the music is lost · that limned still feculence
black & white wharf · whirl glitter
say there's certain · of the stakes remaining
that shift shadowy nodes · in the all-connected
"We need a word for someone who refuses to entertain hypotheticals."
"A very John-on-Patmos for uncoverings and all rombuses, vaticinations an' anagrams; as see the apotheosis of imperium in a cloud of his own bottled smoke..." --The Anathemata
"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
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
"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
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.
"We are digging the pit of Babel"
—Franz Kafka via @fedeitaliano76
genocidaire
iron cage die
canoe i dirge
core i gained
go nicer idea
ode icing era
i regain coin
i encode a rig
navigate the gnarly hour
with soft grizzled grace
known the graves
known the brazen breaking
in this dim dell crouched
i brag of dodging
"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
"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.
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
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
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
"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
“It's not what a poem says with its mouth, it's what a poem does with its eyes.”
-- Mary Ruefle via @stonecirclerev
"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.
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
"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)
"...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
"Spookwegen: Dutch; 'ghost roads' that converge on old cemeteries, and which were usually used for ritualistic purposes." --@arealmofwonder
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
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.
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
"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
"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
"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)
"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
"Badiou one of the few guys whose criticism of thinkers actually makes them sound cooler" --@14jun1995
