Contradicta




Truth might visit the solitary but will rarely find liars alone.




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




Life is the desert, truth the oasis.

Contradicta




Courage is the stone, disappointment the river.




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



Something will happen - meanwhile, just live.

You Can't Hurry Love

"You can�t hurry love
No, you just have to wait
She said love don�t come easy
It�s a game of give and take"

Tom Beckett (Soluble Census) asks a good question.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Gary Sullivan Tunes The Grand Piano, Part 1

Elsewhere

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Timothy Yu readings in New York and Chicago

April 7, 2007
730 PM @ Lolita Bar
no cover
266 Broome St., NYC
(corner of Broome & Allen)

Emmy Catedral | Kevin Coval | Thom Donovan |
Wanda Phipps | Sukhdev Sandhu | Timothy Yu |

Sunday, April 8, 5 pm
Verlaine
110 Rivington St., NYC
(Ludlow & Essex Sts.)
212-614-2494
F train to Delancey or V train to 2nd Ave
$5 donation


Sunday, April 22, 7 pm

Myopic Books
1564 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

http://www.myopicbookstore.com/poetry.html

Contadicta



Our glimpse of life is from a train going fast: where we can barely distinguish the present from the past.




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



Love is watered by truth at its roots but its arms reach up towards light and kndness.
**************************************

MoMA presents M o d e r n P o e t s
Revitalizing Frank O’Hara’s legacy and MoMA’s historical commitment
to poetry, this new series invites poets to bring the literary tradition to
the Museum’s collection. Three times a year, poets read historical works
and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art.
Writing in Time: Poets and Technology
Wednesday, March 28, 6:00 p.m.
The Celeste Bartos Theater
4 West 54 Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues
Greta Byrum Robert Fitterman
Kenneth Goldsmith Caroline Bergvall
The exhibition Out of Time: A Contemporary View considers notions
of temporality and reconstructions of time through memory, fantasy,
dreams, and history in a variety of media. The increasing prevalence
of technology, whether as an artist’s medium or as visual stimulation
in mass culture, changes the way we experience, record, and perceive
time. On the occasion of this exhibition, MoMA asked poets to explore
how technology informs the language and rhythms of poetry. Greta
Byrum, poet and sound artist; Robert Fitterman, poet; Kenneth
Goldsmith, poet, Professor, Creative Writing Program, The University
of Pennsylvania, and founding editor of ubuweb.com; and Caroline
Bergvall, poet, and Co-Chair, Writing MFA, Milton Avery School
for the Arts, Bard College, read works of their own and of others.
This program is a collaboration between The Museum of Modern Art
and ubuweb.com.
Tickets ($5; members, students, seniors, and staff of other museums
$3) can be purchased at the lobby information desk, the Film desk,
the Cullman Building lobby, or online at www.ticketweb.com.
The Museum of Modern Art

Vispo Guide

from Brian Carpenter Nico Vassilakis

Nico's latest book is: *Diptychs* from Otoliths.

Is Your Jacket Half Empty of Half Full?

-check out Elaine Equi's *Greeting Card Poems* in the advance copy of #32

plus Douglas Messerli, Gilbert Adair, Andrea Brady, Michael Gottlieb, James Sherry, Michael Kelleher
and many, many others now and still to come in April

Jacket 32
****************

Tom Beckett on Alan Davies' new chapbook *Book 5* Soluble Census

This Just In! 4 books on SPD's February Bestseller List From Factory School's Heretical Texts

Check out #'s 7, 9, 14, and 29

SPD Poetry Bestsellers

February 2007:

