"How would I know about your life?...
There's a fine line between us
Such a fine fine line
There's a fine line between us
And it's always on my mind...
There's a fine line between us
All the way...
There's a fine line between us
Can't waste another day...
Such a fine line..."

The Cars
"Door to Door"
1987
**************

Free Sample

night or day
trapped or free
love or hate
friend or enemy
beautiful or ugly
happy or sad
empty or full
fast or slow
deep or shallow
true or false
rich or poor
sane or insane
rational or irrational
dead or alive
open or closed
lost or found
slow or fast
hopeful or hopeless
smart or stupid
best or worst
giving or taking
conservative or liberal
precious or useless
lonely or social
friendly or cold
famous or obscure
wanted or shunned
hated or loved
special or ordinary
genius or idiot
cool or square
hip or schmucky
tasteful or kitchy
him or her
gourmand or gourmet
classy or sloppy
hot or cold
sweet or sour
stoned or straight
boring or fascinating
success or failure
trippy or mundane
sophisticated or schlumpy
generous or cheap
masochist or sadist
soft or hard
shameful or carefree
slippery or steady
sly or frank
sexy or turn-off
wasteful or frugal
holy or sinful
less or more
fat or thin
thought of or unthought of
idea or thing
fat or thin
tall or short
sick or healty
sun or shade
round or square
algebra or geometry
promising or has been
in or out
up or down
inside or outside
on top of or below
dress or skirt
pants or shirt
edge or top
line or hole
one of us or one of them
goofy or graceful
brilliant or stupid
playful or careless
simple or complex
necessary or irrelevant
helpful or helpless
door or floor
staircase or elevator
umbrella or hat
brilliant or stupid
planful or careless
third or fifth
sweet or nasty
busy or lazy
quiet or loud
melody or rhythm
word or phrase
solid or gas
burning or wet
round or flat
tiny or huge
animal or vegetable
organic or inorganic
hollow or full
listen or speak
agree or disagree
right or wrong
spender or saver
tax or spend
true or false
real or unreal
house or home
starved or stuffed
smart or idiotic
deep or pointless
sense or nonsense
humorous or serious
well read or illiterate
honored or despised
enraged or relaxed
the same or different
chaser or chased
putrid or pure
pretty or plain
tortured or serene
helper or hurter
killer or saviour
healed or dying
faith or mistrust
optimist or pessimist
profundity or blather
talkative or quiet
mute or magnificent
prayer or curse
heaven or hell
sky above or mud blow
civilized or savage
sunny or shady
thirsty or quenched
praised or despised
this or that
something or nothing
mine or yours
ours or theirs
work or relax
listen or sing
play or record
bright or fading
birth or death
on or off
first or last
fahrenheit or centigrade
president or criminal
friend or foe
lover or hater
sex or celibacy
kiss or turn away
embrace or avoid
loved or unloved
held or unheld
sculpture or painting
poem or novel
paragraph or sentence
kill or be killed
boy or girl
sexy or drab
naked or clothed
event or dream
past or present
ocean or lake
sincerity or pretension
give or take
accuse or forgive
poetry or prose
faithful or faithless
suspicion or trust
courage or cowardice
shy or bold
simple or complex
accuser or accused
realist or abstract
language or formalist
surrealism or social realism
lonely or popular
preface or text
outside art or insider art
museum or gallery
installation or sculpture
psychotic or sane
paranoid or depressed
obsessive compulsive or arrogant vindictive
science or art
cool or square
hegemony or free market
fall or rise
cash or check
shiny or dull
old or new
ancient or modern
brilliant poet or total jerk
left or right
sloppy or neat
conventional or innovative
interesting or boring
first or last
remembered or forgotten
canonical or obscure
blog or website
publish or blog
question or answer
resident or guest
quick or slow
witty or ponderous
dreamer or driven
confident or insecure
helpful or hurtful
all or nothing
more or less
traitor or hero
panacea or pest
good or bad
flying or landing
spontaneous or stiff
discretion or flamboyance
skirt or dress
mineral or plant
animal or vegetable
sadist or masochist
exhibitionist or voyeur
joy or sorrow
happiness or tears
lakes or oceans
mountains or ocean
below or above
stop or start
continue or break off
follow or lead
cut or attach
turn or stay
come or go
hold back or give in
stay or go
add or subtract
change or remain the same
continue or vary
develop or maintain
hide or emerge
tickle or pat
seem or be
old or young
then or now
*************************
after writing this I came
across "Quarrels between the Purists and the purists"
read it right now on
exzentrick libretti {click here}

it's in the air or it isn't anywhere

New poem by James Meetze (Brutal Kittens)

via Equanimity (Jordan Davis)

notebook: 7/11/86

Forget it in order to remember it
At an opportune moment
I had the impression of walking in on someone's
Turbulant hypothesis
A word like this might drive one out
Content with roses
No one cares about
Not quite right: an image
Of blurred appears
On the right hand screen
No, someone else's costly dream,
Reality was like that, then
No one to bother you, ever again,
Drat it, mist, vapors, queens
Ennumerate specific matrix
No, describe appropriate abstract boundaries
No, slip into cross-weave of nascent forms
No, utter wisps of immediate fizz in workshop hallway

There: an alleyway disappears
And a set of intersecting mixtures fuzzes out
Begins with a diatribe against already outmoded heresies
Different times in different places
Fragrances, meanings, doubts
Certain collected articles, perhaps
Thousands of tiny items collected in disarray
At the edge of- dismissed.

A curio shop, a concatenation of selected souvenirs
Shelves arranged randomly, a light,
And memories buzzing around it like flies
In the night: a sensation of squeezing the rind,
That's why z's predominate
They sleep, disproportionate in the dictionary
A constructed proximity nears confusion
And, at long last
Acres of travelling trucks, norms blasting in unison
A map unfolding yields grammatical categories
A bifurcation of solids pursuades the shape
Of come to things, the airy, steady stream of heat
Finally divides gratification conveniently:
Here, the directions to the underground
As it has existed for centuries, gradually burrowing its way
Towards the surface where nothing changes.
One shaft of light is best: it pinpoints an exact time of leaving,
Where the center, parted from meaning,
Holds fast to the treasured detail
Where the proposal of welcome is gratified
By sudden recognition, where the seaweed is mixed
With innumerable types of illegible messages,
Float endlessly to the surface, in a cloud of indecipherable signs
Revealing the procedures that both divide and connect
That translate the frequencies between thing and thought

Early in the day,
I visualized a mirror,
as the voice of
the typewriter, but
that type of writer's
voice, originating
letters heard in
reflected freequency.
"I hope *you* heard this,"
and, yet satisfied,
sadist fried. Flutter
hamong the jornicles,
lift salmon once from
Cachuco. fold in
z-n butter, mix,
add tractor, subtract
contractor (the one thing=
yjr pmr yjomh.
dyo;;. ejprbrt fryrt, omrd
yjod vpfr yjptpihj;u.
od 1/2sty;u oyd pemrt/)
Properties are limited,
visions bondles.

