Contradicta



It is a fine thing to take pleasure in it but, as with so many other things, we can think too little or too much. Too little produces a mental mannikin, too much a chattering puppet.


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


We never know what we are thinking until we think about it.

Thanks to

incli(NATION)
for the link to our Walter Benjamin and Blogging post from Dec 12, 2003, and to Mark Woods and Theresa Duncan for their recent links.

Subject: Book Party for ::fait accompli:: from Heretical Texts
Place: Adam's Books/ aka Unnameable Books
456 Bergen Street, off Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn
tel: (718) 789-1534
Date:Tuesday, February 27
Time: 8 PM

Please come!
::fait accompli::
from Heretical Texts


**
Thanks to

The Wit of The Staircase for the link to ::fait accompli:: on Walter Benjamin and Blogging (2003). Nice bit of time travel! (via wood s lot])


[Benjamin on Blogging was posted to
fait accompli Dec 12, 2003]

Thanks to

Nico Vassilakis, Tom Murphy [click here]
and wood s lot [click here]
for the kind words about ::fait acccompli:: from Heretical Texts!

**


SPD *fait accompli* listing

Tom Beckett {Soluble Census) [click here] has some kind words to say about *fait accompli* from Heretical Texts.

Thanks, Tom!

Contradicta








Much of our experience of others and their experience remains foreign to us. We must internally translate or we are doomed to misunderstand or be misunderstood.




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



Listening better is frequently the best answer one can give.

*fait accompli* has a new look, due to changes at blogger.

Work to be done.


Keep tuned. New Contradicta will hopefully be
posted soon.

**
Thanks to
Glee Farm (Todd Colby) [click here] for the recent link.

*fait accompli* is available now from Factory School
or SPD


*fait accompli* from Heretical Texts [click here]


Heretical Texts Volumes 1-3 [click here]

Contradicta










The wisest of all are wise in love and they are fools.




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



Memories are silhouettes of love or the shadows of its absence.

Contradicta








Human intelligence contains a flaw that waters the seeds of its own destruction: impatience.





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



Artists and intellectuals bribe patrons and politicians with mirages of progress.

Contradicta









The truth can take a bite out of life, but it cannot taste it.




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



Like the weather, the truth can harm- which is why you need shelter.

Contradicta









Anger is a desperate tiger that must be tamed- befriend or be devoured.




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



The relentless critic hungers for your pride- not your excellence.

Contradicta






Take care not to acquire too many cold friends, as you must become like them. In this realm cold transfers more quickly than warmth, and more permanently.



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


In people. coldness has the advantage of anaesthetizing pain. These folks take the greatest delight in their ambitions and their advantages over others, despite whatever generosity they put on display.

Contradicta








Small disappointments revive the child in us, which would be an equal recompense if we could but see it so.




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



Those reluctant to disappoint forfeit the talent to surprise.

Contradicta











An ounce of insight outweighs a ton of knowledge.



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



All that titters is not bold.

Contradicta








Contemptuous attitudes towards the rewards of old age- devoted spouse and friends, reputation, security, wisdom- spring easily from the mouths of the young, and, in fact, sound better coming from them.



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



Despair over time passing is a quickening plunge that only insight can throttle.

Contradicta










Pleasing everyone pleases no one.




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



Remember the future, forget the past.

Contradicta: A Fugue


1. Allegro Con Brio

There is nothing more dissonant with literary creation than a feeling of pure joy. To be experienced these feelings must settle a bit and then be ...marinated, like an assemblage of tasty spices, meats and potatoes.This shows that to be properly tasted a happy moment must be dressed and costumed. Happiness can be consumed only after it has begun to be forgotten, which then entitles it to be resurrected and recounted. So first, it is to be over (finished) stuffed, (mummified), dressed (exhibited).Only now it is eligible to be contemplated. Acordingly, the best representative of happiness is well dressed mannikin.

2. Largo assai

Enjoyment is an internal experience. For it to be recognized as such, it must be discussed. This discussion leads to at least partially dissecting the experience to examine its parts. Once the comparison comes the constituents are categorized.This is the equivalent of freezing portions of the dinner for later consumption. Now one can peacefully consider how the pleasure will be consummated later. To open the refrigerator is one of the contemplative's ideal glimpses of joy.

3. Coda: adagio

When something annoying happens it brings it its wake a miniature storm or tiny hurricane of emotion that momentarily distorts time. For a split second any expectable sequence appears unlikely to occur. In order for an annoyance to be realized one must want to refuse the action that was to follow. The life of an irritable or anxious hour consists of a sequnce of innumerable small tears or breaks in the unfolding of the fabric of being. Then the accompaniment of an irritating feeling of disappointment. Then a hesitation or a blank space offering a space for the possibility of a new motif, or a sustained time of contrapuntal memories.

