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From:
Von Underwood <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
- Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:33:20 -0500
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Not so much a poem as some hasty ruminations in verse:

 

 

How is the "natural" unemployment rate arrived at?

Tim Romano

The Natural Unemployment Rate

 

Each day it seems I may approach it.

Each night, settling into clean sheets

Stretching and sighing, I find out. Your bones,

Old dragon's teeth in mud, deserve a thank you note.

It's not a conscious battle, but there

You are, drawn that much closer to 

An unwanted intimacy with earth,

An intimacy with consequences.

 

If earth's what you want I suppose that

Might pass for "natural" employment in this benighted time. 

Just look around at work, and what employment is there?

K'ung says clean your house. Act through li. Study the poems.

A pip in the pocket, a need for a natural relation 

to those you love, and only concrete floors, and separation.

The age guarantees each citizen a right to 

Unnatural employments, even after the end.

 

Once there was a chief or king, the title

Untranslatable, who set things in their places

And gathered up the songs the ages had composed

And all day long the people worked and saw the sense

Of what they sowed and how they prospered, and they

Worshipped the divine and did the work of heart

And mind and when they spoke, their language 

Was precise. The legend of the kingdom grew.

 

This chief went up into the clouds and there

Saw cultures we can hardly dream, and coming home

The legendary garden seemed sour/slim. He brooded

Half the day, and his ministers grew restless.

No one invaded. The place just fell apart.

Since then, no one has been employed for long.

I have a friend who says he tries to think one thought all day,

And that thought God. He works like a maniac.

 

Von Underwood.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carrol Cox
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 8:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a poem

 

Tim Romano wrote:

> 

> How is the "natural" unemployment rate arrived at?

 

I suppose the comfort level of Berkeley econ profs?? Chicken entrails?

Population of Iowa divided by percentage of sky covered by clouds?

 

> Tim Romano

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