Cardinal sign of a bard is not calm talking, i think. How did this turn out? As rationalism took up unchurchical authority, bards sought to stay on (if only for a bit) as knowing kahunas. But what a bard has is wings of song and misty grasp: calm talking grows dull with no far story.


"Wandering poets traveled from village to village, as they did in Persia, passing out verses in exchange for gifts, treats, and affection. They composed verses on the spot and could recite something appropriate for any mood or occasion, whether pious or obscene." --Th* Ori*ntalist


transhumant crutch · fang onus
isopropyl · chanting fungus

smirk panoply · indigo star
across crisp ruin · stumps scrambling


"I am not afraid of anybody because I do not want anything from anyone." (via Sharp Sand)


Fr*ak Folk. (via iMomus)


On my victrola- Y*llow Magic Orch*stra

Should a bard talk calmly? Should a bard talk calmly about killing and dying? Should a bard talk calmly about words torn up, our world in ruin, its animals run off and its humans in chains? A bard talks calmly with his sight dim, his nook soft...his spirit numb.

quotidian Cthulhu
too soon our old bards slip
and i among
what did i think
last night during

glass playground ghoul

a blackboard
words vanish from

my cup is still warm in my hands



A frogsight fad.


An invocation.


Nott* di Luc*.

"Diaspora is a word I heard many times during the second weekend of the festival." (via Cursor)


"I find the problem of how to get heard rather a fascinating one. I haven't found it especially depressing, but then I wouldn't have gone in for writing if I hadn't liked talking to myself." --Larry McMurtry


3nd of Book 2.


   "The Spectral Torch

Doom one crankshaft
Glassgrasp what
Constitute torture
And that a quick retreat

Marginalia coo conch
Greasy dark pungent do it chrome
Hooks into, the book took *thousands*
Onwardagain · martyrbard

Doom one crankshaft
Sparkall doors shut
Marginalia
Coo conch"

--Yus*f Bar*foot



In my cup.

Apsara is Living Art.


"...the Greeks maintained that five Vlachs made a market--and sneered at them too, for being so landlubberly that the very word 'Vlach' came to signify, in Greek, a man who had never seen the sea. Across the higher ranges of the Balkans lay a tangle of Vlachs, Black Vlachs, Albano-Vlachs, Arumanians, the Sarakatsans who roamed deep into Anatolia, some who protested that they were not Vlachs at all, and others who pretended to be Vlachs; and some who gave wickedness a country, Klephtouria..." --Lords of th* Horizons


Micha*l Park*s.


shoggoth phishing · polyps against
ogham toward stir · whirling spiral
char with usurp · shadowy bill
unknown ogham · spiralling pool


   "The Thing That Eats the Heart

The thing that eats the heart comes wild with years.
It died last night, or was it wounds before,
But somehow crawls around, inflamed with need,
Jingling its medals at the fang-scratched door.

We were not unprepared: with lamp and book
We sought the wisdom of another age
Until we heard the action of the bolt.
A little wind investigates the page.

No use pretending to the pitch of sleep;
By turnings we are known, our times and dates
Examined in the courts of either/or
While armless griefs mount lewd and headless doubts.

It pounces in the dark, all pity-ripe,
An enemy as soft as tears or cancer,
In whose embrace we fall, as to a sickness
Whose toxins in our cells cry sin and danger.

Hero of crossroads, how shall we defend
This creature-lump whose charity is art
When its own self turns Christian-cannibal?
The thing that eats the heart is mostly heart."

--Stanl*y Kunitz (via Languag* Hat)

On my victrola- Tarkus


fathoms lost in lost
abolish
spy dust twinkling natty irony

on this comic bright mild morning a vacuum
rips away all qabbalah
curtains & to talk

so lightly of browning magnolia
days long bulb
on again off again stuff
contains only our anguish as cosmic goo


T*mpo Giusto.


"...'Chekists' in their trademark black leather jackets..." --Th* Ori*ntalist


Citta Slow.

