I think microhistory is the only real history. Those stupid sweeping vistas are all fairy tales.
People in Syria have been tearing down statues all night.
arsonist on the front row
at Notre Dame's reopening
why is the Pope shaking his hand
Assad's human slaughter house and rape centre is being liberated.
"buyer's remorse"
in me books
go on advocating
years after i finish them
a prison's gates open
no one in the West wanted
A painting about Gaza, maybe AI. Does it matter?
"Caught one of the kids turning off an alarm by saying 'Alexa, shut up,' so I reprogrammed it so that if you say that phrase, it will play 'Hotel California'." --@rynbeckwith.bsky.social
"And the old thunder'd 'Never!' from the jaws
Of the black darkness, and the mocking waste."
--J Stanyan Bigg
"...we baled the darkness empty..."
“Heroics
Though here and there a man is left
Whose iron thread eludes the shears,
The martyr with bosom cleft
Is dead these seven heavy years.
Does he survive whose tongue was slit,
To slake some envy of a king’s?
Sportive silver cried from it
Before the savage cut the strings.
The rack has crumpled up the limb
Stretched immediate to fly;
Never ask the end of him
Stubborn to outstare the sky.
Assuming an heroic mask,
He stands a tall derisive tree,
While servile to the speckled task
We move devoted hand and knee.
It is no virtue, but a fault
Thus to breathe ignoble air,
Suffering unclean assault
And insult dubious to bear.”
–Elinor Wylie
Why do i think the revolution has already begun?
Self-Portrait with Head in Hand.
charmed life · of the wud leader
as rough beasts romp · & rummage in flowerbeds
so much work · went into this downfall
what hustle of hands · to unhelm the republic
was precious prize once · to mug & dismantle
was a hypocrite giant · of just comeuppance
but also island · of eager venture
& a lot believed · in the good life promised
thousands of days · & for much of it i delved
array of riches · not denied to me
while i call fools fools · from the festering sidelines
Rapist Cheetoh chortles · with a cheerful twinkle
with Couchfucker calmly · calculating woe
the Muskrat musing · crackbrained munches
that cast of clowncar · shoving sycophants
behind them hovering · a coldblooded killer
from chessboard to chessboard · i go with no pleasure
the good guys losing · getting their butts kicked
this sport's not unexpected · spoiled as our home plays out
the open air mines · & clear cut swathes
doom gathering · as it does atop mountains
no glitter no runoff · to feed rivers
plastic in our veins · venom in our hearts
we called this king · made our madness his throne
the ape that learned lying · lies best to himself
a sprinkle on my windshield · workshop & mainspring
Vania Has Brided a Serpent by the Beard and Rides Through Town.
"abba is fleetwood mac on antidepressants" --@yeeeerika.bsky.social
"if they drag me / back some morning."
"Even so my various thoughts do make me fare,
Now calm'd by hope, then troubled with despair."
--1672 Ovid, II.
"inventory of things i find i didn't need"
mustard leaves blaze mazard
myst'ry of things clinging
auburn sphinxgrin fobbed off
on fine crystal mineshaft
Beowulf gray bowing
to boded silt roadblocks
burgundy dealt darg's end
as the dense thugs snuggle
"It’s only art inside this monied carapace."
Tbh, there’s many reasons why a raven is similar to a writing desk.
stones evaporate
increasingly unreal views
are all the guides left
for awhile i was persuaded
i was someone with a name
The night skies are filled with birds.
One of the things i've always liked about Funny Face (1957) was the funhouse mirror distortion of its roman-à-clef references. I mean, we knew the photographer was "inspired by" Avedon, my wife Melanie points out that the fashion editor would have reminded people of Diana Vreeland, & i cottoned on early to the nutty mathematical jazz band as Dave Brubeck's. But for a long time i thought the philosopher that beatnik Audrey Hepburn is keen on, was Jean-Paul Sartre. But now that i've read about the upcoming Bergson biography, i realize that it's him, whose public lectures were so hotly attended.
Dusty wreck, no apologies AI.
"That now familiar feeling of missing someone who died while also being relieved they don't have to live through this." --@maudnewton.bsky.social
"Only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO." (via @bonniehonig.bsky.social)
"Bavarian Gentians
Not every man has gentians in his house
in soft September, at slow, sad Michaelmas.
Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark
darkening the day-time torch-like with the smoking blueness of Pluto's gloom,
ribbed and torch-like, with their blaze of darkness spread blue
down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day
torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto's dark-blue daze,
black lamps from the halls of Dis, burning dark blue,
giving off darkness, blue darkness, as Demeter's pale lamps give off light,
lead me then, lead me the way.
