The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Blogger

1.On Friday night I stopped off at the Strand Bookshop
on the way to going to a lecture
by Peter Gay, an historian
well known for his pristine,
excellently written biography of Freud. In
addition to finding an inexpensive hardbound copy
of one of the few books by
Phillip K. Dick that I've never completely read many times,
*The Man In the High Castle*- its premise is
that Germany won the Second World War- how apropos
for 2004 Amerika- I found a copy of Tony Tost's *Invisible
Bride*, which happens to be winner of the 2003 Walt Whitman
Award, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. I love
finding books of poetry by bloggers, and I'm enjoying this
book. First of all, it's prose poetry, which I have a bias
towards, and I liked this part a lot:

"Did you know that Rick James and Neil Young played together
in a band called The Mynah Birds? Did you know that Thomas
Jefferson was once given a 1, 235 hunk of cheese, giving us
the term "the big cheese"? That sleep walkers are not allowed
in the armed services because of the threat they pose when they
have access to dangerous equipment and are unaware of what
they are doing? I have razors hidden through my room, so I'm
curious about what will happen when all the somnabulists get in
there."

(from *The Invisible Bride*, Louisiana State University Press, 2004-
chosen by C. D.Wright).

2. Then I went to the New School to hear a talk given by Peter Gay,
historian, Emeritus Professor at Yale,
about a book he is writing on modernism
(in his view modernists got that way because
they liked to break rules and were obsessed
with subjectivity--interesting--and modernism
still exists, though hardly so, particularly in architecture,
such as the Bilbao Guggenheim- which he says is a
must-see; also, FLW once said that his
New York Guggenheim was the only museum
ever built that made sense.)

I wished I could have brought along my copy of Prof. Gay's
famous biography of Freud, which I love, but most of my
books are as yet unpacked, unbelievably,
because I have so many and have still do not
have my bookshelves built since I moved. They
were selling some other books by Peter Gay
just before the lecture so
I bought a very interesting one titled
*Freud for Historians*. Professor Gay
is one of very few historians who are fascinated by Freud. He has
also written many books about literary history, particularly the
fin-de-siecle, which has interested me for a long time. After the
lecture I asked him to sign my book and he graciously did so (the
line was long, the lecture was packed with at least
150 or more people, mostly psychoanalysts,
since the lecture was sponsored by a psychoanalytic institute.)
After asking him if he liked Shattuck's book *The Banquet Years*
(he did, and if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it-
though not Shattuck's other books)- I asked him quickly
if he intended to write about Schwitters, Arp and the other
Dadaists (he plans to) I then asked him what i was mostly
curious about. He had emigrated from Hitler's Germany
when he was a child. Would he compare the rise of the radical
right wing now to the rise of Hitler's party in Germany?
I said I was particulary concerned because my wife
feels very worried about this. He said, no not at all. No comparison.
Still, he doesn't want to think of this, because he
doesn't want to emigrate again! Then he said, apparently
in response to what I had said about Toni,
"I don't read the newspapers." Someone standing nearby said,
"You don't read the newspapers and you are an historian?"
Then he mentioned briefly Bush's replacement for Ashcroft
and the fact that only 16% of New Yorkers voted for Bush.

When I left I thought: I really don't have to read
*Man in the High Castle* (of course I will)
because we are living it. Talking about
all this with Professor Gay,
I felt like I was in a movie about the Third Reich like
*The Blue Angel.*

Now I'm going to go read a few more pages
of my signed copy of Peter Gay's totally absorbing
*Freud for Historians* (Oxford, 1985), and maybe a
little more of Tony Tost's book too.
***
After reading Tony Tost's *The Invisible Bride*
some more I thought: All we ever had to do was
write about was our differences. Then
we would know each other better and
our similarities would speak for themselves.
..

Poetry and hope have something in common:
over time, inexhaustible, even if you don't understand
and can't explain.

Election Fraud Updates

Are becoming harder to find but this site is excellent:

Truthout {click here}

The video of yesterday's MSNBC program is interesting, but
a very long download.

One must not cheat anybody. Not
even the world of its triumph.


Kafka

***********************************
The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

Prose and photos: *Halloweed*

A post from

Paula's House of Toast {click here}

Penumbra

Thoughout our history,
tyrants and fantatics have inspired
the fearful, boot-licking aspect
of the zetgeist. Its luminous, poetic side has been
temporarily eclipsed by the cratered
satellites of prejudice, self-serving
empowerment and domination

We live in an era of would be Pharoes,
pulling their shabby confidence tricks, their
hollow and hateful gambits
substituted for patiently
accumulated knowledge and wisdom.
Earlier phases of American history
such as FDR's New Deal are now
part of our shared experience.
These successes are tools that can't be
easily eliminated from our political
knowledge of how to address social needs.

It is hard to visualize what forces must emerge to
transition from a society controlled by fear and repression to
one based on social needs. There is
something in human nature
that will not put up, for long, with laws and leaders
whose authority is founded on
hypocrisy and mean spirited oppression.

Things resist manipulation and usually
respond better to a frank and solid grasp.

notebook: 9/12/88
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
*****************************************
"NATASHA: Well, nearly every day there are words which
disappear because they are no longer allowed. In their place, one
must put new words to correspond to the new ideas. And you
know. . . in the last few months...some. . . words have disappeared
that I liked very much.
INSERT: *Let Alpha 60 destroy itself*
LEMMY: Which words?. . . I'm interested...
NATASHA: Robin redbreast. . . to weep. . .
INSERT: *Save all those able to cry*
NATASHA: Autumn light. . .
INSERT: *Tenderness*
NATASHA: Tenderness, also..."

from *Alphaville: a film by Jean-Luc Godard*

En Francais

A site for
Jacques Derrida {click here}

via the indispensable Media TIC {click here}
A little French goes a long way on this rewarding site

This just in from the Suny/Buffalo
Poetics List


This Seems Important-Will Kerry Un-Concede? {click here}

Paranoia
From Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia {click here}

Other common paranoid delusions include the belief that the person is on a special quest or has been chosen by God;

Is A Vote Against Bush A Vote Against God {click here}

reference:Primary delusions {click here}
29 Alcohol withdrawal symptoms include anxiety t sweating t paranoid delusions t loss of memory t tremors

"2. Ambitious Paranoia.After a long period of persecution a change in the symptoms may set in, in some cases, and the intensity of the hallucinations may become modified. At the same time delusions of grandeur begin to appear, at first faintly, but gradually they increase in force until they ultimately supplant the delusions of persecution. At the same time the hallucinations of a disagreeable nature fade away and are replaced by auditory hallucinations conformable to the new delusions of grandeur. Undoubtedly, however, this form of paranoia may commence, so far as can be observed, with delusions of grandeur, in which case there is seldom or never a transformation of the personality or of the delusions from grandeur to persecution, although delusions of persecution may engraft themselves or run side by side with the predominant ambitious delusions.

The emotional basis of ambitious paranoia is pride, and every phase of human vanity and aspiration is represented in the delusions of the patients. There is moreover considerably less logical acumen displayed in the explanations of their beliefs by such patients than in the case of the subjects of persecution. Many of them affect to be the descendants of historical personages without any regard for accurate genealogical detail. They have no compunction in disowning their natural parents or explaining that they have been changed in their cradles in order to account for the fact that they are of exalted or even of royal birth. Dominated by such beliefs paranoiacs have been known to travel all over the world in search of confirmation of their delusions. It is people of this kind who drop into the ears of confiding strangers vague hints as to their exalted origin and kindred, and who make desperate and occasionally alarming attempts to force their way into the presence of princes and rulers. The sphere of religion affords an endless field for the ambitious paranoiacs and some of them may even aspire to divine authority, but as a rule the true paranoiac does not lose touch with earth. The more extravagant delusions of persons who call themselves by divine names and assume omnipotent attributes are usually found in patients who have passed through acute attacks of insanity auch as mania or dementia praecox and are mentally enfeebled.

A not uncommon form of paranoia combining both ambition and persecution is where the subject believes that he is a man of unbounded wealth or power, of the rights to which he is, however, deprived by the machinations of his enemies. These patients frequently obtain the knowledge on which they base their delusions through auditory hallucinations. They are often so troublesome, threatening and persistent in their determination to obtain redress for their imagined wrongs, that they have to be forcibly detained in asylums in the public interest.