1. Eunoia Christian Bok (Coach House Press)

2. Wisteria: Twilight Poems From the Swamp Country Kwame Dawes (Black Goat)

3. Necessary Stranger Graham Foust (Flood Editions)

4. Chromatic H.L. Hix (Etruscan Press)

5. Glean Joshua Kryah (Nightboat Books)

6. Loveliest Grotesque Sandra Lim (Kore Press)

7. Scrapmetal Ammiel Alcalay (Factory School)

8. Howl & Other Poems Allen Ginsberg (City Lights)

9. Wars. Threesomes. Drafts. & Mothers Heriberto Yepez (Factory School)

10. Friday and the Year that Followed Juan J. Morales (Fairweather Books/Bedbug Press)

11. The Book of Questions Pablo Neruda (Copper Canyon Press)

12. What if Your Mother Judith Arcana (Chicory Blue Press)

13. Apostrophe Elizabeth Robinson (Apogee Press)

14. Fait Accompli Nick Piombino (Factory School)

15. Untangled Keren Taylor, Ed. (WriteGirl)

16. Blackboards Tomaz Salamun (Saturnalia Books)

17. Cadenza Charles North (Hanging Loose Press)

18. Fugue State Bill Berkson (Zoland)

19. Prime Time Apparitions R. Zamora Linmark (Hanging Loose Press)

20. Vacationland Ander Monson (Tupelo)

21. Woundwood Ron Silliman (Cuneiform Press)

22. Concordance Mei-mei Berssenbrugge/Kiki Smith, art (Kelsey Street Press)

23. Retreats & Recognitions Grace Bauer (Lost Horse Press)

24. Sadder than Water: Selected Poems Samih al-Qasim
(IBIS Editions)

25. Seismosis John Keene & Christopher Stackhouse (1913 Press)

26. Also, With My Throat, I Shall Swallow Ten Thousand Swords: Araki Yasusada's Letters in English Tosa Motokiyu (Combo Books)

27. Analects on a Chinese Screen Glenn Mott (Chax Press)

28. Bone Pagoda Susan Tichy (Ahsahta Press)

29. Chanteuse/Cantarice Catherine Daly (Factory School)

30. Deathstar/Ricochet Judith Goldman (O Books)

*****************************************************
Boog City 39

Available Sunday P.M.

featuring:

***Music section, edited by Jon Berger***

*** Printed Matter section, edited by Mark Lamoureux***

*** Film section, guest edited by Jon Berger***

*** Politics section, edited by Christina Strong***

***Art editor Brenda Iijima brings us work from Belford New Jersey's Kate
Greenstreet***

*** Poetry section, edited by Laura Elrick and Rodrigo Toscano***

*And photos from David S. Rubio and Christina Strong.*

-----
Please patronize our advertisers:

Bowery Poetry Club * http://www.bowerypoetry.com
::fait accompli:: * http://www.nickpiombino.blogspot.com/
The Million Poems Show * http://www.jordandavis.com/Talkshow.html

-----

Advertising or donation inquiries can be directed to
editor@boogcity.com or by calling 212-842-BOOG (2664)

-----

2,250 copies of Boog City are distributed among, and available for free at,
the following locations:

MANHATTAN

*THE EAST VILLAGE*

Acme Underground
Alt.coffee
Angelika Film Center and Café
Anthology Film Archives
Bluestockings
Bowery Poetry Club
Café Pick Me Up
CB's 313 Gallery
CBGB's
Lakeside Lounge
Life Café
Mission Café
Nuyorican Poets Café
Pianos
The Pink Pony
St. Mark's Books
St. Mark's Church
Shakespeare & Co.
Sidewalk Café
Sunshine Theater
Tonic
Trash and Vaudeville

*OTHER PARTS OF MANHATTAN*

Hotel Chelsea
Poets House


BROOKLYN

*WILLIAMSBURG*

Bliss Café
Earwax
Galapagos
Northsix
Sideshow Gallery
Soundfix/Fix Cafe
Supercore Café

*GREENPOINT*
(available later next week)

Greenpoint Coffee House
Lulu's
Photoplay
Thai Cafe
The Pencil Factory

--
David A. Kirschenbaum, editor and publisher
Boog City
330 W.28th St., Suite 6H
NY, NY 10001-4754
For event and publication information:
http://boogcityevents.blogspot.com/
T: (212) 842-BOOG (2664)
F: (212) 842-2429

from "The Apprentice" by Lewis Libby
Thomas Dunne Books, 2001

"In his flight he looked at his telltale trail through the snow with alarm. He struggled to form a plan.
Surely if someone has followed me, he thought, surely they'll stop to search the shrine. He knew that would take some time. He could count on some delay.
But in the very next instant he realized that the man with the glasses had claimed to see more than one man in the grove. If they divided, some of them might even then be gaining on him.
The youth saw now that he had been on a fool's errand, and this tired him further. He knew he had stayed too long in the shrine. Thinking back, he realized that the hole he dug searching for the packet would tell a plain tale. Having once uncovered the box, he could not now so readily rid himself of it....
He resolved that if he were caught by the men who had hidden near the shrine he would tell them readily about the box. He could say he was headed now for someone to tell, that he was glad he had stumbled upon them. But he had no faith in his ability to carry off this tale, and no faith in the good will of these men. Better, he knew, not to be caught."

Three Important Things

"Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”
Henry James

No one knows this better than:

Tom Beckett (Soluble Census)
And blogging has never been warmer than this moment, since 2003. Tom's comments lead me to Imagine a world in which writers could say nice things to each other without tons of sarcastic icing.


