I always hesitate to write anything about problems in the Middle East because 1) it’s so difficult to sort out what’s really going on there, and 2) the issues seem so intractable. But the genuinely significant new nuclear agreement reached with Iran over the weekend merits brief comment regardless.

This agreement, limited though it is, represents a major diplomatic step forward in this troubled region. After 34 years of estrangement, the United States and Iran have reached an accord that seems almost epic given their turbulent relationship during that period. An academic historian at Johns Hopkins University quoted in The New York Times calls it “a historical deal” that represents “a major seismic shift in the region.” It is only a first step, of course, and one that already has plenty of critics, but it is proper, I believe, to read into it a movement toward accepting a degree of international responsibility on the part of Iran. It is, in short, a moment to be seized and built upon.

And doing that clearly will not be easy. Several US allies are opposed to any such agreement, most notably the Saudis and the Israelis (odd bedfellows, eh?). Given the very effective and influential Jewish lobby in Washington, the battle to conclude the accord will not proceed smoothly. President Obama already has spoken with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who calls the agreement “an historic mistake,” with the aim of convincing him that a longer-range solution for Middle East peace is more likely with an Iran that is a participant in the region’s future rather than an opponent to it. I believe it is strongly in the best interests of the United States, and therein lies our priority.

I also believe that any hope for a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians — a desirable goal that neither seems totally committed to making happen — will be ultimately abetted by further agreements with Iran, if that proves possible. And whether or not that happens is out of our control. If Iran’s government decides it is not willing to compromise further with its nuclear program, then everything will be doomed to failure. It’s worth proceeding on the assumption that this first step can lead to a second, and a third, however. We should all hope that diplomats of good will and commitment may generate something meaningful and lasting for the global community.

And when that’s done — could someone please try and put some sanity into our policy with regard to Cuba? It’s time — it’s so far past time — to place reason ahead of revenge and end our absurd estrangement with that nation 90 miles from our southern shores.

New Hampshire has a new poet Laureate, Alice B. Fogel, and that’s wonderful news for all of us who cherish poetry and the written word. I must confess up front that I am not personally acquainted with the poet, nor am I familiar with her work, which includes four books published and a new one forthcoming. As a newcomer to this state, I will have the pleasant task of becoming familiar with her writings very soon.

From the press release announcing her appointment to the position beginning in January and continuing for the next five years, we learn that she lives in Acworth (another confession: I had to check the map to see exactly where that is; my NH geography lessons are an on-going enterprise). She teaches at Keene State College not too far from me and Landmark College in Vermont, has those four books to her credit and has had poems appear in numerous anthologies, magazines and journals. Along the way she has collected some splendid critical reviews and shared her poetry at workshops and in a variety of teaching sessions.

The press release states that she was chosen from a field of 17 candidates. That’s a lot for a small state. In Georgia, where I most recently lived, there was no formal list of candidates, but I know because I was peripherally involved in the process that the “possibles” for the position of Georgia Poet Laureate did not come close to 17. My new home state must be quite well endowed, poetically speaking.

The new Poet Laureate’s duties apparently are to serve as an “ambassador” for poets in New Hampshire, raising the visibility of poets in the state and bringing poetry closer to all the citizens of the state. Admirable goals indeed. I’m all for any process that helps bring writers and readers closer together. I wish Alice Fogel well and look forward to discovering her poems. In the meantime, from her web site (alicebfogel.com) I found the poem below, which I am re-printing here without her direct permission but with the hope that she will accept my appreciation for its striking, perceptive imagery and graceful expression.

SWEET VEIN
(watching the comet in March, maple sugaring season)
(from Be That Empty; first published in Chelsea Magazine)

Breathe in the trail of its light, ice river vaporizing
from light years afar and melted from the spilling dipper . . .
Now taste this: a water bathed with the sweetness
rising, released, the sweet abundance of stars instilling dark
with its white sugar grains . . . Boiling, boiling,
all night the smoke billowing milkily, clouding the cold
bellows of snow, the breathing below freezing after a day’s
bright thaw . . . Dark, darker, the syrup
darkening under midnight’s departing moon: the comet
moonlighting, the sap—moonshine . . . Come dip
your long-handled cup across the eastern branch of sky
into this steam, into this stream of liquid dust sailing
through the open vein: a splendid suspension to sip
at lips dark and wet, to raise up, drink in, swallow:

A few random thoughts about a few of the miscreants among us…..

The New York Times reveals that House Republicans have spent weeks developing a strategy to attack Obamacare, planning to sharply criticize one part of it, then quickly pivot to criticism another once the first one wears out. House members have been given a list of “talking points” to repeat in their speeches and writings. How wonderful that the House Republicans — who will be meeting for only four days of business next month — has so much time on their hands to sit around and discuss partisan politics. How unsurprising that not a moment of their discussion will have anything to do with making health care better for Americans. No plans, no ideas, no vision. The Republicans have become a party no longer interested in governing, only catering to the worst and lowest in their minority party.

