( me / via )

"Come, selfsame and ageless Night..."

"Nonsense and mystery are not substitutes for truth; they are its consorts, engaged with it in perpetual dialogue."

—Louise Glück via @chenchenwrites

A handful of curious links.

subfusc swathes · as a bug balances
halfway between here · & glassed off heaven

to manage mangled · nerves now
to find peace in being part · of a rathe process

having done what i deemed · was the thing needful
from a rude roster · of impossible choices

"Much of the New York City subway depends on mechanical switching systems installed in the nineteen-thirties; many banks rely on software written in COBOL, a basically obsolete programming language." (via Mefi)

( via / via )

Almost Winter.

skeletons in the yard
or smashed amidst rubble
gray fathoms garble
aether's pellucid mud
debate werewolf-bitten

Famine Moon.

"Kierkegaard said that if Hegel had finished his system and then claimed that it was a joke all along, he would be the greatest thinker of all time." --@nakfourium

Monk Bretton Priory ruins.

( via / via )

"In other words, the only source on the entire World Wide Web that mirrors content in real time has been disabled."

"Trying to imagine explaining to postmoderner-than-thou me of 30 years ago, when the WWW was also brand new, that 'Sell online courses about how to scam people into buying online courses' would be like one of three viable future jobs, another of which is 'autopornographer'." --@ibogost

Dusk, New Jersey, 1978.

dia de los muertos

a desisted ormolu
a disused tremolo

a dolomite duress
a silted dormouse

a tedium odorless
a dossier moulted

a deed silos tumor
a slum desired too

Mount Fuji experienced its first snowless October in 130 years.

( me / via )

Time Has Come Today.

"lazy
as a slug
in the autumn wind"

--Issa via @bashosociety

Zombie. (not the whole thing)

"My griefs are more than stars within the skies,
Or little motes which from the dust arise..."

--Tristia, IV.

Ghost Q&A.

( via/ chalk hill drive-in in west dallas via jessica lonsberry in historic dallas grop on fb )

Most frightening paintings.

"We are digging the pit of Babel"

—Franz Kafka via @fedeitaliano76

Woman Creature.

genocidaire

iron cage die
canoe i dirge
core i gained

go nicer idea
ode icing era
i regain coin

i encode a rig

O Death.

( me / lanny quarles on fb )

Sinclair Gas.

navigate the gnarly hour
with soft grizzled grace

known the graves
known the brazen breaking

in this dim dell crouched
i brag of dodging

Unfold/check/refold.

"Prophesying the end of the world is a thankless task, it's been predicted too often down the centuries for it to be credible any more. Inspite of that, I think that those who feel such an event is approaching will be proved right this time. It doesn't have to mean the destruction of the earth, the destruction of a way of life is also the end of a world." --The Green Face

Halloween is officially over.

( me / via )

The Angels Hung Around.

"All in all, accuracy of prediction may well be the least important characteristic of science fiction." --Thomas D Clareson

"To go to sleep..."

the new unspeakable · spiralling
i am empty & half idiot
i spook at anything

i am tired of soldiers soldiering
as writers write on writing
so much wrong

in the many-mouthed firm

Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses.

( via / via )

A Morris column in the fog.

as the strands find · their fated end
chooser's chase · chockful of stumbles
helm in the half-dark · a pen hampered
by jostle of headlights · by tally of fathoms

"Each video of hers is a reinvention of cinema and a reminder of the magic inherent in the medium."

“I prefer the absurdity of writing poems / to the absurdity of not writing poems”
- Wislawa Szymborska via @everysongiveeve

Fancy headgear.

( via/ via )

All of Leonard Cohen’s Books Ranked.

"In 1982, hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested against the massacre of the Palestinian population in the refugee camps Sabra and Shatila in western Beirut by Maronite Christian militias, facilitated by the IDF. Today, this kind of response is inconceivable." --Omer Bartov via via @jeannemarieM3 via @dreamsofbeing_

A Glass of Water, a Burning Boy.

lavender Corolla in the broken driveway
  rented for a day, to ferry
blind eyes for a doctor visit with AC
   the only thing my gray car lacks
i might as well be blind for all the sense of future
  turning to the sky can bring
soft in the steep dark outside on the patio rain
  a rusty tide to drag cars
elsewhere & more welcome here as parch cure
  i sense a great wheel turning
that i won't live to see the iteration next
  but what it won't have swept away
prefigured in the tribes that sort themselves by caps
  will fan out over the broken land
& she who led me here is still beside me now
  my main task this Halloween
is try not to be frightened by the noise of wolves
  that she must flee as much as i

