Wounded Knee trivia, poem

Trivia: Michael Blake told me that reading Brown’s, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” was his inspiration to write “Dances with Wolves.”  Brown borrowed his title from a poem, “American Names” by Stephen Vincent Benet.

Wounded Knee Remembered

by Charles Redner

Tears frozen on lovely faces

owners’ of harden-hearts

slaughter a Nation’s promise.

Anonymous my ...

Watched “Anonymous” last week and while taking umbrage with the plot, I rather enjoyed the period movie. Enjoyed, even though the director made a valid attempt in crafting a Shakespeare the buffoon depicted of Mozart in “Amadeus.”  However, a real fright came when the popcorn counter person blindly accepted the premise of the film, that Shakespeare never wrote any of the works attributed to him.   Like “Shakespeare In Love,” the film creates a buzz about the Bard, but does this one do more harm?

A Photo More Scary than Godzilla’s Bad Breath

Swabbed in a greenish-glow worthy a “B” horror movie, Allen Ginsberg, far right, traveled to Japan with poet-friend Nanao Sakaki (next to Ginsberg) to tour an atomic energy plant and warn of the dangers of messing with Mother Nature. Plant workers, Tenseki Ildaka and Sogu Fukumura escorted the poets during their excursion. Sakaki walked the earth preaching environmental conservation. He lectured against nuclear power. Having observed the very moment the atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki, he knew first-hand the destructive power of the atom. Thirty years before the earthquake, tsunami and accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Sakaki said, “Fifteen nuclear plants north of Kyoto … already the [Japanese] government thinks five-million will die if something happens to a power plant like an earthquake.” Two poets made their appeal but then who listens to poets—what could they know?

Another Nanao friend, Kazu Kawamoto, stated in 1981: “… most Japanese still seem to believe that humans can control nature. One tenth of all earthquakes on the Earth occur on and near the Japanese Islands. But 52 nuclear power plants are in operation and 20 more are planned … It is just stupid. I wonder how we can change this situation before the catastrophe. Not much time left.”

Earth slides slightly

Mother Nature burps
Mankind bows.
--Charles Redner

Photo:The Allen Ginsberg Project - http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/nanao.htmlby Hitomi Watanabi. Nanao's Collected Poems is due out next year from Blackberry Books, Maine.