"Ad Lustrum"

   Boiling rush of gray
clouds still caravan into
   dusk of pyramids;
and our haggard claustration
finds fright unavailing still.


On my victrola- this (no 3nglish).


"Et fit saepe nefas iaculum temptante lacerto." --Lucan vi. 79 ('And many a murder is done when the arm is merely testing the javelin.')


Gr**ning of Gr**nland. (via AL Daily)

Found.


Twilight of th* Wagn*rs.


"Over a period of eight months, beginning in November, 2002, Perelman posted a proof of the Poincaré on the Internet in three installments." (via M*tafilt*r)



ordalic crystal
wrong runway

as it rains, in August, a fifth
occasion

car roof sagging
tugs my hat

azury dawn
school
a road grown wispy


Slow blog.


Zin* Wiki.

(via saturntoday)


Armagordian knot, kiln, dirham.
Carrion crow, calx, dirham.

Battalions of diamonds again shorn parch stomp
lair dirham.

Scouring carrion
Grinchus abort toad dirham.


"At that point I had no idea what religion I was supposed to be a priest in, but I knew there was a religion somewhere where I was supposed to be a priest." --Isaac Bon*wits, in: B*ing a Pagan, Hopman & Bond (1996)


Th* Long Now Foundation.


Dim*nsional typography.

"One of the noteworthy facts about Linear B is that it seems not to have been used for writing Mycenaean oral-traditional literature or even for creating a written Mycenaean literature. Mycenaean literacy served the interests of trade or religion." --Alb*rt Lord, 3pic Sing*rs and Oral Tradition (1991)



"   War Is Better Than Ever

The family of man was once at war
With the family that lived in the cave next door.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And teamed their forces that they might meet
The looming presence across the street.

And the looming presence became a war
That was even worse than the war before.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And combined their armies to go put down
The evil force from the other town.

With that evil force they fought a war
That was even worse than the war before.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And when it was done, they knelt to pray,
But some men worshiped a heathen way.

And religious difference became a war
That was even worse than the war before.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And built great navies that they might free
The captive peoples across the sea.

And with ships and guns they fought a war
That was even worse than the war before.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And nations prospered and empires, too,
And the size and scope of the conflicts grew.

And conflicting interests produced a war
That was even worse than the war before.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And built defenses to guard their shores,
And they fought a war to end all wars.

And the war they fought to end all war
That was even worse than the war before.
And they fought that way for many a year
'Til they learned to conquer hate and fear.
And they counted down, and they set the stage,
And they gave the world the Atomic Age.

And if there comes an atomic war
It will be far worse than the wars before.
There's an ancient, deadly pattern burned,
And the question is, has the family learned?
Or do we still pattern how we behave
After how it was in the family cave?"

--Charl*s Osgood, Nothing Could B* Fin*r Than a Crisis That is Minor in th* Morning (1979)


Cool paintings of an old asylum. (via M*tafilt*r)


Alibi.

"Ad lustrum" at Po*mcub* (via Craig Hill).


A fi*ld guid* to 3lvis shrin*s.


This song complains of monotony. But it is that familiar flow, finishing, which would form our worst fright clyting. So sing of no comfort in old songs; sing of what will occur as if it might find us thus happily changing. Isn't it important, though difficult to think through thoroughly? For what good is having imagination, if it only brings forth trivial things?


"I think there are compelling economic, social, health, ecological and even security/defense reasons why local , intensive urban organic farms are the way to go. ."


"War! That awful condition which a famous military man in command of a division, long ago, said was synonymous with Satan and all his cohorts! War! That awful condition of human minds coming down from way, way back of all history; that vast void during which sympathy was not known; during which animals fought with tooth, claw or horn; that vast void during which wounds had no soothing balm, until thirst, agony or a final swoon laid low a gigantic mammoth, or a tiny, gasping fawn! But now, again, in this grand day of Man's magically growing brain, this day of kindly crooning to infants in cribs; kindly talks to boys and girls in school; and blood-tingling orations from thousands of pulpits upon that Holy Command: 'Thou Shalt Not Kill,' now, again, Man is out to kill his own kind." --Gadsby


On my victrola- W*b*rn's S*chs Stück* für Orch*st*r op. 6

Not now a major world but still a Sailor (via moonprinc*ss dot com)


it starts to rain; and in that mismo instant a car crash occurs. My mind grasps it and its half-painful symbolism, as i go on working without stint.


"...Assam tea can be malty, sweet AND smooth..."


"But what would you do if someone dug up the body of Abraham Lincoln, pulled down the monument to George Washington, and took them to Egypt?" --Th* Bat Fli*s Low


"...Kripke's writings...have had more influence on philosophy in the US and the UK than any others since the death of Wittgenstein."


   a pallid hour
Old Kingdom · WalpurgisMart
   strolling · furious
rain · wintry dusk in which flights
of swift thoughts scour ilka sky


"we have a church where the others stood
it's made of ash"

--M*rwin

i count up what is worth saving, as if this thought could work. But actually i am saving nothing.


"ENVOY FROM D'AUBIGNÉ

Go book

go
now I will let you
I open the grave
live
I will die for us both

go but come again if you can
and feed me in prison

if they ask you why
you do not boast of me
tell them as they
have forgotten
truth habitually
gives birth in private

Go without ornament
without showy garment
if there is in you any
joy
may the good find it

for the others be
a glass broken in their mouths

Child
how will you
survive with nothing but your virtue
to draw around you
when they shout Die die

who have been frightened before
the many

I think of all I wrote in my time
dew
and I am standing in dry air

Here are what flowers there are
and what hope
from my years

and the fire I carried with me

Book
burn what will not abide your light

When I consider the old ambitions
to be on many lips
meaning little there
it would be enough for me to know
who is writing this
and sleep knowing it

far from glory and its gibbets

and dream of those who drank at the icy fountain
and told the truth"

--W S M*rwin, Th* Carri*r of Ladd*rs (1970)


"And that the book got: it sold an estimated 130,000 copies out of an initial print run of 170,000 on the first day."


"...strengthless as a noon-belated moon..." --Francis Thompson


"We find that a disrupter we find that a disrupter is singularly useful in an emergency but entirely impractical when used too continuously. We have returned to our normal footing. We love the hand. The hand that forbids collisions." --Th* Yal* G*rtrud* St*in


Th* 3gyptologist.