Here is a poem by Lynn Chandhok, who will be participating in Brooklyn Reading Works‘ Poetry Punch at the Old Stone House on Thursday, November 15 at 8 p.m.

Her first book, The View from Zero Bridge, won the 2006 Philip Levine Prize and was published by Anhinga Press in October 2007.

Lynn’s poetry has appeared widely in journals including The New Republic, Tin House, The Antioch Review, The Hudson Review, The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, and Sewanee Theological Review.  2007.

Order of Magnitude
Brooklyn, 2000

Out too late, on the avenue, I imagine—
or hope for—stars arched over earth like flowers
on darkened branches; satellites that fall
like messengers of old catastrophes;
bright red planets. Any of these would do.
But here, midnight is never broad or black,
the rooflines halve Orion, and the moon
in halo backlights aging cornices.

Once, I climbed switchback paths till trees gave way
to glaciers melting into lakes they fed,
resurfacing as islands, mirror on mirror,
like ice clouds skipping off a soundless sky.
There, nights were brilliant. God seemed plausible.
The cliffs might block the view, the valleys narrow,
but at a turn, it all turned to expanse.
That day, I found myself surrounded, cupped
inside a glacial cradle, while the clouds
unrolled like bolts of quilter’s batting, fell
and hid the sky. I sat alone and cold,
a single goatherd’s bell in hollow choir,
and waited.
            Now, walking the avenue,
I know the clouds will lift. I know this too:
Orion cartwheels, vanishing in spring.
And still I find myself imagining
that city lights might falter, or just dim
one night, till constellations in their full
dimension brighten, as in heaven’s view.
That sky might hail some new catastrophe.
At least I’d comprehend its magnitude.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS PRESENTS:

POETRY PUNCH: a delicious mix of language

With Poets Lynn Chandhok, Cheryl B, Zaedryn Meade, Marietta Abrams, and
Michele Madigan Somerville

Thursday November 15, at 8 p.m. A
The Old Stone House
Third Street and Fifth Avenue
(it’s the stone house in JJ Byrne Park)
PUNCH AND REFRESHMENTS ARE FREE
with the $5 Donation.

INFO: Louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com
Brooklynreadingworks.com
Theoldstonehouse.org

This from the New York Daily News:

One of the city’s most coveted high schools initially earned a C
under the Education Department’s new grading system but was able to
prove that it really deserved a B, said Randy Asher, the principal of
Brooklyn Technical High School.

Even after boosting its grade,
the B still gives Brooklyn Tech the poorest showing so far among nine
top schools where students need high grades or scores to enroll.

Seven
other prestigious schools got A’s. An eighth, Bard High School for
Early College in Long Island City [note: it’s on East Houston Street in Manhatta, actually] is still under review.

Brooklyn
Tech was one of 23 whose grades were still "under review" last week
when Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein released the
grades.

The problem, Asher said, were students whose August
graduations weren’t submitted in time to be counted toward the school’s
graduation rate – a major factor in high school grades…

Siobhan Sheils writes in an editorial in the Daily News (Be Our Guest) that it’s smart for upscale nabes like Park Slope to think about charter school. Let the discussion begin. Here’s an excerpt.

Leafy Park Slope, Brooklyn, full of strollers, dogs and pricey
stores, is the kind of place where you’d expect to find quality public
schools. So it might surprise you to learn that kids in District 15,
which includes Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods, might be
better served by schools in places like the South Bronx or Harlem.

Both
of those neighborhoods feature charter schools that outperformed the
vast majority of schools in District 15 during the 2005-2006 year. KIPP
Academy in the Bronx outscored 13 of the 14 middle schools in District
15. In math, Harlem Village Academy also outperformed all but one of
those schools. Ten District 15 schools had passing rates that were far
below 50% in both subjects.

Families in Park Slope out-earn
those in the South Bronx and Harlem by more than 50%. So why don’t the
kids out-learn, or at least keep pace with, their counterparts who
attend quality charter schools in low-income neighborhoods?

That,
perhaps, is what Dan Rubenstein and Luyen Chou wanted to know – and may
explain why the two educators wrote a proposal to start Brooklyn
Prospect Charter School, which they hope to open in fall 2009.

Community leaders, local businesses and non-profits in Park Slope are launching a Buy in Brooklyn shop local campaign to help support small businesses and the local economy. The kick-off event, geared towards local merchants, is taking place Tuesday, November 13th at the Community Bookstore on Park Slope’s 7th Avenue from 8:00pm-9:30pm. Here’s the PRESS RELEASE.