Fission fondles paper.
The herd is watt eyes
lissome too. And that
Youmoreusly.

8/31/86 (a;iec of the pi.)

"American poetry I've given you all and now nothing has been made to happen.
American poetry ten bucks per book, on average..."
Daniel Bouchard tell it like it is (& isn't) in "American poetry" right now
via The Jim Behrle Show {click here}
via The UB poetics listserv {click here}

"Random information/of an unpoetic nature/
an irrelevant concept/we think in collective terms/
an experiment of some sort/no North American collective can/
be like this/discussing all the time who you can trust/
so you can discard your reponsibility/and blame procedure/
or let it be automatically flawless/as a social dream/
with no bad love affairs either/"

from *Cuban Journal: A Poet in the Venceremos
Brigade, 1970*
by Joel Sloman
Zoland Books
Cabridge, Massachusetts, 2000
(p. 99)
******************************************************
via *In Place of Chairs* :Ann Tardos and Jackson Mac Low read in Cambridge, Mass {click here}

fin ripple {click here} on Scalapino's *Front Matter, Dead Souls*

Saturday, May 29, 2004
New poem right now on The Nightjar (Jean Vengua) {click here}:
"Rush of prevalent life forms style/"

Essay: "Resolve to Make War a Memory on Memorial Day" {click here}
"Failure of the War on Terror" conference in Bloomington, Indiana, Memorial Day Weekend {click here}

Memorial Day Parade to Include War Protest {click here}

notebook: 7/24/88

Time travel. Something
in Dick's book about
two poles- the way
the Universe works.
One end, essentially
strong & superficial
is "broadened" & deepened by
the receiver.

The idea is that
time travel needs two
people- in the story
a male and a female.
The organization is
carrying out time travel
experiments which are
failing. It turns
out these "failures"
are a cover-up for
a plot to send nearly
everybody 20 years
into the future. This
was the aristocrats'
plot to "dump" the
"modernistic" concepts of
ownership.

A "caseload."
One individual example-
someone has to follow
up the time-travel
case.

A to C- "one wants
to be free to the extent
one knows one is a slave."

The Trials of Henry Kissinger {click here}

New poem, "Imperfect Pitch" right now on
xzentrick libretti {click here}

from *fait accompli*
one year ago

11/27-28/84
There *is* something out beyond the edge of the visible universe. It is hearing the ear
thinks, seeing the eye thinks. Out beyond
there where nothing is seen, in a single pulse
the universe repeats itself with every breath.
Normally, the eyes see. But when one is
listening, light itself translates the
signals into bird's movements, strumming air
with its harnessings, transfiguring a past scrap heap
of posturings in the lattices of a sparkling
hesitancy. Dripping with sweat, the angel mutters
to her or himself, down with this, hurling a
strictly documented universe, graduated, gyrated
and expostulated in the grainy
screening-room of history. Lifted high and
carefully deposited on the shelves, the words
stretch and yawn and then start to move, scramble madly, from
one volume and meaning to the next. In a
deft stroke of recognition the words run off the
books- onto the shelves, failing, obstinately, to utter
a sound or thought.

New poll reported by Gary Sullivan (Elsewhere) {click here}
shows that Kerry leads by 50,000%

Once in *Elsewhere* scroll down to
view a gorgeous wedding photo
of the couple whose fiery
email romance is immortalized in
*Swoon* (Granary Books)

Some interesting history of Language writing by
Anne Vickery {click here}

Visualizing Poetics {click here}
is a good looker
(via Really Bad Movies {click here} who
writes about a good book by Anne Waldman about Ted Berrigan {click here})

Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese Create Free Speech Zone in Brooklyn {click here}

Acronyms {click here}
via Boynton {click here}

The best of the best blog reviews from
incertain plume {click here}
"coincidentally, latest fait accompli joggles words and plays on the violence of violins while nuclear threat becomes increasingly unclear, while German construction workers write their own Buildingsromans (and, who knows, maybe even Buildingsromances),"
(discussing this poem:
"violence of violins" {click here})

A book of verse, a jug of wine and
Moonshine Highways {click here}

new visual poem
right now on
nonlinear poetry {click here}

For Some, The Lying Never Stops

New York Times Is Over If You Want It {click here}

Sometime early this morning, *fait accompli*
reached its first 100,000 hits.

fait accompli
Site Summary
  
  VISITS
  
   Total 41,318   
  
  PAGE VIEWS
  
   Total 58,866   
  



 

Tympan (Tim Yu) {click here}
and The Ingredient (Alli Warren) {click here} continue their extremely cool improvisational duet.

notebook: circa, 1987

1) Slipping on and off the track

2) Immediate sensations

3) Coexistent desires

4) Shadowy wishes

5) Urging (this) forward

6) Continuous reconstitution of an experienced
interval (Klebnikov)

7) (This) almost becomes an articulated image (made
memory)

8) "Conscious" (me)- my "unconscious" (you)

9) The "return of the repressed"

10) Unwilling subjugation of disbelief- psychology
of everyday life.

11) Centrality of number (this).

12) Buildingroman

13) Bildingsroman

14) The slip (sliding into (onto) the truth).

15) The truth horn- trumpet it out-sliding
metaphors- the trumbone.

16) Violence- violins.

17) "You didn't publish it because
it was only ideas."

18) Contradictions- the persistence
of memory.

19) Continuous cries of birds (mild)

20) Deliberate cultivation of the
non-literal & the incomplete=
almost enough.

21) Mother alive- me alive.

22) The dance of the intellect.

23) The non(existence) of the singular.
This is the social.
24) No *particular* thought unattached
to the others. Observations construct.

25) Sigh- ence.

26) Impatient meanderings "of" "the" double.

27) Important (impotent) meanings of the
doubter.

28) Insufficient circumstance
(film version).

29) Enlarged details- still shot-
short commotion.

30) Vanishing structure- dare to
be different (Blake).

31) Misfortunes. Loneliness. Poverty.
Racism. Sexism. "Insufficient funds."