On the whole, however, the ambitious paranoiac is not trouble-,

some, but calm, dignified, self-possessed, and reserved on the subject of his delusions. He is usually capable of reasoning as correctly and of performing work as efficiently as ordinary people. Many of them, however, while living in society are liable to give expression to their delusions under the influence of excitement, or to behave so strangely and unconventionally on unsuitable occasions as to render their seclusion either necessary or highly desirable."

{This Just In- Nov. 11

Jonathan Mayhew got his only B from Karl Shapiro in college (click here)}


Vital Wood s lot {click here}-
today celebrated the birthday of
Karl Shapiro, a poet l learned of browsing one day
in the Strand bookshop (couldn't resist a first edtion of a famous poet for
the paltry price of $3.) Shapiro, once a towering figure in American letters,
now a denizen of the bargain shelves. Maybe not such a bad fate for such a
provocative poet, who knows, considering poetry politics on the whole...

from *The Bourgeois Poet* (1964, Random House)

"The best book has a sad finality. The best book closes too
many rooms. the best poem clicks like a box: you have
made yourself a neat little trap, a hideaway with wall-
to wall rhyme. Praises of passers-by, equivalent of
riches. Double feeling of triumph and depression, like
one who has reached the mountain top. He notes with
surprise that he is going down. Better not to think about
it."....

"Your book about my books, which I'm the only reader of. O
book that's absolutely mine, that I didn't have a hand
in. Mirror of my Narcissus years, music box, what if I
stop now? List of notices that brought me nights of
delirium, ecstacy, fury, heartbreak, mirror broken and
magically joined together without a flaw. History of
me which only I can read. And you, my author, what
thanks or regrets shall I give? You took me alive, hands
tied behind, delivered me to the marshal of degrees.
There on the platform where all things fall through, I
went down in operatic flames. In velvet cape and
swirl of pen, I accepted.

Incapacity of sincerity reminds me of an oral question:
Moliere, etait-il sincere? (What in the name of God
is prose?)

Phone book of myself I will call you up."....

"Prove you are less destructive than the poet. Prove that
the great slow prose poem of the analysis does not lead
to the artifical paradise."...

"Posterity is a literary racket. Posterity is a switchboard
to past present, and future. Posterity is an intercom sys-
tem devised by the brain of super-educationalists in far-
away almost nonexistent places like offices. Posterity
lives in the vaults of the nearest insurance company.
Posterity is for the fabulously rich. The poor plant
potatoes in the bathtub and dandle their children and
listen to beery poetry on broken sofas."....

"Younger I dreamed of being a poet whose trash basket was
rifled by scholars. I learned to write trash-basket
poems. But this is closer to my real desire, I'm writing
the poem as much for you as a poem is possible, It
stands there like a half-filled glass, both coming and
going. I'm a bad host. The drinks are too strong; I
don't know how to carve (I say with a grin, I'm left-
handed). This is a poem to sneak at a glance. (I'm
writing it to mean, not be.)"...

"We pick some unsuspecting soul, usually a friend, on whom
to visit a lifetime of frustration. Usually a friend, at one fell
swoop. That's what friends are for."

"The citizens of Nowhere scatter in all directions."...

False hope is the final boundary, the lonely,
lovely shore of all relationships. And there is
a glowing sunset of such sad times.


notebook: 2/8/89
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
(Roof, 1993)
******************************************************

Most Wanted: A Gamble in Verse
by Jeffrey Encke

Mentioned here before, this
is an excellent group of poems
printed handsomely on an illustrated deck of cards.
It remains on my computer desk,
a wonderful item to read and have.

Here's another poem, on the
4 of clubs:

"unable to articulate dread,/
one sees no cause,
assumes no end:"

Here's a review by Laura Carter

New Pages {click here}
**********************************
Way Down South in the Land of Cotton

Hey, Blue State people!
Everybody down south
is not evil; far from it. Don't forget
*The Dixie Chicks*
who stood up courageously to their own
demographic to support
Kerry/Edwards and the Democrats
on tour with The Boss.
And they're a damn fine
band too.

Lets just hope they don't
go broke now.

Dixie Chicks {click here}

from:
Wikipedia: The Dixie Chicks {click here}

President Bush responded to the controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks in an interview with Tom Brokaw on April 24:

"I mean, the Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say. And just because—they shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out. You know, freedom is a two-way street. But I have—don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said. I want to do what I think is right for the American people, and if some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that's fine. That's the great thing about America. It stands in stark contrast to Iraq, by the way."

This just in!

From Mexico to Bombay, today
*fait accompli* goes international...

We have the great pleasure
to announce that our essay
*Bush's Cult-ural Capital and the
Politics of Paranoia*
has been translated into Spanish
by Heriberto Yepez
and is now available on

archivo hache {click here}

¡Esto apenas adentro! Tenemos el gran
placer de anunciar que nuestro ensayo
*Capital cultural de Bush's y la política de la paranoia *
se ha traducido a español y está disponibles
ahora encendido

archivo hache {chasque aquí}

(the above announcement only- translated by
babel fish {click here})
*********************************
here is a letter received today
from Heriberto Yepez
a poet and psychotherapist
living and working
in Tijuana, Mexico
**

hi,

I translated one of your blog posts on my Spanish blog.{*Bush's Cul-tural Captial and the Politics of Paranoia*}

I think you are completely right. We are talking here of the need for a psychotherapeutical cultural poetics. I think I am going to write something on the subject, taking your blog as a reference, because I think this is one of the issues involved in our community: to address something which is obvious: emotional health, disturbances in it, are igniting imperialism and mass self-deception, and as intelllectual/language communities we need to address that...

cultural psychotherapy as part of critical theory. a difficult issue, but one that needs to be dealt with... the US is going 'mad', and Mexico is going the same way... more slowly but certainly we share this loony route...

anyway, thank you for your insights

saludos!,

h.

Incisive

Eschaton {click here}
weighs in today on the distorted vote count in Ohio
***************************************************
None Dare Call it Voter Suppression and Fraud (Nov 8)
International Labor Communications Association {click here}
Also by David Swanson
Media Blackout of Vote Count Problems {click here} Also-other media blackout stories since August
***************************************************
The Online Beat
TTT's Take In Links {click here}

Another Chilling Map, This One Via Bad With Titles {click here}

Michigan Independent Media Center {click here}
********************************

Instant Kind Words for our Bloglink Crush List
All the Way From Bombay

Locana {click here}

((((the))))
(((((fait))))(((((accompli))))
(((((BLOGLINK)))))
(((((CRUSHLIST)))))
(new links)
for November 9, 2004
((((HOT)))))(((((LINKS)))))
(((((TO)))))(((((COOL)))))
(((((SITES)))))


The Coming of the 15th Egret Party {click here}

One Good Bumblebee {click here}

This Is All Your Fault {click here}

PLUNT ‘Ontolog’ {click here}

Zotz {click here}

Narcissusworks {click here}

Blue Revisions {click here}

The Red Dragon and the Black Beast {click here}

LX {click here}

Open Space {click here}

Reinvent Now {click here}

Refried Oracle Phone {click here}

Generally Jammed {click here}

Pedantic Ponderings {click here}

Whimsy Speaks {click here}

Fiber Optic Opium Den {click here}

Archivo Hache {click here}

Hey Hey Hey {click here}

Nobody In The Rain {click here}

Locana {click here}

Chris Murray’s E-Po {click here}

Daniel Nester’s God Save My Blog {click here}

The World A Letter {click here}

The Desert City {click here}

Inquisitions {click here}

Ghost {click here}

Minor American Nation {click here}

Textual Conjectures {click here}



(((((Bloglink))))) (((((Crush)))))(((((List))))) for August {click here}


(((((Bloglink))))) (((((Crush)))))(((((List))))) for June {click here}

"66

Theoretically there is exists a perfect possibility
of happiness: to believe in the indestructible
element in oneself and not strive after it."

Franz Kafka
Reflections on Sin, Pain, Hope and the True Way

Another E- Voting Site

E- Voting News and Analysis {click here}

via Guerilla News Network {click here}

**
Fallujah
"Supported by British forces, up to 15,000 US troops advanced in an offensive expected to involve the most intense fighting that American soldiers have faced since Vietnam".

