"Posthumous Letter to Thomas Merton

Unlike you who discovered solitude
To be "Forerunner of the Word of God",
I search and find it no more than the soul's
Chafing against itself like any dog
Rubbing its mangy rump against a tree.
I might have asked you how to bridge the gap
Between our two alonenesses, between
Yours, self-elected, freely chosen, and
Mine blindly blundered into from the womb,
At first not even seen for what it was,
And then, once recognized, raged at, kicked at,
And cursed. Perhaps there is a gulf between them,
The gulf dividing mind to which God is
A harmony, from mind to which God seems
The discord, shattering tidy tunes of thought,
Yet no, devout monk though you were, your God
Was not a mystery emasculated,
Poked at through barbed wire meshes of the creeds,
Led out well-groomed and curried for the faithful
To adulate from their safe vantage point.
Now that your words have smoked away to silence,
I dare not put an answer on your tongue,
As though a devotee had stuffed your mouth
With speeches that you never made. I only
Write you these lines, less poem than presumption,
Addressed in care of my bewilderment.
I ask you, self-styled marginal man,
Do not we sufferers always inhabit
The edges of the world as pioneers
To prove how much humanity can bear
And still be human, experimenters in
The bloody laboratory of our lives.
Taking and testing every pain tossed from
The pulsing cosmos, fragments we reshape,
As best as the materials allow,
To buttress God's cathedrals build from chaos?"

Vassar Miller, If I Could Sleep Deeply Enough (1974)

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The sum of the word "flarf" is 43, which is also the sum of "book". (This is how i figure out the meaning of undefinable words.) Also 'ghayb', the transliteration of the Arabic word for "the Invisible". Although nothing i write, alas, can be considered remotely flarfish, i think it entirely possible that this movement can become the "Angry Penguins" of the 21c...

Whaddya know?! The Vanilla Fudge are back together (after, maybe 30 years); & they have a new album out. Guess what? It sounds just like they always did! --As i said in another place: "i started collecting VF records about 10 yrs ago, after having gone through a long period when i could only stand to listen to non-western music; my ears refreshed, i gained a new appreciation of many things, including psychedelic kitsch, of which VF appears to be the most perfect & terrifying specimen... there are people who love blue cheese, & people who love ed wood movies; i love Blue Cheer & Vanilla Fudge."