:̴̤͍͑̌̾̉͊͌͊̆̽.̴̛̹̈́̉̒̈́̀̽͐͝:̴͓͚̬̼̅̆͑͛̏͝;̷̡̰̤̎-̸̖̱͈̠̬̬̹̉͗͛͂̌̇̾̓̐͜͝/̶̱̻̻̬̥͚͖̬̌̂ͅ:̵̠̼͌̈́̽;̸̨̦̝̺̪̖̩̺͑̔͘͜gm ,̶̠̜̞̻͊̄̌̽̃!̵̧̻̖̗̦͇͂͒͘͠͝(̷̦̳͓̖̻͈͈̼̦̌͗̀̏́͆͜;̴̲̺̻̥̿̏̀̋:̵̧̧̢̖̃͌.

( via / via )

Poem in the Shape of the Poet.

The god under the tarp prattles
Is not a guide · on the tarn shore
Fiestaware back · each to its place
The frail microclime’s surge · clasp for an answer

At solstice alignment · the ray falls
The word goes out · as the meme spreads
Blue mold appears · on the whole wheat loaf
Shiny traceries left · on the pink brick

People burned alive · in their stalled cars
With the ornate moon · its own mock
Wastebasket lined · with our reused bags
I filled with extruded slime · and stacked tissues

I go back to sit · in the same place
As if fixed in time · a small pyramid
Do I think of myself · as trailing books
Every so often I drop · the abandoned cairn

And rain chances · locally heavy
I forecast drive · through those brick streets
It all burned down · a hundred years ago
Yet the ghost remains on maps · my own real tears

Fast moving pale clouds · with Venus peeking through
Color not a color · from which bombs fall
Elsewhere and otherwise · my taxes paid for
The subfusc veil occults · star and darker gray

Valencia tornado.

"Conservatives are convinced Kamala would melt down doing a full Rogan interview, but if there's anyone who knows how to make charming small talk with people who aren't nearly as smart as they think they are for long periods of time, it's the wife of an LA entertainment lawyer." --@MuseZack

Rafah today and before.

( via / me )

"This process leads me to places that, for me, are mysterious. I am curious about this rescinding of control. It usurps any belief I may have had that I know what I’m doing."

“It's not what a poem says with its mouth, it's what a poem does with its eyes.”

-- Mary Ruefle via @stonecirclerev

Bring Me to Life.

"The Long Walk

Under begrimed skies, walks an old woman, haggard,
Down a misty spookwegen, past gravestones she staggers.
Not knowing the wirricows watch and they wait,
Her thanatopsis already ghost written by fate."

--@thedevilstuna

Picking fruit during the Golden Hour.

( me / via )

Kishōtenketsu. (via Mefi)

spookwegen

keg we snoop
woke sponge
geek's own op

go keep snow

so Kong weep
op gone skew

"It will be a sad day when we lose contact with the Voyagers..."

"The smuggler weeps." --@girlfleeshouse

"Is this Kafka essay real?"

( via / via )

Elegy of Fortinbras.

"the weight
of this moment
alone
a red leaf zigzags
to the muddy ground"

--@ericcoliu

Nearby house blown up by Israel. (via @mosababutoha)

acorn-strewn alleyway · under my tires crunch
resting rollercoaster · high where ravens wheel
plain in Plutolight · only what's plundered
  & spars against the sky

my jalopy joust · jewel-like pickle
or kettle of fish · keeps finding
further twists · to twig all aghast
  & spars against the sky

Meanwhile in Valencia. (via @jorie_graham)

( via / me )

"...the first people Hitler sent to his concentration camps weren’t everyday Jewish citizens, but his political opponents." Rick Steeves at the Reichstag.

obsessive sampo · ceremony frail
the dark scrolling · ascribes night to the dark
not lately deluded · loud in the being sure
games played with our freedom · the fraud sings
  the golem's first steps forward

  meanwhile a mournful lullaby
rises amidst craters · & crashing planets

Last week of the election.

"Spookwegen: Dutch; 'ghost roads' that converge on old cemeteries, and which were usually used for ritualistic purposes." --@arealmofwonder

"...the wholesale destruction of Lebanon and occupation of its south in 1982 was named 'Peace for Galilee'."

