chris murray's *Texfiles*

"A note to Pound in heaven: Only one mistake, Ezra! You should have talked to women" --George Oppen, _Twenty Six Fragments_





Archives:





xoxo Hey, E-Mail Me! xoxo







ManY PoETiKaL HaTs LisT:

Holly's Pirate-girl Hat, chrismurray in a straw hat, Michael Helsem's Gray Wyvern NOLA Fedora. Duchamp's Rrose Selavy's flirting hat. Max Ernst's Hats of The Hat Makes the Man. Jordan Davis' The Hat! poetry. hks' smelly head baseball cap. Samuel Beckett's Lucky's Black bowler hat, giving his oration on what's questionable in mankind, in *Waiting for 'God-ot'*. my friend John Phillips's 1969 dove gray fedora w/ wild feather. Bob Dylan's mystery lover's Panama Hat. Bob Creeley's Black Mountain Felt Boater Hat. Duke Ellington's Satin Top Hat. Acorn Hats of Tree. Freud's 1950 City Fedora. Joseph Brodsky's Sailor Cap. Harry K Stammer's Copper Hat Hell. Lewis LaCook's bowler hat(s). Tom Beckett's Bad Hair Day Furry Pimp Hat. Daughter Holly's black beret. harry k stammer's fez. Cat in the Hat's Hat & best hat, Googling Texfiles: crocheted hat with flames. Harry K Stammer's tinseled berets. Tex's 10 gallon Gary Cooper felt Stetson cowboy hat. Jordan Davis's fedora. Dali's High-heel Shoe Hat. Harry K Stammer's en-blog LAPD Hat & aluminum baseball cap. cap'n caps. NY-Yankees caps. the HKS-in-person-caps are blue or green no logos nor captions. Ma Skanky Possum 10's nighttime cap. moose antler hat. propeller beenie hat. doo rag. knit face mask hat. Bob Dylan's & photographer Laziz Hamani's panama hats. Mark Weiss's Publisher's Hat. Rebecca Loudon's Seattle-TX-Hats'n'boots.




Ever-Evolving Links:


