It's the birthday of the poet W.S. Merwin, born in New York City (1927). He's the son of a Presbyterian minister. He went to Princeton University where he met the poet John Berryman, then a graduate student. Merwin asked Berryman how to know if your poems were any good. Berryman said, "You can't. You can never be sure. You die without knowing." Merwin later included those lines in a poem.

(from Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" on NPR: National Public Radio in the U.S.)

Burma 'holding 1,100 dissidents'

Burma is still holding more than 1,100 political prisoners, despite the release of dozens of dissidents in July, a UN rapporteur has said.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told the UN General Assembly that Burma's military junta also routinely used torture.

Mr Pinheiro said that such detentions undermined the junta's 2003 commitment to a transition to democracy.

Burma's most prominent political prisoner, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest.

Mr Pinheiro, UN special rapporteur on Burma, has not been allowed to visit Burma since November 2003, but has based his report on information from various independent sources.
Monks, lawyers, teachers, journalists, farmers, politicians, student leaders, writers and poets are among those being held for their political views, he said.

"Civilians, including members of registered political parties and pro-democracy activists, continue to be harassed, arrested, tried and sentenced to prison for the peaceful exercise of basic civil and political rights and freedoms," he said.

Several high-profile dissidents were among 249 political prisoners released on 6 July, but Mr Pinheiro expressed disappointment that U Win Tin, a 75-year-old editor and poet imprisoned for 16 years, had been promised release on that date but remains in Burma's notorious Insein prison.

( from www.asiasource.org/news )

Today is a big day in the history of the English language. On this day, in 1066, William the Conqueror of Normandy arrived on British soil. Having defeated the British in the Battle of Hastings and on Christmas day he was crowned the King in Westminster Abbey.

At the time the British were speaking a combination of Saxon and Old Norse. The Normans, of course, spoke French, and over time the languages blended. To the Saxon word "house" came the Norman word "mansion." To the Saxon word "cow" came the Norman word "beef" and so on.

So the English language now contains more than a million words, one of the most diverse languages on earth. Cyril Connelly wrote, "The English language is like a broad river ... being polluted by a string of refuse-barges tipping out their muck." But Walt Whitman said, "The English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all."

(This is from Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" on NPR--National Public Radio in the U.S.)

"An act of meditation is actually an act of faith--of faith in your spirit, in your own potential. Faith is the basis of meditation. Not of faith in something outside you--a metaphysical buddha, an unattainable ideal, or someone else's words. The faith is in yourself, in your own 'buddha-nature'. You too can be a buddha, an awakened being that lives and responds in a wise, creative, and compassionate way."

- Martine Batchelor, "Meditation for Life"
Copyright Wisdom Publications 2001.
Reprinted from "Daily Wisdom : 365 Buddhist Inspirations",
edited by Josh Bartok, with permission of Wisdom Publications,
199 Elm St., Somerville MA 02144 U.S.A
www.wisdompubs.org