55 Days of Occupy Philly: Days 34, 36, 37

Wednesday Day 36
11/9/11
Weather 72 – 43
11:00 AM Shooting a documentary on Passyunk. On what? Filled the parking lot—vans, buses—specially outfitted vehicles—this is a big budget documentary… was gonna say, ‘Occupation’ … and it almost is.
Bench in the sun. A breather—then back to work.

Two hours of Peeps mic last night… taking a fac. night off.

Direct Action meeting—well facilitated. Asks to send reps to CoCo

Point People = bottom liners

Meeting fatigue

CoCo – if only those with proposals go—there’s no neutral balance, no one concerned with process and not their own agenda.

Where have the drummers gone? When did they abandon us?
In their absence I feel the end draw near.

Thursday Day 36
11/10/11
Weather 62 – 45
A good breakfast. Work an hour on the inter-Oc thing—will work the rest of the afternoon.

Major fuss at CoCo – _______ from Direct Action threw a little tantrum—hijacked the meeting & took up the whole GA—at the meeting house (rain) full moon? The inter-Occupy plans are takng shape. OWS sending a march, 20 miles a day—to D.C. Be in Philly Saturday—can meet – hope with peeps from local meetings—then set Dec 10 for an all day conference. it’s happening. This—from the notice I sent out on Oct. 4. [a shame it was such a bust—like a corporate run employee meeting, complete with Power Point.]

     Thursday,
     November 10, 2011
            Be kind…
     … there are many wounded here
     the wars – ours
     & theirs

     here -- & past
     forgetting

     stalked, hounded, driven from

     beaten (body or mind)
     in fields, vacant lots 
         school yards, classrooms

     cowering by the kitchen stove…

     humiliated

    by teachers, parents, bosses, 
        all the bullies of the world

    wounded 
    body wounded 
    soul

    you think you know
    from their eyes
    think you can tell

    the way they hold their 
         bodies as alien things – or
         disguised – in penetrable

     passing through unnoticed
     the wounds – remember

     we have done these things 
     what has been done, we have done
     knowing & unknown
     to others as to ourselves

     what has been suffered – we have suffered
     what has been done – we have done

     be kind

     be kind

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Days 31, 32… and a Wedding!

Saturday Day 31
11/5/11
Weather 53 – 36
Anne-Adelle’s reading was wonderful. Came back full of wine and humus—to K-Mart for socks and briefs & a sweatshirt—back to city Hall—much encouraged by the discussions.

Sunday Day 32
11/6/11
Weather 56 – 35

Email from Plan-B Press this morning—they want to publish City of Crows as a chapbook, Spring of 2012.
Fucking Ron Paulers moved their black box ‘tent’ across JFK, set it up on the Municipal Service Bldg plaza. Talked into agreeing to have a team of Occupiers move it back before a confrontation. They pitch signs on NE corner of plaza—free advertising—don’t take part in any working groups, don’t go to GA. Fucking Ayn Randers.

And a Wedding!

Tents multiply at night… 
…  Wedding celebration
	Adam 
	bites the apple      
		slice
of sky over Market Street
livestreaming 

flights of pigeons, Labor’s head
shackled in cardboard stocks

a plea from Food
for cooking pans, tent thieves, yellow jackets
starving & angry
cigarette in hand – matchless

beauty of passing clouds
leaning tent of socialism
tremor beneath the pavement
passing subway electronic 

devices bring a price
in the underground economy
transit – transition – trains 
to nowhere

Mid-Day Music Mayhem

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Days 28, 29, 30

November 3, 2011
Not only what is here – hear     see …
… what our senses seize

    tenacious

in the will to know

glass towers     flocks of pigeons
lurch & sway of traffic

remembering

all the springs we missed

asleep 
the smallest flower 
on the forest floor

its seeds entombed – in centuries

wakened by a shirt of flame 

one among others – feathers
disheveled – foot clenched in premature rigor mortis

             even to itself

searching for food
at our feet – balancing

paper plates – brushing
crumbs – commodities 

exchanged

20 yards of linen = one coat

as a general rule – x Marks the spot
warm wool socks
are Capital

blankets 

valuable as gold

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Days 25, 26, 27

Sunday October 30, 2011
Day 25
Weather 50 – 34

       Before we came here, under the columns of City Hall …
              … Lenape people –
         men watching
                     women
         settling children for the night – 
         nothing brighter

         than moonlight
         the shower of sparks from cooking 

         fires
         
         rain
         of ashes

               the earth turns – centuries
         pass
    
         with open palms – we catch them as they fall

         return – returning
         letting go
         what was never ours to hold

———-
10/31/11 Day 26
11:42 PM
Monday
Weather 56 – 31 Fog
first night below freezing

Zombie Capitalism! Fake blood and tatters, march, City Hall to South Street—I cut off for home at 5th & South—up Passyunk.