Silliman's Links
Dominic Rivron
Unidentified
Br Tom @ One & Plainer
Dan Waber: ars poetica anthology
Dan Waber: altered books anthology
chris daniels: Notes to a Fellow Traveller
Chris Daniels: Toward an Anti-Capitalist Poetry
David Daniels: The Gates Of Paradise
subterranean poets: Beijing Poetry Group
Charles Alexander/Chax Press: Chaxblog
Headlines Poetry: the latest weblog entries
Henry Gould's AlephoeBooks
Julie Choffel's Understory
Tom Murphy's former one
Jean Vengua's New Okir
Roger Pao's Asian-American Poetry
Tom Lisk: Oilcloth and Linoleum
Kevin Doran
Reb Livingston's Cackling Jackal Blog
Janet Holmes: Humanophone
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Mark Young's gamma ways
Brian Campbell: Out of the Woodwork
Shanna's DIY Publishing Blog
Galatea Resurrects: a Poetry Review
Tom Beckett
John Sakkis: BOTH BOTH
New Francois Luong:Voices in Utter Dark, KaBlow!sm is...
Old Francois Luong: Voices in Utter Dark
Margin Walker: Andrew Lundwall
Free Space Comix: the latest BK Stefans blog
Adam Lockhart, Experimentalist Composer
Antic View: Alan Bramhall & Jeff Harrison
lookouchblog: Jessica Smith
MiPOradio
Web Log -- Charles Bernstein
Google Poem Generator: Leevi Lehto
Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Feral Scholar: Stan Goff
worderos: Tom Beckett
In Galatea's Purse
Japundit
Quiet Desperation: Jim Ryal
Luca Antara: Martin Edmond
Brief Epigrams: Ryan Alexander MacDonald
Radio My Vocabulary: 4 pm Sunday Poetry Streams
Mark Lamoreaux: [[[0{:}0]]]
Hot Whiskey Blog
louder
Nick Bruno: They Shoot Poets Don't They?
Joe Massey: Rooted Fool
Kate Greenstreet: every other day
heuriskein: Tom Orange
Chiaroscuro Metropoli: Tom Beckett
Behrle's latest spout!
Fluffy Dollars: Michelle Detorie
Jane Dark's Sugar High!
The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
(Charles) Olson Now: Michael Kellaher & Ammiel Alcalay
kari edwards' TranssubMUTATION
Notes on the Revival: Jeremy Hawkins
PurPur: Petrus Pokus
Snapper Missives: Scott Pierce
A Sad Day for Sad Birds II: Gina Meyers
Great Works: Peter Philpot
zafusy: experimental poetry journal
Writeboard: a collaborative writing tool
John Latta: Rue Hazard
KP Harris: Croissant Factory
Stephanie Young's New Site
Stephen Vincent's New Site
Portable Press@Yo~Yo Labs
Square America
Amy King's blog
Robert: Peyoetry Hut
Muisti Kirja: Karri Kokko
Karri Kokko's Blonde on Blonde
Yummeee Blog (recipes)
Nice Guy Syndrome: Tim Botta
Left Hook
Del Ray Cross: anachronizms
Juan Cole: Informed Comment
BuzzFlash - Daily Headlines, Breaking News, Links
Aaron McCollough
Chris Lott's Cosmopoetica
Chad Parenteau
Little Emerson
Fever, Light--by Sawako Nakayasu
Second Wish
Nomadics
Alison Croggon
Radical Druid
Ron is Ron: the Ron Silliman Cartoon by Jim Behrle
Dagzine: Positions, Poetics, Populations: Gary Norris
Shadows within Shadows: Tom Beckett
Self Similar Writing: Jukka Pekka Kervinen
The Little Workshop: Cassie Lewis
Sky Bright: Jay Rosevear
Poesy Galore: Emily Lloyd
Lisa Jarnot's Blog
Poetry Hut: Jilly Dybka (has moved here)
Pornfeld: Michael Hoerman
Seven Apples: Justin Ulmer
Hi Spirits: Andrew Burke
Bacon Bargain!: Joe Massey
Ivy is here: Ivy Alvarez
Whimsy Speaks: Jeff Bahr
Umbrella: Jeff Wietor
Chicanas! (Susana L. Gallardo)
Masters of Photography
Blog of Disquiet: Gary Norris' Teaching Blog
Suzanna Gig Jig
Bad with Titles: Jay Thomas
Spaceship Tumblers! Tony Tost
Desert City: Ken Rumble
E-Po
Zotz!
Optative Mood: Tim Morris
ecritures bleues: Laura Carter
The Ingredient: Alli Warren
Skanky Possum Pouch
Slight Publications
Jewishy-Irishy: Laurel Snyder
Sea-Camel: Alberto Romero Bermo
Growing Nations: Jordan Stempleman
Tom Raworth
Entropy and Me: Hal Johnson
Scott Pierce: Snapper's Junk
Chicano Poet: Reyes Cardenas
Semio-Karl M&M
Stephen Vincent
Hoa Nguyen/Teacher's & Writers
a New Word Placements
Narcissus Works: Anny Ballardini
Richard Lopez
Tributary: Allen Bramhall
The_Delay: Chris Vitiello
Jukka Pekka Kervinen: Nonlinear Poetry
Lanny Quarles: Phaneronoemikon
Clifford Duffy: Fictions of Deleuze & Guattari
DagZine
Carrboro Poetry Festival
Steve Evans: Third Factory
DEBORAH PATILLO
SKANKY POSSUM PRESS
Tim Peterson: Mappemunde
WOOD'S LOT
Geof Huth: DBQP
Ann Marie Eldon
Jim Behrle: The Jim Side
Ray Bianchi:Postmodern Collage Poetry
Never Mind the Beasts
Diaryo
New Broom
Flingdump Scattershot
Tony Tost: Unquiet Grave
Grapez
SB POET
Mark Young's Pelican Dreaming
|||AS/IS2|||
Li's A Private Studio
Anny Ballardini's Poet's Corner
Tom Beckett: Vanishing Points
Dumbfoundry
BadGurrrlNest
Jean Vengua's Okir
Hear-it dot org: info on hearing problems
Tim Yu's Tympan
James Yeager's Modern Lives
Tony Robinson: Geneva Convention
Daniel Nestor's Unpleasant Event
Ex-Lion Tamer
Carlos Arribas: Scriptorium
David Nemeth
Ela's Incertain Plume
Mairead Byrne's Heaven
Catherine Daly
Black Spring
Br.Tom's Finish Yr Phrase
Shin Yu Pai: makura-no-soshi
Harry K. Stammer: Downtown LA
Corina's Fledgling Wordsmith
Jilly Dybka's Poetry Hut
Ben Basan's Luminations
Katey: Chewing on Pencils
YaY!! Eileen Tabios: Chatelaine Poetics !
Jill Jones: Ruby Street
Geoffrey Gatza's BlazeVox
Bill Allegrezza's P-Ramblings
Gary Sullivan's Elsewhere
GoldenRuleJones
Poetry_Heat
Bookslut
Chickee's SuperDeluxeGoodPoems
As-Is !
John Latta's Hotel Point
Sawako Nakayasu's Ongoing Show
Shanna Compton's Brand New Insects
Crag Hill
kari edwards: transdada
Fluss
Michael Helsem's Gray Wyvern
Word Placement
Bogue's Blog
Jordan Davis: Equanimity
Robert Flach's Unadulterated Text
Michelle Bautista
Ironic Cinema
Mike Snider
Farewell Tonio!