Contradicta









To embrace a truth at the price of one's vanity repays the cost in the coin of equanimity.

(for Jordan Davis)




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



Thrive on beginnings, endure endings.

Contradicta








As you reach that moment in life when time becomes more crucial than anything, you are induced to invoke philosophy, if only by default.




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



Seduced by hope or conquered by despair, animated by energy or cloaked in flair.

Contradicta

Every moment you have ever lived lives on, and will one day visit or receive you, if only you would make it welcome.




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



Ride Pegasus hard into the present so its wings can sweep the future and the past.

**

Boppin' at the Bowery PC

Last night's reading/ book party at the Bowery Poetry Club for Elaine Equi and Patricia Smith's new Coffee House Books was introduced by the mighty Bob Holman. Before the reading, Bob had noticed that he and Toni were both wearing Yoko Ono *Imagine Peace* buttons and then he remembered that the date, December 8th, was the day John Lennon died 26 years ago. (By the way, Toni and I had just come from the opening of the PS 122 benefit where my collage *Di Pace*(*Of Peace*) was newly on display.) Bob's observation was moving, as were his introductions for both Patricia Smith (her new Coffee House book is titled *Teahouse of the Almighty*) and Elaine Equi (her forthcoming title is *Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems*). Both readings were excellent. Elaine read some of her greatest hits, including her confessional poem about her life being, unfortunately, not sinful enough, including a line that read approximately -"my father did not even find me exciting enough to molest me"; and *Detail*, about the particularly inspiring beauty of details of paintings in art books; and a pair of poems in pink, for her friend David Trinidad who had promised to read a poem for her decked out in the same color that same night. Patricia Smith read a memorably powerful poem composed of 34 haiku-like miniature dramas, concerning the innumerable tragedies surrounding hurricane Katrina, as well as other body and soul jolting lyrics . Bob Holman was at his maximum witty, inviting all to order some of the revolutionary war style mulled wine called *Glug* available at the bar, and introducing Allan Kornblum, as the publisher of Coffee House books, "where the corn blooms."

Contradicta




::fait accompli:: is pleased to present Contradicta created by Toni Simon!






Those who demand absolute power least deserve it.



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


A poisonous combination of arrogance, stupidity and intolerance lead to violence and war.

Contradicta









To keep your feet on the ground point your eyes to the sky.




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



Every good fate includes one long wait.

Contradicta







After you've read poetry long enough, with each successive reading you understand more of the magician's tricks. At this stage you read more to understand the poet than the poem because poets have infinitely more tricks up their sleeves than their poems.


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



Confess you were wrong and gain affection- profess you were right and lose it.

Contradicta









The hoofbeats of uncertainty beat loudly on the road of destiny.




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



The ship of fate favors a diligent captain with a good map and a strong stomach.

Contradicta








The truth that affirms is quoted; the truth that surprises is discussed, the truth that wounds is remembered; the truth that helps is understood.




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



What is done for its own sake survives the drought and then the storm.

Contradicta







Understanding embodies the midas touch. It mints the coin of knowledge out of the debris of loss.





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




The precise force that at the proper time unbolts a portal at the wrong moment reveals a trap.

Contradicta








Happiness is a rare guest for those who send infrequent invitations.




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



The gourmet of happiness is a gourmand of sorrow.

Contradicta










Reading and writing, that begin as thinking's tutor, end as thinking's master.



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



Take care not to purposely take the wrong step after you have mistakenly blundered into the right one.

Contradicta










Everything that feeds joy has been nursed by patience.




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



Gratitude is the child of kindness and the blossom of wisdom.

Contradicta


Our stories are the hands we need to grasp the truths of life and the arms we use to hold it close.

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

The mind's truth needs fiction's face.

*Original Presence* by Laynie Browne

Octopuswoman [click here]
is one of 12 illustrations by Toni Simon from Laynie Browne's new book of poetry *Original Presence* just published by Shivastan [click here] on handmade paper in Nepal.

"Upon recitation of the verses of the sea
Listeners gather their hems above the salty foam"

The mind's truth needs fiction's face.

Contradicta









Up to your neck in shit and sharks, and still thinking of someone's cold and cutting words...




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



In the pharmacopoeia of life, work is the elixir, pleasure the balm.

Contradicta











The endless questioning of youth is balanced by the endless answering of age.



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



Where comparison ends. opportunity begins.

Contradicta








It is good to possess at least a nominal acceptance of reality. It doesn't make life easier, or longer, but it does make it funnier.




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



To know what interests oneself is half of success; to know what interests others is all of it.

Contradicta








Those who insult themselves all day dislike being slighted, the way an accomplished thief hates being caught.




