Friday, March 17, 2017

Ba's Source Is Heaven, Ab's Hell




I read the debates yesterday on whether feeding hungry children increases test scores or not. Anti-feeding the hungry on public dime say no, feeding the hungry on public dime say yes, there's evidence, REAMS AND REAMS OF EVIDENCE PROVING FED CHILDREN LEARN BETTER, and of course, those who'd feed the hungry on public dime are right, as scientifically right as those who say the better you feed the cow you'll slaughter the better the meat.

Some said, though none wearing tribal colors that I read, even if there wasn't solid science proving fed children learn better - say there were studies proving that fed children learn no differently than hungry children: in a just society there are no hungry children.












BY THE RIVER BAAB

Bill Knott

We know that somewhere far north of here
the two rivers Ba and Ab converge to form
this greater stream that sustains us, uniting
the lifeblood length of our lands: and we believe
that the Ba's source is heaven, the Ab's hell.
  
Daily expeditions embark upcountry to find
that fork, to learn where the merge first occurs.
Too far: none of our explorers return. Or
else when they reach that point they themselves
are torn apart by a sudden urge to choose—
  
to resolutely take either the Ba/the Ab, and trace
good or evil to its spring. Each flips a coin
perhaps, or favors whichever one the wind's
blowing from at that moment. Down here
even we who have not the heart to venture
  
anywhere that would force us to such deep
decisions, even we, when we hold that glass of
water in our hand, drink it slowly, deliberately,
as if we could taste the two strains, could somehow
distinguish their twin flow through our veins.



2 comments:

  1. 1) the poem by knott seems somehow related to hesse's "journey to the east", which i just started reading this week

    i see from the book jacket that hesse was born in germany in 1877, but chose self-exile in 1912 and lived in switzerland until his death in 1962

    i read steppenwolf before, but that was a long time ago - and twenty years ago i started magister ludi, but did not finish it

    w)ba and ab also remind me of abba - and perhaps you may have seen

    http://www.academia.edu/11491779/Fernando_the_Flute_analysis_of_musical_meaning_in_an_Abba_mega-hit

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. Many Democrats have, in fact, pointed out that the cost of Trump's Florida trips would fund Meals on Wheels for something like 127 years. Same with kid-feeding programs. This is not hidden or secret, either.

      Delete