32) Inspiration= chemical response
to material.

33) Pictures at an exhibition.

34) Un-pause. Ur-pause.
Ap-p(l)ause.

35) Application= Signification.

36) Drummer- march to a different.

37) Meanings in a dictionary.

38) Limits of tens.

39) Superimpositions of the whole

40) Largesse- mis*prision*-
non-chalant, nonce. Notary.

42) Micronarrative, in-folding,
unfolding.

43) Anxiety- distorted breathing,
imposition of hurt (chirping).

44) Decade- decadent.

45) Cadence, corece, conscience.
The last pronounced in France
(Godard).

46) Semi-circular. Begin again.
Begin the beguine. Again the sanguine.

47) Sorter- sort of. Syballine,
syllabic, centrifugal, fulsome,
serene.

48) Arbeiten, our bite in.

49) Center frugal.

50) Writing- contrast the whole to
the specific. Condensation of
word-moisture on surface exposed
to heat or coolness. Interaction of,
exchange of energy.

51) Immerse the film in water (Brakhage).

52) Which character is which
character? Who said this?

53) Nuclear- unclear.

Blogdigger {click here}
Will search bloggers via RSS feed

notebook: 1/17/84

We can hypothesize that attention
functions similarly to light.

Does the attentional beam have a
speed-?

The poem has a causal structure-
this structure causes an effect in
the attentional system.

Apprehension precedes comprehension-
as-
less abstract-----------more abstract

The causal structure of the poem
is that which effects first
the attentional system (at the level
of apprehension-) and secondly the mnemonic
system (at the level of comprehension)

The error of this is to equate the
attentional system (or ignore it) in favor
of the pre-conscious system

This mobility of the attentional
system increases the------------

A poem is an object with
an inexhaustible--------number of possible-
meanings- thus as an object it
has a causal structure (Cartwright
and Mendell)

Poetics and psychoanalysis are
scientific (explanatory) to the
extent that their theoretical formulations
focus on objects with a causal
structure. [But a structure cannot
cause anything w/o an interactive
principle] that is, their effects may
be traced and explained by some functional
mechanism
intrinsic in their structure.

Poems cause the mental attentional function to
behave within certain predictable ways

In order to understand an abstract
entity it is necessary to understand the
effect such an object has on attention
(apprehension) and understanding
(comprehension). The interplay of the
abstract and concrete in
the experience of attending to paintings and poems
has to do
with the experiential overlay & interplay of

Attentional beam--------"wavelength"
light-------------------"wavelength"
crystal diode-----------"wavelength"
"Something" in mental functioning
which is like a crystal diode
in the physical universe
______________________________________________________
Freud's "Topological Theory"-----Math/physics
"Structural theory"--------------Physics/linguistics
______________________________________________________

Dreaming "refracts" thought-waves the way
a crystal diode refracts light waves
which acts as a rectifier for the
attentional beam- this is
consistent with using the funtioning
& structure of complex material
objects (constructed
objects for external perception)
as metaphorical objects to understand
mental processes
_____________________________________________________

Ululations (Nada Gordon) {click here}
Beautiful photos of Nada's bridal henna.
Today, the wedded couple celebrate
with friends.

Kasey Silem Mohammad {click here} reports on the death, and possible murder, of his developmentally disabled brother.
"Wednesday, May 12th, at 10:19 in the morning, my 54-year-old brother Harry Hicks was discovered lying unconscious in the road next to his bicycle by two motorists at the corner of Magnolia and Roseburg in Modesto, California..."
A memorial fund is in the planning stage.

Jon Kessler *Global Village Idiot*
through June 5 at Deitch Projects
76 Grand Street
12-6 Tuesday through Saturday
Recent shows include an exhibition
of his work in collaboration with
Paul Auster at The Hermes Forum, Tokyo
**
Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
through May 30th
Experiments of the 20's
(includes two 5 minute films)
International Center of
Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas

Blogging and Narcissism: The French Connection

Blogs : expositions de relations sociales déjà établies
Continuite {click here}
via Media TIC Blog {click here}
  Dans le cadre de son travail de recherche sur les blogs bretons, le chercheur Olivier Trédan propose un nouvel article sur le phénomène des blogs : Continuité entre blogs et pages personnelles ; extrait :
" (...) Dans cette continuité, la pratique du blog est clairement tournée vers l'exposition de relations sociales, l'amitié notamment. La publicisation de l'intime pose également la question de la porosité et de l'articulation entre espaces public et privé, entre la mise en visibilité et en scène de l'intime et dissimulation de la personne. De nombreux auteurs (Robert Sennett, Les tyrannies de l'intimité) y ont vu une perte de substance de l'espace public, de l'esprit civique, induite par le triomphe de Narcisse. Pour d'autres (Dominique Mehl), le public et le privé sont en constante interaction. De cet enchevêtrement, de ces aller-retours constant entre soi et l'autre, naît le débat social."
Rappel : si vous possédez un blog et que vous vous trouvez en Bretagne, vous êtes invité à répondre au questionnaire concocté par l'Equipe de Recherche Marsouin à cette adresse.
JLR -- 18:11
Votre Commentaire ? (0)
Our VERY rough translation:
"In presenting his research on the continuity between personal pages and blogging,
researcher Olivier Tredon recently published an article on the phenomenon of blogging":
"In this continuity, the practice of blogging has clearly turned towards the exposition of social relations, notably personal closeness. The publicizing of intimacy poses both the question of the porosity of intimacy, the articulation between private and public spaces, between deprived public spaces, the framing of exposure and the fictionalizing of the person. Numerous authors, (Robert Sennet, the tyranny of intimacy) have seen seen in this a piercing of the public space, of civic spirit, indicated by the triumph of Narcissus. For others (Dominique Mehl), the public and private are in constant interaction.From this tangle, from these constant return tickets between oneself and the Other, the social debate is born."