——————

Senate Republicans — nearly as disdainful of responsible governance as their House colleagues — are continuing to block President Obama’s federal appeals court nominees. The reason? Well, they say it would cost $1 million each to approve three of the nominees, a black man and two women. Can’t afford that luxury. Really, the reason is that it would give the Washington, DC court a better balance between Democrats and Republicans, now slanted toward the right. But the GOP doesn’t want to mention that. So their excuse is that it would cost too much. Of course, their own pork barrel proposals would cost infinitely more, but hey, who’s counting that, right?

I think I need to find a long-time New Englander and put to him a question that keeps recurring: what’s the deal with leaves? Is it just a New England thing? Or a New Hampshire thing?

If you live in this region, you probably know already what I’m asking about. But here’s what’s happened and left this transplant from the South wondering. First, the fall leaf colors everywhere we looked were genuinely spectacular even when they weren’t quite. Those red maples, the golds, oranges and browns were darned dazzling, as I’ve written about before. We came to love the leaves and to understand why everyone who lives here (and those who come from miles away to see them every fall) feel much the same way.

Sometime around mid-October, with the colors starting to fade a bit, we examined our large yard, now partially covered by leaves, chatted with our neighbor Nate about getting them cleaned up, and decided to wait a few weeks until they had all fallen to the ground. This seemed perfectly sensible to me. In early November, we checked with Nate again and agreed we’d wait a little longer to give all of the leaves their opportunity to drop off.

A few days ago Nate said it appeared to be time. We looked at the trees and agreed; practically bare. So with a flourish, Nate and a friend covered the yard with their blowers and cleaned out every single leaf. The yard was immaculate. And we were secure in the newly acquired knowledge that we were masters of our domain.

And then we woke up this morning after a couple of windy days and discovered all those naked trees had miraculously produced leaves during the night and allowed them to fall all over our yard. Seriously. All over the yard that had been grassy nude. There were no leaves on the trees 48 hours ago, so where did these impostors come from? I called Nate with puzzlement in my voice. Does this happen all the time, I wondered? Nate, calmly, replied that this was, after all, New England, and you never can tell about the weather. Or, apparently, the leaves. I glanced upward for the fifth time in the morning; the tree limbs were as bald as my tire tread. Nate offered to come blow them again. I turned him down. That would be admitting defeat, that I didn’t know as much about New England as I thought I did. I’m not ready to go there yet. Instead, I’m going to wait cheerfully for the first serious snow which will cover those damned leaves, and I’ll forget all about them until spring. That ought to give me a little time to consider my tire tread.

It seems that America’s “Leave It to Dick” family has hit a little bump in the road. Those poor Cheneys are at it again. This time, however, one of them is not shooting a hunting partner, guiding us to an invasion of Iraq or denouncing gay marriage. Ooops, actually one of them is upset about gay marriage.

That would be Liz, the one who used to be fine with it when her gay sister Mary got married to her partner Heather several years back and adopted some kids. By all accounts, Liz was close to Mary and welcomed Heather. That was, however, before Liz decided to run for the Senate from her home state of Wyoming, where some folks don’t cotton to gay-oriented people wanting to get hitched. So in order to cater to the lower instincts of voters, Liz went on television to declare that she has always “believed in the traditional definition of marriage.” Mary is understandably upset at this turn of face, and this has likely caused a serious rift in the Cheney family, making for what will probably be a very edgy Thanksgiving dinner.

As a Republican senatorial candidate, Liz is all in favor of family values. All Republicans are, as they constantly remind us. Sadly, their definition of family values can include going on national television to all to publicly denounce a lesbian sister’s family values.

Not that she has to endorse marriage equality. No one has to. And no one forced Liz to say what she did; she did it of her own free will, no matter the consequences to her family. So she’s taken her stand — screw the family, I’m all about doing whatever I have to say in order to get elected.

Sort of makes you wonder about just what “family values” means anyway, doesn’t it? Have a Happy Thanksgiving Cheneys.

I recently brought up the subject of cuts in the federal food stamp program (officially the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP) and their terrible impact on low-income Americans. I know some people who are suffering now, and this morning the Boston Globe added some specific — and alarming — numbers.

We know that just over 47 million Americans receive some sort of food stamp help; that’s about 15% of the population. Think about that for a moment — 15% of the people in our country need help to pay for food to keep from starving. And yes, I know there qre some cheaters out there. The radical conservatives among us never cease to point it out while perpetually and blindly ignoring the overwhelming majority who honestly have to have assistance to survive. Fifteen per cent is a huge number.

