NVN Monday: BLINKEN IN BEIJING and SMILE
BLINKEN IN BEIJING: DATA CALL
by Indran Amirthanayagam
Antony Blinken was greeted by China’s top diplomat on Monday, and will perhaps meet its president, on the final day of a rare visit aimed at trying to resurrect relations between Washington and Beijing from historic lows. —The Guardian, June 18, 2023
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Semiconductors Formosa…Taiwan… Uigur burial practices Tesla Ships passing in the South China Sea Warships frigates destroyers Balloon looking down on the American continent SHOT Spy station on the island of Cuba Confucius Institutes everywhere in the developing world Plastics, christmas trees, clothes A massive relationship, two superpowers yet distant neighbors coming together on climate change policies but staying apart on so many hot buttons including the rights of Man and Woman Five and a half hours meeting (extended by an hour) American and Chinese teams then strolling before a working dinner for two hours Foreign Minister and Secretary of State Hard at work making peace. eating thousand-year-old eggs.
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Indran Amirthanayagam is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks) is the newest collection of Indran's own poems. Recently published is Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun.(Dialogos Books). In 2020, Indran produced a “world" record by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He won the Paterson Prize and received fellowships from The Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, US/Mexico Fund For Culture, and the MacDowell Colony. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.
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SMILE
by William Marr
Smile coach Keiko Kawano teaches students at a smile training course at Sokei Art School in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2023.REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
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trapped in masks for three long years many people can't remember how to smile anymore should eyes be opened or closed how about the mouth and should the eyebrows and mouth corners be lifted up or pulled down there’s really no need to spend money to find a smile consultant just go outdoors and look at the flowers blooming with innocent smiles from the ground that was once covered with heavy snow and ice
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William Marr, a Chinese American scientist/poet/artist, has published over 30 collections of poetry and several translations. His poetry has been translated into more than ten languages and is included in high school and college textbooks in Taiwan, China Mainland, England, and Germany. A former president of the Illinois State Poetry Society, he now lives in Chicago.