Babelfish translation:
Within the framework of his research task on the Breton blogs, the researcher Olivier Trédan proposes a new article on the phenomenon of the blogs: Continuity between blogs and personal pages; extract:

" (...) In this continuity, the practice of the blog is clearly turned towards l'exposition of social relations, l'amitié in particular. The publicisation of l'intime also raises the question of porosity and l articulation between spaces deprived public and, the setting of visibility and in scene of l'intime and dissimulation of the person. Many authors (Robert Sennett, tyrannies of l intimity) there saw a loss of substance of l'espace public, l'esprit civic, induced by the triumph of Narcisse. For d'autres (Domenica Mehl), the public and the private one are in constant interaction. From this tangle, from these constant return tickets between oneself and l'autre, is born the debate social." Recall: if you have a blog and that you are in Brittany, you are invited to answer the questionnaire concocté by l'Equipe of Research Porpoise at this address. JLR -- 18:11

For The Love of Books and Writing

"'ANTHONY CODRUS URCEUS, a most learned and
unfortunate Italian, born 1446, was a striking
instance' (says his biographer)'of the miseries
men bring upon themselves by setting their
affections unreasonably to trifles. This learned
man lived at Forli, and had an apartment
in the palace. His room was so very dark, that
he was forced to use a candle in the day time;
and one day, going abroad without putting it
out, his library was set on fire, and some
papers which he had prepared for the press were
burned. The instant he was informed of this ill
news, he was affected even to madness. He ran
furiously to the palace, and, stopping at the
door of his apartment, he cried aloud:
'Christ Jesus! what mighty crime have I committed?
whom of your followers have I ever injured that
you thus rage with inexpiable hatred against
me?' Then turning himself to an image of the
Virgin Mary near at hand, 'Virgin" (says he)
'hear what I have to say, for I speak in earnest,
and with a composed spirit. If I shall happen
to address you in my dying moments, I humbly
entreat you not to hear me, nor receive me
into heaven, for I am determined to spend all
eternity in hell.' Those who heard these
blasphemous expressions endeavored to comfort
him, but all to no purpose; for the society
of mankind no longer supportble to him, he
left the city, and retired, like a savage,
to the deep solitude of a wood. Some say that
he was murdered there by ruffians; others that
he died at Bologna, in 1500, after much
contrition and penitence."

William Hazlitt
"On Means and Ends"
Essay VII
"Mind and Motive"
from *Winterslow-
Essays and Characters
Written There*
first published
1839

Tympan comments on *Free Radicals: American Poets Before Their First Books.*{click here}"The title suggests a catch-them-while-you-can, next-big-thing tone to the project, a tone Ron generally adopts himself. But--as came up in Ron's comment boxes--does this make too much of the holy grail that is the First Book?..."

Some Questions on Reading Poetry- right now on Crag Hill's Poetry Scorecard {click here}

David Markson's newly published book *Vanishing Point*
is available (in a signed,
slightly discounted paperback edition) at the Strand
Book Kiosk on 5th Avenue E. 60th Street.
Markson's amazing previous books
include *Reader's Block* and *This Is Not A Novel*.

The Elegant Variation on David Markson {click here}

Karl Merleau-Marcuse takes issue with Tim Peterson {click here}

Caterina {click here} considers the importance of "freedom from the past"
We like to call this: "having a good forgettery".

Creativity Good for your Health {click here}

via Poetry Hut Blog {click here}

New poem right now on
xzentrick libretti {click here}

Thinking lately about the constant feeling of impending apocalypse,
the anxious impression of time running out, & how, if someone knew
they had only very little time left, how they might want to focus on
& cherish every particle of experience...
*****************************************
notebook (poem): circa 1990

To A Poem

Yet how long can I delay?
As long as the delights of life
Bid me reach for knowledge and pleasure,
Book, conversation, pipe, meal,
Thought, meditation, dream, plan,
Memory, friend, child, touch of a warm cup,
Night, day, sun, film, poem, hand,
Scrapbook, disorganized drawer of papers, trinket,
Memorabilia, telephone, application form, checkbook,
Record player, nap, walk, run, magazine,
Newspaper, reverie, look out the window, at painting,
At dust on sill, at the plants, listen to the water
Running in the kitchen, hear car siren, bug buzzing in the
Bedroom, finger old collages, remember old friends,
Think of new friend, long shower,
Ruminate on bowl, dream of small victories leaning
Back on recliner, think of faces I have seen,
The children I talk to, the therapy I've given and received,
Go to poetry reading, to work, think about the future,
Think of things I've learned, wonder about certain moments
Whose meanings are not yet clear, things I've not yet learned,
Her worries, his worries, my worries, the cracked cup in
The cupboard, Gorby's government, Bush's evasiveness, fascism,
Communism, Poetry Project, Sun and Moon, Arkady Dragomaschenko,
Ilya Kutik, *Poetics Journal*, The Ear Inn, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E,
M/E/A/N/I/N/G, Columbus Avenue, apartment rents and prices, how the
Plants are doing, the kitty in the window across the street,
Drugs in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and on, the homeless, the subway, having
Children, self-confidence, the diary form, collaboration, letters, bills,
Where all my notebooks are, look through all my books for a
Missing book, should I alphabetize my entire book collection,
Write to Norman Fischer, Jeanne Lance, David Bromige, Michael
Amnasan and Jessica Grim, think about learning to be kinder to younger poets,
Start that new tape project, call Charles, plan to call my
Brother,listen to a poetry reading, type a manuscript,
Read Marjorie Perloff's book, Maryann Caw's translation of
Breton, think about French, about France, about French music,
Poetry, poets, the Galerie Lelong, *Avec*, Paul Auster's anthology,
Roussel, Debussy, the Seine, the same, the insane, taxes,
Death, Walt Whitman, the broken trees, salads, noises,
Porgy and Bess, pain, suffering, horrible racism, vicious
Sexism, time, space, colds, schools, clouds, rain,
Endless sunshine in L.A., the sea, freedom, coffee,
Chicken Paprikash, Woody Allen, the AIDS crisis, freedom
To abort, the World, the Shaman, Rothenberg's Shamanism,
Harner's heallings, psychoanalysis, Freud and free association,
Abstract expressionism, Chuck Berry, garage sales, crowded
Closets, jazz, impressionistic music, improvisation, doors,
Tranquility, excitement, shadows, Canasta, Hermes, Pan,
Clytemnestra, Central Park & Stephen-Paul Martin,
Weight gain & loss, fishing, *Roof*, feminism, dyslexia,
Howard Fox, Japan, Catholicism, Jewish Orthodox Cantos,
Ezra Pound's Cantos, Hugh Kenner, Vito Acconci, Eva Hesse,
Suicide, Bridge, racism in Manhattan, Dinkins, Koch,
The Board of Ed, Social Work, classes for the handicapped,
Psychology, Third World debt, fingers, clavicles, Telemann,
Ravel, Bartok, pizzicato, dice, lotto,
Marrakech, the Person, Thought, The Dark, the helpless,
Poverty in Harlem, Celan, Emily Dickenson, George-Therese
Dickenson, Bruce Andrews' *Sonnets*, Ed Friedman's kindness,
Embarassment, shyness, sophisticatin, grace,
The dated quality of qualities, naming, signifies, neatness,
The morning, the evening, sunset on the sea, fear, anxiety,
Enslavement, responsibility for history, the news, the archives,
Descriptions, loss, accounts, sensibility, sausage, time,
Brakes scraping in the distance, hunger, confusion, similes,
Choice, fatuous comments, mimic voices in the memory,
Whistle a tune, make a collage, remember an insult,
Think about the self, justice, reasonable explanations,
Envy & hatred, my own & others, make love, walk at
Sunrise, think of night, the humidity, thunder, wisdom,
Laughter, talk, sound, the street lamp, burgeoning,
Populations, wit, the 17th Century, the 21st Century,
Cummunication disorders, dreams, curry, disease,
Undersize people, oversize people, financial disasters,
Shelley Hirsch, Ravi Shankar, the Wiz, cartoon music,
films by Abigail Child, horse races, think tanks, card
Sharks

