.
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I’m planning to record selected poems from time to time to enhance accessibility. I hope as a side benefit they are enjoyable. Please comment on the Monkey. I’ll do my best to respond to questions you may have about the work.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit terryunderwood.substack.com