In New England, the numbers are cause for concern. My state, New Hampshire, has an estimated 117,000 people on food stamps, or close to 10 per cent of the state’s population. Neighboring Vermont has 16%, about 101,000. These are not just numbers, they are real people, men, women and children.

The latest cut took effect November 1 because a temporary increase in benefits that was part of President Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package has expired. And why has it expired? BEcause in 2009 no one could conceive that the economic downturn, our little recession, would last as long as it has. And so the package came with an end date, and that date is here. In between then and now we had sequestration, the mandated cuts in federal budgeting that added to everyone’s misery, unless you are a member of the Tea Party.

So how is Congress dealing with this issue? Well, the House of Representatives, dominated by care-less Republicans, wants to trim even more money from SNAP. The Democratic-led Senate is considering the same, though to a lesser degree. And the White House? All quiet there. It seems unlikely Congress will do anything for this year to solve the problem, just another reason to un-elect this Congress, as if we needed one.

So does no one care about this any more? Of course people care. Food banks, charities and local organizations are doing all they can to take up the slack, as they have been. But they have a task far too formidable already, and the cuts in SNAP will only make it worse with winter coming on. We can rant and rage about this, but it won’t help anyone. To do that, we all need to make more efforts than ever before to help food banks, to support all organizations that help feed the hungry. It’s the right thing to do any time, but now it is also the necessary thing to do. Please.

And please remember to put the blame where it belongs — with the ghastly, thoughtless, primitive congressmen and women who represent us in Washington. And with those simplistic voters who have elected them to represent all of us. There’s plenty of blame and shame to go around.

American Airlines and US Airways have apparently cleared the remaining hurdle to their long-sought merger. Whoopee. Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, but as I hope readers here will recall my mantra, “the airlines are not your friends.”

American and US Air tout this merger as a way of providing better service for their customers. It isn’t. It’s only a way of providing their shareholder a bigger return. If you doubt that, think back to your last favorite airline merger. Do you remember all the benefits you derived from that? Is there enough time in the day to celebrate the good things that happened to you as a result of the merger? Are you better off now?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you are obviously an elite flyer with the highest level of status with your favorite airline and who spends — or whose company spends on you — probably at least six figures every year. Congratulations. Those of us in the back of the plane salute you and ask that you please not trip us as we struggle to the rear.

Anyhow, this new merger creates the world’s largest airline, although the benefits of that are yet to be determined. American and US Air agreed with the Justice Department to abandon some landing slots in Washington and NYC — things they were going to do under any circumstances — and to keep serving under-served airports in states that don’t have Washington or NYC in them. Bully for them. The requirement to serve smaller airports is for only five years, and I’m betting it won’t last even that long. And what about ticket prices? Historically prices go up after mergers, though it is alleged that low-cost airlines will come in to take up the slack. That might or might not happen, and it might or might not be for very long.

So in this brief pessimistic commentary, what can we, the peons in the back, expect? Fares will slowly rise, and additional fees will rise much faster. Flights will be fewer, seats will be smaller, and planes will be fuller. And I grant you that would likely happen regardless of a merger. But this will accelerate it. And what a pity the justice Department blew the case off so easily. It amounts to a giant corporate victory where one was not merited. It’s very disappointing.

Dnd the good news from this morass? Well, we’re almost out of airlines to merge now. At least for a few years, when Delta, American and United will get together to form Leviathan Airlines, which will control every route and airport in this country. There’s a prospect that ought to send even teetoatling flyers to drink.

When I was in high school and doing a little research into official state mottos, I remember my astonishment when I was told by a friend that the New Hampshire motto was “Live Free and Die.” That seemed to me, even at a tender age, a pretty poor option. Surely there’s a Plan B, I thought. Of course I quickly discovered my friend got it wrong. “Live Free OR Die” makes much more sense, especially if you consider that New Hampshire doesn’t have a state sales tax or income tax.

Anyhow, many years later — just the other day, in fact — I got to wondering how that motto came to be, now that I’m a New Hampshirite. I assumed it had something to do with the American Revolution, and turns out I was sort of right. The man credited with the phrase that is now the motto was probably New Hampshire’s best-known Revolutionary War hero, Gen. John Stark, known as the “Hero of Bennington” for his role in the victorious battle at Bennington in Vermont in 1777. The story goes that because of his poor health he was unable to attend an anniversary observance of that battle in 1809. He sent a letter with his regrets, ending it with his “volunteer toast.” It went: “Live Free or Die — Death is Not the Greatest of Evils.” Stirring words, indeed.