Mappemunde {click here} and p-ramblings {click here} on poetry and the attentional process.

Also, on the topic of "wandering attention" an interview with W.G.Sebald
via wood s lot {click here}
Interview with Sebald {click here}

"Conversation is like a game at tennis,
or any other game of skill. A person shines
in one company who makes no figure in
another- just as a tolerably good cricketer,
who might be an acquisition to a country
club, would have his wicket struck down
at the first bowl at *Lords-ground*. The
same person is frequently dull at one time
and brilliant at another: sometimes those
who are most silent at the beginning of an
entertainment are most loquacious at the end.
There is a *run in the luck* both in cards
and conversation. Some people are good
speakers but bad hearers: these are put out,
unless they have all the talk to themselves.
Some are best in a *tete-a-tete*; others
in mixed company. Some persons talk well on
a set subject, who can hardly answer a common
question, still less pay a compliment or make
a *repartee*. Conversation may be divided
into the *personal* or the *didactic*: the
one resembles the style of a lecture, the
other that of a comedy. There are as many who
fail in conversation from aiming too high a
standard of excellence, and wishing only to
utter oracles or *jeux-d'esprit*, as there are
who expose themselves from having no standard
at all, and saying whatever comes into their
heads. Pendants and gossips compose the largest
class. Numbers talk on without paying any
attention to the effect they produce upon their
audience: some few take no part in the discourse
but by assenting to everything that is said, and
these are not the worst companions in the world.
An outcry is sometimes raised against dull
people, as if it were any fault of theirs. The
most brilliant performers very soon grow dull,
and we like people to begin as they end. There
is then no disappointment nor false excitement.
The great ingredient in society is good-will. He
who is pleased with what he himself has to say,
and listens in his turn with patience and
good-humour, is wise and witty enough for us. We
do not covet those parties where one wit dares
not go, because another is expected. How
delectable must the encounters of such pretenders
be to one another. How edifying to the bye-standers."

William Hazlitt
*Trifles Light As Air* # VIII.
*The Atlas* September 27 & October 4, 1829

Breaking News As Reported By Technorati {click here}
Michael Moore's new film tops them all!

notebook: 7/18/90

First try

Morning humdrum. Day residue. The night breathes
down my neck. Reading- humiliation. Awkward
revelation-chili, pasta and nectarines. Sine wave-elation
and sadness-feelings are not clinical-"like- get
a backbone!" Feelings wasted and mandarins. Some wave.
There is a system- without a system- I mean an
old fashioned one. In pajamas- a hymnal- breathe
thrice. Then running- unaware of night- in the thick of
it I'm sick of it- memories. Not a struggle- a salad-
with thinking in it. Enlarge. Faster- faster- I mean,
go slow. There is a universe around this- foxy- hesitant-
air-tight- liquid- liquid- exalted. What's for
lunch? Did you say, "launch?" Nervous, excited, steady,
as a clam. Who said that? Who said what? Say hi
to Norman Fischer (a sea captain).

Whacky, and necessary, wisdom right now on
incertain plume {click here}
{Saturday, May 15, 2004}
...surely, the morality of bicycles exceeds the sense pedestrians have in common...
plumed @ 5:59 PM
for want of an apple, the arrow strikes the head
plumed @ 9:39 PM
*************************************
The Freeway Blogger {click here}
via Equanimity {click here}

New poem right now on Tympan {click here}

notebook: 8/9/87

Follow out all of your desires, only to
come back to the same place. But now
that place is in more places.

Aesthetic sublimation of the fear of
death into plumbing its desires.

The lightest of things- like insects,
like birds, like joy- can be
easily crushed. The heaviest of things-
stones, sorrows- these stay- and tend
to hold their shape.

Art teaches us how to bring the dead to life.

The poem may occur in a place which is greatly
dissimilar from the world made apparent to the
senses. But wherever it is, one fine day there
or nearby you will meet its poet.

Satie on the radio. Girl rolling and
rolling in the foamy sea- black hair and
red bathingsuit.

12:49 a.m.
The lightning storm
continues. I just happened
to come across this!

Gasps (Eileen Tabios) {click here}

notebook (poem): circa 1986

D.C.

then
i
realized
it
wasn't
a
question
of
history
repeating
itself

just
an
old
movie
cranked
up
to
begin
again

the
crooked
man
at
the
top
his
wife
more
ruthless
than
he
is
innocent
children
with
dolls
in
their
hands
are
shot
the acerbic
poet
shakes
his
head

Watching a lightning storm over the Park
Slope rooftops. One jagged Zeus-spear, behind
an apartment house straight back (southwest),
and the rest a trembling light-show
over the darkened horizon.

The Secret Life of
Bemsha Swing {click here}

Blogs first,
(don't miss This one {click here})
then on with the
rest of the day.
**
Even In A Dark Time {click here} Springtime takes a bow

notebook (poem fragment, with crossed out part restored)
circa 1986

Relief

Gradually, the pointy spikes of time begin to
Smooth a bit, but you never get fully used to
The world assuming a strange disguise in the
face of any- even the most realistic- expectations.
In a face shines infinite understanding,
total sensitivity to every nuance of my frustration.
Clearly, any passing through would demand
The lightest of steps. In the middle of a hot
July afternoon, a dog takes a leak, looking
Around in an embarassed kind of way. For a moment,
even the grandest dilemma is assured the
possibility of relief, because of a dog's expression.
But the day continues, my preoccupations continue
The moon gradually becomes full. And you can stay,
but I'm looking forward to visiting the bakery.
[Now things are beginning to get less eerie,
in spite of the fact that nothing replaces
money. Nothing replaces anything, Jack
Oh, you know what I mean]

On Saturday, May 22nd, at 4:00 p.m., Green Integer
will be hosting a party to celebrate Douglas
Messerli's being awarded the Chevalier des Artes &
Lettres from the French government.
This is a prestigious award, given to people from
other countries who have significantly contributed to
French culture and its reception around the world.
The award will be given to Douglas at the ceremony by
French Cultural Attache, Laurent Deveze.

