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20/09/2024

https://www.blind-magazine.com/news/the-end-of-democracy-in-five-acts/?utm_source=blind-newsletter.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-end-of-democracy-in-five-acts&_bhlid=443b4a28f95d06fcbb02f997cdac8ccb14633b17

08/09/2024

Educators, parents, students, free thinkers and creative tinkerers...

Education is once again being ensnared by the suffocating chains of instrumentalism—a pedagogy that prioritizes rote memorization, conformity, and rigid discipline over critical thinking and creativity.

06/09/2024

"Original Sin" chapbook available now on ebay with free shipping...

“ where do we go/ from here?. /where is the ladder?. / where are the stars?”. His answers might surprise you.". —- Alexis Rhone Fancher, author ofExplicit: New & Selected, poetry editor,Cultural Daily.

04/09/2024

Interesting piece here on the old Bell Labs building once nicknamed the world's largest mirror:
https://www.abandonedamerica.us/bell-labs?fbclid=IwY2xjawFFYgdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRyrDnBSxjgK_ETwS1B-IRSscqhOJgKrkauTUcx6HnczAYcQPWCrSM5ZfA_aem_Ww9258sCY8tMwmIo8XIwbQ

One of the most innovative building designs where many of the 20th century's biggest scientific breakthroughs were made almost met the wrecking ball.

18/08/2024

Checkout

Resonance
We each resonate with a given frequency.
Whether received at birth, like a given name,
Developed in time, or transferred through blood.

Frequency
The frequency does not change.
It may be interpreted in different ways.
Perspectives are never the same
Though they may appear to be.

Change
Given the same ball of clay or box of blocks
Whoever’s hand lands will give its final form
a look that distinguishes it from another.

The Dog
Take a walk in early morning and listen
For the barking dog that hears footsteps
Landing quietly outside and reads
Difference between his or hers and yours.

Family
Familiar frequencies are recognized.
As all in life contingencies exist.
Some interrupt the flow, give birth
To language difficult to understand.

The Shopping Cart
Resonant frequencies
show up at checkout.

Mrf
8/18/24
Rights reserved

17/07/2024

Why isn't anyone at the GOP convention or on TV when discussing women's rights to their own bodies, such as access to abortion or abortion pills, talking about restricting men's access to vasectomies...? Or bringing back castrations and penectomies for convicted rapists and molesters, etc.?

14/07/2024

Me, Myself & Ai

“Me, Myself & Ai” is an experimental poetry/essay collection intended to inform about the personality of Ai when it comes to interpreting commands/prompts. I began the process after receiving a notice that Microsoft’s Copilot was available and that I could ask it anything. Kind of like asking your psychiatrist, but different. I found I could ask it anything but didn’t always get answers, or at least answers expected or that reflected how a human might respond to the same prompt or question. I persevered and over the past several months developed a better understanding of how Ai works with grab and go data to analyze and visualize meanings in prompts of varying degrees of difficulty. The image below was from one of the first prompts: "3D View of an architectural drawing of a human head with en face and
profiles left and right including measurements and diagrams".

A pdf of the 118-page book including a one-on-one interview with my Ai companion is available for charge. If interested, please contact me for details.

14/07/2024

Some of my pubs are available from Smashwords:

Michael Foldes is a sales engineer specializing in medical displays and other electronic products. A graduate of The Ohio State University in anthropology, he has edited and published magazines, poetry anthologies, chapbooks, alternate newspapers, technical publications, and was an editor and column...

14/07/2024

Dog Poem

Everyone can relate to a dog.
A pet rabbit. Cat.
I have fish. Two where
There once were 20.
They don’t need coddling,
Just fresh water
From time to time.
And oxygen. As do we all.

Everyone can relate to a pet
But not everyone can relate
To Viktor Orban, Donald Trump
Vlad the Impaler and other animals
Who’ve escaped their cages
And promise to wreak havoc
If we don’t find humane ways
To put them down. Honest
And humanely with our votes.

I can put a collar on my dog,
A rabbit in its warren,
A cat in its cradle and
Fish in a bowl, but
Where to closet dictators?
Are there corsets enough
To stricture their whims?
What to do with a rabid fox
Armed to the teeth.
Election day is not so far
As escaping the wrath
Of wanna-be gods
Who would rather be known
In history for what powers
They abused than not at all.

mrf
7/12/24
rights reserved

13/07/2024

Easy tune to start the day:

Original 1970 version by leading Jamaican vocal trio, the MelodiansCheck out Trojan Records' official YouTube channel for more reggae classics, long-lost gem...