Facilitated the 2:00 PM GA. Will I get Soc Sec tomorrow? Last month, deposit was made on the first—but not dated till the 3rd on bank statement (?)
So don’t know whether I’ll have money in the bank tomorrow or have to wait till Thursday

Tuesday November 1, 2011
Day 27
Weather: 59 – 42

Flocks of pigeons, starlings...
     ...over the plaza
   
     voices 	rise
     
     escape
     the many shapes

     our bodies take

     our less than perfect
     parts

     patterns

     in flight across the city square
     converge, disperse

     unite ... in fragile disarray

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Day 24

Saturday 11:17
10/29/11
Day 24 Weather 45 — 33, Snow

My day off – 3 ½ hours standing in sleet, snow & rain—walking back from Temple with 17… of those who came to the “Silent-No-More” vigil. Clinton was to be on campus, but canceled cause of weather. Ache all over. Facilitation tent blew down. Tents sagging under wet snow—wind predicted for tonight. Haven’t heard how Scott Olsen is doing—fractured skull from rubber bullet [Oakland].

1:20 PM At Hidden River reading—have 5 Songs of Occupation now—have to be back for a process meeting (City Hall) by 3:00—likely six hours outside to end of GA. Dressed for that, so overdressed here. Bright crisp normal autumn day.

           Saturday, October 29, 2011: Temple University
           Rain -- Broad Street ...
                    …again
                Universe -- of learning
           cordoned off
            our feet cold
            ice pelting our cheeks
            mouths silenced
            logos -- Exxon
         PB       Bank of
                             America
            new
        word
            rising from the depths

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Day 23 Angela Davis pays a visit

10/28/11 Day 23 Weather 51 – 37 Rain

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Day 22

October 27, 2011 Day 22
Thursday
Weather 64 – 42 Rain
I will be posting these for each of the 55 days of Occupy Philly on Dilworth Plaza, from October 6, 2011 to November 30, the night of our eviction.

To view all posts to date, click: 55 Days of Occupy Philly.

Candles windblown…
     … one to one
     each one a-flame, fingers 
     coated in wax
     our not so silent vigil

     tear gas wraps the little crowd
     gathered 

     where he lies black 
     
     jackets, masks
     helmets, trudgeons

     a continent away
     we see what they have done –
     our brother – Scott Olsen -- carried off

     across 15th Street 
     clouds of rain sweep the towers
     the lights we carry
     flicker & blow out

Youtube video of Scott Olson shooting

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Day 21

Wednesday
October 26, 2011
Weather
60 – 42 Partly cloudy

I will be posting these for each of the 55 days of Occupy Philly on Dilworth Plaza, from October 6, 2011 to November 30, the night of our eviction.

To view all posts to date, click: 55 Days of Occupy Philly.

Letter to City/State/Nation/World…Dear Ones …
     … among the stars, winding through back alleys
     boardrooms backyards fields plowed & fallow
     shattered glass we woke 

     last night we woke to a child’s cry
     to relieve ourselves     from dreams
     to the smell of smoke      to drums
     to helicopters in morning mist      to old men 
     foraging for rags and tobacco butts rich
     men setting the alarms lockstepping minds
     vaulting secret desires 

Dear World… 
     …last night we called 
     for clarifying questions, concerns of state amended 
     wings to woolen coats defied the northern wind 
     blew our tents like flags across the square, sang 
     songs unheard since the first
     king first 
     sent our children to slaughter our neighbors
     shackled our labor, heaped 
     wheat in towers while the people starved

Dear Wheeling Galaxies…
     … your billion sons & daughters
     on this speck of earth reclaim our commons
     throw off the shame of ownership, the prison state, release 
     love’s body, make all worlds 
     a home for all, hold 
     all in common – refuse!
     to end this song, refuse – to end
     this poem, this occupation – here
     begin again, here --
     here on the Commons of a thousand cities
     to begin again we rise, we rise again like 
     Adam in the garden of desire!

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Days 17, 19, 20

Saturday
10/22/11
Day 17
If someone told me there was a full moon tonight I swear I’d start to take the folklore seriously.
…brought a proposal to the facilitation meeting—CoCo seems not to have met. With inexperienced facilitators, he virtually hi-jacked the GA—or tried to. A very frustrating, exhausting evening.

Already convinced, now doubly so, that we have to reconvene the noon GA—and get Tent City involved to bring us together.

Tomorrow morning—write for Tent City… newsletter—appeal to join working groups & help with the GA [which does nothing but generate petitions anymore].

Email concerns to Fac. list.