In Through the Out Door
The Blonde Brunette
Awake at Dawn on Someone's Couch is Toast
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen:Non-Linear
Xpress(ed) !
Chris Lott's Ruminate
Venepoetics
Laura: Yellowslip
Stick Poet Super Hero
Mighty Jens!
Radio UTA: Toni's Thursday Poetry Show
Tim Morris: Lection
Gabe Gudding
Constant Critic
Sappho's Breathing
Waves of Reading
Jhananin's Insite
Fanaticus
AdvExpo
Stephen Vincent
Stephanie Young: New Well Nourished Moon
Kasey Silem Mohammad's Newest Limetree
Lanny Quarles: (solipsis)//:phaneronoemikon
States Writes
Rebecca's Pocket
Simulacro
Braincase Links
Sentence
Sor Juana
73 Urban Bus Journeys
Poeta Empirica
poetry for the people: canwehaveourballback?
Ernesto Priego's Never Neutral
Nick Piombino's Fait Accompli
Weekly Incite blogresearch
Jim Behrle's first monkey
Jim Behrle's Monkey's Gone to Heaven
David Kirschenbaum's Boog City
Not Nick Moudry
Laurable
David Hess Heathens in Heat
Jack Kimball's Pantaloons
Li Bloom's Abolone
Ron Silliman
Chris Sullivan's Bloggchaff
Chris Sullivan's Slight Publications
Chris Sullivan's Department of Culture
Kasey S. Mohammad's Old-New Limetree
Kasey's Old Limetree
James Meetze: Brutal Kittens
Cassie Lewis: The Jetty
Joseph Mosconi's Harlequin Knights
Nada Gordon's Ululate
ultimate: Stephanie Young's First Well Nourished Moon
Steve Evans: Third Factory
Noah Eli Gordon's Human Verb
Jean Vengua's Blue Kangaroo
Sawako Nakayasu: Texture Notes
Free Space Comix: BK Stefans
Crosfader
Malcolm Davidson's eeksy peeksy
Marsh Hawk Press group
Catherine Meng's Porthole Redux
Josh Corey's Cahiers de Corey
Very Nice! Shampoopoetry
UTA's Lit Mag: ZNine
Wild Honey Press
Jacket
JFK's Poetinresidence
Malcolm Davidson's Tram Spark poems
HYepez: RealiTi
HYpez: Mexperimental
Aimee Nez's Gila Monster
BestMaX: Jim Behrle's jismblog
Cori Copp's Littleshirleybean
Jordan Davis: Million Poems
Eileen Tabios: Corpsepoetics [see Chatelaine above]
YaY! Liz's Thirdwish
Ultra Linking
Henry Gould's HG Poetics




Saturday, August 09, 2003

 

Extra Big Thanks to Nick Piombino for posting about the latest-- Stephanie!--poetry reading in SFO! I really appreciate hearing about it, Nick, and I hope you and Toni are having lots of fun! Best wishes on your reading this weekend at 21 Grand!


chris at 1:49 PM |

 

It has cooled off here!

There is some nice rain,
and there are cool breezes.
Finally.
I'm off to the Botanical Gardens
or the Museum, or maybe the movies!--
whichever appeals most in the next hour or so.
Full report later.


chris at 1:15 PM |

 

3 From Jack Spicer:

"Lament for the Makers"


"No call upon anyone but the timber drifting in the waves
Those blocks, those blobs of wood.
The sounds there, offshore, faint and short
They click or sound together--drift timber spending the night
___there floating just above the beach. Thump or sound
___together. The sound of driftwood the sound that is not
___really a sound at all.
At all
All of them
Cast
In the ghost of moonlight on them
On shore."


"Orfeo"

"Sharp as an arrow Orpheus
Points his music downward
Hell is there
At the bottom of the seacliff.
Heal
Nothing by this music.
Eurydice
Is a frigate bird or a rock or some seaweed.
Hail nothing
The infernal
Is a slippering wetness out at the horizon.
Hell is this:
The lack of anything but the eternal to look at
The expansiveness of salt
The lack of any bed but one's
Music to sleep in."


