{"id":39169,"date":"2022-09-14T18:30:21","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T02:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=39169"},"modified":"2022-09-14T21:48:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T05:48:49","slug":"a-sophisticated-poet-in-hicks-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=39169","title":{"rendered":"A sophisticated poet in Hicks Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anti Status Quo<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Back before the mural<\/strong> on the neighboring post office was painted over, I got to know Laure Reichek at\u00a0Toby’s Coffee Bar in Point Reyes Station. She lives in Hicks Valley near the McEvoy olive ranch, and I first met her at seasonal parties there.<\/p>\n

This is the cover of her last book, which came out two years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

As noted in a posting<\/em><\/a> here at that time, Laure was born in Paris in 1930 and in 1951 moved to the US with her husband. He was an American veteran she met after the war when both were studying in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Laure at 19 in Paris.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Laure’s latest book of poetry in part reflects the trauma of having seen World War II and fascism closehand as a child. Anti Status Quo<\/em> is a collection of mostly grim ironies.<\/p>\n

A week ago, she and I reconnected at Toby’s where she presented me with the book. Here are a couple of biting poems from it:<\/p>\n

Of Thee I Weep<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can a man, woman, or child<\/p>\n

walk anywhere on this planet?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our planet?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It depends<\/p>\n

whether he\/she has<\/p>\n

the money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Money<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to buy required papers<\/p>\n

to cross artificial borders<\/p>\n

of nation-states.<\/p>\n

With money<\/p>\n

you are welcome<\/p>\n

to go anywhere.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Without money<\/p>\n

you are allowed<\/p>\n

when needed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Without money<\/p>\n

the beacon of light<\/p>\n

will lead you to prisons<\/p>\n

and the doors<\/p>\n

will be locked.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the poor<\/p>\n

walk over mountains, deserts,<\/p>\n

drown in rivers,<\/p>\n

the rich will fly<\/p>\n

in comfort through the air.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, Liberty<\/p>\n

of thee I weep.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/p>\n

If They’re Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s their fault<\/p>\n

for not choosing their parents well.<\/p>\n

Instead of their labor to sell<\/p>\n

they should have chosen oil wells<\/p>\n

or football teams\u2014<\/p>\n

very profitable and clean.<\/p>\n

My friends own pipelines<\/p>\n

and the oil companies,<\/p>\n

but I control the armies,<\/p>\n

the press, the judiciary.<\/p>\n

I’m the emperor of the<\/p>\n

twenty-first century,<\/p>\n

your thought content and context<\/p>\n

your past present and future,<\/p>\n

your freedom is the one I own.
\nI’m rich because I made the right choice.<\/p>\n

If they’re poor, that’s their problem\u2014<\/p>\n

not mine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Laure in Paris, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

This collection of her poems and her book Autrefois to Today<\/em> are available at <reichek.org\/Laure> (upper case L).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anti Status Quo Back before the mural on the neighboring post office was painted over, I got to know Laure Reichek at\u00a0Toby’s Coffee Bar in Point Reyes Station. She lives in Hicks Valley near the McEvoy olive ranch, and I first met her at seasonal parties there. This is the cover of her last book, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1564,1376],"class_list":["post-39169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-arts","tag-anti-status-quo","tag-laure-reichek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39169"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39194,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39169\/revisions\/39194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}