   

(Brooklyn, NY)  "We take community stewardship seriously, and want to support local entrepreneurs in the face of increasing displacement of locally owned businesses" says Ken Freeman, President of the Park Slope Civic Council whose Buy in Brooklyn shop local message began the campaign.  “The character of our neighborhood depends on a diverse mix of businesses.”

He is not alone. City-wide concern around the closing and displacement of small businesses has reached a tipping point. Neighbors across all five boroughs look on with increasing alarm as the doors of some of their favorite local businesses close, only to be replaced by the relative anonymity of chain stores and banks.

Launch organizer and Community Bookstore owner Catherine Bohne likens the context to "penguins on the edge of an ice flow."  "People are beginning to voice their concern and jump in," she says, "but here in Park Slope— with the generous support from the Park Slope Civic Council—we’ve been given the means to tap into local concern and pull together a critical mass of partners."

Co-organizer Rebeccah Welch agrees. "This launch has served as a lightening rod for local action," said Welch, adding "the issue resonates deeply in the community and the response has been heartening. There’s a groundswell of energy, a primed coalition of merchants, non-profits and activists who are eager to jump in and try to do something."

Part of the motor behind the shop local campaign is its heart and its neighborliness. "Many of our local merchants are our neighbors and friends—a salient part of the community," argues Melinda Morris, co-organizer and owner of Lion in the Sun.  "Local businesses give back to the neighborhood in myriad of ways, far beyond providing goods and services."

But what also makes this movement unique are its expansive goals—to build a coalition of local business owners, non-profits and concerned residents to continue to support small local business and the character of the community through action, events and education.

National research has shown that local businesses are a major source of jobs, innovation, and insight—and Buy in Brooklyn takes its broader campaign message seriously, working with organizations like the Sustainable Business Alliance, NYC (SBANYC) whose principal mission lies in educating the community about the benefits of local, green and sustainable economies.

"Shopping locally is simply good for the economy and overall health of the neighborhood," concurs Freeman. "Every dollar spent locally circulates 3 times in our local economy – it strengthens the entire economy of the neighborhood."

Organizers expect local politicians, merchants, and non-profits to come together and tackle this issue in the wake of the launch. [Stay tuned for the results.] Organizers have already set a date for shop local day on December 13th, sponsored by Seventh Avenue of Chamber Commerce. "We really want to show how shopping locally is easy and helpful," says Bohne, adding "a healthy community is one of the best insurances for the well being of its individual members."

Here’s the latest from CLEVER DOC. Today she’s wondering if you’re eating right. CLEVER DOC is Dr. Linda Hawes Clever, founder of Renew and an internist who specializes in occupational medicine is one smart lady. This is the 6th of 10 questions she asks as a way to help you re-think your life style and find meaning and vitality in your life. Here are the first five if you missed them:

Do you Laugh Enough?
Are You Still Learning?
How Angry Are You?
Do You Feel Trapped?
Do You Talk to People?

Meals mean more than food.

Eating a reasonable breakfast, for example, tends to decrease our total calories for the day. That is why, strangely, a breakfast banana and bagel (hold the cream cheese) can help us lose weight.

A bag lunch discussion in kindergartens established some practical guideposts. The kids agreed that it was okay to share lunches or exchange lunches but it was not okay to steal lunches. They used mealtime to define real time ethics.

Time was when families gathered and settled in for dinner. Now, well, the table is more like an aircraft carrier with landings and take offs as the family hovers, touches down, scoops up and heads out — maybe checking in with flight control or glancing at TV on the way.

That means trouble because eating together develops a sense of belonging. We transmit news, stories, and values. Studies of teenagers show that frequent family mealtimes are associated with a lower rate of drug use, depression and eating disorders.

Knowing this, one working single mom I know takes her daughter out to dinner four nights a week. They choose a restaurant, pick healthy meals and sashay out, chore free. The mom has no retirement savings but believes her investment in her daughter is more important.

Question #6 spotlights a sensitive time of day. Be honest when you answer.