Apsaras (via atribut*tohinduism dot com)


"But now hip hop is so retro, you can use any word, that was ever used." --Ic*-T, quot*d in: Th* Vocabulary of World 3nglish ed S Graml*y (2001)


"The word is that once you get sent to Bright Light, you never come back."


"There are those who refuse all chemical love,
And then surrender to the call of mirrors."


Lunar pull and warp crawling
spillway bullion · slowly align
calculating snag · idol
twinkling · sabbath crisp spool scissors
crow's parlous swirl · slag silicon
   { antonym · igloo }
   { ontic · agony }
   { ink · ignominy }
   { unborn · agnostics }
   { uniform · ogham }
   { undying · Ogpu }

Scanning Godzilla Vs M*galon: with Dhadkan--D**wan* on my victrola.


   "Pitchfork

The straight ash
handle graceful
as a Viking ship.

Tan and darkened
by hand
oil. Handled.

Ygdrasill, Odin's tree,
baseball bats
and ancient Irish oars

are ash. Tree
of sea holds
water's power.

This morning Adrienne
used it to turn
the compost. Sawdust

not breaking down
as fast as horse manure.
A slower heat coming.

5 times hardened in fire,
forged, the tip of each shaped
different. Hammered.

The long handle
precisely fits.
As perfect as the motion

made, the arc you define
at 5 in the morning
turning the compost."

--Rob*rt Tramm*ll, Sunflow*rs (2001)



"To prevent thefts, the [Angkor Thom] archaeological site is now sown with antipersonnel mines in the evening and de-mined in the morning." --Th* 3nds of th* 3arth


Wayward Triton.

"The spider is more of a believer/ than either of you." (via Ivy Is H*r*)


Anschluss plastic · gar my phiz
fit for a gingko · flu glitch
and it is murky · karma
winning losing · cult cargo

so mostly do · phobia
knows its way · of all things Mars
its vocabulary · world
for a tart month · magnolia

martyr by blindfold · scrytchwalk
Anschluss · plastic oodoolay



"Some of my friends' kids may never fly in airplanes. They may never own cars."


On my victrola- M*ssia*n: Chronochromi*


Slumification. Part 2.


Political food art.

(via trav*l-pictur*s-gall*ry dot com)


"The rose that blooms in Paradise
Burns with an ecstasy too sweet
For mortal eyes
But sometimes down the jasper walls
A petal falls
Toward earth and night
To lose it is to lose delight beyond compare
To have it is to have despair"

--3lla Young (via Ru* Hazard)


Haibun from an old mountain man. (via wood_s lot)


Groovyhood. (via M*tafilt*r)


"When Klingons leave the Star Trek con they get to take off their crazy bumpy foreheads & live their lives. Suck on that you poem dweebs!!"

"Does a hard science fiction story become unreadable once the science is invalidated?"


"I hear oxygen pants are coming back."


Dakota Wiki. (via Pl*p)


I swat at a gnat. And now it starts to zip along wow! I miss, as i must.
   May you know humilty, if not from this giddy bard...


RT Obit.


pallid warriors sloop flip · pillbug adorn
twinkling caulk · crisp frop
pillbug · borg

crystal psalm · isthmus flapping

sorrow forward · spools of cloud pillbug
spawn approach pillow clasp blast · abort
pullout · against pallid ads
sordid crawdads · ink

storying swift pillbug · indigo skin slag

pillbug · ink
agonist · acorn
war · bunkum
glowing skin · across crisp silk
tsunami spoils · off briskly dollop

sport apart · pillbug clasp blast absolutist
lull agony obtain · forlorn
crackup again scaly frolic · cyst is staunch
ballot slag spoon ostrich · fallow clout
smog · pillbug
as storm chaos · am
mulch · Tsargrad
afflict glad gallop sprawl · spiral wisp
instinct against Oswald · doldrums prog crawl room



"I dallied with olives." --Baron Corvo, Stori*s Toto Told M* (1969)


"...(not to be confused with the large and scary old bus station of the same name)..."