Independent News {click here}

Tim Peterson's

Analogous Series {click here}

presents

Susan Bee and Charles Bernstein

Saturday, November 13th

in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The art of creating occasions for writing
eventually gets tied in to the entire
system of values a writer lives by.


notebook:7/14/88
published in *The Boundary of Blur*

"Here's the time to imagine your utopia. Shut your eyes,
let your body loose and your mind drift.

What does your perfect world look like?

If you can't picture it, try again. try as if your life
depended on it."

Mark Wallace
*Dead Carnival*
new from Avec Books
As reviewed today on the Suny/ Buffalo Listserv {click here}
***************************

What America Wants vs What Bush Wants

Political Parrhesia {click here}

Bush's Cult-ural Capital and the Politics of Paranoia

Whether or not Bush was re-elected by
means of voting machine fraud and
forms of voter disenfranchisement,
those who are intensely upset with
the ongoing far right wing takeover
in the US feel that way in part because
it is clear the there are signs of
emotional disturbance both in the
President and in the philosophy and
beliefs, policies and behavior of his followers.

There is clearly a flavor of paranoia
to far-right thinking. Nixon, certainly
one of the architects of this movement,
was certainly paranoid; i.e., the constant
audio taping, suspicious thinking,
communist witch-hunting and Watergate.
Paranoia is based,in great part, on sexual repression.
Christian fundamentalist philosophy seems to
eagerly embrace fears of unrestrained
sexuality, while, ironically, their free
market philosophy derives its (short
term) high octane fuel from elements
of sexuality in advertising, and elements
of eroticism fostered by highly charged competitiveness,
which in turn produces fears of castration,
or group rejection or
retribution on another level. These fears
in turn fuel unconscious paranoia. Abortion
must be forbidden because sexuality-
and in particular, homosexuality,
must be strongly repressed by
being consciously and overly firmly connected
with child rearing, parenting and the family. The
supercharged eroticism connected to
increased competitiveness is
split off , denied, and sublimated
into militaristically uniform
participation in the brutal competitiveness
of corporate power mongering and war.

Cult formation is closely tied in
with paranoiac thinking, and
is connected with group
competitiveness, in turn easily
tied in with individual competitiveness
and longings for success, or longing
for feelings and fears of failure to be assuaged
by assurances of coming success. It
is likely that most intensified
fantasies of unlimited success are
connected to grandiosity and conscious
and unconscious desires to ward off
fears of impotence and group
rejection.. Paranoids
long for leaders who derive unlimited
confidence from fantasies of unlimited
power that can be derived from some
even greater power- such as divine power.

Bush believes he and his followers derive power
from God directly. The attacks of 911 gave the
far right an opportunity to expand the
illness of paranoia to ever greater sectors
of the population. Once tied in to the
fantasized future successes of capitalism,
in turn to individual longings for
success, wealth and power, the far
right succeeded in inflicting the self-
propelling illness of paranoia on ever
greater numbers of people. The
question that must be asked now is: how
can cultural mental illness be treated? How
can an entire sector of the population
be freed from a cult infected with paranoia?
The time tested techniques of civil disobedience
and non-violent resistance offer modes of
action that activists may turn to with some degree of
predictability of success within limited areas of applicability.
People with extensive experience with such techniques
recommend strategic thinking and extensive planning in their use:
certainly they are not to be employed impulsively or under the
sway of emotional response to immediate events.
But can current models of "competing" in the
open market of ideas and beliefs
be effective under such circumstances,
public education and the like? The
far right wing has made clear its
rejection of rationality, science,
intellectuality and rational debate.
This has caused further chaos
and confusion among the
mentally healthy portion
of the society. If lecturing,
exhorting, explaining, won't
work, what will? How should
a large, maybe a majority
of the society be related with
by a smaller part, which is
in better health psychologically?
This seems to me to
be one the most important, yet complex
and frustrating tasks facing the remaining
members of society who
still have (of course, in varying degrees,
at various times)
some ability and willingness
to think for themselves.

From A Reader's Contribution
BuzzFlash {click here}

"We have to be like the few in Germany who held on to the truth and their humanity through the darkest times. Like those who worked in the resistance. Who hid Jews at their own peril, because it was the right thing, the sane thing, to do. Who looked at the truth head on and survived with their sanity and their humanity bruised but intact. We have to be Fair Witnesses to the truth around us, never giving in to the easy and comfortable propaganda that let's us off the hook. That starts with a brutally honest look at what just happened."
***********************************************************************************************************************************
Refried Oracle Phone {click here} closes the gap on voter fraud
***************************************************
Evidence Mounts That The Vote Was Hacked

Common Dreams.org {click here}
************************************************
Want More?...

A little time travel on

Diebold's Political Machine

Mother Jones {click here}

via Buzzflash {click here}
*************************************************
More...
Global Research {click here}
via Suny/Buffalo Poetics List
***************************************************
Simply Had It?

The Scoop on Immigrating Into Canada

Caterina {click here}

Bush as Cult Leader on a Murderous Rampage to "Cleanse" the world
Check out the definitions on *Cults 'r Us*

Cults 'R Us {click here}

"In a thousand years/if there's History/
America'll be remembered/as a nasty little Country/
full of Pricks.../Fascism in America:-/...Civilization's
breaking down!"

Allen Ginsberg
Fall, 1970
*The Fall of America*
City Lights, 1972

Disappointment

Baghdad Burning {click here}
****************************

ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
United for Peace and Justice {click here} | 212-868-5545
============================================
Speak Out Against the Imminent Assault on Falluja!
* contact your local media outlets to denounce the planned attack
* call the White House to express your outrage: 202-456-1111
* get ready for street protests should the full-scale assault begin
============================================

Does the Bush administration plan to destroy Falluja in order to save it?

News reports indicate that the Bush administration will soon launch a major military assault on Falluja. More than 10,000 U.S. soldiers are amassing on Fallujah‚s outskirts, and U.S. warplanes are already bombing neighborhoods around the city.

If the U.S. carries out this assault, it will dramatically increase violence and chaos in Iraq. It will not bring about the peace and security that Iraqis greatly desire. The military occupation has already fueled anger and resentment against the U.S. and swelled the ranks of terrorist groups. We need to bring the troops home now and adopt a new approach that will move us toward peace, sovereignty, and security.

Military officials believe Falluja is the home of the nation-wide insurgency. Their goal in this assault is to induce other insurgent-held cities to capitulate before scheduled elections in January, and send a message to all Iraqis that opposition to the occupation has a high price.

U.S. officials and U.S.-installed Prime Minister Allawi say their only goal is „to liberate the people and to bring the rule of law to Falluja.‰ But when the U.S. military besieged Falluja last April, at least 600 Iraqis were killed, most of them civilians. Given the scale of the threatened assault, far more Iraqi civilians could be killed this time around, as well as many U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.

We will be sending you more information, resources, and calls to action should Falluja in fact suffer a major attack. But in the meantime, we urge you to begin raising a loud public outcry against the Bush administration‚s planned assault.

TAKE ACTION!

* CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MEDIA OUTLETS
Flood your local media outlets with messages of opposition to the impending assault on Falluja. Write letters to the editor and send in opinion pieces. Call in to your local talk radio stations. Ask reporters if they would like to interview an anti-war activist.

* TELL PRESIDENT BUSH YOU OPPOSE THE ASSAULT ON FALLUJA
- Call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1111. The switchboard operator will likely forward you to the White House comment line, but you can only leave a message there Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. If you can‚t get through, leave your message with the operator. It‚ll make it to the President.
- Leave a webmail message at https://sawho14.eop.gov/PERSdata/intro.htm . Be sure to select „write a differing comment,‰ „National Security,‰ and „Iraq.‰

* GET READY FOR STREET ACTION
If the assault on Falluja or any other major military escalation takes place in Iraq, we will need to be as visible and vocal as possible with our antiwar message. Make sure your group or organization is aware of what's happening; start planning local protest activities and post them on our calendar: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar_gxinput.php

If you are not already in a group, visit the UFPJ web site to locate an organization near you: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=27

* KEEP ABREAST OF DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ
Get up-to-date news from Iraq at http://www.occupationwatch.org/ . Be sure to join Occupation Watch‚s email list.

