January 2010
30 posts
“…you’re going to start getting closer and closer – that is, if you want...”
– J.D. Salinger “Cather in the Rye,” As Mr. Antolini said to Holden.
My thoughts on love, inspired by K.V.
If you are to love someone, forever, then you must have a sense of poetry, mortality, and wonder.
“You finally fell in love, I see,” said Salo.
“Only an Earthling...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
Airport Musings
Life was slipping out of reach, So I flew across the country Taking time to pacify my mind Sandy toes on Venice Beach.
I returned home one day, To love and live life one way, But you told me we could no longer play, And I had to live life another way. Oh the tears came my way. The tears keep coming my way. I ran until my heart collapsed Salty eyes on Cape Cod Bay.
Drinks, smokes...
How do you express the tension between humans’ sense that there is a reality, and their hovering terror that in fact they create it?
“Local colour. Work in all you know. Make them accomplices.”
– James Joyce
Sonnet XIII, by EBB, updated by me.
Would you have me fashion into speech
The love I have, which for you is not enough,
Or for me to hold the torch while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light on each?-
I drop the torch at your feet. I cannot teach
My hand to hold my spirit so far off
From myself and that I should give you proof
In words, of love hid in me, out of reach.
No, let the silence of my womanhood
...
Mistress of Creation
She is the Monarch of all she surveys,
Her right there is none to dispute,
On her altar submissively lays
Its choicest, each fowl and each brute.
Behold her surrounded by those
Whose homage is lavishly done,
The world at the tip of her toes,
And its denizens crouching— save one.
Look proud, pretty Queen, from thy shrine
And they vassals so loftily scan-
But tell them their...
“What has to be acknowledged is that there are, in fact, constraints on reading,...”
– Mary Ann Donahue
“Whenever I ask a question, and the pain comes, I know I have asked a really good...”
– Kurt Vonnegut
“Those sparks of truth, intuition, love, joy, creativity, and accomplishment...”
– J. Roberts
“Off with you,” I said to my assembled selves. “Your work is done. I...”
– Virginia Woolf, The Crowded Dance of Modern Life
1 tag
There’s a riddle about a man who is locked in a room with nothing but a bed and a calender, and the question is: how does he survive?
The answer is: He eats dates from the calender and drinks water from the springs of the bed.
-Kurt Vonnegut “The Sirens of Titan”
1 tag
“The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms.”
– Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
“Life is like a luxurious dress crawling with fleas.”
– Eileen Chang
“People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It’s not...”
– - Milan Kundera
“I realized that my circumstances, while causing me despair and heartbreak, also...”
– -Suzan-Lori Parks
via Michael Stein
To ALL MY FRIENDS BOTH NEAR AND FAR by Joan Wile,...
WHATEVER RELIGION YOU’RE NOT OR ARE
A MERRY CHRISTMAS ANYHOW
DESPITE THE WAR,
DESPITE THE DOW
I HOPE TWO THOUSAND TEN BRINGS YOU AND ALL OF US
BOTH OLD AND NEW
AN END TO STRIFE ABROAD
AND HERE A WAR-FREE, SINGLE PAYER YEAR
AN END TO PALIN,
LIEBERMAN (HE HAS MORPHED TO BE HER MAN)
NO MORE SCHOOL AND SERVICE CUTS,
REPLACEMENT OF THE CONGRESS SLUTS
INSTEAD, LET THERE...
Without You by Seth Berkowitz
You’d meet me in the summer of 1929
On the beach in a swimsuit of wool
I’d hold you on the Steeplechase, laughing with delight
‘Til our hearts and our bellies were full
Now we’re thrilled that the Cyclone continues to work
Without being renamed by some corporate jerks
‘Cause the Merrill Lynch Cyclone might drive me berserk
It’s true
The city moves on...
“He taught me so many things… that I still don’t understand.”
– Jason Goodman
“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long...”
– Sam Levenson
1 tag
While I wait for the train
I am a teacup on a platform edge.
Scared of falling from the slightest touch,
When balancing myself becomes too much.
I wait for the train, and I wait
For sweet music’s harmony and beat
To place my soul back in synch.
Even if it’s not my rhythm—
It’s someone else’s rift, someone else’s jam.
It feels better than I do, it feels good.
I miss my subway stop and...
