This poem by Lucille Clifton found me at just the right time, on another birthday:
won’t you celebrate with mewhat i have shaped intoa kind of life? i had no model.born in babylonboth nonwhite and womanwhat did i see to be except myself?i made it uphere on this bridge betweenstarshine and clay,my one hand holding tightmy other hand; come celebratewith me that everydaysomething has tried to kill meand has failed.
Things feel like they’re getting dodgier on the Korean peninsula given so much talk about military options rather than diplomatic ones for ending the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Friend Ben and I were chatting about this and he got philosophical when I asked him whether he thinks I should leave. The response ended up being rather poetic, now that I look at the way the lines broke:
hard to say
if you leave
you’re safe
but
on the other hand
what is risk?
you face it every day in one form or another
crossing the street
climbing a stepstool to change a light bulb
eating
Bill O’Reilly’s “WE’LL DO IT LIVE” meltdown on the set of Inside Edition is a video that stands the test of time. For the past decade or so that it’s existed on YouTube, “Fuck it, we’ll do it live” has been one of my go to refrains at work (in television news, naturally) or in life (the phrase can apply to so many situations).
I have a friend at NPR who’s quite the amateur poet. He occasionally takes the beginnings of my actual emails to a giant work group and turns them into poems. They are inspired. And hilarious. On this occasion of Bill O’Reilly’s firing from Fox, said friend one-upped himself and realized O’Reilly’s famous “DO IT LIVE” rant is a poem in it of itself. Herewith:
THAT’S TOMORROW (AND THAT IS IT FOR US TODAY)
By Bill O’Reilly
thats tomorrow
and
that is it for us today
okay
I don’t know
whatever it is
its not right on the
teleprompter
I don’t know what it is
I’ve never seen that
okay
but I cant read it
theres no words on it
there’s no words there
to play us out
what does that mean
to play us out
I dont know what that means
to play us out
what does that mean
to end the show?
Alright
go go
and that is
thats tomorrow
and
that is it for us today
and we will leave you with a
I cant do it
we’ll do it live
we’ll do it live
we’ll do it live!
fuck it
do it live!
thats tomorrow
and
that is it for us today
Im bill oreilly
thanks again for watching
we’ll leave you with
sting and a cut
off his new album
take it away