09/07/2024

World of Hate

I hate living in a world of hate
Where everyday someone calls
To circle the wagons, as if danger
Lurks behind every word said,
Every word heard by someone
So paranoid you’d think they think
They’re living under tyranny.

I hate living in a world of hate
Where thoughts are dangerous
As poison. I remember those days
When fear and loathing dressed
In spyware and spycraft dominated
Conversations carried on in secrecy,
In whispers, where wants and dreams
Were carefully modeled
after neutral colors, tastes and terms.

What is this return to incivility,
Where live and let live has died,
Withered on the vine as dry roses
Leaving only thorns to show love.

mrf
7/9/24
rights reserved

03/07/2024

I’ll tell you now

I’ll tell you now
It’s too late for me
The end is near
And change is slow
So where do we go
From here to get there
Perhaps in another life
Another day another
Time another another
This one wants nothing
More than to recognize
Those who made it over
The door more
And opened the future
To them who went.

7/2/24
Mrf
Rights reserved

29/06/2024

nearing the end earth appears,
a bare old tree losing its leaves.
walls are breaking down.
unity becomes the current song,
breaks the silence of a silent spring.
we are after the rest that comes
when cannon melt and lead
is nowhere to be found.

29/06/2024

The Performance

The poem begins in the middle of a sentence.
The older one gets the older one gets.
There is little substance in age but time itself
turning today into paper fragments and dust.
In the morning is the best time to write
when perspective gives itself movement
to clarity and respondents dignify their moments
with proper responses to improvised truths,
where one rethinks what one hears and sees
to avoid falling prey to prevarication. The times
when being is becoming and vestments
are tied to the meaning in candles and oil
are far from whole and varied as insects.
When one encounters deciduous moments,
recognizes footsteps breaking above,
understands their direction, hears
what the soul says, when existence
is held together with baling wire,
the future is bleak as an Arctic winter
and the future grave…
Wrap that moment, hold it close,
hold it fast, and make it last.
Even while the simple act of recall
places you foursquare in the presence
of embarrassing truth, be true yourself.
All is not yours alone, nor lost.
Given purpose, the heart of endeavor
Is endowed with potential to light a world.
This morning I crossed mountains
And walked oceans with he
Who wrote of it not knowing when,
Nor whom, it would lead to what shore.
What gravity exists in just moving on.

29/06/2024

On the travesties of minor poets

They will be remembered
If at all
For that one great poem
No one read.

27/06/2024

Can’t get enough. Art.

Can’t get enough. Art.
StereoTypes. 3D alphabet.
Come again. And again.
Borrowing not allowed.
Borrowing not aloud.
No begging, either.

Remember when we packed a thousand pounds of sawdust
into rusting barrels and set them loose in the river? Nor do I.
It never happened. Nor did you. There is no vision of you
in the memory bank. No bank. No vision. What did you deposit
I should know about? We worked on the chain gang together.

Specialties and sophistication. Joseph Nickelbank. I had a rocket,
once, it launched coins into a slot from aft to fore. I loved that bank.
It was a curiosity then, and a curiosity now. What happened to it?

A good friend told me to add some context to the story of my life.
I presented it as a long poem with its own internal dialogues
propelling the reader through good times and bad. I don’t recall
newspapers and magazines, current events and outside influences
having enough of an affect to include where they did not manifest
at the time. A flip of the coin and when I said we were lost it did not mean
we couldn’t find our ways home.

I mean, we’re there. Aren’t we?

6/22/24
MRF
Rights Reserved

21/06/2024

“where do we go/ from here?/ where is the ladder?/ where are the stars?” asks the final poem in this thoughtful, outrageous chapbook. Original Sin deftly encapsulates the pandemic, a year like no other, filled with love lost, insurrection, aging, drugs, death, and, yes, love found again. Foldes asks the hard questions. His answers might surprise you.
—- Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of Explicit: New & Selected, poetry editor, Cultural Daily.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364963262640

21/06/2024

Wonder what people were reading and thinking "back then"? check these out:

Follow micfol-3260 on eBay. Buying, Selling, Collecting on eBay has never been more exciting!

17/04/2024

David Bayne in Ithaca reminded me today of an old friend, Joe Lindsley... here are some of my thoughts of him that hold true for too few:
https://www.ragazine.cc/joseph-h-lindsley-1920-2015/
Photo by Jack Dann, pastel by J.L.

Artist passed away Sept. 8 at 95, after a lifetime dedicated to art and the creative sides of life.