On my victrola- St*r*o Total

Th* N*w Gr*at Gam*.


Ivy.


"Must learn to dance our diseases."


"its smells, its mill. Victims
that had been Heavenly Blue
· tubularlord · Iliad
sideways and slips
while silence than today nine are all
looked up to see sparkling
kills the world, power. told
a tune at twilight.

[lines in italics by Robert Trammell, 1939-2006]"

--Camill* M**sh


(via worldroom dot com)


     "To Whom it May Concern (after Adrian Mitchell)

            You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out,
            You take the human being and you twist it all about
        Hey, how do you like my GM SUV?
        No, I make my payments: it belongs to ME
                  So encase my feet in Nikes
                  And feed me lies about
                  The working class
        I look to the mirror and what do I see?
        An aging stranger who can’t possibly be me
                  So blight my face with Botox
                  And feed me lies about
                  The working class

        They never taught me anything at school
        I’m grown up now and I ain’t nobody’s fool
                  So tatoo my skin with another’s totem
                  And feed me lies about
                  The working class
        I put my earplugs in, I put my good eye out
        I go to AWP and I fake it all about
                  So buy into my book of poems
                  And feed me lies about
                  The working class
        They taught me much too much at school
        I’m wiser now and way too cool
                  So parry my eyes with pop-cult
                  And feed me lies about
                  The working class
        I keep my game face on, I keep my kind heart out
        I go to conferences and get cozy with the crowd
                  Who prison my tongue in poetry
                  And feed me lies about
                  The working class
        Encase my feet in Nikes
        Blight my face with Botox
        Tatoo my skin with another’s totem
        Buy into my book of poems
        Parry my eyes with pop-cult
        Prison my tongue in poetry
        And feed me lies about
        The working class"

--Chris Dani*ls


"Being situated at the head of a desert peninsula jutting into the sea, the city [Baku] is in fact one of the windiest places on earth--one dapper ninety-seven-year-old man told me how, as a young man, he and his family had worn specially made goggles with their evening clothes to stroll along the boulevards without being blinded by the sands." --Tom R*iss, Th* Ori*ntalist (2005)


On my victrola- Omar Faruk T*kbil*k

A way long two-way alpha song.


"...Crabbing at night with a flashlight on low tide..."


Pl*iadian Tantric Workbook.


"...Bill Clinton’s FIRST act in office was to double the Border Patrol [,] and Bush’s first was to fiercely cut it!"

"Search XIX.

If not at Pesach, then at Yom Kippur, to raise a cup, next year in
     Jerusalem,
And set off again on Hajj neverending,
Never finding the Compostela road,
As the Tibetans measure their length and thrust their pebble
    forward,
As Indian fakirs roll on the earth,
As the ghosts of legionaries march their scalpel straight roads across
     Alba,
Those wearied on the Canterbury road, blood on the feet,
Those hammering at mountain-guarded Trier,
Those to Chartres in Marchtime, never doing last visible stretch in
     bare feet, peregrinationes on the Via Francigena,
Children of Jacob, Children of Anu, Children of the Prophet,
I search the people, all in their caravanserai. "

--Min*rva Victrix


"In the courtyard, the gallows were next to a child's swing." --Th* 3nds of th* 3arth


Karakoram Highway.

So long.

Dust blowing and a gray sky · gaptooth windows
mad cow nation · sign
food · riots

driving through towns · without curbs

a bomb is a small thing · warily
labyrinth · funny sounds from hood dark
windows all vacant · Happy
Thor · coruscating

narrow spiralling thoughts · high fronds waving harsh

no path · marsh
walking · taciturn
slow · rising
sing a sad song · pick up cans
shun · carnivorous light furl world lids

driving through ruinous hugs · polyps qibla
long i was torn · crystal pools
high fronds waving · no clockwork maps or hollow
ring of tin roof rain · follow a sign
at all · known
gray sky · sonorous
flying · glass
grasp what isn't · sorrow works with slant
windows gaptooth sky gray a · and blowing dust


Today's rishis.

