Saturday, March 08, 2025

( via / via )

Haiku.

"a jukebox for my 45s"

nab no trace gas
  raw fog of war
sage carton ban
slabberg rogue
  bard organ
Bering straitjacket lack
invoke vast enlistments
reverse by tinned dendrons
bitten tongue torque lingers

"The puzzle at the heart of McCarthyism is that, on the one hand, you didn’t see a lot of traditionally repressive or coercive means of political power being exercised, yet the scale of the intimidation was intense, with real consequences for how people thought and acted and worked." (via Mefi)

"To Idiot

Revenge began race carnage.
Beg never!
For all odd, a bad dollar of nepotism,
one vassal, con foe.
What I saw is no ill.
I began race carnage.
Billions!
I was it!
Ah, we of no class, a venom
sit open for all odd.
A bad dollar of revenge
began race carnage.
Beg never."

--@palindrometry.bsky.social

"500 million Europeans are begging 300 million Americans to protect us from 180 million Russians who have not been able to cope with 40 million Ukrainians for three years."

( via / via )

Gleipnir: To Bind the Wolf.

" 'Now the Sirens have a weapon even more terrible than their song, namely, their silence.'
—Kafka

'Listen to a lonely anesthesia wave. Nepenthe mirrors nothing whenever I embrace her.'
—Me" --@lori-wike.bsky.social

"Taylor argues convincingly that capitalism, going back hundreds of years, requires maximum harshness towards poor people, so as to keep the rest of us in a state of anxiety and desperation."

"proof that time exists"

fardels sue the uncongenial worms
somehow carcass only the darkness warms
thunder through the pulled-to drapes as March
hatches madness in invisible wombs

"I thought it would take a little longer to get to the [N]ewspeak part of 1984."

( via / via )

Backpfeifengesicht .

"Variations on a Theme by Joyce

The war is in words and the wood is the world
That turns beneath our rootless feet;
The vines that reach, alive and snarled,
Across the path where the sand is swirled,
Twist in the night. The light lies flat.
The war is in words and the wood is the world.

The rain is ruin and our ruin rides
The swiftest winds; the wood is whorled
And turned and smoothed by the turning tides.
--There is rain in the woods, slow rain that breeds
The war in the words. The wood is the world.
This rain is ruin and our ruin rides.

The war is in words and the wood is the world,
Sourceless and seized and forever filled
With green vines twisting on wood more gnarled
Than dead men's hands. The vines are curled
Around these branches, crushed and killed.
The war is in words and the wood is the world."'

--Weldon Kees

"...women’s sports are kept separate from men’s not to protect women from always losing to men, but rather to ensure that no man ever loses to a woman."

"Pleasing as it would be to blame the whole unfolding calamity on Trump, Musk, and the squadron of billionaire looters they so ably represent, I would maybe not be so presentist, whatever the impressive breadth of the new horrors. The expressed conviction that the greatest goods of civic life belong by right to the winning classes, and to everyone else go the knockoff approximations, actually precedes our present-day authoritarian vandals by decades." --Peter Coviello via

"Not until 1946 did the scholar Maria Guarnieri compare the authorless text with certain Inquisition documents to make an ironic discovery: the church-approved book called The Mirror of Simple Souls was the same work for which Marguerite 'called Porete' had been executed by church authorities in 1310." And: "…for everything that one can say or write about God, or what one can think about him, which is more than saying, is more like lying than it is like telling the truth."

( me / via )

The Deepest We Have Ever Seen Into the Sun.

“Let me chop apart
With my bare hands
This blurred forest.”

–Spicer

"An alternate reality game begins when people notice 'rabbit holes' — little details they happen across in the course of everyday life that don’t make sense, that seem like clues."

“A Book of Music

Coming at an end, the lovers
Are exhausted like two swimmers. Where
Did it end? There is no telling. No love is
Like an ocean with the dizzy procession of the waves’ boundaries
From which two can emerge exhausted, nor long goodbye
Like death.
Coming at an end. Rather, I would say, like a length
Of coiled rope
Which does not disguise in the final twists of its lengths
Its endings.
But, you will say, we loved
And some parts of us loved
And the rest of us will remain
Two persons. Yes,
Poetry ends like a rope.”

–Jack Spicer

Defy Democracy.

( via / me )

Wild Bull and Raven Are Friends.

"Endless days, of high summer; the spell of heat holds, week after week alike.
   A part of me, begins to believe; the August lie, of eternal warmth.
Fall will come, and with its deathly colors; scatter the myth, to the cold winds."

--@americansijo.bsky.social

The Nara Dreamland.

"There, in that low-ceilinged room, I had often said to Fay and to Tom that there was no way out but that the acceptance of this could itself be a beginning."
--Alexander Trocchi, Cain's Book

I never get tired of this little silent movie set on a comet.