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



Just as sorrow covets compassion, vanity craves praise.

Contradicta








The smile of an ambitious soul rarely assures a safe haven.





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



Frequent disppointment, deception and betrayal induce the kind and warm to join the ranks of the cold and cautious.

Contradicta









True, contentment rests within- but it likes to be awakened gently and, even then, only to dance.




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



Admiration visits; love resides.

Contradicta









The interminable night of rage shuns the mirror in the morning.




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



Hatred seeks contempt but escapes kindness.

Contradicta










Worry wonders; courage laughs.




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



Knowledge leads to wisdom but courage finds it.

Contradicta







Curiosity battles with boredom but love defeats it.



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



Even the heaviest burdens are buoyant on love's wings.


(for Toni)

Contradicta









Malice is spoken in countless barbed dialects and a single lenient one: silence.




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



Open ridicule wounds; silent derision poisons.

Contradicta









The jagged peaks of judgment provide a provisional bastion beyond a condescending chorus of criticism.




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



Opinion rarely sings solo.

Contradicta









An exceptional appreciation of the ordinary is the source of much that is extraordinary.




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



Those sophists who dismiss every illusion are also blind to every miracle.

Contradicta











Better to be exiled in a frozen world than find refuge in a unforgiving mind.



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


Fear stalks the house bereft of love.

Contradicta









Greed is the opium of the swindler; indifference is the armor of the weary and oppressed.




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



No sky, no smile; no smile, no sky.

Contradicta








Sometimes the music overwhelms the words, sometimes the poet overshadows the poem.




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



When one hand envies the other, nothing can be held.

Contradicta









The recognition of something's value frequently leads to little more than creating increased desire for it. This is how the appetite for acquisition trumps the progression of discernment.



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



Knowledge without insight is like humor without wit.

Contradicta






Just as there are shrewd animals who fake death in order to deceive predators, there are artists who feign failure in order to elude imitators. This device does not discourage the bottom feeders, however.



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



One might as well cloak one's generosity in an air of indifference, since where kindness is viewed as weakness, loneliness prevails.

Contradicta








Victors are careful to conceal their disillusionment with the rules of the games they wish to win. "Confidence" is at the heart of this charade.




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


Artists must get lost in order to discover anything as the freeways lead only to gas stations, malls and parking lots.

Contradicta





As writers climb the ladder to success they are wise to shed their feelings because the clouds, for example, that appear so substantial from below, from the top rung appear flat, where it also lonely because there is only room for one. This is a dilemma, however, for their readers, who expect to feel something in order to be convinced, when they read it, that the work remains substantial.


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

Friendship is a game of chess that should be played more gently and appreciatively as time goes on, otherwise the opponants will deprive themselves of the partners who have so steadily inspired them.

Contradicta









Draw contentment from mundane repetition, find a refuge from strident surprise.




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



Too much satisfaction in approbation, too much affliction in disparagement or indifference..

Contradicta









The dream of justice is a rare balm for the wounded giant, humankind.




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



The cruel teach the kind how to hide their pain so as to corrupt and enlist them in their ranks.

Contradicta









Acknowledge every part and the whole will shine.




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



To value the useless finds its apotheosis in the farthest realms of art. But this is not the same as feeling useless.

Contradicta







To tolerate one's own suffering or that of others without trying or at least wishing to reduce it is itself a kind of evil because, as suffering grows, so does evil.



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


Celebrities who are prolific and talk freely inspire affection because they give the impression that at any moment they might blurt out the secrets of their success.

Contradicta









Strength is as important for love as kindness since it is as crucial to challenge the neglect of those whose love we want as it is to challenge our own neglect of those who want our love.



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


Perhaps before photography, prior to the omnipresence of the pose, people looked- and therefore felt- more like themselves.

Contradicta








Those that are too easily embarrassed are at the mercy of those that embarrass too easily.




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



The high tides of triumph recede in the face of the first waves of regret.

Contradicta










The perpetual satisfaction taken in accomplishments stems from believing they are among your rival's greatest torments; yet soon you begin suspecting they might be one of the competition's greatest spurs.



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


Where pride fails doubt prevails.

Contradicta








The sun shines equally on lovers and the heartless.




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




On a moonless night, my fears, disguised as friends, whisper threats.

Contradicta








Fame is a restless, fickle friend whose flame is greatest near its end.




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



Those fruits of thought that ripen slowly are eaten quickly.

Contradicta








The long journey shorter, the heavy load lighter, temper tamed- forget yourself.




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



That fool is wise who forgot everything except how to laugh.

Contradicta









As a child they looked up to them, and later straight in the eye; in their middle years smiled smugly down on them; now they shake their heads and sigh.