*******************
Libby Found Guilty

CBS news.Thank you Mr.Fitzgerald!
Times coverage of Libby Verdict

One of the finest moments in judicial history since:
This

Thanks to

Jilly Dybka Poetry Hut
and Sandra Torres Gota a Gota (Drop by Drop) for their (recent)
links.

(The *fait accompli* link list will appear on this blog soon).

*********

Elwood P. Dowd (played by James Stewart) in *Harvey*: "Mother always said, in this life you must be either very smart or very pleasant. I tried smart for awhile, but then I switched to pleasant and I never regretted it."

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
Vaclav Havel

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

from *Killing Floor* by Ray DiPalma


"FURTHER APOCRYPHA"

"Cries and processions put a public face on things;
this designation is corroborated only by silence

So I’ve been checking around for hints of evidence,
copied formulas, neutral grids blank and ancient,
organizing a memory to document,
as it passes into the listening,
—a surge of impressions
indifferent to fame and death—
that describe an answer but offer none

one dit issue seven Ray DiPalma

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

Shampoo 29 is here

******************
Between a Rock and a Hard Look

Went to a podiatrist once who told me things about orthotics- protective shoe inserts for your feet- I never knew. "Where've I been?" I said innocently. "Under a rock" he said, in a surprisingly nasty tone of voice. Well, maybe that's how you get from looking at people's feet all day. Actually he made a damn good pair of orthotics I stil use sometimes.

I, for one, until yesterday never got out from under my rock to take a good look at Big Bridge, or if I did, didn't bother to fully check it out. Here is the latest edition and all the earlier archives. The mag is well worth it, even if only for the many terrific author photos. Check out all the earlier editions at

Big Bridge archives

The current issue is here Big Bridge #12

By the way, I found out just how good Big Bridge is by discovering this terrific piece by Anne Waldman-
War Crime-
in
wood s lot (which is how I uisually try to
get out from under my rock, almost every day, and take a good hard look into the present and the past.)

Friends Indeed- Book Party Photos and Comments

Our belated (been out with a sore throat and a cold this week) yet enthusiastic thanks to


Nada Gordon (ululations)

and

Gary Sullivan (Elsewhere)

for their posts on our Unnameable (Adam's) Books book party on Tuesday, February 27.

and thanks to Adam Tobin for the terrific party celebrating *fait accompli* from Factory School
**
this just in from Adam Tobin

Dear dear friends of Unnameable Books,

You may have noticed some recent news coverage of this store, under a different name. If so, then you've probably been reading the New York Sun, or the Christian Science Monitor, or the Brooklyn Record or New York Magazine's gossip blog, or perhaps some other blogs where there have been high levels of chatter. Remain alert. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Keen google use will reveal the following:

***
The Sun
The Record
The Monitor
The Intelligencer
The Compton
The King
The Elsewhere
The Tube
The Macondo

In other news: Spring is here (again), and the birds will sing. Soon, soon.


NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT, for example, THE CANARY himself, that caged wonder, containing new poems by Ashbery, Myles, Toufic, Lee etc., will send a representative: Mr. JOSHUA EDWARDS, Ed. He will be reading his own work.

Simultaneously: Mr. FRED SCHMALZ, editor of THE SWERVE, whose new issue arrives anon, will display his own clinamen in the back of the store.

And on the very same night: MATTHEW ROHRER, poet, will read from his new book RISE UP, newly out from Wave Books.

All this is just to say that:

FRIDAY MARCH 16th, at 8 PM,
A reading, a party, a reading party,
here at Unnameable Books. Featuring:
Joshua Edwards of THE CANARY
Fred Schmalz of THE SWERVE
and Matthew Rohrer of RISE UP.
456 Bergen St. (btw. Flatbush & 5th Ave.)

Joshua Edwards co-edits The Canary with Nick Twemlow and Anthony Robinson. His poems appear/are forthcoming in Vanitas, Practice, Court Green, Slate, Skanky Possum, 26, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Fred Schmalz is a poet and publisher of the literature and art journal swerve. His poems have appeared in The Bedazzler, jubilat, Conduit, Divide, Forklift Ohio, H_NGM_N and other magazines. Schmalz's chapbook Ticket was published by Fuori Editions in 2002. He lives in Brooklyn.

Matthew Rohrer is the author of A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and Nice Hat. Thanks. (with Joshua Beckman) (Verse Press, 2002) and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (also with Joshua Beckman, 2003). He has appeared on NPR's "All
Things Considered" and "The Next Big Thing." His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He, too, lives in Brooklyn.


