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The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging


interconnected.org...{click here}

*fait accompli* notebook quotation on "linear thought"
included (#366) in this interesting, heterogenous
ongoing selection of links

"Love the art, poor as it may be,
which you have learned, and be
content with it; and pass through the
rest of your life like one who has
entrusted to the gods with his whole
soul all that he has, making yourself
neither the tyrant nor the slave
of anyone."

Marcus Aurelius
adapted from the translation
of Goerge Long
Shabhala
1991

It comes down to little specks of things. Even
the smallest particle of time can be crucial. Like
an accordion, life expands and contracts.

For example, a bit of a lesson might be gained in
experiencing a mistake. Such contractions and
expansions emit, over time, a considerable
amount of energy.

I wonder what the relationship is between such
tiny specks or particles of things and the constant
expansion of time which is called "forever."
Except as an idea, whatever forever is can only
be understood in relation to the tiniest portion
of time.

"Anything might be transformative if you would
only allow yourself to complete it." He had come
to distrust any kind of explanation. Or is that a way
to talk about what you might talk about
in everyday conversation.

For example, some sentences may be incomplete,
in verbal terms. But the nuances of a person's gestures
and tone of voice- not to speak of years or
even decades of exchange...

Always, some things are too much to say,
or too little. Then, more and more things are
too much to say or too little.

The glances may become embarassing. More and
more, and eventually you turn to your violin.

You take your violin in your hands and play it.
As you play it, you're creating the melody. You've
put on a tape recorder. Unbelievably, you realize
as you are playing that you are actually creating
music. As a result, later, when you put it down,
you suspect very strongly that you'll come back
to it.

As you are playing, you realize that the opening
chords were very important. You go back and
listen to them. You go on your way after them,
but now and then you come back to them.

To know how to do something is to know
what the constituants of the doing might
be. There might be many different kinds of
steps, but there will always be steps.

Sometimes there is an apprehension that
precedes the steps. The step is visualized,
imagined, and anxiety creeps in. On some
level, however slightly, danger has been
realized, or rather, recognized. there might
be hardly any expectable order in the
events that precede the steps.

*

The piece we listened to this afternoon
is the type we may call expansive, or
ever-expanding. Constantly pushing on,
but calmly, the oboe guides the violins
to places where they did not expect
to go. By means of a kind of gentle
layering, or playful challenging, the violins.
those so sweetly sighing sopranoes, echo
or announce their companions, the
woodwinds. The ending leads to
nothing more astonishing, or tragic,
than a nap. But such a lyrical, seductive
flight, that all memories and words have
vanished, both happy and said. (Debussy's
Prelude, on the radio, the second hello
from him today).

Notebook: 8/8/98
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Saturday, Dec 18


AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB

Fall / Winter 2004
http://www.bowerypoetry.com/
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
SATURDAYS FROM 4 - 6 PM
$5 admission goes to support the readers

JESSE SELDESS and JENA OSMAN
Jesse Seldess lives in Chicago, where he edits Antennae magazine, co-curates the Discrete Reading Series (www.lavamatic.com/discrete) and works in social services for the elderly. Recent poems have appeared or are soon to appear in Crayon, Conundrum, Kiosk, Traverse, Kenning, and First Intensity. Jesse's chapbook, Who Opens, was recently printed by Milwaukee's Bronze Skull Press. Jena Osman's most recent book of poetry is An Essay in Asterisks, published by Roof Books. Her previous book The Character was published by Beacon Press. She co-edits the journal Chain with Juliana Spahr and directs the Creative Writing Program at Temple University.
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"Don't be disgusted, don't give up, don't be impatient
if you do not carry out entirely conduct based in every
detail upon right principles; but after a fall return again,
and rejoice if most of your actions are worthier of human
character. Love that to which you go back, and don't
return to Philosophy as to a schoolmaster, but as a
man with sore eyes to the sponge and salve, as another to a
poultice, another to a fomentation. For so you will show that
to obey Reason is no great matter but rather that you will
find rest in it. Remember too that philosophy wills nothing
else than the will of your own nature, whereas you were
wlling some other thing not in acccord with Nature. For what is
sweeter than this accord? Does not pleasure overcome us just
by sweetness? Well, see whether magnanimity, freedom,
simplicity, consideration for others, holiness, are not sweeter;
for what is sweeter than wisdom itself when you bear in
mind the unbroken current of all things of the faculty of
understanding and knowledge?"

Meditations V
#9
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (AD 121-180)
translated by A.H.L. Farquharson
Everyman's Library
1946, 1992

Verse (the print edition) celebrates its
20th Anniversary with an issue packed
with familiar writers and poets
You can order now for a special blogger price
Verse {click here}
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"Well it's awake/ before the take
Zeno gloried in/a whacked tack clacked
Doris humped a/fiddles in Fidelio/
Factors o'vagabond nestle coves

Warrant tormentor /flavor glaze
reaching for a talisman tackle
the leaders bunched fickle
whooee Lampman cracked

Wheedle/treadle/Wheatena knee
zing/slighted the estuary maze
read a particular intention in th'outage
fractious/factitious"

from *Twenties* by Jackson Mac Low
(Roof, 1991)

This book is still available, and I can't recommend
it too highly. Mac Low's brilliance in working with
sound and meaning is made clear by this witty passage,

*Not Yet*, published below, was also posted on the collaborative poetry blog
as/is {click here},
where it received some very much appreciated comments,
as well as a collaborative poem-response from Jordan Stempleman.
Please check it out!

**
Jordan Stempleman, who lives in Tucson, AZ, has opened a blog,
called Growing Nation {click here}.
Charles Alexander, publisher of Chax Press, makes a cameo
appearance in a saga of technical frustration worthy of
*Zen In The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*...plus pieces on
Oppen and Robin Blaser.
Also, more recently, a memorial poem to Jackson Mac Low:
Growing Nation {click here}

**
Chax, by the way, happens to be the publisher of my recent chapbook, *Hegelian Honeymoon*
(scroll down sidebar for details).
Chax Press {click here}

*Jacket* is just out. This Issue- #25 -is packed with interesting sounding stuff:
Jacket {click here}

Ming of the Periplum {click here}
An index of avant-garde sites, publishers, artists, writers, et. al.
Thanks for including *fait accompli*!
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LITERATURE NATION by
Maria Damon and Miekal And- Reviewed by Tom Hibbard {click here}
This is a very rich essay about an excellent book that was first presented
in an online version still available at
a network distrituted text {click here}