27/03/2024

Associations Libres in France will be publishing a bilingual edition of my collected poems titled "What Other People Look Like." The book will include photography by Viviane Maislisch. Publication of the illustrated edition is expected in November or December, and will be printed on "the very beautiful paper of the Deux-Ponts printing house". Associations Libres is an associative publishing house whose vitality depends on its subscribers. If you are interested in an advance purchase, the cost is 15 euros, and 20 euros upon release.
Please contact Marie-Philippe Deloche, [email protected], if you are interested in making an advance purchase. Thank you for your support! Mike F.

MANUFACTURE D’HISTOIRES DEUX-PONTS : PRINTING HOUSE SINCE 1935. Diapositive précédente Diapositive suivante DID YOU KNOW…? THE SCOPE OF BOOKS +80% of French people are readers. THE FEMININE SIDE OF BOOKS +81% of women readers read for pleasure. THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS +84% of readers would lik...

13/02/2024

What Mr T-Rump sees in his short-term/long-term vision in furtherance of personal goals is a binding relationship with Russia that would essentially be a United States of Russia governed by two autocrats. And, perhaps, as an afterthought, three, when you bring in Xi from China.

It will be quite simple then for Trump to transition to the royal dictator qualities he sees in other leaders who rule by force (or farce?) instead of reason.

Watch out, voters, lest you get what you’ve been wishing for.

08/02/2024

FB asks, "What's on your mind?" What's not? America's mullahs appear ready to fold. No $ for the boarders (who are they, anyway?) and too little too late for Ukraine. Find out what's on other citizens' minds this Saturday at 5 Eastern... LITBALM for a smooth landing.

24/01/2024

30/12/2023

Morning Melody

The music flows over my soul
Like river waters flow over my body.
I am captive to the element of sound,
Prisoner to the pure liquid of love.
In the same moment I am frozen in place,
Captive in chains and manacles of melody.
Morning notes are not written lightly.
They do not carry the weight of day.
They are the opening, the door to light.
In the morning I am held captive
To singular lyrics from startling crows
To the carry-over of nights before
When the waters flowed over my body
And music flowed over my soul.
You were there. You were there.
You know what I am talking about.
There is that instant that remains forever,
Like tattoos covering your warm skin.
Somewhere else and we are hiding together
In the limestone cavern of delight,
Waiting, waiting, for dawn to blanket earth,
To receive the light with placid acceptance,
To go where time and waters flow.

12/30/23
MRF
Rights Reserved

22/12/2023

Live Encounters Poetry & Writing January 2024 is out.

Thad Rutkowski's recently published SAFE COLORS is a great reminder -- or at least it was for me... Please see my review that appears in LIVE Encounters (links below), and I think you'll want to read the book, too...
All the best for the holidays and beyond. Way beyond. Mike F.

Link to the edition: https://liveencounters.net/2023/12/20/live-encounters-poetry-writing-january-2014/

Link to the PDF:https://liveencounters.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Live-Encounters-Poetry-Writing-January-2024.pdf

Link to the Digimag: https://issuu.com/liveencounters/docs/live_encounters_poetry_writing_january_2024_issu?fr=xKAE9_9nZ2Q

Link to your profile: https://liveencounters.net/01-january-le-pw-2024/michael-foldes-book-review-of-safe-colors-a-novel-in-short-fictions-by-thaddeus-rutkowski/

Michael Foldes - Book Review of Safe Colors, a novel in short fictionsby Thaddeus Rutkowski. Live Encounters Poetry & Writing, January 2024

08/09/2023

The professor speaks:

For decades, America has predicted — arrogantly and repeatedly — the imminent fall of a nation. The doomed nation, according to Americans? A: America. In the ’80s, we decided Japan was doing to us economically what they couldn’t do militarily four decades prior. My second year in business sc...

31/03/2023

AI Incubus

What if ours is the artificial intelligence
Of an incubus whose pasttime
Is developing new movements
Derived from organic synthesis?
We who learn from doing,
We who learn from outside influences,
We who learn from those who teach,
We who are candles whose flames
Light the room where the incubus
Can be found pondering questions
Of power, energy storage, efficiency.

What if Incubus were to engage
In other pursuits, alternate concepts
Where gravity and loss are,
For example, indistinguishable
From poverty, savagery, and one another?
Where civilized society never fully developed,
Never fully materialized, never were endowed
With anger and vengeance? What if Incubus
awoke flailing in a burlap satchel
forgetful of non-existence,
ignorant of feathers, wings and escape.

What if we are as artificial
As our bodies are to the touch.

3/31/23
Mrf
Rights reserved

25/02/2023

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A store for all reasons. Get your stuff on here.

Shop items by Ragazine located in Endwell, New York.

25/02/2023

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Shop items by Ragazine located in Endwell, New York.

18/02/2021