***
Unnameable Books
[formerly "Adam's"]
456 Bergen St.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
unnameablebooks@earthlink.net
(718) 789-1534
www.unnameablebooks.net

***

Amazon, schmamazon -- order your books from the Unnameable!
We'll give you 20% off, and can ship directly to you or your giftee.
We can order any book in print, and ship anywhere in the U.S.
Just send us an email with the word "Order" in the subject line...
***

Contradicta



Anyone can easily appear supremely sophisticated and all-knowing by understating or witholding their reactions. LIke death, another masterful leveler, silence obliterates all distinction by remaining cool and unimpressed.


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


Irony, the shield and sword of literary politics, ends its days living alone on one side of the moon, while its polar opposite, sentimentality, assumes its solo residence on the other.

Book Party Today

Please come celebrate the publication of *fait accompli* (with an afterword by Gary Sullivan) from Factory School's Heretical Texts
Heretical Texts' *fait accompli*

TUESDAY, February 27
at 8pm.
at UNNAMEABLE BOOKS
456 Bergen Street
Brooklyn NY 11217
(off Flatbush Avenue)
(718) 789 1534


Easy* to get to. Take the 2 or 3 train to Bergen street stop (not to be confused with the other Bergen stop on the F line). Unnameable Books is just 1/2 block from the subway. Pinchik paint is on the corner.* Bergen is one stop past the Atlantic AND Pacific St transfer point with the D,M,N,R and B,Q,2,3,4,5 lines

Mark Young announces new books from
Otoliths

I am pleased to announce the first of what will be a quarterly round of new books from Otoliths ; & I'm extremely pleased that the four books in this initial launch are wonderful offerings by four exceptional poets.



Rather than drool with unadulterated joy any further, I'll just point you to the Otoliths shopfront — Lulu Shopfront — where you can also find other books & chapbooks plus print versions of the magazine, & would suggest to U.S. residents that, rather than use couriers, they select the USPS Media Mail default as the means of delivery since it's economical &, from our experience, efficient.



The individual webpages for each of the books is given below.



Nico Vassilakis: DIPTYCHS

60 pages, full colour

$15.00

webpage:
Lulu ordering page





"The individual pieces in this book are tiny visual poems that examine the materiality of visible language and find beauty by looking at that language from unexpected vantage points. Nico has created each of these poems through a sequence of steps that included capturing video of text, editing and modifying that video (which included changing the color), capturing screenshots of the video, and cutting and putting these final pieces together in little diptychs consisting of one rectangle of prepared text atop another. To some degree, the results are the children of Nico's important videopoetic work, Concrete: Movies, released in 2005."

—from the introduction by Geof Huth





Jordan Stempleman: What's the Matter

112 pages

$10.00

webpage: Lulu ordering page





"Maximizing the tension of line breaks, making the most of each word's nuances, Jordan Stempleman creates a stunning landscape of precision and delicacy. There are gorgeous moments here, and they always "begin with the actual condition"—this book constitutes a commitment to the beauty of the world, and a new instance of it."

— Cole Swensen



"In this impressive, replete collection, Jordan Stempleman takes us repeatedly to this place of contemplation, where only a few rare words are necessary. We are invited to a course of thinking that locates intensity without demanding it—for therein lies the fabled difference between an exploratory and settled poetics, to open out and out again upon present history. This is, quite simply, a wonderful book."

— Paul Hoover





harry k stammer: tents

60 pages, including colour

$15.00

webpage: Lulu ordering page



"Make no mistake about it: harry k. stammer is one of the boldest pioneers in contemporary experimental poetry—and one of the most successful. His new work tents is edgy but accessible; challenging but rewarding. stammer mixes a sort of poetic cubism with wordplay, startling typography, and a wide array of other adventurous techniques with creative intensity rarely witnessed. In this singular text, the reader is confronted by a dizzying maelstrom of meaning and image. Kaleidoscopic and impressionistic, this interpretation of our postindustrial, postmodern society is a must for any serious reader of today's poetry."

–Philip Primeau , PERSISTENCIA* PRESS





Vernon Frazer: BODIED TONE

132 pages

$10.00

webpage: Lulu ordering page





" BODIED TONE is terrific—the rhythmic vitality is just that, full of life, but it is seductive too; one gets caught up in the percussive musicality of the phrasing . It's a driving musicality—more bebop than balladry, for sure." — Lyn Hejinian



So why not splurge a little & be swept up by pleasure.



Cheers

Mark Young

Editor, Otoliths

Guilermo Parra has posted a

review of Heriberto Yepez's new Heretical Texts book on his blog

Venepoetics

Thanks Across the East River and Across the Atlantic

to
Anny Ballardini and Thom Donovan for their generous responses to *fait accompli* from Heretical Texts; Anny presents some random selections, and an invitation to our upcoming book party at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn and Thom Donovan presents a dedicated poem and a collage from *Free Fall* "Chris Dangerous." Much appreciated, guys!