Friday, March 07, 2025

( me / via )

The Stones of Krasnov.

"It's always very funny when people recommend you read Sun-Tzu's The Art Of War, because it's about 10% 'Know your enemy' and 90% information about how many carts and bags of rice you're gonna need for an invasion." --@steveboots.bsky.social

Trellick, mon amour.

"Krasnov evaded"

the old darkness irks me
inyenzi attends
faithful as an oath-scar
eye-mote no blinks unjinx

dark as the range-dungeon
adorned with iota thorn
i lose roll time rummy
riddling out this grid

yet close darkness dices
a due meed its bleed
words like a waif dewfall
awarded one dord

i know so little

"At the end of the day, these phenomena were narrativized, exploited, and used to induce panic, terror, opportunities for control, and eventually led to the self-cannibalization of a community."

( via / me )

God, Allow Me (Please) To Play Music.

"snail
from the monastery
among the blossoming flowers"

--@poemexe.com

I Got Jesus Freckles.

" 'TRAGEDY AND COMEDY COME FROM THE SAME LETTERS.'
—Aristotle

'MY DAYDREAMS TETHER FARCES TO CEMENTED GLOOM.
—Me" --@lori-wike.bsky.social

Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz.

( via / via )

"I thought there was about a 10% chance my p☆☆lane back to SF would fall out of the sky because Elon Musk was vandalizing the FAA, so I took a cheap upgrade to Business Class. 'I am not fucking dying in American coach,' I told Killer Joe."

"[at wax appointment]

'Landing strip?'

me: Bermuda Triangle" --@kimmysunshine.bsky.social

SpaceX in action.

"Krasnov's gold"

to still stirious · voice that brings
echo of angst · after no verge
or brittle brink · on the level land
to leave falling · to the flailwing affordances

Shockproof (1949). ☆☆☆

Thursday, March 06, 2025

( via / via )

The Hairshirt Doldrums.

"Ode on Melancholy"

No, no! go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty -- Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips;
Ay, in the very temple of delight
Veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

--John Keats

"I would take the fire."

"a fastidious foe of the tin pan alley
serious, powdered, severed head..."

--Douglas Oliver, "The Infant and the Pearl" (via @rhunedhel.bsky.social)

Doja Cat at the Oscars.

( via / via )

The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide. (via Mefi)

"Beefing with Canada is like beefing with Dolly Parton." --@feloniousmunk.bsky.social

"In my lifetime, doing all the jobs that I’ve done, this is the most fear-inducing moment."

  I go out of the darkness
onto a road of darkness
lit only by the far off
moon on the edge of the mountains.

--Lady Izumi Shikibu (Rexroth tr)

  Out of the darkness
onto a road of darkness
  i go, illumined
only by the far-off moon
on the edge of the mountains.

(my tr)

On Ending (& What Does Not End).

( via / via )

Sinews.

"CROW (Palindrome)

Deft,
I saw a crow
over us,
a sure vow or caw
as it fed."

--@#anthonyetherin.bsky.social

Pharmakon.

"…the poet, not the poem, is a vehicle."

--Denise Levertov via @hanvanderhart.bsky.social

Dog Days.

( via / via )

Sinews of Peace.

"There are more cases of measles in the state of Texas then there are trans athletes in the United States." --@transgirlinsea.bsky.social

Optics.

"MAGIC SHOW (Anagrammed Lines)

This weekend: My stoic magic show.
I wake my witches, demonic ghosts,
smoke wise with many hectic gods—
Something wicked this way comes…."

--@anthonyetherin.bsky.social

Ukrainian Bull, Three Years Old, Went Walking Through the Woods and Garners Strength.

Wednesday, March 05, 2025

( via / via )

The Death of Bowie Gizzardsbane.

"Krasnov's tweets"

burning playground blues
reading outdoors
the cough drop crunching
mission should you decide

injured don't know when
pale dawn sky scoured
with thrist-whirring thoughts
nothing plain as a plan

in my mirror cars dark
headlights blazing under the glare
of golden-girt cacophony

among those who know

Tiptoe.

"alien atmosphere
in the tennis courts
my house, set apart"

--@poemexe.com

"Wouldn’t that be the strangest ghost story of all? That there was a ghost but you never discovered that a ghost is what it was?"

( via / me )

"I have now had three dreams about Luigi."

"Where are the country songs lamenting Long Covid? Where are the angry punk/hip-hop songs protesting our society's lack of action? Where are the folk ballads chronicling our healthcare workers' struggles? Why is there a hole where our culture's heart should be?"' --@maosbot.bsky.social

"Tariff was a word born out of Mediterranean trade."