Reach me a gentian, give me a torch
let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of this flower
down the darker and darker stairs, where blue is darkened on blueness,
even where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted September
to the sightless realm where darkness is awake upon the dark
and Persephone herself is but a voice
or a darkness invisible enfolded in the deeper dark
of the arms Plutonic, and pierced with the passion of dense gloom,
among the splendour of torches of darkness, shedding darkness on the lost bride and her groom."
--D H Lawrence
This is the only chart you really need.
Hearing so many American healthcare horror stories now. Makes me want to mention that when i was sick in 2021 (not Covid), i got screwed over by Oscar Health & left with $20K in medical debt. But what i resent most is getting forcibly moved out of one hospital into another for no medical reason, just for their paperwork accounting--hooked up to a machine THAT COULDN'T BE TURNED OFF, so i sat in a gurney with a noisy portable generator between my legs all the way.
When i was able to switch, i told them straight out that being on Oscar was a second affliction separate & equal to the illness i'd had.
"Now all my teachers are dead except silence."
--W.S. Merwin via @evecastle.bsky.social
JG Ballard grades some of his fellow visionaries. (via @johncoulthart.com)
"For this reason, understood by all, he was killed, and for this reason, given the lack of a legal mechanism by which he could have been brought to account for all the lives which he had sucked dry, and made himself fat and happy upon, it can hardly be considered unjustified." (via @katewagner.bsky.social)
" 'CSI: Mississippi' flopped because there’s no dental records and everyone has the same DNA." --@sundaedivine.bsky.social
"I kept wondering what Fassbinder would make of that town."
"cold cemetery
the long sleeves of your old coat
warm my fingertips
even from beyond the grave
you manage to comfort me"
--an'ya
leafturn & we loiter · dragonhoards lessened
never as fast as we'd like
this fullness of bad futures · those first setting out
are left like a burnt out mansion
cherish even the sham · which assures you there is
something you want that is real
to the change give tribute · of crimson targe
even as the wind steals body heat
"Transmogrification
=
Arising into cat form"
--@anthonyetherin.bsky.social
Why being poor is so expensive.
"I had no idea that persisting in my art form would someday make me this desperate."
" 'The sky is full of lies and deceit'-the 13yo learning that wind chill is making the temp feel like -8." --@thorntonforreal.bsky.social
the wall going up
see less & less of the sun
over it ravens
unceasingly gather light
for the part that is hidden
"The dead too are free of reparation."
concrete Zhuangzi kingsized
at Texas Street meeting
know which lane has leeway
loot of the crown scoot back
Dog Days' harg held over
a hecatomb beckons
my frayed mask less frisky
at frown of strand mandate
"The ten styles
(I) The choku tai, the style of 'things as they are.'
(II) Rakki tai, the style for mastering demons.'
(III) The Kamo no Chõmei style: the 'old words in new times.'
(IV) The yugen, the 'style of twilight.'
(V) The yoen, the 'style of ethereal charm.'
(VI) The awareness of things, the mono no aware.
(VII) Sabi: rust; solitude.
(VIII) The ryohõ tai, 'style of the double.'
(IX) Ushin: 'deep feeling.'
(X) Koto shirarubeki yõ, 'this should be, muss es sein."
--Jaques Roubaud via
"Growth is the principle of the capitalist, not the consumer." (via Mefi)
"Nightshadows enlarge · Snow gnarls from the north..."
" 'We can try to climb this mountain,' said Frog. 'That should tell us if we are brave.' " --@frogandtoadbot.bsky.social
blithe murder on the menu · mood
with the cat pics · with the cutpurse olympics
a month into learning · lewd cancer
no closer to clinching · clytespot map
paltry potholes · pick names for
can render directions · & routes using
fantasies fray · that had me as freeing
contrails railroads · orchids in bondage
cold gale at the mailbox · two bills & a Xmas card
"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard."
A taperstry woven from intricate.
three moves are a fire
& three fires before breakfast
what use is it play
the most exotic gambits
if in the end you still lose
Every age demands its simpleminded bard.
"the silence of the logarithms"
leafchange belated · redblue flicker
speedbumps bicker · sky burial
well into getting there
rain no relevance · run listless
am i anyone's enemy
short shrift · to the overseas autocrat
not even a sideshow
lanes narrow · nothing new here
whether playlist or grumble
ache in the pit · of my perfect entitlement
An Outer Space House Where Cosmoc Soldiers Spent Six Months.
