Distribution Automatique

Monday, June 19

Contradicta









Kindness might be blindness when the cruel rule.




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



Good brings about evil by angering the cruel; evil creates good by alarming the kind.

Wednesday, June 14

Contradicta

A flame bursts into being; a wave rises and falls; sounds enter the air and, soon enough, they fade away. Each event leaves an immediate and resonating emotion for awhile. There is no thread, no connection. Only final emotions, among the gratitude that somehing existed, exists, and the memory; we look for a pattern, a story- surely we will remember one- but- soon enough we see this is once again a game, child's play-which is enough but can never be complete, only somehow a cloud from which emerges another burst or perhaps some notes behind a pattern of spray.


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


Not much traceable in the thread- in the sands where the patch of fog settled there- maybe a bit of moonlight wrapped in the fog-no message- more like a brief and complete arrival on stage, a definable face or presence followed by its immediate disappearance.




[with a wave to Claude Debussy and Nico Vassilakis]

Monday, June 12

Contradicta









Morning remembers and explains everything but understands and forgives nothing.




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



Complexity's cautions dance dolefully amidst simplicity's smiling certainties.

Thursday, June 8

Contradicta









Until you try hope remains in limited supply.



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



Let your arms grow longer every day and there will be more to hold.

Tuesday, June 6

Contradicta



First I embraced my doubts like they were my closest friends and they betrayed me. Then I learned to send them away quickly, with few words, like a known enemy, and they deceived me. Now I greet them warily and entertain them for awhile hoping to persuade them to tell me why they came. Until I extract their secrets-even if I banish and forget them- they will haunt me to the end of my days



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

You can't be sure until it's done but then how you did it is already a memory.

Monday, June 5

Contradicta









Sadness and joy are not two different songs, but two different refrains of the same song.




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



When you can't find the time to get lost in thought you lose your mind.

Sunday, June 4

Contradicta






Who can believe the bellowing blasts of bravery's brass band realizing they are mainly meant to crush or subdue the stricken sighs of insignificance within?




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




These days life explodes like a thunderclap but still the clouds move gently.

Friday, June 2

Contradicta







Once again, disappointment performs its ardent solo when suddenly, with a rumble of drums and a burst of violins, the dreamer is released from a melancholy sojourn in the past.




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



Every feeling evokes its reminiscent melody and its tiny surprise.

Thursday, June 1

Contradicta









Happiness is divulged with few words, misery demands a mouthful.




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



In today's house I am the host, but I am a guest in the dwelling of yesterday.

Wednesday, May 31

Contradicta








Those who do not listen are usually the most desperate to be heard and the least concerned about whether they were.




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



Thought is what remains after all the interruptions.

Tuesday, May 30

Contradicta








There are three things in life well worth waiting for: sublime passion, a superb meal and an inspired idea. Right now I'd settle for a good book.




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


Maturity: the state of mind that allows one to love a friend even when that friend does not admire one's writing.

Friday, May 26

Contradicta








One truth will produce a thousand lies, one kindness a thousand hurts, one success a thousand uncertainties.




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



Of all the potions, balms and drugs there is no more powerful elixir than a smile.

Wednesday, May 24

Contradicta











Sufficient exagerration can make any detail of experience fascinating -or frightening- depending on the light.


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


"The best" is the beast.

Monday, May 22

Contradicta







There can be no secrets between friends when your silence confides as much as your words.






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



Coincidence is a wink in the eye of eternity.

[For Alan Davies]



**
I ran into Alan at St Mark's Bookstore yesterday. He asked me what book I was buying. I showed him-"The Neurotic Personality of Our Time* by Karen Horney. He showed me the book he was carrying in his briefcase, the one he is reading with so much pleasure now: same book. He had purchased his hardbound copy at the Strand. I told him I was carrying in my briefcase, Horney's *Our Inner Conflicts*. We had never discussed our shared admiration for this terrfic writer.

Saturday, May 20

Contradicta








Your fears encompass as much information about your world as your library.