6.  How many sit-down dinners did you have with your family or friends in the past week?

0 (0 points)
1 – 2 (1 point)
3 – 4 (2 points)
5 – 6 (3 points)
6 + (4 points)

Tonight at Rocky’s Readings at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook:

HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG
The Secret Language of the Crossroads
by Daniel Cassidy
INTRODUCED BY Michael Patrick MacDonald
Special musical guest: Chris Byrne

"A thrilling read… this is a page-turner."
                     Frank McNally, Irish Times

" This book is truly amazing!"
                     Eamonn McCann, Belfast Telegraph

In a fast-paced spiel (speal, cutting, sharp speech) of monologues,
stories, and songs, the Brooklyn-born writer and musician Daniel
Cassidy slices through 100 years  of Anglo-academic baloney (beal
onna, foolish blather) which claims that the Irish have had no
influence on the American language.

This is no linguistic scam (‘s cam, is a trick, a deception, a
fraud), Cassidy’s jazzy (teasai, pron. jasi, hot, exciting) new book
proves that  the Irish language is a hidden strand of the lingo we all
speak today.  Ain’t dat swell (sóúil, grand)?

Brooklyn-born writer and musician Daniel Cassidy reads, performs, and
belts out a song or two from his swell  snazzy new book, How the Irish
Invented Slang: the Secret Language of the Crossroads, at Rocky’s in
Red Hook, where the old Irish slang was born!

Also this week at Rocky’s:

Every Saturday night, 9 p.m.
Seanchaí and The Unity Squad

Every Wednesday, 9pm
Soul Night with SUGARTIME

Every Thursday, 8:30pm
Pub Quiz with Scott M.X. Turnerr

Saturday & Sunday afternoons
Katie’s Brunch served

Rocky Sullivan’s of Red Hook
34 Van Dyke St
Brooklyn
718-246-1793

Another missive from our pal, Pete.

THIS FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TODAY: "The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia."

Latvia?! Shocking? Yes. Shocking. But why is this so, and more importantly, why do we deny it?

I have been writing from a number of different perspectives on the egotistical attitudes overlaying the insidious inadequacies of parenting in the United States. We chronically and tragically do too much of the things children don’t really need, and not enough of what would really benefit them. Yet, our hubris is off the scale. In the worst traditions of American consumerism, we act as if spending the most of any industrialized nation on cool strollers and hip clothes for kids, along with private schooling, nannies and viola lessons, makes us competent parents. Meanwhile we simultaneously remain ambivalent about fully embracing universal health care and alternative – i.e. – preventative – healing practices for our childrens’ physical and  emotional well-being.

Furthermore, we absolutely refuse, with a fervor that can only serve to confirm the resistance, to look at the ways in which we use our children for vicarious purposes, seeking to prop up our own fragile self-esteems and personal deficits. I have "listened to" numerous angry tirades on this blog when I suggest that parents should re-examine their reasons for not having fulfilled adulthoods (i.e. –  vibrant sex lives and gratifying careers), because they have kids. The negative reactions have totally outweighed the positive reactions to my suggestions that having children past infancy sleep in bed with parents is not good for the kids, and of course, parents have really clammed-up when I’ve challenged them with evidence of the dramatic harm done to kids by labeling them with bogus diagnoses like "ADHD" and giving them drugs as a solution rather than – again – re-examining parenting (and its derivative – teaching).

Last night, I was at a dinner party with a group of parents bemoaning the sullenness towards the parents of their children after they became adolescents. "Doesn’t it basically come down to genes?" was the hopeful cry of many of the guilty-but-not-that-guilty parents, trying desperately to let themselves off the hook. "No, it doesn’t." was my not-too-well-received answer. Genes are merely switches inside of us, of which we have many. It takes chronic assaults, often subtle to the untrained or disinclined eye, to turn on a gene for mental illness, or physical diseases, for that matter. While children are not at all born as "blank slates," the "nature-versus-nurture" debate will only be resoved when we realize that it is both.

What has any of this got to do with our unconscionable infant mortality rate? Everything, because as long as we let doctors, pharmocologists and politicians tell us what we want to hear, instead of learning what need to know to help our children, and challenging ourselves in the ways that make us most uncomfortable, our children will suffer.

Disagree? Blog me at: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com

Here’s Smartmom from this week’s Brooklyn Paper:

Smartmom’s 84-year-old Uncle Jay died last week and she couldn’t decide whether to take Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One to the funeral.

While he wasn’t a daily part of their lives, they did see Uncle Jay every year at Thanksgiving and at other important family events like weddings and bat-mitzvahs.

A real kid magnet, Uncle Jay was a lovable guy who liked to sing, make pictures and tell stories.