   "Nature Cure

Tell it again in stronger tones
And make your meaning plain:
White cliff, that stabs the water's side
Without the crease of pain.

You gallant maple, teasing birch,
And ruffled, stately pine,
There is a sturdy sap in you--
Share it, let it be mine.

Resistless grass, to every wind
And every scuffling tread,
You yield and bend a patient back.
So let me bow my head.

And you, dear lake, whose candid gaze
Resists my importunate soul,
You hide a secret in your depths--
Deliver it to me whole.

Invite me in and let me work
In that great pattern, planned
In beauty I must kneel before
But cannot understand."

--J*an Starr Unt*rm*y*r, in: A Misc*llany...


On my victrola- Spooky Tooth

"Does Gnosticism even exist?" (via ALDaily)


goblin woodwind · abatis
flush · window indigo swirl
pools forlorn · addict twinkling

kilo anchovy · adorn
rat abstains · rasta stigma
witch tsunami off · cloud flung


"We motored down-town, to arrive where a doorman in a convict dress, black-and-white stripes, ushered us into a crowded, smoky pandemonium. The name of this joint was Cell Block 7. There was no dancing, no food, no cabaret. People sat at small tables, closely packed, drinking beer or the liquor they had brought with them, and shouting at one another through the din. This was created, unceasingly while we were there, by a jazz band--the Cell Block 7 boys--who were also wearing convicts' clothes, with battered black bowlers on the backs of their heads. Now and again, one of them would clutch the microphone and bellow incomprehensible lyrics into it; but most of the time they simply banged away at the piano and drums, blasted away in a frenzy through trumpet, trombone, saxophone, until the deafened customers rose at them with applause and shouts. ...that smoky hot room shuddered with sound. It was like being in a brass foundry adrift in a hurricane. ...this, I was told, was one of the favourite night spots of the young in Dallas." --J B Pri*stl*y in: Pri*stl*y & Jacqu*tta Hawk*s, Journ*y down a Rainbow (1955)


Stairways. (via M*tafilt*r)

"I sometimes think it all lives in me: everything I've seen and experienced, all the people I've known. When I think this way, I think of myself as a field in which things grow and die, one after another, each taking root in soil fed by each previous thing, leading all the way back to the first thing, which in a sense still remains. It remains in what remains.

Such are my lyrical moments. Other times, most times, I think of myself as a turnstile: each thing passes through me and is gone forever." --Oblivio


"The United States dropped more bomb tonnage on Laos than on Nazi Germany... $2 million every day from 1964 through 1973..." --Th* 3nds of th* 3arth

Imaginary.


D*ath D*al*r.



dark flying sun · aurora lapsing
grow down mutiny drops · thick Samhain lapsing

no plan · swirl
through rapids · music lapsing

tubular · crystal
to you consign all my · pyx lapsing

a day without · or stilb annihilation
Xanadu · lapsing

strong · Grinchus
lifts sloppy ingot · lapsing


Wikip*dia Turbofolk.

DeeDee told us that Faiza had decided not to speak, and had left. "I think it was the music that did it," she said. "I think she felt it was the kind of music that the American soldiers in Iraq listen to in their tanks."


"...a patriot of a future age: an age of Gaia." --Th* 3nds of th* 3arth


"Even madmen had a regiment, the deli, or loons, Riskers of their Souls, who were used, since they did not object, as human battering rams, or human bridges..." --Jason Goodwin, Lords of th* Horizons (1998)


   "Soliloquy on the New Ten

Their bills turned browner as their hearts grew blacker,
Reality more buried under lacquer;
  The polar caps melted
  While amateurs belted
Out anthems of Reagan and Thacker."

--Victor V*rmis


"...I would estimate that of every ten units of energy (or money) expended preparing for Peak Oil today, nine are spent preparing for war while only one is spent building lifeboats and teaching people how to survive."


Ixar*tt*.