THE BORGIAS

The new Showtime series, THE BORGIAS, is a little in the tradition of THE TUDORS, sort of part history, part soap opera, part recurring anachronistic moments, mostly in the language and behavior.

But it stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, who in the first episode becomes Pope Alexander IV in 1492 (hmmm) and uses bribery, intimidation and murder, among other nasty tactics, to get and stay there. Though the murders are mostly plotted by his youngest son (you know the old time popes) who he historically appointed as a cardinal when he was only eighteen (though the actor playing him, Francois Arnaud, is in his mid twenties and at times looks like he could almost be in his thirties which is obviously the fault or choice of the creator of the show, Neal Jordan) and is even more shrewd and possibly more ruthless than his father.

Irons is surrounded by an international cast (mostly English, of course, that's the accent we want in our fifteenth century Italians just as for our BC and early AD Romans etc.) that serves him well, and the whole thing being a creation of Neal Jordan's is worth watching despite the melodrama, and too many moments when you feel like you're watching VALLEY GIRL or DALLAS sends their entire casts back to the fifteenth century.

Still, like THE TUDORS, or ROME, before that, it offers a lot of entertaining moments, though not always as intended.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY SKEWERING

Here's Jon Stewart from tonight's Daily Show putting it to both parties, though as far as I'm concerned, as lame as the Democrats in Congress can sometimes be in standing up for their principles and what they were voted into office to do, they still come out better.

A CALENDAR REMINDER FOR APRIL 21ST

Just a reminder, and in case you haven't noticed the notice over on the right toward the top of my blog home page, the evening of Thursday, April 21st, at 6:30PM there'll be a poetry reading at the art foundation DIA, 535 West 22nd Street, featuring the young poet Brenda Iijima and myself.

It'll be only my second reading since the brain operation (almost fifteen months ago), and if you're in the area and can make it into Manhattan that evening, I'd love to see you there. Here's all the info.

PAUL VIOLI R.I.P.

I just got the news that poet and old friend Paul Violi passed away. He was one of the truly nice guys, someone who rarely had a bad word for anyone, at least around me, even when he was critical of them. I included him in the only poetry anthology I ever edited solely, None Of The Above, and would have included him in others if I'd done them because his work never ceased to engage and entertain me. He was a brilliant man who wore his brilliance so lightly it came across almost as self-effacing. I dug him from the first time I met him and his poetry from the first time I read it.

Here's a post from the first year of my doing this blog when I turned to a new book of Paul's at a time when I needed the juice poetry has always given me in hard times, I titled the post simply: Paul Violi
[Not to be too self-referential, but it is a personal blog and this is personal]

As happens too often these days I didn't keep in touch as I intended to do, but I thought of him often and was always delighted to see him. In fact so much so, I think sometimes my over-the-top social energy and praise made him a little wary or maybe just self-conscious. But I really loved this guy and his work and I figure if you forget to tell people you care about, or whose work you admire, about it, you're oblgiated to when you run into them. Which I always did.

I'll miss him, and know many many others will as well. Our condolences to his family and wide circle of friends who cared about him.

Here's a photo of how I remember him from the early days of our friendship.

[To read some of his poems and see a more recent photo and find his books etc., go to his web site: here.]

LEE LALLY

There's a post by Terence Winch today on THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY BLOG about my first wife and the mother of my two oldest children, Lee Lally, a poet, artist, musician and political activist who passed around this time of year twenty-five years ago, after being in a coma for six years.

There are photos of Lee on the post, but I thought I'd add three of my favorites of her that I think capture what I loved about her:

Me & Lee in our apartment in Iowa City in the Winter of 1967-'68 not long before our daughter Caitlin was born

[PS: If you blow up the photo and the little photo on the window sill you can just make out that it's John Coltrane.]

Lee holding our son Miles and me our daughter Caitlin outside our apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland in 1970

Lee reading the catalog for a show of poet Jim Haining's "envelope art" (every copy of his magazine SALT LICK had individual artwork in them, and each envelope he sent them out in also had more unique artwork on them, so before sending out the magazine once, he had a show of the envelopes! c. 1972 in Baltimore, Maryland—for more about this period and Jim's wonderful poetry and observations find a copy of his out-of-print A QUINCY HISTORY)

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Fareed Zakaria caught my attention the first time I heard him speak, he was bright, articulate and seemingly brave enough to state some pretty obvious truths about the USA that few were willing to admit.

More recently, as he's become an established presence on TV as one of the more ubiquitous of talking heads, the sharp and gutsy intellectualism I first responded to and became a fan of has slid into a more conventional and at times, dare I say it, "lame intellectualism" that makes too many concessions to the right's perspectives than I believe are legitimate.

This article displays some of both those tendencies. Some brilliant analyses and summaries of complex problems and solutions. And some not so brilliant (as soon as an essayist uses the tired metaphor of "cancer" you know they're getting lazy, and anyone dedicated to the truth should stop using the term "entitlement" since it is a rightwing framing device now and has lost its original meaning which was the belief that all of us are entitled to certain rights, like the right to vote and to get help if no jobs are available etc. but now is seen more as a spoiled "I'm entitled" presumption etc.).

But I found it worth reading because he still manages to make several valid points that need to be made consistently these days, like his point about discretionary spending being irrelevant to the debt and deficit issues. Check it out here and see what you think.

MY APRIL FOOL'S DAY POEM

Can't remember if I've ever posted this before on a previous April Fool's Day, but here's a poem from 1975 that's reprinted in my book IT'S NOT NOSTALGIA:

April Fool's Day 1975

The day came on bright and shiny;
I didn't know what to say.
Spring finally here but
on April Fool's Day?
Does that mean more winter tomorrow?
Does it matter? Inside I feel tiny
watching my friends separate again, everywhere,
or the TV letting me know it's not over
over there,
or my special ignorance,
the dumbness only I can confront,
but still don't know how to:
not meditation,
not revolution,
not androgyny or drag in any of its forms,
not even poetry,
not even Spring.
In my heart there are shelves
and on the shelves there are too many books
and too many of the books are worn out
or boring or impossible to understand.
And in my hands?
Those little hearts
the poems that
even when dumb, are sacred.

I'm glad we all aren't naked:
it's not the sixties anymore.
I want to wear nice clothes
and carry on my life behind closed doors.
I want to sit with the rich
or hustling poor and still be myself.
I want to make my kids secure.
I want to share with them
what joy a good night's sleep
with bright and shiny morning
can bring to the heart—
the chance to start
again.