September 15

/
1917


On 
François 
de la 
Rochefoucauld’s birthday
today in 1613
some of my 
favourite 
maxims






and below,

the reason why the date

at the top of this page

is not

his



No marking of this particular anniversary
anywhere
not in Russia
not outside Russia.

Eighty-eight years
and nothing -
not even an absurd gematria
on those unmystical numbers.

The Cold War is no longer hot
America has new enemies
and anyway that terrible ideology
has been consigned
to oblivion

perhaps unfairly
but inevitably
and not because it failed
or erred
but simply because it lost

So no marking of this particular anniversary
except in the lines
of this journal-poem
where it is noted
in passing
for lack of anything else to write
that Alexander Kerensky
proclaimed Russia to be a Republic
today
in 1917


(you can find more on Kerensky and his failed democracy in "The Captive Bride")





Amber pages


James Fenimore Cooper, novelist, the last of the Mohicans, born today in 1789


Jessye Norman, opera singer, born today in 1945


And a major day for independence among the countries of South America



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The Argaman Press

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