For more information on the Falluja build-up, see these articles:
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7608
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=7534

===========================================
DON‚T MOURN, ORGANIZE
Disgusted by Bush‚s election? Get active!
* Visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org for links to events and groups
* Order our „Say No to the Bush Agenda‰ flags and shirts at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/merchandise
* Donate at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/donate to enable us to keep fighting back
===========================================
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email
===========================================

--

I Hate This Rotten World- But I'm Still Happy About This:
Two Bloggers Have Reviewed My Chapbook *Hegelian Honeymoon*

In the past few days, two bloggers, one who I've met in person
only once, and the other whom I've only met online have
reviewed my tiny book of 18 haiku. I couldn't bring myself
to tell you all something I'm glad about but I can't resist
one more moment. Thanks, Ernesto Priego and thanks,
Jay Thomas.

*Much More Than An Avalanche of Words*
Never Neutral (Ernesto Priego) {click here}


*hegelian honeymoon, memory*

Bad With Titles {click here}

Thanks also to Evelio Rojas for his "Warming Thoughts"
about *Hegelian Honeymoon*
Blindheit {click here}

"In the age of the concentration camp, castration
is more characteristic of social reality than
competitiveness."


Theodore Adorno
Quoted in *Adorno*
by Martin Jay


pubished in *Theoretical Objects* (Green Integer, 1999)
************************************************************
A message from Heriberto Yepez

Mexperimental {click here}
************************************************************
Post-Election Blues

Talking it over with Tim Peterson

Mappemunde {click here}l

Shoddy Wares


"The world is dosed with too much religion. Life is to
be learned from life, and the professional moralist is
at best but a manufacturer of shoddy wares. At the
ultimate remove, God or the life force, if anything,
is an equation, and at its nearest expression for man-
the contract social- it is that also. Its method of
expression appears to be that of generating the
individual, in all his glittering variety and scope,
and through him progressing to the mass with its
problems. In that end a balance is invariably
struck wherein the mass subdues the individual
or the individual the mass- for the time being. For,
behold, the sea is ever dancing or raging.

In the mean time there have sprung up social words
and phrases, expressing a need of balance- of
equation. These are right, justice, truth, morality,
an honest mind, a pure heart- all words meaning
a balance must be struck. the strong must not be too strong-
the weak not too weak. But without variation how could the
balance be maintained? Nivana! Nirvana! The ultimate,
still, equation."


from *The Titan*
Theodore Dreiser
(1914)

Cooperation and Destiny

After the attacks of 9/11/01, much of my
thought got focused around the concept
of competition. At the time it seemed
incredibly urgent to try to understand
this concept, because the situation is
increasingly a threat to human survival.

Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex
might be the basis for a further understanding
of this all important issue. Freud believed that
the Oedipus Complex was based on early
childhood sexual jealousy of the same sex
parent, competitiveness that led to unconscious rage and
murderous aggression. This could only
be neutralized by understanding and gentle
and receptive handling on the part of the
parents; otherwise the child might continue
to suffer from fears of castration as a result
of projected aggression.

Part of the difficulty in conceptualizing a theory
of competition is connected to a limitation in the
contemporary concept of cooperation that binds it to
the idea of team effort. Most cooperation is
only slightly removed from the force of'
competitiveness because team effort
is invariably related to contests. Elections
are contests. Even most scientific work
is done by teams under the aegis of particular
corporations or universities, or other
institutions that encourage, expect
and demand team competitiveness.

Almost universally there exists the idea
of open competition as a positively
motivating spirit. But there is little idea
of free and open cooperation as a motivating
spirit. It is urgent for the survival of humanity
that an concept of cooperation
should come to be understood
as an exciting and motivating
source of energy, in the sense of
an enthusiastic, open exchange
of ideas leading and guiding each other towards the
germination and fertilization
of discoveries, and, ultimately, strengthening
transformations, particularly in the realm
of human relationships, and the human relationship
to the non-human environment.
********************************************************
Bringing cooperation further into play
in human work, of course, would not
and could not eliminate competitive feelings.
To return briefly to the Oedipal Complex
mentioned above, competitive feeling
is part and parcel in the "arena" of
sexuality. Since notions of sexuality
are being transformed over time, fundamentalists
of all stripes long for a return to a less
complicated way of life. Since this is
not truly possible, regression has brought
about increased focus on feelings
and issues surrounding competition,
which in turn have brought about
increased conflicts engendering
anger, rage, and ever-increasing extremely
and dangerously threatening
cycles of aggression, violence and
destructiveness. This is a dangerously
transitional era; because of these circumstances
there is an urgent, even desperate need
to understand the underpinnings of
cooperative effort. The gender issues
underlying this, in turn, necessitate
an evolution of the complexities
in the working relationships between men
and women, men and men and women and women.
In turn, this involves much greater empathy
in listening and understanding the "other."
The urgency in bringing this understanding about
cannot be exagerrated. Those that are
capable of obtaining insight into this
dilemma and helping others to explore
and communicate about this have a great
opportunity to bring about much needed
amelioration of painful conflict, that in turn
can evolve hopefulness and real change.
Weblogs like transdada (kari edwards) {click here}
offer invaluable information and observations
demonstrating how just how urgent
these issues have become.

A Day in the Life of An Ongoing Apocalypse

Early this morning I thought about what to
post on *fait accompli* after a devastating
night like last night. Then I remembered
the writing of Susan Smith Nash, whose
grasp of unrequited love on the grand
scale such as we have just witnessed is
something that might help a bit. I couldn't
get into Blogger and had to leave early for the day
and I just got home. Here's a little SSN style
balm for apocalyptic agony-as much as I can type
in right now before a very late 9:30 pm dinner.

from *Channel-Surfing the Apolcalypse: a day
In the life of the fin-de-mlllennium mind* by
Susan Smith Nash (Avec Books, 1996)

"That night, she couldn't sleep. So, she sat in front of
her computer, staring for hours into the lifeless,
blue-gray screen, wondering what kind of pull it had
over her. If anything, it was the pull and promise of
communication- the possibly vain hope that words
were made of the stuff of stars and not of lifeless
moon or fallen earth.

If she could construct a moon and stars with her
words, she would put life back into the moon, and
a simple, quiet hope in his heart- that any time they
fall prey to the fluctuations of lunar tides or earthly
perturbations, they could sit outside on a patio,
drink champagne, devour quesadillas, watch the
moon rise, and feel its gravity pull love back into
their minds and hearts.

Perhaps it was too much to ask of an inanimate hunk
of rock- of a moon, a pile of space debris, or any
other satellite.

That night, the tides in Tampa set a record high as
a tropical storm dissolved itself over its beaches,
leaving a sky as moonlit as memory trapped in the
heart of pain and separation."
*******************************************************
One In the Hand


Need a break from the pundits and talking heads?
Try a little poetry- a little thought-provoking poetry, that is

Mappemunde (Tim Peterson} {click here}

Zogby's Final Prediction

Electoral College Landslide for Kerry

311 votes for Kerry
213 for Bush

a couple of states still in play, according to Zogby

Zogby {click here}

Buzzflash Early Exit Polls {click here}

**************

The Elephant Never Forgets- To Cheat {click here}

Election Protection Hotline:
1-866-MYVOTE1 to report problems
1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for immediate legal assistance
via Eschaton {click here}
*******************************************************
CNN is Over If You Want It

Air America Radio {click here}
************************************************************

After the first step you forget the steps.


published in *Theoretical Objects* (Green Integer, 1999)
**************************************************************

Zogby's latest poll- Kerry's ahead in 4 pivitol states {click here}
***********************************************
A huge number of Americans, after spending today worrying about
who will be elected President, will spend tomorrow worrying how
to pay their bills
Working Poor in the US {click here}
***********************************************
Blogs Underreported in Mainstream Media-Eminem releases Anti-Bush Video (Underreported.com) {click here}

Structure is strong. This is why it seems beautiful.
But the beauty is not in the structure. It is in the
particularity.



notebook: 1/1/88
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*'
(Roof, 1993)
***************************************************
The Vogue for Literary Time Travel Continues

Cahiers de Corey {click here}
discovers Alan Davies' 1990 book Candor (O Press) {click here}