*****

Laura Moriarty reviews Heriberto Yepez's *Wars. Threesomes. Drafts. & Mothers* from Heretical Texts in
A Tonalist Notes
via Orbit Now (Troy Worman)
Heriberto Yepez also posted it on his blog Hecho en Hache

Contradicta




Measure your generosity by your response to selfishness.




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



Perplexity arouses; satisfaction stuns.

Contradicta




Great success and great compassion are not that compatible: this is why compassionate people find their own failures and that of others worth thinking about.




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



For contemplatives motivation is like the tides- when they go out, time for a sunbath.

Another fait accompli

Bill Marsh, editor of the Heretical Texts series- that now includes the book version of *fait accompli*- reviewed this blog in June of 2003. We tried to convince Bill to use this review as a preface to the book, but since Gary Sullivan had already kindly supplied an afterword it was clear this was far too much packaging for an Heretical Texts book. Below is a link to Bill Marsh's review on his blog San Diego Poetry Guild.

Bill and his wife Octavia Davis and their two children have now moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, although they then resided in Southern California. Bill, and soon Octavia, teach at St John's. He is working on a book about plagiarism. The Factory School design team that includes Joel Kuszai and Octavia Davis did a presentation at the Poetry Project last Monday.


Field Report #1 by Bill Marsh

**

Thanks to Ernesto Priego (Never Neutral) for the generous response to *fait accompli*

Holland Cotter featured Mimi Gross' painting
-which we saw and greatly admired at the Ceres opening
last night- (Ceres Gallery:547 West 27th Street)
in the Friday, February 16 NY Times Art section

Agents of Change: Women, Art and Intellect
that included a link to the

The Meaning Forum
which features a painting by Toni Simon!

**
Contradicta recently Translated Into Icelandic!

Thanks to

Tiubusund tregawott for the link.

PS Shanna Compton featured on the same site.

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

SPD has sold out the first shipment of *fait accompli* from Heretical Texts.
Until some have been shipped you can order from this page:

Factory School

This Side of Paradise

"Q- Do you want a lot of money?
A- No. I am merely afraid of being poor.
Q- Very afraid?
A- Just passively afraid.
Q- Where are you drifting?
A- Don't ask *me*!
Q- Don't you care?
A- Rather. I don't want to commit moral suicide.
Q- Have you no interests left?
A- None, I have no more virtue to lose. Just as a cooling pot gives off no more heat, so all through youth and adolescence we give off calories of virtue. That's what's called ingenuousness.
Q- An interesting idea.
A- That's why a good man going wrong attracts people.They stand around literally *warm themselves* at the calories of virtue he gives off. Sarah makes an unsophisticated remark and the faces simper in delight-'How *innocent* the poor child is!' They're warming themselves at her virtue. But Sarah sees the simper and never makes the remark again. Only she feels a little colder after that."

-F.Scott Fitzgerald

*This Side of Paradise* was Fitzgerald's first book, begun when he was still a Princeton undergraduate and published when he was 23.

Today is fait accompli's 4th birthday.

Come celebrate the publication of *fait accompli* the book-
from Factory School's Heretical Texts
at Unnameable Books
456 Bergen Street
(off Flatbush Avenue)
Tuesday, February 27
at 8pm.
The book begins with our first post
on this date in 2003.

**

^Gary Sullivan, The Great Enabler*

Stan Apps posted a personal and passionate essay about Gary Sullivan's poetics-
"Gary’s poetics consists of decisively rejecting mysterious theatricality, and thereby creating an aesthetic of material accountability. The words in Flarf poems are materials that have been put there precisely so that a mysterious theatrical tone of all-knowingness from the beyond cannot develop. Instead, evidence of human foolishness and goofiness is there instead. The tone of Flarf poems is not really (or not only) a tone of willed outrageousness or silliness, as it may seem to be; the tone is a rejection of mysteriousness, and therefore an acceptance of words and phrases that can be accounted for as merely human..."

read the entire post right now on

refried ORACLE phone

**


Digitalized Thought from Peter Ciccariello [via the
Buffalo Poetics List]

Eoagh 3


Eoagh Issue 3: Queering Language

Lou-Andreas Salome meets Kenny Goldsmith
(an article in the Valve by Ray Davis) (Nov, 2005)


Salome What She Watched


**
updated factory schooll link to ::fait accompli:: the book:

fait accompli from Heretical Texts

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.