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



If you make truth a frequent companion, courage will be your friend.

Friday, May 19

Contradicta






To be an artist is to be forever hungry for things you have never tasted, to relentlessly search for things you have never seen and can't understand, to repeatedly and warmly welcome back the most confused, lonely and unfair part of yourself, and the world- all for the singular joy of having something you can only experience by releasing it.



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


Unforgettable music awakens abandoned hopes and forgotten dreams.

Thursday, May 18

Contradicta









It's the hidden things- like enigmas in dreams- that most often remind us that choices abound.




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



Start at the beginning- then work back.

Wednesday, May 17

Contradicta









Love restores hope, hope imagination, imagination memory, memory emotion, emotion song.




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



Truth is a ladder composed of painful steps but at the top one you see from the sky.

Tuesday, May 16

Contradicta








Thought is a delicate thing- nearly anything can interrupt or disturb it- particularly- as with most things- if you take too much at one time.




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



Come to your own conclusions- or never see anything come to one.

Monday, May 15

Contradicta








Everything is going downhill so fast- but we'll need the momentum- the next slope could be the steepest one yet.




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


God created the world in 7 days- 3 of them waiting to get online, 2 to clear out the spam, 1 to download and 1 to rest.

Sunday, May 14

Contradicta










Even when today's novels, stories and poems eliminate the plots they never eradicate the twists.



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


I think I found what I was looking for: looking for.

Saturday, May 13

Contradicta










Everything is pushing my buttons today- except the one that says "on."




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


Peace and quiet- there goes the diet.

Friday, May 12

Contradicta









How many nascent ideas, skewered like game, lay dead at your feet?




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



Time wasted is time tasted.

Thursday, May 11

Contradicta








As the truth tellers grow more numerous, passionate and articulate, the liars become more organized, cunning and cruel.




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


Open your mind quickly and your mouth slowly.

Tuesday, May 9

Contradicta









As perplexity frequently foreshadows the new, adoration as often augurs the old.



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


Opinions and affections mixed together, like vinegar and oil, may spice something bland, but left to themselves they quickly separate.

Monday, May 8

Contradicta









It's molting season: shed the old regrets and fly.




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



Don't be too nicey to those who are icy.

Sunday, May 7

Contradicta






Wit is used more often to silence than to say.




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




Ipod therefore I am.




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

A Writer's Lament: the Bipolar side of Blake

Came across this surprisingly personal poem by Blake, written in a letter to Thomas Butts, August 16, 1803.


"O why was I born with a different face?
Why was I not born like the rest of my race?
When I look each one starts! When I speak I offend;
Then I'm silent & passive & lose every Friend.

Then my verse I dishonor. My pictures despise,
My person degrade & my temper chastise;
And the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame;
All my Talents I bury, and dead is my Fame.

I am either too low or too highly priz'd;
When Elate I am Envied, when Meek I'm despis'd."


[Penguin Classics Blake
edited by Alicia Ostriker]

Saturday, May 6

Contradicta








Your shadow's quicksands will also follow you: beware the abyss.




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



There's more to you than meets the I.

Friday, May 5

Contradicta









Decision's pendulum can seem slow- but let it sway until you know.




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


Cynical, wary- alert, prepared; vulerable, earnest- dreamy, astonished.

Thursday, May 4

Contradicta







The more you know what's new the less you learn what's true.






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




To know is more enlightening, but less comforting, than to be known.

Wednesday, May 3

Contradicta









Futility in the morning, despair at noon, devastation at night: next news update 11 p. m.





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


The essence of happiness: don't give up.

Tuesday, May 2

Contradicta









The admirable attributes of who and what you love have captured your devotion but it is the enigmatic qualities you think about.



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

Originality is impossible where imitation is universal.

Monday, May 1

Contradicta









Regarding mistakes with a degree of tolerant affection lessens worry and enhances change.




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


Spend your whole life annoyed with the rules of others or take a few moments creating your own.