OOO That Sha- hakespearian Rag

Saturday afternoon's reading at the Bowery Poetry Club
was excellent. David Larsen, who was introduced with an original
flarf poem by Mr. Flarf himself, Gary Sullivan, and who performs his work
without a script, seemed to emanate a Shakespearian
quality, according to audience member Gilbert Adair-
we agreed! Funny, witty, charming, relevant, enigmatic,
the audience response indicated that with Larsen on
the BPC stage, a good time was clearly had by all
including, by the way-psst-James Sherry, publisher of
Roof Books {click here}
whose Segue Foundation sponsors the series that will reach
its 30th birthday in two years; Hassen-
introduced by Nada Gordon by means of some quite wittily
employed physics texts very recently cribbed from the
WWW, set the stage for the Holloween festivities by evoking
narrratives from the Salem witch trials, with a sardonically satiric
and mysteriously charismatic reading style rife
with rich contemporary political implications-
presented us also with some timely political either/ors that
offered some apt comic relief from the unbearably
suspenseful tensions building up as we approach political ground zero
on November 2cd.
**********************************************************
Daylight Savings Day Time Travel

Blogger hipster David Hess is back on the scene again,
at the moment with a bit of poetics time travel by means of
Wallace Stevens, and-wow- Ron...not Silliman
but Padgett's poetry anthology, co-edited in the late 60's
by David Shapiro- Hess evokes hilarious and
wise Ted Berrigan, Clark Coolidge, DA Levy and others

Heathens in Heat {click here}

An interesting article about John Kerry

About John Kerry {click here}

from
The Samhain Page {click here}

via $xaverenah$ {click here}<./a>
*****************************************
Front Room Gallery Presents:
Political Advertisement VI

Monday, November 1st at 8:00 pm

Muntadas and Marshall Reese will present their latest edition of Political Advertisement VI 1952-2004. This one-hour, 15 minute videotape spans 50 years of Presidential campaign spots. This is the sixth version in an ongoing twenty-year project, which Muntadas and Reese have revised, expanded, and updated with every major election.

This fascinating anthology, includes advertisements from the 2004 presidential campaign. It documents the selling of the American presidency. As Muntadas and Reese trace the development of the TV "spot" what emerges is the political strategy and manipulative marketing technique of the American televisual campaign process.
Political Advertisement includes many rare spots, some never before seen, edited without commentary. An endless stream of candidates, from Dwight Eisenhower to John Kerry, is paraded in public and sold like commercial products.


The Front Room is at 147 Roebling St.
(on the corner of Roebling and Metropolitan).
www.frontroom.org
For more information please contact:
Daniel Aycock
Director
(718) 782-2556
daniel@frontroom.org

This Just In- Further Translations and Commentary on my
Chapbook *Hegelian Honeymoon* from Friends in Mexico   

Warming thoughts from Evelio Rojas:
La Luna De Miel Hegellana Continúa

Blindheit: clairty is overrated {click here}

Thanks, Evelio!
****
And still another Miel Hegeliana translation from Ernesto Priego
who, as well as being very kind is
Never Neutral {click here}

Luna de miel Hegelian

Ernesto Priego Never Neutral {click here} (scroll down) has generously translated
and posted a poem (*The Thief of Time*) from my new
chapbook of haiku, *Hegelian Honeymoon*, into Spanish.

Ernesto Priego has translated a number of other works of mine, happily still
available here
Never Neutral {click here}
and here (scroll down) Never Neutral {click here}

(my chapbook
*Hegelian
Honeymoon*
(18 Haiku)
is available
from
Chax Press 101 W.
Sixth St.,
Tucson,
AZ 85701
(handsewn
$10
includes
book rate
postage
add $4
for priority
mail)
*****************************************
One Of Those Offers You Can't Refuse

FROM THE DESK OF DR. SHELLEY KEATS
DIRECTOR, POETRY IMPLEMENTATION
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF METAPHOR AND
PATHETIC FALLACY, DAKAR, PARNASSUS
PHONE: 00221 523 4715

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL!

DEAR FRIEND,

Based on the information gathered from the Ministry of Metaphor and Pathetic
Fallacy, we intend to solicit your assistance on this transaction with you
on the assumption that you will not disappoint us.

We have Twenty Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Poems (US
street value $25,500,000) which we have collected over time from
over-inflated anthologies in my war-torn country's Pantheon of Immortal
Poets.

We are seeking your assistance and permission to remit these poetries into
your account or any other nominated account you can provide for us. Your
commission will be 20% of the total syllabic count, 10% for allusive
gratuities, and the remaining 70% is for my colleagues, myself, and of
course the Muse.

Could you please notify me by coded villanelle of your acceptance to carry
out this transaction? Kindly and urgently, acknowledge the receipt of this
poetry by sending to me by email a copy of this letter with your private
ISBN and Library of Congress numbers. I shall in turn inform you of the
modalities for a formal application to secure the necessary approvals for
the immediate release of these poetries into your account.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Yours faithfully,
Dr. Shelley Keats



CC: Mikhail Horowitz
***********************************************
The above completely bona fide offer
is reproduced with the kind permission of
Vernon Frazer
**
as published on the
SUNY/BUFFALO poetics list
received by Mr Frazier from
Mikhail Horowitz

Saturday, October 30th in New York, New York
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, North of Houston
The Segue Series, curated by Nada Gordon
and Gary Sullivan

David Larsen and Hassen read
4 -6 pm
**************************************
In Cambridge, Massachusetts
Home of the victorious Red Sox
and home state of the next President
of the US

Jack Kimball, Brenda Iijima, Christina Strong
at The Analogous
Series {click here}

The ::fait accompli:: 2004 Oxymoron of the Year Award

Today, the Pentagon stated, that they will report further soon, as
to the missing explosives at Al-Qaqa in Iraq:

"We will release further facts about what may have happened."

"Facts" about what "may have" happened?
I guess these "facts" are anybody's guess.

Things only appear to be what they are
until much later. By that time they are
so tied in with other things that they
are indistinguishable from other things.



published in *Theoretical Objects*
(Green Integer, 1999)

Les Webb (Negative
Velocity {click here} reports on a sad loss to contemporary science fiction
****************************************************************

The Red Dragon and the Black Beast {click here}
is inspiring. Check it out!

**
kari edwards, Sheila Murphy, Rachel Kendrick, Harry K. Stammer, Lanny Quarles, others...
as is {click here}
is on a roll.

This Just In

Pollster John Zogby {click here}
announced tonight on the Jon Stewart show
that, based on his polls, he predicts that John Kerry will win the
presidential election on November 2cd.

Then he admitted, that if he is wrong,
he will curl up in a fetal position for
two days.

Good prediction- funny guy!

Can't Wait

Less toleration of ambiguity in everyday life, more
craving for it in literature.

Speed of resolution of frustration in life,
however, makes it harder and harder to accept
uncertainty anywhere. The inability to absorb it
creates at the same time the craving. Substitutes are
sought. But as Freud frequently pointed out, an
enemy can't be slain in effigy.

When once suspense was the literary method
of choice in the use of ambiguity (or uncertainty)
now suspense is used as a sugar-coated or
aspertame-coated form of ambiguity. Instead of
depicting the fact that nobody knows what's going on
we are given the option of thinking- for awhile-
that nobody knows what's going on yet...





published in *Theoretical Objects*
(Green Integer, 1999)
************************************************
More very soon about two books just out from *Avec*

>Mark Wallace's long awaited important new novel
*Dead Carnival*

"Mark Wallace writes llike
John Hawkes dreaming of
Paul Bowled having a gothic
nightmare." Ronald Sukenick(!!!!)

also just out from *Avec*,
from an excellent poet:

>Dennis Barone
*The Walls of Circumstance*
*******************************
Friday, Oct. 22, 8:00 p.m.
Epic Arts Teahouse
1923 Ashby Ave. @ MLK, Berkeley
(Right across from Ashby BART)
$5-$10 sliding scale
EPIC Arts {click here}
Mary Burger performs poetry with piano, strings, and percussion accompaniment
Alex Cory presents Appalachian alt-country originals
Tanya Brolaski sings heartbreaking honky-tonk country

What is more foregrounded- the facts or the feelings about the event?



notebook: 4/2/92
published in *The Boundary of Blur*

Two of my very favorite authors
have nre books out from
Post-Apollo press. I plan
to order both of them very soon-
and discuss them here.