OSFO would probably remember what a good artist he was. He loved to entertain his young relatives by drawing Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters.

And Teen Spirit would probably remember Jay’s stories about his cousin, jazz drummer Buddy Rich.

When she told Teen Spirit that Uncle Jay had died, he seemed very sad. But when she asked if he wanted to go to the funeral, he looked pained.

“I hate funerals,” he told her.

But as far as Smartmom could remember, he’d never been to one.

“I went to Uncle John’s,” he said.

Fact is, Teen Spirit didn’t actually attend the memorial for Hepcat’s Uncle John. But he probably heard so much about it that he thought he had been there.

Teen Spirit, like many people, probably just hates the idea of funerals and what they represent. Death. Loss. Grief.

What’s to like, really?

Smartmom gave the matter a good deal of thought and decided there was no need to force Teen Spirit or OSFO to go to her uncle’s funeral.

So, on what turned out to be the Mexican Day of the Dead, Smartmom and Hepcat went to the funeral of her Uncle Jay without their children.

Smartmom felt a little funny about it. She even felt a little guilty (what a surprise). Was it disrespectful not to bring them? For that matter, was she depriving them of an important life experience?

That was a good question. Smartmom went to a cousin’s funeral when she was about 10 and she never felt more awkward in her life.

Smartmom was terrified of death and didn’t know how she was supposed to behave. Needless to say, no one explained anything. She just sat through the funeral and felt plenty weird.

For years after, she was afraid of funerals. It wasn’t until her late-20s that she felt a little more relaxed.

Last Friday afternoon, a large crowd gathered for Uncle Jay’s funeral at a Westchester synagogue, where two rabbis and five family members spoke eloquently about this exceptional, larger-than-life man. He was alternately described as a movie star, a superhero, and a mensch.

Smartmom knew that her kids would probably get antsy listening to so much talk just like she had gotten antsy at her cousin’s funeral all those years ago. But she did wish that they could hear the beautiful — and funny — words her cousins had written about their father. It would probably surprise Teen Spirit and OSFO that there was so much humor at a funeral.

That would have been a good life lesson.

She wished that Teen Spirit and OSFO could have heard all the biographical details of her Uncle’s life. A leader in every sense of the word, he was a born athlete, a great storyteller, a World War II veteran,   boss, organizer for causes he believed in, loving father and grandfather, and a devoted husband to his high school sweetheart, Smartmom’s Aunt Rhoda.

Did Teen Spirit and OSFO know that their aunt and uncle attended Madison High School, where Jay (Class of 1940) distinguished himself in the arts and wore number 71 on the football team? Later, he went to Brown University and became a football star.

Smartmom sat childless in Diaper Diva’s green Jetta as they solemnly followed the hearse and a line of limousines to the cemetery, where her maternal grandparents are also buried.

She was relieved that her children didn’t have to endure the burial.

Death, of course, is a fact of life. And it’s not something to be ignored by or hidden from children. But, yes, OSFO would have been troubled by the sight of Uncle Jay’s huge coffin being lowered into the ground.

She knew that OSFO would probably have way too many questions — “Can he breathe under all that dirt?” “Isn’t it cold down there?” “Isn’t it dark?”

Each mourner placed a purple tulip in the grave. There was a chill in the air. Smartmom looked down at the large, pine casket and lingered for a moment of unthinkable thoughts. Sad. Scared. Where are we going?

Next came the thinkable thoughts: Had she made a big mistake by shielding her kids from the reality of death. Or was she doing them a favor?

Smartmom wondered that if by excusing them from the funeral, it would actually make them more afraid of death and the rituals that surround it.

Later, at the shiva at Aunt Rhoda’s, the conversations were rich, vibrant, full of life. “What are you doing?” “Where do you live now?” “Your children, what do they do?”

The voices were loud. There was laughter. Stories. Memories shared.

There was wine and good food. Rugelach, cheesecake, cookies, dried fruit. Friends and family caught up with each other.

When Smartmom was a child, she was surprised and even embarrassed that people were so festive after a funeral. Teen Spirit and OSFO might feel that way, too.

But that would be a good lesson, too.

Death is as much a part of life as a birthday party. It’s no different, really.

A ritual to commemorate the passage of time.

On the way home from Westchester, Smartmom decided: Next funeral, Teen Spirit and OSFO are coming. It’s a part of life just like everything else.