Poems to My Daughter Sylvia's CalTech Graduation 2011

Poetry On Sylvia's Cal Tech Graduation-June 11, 2011

"Starting a Set Of Poems
To My Daughter"


Hazy from sleep and a cold in my head
I hear your grandmother
Shouting into our phone
"Call back, call back"
And then I'm frozen and her
Narrative continues
"She's not here yet
And I don't know what
You are saying.
She's graduated, call back."
She's the deaf one but
She considerately shouted as if
They were as well.

And I can't help because I'm immobile.
So I figure that someone
"Out of area" on the look-up
Piqued her interest
And she got on the call
Then into my dreams a bit
Before I came to
To start a set of poetry.
On Cal Tech's 2011 Commencement.





Something Your Sister Said While We Were Waiting

There is a woman at work
Well, in fact she worked for your father,
Vacant, thin, surviving
A mother and a teacher
I remember once asking her
If she ever experienced extreme anxiety
Which made her say yes thoughtfully and then go.
A really, really nice person
Seeming to exist without conflict
She retired, took up painting
Just spent a year in Italy
Making art,
Sophia told me

This made me both a little envious
And aware that things really do change
Dreams percolate, stuff brews,
Despite appearances to the contrary.
We do, in our life, harbor inner artists.
What will call you Sylvia one day?
To stop the this and move to the that?
I don't know,
But it amuses me today waiting your entrance
To think about it.





I Bought A Skirt And Went as A Hippie

Way back in '61
Stardust permeated everyone
Feynman lectured
The zen of the motorcycle
In 2000 and 11
Folks held up iphones
Arms laden with designer bags
Caught digital stars


So here you are then
My daughter, who I knew with a third eye
Raised by two artists
In the place that scientific dreamers built
Getting your BS in Science

It used to be their "boys only" dreamin' club
Fun, fun, fun
But in your year 33% of you
Had more feminine charms
Arriving on your scores and whatever they use to divine these things

Someone on the phone
Four years ago told me she was off
"To the Industrial Military Complex"
After that I stopped being able to speak to them
It was such a robbery of my hopes, I awoke.

I'd given you a set of those early lectures
when you were in the 7th grade
It had not fully come to me
That they had come to that
Propping up and designing missile systems over starpaths.

Do you remember the strange kid
Chanting a repetitive I don't know, staring blankly,
When we were walking in the hallway
While in the next room
They were constructing a hot tub

We were visiting with you on a rainy, dreary day
After you were accepted
Going to look at the Hogwart's school
With the Guernica mural
That you chose-CalTech you said was your dream.

Today to see you on life's way
I wore a batik shirt
Thought about times lived in wax resist
And all your effort
What we've learned from moonbeams.





My Sylvia

I caught a glimpse
A smile in her
Processional
The recognition of
My daughter
Where we were
Like a compass orienting
her in this latest
Performance
Somehow it marked the
day.


In life
we are oriented
by the love of others
Their recognition
of us, expectation,
the rapid moment of our
existence in which for
it seems just a second
we see the potentials,
the accomplishments
and delight.
One to
another.





Diploma


Degree
Indicates
Professional
Luminescence
Of
Maturing
Adult










Commencement Speaker
Ahmed H. Zewail


An Egyptian chemist that didn't win a Pulitzer
But did win a Nobel Prize gave the address
To the students. What I heard in the
Words was that 80% of the world can't hope
Could not, would not, ever, walk in their shoes
And know just the opportunity to go make
A fairer, better world. This is something
That maybe was kept secret over the
Last four years, at least my daughter said
That to me once. My mind admittedly
Wandered to how I was in the 80%.
I'm teaching trying to send them off to real dreams,
Reaching toward this elite, just hoping for a few to change this world,
And certainly thinking of the children in poverty
I teach, 100% not here today, with most having
Parents not knowing school.
He spoke of the obligation to build
a better world. He spoke of Egypt and
What he saw in their peaceful revolution.
He spoke of democracy and poverty.
Quoting Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr.
This is a time when people in the
World aspire towards freedom through
education and he asked graduates to
engage scientifically in building a
World to solve problems that keep
us divided, unfair, ignorant and he
Did this saying he felt a personal optimism.
A hope, a way to turn technological
and scientific discoveries into bridges
of new possibility.

It falls on those Cal Tech
Kids to carry that into meaning
From June 10, 2011
We wish them well.






Carousel

At three
She bravely sat
On a white horse
They took a snapshot
Transferred it to a T-shirt
And onto two cups
We picked them up later that day.

damn Joni Mitchell
for steeling away
that carousel
folding it into such poetic
melodic genius
leaving me
to blabber

Her dad kept that shirt
Through five moves
When it seemed
Everything was lost
To storage

damn Joni Mitchell
for steeling away
that carousel
folding it into such poetic
melodic genius
leaving me
to blabber

He wore her
When life took her
To CalTech,
After two high schools
a valedictorian
telling us to
be autodidacts

damn Joni Mitchell
for steeling away
that carousel
folding it into such poetic
melodic genius
leaving me
to blabber

He unpacked her few boxes
We left her in
a dormroom,
We were so silly
it felt like abandonment to us.
But we did it for her.
Her dreams

damn Joni Mitchell
for steeling away
that carousel
folding it into such poetic
melodic genius
leaving me
to blabber

He put that shirt back on again
For her day
Of graduating
A proud father
Saying things are ok
I'll always love you.

damn Joni Mitchell
for steeling away
that carousel
folding it into such poetic
melodic genius
leaving me
to blabber






Re-cycled Rumplestiltskin


Your gown was made
From plastic bottles
Rumpelstiltskin spun into
Fabric just to celebrate
The sciences of Cal Tech
And the death of myth.
He used a mountain of water bottles
(That maybe cause breast cancer
Over time, which is
Why you'll want to wear
The gown sparingly)
Plus who knew what he could do
With water resistance.
Rumple longs for the old
Alchemical days when
Gold was enough
It appears Cal Tech wanted
a New Age Image.

So our kids will have to spin their
Own fortunes, pay for this schooling
Clothe the rich
And ask not what Rumple
Can spin for them, but what corporate
Industry can be built
On recycling water bottles into
Ball gowns.








Snap Crackle Pop


Behind me
Sat a thirteen year old
"Kid with a Plastic Cup"
He cracked it
All through
My daughter's graduation
Through the Processional
The silent anticipation
(they had no prayers)
Through the speaker
Through the address
Through the hundreds of names
Through his own sister's name

I wanted after awhile
To recycle
the cup
Into a new gown
But I was specifically
Told to
"Be nice."
Which I certainly was.

I was also told he must
"have a condition."
His mom leaned in
To tell him
(I was hoping it was cup stuff)
that she
was looking forward to
His graduation.

I think
His condition
Must be
worthy of my saving cups
For his
Big day.









Live TV : Ustream

SYLVIA'S TIME IS 1:12:24, most of my lucky numbers!