Laura Moriarty
*Self-Destruction*

and

Joan Retallack
*Memnoir*

call
1 800-869-7553
email: spdbooks.ort

Dreiser's Narcissistic Titan


Dreiser's *Trilogy of Desire* consists of three books: *The Financier*,
*The Titan* and *The Stoic* (1912, 1914; *The Stoic completed
posthumously in 1947). The main character is Frank
Cowperwood (surely a reference to Dickens' David
Copperfield, who is the antithesis to Dreiser's character),
who is a financial speculator with criminal tendencies.
Cowperwood is a depiction of the
classic narcissistic personality disorder-
manipulative, power-driven, lacking in conscience,
or any balance between personal desire and caring for others.
Essentially, Cowperwood’s caring is completely directed towards
his own appetites and needs. Secondly, Cowperwood is depicted
as revealing a form of narcissism that
directs him unconsciously towards the cultivation of a
spectacularly driven personality which longs for, and
must compulsively attain, a great deal of self-sufficiency and
and control over his environment. Since others
are needed for his physical and emotional cravings
he can often be dependent, but he is careful to rotate
his victims.

Dreiser is very apt reading for this current era because
he consistently focuses on manipulativeness, power
and greed. Dreiser demonstrates that power-
driven individuals are action oriented, and are greatly
concerned with how they are viewed in the world, and
therefore are obsessed with personal accomplishment.
There is a Nietzchian side to Dreiser, in that he well
understands the relationship between accomplishment,
the will to power, and the forces of circumstance. Thus:
"The impediments that can arise to baffle a great and
swelling career are strange and various. In some
instances all the cross-waves of life must be cut by the
strong swimmer. With other personalities there is a chance,
or force, that happily allies itself with them; or they quite
unconsciously ally themselves with it, and find that
there is a tide that bears them on. Divine will? Not
necessarily. there is no understanding of it. Guardian
spirits? There are many who so believe, to their
utter undoing. (Witness Macbeth.) An unconscious
drift in the direction of right, virtue, duty? These are
banners of moral manufacture. Nothing is proved;
all is permitted." (from *The Financier*.)

People under the sway of narcissistic personality disorder
are uniquely charismatic, as is Dreiser's Cowperwood
character. Others are ineluctably drawn to their fascinating charm
that is greatly enhanced by their breathtaking tendency
to take risks, to accomplish vast projects (often by shrewdly
exploiting and manipulating others), and by their larger
than life personal profile. While life appears to many, if
not most, as on ongoing struggle against insecurity and
implacable external forces, the narcissistic personality
appears, at most times, to be a supremely confident master
and manipulator of those same universal external forces
that appear to so frequently trouble, overcome or even dwarf less
towering personalities. The ability to fascinate others and
obtain their consistent admiration without appearing to
truly need others, while at the same time using and
exploiting them, is a literally compelling story, a story
of vast compulsions and historic dimensions.

Love and knowledge accumulate. Time and actions don't.



Notebook: 1/30/92
Published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
*****************************************

Fahrenheit 911 for free {click here}

The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

"Still writing my paper for tomorrow's panel on witchcraft..."


Never Neutral (Ernesto Priego) {click here}
***************************************************

Thoughts are an intrusion, but not that much
of an intrusion. What is a true invasion is a
misperception, a falsehood, a lie.


notebook: 1/1/88
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*

Notes from *The Aztec Empire* Show
10/22/04

Guggenheim Museum- E. 89th & 5th Avenue
Half price- $9 Friday after 6pm
THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM EXAMINES THE ART AND
LIFE OF THE AZTECS
Friday, October 15, 2004–Sunday, February 13, 2005


*
Since the truly fictive is only a relatively small part of fiction,
the "fiction" of fiction is itself a fiction.

*
The sequence of societal developmental phases.
*
A sculpture with layers of faces, one opening
out on the other by means of small doors,
like Chinese boxes.
*
The Aztec warrior is in the
shape of a bird, a armored angel.
*
Faces that are looking out at a world
invisible to ordinary consciousness,
available only to shamanic consciousness.

*
The "compelling" aspect of cruelty and
authoritarianism. Authoritarian domination.
A single word: power.

*
The sun is the origin of all that
is compelling. Energy- the
relationship between energy
and power.

*
Relief one
The 5 ages
1400-1521

*
Life-Death Figure
ca 1400-1520
Brooklyn Museum

*
Quetzacoatl
1500
Serpent with exposed
menacing teeth
chin sitting low to
the ground- overgrown
with vines-
Looking down into
another dimension
with insect/incisor teeth
over his teeth (fierce)

*
Passionate submission
to a greater power-
Bush's critics like
Pat Robertson-
who won't be robbed
of *their* private acess
to God- the ancient battle
for exclusive entitlement-
to God -access

*
Evil monsters play
a significant role in the
process of introducing brutality.
*

Dragons- and dominating'
cruelty- (Aztec aspect)
*
The horror of the open-mouthed
being- The "scream"

*
(Incredible sculptures)
The faces of dogs, rabbits, toads
looking out there at the "other"
dimension- locusts, grasshoppers,
fleas, also looking at the
same dimension.
*

The Aztecs- two classes- with wealth
-which must be exhibited- and
with no wealth permitted- the second includes
tradespeople and workers-
the far right dream?
The ultimate dream of all
addicts of power-
yourself and your slave/worshippers
*

the wind-god
Ehecatl
1300
1500

Bearer with Mask {click here}

The origin of the Greek wind-god AILOS
on Tinos, Greece-windy Tinos, where
we escaped the scorching heat one summer
only to listen to the window-shutters
of our hotel room bang
throughout the night- finally I had to tie
them back with boating-twine purchased
at a local store
*

Anthropomorphic mask
1325-1481

*
The cutting edge of narrative often turns
to blood- and is fascinated by monsters.



notebook: 6/14/87
published in *The Boundary of Blur*
*

The Aztec Empire-
press release- with photo {click here}

New York mag- metro.com review- with photo of Mictlantecuhtli {click here}

Keith Haring
New Wave Aztec-Sackler Center Oct 22 '04-Feb 6 '05 {click here}
**************
Robert Smithson's art was very influenced
by his interest in Mayan and Aztec imagery.
Check out his many fascinating writings on
his visits to Mexico-
in particular his *Mirror Displacement* piece in
his collected essays:
Robert Smithson {click here}

Yucatan Mirror Displacements {click here}

Smithson's films are also available to download and view on this excellent site!

**************
Jerome Rothenberg's translations
of Aztec poetry, originally published in
*Technicians of the Sacred*

"in the bark



tree of old age



stone patterns: starting

from the roots they

reach the highest leaves"

now on Ubu Web {click here}
**************
Mixtec Death God {click here}

*************
Frida Kahlo's Aztec influences-
also, a good essay on Aztec history on this site, especially in terms of gender imagery {click here}
*************
Further afield:
2004 Crop Circles
and Aztec imagery:
Crop Circles {click here}

Rev. William E. Alberts, Ph.D. is a hospital chaplain. Both a Unitarian Universalist and a United Methodist minister, he has written research reports, essays and articles on racism, war, politics and religion.

talking here-on *Counterpunch*- about GW Bush and
Faith-based Deceptions {click here}

via, the irrepressible, wood s lot (Mark Woods){ click here}
********************************
later today: notes on the *The Aztec Empire*
now on view at the Guggenheim
********************************
Both Mitch Highfill and Lori Lubeski
offered superb readings yesterday afternoon
at the Bowery Poetry Club. An amazing bonus:
reading by Joe Elliot and Mitch of a wonderful
collaboration they've been doing, based on
a book of riddles from the Middle Ages.
These riddles poems were so engaging
most of the audience (most notably, Nada Gordon
and Sharon Mesmer, ) could not resist enthusiastically shouting
out their "answers"
Ah, if you weren't, you shoulda been there!

from Mitch Highfill's recent chapbook *Koenig's Sphere*
from *Situations, New York*

from
"18."

"Try that with no arms
or legs, and in your head
what you're not supposed to
feel, taking shapshots at
the fountain, another
original idea- flutes
into headphones, zebra
stripes and white concrete.
excuse me, sir, do yo ahve
a light? Yes, I am only
light..."

coming soon ��������on *fait accompli*

Visiting or living in Manhattan? Definitely check out
the just opened sure to be blockbuster *The Aztec Empire*
at the Guggenheim Museum before the lines get
long-half the $18 admission ater 6pm on Friday night.
More on this soon...as well as
*Chain 11* (edited by Juliana Spahr and Jena Osman),
*Louis Zukofsky and the Poetry of Knowledge* by
Mark Scroggins (U of Alabama Press, 1998) {click here},
and *Metropolis: The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire* by Robert Fitterman (Edge Books, 2004) {click here}
*Koenig's Sphere* by Mitch Highfill (Situations, 2003)

The Angel of History

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken.
Stephen Daedalus (James Joyce)

We learn from history that we do not learn from history.
Hegel

There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy,
but I'll never see it.
George W. Bush, to Catholic leaders at the White House, Jan. 31, 2001

from "Theses on the Philosophy of History":

A Klee painting named "Angelus Novus" shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead. and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.
Walter Benjamin


Humanity, taken hostage on the Ship of State, faces one vast storm after another.
Like exhausted sailors, who, from time to time are afforded a quiet moment of solitude
on the deck, they are permitted to imagine they can see beyond the whitecaps and the
angry clouds. If a bird is sighted, a lonely sailor shouts for joy from the topmast
to the crew below.