( via / via )

The Tale of the Frog Prince.

The Priest Jakuren:

‘Loneliness—
The essential color of a beauty
Not to be defined:
Over the dark evergreens, the dusk
That gathers on far autumn hills.’

(Miner)

KANSYCAU SARCU
SELSKA LE MELBI BEFO
ZI’O .I DARNO
CRITU CMAMA’A VANCI
GA’U LE CKUNU MANKU

(My English version:)

Indefinable
this shade, in my solitude:
over the dark press
of conifers, on distant
autumn hills a darkness grows.

Terri Garr freaks out in Tootsie.

  which apocalypse
horse's hooves are these · drumming
  on my tin ripple

Evolving.

( me / via )

This is the story of Der Orchideengarten.

"But now quick lightning breaketh through the Cloud,
And following Thunder roareth out aloud."

--1672 Ovid (tr W.S.), II.

Shukrun Bamba.

wolfquartz & maze quaffing
quisle fandous wisdom
  tense autumn
  contested item
  indrawn scrotum

qualia jewel-jackpot
Jestocaust's chirg foster
  foliage autumn
  lock stubborn
  elongate Webern

wolfquartz & maze quaffing

A Mind is Born.

( via/ via )

"That passed away, may this too."

"Deor's Lament

To Weland came woes and wearisome trial,
And cares oppressed the constant earl;
His lifelong companions were pain and sorrow,
And winter-cold weeping: his ways were oft hard,
After Nithhad had struck the strong man low,
Cut the supple sinew-bands of the sorrowful earl.
That has passed over: so this may depart!

Beadohild bore her brothers’ death
Less sorely in soul than herself and her plight
When she clearly discovered her cursed condition,
That unwed she should bear a babe to the world.
She never could think of the thing that must happen.
That has passed over: so this may depart!

Much have we learned of Mæthhild’s life:
How the courtship of Geat was crowned with grief,
How love and its sorrows allowed him no sleep.
That has passed over: so this may depart!

Theodoric held for thirty winters
The town of the Mærings: that was told unto many.
That has passed over: so this may depart!

We all have heard of Eormanric
Of the wolfish heart: a wide realm he had
Of the Gothic kingdom. Grim was the king.
Many men sat and bemoaned their sorrows,
Woefully watching and wishing always
That the cruel king might be conquered at last.
That has passed over: so this may depart!

Sad in his soul he sitteth joyless,
Mournful in mood. He many times thinks
That no end will e’er come to the cares he endures.
Then must he think how throughout the world
The gracious God often gives his help
And manifold honors to many an earl
And sends wide his fame; but to some he gives woes.
Of myself and my sorrows I may say in truth
That I was happy once as the Heodenings’ scop,
Dear to my lord. Deor was my name.
Many winters I found a worthy following,
Held my lord’s heart, till Heorrenda came,
The skillful singer, and received the land-right
That the proud helm of earls had once promised to me!
That has passed over: so this may depart!"

--Cossette Faust, 1918 via

A Dartmoor Dream.

"Who shall hear of us
in the time to come?
Let him say there was
a burst of fragrance
from black branches."

--W.C.Williams via

Painting on the Body with Light

( via / via )

Rumble in the jungle.

"Rain Forests were called Jungles. And Wetlands were called Swamps. #wheniwasyourage" --@neiltyson

"...thinking about Xuanji Tu, a Chinese poem written & embroidered in the 4th century by Su Hui ..."

with the key in my pocket
i walk where no house is found
all hands are raised against me
in this graveyard i was born

i walk where no house is found
though houses once stood many
in this graveyard i was born
i will die in this graveyard

though houses once stood many
with the key in my pocket
i will die in this graveyard
all hands are raised against me

"Had we started taking action in the 1970s - when the threat became clear - we could have easily stopped the crisis by now." (via @paisleyrekdal)

( via / via )

Bacteria Celsius Mundi.

"Halloween

For Halloween this year I’ll be a man.
I’ll work my hands to bloody rags and use
my fists to prove which truths I understand.

I’ll paint my face into a mask of bruise,
like coming home after a barroom fight.
A man should fight, my father said, and lose

sometimes—his beaten brow will mock the night.
I’ll swallow up the pint of Cutty Sark.
I’ll stumble home and fumble with the light.