But for the next 136 years, however, they were not stirring enough to become the New Hampshire motto. That didn’t happen until 1945 when, flush in the joy of victory over Germany and Japan in World War II, the New Hampshire legislature acceded to a proposal from the Daughters of the American Revolution to make General Stark’s words the official state motto. Of course the competition really wasn’t terribly strong. The other mottos under consideration were 1) “Strong and Steadfast as Our Granite Hills” 2) “Strong as Our Hills and Firm as Our Granite”, and 3) “Pioneers Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Try to imagine one of those spread across your license tag.

Ironically, while the credit for the words of the motto goes to the general, researchers have shown quite clearly the phrase specifically and generally pre-dates him and has many sources including books and articles associated with the French Revolution, very early 19th century American songs and certainly Virginia patriot Patrick Henry’s clarion call to “Give me liberty or give me death.”

“Live Free or Die” is unquestionably the most memorable of all state mottos today. But then once again, the competition is pretty slack. Consider: California’s motto is “Eureka…I Have Found It.” Maryland’s is “Manly Deeds Womanly Words.” New Mexico is “It Grows as it Goes.” Texas is simply (and mistakenly) “Friendship.” Washington’s is “Bye and Bye.” Feel free to make up your own jokes.

Among the world’s great conductors of classical music and opera, James Levine stands high. The music director at the Metropolitan Opera for nearly four decades and formerly the chief conductor of the Boston Symphony, Levine is a musician of incalculable gifts whose artistry has delighted and dazzled critics and audiences the world over.

He has suffered much lately, however, A series of debilitating injuries forced him to abandon the Boston post and to put his Met status on hold for two full seasons. He returned to the opera house in September, wowing everyone with his inspired conducting of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” and he will lead eagerly anticipated performances of Verdi’s “Falstaff” next month. But his first return to the podium after his two-year hiatus occurred last May when he led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra — which he has built into one of the world’s finest ensembles — in a concert at Carnegie Hall. The verdict? Rapturous. Even the sternest critics hailed it as one the most amazing concerts ever. It was, by any musical measure, an event.

And now that event may be heard and enjoyed by anyone for a few bucks. A new 2-CD audio set catches the entire concert complete with overwhelmingly enthusiastic applause at Levine’s first appearance (in a motorized cart) and loud roars of applause and shouts at the conclusion of the music. In other words, if you enjoy classical music, you really might want to check this one out. It’s worth the hosannas.

The concert begins with a breathtaking performance of Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of “Lohengrtin,” the orchestra’s strings soaring to the gorgeous, embracing high point of this magnificent score. It continues with Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin as soloist. Kissin would not seem the ideal partner for Levine, with his stop-and-go dynamism confronting Levine’s surging drama, but in fact it works splendidly, especially in the radiant slow movement. There may be better recordings of the Fourth Concerto — Emil Gilel’s 1957 performance among them — but this one merits a high place in your library. (There’s even a showcase performance of Beethoven’s “Rage for a Lost Penny” as an encore.) The finale is Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, as intensely focused, dramatic and handsomely played as anyone might want. No wonder the audience just goes crazy at the end. I did too.

A new friend in Vermont was teasing me the other day when the overnight low dropped to around 20 degrees. “You southerners think that’s cold? Just wait until January; you’ll be lucky if that’s the high for the day.” It’s not so much what he said — I’m sure he’s right — as the way he said it, with a kind of knowing smirk.

My reply wasn’t what he was expecting, I think. “Tell you what,” I said. “I’ll be ready for it just the way I was ready when the thermometer hit 100-degrees in late September back in South Carolina. You don’t ever get ready for that, actually; you just get through it as best you can.” And we’re confident we’ll get through our first New England winter.

But in the meantime — how about this fall? Yeah, it’s been occasionally cold in the mornings, but a surprising (for us, anyway) number of days have felt very much like we believed fall ought to be: mild days, some good sun, and chilly nights. In fact, we were just finishing up stacking a cord of wood in the shed out back (please see an earlier post to know how that happened) today and reveling in bright sun and temperatures nearing 60. That would seem about as good as it might get in New England in November, and we are enjoying every minute of it. A dear friend of mine who smokes — in spite of my counsel against it — takes her cigarettes outside every morning for a few puffs, and lately she’s been telling me that’s it’s been more pleasurable than it ought to be. “Colder weather now and I might be smoking less,” she said ruefully. “Or at least faster.”

Of course, the Farmers Almanac predicts a major snowstorm coming up soon. And I heard the television meteorologist telling everyone the other night that the snow season begins pretty soon, that period of time when New Hampshire and its neighbors in New England can expect snowfall at any time, and the ground pretty much disappears under whiteness and won’t reappear until April. I felt like saying, ok, bring it on. I’ve had my fall, and it was real and it was very wonderful, and now I’m all set for late fall and winter, whenever. It’s inevitable, so why not embrace it? After all, I’ve got my eyes on a nice looking pair of snowshoes. And we’ve got that cord of wood all set up.