#robert grenier

control de pasaportes mi sombra esperando allá la frontera

passport check my shadow waits across the border

todo lo vuelve       sí mismo      el viento

Turning everything        into itself           the wind

George Swede

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cada vez más alto el último salmón

higher this time the last salmon

Matsuo Allard

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silbo de marmota horada la sierra primer lucero

a marmot's whistle pierces the mountain first star

lluvia tibia antes del alba: mi leche destilándose en ella invisible

warm rain before dawn: my milk flows into her unseen

Ruth Yarrow

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salvo el columpio que el perro golpea al pasar

except the swing bumped by the dog in passing

Robert Grenier

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al paso con el río    el agua piensa por mí

walking with the river        the water does my thinking

entre pinos mi espinazo se endereza

in the pines my spine straightens

Robert Boldman

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cepillando el pelo a mi madre las chispas

I brush my mother's hair the sparks

troneros mar adentro el guincho vuelve temprano a su nido

thunderheads offshore the osprey coming early to its nest

libélula... el instructor de tai chi cambia la pose

dragonfly... the tai chi master shifts his stance

veranillo... tortuga sobre tortuga sobre una piedra

Indian summer a turtle on a turtle on a rock

al estirarse a coger peras... el tirón de una antigua cicatriz

reaching for green pears— the pull of an old scar

noche estival: apagamos las luces para oír la lluvia

summer night: we turn out all the lights to hear the rain

Peggy Willis Lyles

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de invernal arrumbo   la proa de la canoa      irrumpiendo al sol

from winter storage  the prow of the canoe     entering sunlight

A Mostly Empty Interpretive Wonderland: Reading Robert Grenier’s Sentences

Adapted from a talk I gave in January 2021 at the graduate student colloquium of the Book History and Print Culture Colloquium (University of Toronto). The colloquium, held online, was called “The Book Out of Order: Structure, Inversion, Dissent.” Sources Web version of Robert Grenier’s Sentences (Whale Cloth Press). Images of the physical book (Granary Books). Lyn Hejinian, “The Rejection of…

Members of the political class are buying into burgeoning fantasies about a second civil war, indulging visions about sparring with parts of their own subject populations. In the wake of recent conflicts culminating in the Capitol riot, prominent figures have been extrapolating from our violent polarization to a dystopian future of insurgency within our borders. Officialdom seems dead set on fanning the sparks of existing political strife into something resembling a national house fire.

"The challenge facing us now is one of counterinsurgency," Robert Grenier, former CIA station chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan and later director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center, insists in The New York Times. "Though one may recoil at the thought, it provides the most useful template for action."

The danger, Grenier adds, lies in "a large, religiously conservative segment of the population, disproportionately (though not entirely) rural and culturally marginalized." He doesn't believe that the entire segment is violent, but it constitutes "a mass of citizens—sullen, angry and nursing their grudges—among whom the truly violent minority will be able to live undetectably, attracting new adherents to their cause."

…

While neither Grenier nor Brennan are currently in government, both are well-connected and influential. Tellingly, the same day that Grenier's Times screed appeared, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a terrorism bulletin that read like a sales brochure for the former CIA officials' desired domestic policies.

…

But few members of the rural and conservative segment of the population that troubles insurgency war-gamers are QAnon devotees, and only a tiny sliver had anything to do with the Capitol riot. If they come to support "violent individuals" because they "see them as reflecting their interests and fighting on their behalf," it will be because of deeper divisions and resentments that brought them to that point.

And those resentments really are deep. According to January YouGov polling, 53 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans, and 57 percent of Independents "think that the biggest threat to their way of life comes from domestic enemies."

The best way to calcify those perceptions of "domestic enemies" is for a government in the hands of one political faction to start treating its opponents as insurgents. That will inevitably entail the excesses and abuses that come with turning the security services loose not just on those who have committed crimes against others, but on whole segments of society viewed as potential threats.

"Overreactions give people an incentive to become terrorists—not only by creating grievances but also by reducing the relative risks of turning to violence," Northeastern University's Max Abrahms, a professor of public policy, recently cautioned in Reason. "A standard assumption in political science is that terrorists are rational actors. Many people decide against becoming terrorists because they know that the costs to them will be severe. But if the government is going to treat innocent people like terrorists anyway, then no additional risk is incurred."

Writing before Grenier's call for counterinsurgency efforts, Abrahms pointed out that John Brennan "did not distinguish between those who use extreme tactics and those with whom he disagrees politically. For Brennan, both are enemies worthy not only of contempt, but action or at least government scrutiny."

Grenier, for his part, wants to adopt tactics used in Afghanistan and Iraq, but neither country is exactly doing spectacular 20 years after the U.S. invaded and began battling insurgents. Iraq's capital city recently suffered two suicide bombings and the Biden administration is poised to, again, delay the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan because of escalating fighting in the country. Do we really want to inflict comparable counterinsurgency campaigns on our own country and risk similar outcomes?

Ex CIA Chief: Uprisings against Taliban Should be Supported

ISLAMABAD: Robert Grenier, former CIA station chief Islamabad said that he doesn’t think the Taliban will “honestly” join in the peace negotiations & suggests that  the uprisings in Taliban controlled areas should be supported to unsettle insurgent group.

Mr. Grenier, while talking regarding the Taliban declining to join the peace talks that were facilitated by Quadrilateral Coordination Group…

“beautiful tomatoes this morning of mornings”

“warble answered by neighboring horse”

“arriving potatoes”

“these cubes have been on the floor”

Migraine, salmonella, I gotta say, been a crappy week off. Too, though, a sunny Sunday morning, I sit here on the couch sipping tea and eating a few berries, my gut don’t hurt too much of the moment & my cat’s basking in the sun, and so.

The week of serious concerted poem-making I pictured has not happened. (Nor have the coincident weeks of serious gardening or concerted bill paying.) But did…