He said the bottle barely leaves a mark
burning away the places where you’ve bled.
On Halloween, I’ll drink the autumn dark.

I’ll be a man the way my father said.
On Halloween, we’re closer to the dead.
His teeth were crooked and his hands were red."

--Chad Abushanab via @maryanncorbett

"In his wildly ambitious second book, Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life, Beck argues that the US response to 9/11 is both the logical culmination of American history dating back to the first white settlers on the continent and the backdrop of all that has followed." (via @_ryanruby_)

"Badiou one of the few guys whose criticism of thinkers actually makes them sound cooler" --@14jun1995

Mexican Blackletter.

( via / via )

When emptiness fills the house.

"porch-lit night
the screen door thrums
of June bugs"

--Jan Benson via @ericcoliu

Autumn repairs the sun.

the purulent lantern
languishes half-snaffled
rain · blessèd rain rinses
array of bleak wreakers

believe as if ever
this airt yielded mealdown
rain · blessèd rain rinses
array of bleak wreakers

oobleck over-ruby
old dog in the doldrums
rain · blessèd rain rinses
array of bleak wreakers

"Afterward, of course, I was in an even worse mood, and terrorized clubgoers for the rest of the night.."

( via/ me )

Books for sale.

sentinel

nestle in
line sent

steel inn
tense nil

No ambulances, no fire trucks, no paramedics, no rescue teams, nothing.

"Indisputably, belladonna (as the deadly nightshade is called) has become our muse, our prima donna and madonna, and we live in a poetical nightshade sabbath." --Jean-Paul

The Cure of Troy.

( me / via )

Dread.

"Poetry not only boldly opens up our earthly tombs, but shows how art lies between realms and how we oscillate between entombed and exhumed. –And if we only sun ourselves as merrymaking mayflies, actual midday mayflies, in the rays of the setting sun and then sink: not only do the flies sink but the sun sinks also; but in the wide-open spaces of creation, where no earthly power intervenes, sun and spirit have no setting and no grave." --Jean-Paul (tr Matthew Spencer on his Substack)

Sentinel.

bailing the dinghy · a dark crossing
crest increasingly · deranged forecasts

the day melting · in the wolf's mouth

Arles

( via / via )

Plan.

"rally"

maze removal · marks flickering
away with · misshapen alphabets
frayed hem hymnal · howitzer glee
dream extermination · it's our story's turn
  t'ward the unspeakable

An in-depth look at Shelley Duvall's career, with special attention to 𝑃𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑦𝑒 & 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔.

"How else can these forty-odd letters be arranged?

To be self-ordered and create the ghostly answer. "

--@Anthony_Etherin

Faerie Tale Theatre.

( via / via )

Healing.

   "It is the Star Betelgeuse, Alpha Orionis,
pouring its light within the depths,
      a single note its sphere..."

--Robert Duncan

Vorticity.

  spider in the wall
where the spigot meets the brick
  runs outside to see

ghost, i cannot block your light
the flow i take is nothing

October Surprise.

( via / via )

"...it was instead Byron’s fiery maiden address to the House of Lords, invoking the human rights of the loom-breaking Luddites (an exhilarating and radical speech slightly to the left of Bernie ­Sanders) that made him a class ­traitor to the English aristocracy."

"BRING IT UP FROM THE DARK

Bring it up from the dark water.
It will be news from behind the horizon.
Refugees, nameless people.   Who are they?
What is happening?   I do not know.
Out there.   Where we can see nothing.
Where we can do nothing.  Men of our own country
send deadly messengers we would not send.
The cold wind of their desolation chills the first hint of morning,
rumors of burnd houses, smoking fields, and now wraiths
of the dead men daily they kill rise
against us.   It will go against us,
   pass, sweep on and beyond us.

The great house of our humanity
no longer stands.   Men from our own country
stamp out, burn back, flush up from their refuge
with gasses, howling or silent, whatever
human or animal remains living there.

Bereft, the mothering sky
searches our faces, searches my heart.
What have I to do with these things
that now I am left destitute.
In the midst of my happiness, the worm
of man's misery coils in my heart.

Dream disclosed to me, I too am Ishmael."

--Robert Duncan, 1984

Coca Cola.

"Constrained Poetry = Encrypted Orations." --@Anthony_Etherin

Rolling chevron.