Green Integer is located at 6022 Wilshire Boulevard,
Suite 200A in Los Angeles across from the LA Country
Museum of Art.

Dear All:

I am writing to call your attention to a sharp review of Ronald
Johnson's The Shrubberies (Flood Editions, 2001) by Peter Campion in
the latest issue of Poetry Magazine (May 2004). It concludes:

"In the mid-nineties, in ill health and no longer able to afford the
San Francisco Bay area, where he had lived for twenty-five years,
Johnson returned to his native Kansas. O'Leary tells us that 'he
lived in Topeka with his father, and took a job as a handyman,
gardener, and occasional cook at Ward-Meade, a historic park in
town.' It's hard to read this without feeling a sense of injustice.
The disgrace appears even worse if one notices how much mainstream
marginality and cutting-edge dullness gets rewarded these days. But
there's also something wrong about using Johnson as a stick with
which to beat other poets. His work has no time for pettiness;
instead, rippling with curious exactitude, it tests our capacity for
intellectual gusto. This poet was what people in the landscaping
business call 'a gardener's gardener.' While pruning overgrowth and
imprecision, he allowed his material to take its own course, to
surprise and engage the reader's tactile imagination. Many won't have
time for the attentiveness this kind of writing requires. For those
who do, The Shrubberies will afford a difficult but enduring
pleasure" (130).

Best Wishes,
Devin Johnston


NOTE: John Taggart's PASTORELLES has just been released!
Watch for Tom Pickard's THE DARK MONTHS OF MAY in September.


--
Flood Editions
www.floodeditions.com
PO Box 3865
Chicago IL 60654-0865

Do you really think the President of the United States is dumb? The short answer is yes...
The Misunderestimated Man {click here}
**
Bushism Sampler
"In my judgment, when the United States says there will be serious consequences, and if there isn't serious consequences, it creates adverse consequences."
The Complete Bushisms (updated regularly){click here}
"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."—Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003

A Musical lnterlude {click here}:
An interesting discussion of experimental
music and writing in the course of
which Alan DeNiro {click here}
(in the comments section-)
quotes some ideas of mine regarding
anti-narrative. Thanks, Alan!
***************************************
Cannot Cross by Charles Bernstein {click here}
via Nice Guy Syndrome (Tim Botta)
***************************************
This gets it:
via Poop Chute {click here}

notebook (untitled poem): 2/12/90

How else will I be motivated
Except by emotion, not by desire
To do, I've had enough of doing
I only want to lol around and complain.
Something will happen to smoke out
The old laziness- I can feel by all the work
That someone's trying too hard
And the smoke is rising
But I won't tell- I'll never tell.

It's true- I am not trying to please you
In fact, I'm decrying my own urge to do this-
This is not really the result of fatigue or bad fortune
Though we've all had plenty enough of that-
This comes from routinely sensing what's ahead,
Almost like having a t.v. guide to real life-
One day I understood that anyone could read it if they wanted
It's the denial that makes it possible to forget
And just live- so is the poem part of this denial
Or is it something else?
It's only smoke
Rising on a beam of sunlight
In an endless elevator shaft.
Once you get to the top flooor-
You get out and walk around & shop-
As always, the mannikins transfix me.

Bloglinker {click here}

notebook: 2/11/87

One thought does not simply "lead"
to another thought. When a thought
is "heard" more resonantly, it
sets up a resonant "strumming"
across many latitudes of inner
experience. These "strings"
or modalities, spread like nets
across wide areas of inner life,
encompassing countless "points":
nuances, memories, hungers, fears,
wishes. Yet, at certain times, a
thought or feeling leaps across
all boundaries of sense and sensing,
interconnecting and interweaving
innumerable aspects of experience,
yet encompassed in some specific
sequence of words.

Note from a journal, 1976:
"All substances have their trick."

"the right side red titles over at Negative Velocity
read like a good contemporary poem..."
Right now on

Particle Spin {click here}

Mystic To Purge Russian Parliament

as reported by Froth
(Marianne Shaneen) {click here}

notebook: 3/23/87

Edmund Husserl: "Written signs are, when
considered from a purely corporeal point
of view, straighforwardly, sensibly,
experiencable. And it is always possible
that they may be intersubjectively
experiencable in common."
(*Origin of Geometry*, p. 164)

1. Freud analyzes himself by writing.
2. Freud recommends thereafter that
all writing about psychoanalysis be in
the third person and be scientific and
clinical.
3. He discloses *his* dreams and decides
that analysts thereafter should not do this.
4. This idea accords with the then present
idea of scientific objectivity.
5. Subjectivity remains an acute
philosophical problem.

Poem 168 from Ironic Cinema {click here}
"I hope to be forgiven/
for tedious virtue"

right now on Baghdad Burning {click here}
"He's claiming it's a "stain on our country's honor"... I think not. The stain on your country's honor, Bush dear, was the one on the infamous blue dress that made headlines while Clinton was in the White House... this isn't a 'stain' this is a catastrophe. Your credibility was gone the moment you stepped into Iraq and couldn't find the WMD... your reputation never existed"

