Saturday, May 27, 2017

I am trying to achieve

 Arguing with someone at table last night; then reading Johnson quoting Conrad this morning:
In one of the rare interviews he did, the fiction writer and poet Denis Johnson — who died on Wednesday at 67 — was asked about his craft, and he quoted these lines from Joseph Conrad:  
“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see. That — and no more, and it is everything.” 
-- Denis Johnson’s Poetic Visions of a Fallen World, The New York Times, 26May2017
To think is not a mere rationalizing. It is hearing, feeling, and seeing. 

here

is who
I am

this
is what I am

this
what is

here

both sides now

this is

what

I

am

I

what is

this

Friday, May 26, 2017

one care short

The inmate student said he was "one CaRe short."

I told him that was a good title for his memoir.

Mine, as well.

new crude flashing

In carafe 
             Yesterday's coffee
Considers half and half
             

In mind
              America fears
New hatred of itself


In early morning
               Rain steadily
Falling through growling


Thunder
                Off
Our fading memory

Thursday, May 25, 2017

good night and joy be with you all

The Remarkable Death and Life of John Shields is well worth the read and the viewing of brief videos.

you

The Egg, by Andy Weir.

The narrative:
http://highexistence.com/images/view/the-egg-by-andy-weir/
A film adaption:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VN5zICGeU#t=427.719997955
An excerpt:
You were on your way home when you died. 

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

subicio

and

when

I

dies

who

will

object

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

only words

Remember when words seem to have unambiguous meanings?

That never was the case.

Let words be words -- ever the same, ever changing -- and we with them.

A Bushido manual, the Hagakure, offers the following instruction:
Every morning make up thy mind how to die. Every morning freshen thy mind in the thought of death. And let this be done without end. Thus will thy mind be prepared. When thy mind is always set on death, the way through life will always be straight and simple.         (Bellah, p.91, in Comparative Religious Ethics, Fasching & Dechant, 2001, p.63) 
The only way to live is to die.

The only way to die is to live.

They’re only words.

Monday, May 22, 2017

is there, you ask, something wrong with the world

Yes

There is a choice

Lies or truth

Choose

Remain locked, or

Walk free

Whether enclosed or

Wandering open

Sunday, May 21, 2017

again...the blindness?

Memory. "The Keepers".

The awful ignorance and pathetic complicity of abuse.

Makes the thought of avenging reciprocity against perpetrators surprisingly attractive.

No authority can be trusted.

We are stopping into a very dangerous deficiency.

The perverse are no longer safe.

Nor are the compromised.

Why, again...the blindness?