Unexpected Encounter

[bigtree]

. . . how did you find me?
How did you know I’d be here?

He looks to where I stand
in the radiant silence,
the earth falling away beneath us,
till the silvery gates slide open
to release him. He steps out.
He steps out and I stand still.

‘D’you know where you’re going?’
he asks.
‘Is this where you wanted to be?’ *


President Barack Obama unexpectedly runs into Michelle on her birthday in the basement of the White House, Jan. 17, 2012 in Washington. (photo/Christopher Morris, TIME)


* excerpt from poem 'The Elevator' by: © 2008, Maura Dooley
From: Life Under Water
Publisher: Bloodaxe, Tarset, 2008

[bigtree]

1. .

[bigtree]

2. .

[Joe Shlabotnik]

3. maybe she caught him sneaking a smoke, but nah, that would just ruin the nice narrative. nt

[bigtree]

8. no

that works. Doesn't ruin it at all.

[FarLeftFist]

4. Why was there a camera guy standing around to take this?

[bigtree]

7. I saw a good documentary about the WH photographers

This one cool guy follows the president around all day and snaps random shots as well as important ones when the President meets folks who visit and in the meetings. He literally follows the Prez around almost everywhere.

[FarLeftFist]

28. DREAM JOB!

[cherokeeprogressive]

5. Strange body language...

She has her arms crossed and is looking down, he has his hands in his pockets and isn't facing her.

[Snotcicles]

6. Looks like she's borrowing some change for the pop machine. nt

[Bonobo]

9. Holy shit!

This has got to be the most puke-worthy OP I have ever seen.

"He looks to where I stand in the radiant silence"

It sort of reminds me of those black velvet paintings with George Bush together with the Founding Fathers and Jesus...

This kind of romanticizing and hero worship is NOT a healthy part of the political system and it is just as disgusting when it rears up on the Left as when it comes from the Right.

[bigtree]

10. it's a love poem, reflecting on their loving relationship.

. . . and you come off with that nasty cliche about 'hero worship'.

There's too much meanness in that statement of yours. No one deserves to be accused of hero worship here. This isn't some political statement. It's a respite from the political nonsense and just a reflection of mine on a moment in time. There must be room here for that.

[Bonobo]

11. Voting for personalities in elections...

is entirely a bad thing and you should give THAT some serious thought.

[bigtree]

12. this doesn't say anything at all about that. It has nothing to do with voting.

It's about a relationship. It's a moment in time in a unique (for now) presidency. It's about something which transcends the petty politics that we sometimes practice here.

You should give THAT some serious thought.

[Bonobo]

13. Really, it has nothing to do with Obama's popularity?

His cute smile, his Al Green imitations, his great romance with his wife and his sweet kids...

It ALL has to do with raising personality worship to a level where the substance of what is happening with his positions is forgotten or forgiven...

I am all for poems and the discussing of loving relationships, but I seriously feel that it is a sign of the times, a terribly troubling sign of the times.

I say this as a person who worshipped at the Obama altar in 2008-2009. He is seriously scrumptious and all that, but there is no place for that kind of foolishness at this time.

What you describe as "petty politics" is not petty at all. It involves war, killing, dismantling of Constitutional liberties, etc.

It is IRONIC because what is REALLY PETTY is the discussion of a "love moment" between a guy and his wife when it really has no place on a political discussion board. THAT is petty.

[TransitJohn]

14. +1

Thanks.

[bigtree]

15. you're just making shit up to fit the notion you raised in your sig line

You couched it in the terms the conservative opposition uses to denigrate Obama supporters: 'hero worship'.

Of all the crap that files around here under the rubric of political discussion, you've chosen to single out this innocuous post highlighting a loving relationship between the President and his wife. You further want to try and intimidate me from posting this image (and perhaps others) because you believe it detracts from the issues you purport to care about.

I say that you've reduced my view, opinion, participation here to your own one-dimensional caricature. I'm anything but one-dimensional.