"NIGHT

The ebb slips from the rock, the sunken
Tide-rocks lift streaming shoulders
Out of the slack, the slow west
Sombering its torch; a ship's light
Shows faintly, far out,
Over the weight of the prone ocean
On the low cloud.

Over the dark mountain, over the dark pinewood,
Down the long dark valley along the shrunken river,
Returns the splendor without rays, the shining of shadow,
Peace-bringer, the matrix of all shining and quieter of shining.
Where the shore widens on the bay she opens dark wings
And the ocean accepts her glory. O soul worshipper of her
You like the ocean have grave depths where she dwells always,
And the film of waves above that takes the sun takes also
Her, with more love. The sun-lovers have a blond favorite,
A father of lights and noises, wars, weeping and laughter,
Hot labor, lust and delight and the other blemishes. Quietness
Flows from her deeper fountain; and he will die; and she is immortal.

Far off from here the slender
Flocks of the mountain forest
Move among stems like towers
Of the old redwoods to the stream,
No twig crackling; dip shy
Wild muzzles into the mountain water
Among the dark ferns.

O passionately at peace you being secure will pardon
The blasphemies of glowworms, the lamp in my tower, the fretfulness
Of cities, the cressets of the planets, the pride of the stars.
This August night in a rift of cloud Antares reddens,
The great one, the ancient torch, a lord amongst lost children,
The earth's orbit doubled would not girdle his greatness, one fire
Globed, out of grasp of the mind enormous; but to you O Night
What? Not a spark? What flicker of a spark in the faint far glimmer
Of a lost fire dying in the desert, dim coals of a sand-pit the Bedouins
Wandered from at dawn . . . Ah singing prayer to what gulfs tempted
Suddenly are you more lost? To us the near-hand mountain
Be a measure of height, the tide-worn cliff at the sea-gate a measure of continuance.

The tide, moving the night's
Vastness with lonely voices,
Turns, the deep dark-shining
Pacific leans on the land,
Feeling his cold strength
To the outmost margins; you Night will resume
The stars in your time.

O passionately at peace when will that tide draw shoreward?
Truly the spouting fountains of light, Antares, Arcturus,
Tire of their flow, they sing one song but they think silence.
The striding winter giant Orion shines, and dreams darkness.
And life, the flicker of men and moths and the wolf on the hill,
Though furious for continuance, passionately feeding, passionately
Remaking itself upon its mates, remembers deep inward
The calm mother, the quietness of the womb and the egg,
The primal and latter silences: dear Night it is memory
Prophesies, prophecy that remembers, the charm of the dark.
And I and my people, we are willing to love the four-score years
Heartily; but as a sailor loves the sea, when the helm is for harbor.

Have men's minds changed,
Or the rock hidden in the deep of the waters of the soul
Broken the surface? A few centuries
Gone by, was none dared not to people
The darkness beyond the stars with harps and habitations.
But now, dear is the truth. Life is grown sweeter and lonelier,
And death is no evil."

--Robinson Jeffers

the wealthiest 1% has extracted $79 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans since 1975

( via / me )

"We were at war with a dictator, we are now at war with a dictator backed by a traitor."

"I asked the historian,
who studies the dark times,
when we will know
that the dark times
have returned,
and in response
the historian told me that this
is the wrong question,
the right question is:
how do we stop these times,
these dark times,
from getting even darker."

--@plaguepoems.bsky.social

"That whether these faraway children live or die relies on the whims and wandering attention span of such a spectacularly vicious clown is shocking. But not surprising."

"want to sink into despair? look up any book on domestic abuse in your library app and see how long the wait list is" --@jamieloftus.bsky.social

Always nice to see a mention of Quatuor pour la fin du temps.

( me / via )


Aren't we.

"Word of the Day: CRYPTOGYNY - the practice of hiding and obscuring women and their contributions in prestigious spheres." --@helenmaryme.bsky.social

Mirror.

"In the Autumn mountains
the colored leaves are falling.
If I could hold them back
I could still see her."

--Kakinomoto Hitomaro (Rexroth tr)

Here in the mountains
of Autumn the rufous leaves
have started to fall.
If i could only hold them
back--i could see her again.

--my tr.

Imb[e]ciles.

( via / me )

MAGA wants peace.

"knife tariff, irate fink"

& if these aren't phoenix flames
--words like a bird battering
a fixed boundary
like a gleaming glass window

& if these aren't acts
in the gloaming, earnest
& brave beyond bluster
--why is the harg steaming

Phoenix surrounded by flames.