Longing and hoping beyond hope to dock this
creaking ship, again and again the passengers, the captain and the crew
are deluded that they have sighted a speck of land. A few have even
visualized and described this place, now felt to be by many,
if not most, to be a myth, a dream,
a fool's utopia at best.
The weary and cynical captain feeds these hollow hopes.

More and more the members of the crew, and not a few passengers, in secret at first,
and now more and more openly discuss mutiny. The captain again and again
placates all and each in repeated speeches from the helm, that God assures him
that he knows the way to solid ground. Now openly among
themselves, a few who still hold to hopes of sanctuary
and survival, remembering the remaining,
scant images from times long past of happiness and prosperity, speak of the
captain as mad and crazed.

But many, terrorized by the listing, turning and creaking
of the aging ship, by the enormous waves and
awful storms, hold anxiously to their faith in
the captain, who himself holds fearfully
to his vaunted faith in a white-haired, bearded deity above
who, he says, whispers wise thoughts to him
in desperate prayers and hapless dreams.

One among them comes forth who openly
decries the captain and counsels mutiny
and offers to take the helm. The passengers
and crew are evenly divided; the grumbling
continues. The storms and fears rage on and on.
With no land in sight,
where is courage and counsel to be discovered but in
history, where numberless insane
leaders have have so often
been shamefully exiled and
exposed for what they were?
*******************************
Michael Maschka Das Narrenschiff {click here}
via Phaneronoemikon (Lanny Quarles) {click here}
Paul Klee Angelus Novus {click here}

Actions make things happen; but patience make them smile.






published in *Theoretical Objects* (Green Integer, 1999)

Nice to have
{lime tree} (Kasey Silem Mohammad) {click here}
back isn't it?

Today he brings us a fine idea:
Speakfirst. Org {click here}

Looking for the root, I forgot the sun.




notebook: 9/20/88
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
(Roof, 1993)
**************************************
"Stressed spelled backwards is
desserts."

Susan Ellman {click here}

The truth is what we must repeat. The facts
are what we must accept. This is why
the truth is poetic and the facts journalistic.



notebook: circa 1990
published in *The Boundary of Blur*
and *Witz* (1992)

Drum roll, rubberband horn, flute, metaphors, fingertaps, clarinet, warbles, poetic parataxis, guitars, enter:


Drew Gardner's Poetics Orchestra-Bowery Poetry Club, Friday Nov 5 {click here}
********************************************************************************************
*Trinkets Mashed Into A Blender*

Sound good to you?

New ebook by Tim Peterson
right now on

Fauxpress.com/e {click here}
****************************************
"CONCERNING MYCTEROPERCA BONACI"

"There is a certain fish, the scientific name of which is Mycerteroperca
Bonaci, its common name is Black Grouper, which is of a
considerable value as an afterthought in this connection, and
which deserves to be better known. It is a healthy creature, growing
quite regularly to a weight of two hundred and fifty pounds, and lives a
comfortable, lengthy existence because of its very remarkable ability to
adapt itself to conditions. That very subtle thing which we call the
creative power, and which we endow with the spirit of the beatitudes, is
supposed to build the moral life in such fashion that only honesty
and virtue shall prevail. Witness, then , the significant manner in which it has
fashioned the black grouper. One might go far afield and gather the forceful
indictments- the horrific spider spinning his trap for the unthinking fly;
the lovely Drosera (Sundew) using its crimson calyx for a smothering-pit
in which to seal and devour the victim of its beauty; the rainbow-colored jellyfish
that spreads its prisoned tentacles like streamers of great beauty only to
sting and torture all that falls within their radiant fields. Man himself is busy
digging the pit and fashioning the snare, but he will not believe it. His feet
are in the trap of circumstance; his eyes are on an illusion.

Mycteroperca moving in its dark world of green waters is as fine
an illustration of the constructive genius of nature, which is not
beatific, as any which the mind of man may discover. Its great superiority
lies in an almost unbelievable power of simulation, which relates solely to the
pigmentation of its skin. In electrical mechanics we pride ourselves on our
ability to make over one brilliant scene into another in the twinkling of an eye,
and flash before the gaze of an onlooker pcture after picture, which appear
and disappear as we look....What would you say was the intention of the
overruling, intellilgent, constructive force which gives to Micteroperca this
ability? To fit it to be truthful? To permit it to present an invarying appearance
which all honest life-seeking fish may know? Or would you say that subtlety,
chicanery, trickery were here at work?...Would you say in the face
of this that a beatific, beneficent creative, overruling power never wills that
which is tricky or deceptive? Or would you say that this material seeming
in which we dwell is itself an illusion? If not, whence then the Ten
Commandments and the illusion of justice? Why were the beatitudes dreamed
of and how do they avail?"

Theodore Dreiser
*The Financier*
*Trilogy of Desire, Volume 1*
1912

The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

Reflecting the richness of blogs
Blindheit {click here}
tracks A New Broom {click here}
recalling the wealth in seasons.

Movement- centrality of movement in physical reality
focusses attention on those aspects of experience that
occupy duration. But what of those aspects of actuality
that do not have as their most outstanding aspect a
"spread" in duration? These are the things we take
for granted. Aspects of reality are like a shell game
that redirects our attention away from the silent,
uneventful world of the given, into the sparking,
shifting world of eventful occurances.



notebook: 3/7/90
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
(Roof, 1993)

Us- and- Only- Usland

from: *Theoretical Objects* (Green Integer, 1999)

This is not yet our city nor our country and it has
not yet had a name. This is not yet my land or
your land- this is no-man's land and no-woman's
land. If I thought of a name, it would not be a
name for this, but a name for what this land has
hammered out of U S- and it has given us a
name- the States of U S.
*************************************************

This is the kind of news I want to see
while having my Monday morning coffee-

via Buzzflash {click here}

John Kerry pulls into statistical dead heat in polls {click here}
************************************************
Edwards accuses Bush of exploiting 9/11 {click here}
************************************************
Matthew Iglesias- the widening reality-based community {click here}

Failure to understand it made it appear unlikely.



Notebook: 2/3/90
published in *The Boundary of Blur*

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Blogger

Boynton {click here}
is two years old today. Happy Birthday, B!

Ron Silliman {click here},
at this moment nearing his 200,000th visitor, is pleased with
a blogged review he just received for a talk he gave
on Robert Duncan's unpublished manuscript concerning
HD, from Minor American
(Magdalena Zurawski) {click here} who
always disliked Language poets, until now, partly because she
had long ago met some "elders" in New York who
were mean to her. Now which L=A poet could
this have included? My guess is- someone, not always
so affectionately known around here as- The Android.
***********************************************************
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
Nemski.com {click here}
has the full scoop on the latest brou-a-ha concerning Jon Stewart's brilliant
attack on slimy Tucker Carlson

Not a form of address, but a language.
The difference between a greeting
and a truth.


Notebook: 1/1/88
published in *The Boundary of Blur*

The Pharoes Are At It Again


Charles Alexander tells us that he, Eric Henry
and other friends have created a terrific
animated movie- showing why tyrants and thieves
have so much in common:

Pirates and Emperors {click here}

(you do need *Quicktime* or *Windows Media*
to see the movie)

Everyone must have a night world and a day world.
And often, this day world is as afraid of unleashed work,
as the night one is of unleashed love.


notebook: 9/8/86
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
********************************************************

Of Dogs and Tricks


"A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state."
Blake
*Auguries of Innocence*



Innumerable times during the first Kerry/Bush debate,
Bush uttered the words: "We're working hard."
At the very end of the NY Times artlicle on this event,
the observation was made that maybe he was referring
to the debate itself.

