For any Jack Kerouac enthusiast or On the Road fan, the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's profoundly influential novel is a moment of literary history to celebrate. True to style, the San Francisco celebrations were held in the famed district that embodied the spirit of Kerouac's work -- a panel discussion at the All Saints Church in Haight-Ashbury put on by one of San Francisco's favorite independent bookstores the Booksmith was an event not to have missed. The panel gave the audience a better sense of who Kerouac was and a better understanding of the place of On the Road in the pantheon of American literature. And for many it was a treat to hear personal stories about Kerouac's personal attributes, such as how great his oratory skills were -- as friend Michael McClure said "he fully realized the language" when he read out loud.
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If I Met George W. Bush

by Jerry Judge

I’m a pacifist (usually) and besides
there would be scores of Secret Service men
measuring my every move – especially my hands.



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The Planter in a City Window

by Morteza Miraftabi

The long and continuous factory whistle echoed throughout the city. A thin muscular man, head up and walking tall, appeared from the end of the street. He passed us by on the street, carrying two green and crimson poinsettias. His hair was neatly combed and he wore a work shirt.
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To Manucher Jamali
67
Say it out loud

Say it out loud
The ears are rusted with prejudice
Present the truth!

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Agha Shahid Ali
Agha Shahid Ali was born in New Delhi on February 4, 1949. He grew up Muslim in Kashmir, and was later educated at the University of ....
.....
SNOWMEN
My ancestor, a man
of Himalayan snow,
came to Kashmir from Samarkand,
carrying a bag
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NEW [S]PRING TONE

Shall we have to traverse beating this path alone
and travel along, only on these dotted lines, as before

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Translated from Farsi by:P. Vahabzadeh

........
the outraged George Wallace poster GW chewing gum
Abraham Lincoln’s Ford Theatre bloody ticket in his pocket
the blue cages of Vietnam war, the Russian Roulette, Dr. MASH
......
.......
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Poets from around the world attended including: Mahnaz Badihian (American-Iranian), Massimo Sannelli (Italy), Mani Rao (Hong Kong, China), Lana Derkac (Croatia), Patrick Cotter (Ireland), Gerry Murphy (Ireland), Tae Ho Han (Korea), Roberto Piperno (Italy), and Peter Waugh (Austria).

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Genesis
The world begins in the eyes,
spreads across the face, down the chest
and back, fills the abdomen,
assails the legs and arms, and ends
at the fingertips


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So you know
for Hooshang

I will write to you,
So you know,
In this strange land,
I am alive, and my blood which is
Floating in your veins,
Still sings the song
Which our father used to hum
In our mother’s ear.
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Flávia Rocha is a Brazilian poet, journalist and translator living In São Paulo. . She has an M.F.A program in Writing at Columbia University and was the co-editor, with Edwin Torres, of Cities of Chance: an Anthology of New Poetry from the United States and Brazil. She co-founded Acedemia Internacional de Cinema in Sao Paulo. Her first collection of poetry, The Blue House Around Noon was released by Travessa dos Editores in 2004.
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I am compartment of many
Functional realities
I am compartment of many functional realities
Every part of me mobilized and vitalized to motilities

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---------
there is shy wind and wee, between
sound and soul –
because the wind is running,
going to oblivion.

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" In this fictional novel Sayers weaves the many colored threads of Persian society in to a beautiful novel, a caltural carpet to qali "----------
Hossein Ibrahimi

What makes this
Lonely Dravidian tea picker
To pour out her heart,
As the odor of pesticides
Cut through the lungs,
As the hard labored leaves
Are made high-tech currencies
In the global markets?

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