(via lojban dot org slash tiki slash img)

I think also of Ricky Ricardo.


  "Poem Beginning With A Line By Firdausi

'Ere from his lofty sphere the morn has thrown'
the full day's share of fire, forth I glided
after a Starbucks tea for my dear Lady:
slaughter on the radio, insane.

Day after day, week after week, I struggle
in Laocoön coils of sense & nonsense,
orange & turquoise clouds. But they remembered

what I would always get, & I then proffered
five quarters, two dimes, a nickel, & two pennies."

--H*idi Gu*rr*, How T*xans Sav*d Civilization (2002)


Quip.

"The myth is made in a language of symbols -- a word which originally meant the two halves of a token which must be fitted together in order to provide identification or meaning -- like two spies with halves of a dollar bill, recognizing each other by the exact fit of the torn edges. Every myth, we might say, has at least two symbols, which are in effect halves or opposites of each other. Hence the total ambiguity of myth..." (via wood_s lot) Plus.

I call to mind a past instant of Castro cool among bards; it was his chin fur, as if looks only could count for anything.


TokCir.


"I lost someone · at Qana.
I knew no one · at Qana.

Mad dogs and flies · buzzing in
the noonday sun · at Qana.

Grope among · image fragments
as torn sands run · at Qana.

What was it our · swift twinkling
messengers won · at Qana?"

--Ald*rman Whinny


"Stammer their madrigals..." --B*ddo*s

Graywyvern Grammaticus (via 3dward McGuir*)


Air stinks of asphault. Bollywood on car radio. Long waits at any light. Full cicada wail.


   "The Messengers

Enough if here, among our shattered walls
of sugar glass, the wraith is spied
at times, of some tomorrow that might hold;
enough, at times...

Just to believe, despite all counter-signs,
that this jalopy still can roll
and reach a place not desert waste or swamp,
and let us out.

But other times, even the spook's own word
won't give us what our sorrow asks:
and knowing what already we have lost
we turn away."

--Gamali*l Pickl*, S*v*n Pillars of Mis*ry (1981)


Symbolist Art. (via wood_s lot)


On my victrola- Djivan Gasparian.

'...a cityful of longing...'


   "Floods

In the dark night, from sweet refreshing sleep
I wake to hear outside my window-pane
The uncurbed fury of the wild spring rain,
And weird winds lashing the defiant deep,
And roar of floods that gather strength, and leap
Down dizzy, wreck-strewn channels to the main.
I turn upon my pillow, and again
Compose myself for slumber.
         Let them sweep;
I once survived great floods, and do not fear,
Though ominous planets congregate, and seem
To foretell strange disasters
         From a dream--
Ah! dear God! such a dream!--I woke to hear,
Through the dense shadows lit by no star's gleam,
The rush of mighty waters on my ear.
Helpless, afraid, and all alone, I lay;
The floods had come upon me unaware.
I heard the crash of structures that were fair;
The bridges of fond hopes were swept away
By great salt waves of sorrow. In dismay
I saw by the red lightning's lurid glare
That on the rock-bound island of despair
I had been cast. Till the dim dawn of day
I heard my castles falling, and the roll
Of angry billows bearing to the sea
The broken timbers of my very soul.
Were all the pent-up waters from the whole
Stupendous solar ystem to break free,
There are no floods now that can frighten me."

--3lla Wh**l*r Wilcox, Po*ms of Passion (1883)


Of local birds.

"There is absolutely nothing uniquely evil about what Israel is doing in terms of the politics of the nation state (just as there is nothing uniquely evil about what the resistance is doing in terms of guerilla warfare versus occupying or asymetrical military forces). Any and every other nation state that could, would react similarly, and has, to the type of resistance Israel faces. That is the unfortunate nature of the bordered world we live in."

   "The Song Of Shadows

"Sweep thy faint strings, Musician,
With thy long lean hand;
Downward the starry tapers burn,
Sinks soft the waning sand;
The old hound whimpers couched in sleep,
The embers smoulder low;
Across the walls the shadows
Come, and go.

Sweep softly thy strings, Musician,
The minutes mount to hours;
Frost on the windless casement weaves
A labyrinth of flowers;
Ghosts linger in the darkening air,
Hearken at the open door;
Music hath called them, dreaming,
Home once more."

--Walter de la Mare

Mik* Sch*rtz*r.

(via library dot flawl*sslogic dot com)


"It's called "Kwik-Clot," Mr. Wolfe tells us. And in case of arterial bleeding, it's essential gear."

Quiz.

Why do you blog? Why is it that snails lay a trail?

What author and/or book has most influenced you? On B*yond Z*bra by Dr S*uss.

Which three blogs do you most visit? wood_s lot; m*tafilt*r; antiwar.com (alas).

Why do you read fiction? To map what unruly stains grin from my walls.

What makes you laugh? Unconscious irony.

"...the reader can approximate Atjehnese listening habits by skipping sections he finds boring; by letting his mind wander to other matters, particularly music; and by rereading." --Jam*s Si*g*l, Shadow and Sound (1979)


"...To do abominable things with grace..."


"As my heart beats, I think of French fields, how
Their rivers will thaw, their cuckoos sing, and then
Come screaming shells, and bright bayonets, and dead men."

A Scann*r Darkly.


indigo Zontar
night Zontar

this glowing orb of your only grasp this craft
hurls through hazard coils Zontar

burning days of raucous cicada
sprawl a zodiac Zontar

sans arms you
stalk jaguar Zontar

bat-crabs harry and scoriac clouds contort
in a babyrinth of glass Zontar

all you know is howl of scintillant
viridian star Zontar


On my victrola- Nordic Roots.

"I was at the Hanford Nuclear Plant, where they make the plutonium for the bombs, and they had some scientist there where they mark the ground where they bury the plutonium such that an extraterrestrial arriving 5000 years from now would not dare to dig. I call it the semiology of extreme danger. . . .

The .... tribe happened to be at the same conference and when they heard what the scientists were talking about they laughed and said: "Tell the scientists not to worry, we'll tell them where it is.!" ." (via M*tafilt*r)


halcyon · massachrysalis
vly scoriac · hyrcanum roll

incog ammo · calx issuing
as a scarsasm · shimmy

troops my ash fall slow · final ask
aviary slag · my ash school


   'Loneliness

Loneliness like a good, old friend
visits my house to pour wine in the evening.
And we sit together, waiting for the moon,
and for your face to sparkle in every shadow.'

--Faiz Ahm*d Faiz

(via n*wsimg dot bbc dot co dot uk slash m*dia)


   "116.

I,was,old,very,young: I,was,all,
Mirrors: I,was,all,
Over,and,under,beside,and,around,

Inspecting,me. I,found,God's,
Unbearable,beauty!
I,found,His,thoughts,in,my,mind,

His,skull,in,my,hand! ...
I,could,not,lay,
God's,skull,aside. I,preferred,suicide."

--Jos* Garcia Villa


"Pablo the Ur-realist
Faced by his 'Guernica'
And the Gestapo officer's hiss
'Did you do this!'
Said gently, you did."

--Zukofsky, A 12.

(via andr*w dot cmu dot 3du slash us*r slash yangwang)


   'XIX.

Strum along, sweet hope, you clear up
how we stay here from staying here so much.

Today you come when I'm barely awake.
The stable's divinely pissed
and excremented by the innocent cow
and the innocent ass and the innocent rooster.

Penetrate the ecumenical maria.
Oh saintgabriel, make the soul conceive,
the lightless love, the skyless,
the most stone, most nothing,
even the monarch illusion.

We'll burn all our bridges!
We'll burn the ultimate essence!

But if you have to suffer from myth to myth,
and if you chew on ice to talk to me,
let's chew on hot coals,
now there's nowhere to come down,
now there's nowhere to rise.

The rooster's having his doubts, man.'

--Trilc* (tr David Smith, 1973)


Passion for Islam.


"The terrible rat-courage of the enemy. The stout clergyman at our hotel estimating on the back of an envelope the height of the waterfall for the hydraulic engineer." --Th* Orators


A Lost Painting.

(via loc dot gov slash rr slash int*rnational slash am*d slash l*banon)


"THERE WILL BE STARS

There will be stars over the place forever;
   After the house and the street we loved are lost,
Every time the earth circles her orbit
   On the night the autumn equinox is crossed
Two stars we knew, poised on the peak of midnight
   Will reach their zenith; stillness will be deep--
There will be stars over the place forever,
   There will be stars forever, while we sleep."