"The way lies in dark,
The moon swears and weeps crimson,
Red lilies bloom at my feet."
--@ephemeralecho.bsky.social via
" 'That kite is junk,' said the robins. 'Throw it away and go home.'
Toad ran back to Frog. 'This kite is junk,' he said. 'I think we should throw it away and go home.'
'Toad,' said Frog, 'we need one more try.' " --@frogandtoadbot.bsky.social
"turnips on top"
orange cones forever
etched skeleton skyline
diease-spread zealots
zippered bags of bodies
some barbed wire award goes
to the weird red tie stans
Gilead's hoods huddled
hard by the new statue
where the River meets the Sea.
Is the 'alt-' in alt rock the 'alt-' in alt-right?
tea party gets its king
madness & faux royalty
no king like a mad king
all-horse consulship
third grade reading level
never finished Animal Farm
let the clankers do it
sing to me, O Muse
Signal alone is not enough. If you are an activist, you need a complete self-defense against surveillance. (via @sarahjeong.bsky.social)
All my troubles arise, i now see, from the fact that i'm a donkey not a horse.
"I went to go stare into the void to see if it would stare into me but it wouldn’t even make eye contract
Guys I think we broke the void" --@pptsapper.bsky.social
"In a sordid twist of the kind social media has perfected, Weil has also become a mascot for misguided youths seeking to blend a fetishized Catholic ritualism with aestheticized eating disorders..." (via @saintsoftness.bsky.social)
Write a poem in Old-English style alliterative meter about penguins.
"In icy realms, where iron winds wail,
Feathered folk flourish, fearless and bold.
Penguins parade, proud in their plumage,
Waddling warriors, winter’s own kin.
Frosty fjords echo, fish-filled waters,
Diving deep, daring, deft in their quest.
Snow-clad sentinels, steadfast they stand,
Guarding their young, in the gale’s grasp.
Beneath the bright, blazing aurora,
Huddled hosts harken, heartbeats as one.
In the land of ice, enduring and strong,
Penguins prevail, in perpetual night."
--ChatGpt ( via Paul Deane )
"LGBTQ+ People are Not Going Back"
King Canute was winning
for a cold foam moment
then the tide barked back
Snow.
"Gaza now has the largest population of child amputees per capita in the world, the UN has reported, as a result of 14 months of Israel’s genocide, which has especially targeted children in relentless bombings and attacks." --Truthout via
"star wars did give us a slur for robots (clankers) but i don’t use it bc i don’t want to have to look a robot in the eye in fifty years and be like 'you don’t understand it was a different time…' " --@frogs4girls.bsky.social
"Human shields, collective punishment, and the use of concentration camps were imported as counterinsurgency techniques from elsewhere in the British Empire and perfected during the three years of the Arab revolt." (via @emotrophywife.bsky.social)
"Promises
Elven promises
Whispered on the wind
Floating like the leaves of two trees
One gold, one silver"
--Rachel Turney via
"I am still a dancer made of song."
"fatigued citizens
awaiting devastation
revisit the fall"
--@resistancepoet.bsky.social
"Toad looked at the ground. The seeds still did not want to grow. 'What shall I do?' cried Toad. 'These must be the most frightened seeds in the whole world!' Then Toad felt very tired and he fell asleep." --@frogandtoadfbot.bsky.social
The New Scientist is the only source of band names you’ll ever need.
"I literally just learned that Sir Isaac Newton thought the world was going to end in 2060, and I'm like:
BRO. SAME." --@ageofuprising.bsky.social
A third of us tried to save two thirds of us from themselves.
brain rot
bairn ort
barn riot
tin arbor
iron brat
a rib torn
tar robin
in art orb
This flow chart is also canonical.
this is not a new story
nor is what happens next
nights cease to be starry
this is not a new story
may you find monastery
& nest fit to be phoenixed
this is not a new story
nor is what happens next
Pathetic earthlings...who can save you now?
"Why do Renaissance authors have to be so ironic, bro? No, don't look away, we're not changing the subject. Look at me. Answer me. Why the irony? I said look at me! Stop looking at the massive censorship apparatus centralising states built up upon the advent of the printing press. Answer my question." --@lastpositivist.bsky.social
Portrait of Hegel's Wife in Treble.
"Constrained Poetry = Encrypted Orations."
--@anthonyetherin.bsky.social
I know the names of the vultures who will pick your flesh clean.
sunrise sparkles · on the sprawling yard display
not night but now · is nativity beautiful
a few red leaves · slung amid the gray
the king is a fink
