Contradicta





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



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

Contradicta






The fewer the notes the greater the melody.




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

Contradicta





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




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

Contradicta




Sun, water and praise will grow anything.




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

Contradicta





To treasure- that is the treasure.




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

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.



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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.

Contradicta




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




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

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.



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No fame without maim.

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.



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"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.



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Camena longa, vita brevis.

Poetry is long, life is short.

Contradicta




Measure detracts from pleasure.





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Until noticed, even the loveliest things feel plain.

Contradicta



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




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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.

Contradicta



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



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

Contradicta



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





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






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Imitating well is the sincerest form of revenge.





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

Contradicta



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




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

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.



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

Contradicta



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




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




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




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




.

Contradicta





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



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





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




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All books exist to end in a thought.




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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.


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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.

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.


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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)
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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]

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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?

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.

***************
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!
****************

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)