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


Modesty protects friendship, pride destroys it.

Contradicta









Celebrated names and deeds are so widely remembered, personal help and kindness so readily forgotten.



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


Earnestness, the child of conscience, is ignored, sarcasm, a descendant of malice, applauded.

Contradicta










The unbending competitive drive that facilitates taking pleasure in condescending to or disparaging some, while glorifying others, joins stealing elections, the Bush crowd, torture and terrorism in that horrific, intractable slide towards dismantling democracy.


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


Equality plus empathy equals nobility.

Contradicta








The deeper you dig the harder the rock, the narrower the tunnel, the lonelier the journey.




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



Steadiness of purpose and enjoyment of life form an odd, yet incomparable, friendship.

Contradicta








Empty time is a desert- or an embrace- depending on whether you view it through benign or anxious eyes.




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



We do not dislike ourselves as much as we imagine- we look forward to things knowing one thing for sure- we will be there.

Contradicta










Principle and perfection have facilitated more pain and harm than anger and failure will ever imagine.




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



The devil's in the details- the beauty too.

Contradicta











People who have the least to say will try to silence others either by shouting them down or insulting them.



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


Safer to kick a beehive than to malign a proud philosopher.

Contradicta










A notable difference between being old and being young is that rather than being bored by the calm before storm you enjoy it.



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


On the whole, people are more tolerant of a criminal than an unhappy person.

Contradicta









Listen to the whispers- all the bold voices have had their say.



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



Strategy, shrewdness, brilliance, determination, pride, power, love, all will falter - hope alone remains infallible.

Contradicta








People drive each other crazy more or less continuously and then endlessly deliberate and debate about how others should behave.



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


You could multiply the dictionary by a thousand and still not have enough words to describe what most people think and feel in a single day.

Contradicta











Traditions harden into conventions when memory and empathy
are replaced by reverence and the cold devotion that supports it.



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



There can be a useful tradition of unconventionality but conventional
unconventionality is a travesty that subverts its entire aim.

Contradicta





What is the difference between being very patient about the suffering of someone you care about and being indifferent to it? Shouldn't we insist on the other's attempt at happiness- or at least try and make them laugh?


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

Because it is so common and yet so unique persistence in caring remains largely invisible. What is occasionally noticed are the results and these are generally ascribed to some special talent, ability or opportunity.

(for Mark Wallace)

Thanks to
The Casual Tee (Trevor Calvert) [click here]
for tagging me

What is a book that changed your life?

Sigmund Freud, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life


What is a book you've read more than once?

Charles Bernstein, Senses of Responsibility


What is a book you'd want to take with you to a desert island?

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus


What is a book that made you giddy?

Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets


What is a book that made you sad?

Paul Auster, In the Country of Last Things


What is a book you wish you had written?

Bernadette Mayer, Studying Hunger


What is a book you are currently reading?

Sue Grafton, A is for Alibi


What is a book you've been meaning to read?

Mark Wallace, Dead Carnival


tag 5 bloggers:

Toph- Nada- Gary- Drew- Ernesto- Possibly all of these bloggers have been tagged already- haven't been following this thread closely enough this summer to know who hasn't been tagged.

Contradicta








If the essence of life consists of learning to love, why wouldn't every other effort to offer lasting pleasure to others be guided by the same principle?




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



Unless accompanied by an ability to love, thinking is mostly painful.

Contradicta










Like so many other endeavors in contemporary life, music too often tries to subdue the beasts instead of charming them like Debussy.




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


A light touch may not hold things as long- yet this way they are more likely to return.

Contradicta








Powerful feelings perpetuate themselves by means of a trick- they promise- or threaten- to expand infinitely and eternally. Through moods, they try to install themselves indefinitely. But a mood is a replica of an emotion, only a product of the feelings that generated it.


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


An hour of regret is enough for three lifetimes.

Contradicta










Your doubts might be the seeds of unknown flowers, if only you would replant them among your ideas instead of your presentiments.


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


Words express meanings but their rhythms express their intentions.

Contradicta







Delight is the first language to be understood and the last to be forgotten. But from birth until death the meaning of pain rests opaque and obscure whose clearest expression is silence or a scream.



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


Anyone can think of clever things to say but can you explain to yourself exactly what you were feeling first thing this morning?

Contradicta










Mood, reminiscence, hunch, whimsy, expectation, afterthought- silhouettes that flower into portraits.



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


Zero wails like a siren.

Contradicta









Kindness might be blindness when the cruel rule.




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



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

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]

Contradicta









Morning remembers and explains everything but understands and forgives nothing.




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



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

Contradicta









Until you try hope remains in limited supply.



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



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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Contradicta











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


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


"The best" is the beast.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.