Sunday, April 30

Contradicta









If you forget what it is like to go hungry you will forget what it's like to taste anything.




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


Stumble- discover.

Saturday, April 29

Contradicta








About the same time a generation of men perceive how uncertain their fathers are they prepare for war.




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


Violence enrages but the numb and frozen aftermath is silent.

Friday, April 28

Contradicta









To want to do most things you have to do creates energy and invites contentment.




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


Sharpen your mind's teeth on your mistakes.

Thursday, April 27

Contradicta









The pleasure in viewing the belongings of the great masters derives from the inability to believe that they did things in the same way and places that everyone else does.


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


My father never spoke so now I can't stop listening.

[for Tom Beckett]

Wednesday, April 26

Contradicta








Aphorisms remind us there is more to be understood in a world that suggests mostly there is more to be owned.

[for Jordan Davis]




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

Everything can be known in an instant. That's all there ever was.

Tuesday, April 25

Contradicta









The center will not hold-no matter-everything is in orbit anyway-keep turning.



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



Celebrate your sensitivity-don't be numb.The greatest danger in the world's ever increasing intrusiveness lies in accepting it.

Monday, April 24

Contradicta








The first inkling is that no one else seems to understand what you want. Then you realize you do not know. Then you know.



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

The movement of life is like the wind. You can't see it but then a breeze comes along and you notice it's there; or it rushes at you suddenly and almost knocks you off your feet.

Sunday, April 23

Contradicta








When I'm outside I feel more inside myself; when I'm inside I look out.




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



Ahead of myself, behind the others....

Saturday, April 22

Contradicta











Tried and true convictions don't raise heads but they don't lower minds either.



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

Convictions without empathy can justify anything.

Thursday, April 20

Contradicta






What writing begins only committment to a point of view completes.




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



Talk opens a possibility to listening, listening to understanding, understanding to insight, insight to change. But anywhere along the line the chain might break.

Wednesday, April 19

Contradicta








At the heart of some poems there is no meaning but at the heart of every meaning there is a poem.



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



What hasn't been said in what is said is the part that sings.

Tuesday, April 18

Contradicta








There's no time for remembering- savor everything to the quick.




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


Everything gets clearer and clearer- then you realize you don't have to understand.

Monday, April 17

Contradicta






The ever vigilant ape within us (who remains, not out of necessity, but sheer compassion) continues to protect us, in spite of ourselves:- knowing full well that- out of vanity- we will deny its very existence should it reveal its face to us, or anyone else, even for an instant.


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


Our affection for the books we love is similar to that of a parent for a child- as much for the fact that they very likely will outlive us as for the qualities we hold so dear.

Sunday, April 16

Contradicta









Cruelty conquers briefly what kindness alone can keep.



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



There is no escape: breathe deep.

Saturday, April 15

Contradicta








The complacent regard the truth the way some regard a panorama of sky: too obvious for these, too distant for those.




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


Even the useless isn't useless.

Friday, April 14

Contradicta


As you read further into the past writers were more often hopeful but desperately earnest; as you come closer to the present they are more often hopeless yet desperately funny.


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


To span the space between the known and the unknown begin with the gulf between the thought and the said.


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

*Shadows Within Shadows* Within Shadows

I googled Tom Beckett's blog Shadows Within Shadows today and found the dreaded Blogger: 404 Page Not Found.

Hopefully, Tom will return to blogging soon. I took this opportunity to reread all the chapbooks by him that I have. They are: *Wagers of Synthesis^ (Zasterle, 1997); *Separations* (Generator, 1988) and *Vanishing Points of Resemblance* (Generator, 2004). Here is a beautiful passage from "Vanishing Points of Resemblance*:

"For years I thought I knew that the accident occurred when I was five. My parents now tell me I was more like two years old at the time. Maw-maw, my grandmother, was driving and stopped abruptly. We'd just, so it has been said, purchased a goldfish. My little head smashed against the dash. Although it wasn't immediately apparent, my brain got scrambled. Up to that point, I'd been developing normally, could do somersaults, perceived spatial relations appropriately, etc. However, one day at the dinner table I flopped forward, began having convulsions. and all that changed. This was in the mid-1950's, an era that didn't celebrate differance. Unlike our current era which pretends to. I became extremely uncoordinated, the physical trauma having created a disconnect between body and brain. All cylinders weren't firing right. My mother's perfect baby wasn't perfect anymore. the coordination problem became worse still as I became ridiculously tall, having reached six feet by sixth grade and eventually topping out at 6'7" during high school."