Elizabeth McGrath {click here} via Solipsistic {click here}

Jenny kissed me

Leigh Hunt

Jenny kiss'd me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief! who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
Jenny kiss'd me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, well" said the Rabbit, "you had
every reason to think your old friend
still likes you and thinks about you."
"Oh yes," said the Old Gull, "I was
quite sure of that."
They both sat silent for a moment,
listening to the waves.
"Maybe it was an oversight," said
the Rabbit.
"Maybe it was."
With no further comment, the Old
Gull flew off.
The Rabbit looked up and saw the
Old Gull flying by himself, making
a huge ellipsis in the air over
the ocean.
"He's a moody one, that Gull,"
thought the Rabbit. "Takes
everything to heart"
The Rabbit sat there awhile watching
the Gull make circles in the sky. He
liked to do that because he had the
feeling he knew what the Gull
was thinking about by the
way he flew around. But he
realized that probably
wasn't true
Still, watching the Gull in the
sky he could imagine conversations
that might be taking place between
the spoken words, just in gestures.
Often the Gull had told him that
no one is able to say exactly
what they mean, or feel. There
is a code to things that all
beings follow, like songs
that move towards expectable
refrains. Things keep happening,
the gull said,
things answering things.
responding to them whether
they knew it or wanted
them to. There
were always two conversations
going on at the same time,
the Gull explained.
There's the one that is
put into words and another
that is said with gestures
and decisions; sometimes the
gestures and choices were
mute, but the understandable
responses created results
that were not necessarily
being aimed for or were
even desirable.
The Rabbit often
produced an internal
smile when the Gull
would talk this way.
This was because The Rabbit
knew that no one could
ever completely nail down
what was being said in
these covert conversations,
but on the other hand, everybody
kind of knew what the underlying
situation was whether they
were acknowledging, or even
saying something about
some of these things.
The Rabbit had been thinking
so long he had not been
looking around.
The Gull had landed right
beside the Rabbit.
The Gull looked at the Rabbit
and said, "So what have
you been thinking about?"
"I've been thinking about
why you always fly off
as soon as we're having
a conversation. Then, when
you come back, it is as
if we never had a conversation
at all."
The Gull looked at the
Rabbit out of the side
of his eye. Meaning,
even more out of the side
of his eye than usual because
his eyes were on two
sides of his head anyway.
"But I was just trying to explain
that everything is a conversation."
The Gull had said this in a
very raspy voice, making little
effort to hide his irritation.
"I knew that," the Rabbit replied.
"But I am still curious as to
why you fly off."
"You know the answer to that."
"You always say you just like
to fly. But that's like saying
'Why did the Gull cross the harbor?'"
"Now I'm having a Deja Vu," the
Gull said.
"Oh, you're always having Deja Vus,"
the Rabbit answered.

Jan Svenkmajer {click here}
from Vera Little's Homunculus

Solipsistic {click here}
is back.

"Ah, Granny's been dancing with the Trickster again..." {Negative Velocity}{click here}

"The world does not start fair in the race of time: one country has run its course before another has set out or even been heard of. Riches, luxury, and the arts reach their utmost height on one place, while the rest of the globe is in a crude and barbarous state; decline thence-forward, and can no more be resuscitated than the dead. The twelve old Etruscan cities are stone walls, surrounded by heaps of cinders: Rome is but the tomb of its ancient greatness. Venice, Genoa, are extinct; and there are those who think that England has had herday. She may exclaim in the words of Gray's -bard- 'To triumph and to die are mine.' America is just setting out in the path of history, on the model of England, without a language of its own, and
with a continent instead of an island to run its career in- like a novice in the art, who gets a larger canvas than his master ever had to cover with his second hand designs."

William Hazlitt
Aphorisms on Man
LXVIII
first published in
*The Monthly Magazine*
October 1830-June, 1831.

Swept away by a new poem on
A New Broom {click here}

{"and in an automatic reflex, this momentary lapse, this drawl that/
showers me with apathy — this is all we have at the present time;/
and so a pause before we speak, a twitching eyelid,
ugliness/ everywhere..."}

From a review of *Godard: A Portrait
of the Artist at 70* by Colin McCabe
(Bloomsbury, 2003) by Gilberto Perez
(in the *London Review of Books*)
"The present, the first part of *Eloge de
l'amour*, is in black and white, which
belongs to the past; the setting is the
streets of Paris, that of the *nouvelle
vague*. This is a present, fraught with
the past. The second part, the past
is in colour and video: the style of the
present. The second part often repeats
or recalls the first, as if the present
were the original and the past a repetition,
as if the past were recalling the present,
the present resounding in the past...Having
the past follow the present is not the order
in which things happen, but it is the order
in which we get to know their history..."

Thanks to
NQPaOFU85 {click here}

for the link and for blogging the synchronicity
**
Boynton {click here}
commented that This blogpost {click here} 'took her back to drama school.'

Christopher Lydon interviews Jim Behrle {click here}

Stacks of *The Onion* for 6-12 May, 2004
Seen Untaken In Coffee Shop
**
Customer in Coffee Shop Seen Reading
*The Onion* Without Laughing

Really Bad Movies {click here}

from Theodore Adorno, *Minima Moralia*

Normality is death. 56

as quoted by
ululations (Nada Gordon)

Thanks to Boynton {click here}
we have been kindly alerted to very welcome presence of
The Diary of a Nobody {click here}
online

notebook (poem titled *in*): 8/5/86

An infinite state of solid
growth: final season, a
longing unreflected,
a too easily dismissed
rhythm unforgotten. At a slide,
a command

An unrequited sky gives
limited evidence of growth.
It is a photographic match.
This purity of statement,
half-wise, half-hidden,
is less of light than of
approximate definition.
Some unexpected duration
pauses between intervals.
Measurement of light is a
landslide. Precious time.
predicted to the future
essence of all thought,
promises to trace pathways
between types of feelings
and types of color. To
identify all those was a
tremendous privilage. In
hushed tones, provided
subtle clues are disregarded,
certain tasks understood
to represent a gathering
of information would be
brought forward and
reviewed. The concepts
included were: pathos,
regret, solitude, black and
white flim clips, shelves
neatly lined with books,
philosophy is physical.This
awakening is very brief, like
a coffee on the way to work,
a clearing of the throat and
it's already been said, push
this kind of analysis to its
resemblance to a classic
figure.

Simply a kind of pause
for perspective, breath, remembrances
because there were many, there
continue to be many, who would
be the first to suspect that an
envelopment in language could never
completely erase a nostalgic breath
over a sunset or a statue, or
a tribal ornament in a glass box,
or the cafe des invalides, or the
many charming and bohemian shops and cafes
along the Seine. This was never to be
continuously referred to, either
in the form of literary mementos,
or just moments of release listening
to music and smoking at 5 A.M. This
is all still happening, and will very
likely continue to happen for 1000 years,
Vivaldi and Ravel and De Chirico and croissants,
political torment and syntactical paradoxes
first sung by Plato, mirror to tape,
voice to husky song, forever and ever
on the stalls, at the small round tables
in Soho, at the Beauberg, North Beach, Telegraph...

notebook: 2/18/87

Ham, let
Omlette
I'm let

I'm led to believe
Omlette to believe
I'm led.

Poetic mathematics:
All things end (things have their trick)

A beginning is a measure of an end.
This is the end,
Or, like any substance
The end is a trick.

This is a measure.