Hearing Peru get mentioned made me wonder if there's any memorials to Vallejo there, like there are for Pessoa in Portugal. As it turns out, there is a César Vallejo Cultural Tourist Park in Trujillo, from whose website i learn little about V. except that the park has sculptures dedicated to César Vallejo... The website Lima Easy says it opened in 1997 (on his 105th birthday) & one of the sculptures is a life-sized statue of him. And, in 2023, the Lima International Book Fair screened a new documentary; the festival included a computer display: "Using the deepfake and the chatbot, visitors to the fair will be able to ask him questions about his life, work and any other concerns they may have."

& if these aren't phoenix flames, detailed oil painting, hieronymous bosch.

( via / me )

Crow's Fall.

"For a moment I wondered if Trump would leave Congress waiting for an hour and a half as he has been doing to every leader of a nation America is allied with when he meets with them

You may or may not know that the only world leaders Trump does not keep waiting are the ones who commit mass murder"

--@sethabramson.bsky.social

Seagulls in the Boat.

"Cynothoglys Krasnov"

a big wind · rattles the walls
in the dark dividing · dim screen from screen
trees are tossed · when i creep outside
it's not about us · it's not about us

A bunch of Jonas Halgrimsson.

Tuesday, March 04, 2025

( via / via )

Blue Ghost moon landing video.

"Vacuumed up enough cat hair to make another cat." --@mckenziewark.bsky.social

Party like it's 1928.

    "Wish You Were Here

  And disciplinary remains mercifully
  Yes and um, I'm with you Derek, this star nonsense
  Yes, yes, now which is it?
  I am sure of it

So--so you think you can tell · Heaven from Hell,
  blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field · from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil? · Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade · your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees? · Hot air for a cool breeze?
  Cold comfort for change?
  Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war · for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, · year after year
  Running over the same old ground
What have we found? · The same old fears
Wish you were here"

--Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)

Relaxing Music in a 1950s Futuristic Dream.

( via / me )

"He claimed Hamlet was the only character/ smart enouigh to have written the play he's in."

orangish-gray sky
ethereal armies teem
rising prickly wind

detours & bad directions
a big old tree split in two

Luna Luna redux.

"Word of the day is ‘lickspittle’ (17th century): a person who fawns upon someone in power for personal gain." --@susiedent.com

Fission.

Monday, March 03, 2025

( via via mefi / via )

My Grandfather's Church Goes Up.

"I don’t think this is 4D chess guys" --@kimmysunshine.bsky.social

16 Tons.

“Song

I make my shroud but no one knows,
So shimmering fine it is and fair,
With stitches set in even rows.
I make my shroud but no one knows.

In door-way where the lilac blows,
Humming a little wandering air,
I make my shroud and no one knows,
So shimmering fine it is and fair.”

–Adelaide Crapsey

No Matter What.

( via / me )

"Swan Lake is so Russian that it ran 24/7 as filler Russian television during the confused fall of the Soviet Union, because whoever was in charge was so sure it would be a safe choice no matter what followed."

"wedding cake
my wind-bleached bones
the feel of moonlight"

--@poemexe.com

Genuine carmine thread.

" 'You are not at the bottom of a hole?' asked Toad.

'No, said Frog.

'You are not lost in the woods?' asked Toad.

'No,' said Frog.

'You are not being eaten by a big animal?' asked Toad.

'No,' said Frog. 'Not at all.' " --@frogandtoadbot.bsky.social

"Right now, the right wants a word that stings, and the R-word does the trick.."

( me / via )

The Story of an Artist. (thx to Mercury Child at KNON)

"TYPEWRITER (Top Row)

Typewriter. Top row.
Write your poetry or quote.
Tier your repertoire."

--@anthonyetherin.bsky.social

Wish You Were Here. (ditto)

"God-Emperor Krasnov"

Krasnov's kryptonite · accrues slowly
   it's not about evidence
sky unchanged · chiselled subfusc
   no one knows what i know

fighting kites · cold narratives
   i keep on changing lanes
Krasnov has ketchup · with his breakfast
   no one knows what i know

Cuttings.

Sunday, March 02, 2025

( via / via )

Sweartsweven.

"Krasnov on Sark"

black Merlot · & plenilune
wanion Yalta · not until the year
   battens on losses
apple-sized cup · curse spent
since sentences · rolled right up
   gave us more losses
black Merlot · in an iron lung

Insect Ballet.

"i love the protean & viral nature of queer slang like i’ll go 'queen out' with my trans lesbian friends and then later hang out with a bunch of dolls and watch them queen out and realize our lesbian queening out is kinda like how the vatican is a country" --@woifekisserr.bsky.social

14k likes.

( via / via )

What string quartet cycles from after 1940 should I listen to?

"The longing imps grasp tomes of old
And rant therefrom each damned one's name."

--Betelguese: A Trip Through Hell

Pizzabear.

tarn alunissage
Vegas sin
ulan rat

Elegie.