A picture of the President and his wife on her birthday is of interest to some here. I understand that you don't like it, but I think it's as relevant as any of the other inane topics I scroll through in this forum. You just sound ridiculous making such a fuss over a photo and a poem.

Should we shun images of their loving relationship? Should we pretend they don't exist? Who deemed this forum to be free from feeling and expression? Who decided that this forum could not highlight the loving relationship between the President and his wife? Are you making the same complaints about the dysfunctional relationship of Gingrich, as it's details are posted here repeatedly? I'll bet not.

I think you just have a problem with the Obama's loving relationship and you can't stand for anyone to highlight it (here or anywhere politics are being discussed, I surmise). I think that meanness is well reflected in your insult about 'hero worship'. Like I said, no better than any of the conservative opponents have expressed about the support some may have for this President; as if we're unable to hold more than one thought, feeling, expression, or opinion at a time.

I think you're afraid that someone might just look at this man and his wife as human beings, instead of just political figures undeserving of recognition for their own expressions of their humanity. When you lose respect for your opponent's humanity, you lose the genius of your opposition. Even if you oppose this president --as you clearly do -- even if you dislike him -- as you appear to do -- you can still show some respect for folks who express support and affection for the man.

You're more than free to oppose him, but you should also respect those here who don't by staying away from characterizing that support based on your own bias. That denigrating of supporters is PETTY.

Objecting to an innocuous photo of the President and his wife and an excerpt from a poem is PETTY politics, And don't try and pretend that it's about what's proper to post in this forum. It's the support for this President that really galls you. It's written all over your posts.

[Bonobo]

20. The thing that is funniest to me about your response...

Is that you are the person I recall claiming that morality shouldn't be mixed too much with politics when you were ripping apart Harry Belafonte for criticizing Obama.

How quick you were to tear down Mr. Belafonte as a person who has struggled for the downtrodden for over 50 years...

And now all this outrage that I dare suggest that you are gushing over a president in an inappropriate way.

The difference is that Mr. Belafonte was not elected to the highest office in the land. He is not a political figure. THIS is a political message board and Obama's worth as a president has no relationship to how well he can sing, how cute his smile is, or how good his relationship with his wife is.

Frankly, to all the above things, I would answer that I don't give a rat's ass about them --and I don't give a rat's ass if you think I have reduced you to a caricature. You gushed, I responded with vomit.

Live with it. It's a message board and that's my message.

[bigtree]

21. are you stoned?

I could have sworn that was you who admitted I said no such thing about Harry Belafonte.

In that one thread, I pointed to a positive statement that Mr, Belafonte had made in the same article posted as some slam against the President. Here's the post:

bigtree
"He has all the smarts and ability to get the job done. He just has to do it.’’

nice selective quoting
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=158473


here's the exchange between us from the other day:

Bonobo
You think MLK would agree with you that morality has no place in politics?

Correct me if I misquoted you, but I seem to remember you attacking Harry Belafonte for suggesting that morality and politics should mix.

bigtree
?

Response to bigtree (Reply #6)
Tue Jan 17, 2012, 07:14 AM
Bonobo
7. My sincerest apologies. It most certainly was NOT you.

It was someone with a very similar user name.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002158034#post19

Once again, my sincere apologies.


Response to Bonobo (Reply #7)
Tue Jan 17, 2012, 07:21 AM
bigtree
Harry's a role model to me, although, I may disagree at times

. . . like I would with my own parents. I greatly respect his judgment and will always be grateful for his activism and expression.

[Bonobo]

22. No, but it could be a residual high I guess...

All I can remember is the "tree" part of the name I guess.