..

Thursday, April 13

Contradicta

The wise philosophize well but are lax about the obvious. Dolts are inarticulate but wary and watchful. Who rules?

*******************************
The warmer the luck the colder the attitude.
4/11
***********************
************************


Which is more important the word or the idea?
Which is more important your feet or the ground?

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

Be decent- dissent.

4/10
*************************
*************************

Magic remains invisible and unknown because it must by discovered unconsciously and by accident.
It cannot be located, only noticed.

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

Words descending like snowflakes or rain.
A few too many and I think about shelter.

4/9

Wednesday, April 12

A Friend in Need

My deepest appreciation goes out to Christy Church, known to his blogger friends as Toph, whose blog Topher Tune's Times [click here] has been a favorite on my blogging trail from the moment I started out. Toph and I have occasionally stayed in touch by email over the years, and I can't begin to express my gratitude for his work in getting ::fait accompli:: back in working order. What began as a clumsy effort on my part last week to get my site meter back in working order escalated into a major nightmare when I clumsily tried to do things with html I don't know how to do. My thanks also to Toni Simon, Nada Gordon and Drew Gardner whose quick response, support and advice were very helpful as well. Toni put many hours in on an emergency basis immediately and soon made it possible for me to post my Contradicta on the::fait accompli:: sidebar.

Although I never doubted it for a moment, it brings to mind the kind of community we have here as bloggers. I think of all the blogs that have played a crucial role in my daily life for three years now - how much it means, has meant to me:- the ideas, the shared experiences, the links, the responses, the encouragement, the interactive energy- our ongoing community of bloggers.

As Ernesto Priego (Never Neutral) [click here] put it recently "Never underestimate
the power of the blog."

Toph, you're quite a guy in my archive!

As I said in the maxim just below, "Caring eyes think they can see and do anything. They are right." I was right.

Saturday, April 8

Contradicta






Caring eyes think they can see and do anything. They are right.



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




Some treasures grow only when they are shared- notably memories.

Thursday, April 6

Contradicta






Effervescent writing, like its cousins beer and champagne, should be consumed all at once or fast as its bubbles also quickly disappear.



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



Enthusiasm's effort builds a castle out of hopes; with a careless elbow, antagonism levels the playing field.

Wednesday, April 5

Contradicta










When I am sad I am not myself. A strange being inhabits my body who I don't know and can't recognize.


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


Worry is hurry with nowhere to go.

Tuesday, April 4

Contradicta








Even what you most strongly want to do often you must force yourself to do. Why? Because negation is the norm, a creditor waiting to pounce.



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


Unentangled perseverance produces energy. Energy creates delight. Delight brings happiness.

Monday, April 3

Contradicta







Writers and thieves have something in common- to succeed they must dispose of the evidence.




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


You don't go to masters for correct techniques but for efficacious attitudes.

Sunday, April 2

Contradicta








What has eroded with time is not so much the pleasure of discovering the truth but awareness of the pleasure in confronting its nemeses.



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


Not only is truth stranger than fiction but it is stranger than facts.

Saturday, April 1

Contradicta






Those compelled to mock the serious are perhaps not quite sure who will get the last laugh.




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



You thought you were completely free of scorn until someone's shaft of ridicule pierced your poise.

Friday, March 31

Contradicta











It's comfort- not conscience- that makes cowards of us all.


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

The bland leading the bland...

