Hank Kalet

Taha Muhammad Ali, the Palestinian poet, got the year’s Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival off to a great start for me. The poet was fresh and expressive, his poems vibrant and beautiful — Middle Eastern poets, both Arab and Israeli, have found a way to connect the world to the I with passion and are a growing influence on my own work.

In addition to Ali, others who electrified me — and the crowd — and drew me into their work for the first time included the African-Americans Kurtis Lampin and Sekou Sundiata, the Iraq war vet Brian Turner (his eulogy to a soldier who blew his head off was riveting) and Linda Hogan.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Jim McGreevey is having a difficult time convincing anyone that he is serious and that his “confession” — that wonderful book he’s hawking all over the place — is genuine.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I’d file this bit on grumpy old folks under good news. To sum up: Old grumps tend to be smarter than the average. Not sure I believe it, but as I get grumpier with each succeeding year I find this to be a positive sign.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

This week’s Dispatches is ready to read — it’s on Iraq (what else?).

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

It looks like municipal consolidation is officially on the table. Here is what I wrote about the notion of consolidation in August. I suspect that forced consolidation will be the only way to shrink the number of towns, though the political fallout could be huge. Given what the locals in Cranbury and Jamesburg say, it is going to be a bumpy road getting this done.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick