this journal blug

stingy pomes... i make such stingy pomes... and i toss them out... so freely...

wasted a lot of time this afternoon adding past weeks to this fyp03 first line index... resolved: to maintain more timely records of my stuff... for what...

the cat prefers to sit on this stack of recent american poetry reviews... i don't read much in them anymore... not for theoretic aesthetic reasons but because i almost never get around to it... but i do look at the pictures... so the cat prefers to sit there now on gillian conoley's face... i read her poems... they were pretty good

Why I love Lord of the Rings: an unbiased review

my kind of movie review... haven't seen the movie yet... but this... approach... makes me smile...

Bellona Times

Writing formal verse is like playing romantic comedy with the net down.

Araki Yasusada: Partial Bibliography

Google Search: araki yasusada

Cahiers de Corey

I happen to believe that the Yasusada hoax was nothing less than a piece of performance art--a genuinely avant garde act because the object of its critque were those same authorizing institutions that made its own "authorization" possible. Yasusada's work makes us think as well as feel.

background: as i understand it, kent johnson presented a number of poems to the apr (when?) under the name of araki yasusada. they were published, praised... and then found out... a hoax... useful and lovely...

update: turns out to be much more complex... and interesting than that... see the google links above

Everything about Billy Bragg

Happy Birthday, Billy.

Ideology

When one voice rules the nation
Just because they're on top of the pile
Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest
The voices of the people
Are falling on deaf ears
Our politicians all become careerists
They must declare their interests
But not their company cars
Is there more to a seat in parliament
Then sitting on your arse
And the best of all this bad bunch
Are shouting to be heard
Above the sound of ideologies clashing

Outside the patient millions
Who put them into power
Expect a little more back for their taxes
Like school books, beds in hospitals
And peace in our bloody time
All they get is old men grinding axes
Who've built their private fortunes
On the things they can rely
The courts, the secret handshake
The Stock Exchange and the old school tie
For God and Queen and Country
All things they justify
Above the sound of ideologies clashing

God bless the civil service
The nations saving grace
While we expect democracy
They're laughing in our face
And although our cries get louder
Their laughter gets louder still
Above the sound of ideologies clashing

these recent posts expose me for the true slacker that i am... i should not be surfing the blogs... i should be processing final exams and other paper stuff... but i just finished one pile and felt like playing around a bit... so get off my case... he says to himself

Hussein's Capture

While the Iraqis have every right to hate him and bring him to trial, the Americans have no right whatsoever to judge him or try him. To this day Hussein has done nothing to the Americans and is not guilty of any of the crimes that the Americans excused themselves into going to war over.

a thought-provoking piece from an alternative p.o.v. ... check out the discussion in the post's comments...

Crooked Timber: Sing a bleep bleep

interesting thoughts on the vagaries of song censorship... don't go there if yr bothered by the kind of things that get censored out of songs... don't complain to me about the link if you do and you are... (via reading & writing)

i was thinking about posting to This Journal today... but i'm feeling perfectly empty... i know i haven't done squat over there all month... i'm sorry... i'm sorry... i can't tell you about the lady who came to the door this evening... no, that's not her over at a recent fyp... not even a little... well, maybe a little... but tonight i've got to re-see lord of the rings 1... so i can see lotr2 tomorrow... so i can see lotr3... sometime...

i'm in full denial of the work i need to do... you see, i have time... and it's friday night...

right now they're beginning the last exam... here in world lit honors... all of my tests use the word "subversive"... i'm puzzled at the number of students... some of our best and brightest... who don't know what it means... my big fat american heritage dictionary is open to that page... back in the day we all knew what subversive meant... it was in the air... i guess...

i guess just being a carmelite earns me... and my brothers... the occasionally offbeat, interesting phone call... the other day i received one from a woman in lousiana who was asking about the following prayer... i don't know how she ended up with my particular phone number... of all the carmelite phones in the country... but i found the prayer... and i'm posting here not to evangelize you... though i'm sure you need it... but to remind myself to return the lady's call...

Society of the Little Flower | Miraculous Invocation to St. Therese:

O Glorious St. Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and inspire the human family, I implore your Miraculous Intercession. You are so powerful in obtaining every need of body and spirit from the Heart of God. Holy Mother Church proclaims you 'Prodigy of Miracles... the greatest saint of Modern Times.' Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (mention here) and to carry out your promises of spending heaven doing good on earth... of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses. Little Flower, give me your childlike faith, to see the Face of God in the people and experiences of my life, and to love God with full confidence. St. Therese, my Carmelite Sister, I will fulfill your plea 'to be made known everywhere' and I will continue to lead others to Jesus through you.
Amen.

nonlinear poetry

here i sit out in the boonies... (not necessarily a geographical position)... can anyone help me with this... what's the theory... how's the practice?

update: Crag Hill on this stuff... which site/link... i think first sent me there...

o... beth's a dominican sister as well as my own... this is her third trip... her last was a little over a year ago... before the war... to get a clearer sense of what she's doing there, check out Dominican Fast for Peace... and scroll down a bit...

Reports from Iraq

o... my sister beth is in iraq... baghdad... looking around... doing stuff...

Spam I Am

at my school address i receive 100-200 bits of spam every day... it is my own fault... i made one mistake two years ago... there is no undoing... no forgiveness... no redemption... short of dying to the old and being born again... which is in the hands of those more powerful than i...

(link via twists & turns)

the first round of semester exams is done... four rounds to go...

this test consists of two essay questions... one for fiction and drama... one for poetry... one hour to write both...

what i've read of these first ones so far isn't too too terrible... i know the difficulty of having to produce brilliant (i settle for coherent) thought and analysis under pressure... was never that good at it myself... always better at thinking on my butt than thinking on my feet... so i have some compassion for those who stumble... but i smile bigly for those who pull it off...

Ludwig van Beethoven was born today in 1770... this morning i shaved to the "pathetique" sonata (via alfred brendel)... while the cat hummed along...

A Pacifist Dictionary (Nonviolence.org)

We love our freedoms, desperately mourn the violence against our country, and long for justice. We recognize the need for sacrifice and courage in these terribles times. We pray for peace.

(via plep)

some filming today... some passing papers back... some discussion of the semester's work... some wild laughter and shouting across the hall among the secret santas at their party... i was not a secret santa... right now... today feels like friday... tests begin tomorrow...

o... last class day of the first semester... everybody sing... TEmPUS FUGiT...

in world honors today we (meaning i) had planned on a whopping fine discussion of book one of rushdie's Midnight's Children... alas...

after an explanation of the semester exam... how to prepare for it... and just as i asked "so now... who is the biological father of saleem sinai?... someone pipes up "brother tom?"... yes... "about that movie we were going to make"... o... yes... "are we going to make a movie?"... good question... and so the period was spent in a consideration of the logistics... an introduction to carmel hs to reciprocate a video sent to us by students in midwest, wyoming...

a core of students seem very interested... and we've got psc, boy filmmaker, in the class... but tomorrow is the last day of the quarter... so... we film tomorrow... and i intend that a part of that filming will be of a whopping fine discussion of rushdie's Midnight's Children, Book One... but...

saddam looks very biblical in that beard... like a sad prophet...

he should have been a nicer man...

once i had a beard