Thursday, March 30

Contradicta








They support the "radical" poet who insults and bullies everyone - yet wonder why the President is a fascist.



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


The verdict is in, the drums are rolling, the executioner is expected - tremble or live?

Wednesday, March 29

Contradicta








Tell your troubles to a dark cloud you get rain.




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




Cold latitudes proffer cold platitudes.

Tuesday, March 28

Contradicta









The seductive informalities of contemporary life correspond to the ironic formalisms of contemporary art.


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


Define me by how I think, describe me by what I know, know me by how I feel.

Monday, March 27

Contradicta






Life's conspiracy- perhaps the shadow of desire- an irrepressible aura of incompletion.




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



What you are thinking is the parrot in the cage of what you are doing.

Sunday, March 26

Contradicta







Treating others as equals demands considerable stamina. Most people prefer to worship and be worshipped- thus the predictable failure of democracies.



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


No one would credit anyone for anything if not for the compulsive craving for hierarchy.

Saturday, March 25

Contradicta





Since insight requires independent thought applied to information, the average American, bloated with the fast food of facts, has grown more informed and more stupid at the same time.



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


What you deem inconvenient may disguise your most formidable adversary.

Friday, March 24

Contradicta








When a *raison d'etre* fades it is hard to recall why we did what we did. Remembering appears linked to what made something *apropos*


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


Think or, better yet , daydream around, among, between- in the interstices-and not a moment will be wasted.

Thursday, March 23

Contradicta







For very long I have been alienated by the expectable. Now I am additionally alienated by the expectable alienation by the expectable.



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



What did all that running ahead of myself accomplish other than declaiming emphatically: "Nothing can stop me!"

Wednesday, March 22

Contradicta








Even more ghastly than hatred itself, indifferent eyes fly by coldly like headlights of cars on dark streets at night.



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



Convictions contingent on praise fade with the earliest qualms.

Tuesday, March 21

Contradicta







You complain about the chip on my shoulder- I worry about the ax in your hand.




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



Wisdom isn't newsworthy - and the vampire media drink the blood of all hopes.

Sunday, March 19

Contradicta







Worries are daydreams without legs, or, worry is the caterpillar, daydream the butterfly.




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



Joy is the giant, sadness the shadow

Saturday, March 18

Contradicta






Our daily Darwin: in order to sustain itself, happiness must remain oblivious to the unhappiness it creates in others




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



Misery commiserates; the American "pursuit of happiness" decimates.

Thursday, March 16

Contradicta

Without daydreams between them, experiences themselves tend to become overly dreamlike- one displacing another suddenly and with too much logic -like sequences in a film, inexorable and coming to the point too soon.


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


Ideas come together the way way a body makes itself comfortable. Somewhere, perhaps in the throat, a shoulder or an arm the thought resides. The thought is a link between fragments that might fit together-that want to be together- so they remain immobile until they unite and escape by means of the voice.

Wednesday, March 15

Contradicta




If you are a male, the preponderance of other males will find a way to condescend to you, even with their
dying breath. A panhandler will tell you to "have a nice day" -as if it were theirs to give- or accept your donation with the indifference of a king.


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


Intelligent response is to acclamation as love is to sex. As the latter grows ever more prevalent and public, the former grows ever more private and rare.

Tuesday, March 14

Contradicta




A significant error provokes reflection; a major blunder demands change; an impossible dilemma reveals your soul.




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



Yesterday was two days before tomorrow.

Monday, March 13

Contradicta




Acceptance of uncertainty won't banish every qualm but unreasonable demands for certitude will make doubt a steady companion.



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



Not all information is beneficial. Cultivating a taste for not knowing some things may make for a better day.

Sunday, March 12

Contradicta





Self-destruction may feel like rebellion in a society where weakness and doubt are increasingly looked upon as suspect behaviors.



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


The more contemporary life demands acquiescence and assent, the harder, and more necessary it is to something, anything, solo.

Saturday, March 11

Contradicta





Again you were challenged by that callous friend- who always inquires how you are when you meet- but never seems to notice how you feel when you part.