--Sara T*asdal*


"Thales, the son of Examyas, has met a harsh fate in his old age. He left the court of his house at night, as he was wont, with his maidservant to view the stars, and as he gazed, forgetting where he was, he came to a steep slope and fell over. Thus the Milesians lost their astronomer." (via Z*llar)


Back in th* day.

ammoniacal satrap
grit Satan

a world lit only by Pac-Man and thick flak
through which fathoms spiralling audit

go with a wanion
into catacomb basalt

go and form of this raucous blood din
anagram


Pw*rl* sist*rs 6.

"Nameless are now the bards, their graves unknown,
their chants, unwritten, vanished into air,
into the keeping of the winds that hone
themselves at eventide on the menhir..."

--3sth*r Cam*ron (Th* World's Last Ros*)


Urban Trib*s.

"...I am now separated from my truly wonderful family in south Lebanon who are only a km or less away from the battles. All of them TRAPPED in a house...thirty or forty of them, mostly children with no escape."

thick · ghost sign
scalding sky · again char roll

is stony · psychic
sign ignoring · indigo tsunami scar

raucous flow · odium sign angry
against issuing skull · dying fall

agony
hasp · sign and scandal · shadowy walking crawl

promptly loop · sloppy claw sign
as is at rolm · ink

lying apart · ask
wynd occult thick sign scout · is sign agnostic

into · sign
ogham only pools · crisp sign against

ogganition sign · unknown
idolatry sign · ugly

solid storm · as full
snap fault ambit · sign is ichor fail

proud crow · fall
pulpit scurry · loot mulct isthmus of glowing

wodwo idiot sign sunk · imago ash
sign agony inchworm wallop · anchor

against brumous · symptoms call


"This iceberg cuts its facets from within." --3lizab*th Bishop


On my victrola- Lor**na McK*nnitt: Book of S*cr*ts


A Grail for Carcosa.

   "Chicken Soup for Cthulhu

These walls they've raised around us
that block out the sky,
is it the Warsaw Ghetto in nineteen forty?
--No, child, the West Bank in twenty ought-four.
   According to the reporter
   on the six o'clock news
   with his white white teeth
   it is something you deserve.

These pass cards we require
if we want to leave our town,
is it South Africa in nineteen fifty-two?
--No, child, the Gaza Strip in twenty ought-five.
   According to the reporter
   on the six o'clock news
   with his white white teeth
   it is something you deserve.

These shells that rain among us
reiving the homes and lives of so many,
is it Sarajevo in nineteen ninety-five?
--No, child, Beirut in twenty ought-six.
   According to the reporter
   on the six o'clock news
   with his white white teeth
   it is just what you deserve."

--Hil**l M*mshac

law
nuklir lug
lost rim kiln


"I discovered this new space technology while making landmines for a "smart mine field" in Poland before World War II."


'I am ashamed, and every day my shame increases,
That in an age that casts such shadows
A certain lofty malady
Still bears the name of song.
Is Bedlam a fitting name for song,
A lesson earth has learnt
The hard way, turning from books
To throw itself on pikes and bayonets...'

--Th* Po*try of Boris Past*rnak (tr G*org* R*av*y, 1959)

(via //graphics10 dot nytim*s dot com)

Kal*vala Latina.


my word is law · dog food
rains in nuklir darkmans · snug lair
room to turn · furnish
obolus · lug

my sight is lost · gull
rim mutiny · kiln


"With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred." (via robotwisdom)

Hijacking of J*sus.


Cattus.


viridianizing · of Antarctica
iron sun // up if tantamount
which my sight is lost. Today
· tubularlord · Iliad
Ubar fulcrum · slag obolus
Ruinous diaspora; our padishah
waiting to turn furnish
for rim mutiny
ritual

Throat raw from traffic air.



(via //imag*s dot ctv dot ca)

   "Bivouacs in the Disputed Territory

Purple neck
of a pigeon nesting.
Black spot
where a snake of fire uncoiled.

I bring you these borrowed words
through a silence
of blameless thorns."

--Og-Mora, op cit


N*rdcor*.

(via cbsn*ws dot com)

Do cicadas know what's up?


Lord Dunsany.


killing · civilians
man awry but
no pithy book soon
banal individuality knows
you will follow if it galls
to do that through a word din
I is opinion
with only limpid roil this
must ask
of almost and pariah thought
you would always fill
   curiously


St Louis Bricks Blog.


3l*ctronic L*banon. (via Nomadics)