Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 181

Income segregation: like the income gap, only worse

The increasing gap between rich and poor in this country is a bad thing, but income segregation--the separation of people based on income--exacerbates and entrenches the problem, and it's also on the rise. Here's an article that explores the phenomenon in depth: "Geographic Segregation: The Role of Income Inequality," by Benjamin Forman and Caroline Koch, two researchers at MassINC, a Massachusetts-focused nonpartisan think tank. The authors write:

When families with limited means become geogr...

there were rainbows that day

Rainbows

Very soon, much nearer, a train whistle.

We piled off the tracks. She crouched at the edge of the gravel; I took a step back and down into a marshy spot amid goldenrod and asters, and we watched, eyes not much higher than wheel level, as a freight train rushed past.

From that line of sight I can confirm that lying between the rail...

the soft fur of the bees

I saw this post on Tumblr, loved the poetry of it. It's from penandink.tumblr.com, a blog of illustrations of tattoos, and the stories behind the tattoos (link here):



The poetry of that.

in awe of their tiny stingers
that could bring a grown man down

the empty power lines

Driving the healing angel to school, I saw silhouettes of birds, huddled together on the power lines, listening to the flow of electrons through their feet. I came back as soon as I could to take pictures of them at their listening post (on their listening wires), but . . .



It must have been something they heard. They must have exploded off the lines, all wings. What must the message have been? Was their mood one of panic or excitement? Outrage or glee?

Meanwhile, underneath, John the Flower H...

today, in morning and afternoon

morning: clouds flushed with the strain of daybreak



Afternoon... a path from summer to autumn:



and a window to clouds:



... evening clouds, as the sun sighs and prepares to descend:

Natalie Diaz, poet

dudeshoes linked me to this post on Natalie Diaz, a poet who is a member of the Mojave and Pima tribes. It features four stomach-punching poems from Diaz's new poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec. The post quotes--and links back to--an interview Diaz gave to Ploughshares magazine that contains some powerful thoughts on violence and language.

On violence:

Sometimes people are overwhelmed by the violence in my poems. I guess, when we see someone’s heart ripped out, we tend to look awa...

eyes turned strange

At the jail yesterday, along with the US flag and the state flag, the black POW flag was flying. Am I the only one who finds that to be a strange juxtaposition: POW flag at a jail? This act is criminal; we must imprison you. This act would be criminal in peacetime but is sanctioned in war. This person is prisoner whose cause we champion. This person is a prisoner we'd like to forget existed. This person is a terrorist. This person is a prisoner of conscience. This person fell through the crac...

bicycles . . . and swords into plowshares?

On my way to buy legal intoxicants yesterday, I passed a parade of kids on BMX-style small bikes, four bikes, and on the first bike, two kids, a bigger kid, and a small, skinny kid hanging on in the back. On the front, draped over the handlebars, was another bike. I guess the small kid just wasn't supposed to be riding on the street? Or maybe something had broken on the small kid's bike, and they were traveling home, or someplace to fix it. I wish I had had my camera. They were such a tight g...

story pictures

Do you know what Tumblr is great for? Storing story-related pictures. Then you can go back and look at them while you're working.

Here are a few I love. I like them just as photos, but I also like them extra-special for my story. Which I was able to work on today. Yay!

On M--'s side of things, this:


(By Philip Lanyon, for National Geographic)

and this:


(The photo is by Ricardo Arduengo, but I came to it via Nijla Mu'umin, the woman with the cool film project.)


On K--'s side of things, this, which c...

haikujaguar on the art of conversation

Actually, her broad topic here is communication, and in the section I'm referring to, what she's talking about is when you want to ask a person for advice, but I thought it was good advice for having a conversation, generally, with someone you don't know well, especially if it's someone you admire. She also talks about jealousy and discouragement and also about treating others well. Link is Here