[bigtree]

25. you know, all I wanted was a brief respite from the politics

All I wanted to express was a beautiful moment in time in the President's life and you and a few others thought it was a perfect opportunity to slam me for that. Congratulations. You make your impact. It's an ugly and resentful one, but you've succeeded in taking what I thought was a kind and warm-hearted gesture and turning it into the very type of tit-for-tat politics I was trying to get away from; if only for a moment. i don't know why you thought it was a good idea to try and make me feel badly about making such a loving expression, but I think it's just ugly and uncalled for. I hope you're proud. In this thread, and in the one where I posted photos of Martin Luther King at home, you attacked me, rather than just let the pictures speak for themselves. The King thread was particularity disturbing to me because I was expressing what I felt at that important time in my posting. This attack on my expression here is the same, miscast disruption of what I intended to be a welcome change from the back and forth here. Weekends are especially suited for something outside of news and debate.

You act as if there's no room for this. I think it's a shame that you can't see beyond your own bias to tolerate these mild photographic expressions of mine without trashing my posts. You've ruined it for me. I can only imagine that you're going to remain oblivious to all of that. Impressive.

[Bonobo]

27. Sorry. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. +2

[T S Justly]

16. That poem is authentic ...

Crap. Written for the corporate age for a corporate event. And, yes, it causes regurgitation.

[bigtree]

17. I actually got the excerpt from a poetry forum. It's a poem about a chance encounter

It has nothing to do with corporations.

Maura Dooley (1957) is of Irish extraction, but was born in the English town of Truro. She grew up in Bristol and has a degree from the University of York. She lives in London at present, where she teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dooley has published a number of poetry collections, including Explaining Magnetism (1991), Kissing A Bone (1996) and Life Under Water (2008). Her work has gained awards on several occasions. In 1987, she won the Eric Gregory Award. In 1997, her poem ‘The Message’ won the Forward Poetry Prize. Both Kissing a Bone and Life Under Water were short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

In her poetry, Dooley often descends in a subtle way to the deeper layers of human experience. In that respect her work is related to that of such poets as Elizabeth Bishop and Paul Muldoon. The title of her most recent collection, Life Under Water, speaks volumes. Dooley dives under the surface, under the physical experiencing of reality, in search of the complex currents of emotion and memory that flow out of that perception. In her poem ‘Dulwich Picture Gallery through a veil of tears’ the I-figure visits an exhibition along with someone else who has lost someone. What exactly has happened remains unclear. Perhaps a dear one has passed on, but it could also have to do with a lost love. Gradually, Dooley makes it clear to us that she is attempting to get through to the deeper essence of the total experience. In this process, visible reality becomes occasion, image and symbol: “Then pulling you onto the road in those moments / before headlights are needed, I lit a cigarette for you, something else you’d given up.”

Also typical of Dooley is that she quite often links her own experience to collective reflection and shared memory. In her poem ‘The World Upside Down’, the observation of the outside world through a frozen window-pane becomes the point of departure for an intriguing but highly personal peregrination through English history. And in the long, impressive poem ‘The Source’, she mixes social involvement, scientific factual material and images of religious and literary origins with highly individualistic perception.

Jabik Veenbaas (Translated by John Irons)
Last updated: May 19, 2009

Ms. Dooley reads a few of her poems here, including 'The Elevator.' http://vimeo.com/1154144

[T S Justly]

18. I'm glad she didn't get the Eliot, no offense to you. (nt)

[bigtree]

19. that doesn't offend me at all

I haven't seen an Eliot-worthy poem from Ms. Dooley, so, I'd have to agree, for whatever it's worth . . . probably not worth much, because my own poems never attracted attention; much less acclaim.

[lunatica]

24. It's definitely a compelling shot

It makes you wonder what's being said. What's happening. Both their body languages are contained with her arms crossed and his in his pockets, probably to keep the photographers in the dark about what they're talking about. There's a lot more in that photo to wonder about. It's very interesting.

Each married couple have their own private language and very few times do they give away what's really happening between them in public.

I love the poem.

[bigtree]

26. it was listed under TIME's photos of the year

The most interesting photos are the ones which allow the viewer to make their own interpretation. This one is made all the more interesting because we can wonder just how this couple and family cope with birthdays and other private milestones in their lives while maintaining that public presence. It's a bit voyeuristic, but the President knows the photog is trailing him. I think the President was trying to cheer her up here. Some birthday! At work in the White House . . .