It is well known how lazy George W. Bush is. He reeks
of laziness. In the Michael Moore sockumentary *Fahrenheit 911*
much is made of this quality for good reason. It is obvious
to nearly everybody.

Why not to everybody? Possibly this laziness is part of
Bush's appeal. I know I will sound like a grouchy old man,
an aging curmudgeon, when
I mention that endless complaints about fatigue, boredom, restlessness,
along with the explosive growth in the desire for
and production of universally available, easy,
superficial amusement are now entrenched in
everyday "US and only US" life.

I came to the conclusion that the meaning of the Blake
aphorism cited above is that when dog owners, for
example, don't care about their dogs enough to take care of them you have
an environment where so many people are so lazy and selfish
the whole society might very well be heading rapidly down the drain.

I've always believed that the attacks of 9/11/01 happened
because as a nation, our institutions are so dysfunctional
that we are extremely vulnerable. Bush represents the tip
of an iceberg of laxity meling right in front of us the way
an icecream cone melts in a spoiled child's hand while he is
too busy watching tv to notice it.

There may be a lot of explanations for all this- technology,
anomie, alienation, lack of involvement, hopelessness,
you name it.

How can it change? Can it change? Does anybody
truly care, beyond the easy practices of complaint,
gab and promises?

I don't know. But Kerry and Edwards seem like fairly hard
working guys. Bush/Cheney are totally spoiled, exploitative, violent,
angry upperclass twits as far as I can tell.

Laziness is closely associated with manipulativeness, and finally
psychopathy and criminality. Bush and Cheney get extremely high scores
in all these areas and stink of these practices, only we can't get near
enough to them to truly appreciate the intensity of that stink.
Lots of expensive advertising and publicity
function like perfume or aerosol deodorant to cover
the horrid smell of their hateful and harmful
policies. The fact they have so many supporters should
tell us a great deal about about our sagging culture. It would
take a ton of people like George Soros, Michael Moore, Jon Stewart,
Kerry/Edwards, Theresa Heinz, to name a few, to dig us out of the
pile of dogshit we're now buried under in Us and Only Usland.

John Edwards Illustrates the Power of Deconstruction

Edwards may or may not be famliar with the work of
Jacques Derrida, but today he showed he has an excellent
intuitive grasp of deconstructionist style interpretation.

Edwards, in a campaign speech in New Hampshire
pointed out that George W. Bush,during the third
debate asked the question, "Is my time up?

Edwards pointed out that he felt US voters
will indeed show that Bush's time is up
when they vote on November 2cd..

Wisdom: does it consist of little more than
accepting how long it takes for something to
actually "happen"? If satisfaction is the measure
this is easy to see.




Notebook: 1/1/88
published in *The Boundary of Blur*
(Roof, 1993)

The book itself is the fiction.



notebook: 6/19/89
published in *The Boundary of Blur*
(Roof, 1993)
*************************************
from Jeffrey Encke's *Most Wanted*
deck of cards
the nine of hearts:
"to face certain damage/with an
annoyed president's/resignation/
a toucan's fanatic jaw"
Most Wanted {click here}

*************************************
Cheney's
error our gain-the Soros site-{click here}
via Caterina.net {click here}
*************************************
Omnivorous reader Steve Evans (Third Factory) {click here}
reviews Laura Moriarty's new book *Self Destruction- which she herself described to me
as a "science fiction novel" this past summer in Berkeley. Can't wait to read this one!

This just in from Taylor Brady:
One small correction, though: the science fiction novel she mentioned to
you is called Ultra-Violetta, and is a separate project from
Self-Destruction. (She's been qute prolific lately).

*************************************
Continuing my survey of Theodore Dreiser, finishing
his *An America Tragedy* and have just started his *Trilogy
of Desire*, with the first in the series, *The Financier*:

"He did not care to fight. That seemed silly for the individual
man to do. Others might- there were many poor, thin-minded
half-baked creatures who would put themselves up to be
shot; but they were mainly fit to be commanded or shot down.
As for him, his life was sacred to himself and his family and his
personal interests. He recalled seeing, one day, in one of the
quiet side streets, as the working-men were coming home from their
work, a small enlisting squad of soldiers in blue marching
enthusiastically along, the Union flag flying, the drummers
drumming, the fifes blowing, the idea being, of course, to so
impress the hitherto indifferent or wavering citizen, to exalt
him to such a pitch, that he would lose his sense of porportion,
of self-interest, and, forgetting all- wife, parents, children-
and seeing only the great need of the country, fall in behind
and enlist.,,,The poor fool who fell in behind the enlisting
squad- no, not fool, he would not call them that- the poor
overwrought, working-man-well Heaven pity him! Heaven
pity all of them! They really did not know what they were
doing..."

Jeffrey Encke's deck of poem cards,
what a fine idea. Each time you read
them, new poem- combinations emerge,
and the poems gradually come closer into view.
This is an pleasurable accretion.
Just now reading them, with Bonnie
Raitt and Jackson Browne on the tv in the background,
familiar blues, new poems,
very fine indeed.

Here's one: (2 of hearts) (figurines
at the bottom of the card on a background of dark cloudy red)

"biding time/on lawns of false signs/
I thnk of that kiss, /conjured/
from a handshake"

More...

Most Wanted {click here}

When In Doubt, Read Porchia



"The fear of separation is all that unites."




"No one understands that you have given everything.
You must give more."




"The condemnation of an error is another error."

*Voices*
Antoniio Porchia
translated by WS Merwin
(Biig Table, 1969)


*******************************************************
This Just In!

Faux press e books {click here} coming on Strong with exciting new work from Christina (Strong)
and Joe Elliot.

(an extremely nice person who I love to tease by saying
"first we had George Elliot, and then we had TS Eliot
and now we have Joe Elliot"
Who, but the sweetest person, would
put up with such nonsense? But Joe
just smiles tolerantly and takes it.

Do check out this
stuff, It looks great. And Christina!
I am a major fan)
***************************************
Don't know why I feel compelled to mention
that lately I've been listening constantly to
Brahms 2cd Piano concerto as played by
Leon Fleisher, and Brahms Piano Pieces,
Op 76, Two Rhapsodies OP. 79 and Fantasies,
Op. 118 as played by Idil Biret. Both can be
purchased "for a song" at Tower (the latter
on Naxos and the former on Sony Masterworks
Heritage). Gorgeous!

The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging

Josh Corey (Cahiers de) {click here}
reading *Moby Dick*, "tired of talking about poetry", seeing Ahab
everywhere, preaches a sermon well worth reading.

Inspired, and thoroughly disgusted, I click on
Disco Squirrels sing
"Disco Sauna" {click here} via
Unprotected Texts {click here}
via Crag Hill's Poetry Scorecard {click here}

and, if that doesn't get your mind off politics of death and destruction
Crag Hill leads us to Lanny Quarles who leads us to
gallerichickenscratch {click here}


Go on Ahab, make my day!

Poetry: a language without a homeland.

notebook: 12/29/87
published in: *The Boundary of Blur*
(Roof, 1993)

Right now on Sundance (cable tv station):
REM and Bruce Springsteen
singing together at a Wash, DC benefit for the
Kerry/Edwards ticket.
Vote for change {click here}
(also webcast)

The Dixie Chicks: "Put an end to mad cowboy disease."
************************************************************

Busy with lots of non-blog or poetry-related work lately,
but I am very much looking forward to telling you all about
an excellent new work: poems with art on a full deck
of cards, by Seattle based poet Jeffrey Encke,
titled *Most Wanted*; the reference to the (in)famous
deck passed around in Iraq, evidentally, of *Most Wanted*
criminals, is ironic, though the electrifying blurb by
Tony Tost caught my eye, and attracted me all the more:

"Jeff Encke is going to get us all arrested. How do we
love our enemies? Like lovers? Encke walks a tightrope
between empathy and promiscuity. His poems are a primer
course on how to stay human in a dark time."

-Tony Tost, author of Invisible Bride.

the Ace of Spades: "to discern space/with a door/
with a wall/ the nation of our love"


More very soon on this fine and most
collectible item, including contact info.

Most Wanted {click here}

"our insides are burning with complex ideas... come home"

Finish Your Phrase (Brother Tom Murphy) {click here}

Derrida's Shining

Tributary (Allen Bramhall) {click here}
responds to *The End of an Era* below on Derrida; and the discussion continues
in the *Tributary* "comments" section.