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



Solve global cooling global warming will follow.

Friday, March 10

Contradicta





Truth cloaks itself in paradox, lies in deception, poetry in obscurity, love in self-effacement. Everything important remains masked.


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



Those that can no longer be surprised lose the capacity to surprise. By being predictably astonishing, some console themselves.

Thursday, March 9

Contradicta





There is one mountain that will never be scaled: the height of arrogant stupidity.




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



When you've been duped do something quickly, but make your plan slowly.

Wednesday, March 8

Contradicta






Nothing is easy until you do it every day.




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



The secret of generosity is to know how to rest.

Tuesday, March 7

Contradicta





Friends are like angels, wonderfully givng and kind,
but mostly invisible or flying off somewhere.



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



If we only knew how much others needed us
we might let ourselves need them.

Monday, March 6

Contradicta






The fewer the notes the greater the melody.




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



Originality- having the boldness to exhale what everyone else inhales.

Saturday, March 4

Contradicta





In the voice of kindness truth sings, or at least rings; from the mouth of cruelty it stings.




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



Children can keep hardly anything to themselves. It's love that should be seen and not heard.

Friday, March 3

Contradicta




Sun, water and praise will grow anything.




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



The only thing in this world that is infinite is the envy of small minds.

Thursday, March 2

Contradicta





To treasure- that is the treasure.




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




If you can't find time to do everything find time to do nothing.

Tuesday, February 28

Contradicta




Little time to think about what you don't like or don't have when so much time is needed to think about what you can't understand.



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



I fell asleep on a merry-go-round with a pocketful of tickets and woke up on a roller coaster with a handful of stubs.

Monday, February 27

Contradicta




Even when being hurtful, people think they've been kind. They could have been so much meaner!




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




The best way to show how you feel is to ask a question.

Sunday, February 26

Contradicta




You can always tell how much a well- known writer is being read by how condescending they are. The less read, the more condescending.



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



No fame without maim.

Saturday, February 25

Contradicta




"Beauty is truth- truth, beauty- that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." John Keats.

- Maybe so, but not if you live in New York.



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

"Perpetual moderness is the measure of merit in every work of art." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks, Waldo, but I'll take an old-fashioned aphorism any day.



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

Camena longa, vita brevis.

Poetry is long, life is short.

Friday, February 24

Contradicta




Measure detracts from pleasure.





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




Until noticed, even the loveliest things feel plain.

Thursday, February 23

Contradicta



The poems are all telling me the same thing. "This is all a poem. You're alive, get it?"




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



Ah, poetry. It's such a pleasure to have somthing that does not demand to be understood, in a world where clearly there is already not one iota of understanding to spare.

Tuesday, February 21

Contradicta



When I see something beautiful I try not to think about poetry; when I see poetry I just try not to think.



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


Never ponder, never sink, never overeat, never drink, never proselytyze, never stall, never do anything at all.

Monday, February 20

Contradicta



News and advertising persuade us to memorize what we can't believe.





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




Truth is bland, so few ask for seconds; surprise is sweet and everyone asks for more.






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




Imitating well is the sincerest form of revenge.





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




Slow and steady comes in like a lamb and gets fleeced by a lion.

Sunday, February 19

Contradicta



Remember music, particularly in times of weariness and despair- as its charms are nearly inexhaustible and its demands negligible.




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




Aimless thought explores every open path- but most converge on the downward slope.

Friday, February 17

Contradicta



Nakedness is universally fascinating except for the naked truth- which must be considered boring- since it is always decked out in controversy, or at least wit.



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


Everyone knows what to say- no one knows what to do- except for those who do not care what they say and shoot first.

Tuesday, February 14

Contradicta



Beware the sly generosity of the thief who freely distributes the right to steal.




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




If someone takes what is yours you have less, but if you forfeit your generosity you lose everything.




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




Flattery and deceit paint a fine smile on imitation's lips in deception's hall of mirrors.