"May 25

Carrie brought down some of my
shirts and advised me to take them to
Trillip's round the corner. She said:
'The fronts and cuffs are much frayed.' I said
without a moment's hesitation: 'I'm *frayed* they
are.' Lor! how we roared. I thought we should
never stop laughing. As I happened to be sitting
next the driver going to town on the 'bus, I told
him my joke about the 'frayed' shirts. I thought
he would have rolled off his seat. They laughed at
the office a good bit too over it.

May 26
Left the shirts to be repaired at
Trillip's. I said to him: 'I'm
*'fraid* they are *frayed.* He said,
without a smile: 'They're bound to do that, sir.'
Some people seem to be quite destitute of a sense
of humour."

George and Weedon Grossmith
*The Diary of a Nobody*
(first published 1940)

notebook: 2/13/90

My dear world

How can I ive and still be left alone?

Can I care about you, and want to be at home with you
-and still have a part of all this be just for me?

I can't figure out where you end and
I begin- and conversely

Where I end and you begin.

And, as you know, I can't leave
you to go figure things out.

And, God knows, you never go too far away
from me-

That is, except when I need you.

So, can we make a deal that I'll enjoy

you in the gentlest manner possible

and cooperate with as many of the dictates of this
reality that you've presented me with

and you'll give me just a bit more elbow room?

Equanimity (Jordan Davis) {click here} commented today:
"Spent between three and five minutes
wondering whether this culture more
resembles Rome circa say
50 AD or Berlin circa 1935."

Great point. Phillip K. Dick frequently compared
US culture to Rome around 50 AD.

from Diaryo (Jean Vengua) {click here}
There is a colloquy/
of the iron maiden/
there is a question/
of the torture word

notebook (poem: *The Beginning of The End*); circa 1986

The permanent measure is temporary
All this for a singular experience
Lying next to
A book (fill in the letters)
Mr. P.- an obvious limitation
Portentous
Pretentious
Yet an expediency (space for the letters)
Advertises escape from embarassment-

"Now I understand"
Indeterminacy of cause
Lunatic "fringe" is a
Blur out (dismissed
Long ago- by then Amigo,
Coarsened-)

Sooner or later you have to listen to
Somebody or you're all alone
Somebody else if you're all alone
Boom-boom
Boom-boom
Boom-boom

.......(I knew you'd get around to it
sooner or later)

Thank God they don't understand

Ahem,

The permanent measure is democracy
Such that the circuits of clear amounts
Feels nascent slipping into the ordinary
Which is NEVER and has NEVER been anything else but
"All's fair in love and war"
Another way to say Shakespeare (Shakes clear,
Lakes sphere, makes clear)
And all of this is borrowed
Mr. P was accusing
All of this was borrowed

Making a big deal about a lot of things that most people don't care
about at all.

This smacks of the end right away.

Shakes appear.

Excellent surrealist journal LIFT
issues 1& 2, poetry, art, essays
available in pdf format from
Christina Strong's
project page
Download each issue
1 minute each
includes Cid Corman, Aime Cesaire,
Joe Torra, Lori Lubeski, many
others

Musician/poet/disc jockey Tom Kelley
introduced me to this fine band which opened for
his band *Stay Fucked* last year
at the West End Bar near Columbia U

Timber {click here}

An emerging trend in blogging apparently involves
the voluntary confession of lax or
thinly stretched reading habits.

First, we see from Brand New Insects {click here}

Pretending to keep up
Purchased: Vanishing Points of Resemblance by Tom Beckett
Received: The Two Coat Syndrome by Erica Jane Kaufman

7:37 AM | Comments by Squawkbox.tv - Comment

and then from Mappemunde {click here}
*Bad Reading Habits*

The Elsewhere
Golden Treasury of
Pompous Windbags {click here}

Perhaps a great love is never returned.
--Dag Hammarskjold

I remembered this, reading a
friend's manuscript and thinking
of the poet's relationship to
poetry.

Caterina {click here} says
The Italians have (had)
a word for it

Finish Your Links (Brother Tom Murphy) led me to
Pelican Dreaming {click here}

The Poetry Society of America's {click here}
on Monday responded to our
"Lightness" post with a
meditation reminiscent of Francis Ponge.
Thanks also
to Wood s lot {click here}
Never Neutral {click here}
and The Ingredient {click here}
for linking to this piece.
**

"Goodtime Jesus"

A pungent slice from the
Limetree {click here}
for your morning tea (Monday, May 3rd)

notebook: 1/3/88


It is harder to stay with
being a poet, than it is to
keep writing poetry-
just as it is harder
to stay human rather than
just keep living.

1/12/88

Mars distance
varies widely from Sun
right now
its perihelion
closest now
we are flying near
Mars in 47 days
Mars closest to us
in Sept than it has
in 2 decades
Sept- Mars-
a fiery beacon
in the sky
Bright red star in
the East after
midnight

University of Texas
McDonald observatory
Austin, Texas
78712
free publication

I hate writing so called.
You might wonder
why I'm here-
in that case

I hate writing so-called
poetry. I hate the
phoney pretentiousness, the
self-conscious aspiration
of the writer to become
part of history, the
oohs and ahs- the prizes,
awards, the readings.
I probably like only the
clean, crisp books themselves,
not even the words, just
the useless objects- the
lack of pragmatic usefulness.

Blogger Josh Corey wins literary price {click here}

Equanimity (Jordan Davis) {click here} for Friday, April 30th asks:
Why aren't more blogs called "Hamlet's Soliloquy."


Perhaps this comment could more readily directed
towards books of poetry.

In fact, it seems the majority of blogs are more interactive,
dialogic, that is to say, responsive to the literary environment,
than most books of poetry or poems are for that matter.

Reading *Cuban Journal:
A Poet in the Venceremos
Brigade* by Joel Sloman
Zoland Books, Cambridge Mass, 2000
today

"I didn't know/ what the fuck they were talking about/
discussing formal organization/or the need for it/
I guess people's good intentions/
can't be taken for granted/self-discipline/
confused with authority/of leader or
institution/ refusal to discuss reality/
immediate leap to vague abstractions/
mystifications/axes to grind/
my impulse to say/fuck it/
I came here to cut cane/
but that's the deficient way/
I've acted in the past/
no longer acceptable/
current imperative/ to articulate my perspective/"
**
New Blogs Dep't

Due to moving, we've been remiss in publishing our
(((((HOT)))))(((((BLOGS)))))
feature but this new title is irrisistable:

electronic libretti of obscure poet x zen trick {click here}
now (Tuesday, May 4th) known as
xzentrick libretti {click here}