10/23/11
Day 18
Wrote piece for Camp newsletter.
12/24/11
Sunday
Day 19
First thing in the morning—begin day with email, gather info—correspondence—one to three hours. Did laundry. Red: Marx. Geo Oppen—wrote a poem. Back at City Hall at 4:00. Take the pulse. Talk. Listen. Gwen of Labor worried about losing Union Support if we oppose the construction. She goes to CoCo & takes the whole hour. No time to pee or get supper. Fac. super-efficient—15 minutes & we’re set for the GA. Time to pee—put no food left. GA went well. Discussed the arrests. Discussed the letter—a damn fine piece of writing & done by a committee—Droopy eyed young man grabs the Mic (the loud speaker Mic) goes on and on –after a woman hi-hacked it before him—when everyone else was doing People’s Mic. gonna propose for discussion—specially when not a big crowd—we turn off the Mic—NO mic, if someone has trouble with the rhythm of the People’s Mic—a facilitator goes out to help. Can’t let lone-rangers commandeer the mic for their personal agenda. Gives one person all the power.

Tuesday
10/25/11
Day 20
Down to my last $3.00—till next week. Another poem. Didn’t get off the computer till noon—not even time for breakfast–& lotta stuff I didn’t have time to read. Need to get up earlier.

Another poem. Came here (City Hall) at 2:30. About 20 after four now—crisp fall day, clear sky. Sitting at the Fac station. Rest for 30 minutes—go to Suburban Station restroom—Coco/Fac/… then GA.

Yes, we have made them…
the glass towers, the stone monuments
to every principle we have ever betrayed
a billion messages rising
invisibly…

what we choose
to ignore
has chosen us

the glass towers, the billions—
how they in turn
have made –
are making

us

their shadows
growing new powers

the planet turning
on its seasons

reaching hand to outstretched hand
raising
one another from our knees
taking up again the burden 
the terrible lightness of freedom

I will be posting these for each of the 55 days of Occupy Philly on Dilworth Plaza, from October 6, 2011 to November 30, the night of our eviction.

To view all posts to date, click 55 Days of Occupy Philly.

55 Days of Occupy Philly: Day 14: growing divisions

I will be posting these for each of the 55 days of Occupy Philly on Dilworth Plaza, from October 6, 2011 to November 30, the night of our eviction.

To view all posts to date, click 55 Days of Occupy Philly.
Wednesday Day 14
10/19/11
Weather: temp max 66, min. 60.
rain – .93 inches

11:02 Slept late kicking last of cold. Dreams of eviction—Occupation from… where Where Job Chillaway Pottery used to be. ½ hour responding to Occupy email. Shower & breakfast.

Rain.

Need to check weather. Wrote in time of International meeting on remaining 35 or so fliers to pass out at GA tonight, and tomorrow afternoon.
Can I get in 15 minutes reading time before I go?
—
I did.
It’s a start

GA in Friend’s Center –rain. (This is the Friend’s Meeting House, but photo looks like it was take at the Dec. 10, Occupy Together Meeting. Very hard to match the photos with particular days or actions–I do it when I can.)

Deputy Mayor Negin [asshole of the first order] dropped by the Media tent & caused a bit of a stir. City not happy that it’s taking so long to set up communications. [this is classic colonizing strategy: it’s what the US did in dealing with First Nation peoples, bribing, cajoling, intimidating, forcing them to create internal judicial and governing structures that resembled the colonizers if they were to deal with them at all, weakening their own traditional structures by setting up competing power centers—the one’s authorized to negotiate with the outside power, and those that more closely followed their traditional roles. (The Nations Within: The Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty. Vine Deloria Jr & Clifford Lytle, New York, 1984) Later, like following a script, people in Occupy took it on themselves to play the same game, becoming the Occupy Philly that the city wanted them to be, and creating distracting and artificial divisions like those endless debates about applying for permits]

Tomorrow—Occupy International (or Global) first meeting.
Need to address/acknowledge Messaging’s call for a Regional Assembly: concern that while a call for such a meeting is welcome—in absence of any concrete proposals for how this is to be done, by whom, & what it’s to look like—it remains a rhetorical declaration. This committee would like to join with Messaging, Tech and perhaps other WG’s to begin discussing/exploring what actual implications might evolve.

In this light—need someone to begin gathering info on what other Occupations are doing—establish communication (with help of Messaging) with corresponding WG’s.

Translation Team
This could be itself a cross-Occupation effort (Tech help)
Goal: establish regular exchange of bulletins/news—(an inter-Occupation News Service?) Multi-lingual!

Meta-discussions: transition from local consensus to representative assemblies—models for consideration, how this might work.

Set up on-line forums for meta-concerns—that might segue into conferences—emphasis, as local democracy depends for success on ample scope for conversation—open mics etc – before decisions can be made in assemblies,
so larger organs need space to sound out ideas preceding decision making bodies.

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