this journal blug

go to unfoldedorigami and explore it... if you've got some time to kill and a need for something fresher than most... a beautiful... sometimes sad and scarey... place... (via riley dog)

noted that today begins the last week of the first cycle of finish your phrase... on the way back to A...

random analogy from wendell berry's "The Conservation of Nature and the Preservation of Humanity" in Another Turn of the Crank:

Our instinct for faith is like a well-bred Border collie, who, lacking cattle or sheep, will herd children or chickens or cats. If we don't direct our faith toward God or into some authentic "way" of the soul, then we direct it toward progress or science or weaponry or education or nature or human nature or doctors or gurus or genetic engineers or computers or NASA. And as we reduce the objects of our faith and so reduce our faith, we inevitably reduce ourselves. We are by nature creatures of faith, as perhaps all creatures are; we all live by counting on things that cannot be proved. As creatures of faith, we must choose either to be religious or to be superstitious, to believe in things that cannot be proved or to believe in things that can be disproved.

or... as bob says

You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody...

i'm wondering why blogville... especially the poet's subdivision... is not more widely linked to suzannagig jig... a most worthy, joyful, and inventive neighbor...

to clarify... after that last post yesterday... and all that talk of "low and obscure" i received this from suzanne:

O NO NO NO
we can't have that!!!

Not that
O NO

quickly now
O Tom
please Go
from LOW
throw it
stow it below, Bro

go directly
to
Glow

suzanno

to which i replied:

o these "o"s is classic... thanks... has the
soul of dr. seuss found a new home in you?

i'm doing ok... i shoulda writ "i'm
writing/thinking low and obscure" insteada
"feeling"... it's how i'm thinking about the
pomes lately... "low" as in keeping one's head
down... "obscure" as in... uh... obscure

at any rate, i'm glad it inspired such a
wonderful response... may i publish it on the
blug?

and i may... and i did... and thanks, suzzano, for this blast of positivity... of which there can never be too much...

fait accompli:

God Bless Obscurity

God bless obscurity
land that I love
stand beside her
and guide her
with the dark from the spark
of a glove

funny i should come upon this... just as i'm feeling low and obscure... thanks for the synchronous reverb, nick...

poets without brains... my new party?

there was a boy
took art apart
and had no greater luck
ressembling
than all the boys
with clocks
and radios and working toys

remember to read this article (thanks, suzanne):

Postmodern literary theory is now transforming itself so rapidly that Marxist, feminist, deconstructionist, and psychoanalytic critics (and others) are flocking back to the drawing board in droves as they search for new approaches to writing and teaching.

better brother... now that administrative requirements have been met... better brother sleepy brother...

bad brother... bad bad brother...

Happy Birthday, Miss Stein!!

"We should declare war on North Vietnam. . . . We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas." Ronald Reagan (10 Oct. 1965)

what makes me think i can get away with saying on the class message board:

"war is evil... war is never ever a good thing... to stand against war is a good thing... to defend life and all of life's possibilities is a good thing... all war is evil... always has been and always will be...

that's always been my starting point... naive as it is"

Which Romantic Poet Would I Be If I Were A Romantic Poet?


You are William Wordsworth! You get a bad rap
these days, alas. Many people think you
oppressed Coleridge, but there really isn't
much proof. You may have oppressed the women
in your life, but hey, everyone was doing it.
You honestly love nature, and admire an
aesthetic of simplicity and honesty. You love
Milton and human freedom, though some say you
sold out in the end. Oh dear. But you left us
"Tintern Abby" and "The Solitary
Reaper," bless your heart.


Which Major Romantic Poet Would You Be (if You Were a Major Romantic Poet)?
brought to you by Quizilla

Happy Burstday, Mr. Joyce!!

The Classic Text: James Joyce

Ulysses for Dummies

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Henry Fielding, "Tom Thumb, a Tragedy"

o huncamunca... huncamunca o...

elsewhere