Slippery hold, or: A rengay

A two-person ‘Rengay’

By Suzanne and David

Rengay?

Rengay is a form of linked verse created as an alternative to Japanese renga or renku. The form was devised by Garry Gay in California in 1992. A rengay consists of six thematic haiku verses and is normally composed by two or three poets, although solo and six-person rengay are not uncommon.

This form actually requires a bit of explanation, so I recommend that you read about it HERE.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

A wake-up call for #WhiteAmericans

The deaths of #ReneeGood and #AlexPretti are forcing white people to face hard truths about power and violence

By Chauncey DeVega, Senior Writer, February 1, 2026

"None of what we have seen over the past few weeks — not the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of federal officers, the seizure of children by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, the callous disregard of civil rights and liberties from an increasingly authoritarian administration — is supposed to be happening in America. But it is.

"American citizens are being arrested and brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights — recording ICE, standing nearby or simply being the 'wrong' color in the wrong place. The Trump administration has labeled these Americans 'domestic terrorists,' claiming they posed existential threats to heavily armed federal agents, despite clear video evidence to the contrary. Immigrants are hiding, afraid to go outside. Entire neighborhoods and communities are under siege. Even though it’s only January, at least eight people have died from their encounters with ICE.

"The #CognitiveDissonance is dizzying. #Disorientation is one of the #authoritarian leader’s most powerful weapons.

"Hours after Pretti was killed on Jan. 24, hundreds of people protested near the site in Minneapolis where he died. There, an older white woman told a reporter that 'the government is not supposed to be doing these horrible things to the American people. It is unbelievable. This is something like Nazi Germany or Russia.'

"I yelled at the television. 'What d**n country do you live in?'

"But her sentiments are common among people who are gathering at protests, community meetings and town halls all across the country.

"Like many other white Americans, and too many Black and brown Americans, she seemed willfully ignorant of her own country’s history, which includes #genocide and #LandTheft against #FirstNations; white-on-Black chattel #slavery; #JimCrow and #JaneCrow; the #BlackCodes; the #RedScare; violent social and political repression of #LGBTQ Americans; the #PalmerRaids; mass #incarceration and the #WarOnDrugs, to name just a few examples."

Read more:
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/01/a-wake-up-call-for-white-americans/

#AmericanHistory #Racism #SystemicRacism #USPol #Authoritarianism

In a test of #character, #Trump shows his true #grift

In his #disorientation, the #GOP nominee & fmr president retreats to his instincts

The NYT ran a fine specimen of unintentional comedy this week: an essay by conservative writer #RichLowry titled “Trump Can Win on Character.”🤯

The only thing that could have made it better was if it had been under the byline of #StormyDaniels.

#weird #Nonsense
#WeAreNotGoingBack
#CommonSense #RealityBasedPolitics #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/30/trump-lowry-nytimes-win-character/

Paws, Pets, and Metal: Disorientation reflect on late cat Elsa:

#PawsPetsAndMetal #PetsInMetal #Disorientation #RememberingElsatheCat #MetalInsider

https://metalinsider.net/interviews/paws-pets-and-metal-disorientation-reflect-on-late-cat-elsa

#Vertigo #Tinnitus #Disorientation

Eff this vertigo.

Yesterday, it hit me so suddenly, I dropped to the floor. 45 seconds I was unable to move as the world teetered and spun.

I developed dramatic hearing loss in one ear in 2018, the vertigo joined in the fun in 2020. About 5 very bad episodes since the fist, but yesterday was very sudden, like a switch was thrown.

A milder one today, but cold sweats and spinning.

It fucking sucks.