L'aura del Campo

Snow and ice, booze and barf

Winter: 17 Sultán (February 4)

TREASURE OF THE DAY

Wombs of wanton women
are cut out
for the transgression
of being raped,
ravaged.

Feminists fumed over fashion shows.

I think this part must give pause to anyone who reads it and doesn't think that at times we are petty when the world is suffering around us (and basically I support the feminists among us).

I highlighted this as it refers to the slaughter of the Kurds.

For those in support of the US invasion of Iraq this may be why. (Personally I opposed it and still do.) Gruesome but well put depiction of the atrocities that have been denounced internationally through the years.

For this extremely edgy and uncomfortable read that deserves a wider audience regardless of personal views, go to

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2006-02-04
afternoon, 37 degrees. 28 in Mosul, Iraq

Always good to remember how cold it can get in the Middle East. TV brings images of heat and sand, but Mosul is in the north and quite capable of a snow dusting now and then.

I've met a family from Mosul. They had moved to Syria than to Georgia, USA. I spoke to them in Buffalo in September 2002. I warned them about snow (we had had 5 foot in one storm the previous December), but mostly we chatted about the impending storm in the Middle East. This was before Bush's invasion of Iraq. The Kurds had suffered for years, but they had family in Baghdad and were worried about them. We had tea, joked in Turkish, Kurd and English. I brought a yellow watermelon. We ate on blankets on the concrete. It was warm, sunny and peaceful. My storm and their storm had yet to wrack havoc on our lives. It is important to remember the good times.

Many of the cultures of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and the surrounding area share a sense of hospitality that seems incredible to Americans. One must eat. One must be a gracious guest. Hospitality is an art, a key to understanding. If either here or there you are fortunate enough to be made welcome by someone of this culture, do not be in a rush. There is much to be learned by basking in their kindness and their warmth.

Some jokes are trilingual. One can say in American 'that first one boozes and then one barfs'. This is even funnier if you know that in Turk (both in Osman Turk and in Azeri) 'buz' is ice (pronounced booze) and that 'barf' (pronounced more like bærf) is snow in Persian and Kurd. It becomes a double entendre with 'first it ices and then it snows'. This has an added layer of chuckles because drinking is frowned upon in the region to various degrees. Since many people in SE Turkey, N Iraq and NW Iran are bilingual at worse, multi-lingual at best, you can ask about this.

The forecast for tonight and tomorrow for WNY and Buffalo has rain, ice, slush and snow in it. Here? More sunshine, but wintry temperatures have returned.

2006-02-04
sunset, 37 degrees. 43 degrees in Jamestown, NY.

Just got a call from my cousin Kellie! Well ... not quite 'just'. I hung up after and hour and 12 seconds, but who's counting? It's Saturday and it doesn't cost. Her daughter Jordan is almost 3. I wrote Jordan a poem when she was born a 4 pound premie, but can't find it here at WDC. Must look further.

The sun has set and I must wrap this up. I'm reading Selected Poems of Rita Dove. Very good read.

SENSED

Slap of tires; an airplane's drone; heels on concrete; a tumbling leaf; an engine starting; toot of the train; flapping of the flag.

A dreary sketch from January 15th:

Shadowwalkers

Unloved, unwanted, unseen,
we walk among shadows, we
cast none of our own. Shy birds
and bricks note our passing and
the holes in our shoes. Walls feel
the tensed up shoulders, know the
shudders. Hungry for connection
we shuffle alone, ashamed, no
longer at one with the blood
filled stream of humanity. [162.715]