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




The lighthouse is far away and dim on the shores of mistrust's lonely latitudes




.

Sunday, February 12

Contradicta





People go to extremes in order to be different. But the remarkable differences are the subtle ones.



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




Life creates immense variety- but all endings are the same.





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




No two thoughts are exactly alike- until someone writes them down.




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



All books exist to end in a thought.




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




I read to understand feelings.
I write to understand thoughts.
Sometimes talking helps me to understand what I need to know or do.
But if I want to just understand I stay quiet.


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


Understanding is like gladly coming to the end of a chapter of a book you've been totally absorbed in. But still, you don't want the book to end.

Thursday, February 9

Contradictory Aphorisms (Contradicta)




Never reveal what makes you happy, or at least conceal some things, because unless you can be surprised, you will never be loved.


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


Hidden hearts, like flowers in darkness, wilt quickly.


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


One by one the finest philosophers concluded they should no longer try to tell us how to live. Imperceptibly, yet gradually, an immense sadness fell upon the world and the sadists took over.


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


Think for yourself or go mad with everyone.



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

Nota Bene


Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.
-Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)



(thanks to Ray DiPalma for sending in this quote)
************************

Wednesday, February 8

Bachelard's *Dialectic of Duration*

is very interesting and I spent part of my morning reading its captivating phenomenological musings, mostly having to do with Bergson who I should read more of. Then I began considering why I've so frequently defended so-called "bad" poetry when I've heard poets gripe about it. I understood, in my Bachelardian reverie, why I prefer even boring poetry, philosophy or almost any intellectualizing to everyday complaining. I realized this must have happened because even the most trivial poetic or philosophical thinking is more interesting than thinking about my own complaints, even the "legitimate" ones; focusing for awhile on other people's objections to poetry or philosophy or blogging they don't like is still more enjoyable than those seemingly endless repetitious ruminations about everyday annoyances.

What led me to Bachelard? Probably the title of a blog I've been reading regulary lately: Bachelardette [click here]

*************************************
Contradict myself, very well then...

I've been thinking lately about contradictory aphorisms, and how they can both be true. Wasn't it Rousseau who said that if you don't talk about yourself you'll never say much at all; and who was it that said a boring conversationalist is one who talks about themselves, but an interesting one is one who talks about you?

Sunday, February 5

Ensemble


Specific events or declarations (external) or particular insights or revelations (internal) are like notes and chords in melodies that are repeatedly heard and experienced but not quite yet identified or recognized for their irresistible and pursuasive social effects- until well after those infectious, catchy tunes- and the musicians who played and exulted in them- have exited the stage and become part of history. What you noticed, again and again, is that you were tapping your foot all the way home, that's all.

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He Who Laughs Apps

Guess what recent superbly hilarious performance inspired the little theoretical object you see above?

Gary Sulivan's performance at the Bowery Poetry Club this past Saturday is already legendary- but hopefully will be appearing soon on Penn Sound, as will, I might expect, Marshall Reese's excellently stirring reading.

(for an excellent evocation of the reading and oeuvres of the two readers, by Jack Kimball [click here])

Gary Sullivan dedicated his final work at the BPC on Saturday, a playlet featuring Jim Behrle and Sharon Mesmer, to Stan Apps.

Here, Oracular Vagina [click here] fluffs flarf. Standard Schaefer, author of *Nova* and *Water and Power* weighs in on googlism, via Lucipo.

While the powers that be barter our beings for a few quarts of oil, the least we can do is entertain ourselves with the flarf whirrs.


-a sunny Tuesday in February

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Slam poetics is back!
Read the latest round in Stan vs Stan, the flarf whirs:

Standard Schaefer's response with a response from Stan Apps [click here]

Tuesday afternoon- and still sunny!
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You're Toast in an Unquiet Grave

Tony Tost [click here]
has been embedded in the flarf whirs for awhirl now.

-sunset and tea time on Tuesday, Feb 7th.
(Warmest January on record in NY)