"Song Of A Prisoner"

"Nothing in my body escapes me.
The sound of an eagle diving
Upon some black bird
Or the sorrow of an owl.
Nothing in my body escapes me.
Each branch is closed
I
Echo each song from its throat
Bellow each sound."





chris at 12:50 PM |

Friday, August 08, 2003

 

More O'Hara:


"Interior (with Jane)


The eagerness of objects to
be what we are afraid to do

cannot help but move us Is
this willingness to be a motive

in us what we reject? The
really stupid things, I mean

a can of coffee, a 35 [cent] ear
ring, a handful of hair, what

do these things do to us? We
come into the room, the windows

are empty, the sun is weak
and slippery on the ice And a

sob comes, simply because it is
coldest of things we know"



--Selected Poems of Frank O'Hara. Vintage, 1974. p.21



chris at 5:39 PM |

 

Xtra Large Sized Poetry Weekend in Philidelphia:

Check it out! Ron Silliman's reading tonight.

Jim Behrle's reading tomorrow Best wishes for a great event!


chris at 12:31 PM |

 

Dis-human Interest Stories:

1. Air pollution level for the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex area today:
Level Purple: highest


2. Although the state has frozen raises for all university faculty, GTAs [whose salaries were actually reduced], and departmental administrators, UTA's [oops!! forgot to indicate possessive case...] president received a 3 % raise for the coming year, to $216,000+
(Arlington Star Telegram reporting today)


chris at 9:08 AM |

 

Coming Soon:
Why love is
logical! YaY!!


chris at 12:51 AM |

 

How's about a little cheery-cheeky Thorstein Veblen to convince that woman below, responding to the honking horn, that she doesn't have to do that?** :

"As has been seen in the discussion of women's status under the heads of Vicarious Leisure and Vicarious Consumption, it has in the course of economic development become the office of the woman to consume vicariously for the head of the household; and her apparel is contrived with this object in view [duh?]. It has come about that obviously productive labour is in a peculiar degree derogatory to respectable women, and therefore special pains should be taken in the construction of women's dress, to impress upon the beholder (often indeed a fiction) that the wearer does not and can not habitually engage in useful work. Propriety requires respectable woman to abstain more consistently from useful effort and to make more of a show leisure than the men of the same social classes. It grates painfully on our nerves to contemplate the necessity of any well-bred woman's earning a livlihood by useful work. It is not a 'woman's sphere'. Her sphere is within the household, which she should 'beautify' [come-on now Ladies, get to beautifyin, please: someone's got to do it...] and of which she should be the 'chief ornament.' The male head of the household is not currently spoken of as its ornament [well, gee... someone should be complaining about that]."


** Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Dover, 1994. 110 (orig. Macmillan, 1899).


chris at 12:30 AM |

Thursday, August 07, 2003

 

The Very Last
stanza of printed poetry
in the Selected OHara:


"... yes always though you said it first [1]
you the quicksand and sand and grass
as I wave toward you freely
the ego-ridden sea
there is a light there that neither
of us will obscure
rubbing it all white
saving ships from fucking up on the rocks [2]
on the infinite waves of skin smelly and crushed and light and absorbed [3]"


[1. no punctuation=no closure,no compulsion for. That's merits a YaY!! ]
[2. Well, hells bells: as ever in this world, some fool is out there in the 100 degree, 11+ p.m. parking-lot-night, honking a fucking Pontiac Firebird horn, so a certain woman will emerge from a doorway, come on, hurry, yeah, okay dipstick (as they say in garages I have known). And guess what?!does she act offended?--No: she goes for it every single time. Go figure. But read on, above, at Thorstein Veblen to see why, in part, she might be this way... ]

Hasta.


chris at 11:34 PM |

 

More Odd Observations on the Edit-Chanting Project and other Life Matters Here:
[E]utopianist Reader Responses & Etc.


Best wishes at the reading tonight, Stephanie, and here I'll just report a little about the editorial chanting project and kind of randomly, about other matters of daily/weekly life, for now.

It is quite true that I am a little partial to exclamation points!! There's just something about the exclamation point's (usually I use them for cheery) containment of urgency that recalls adolescent forms of jubilant release, I suppose--some wanting of a way to just say, *hey! everything's wonderful or extreme!* Humanly universal and harmless enough, I hope. Overuse?--as in any repetitive motion: if mindless, well then, also meaningless, so easy enough to overlook if need be.

As for the edit-chanting: today's biggest problem was carried over from chapter 1 to 2: snarly possessives. Always a problem for writers in English. And what dumb, inconsistent rules we have for them [1 exclamation point] This was over proper names where the question comes up as to who should get the *s'* and who the *s's* to indicate possession. My name, for example, should (because a proper name) be written Chris's, if used in possessive case--as in *Chris's exclamation points are excessive*--or so says the rule from current MLA specialist Joseph Gibaldi, who I hear is a friend of the author I'm working with and is a great person to boot [1 exclamation point] That's just a little tweak of gossip sidetrack there, folks, for fun [1 exclamation point]). So we ran into a problem--and MLA is not the reigning authority, apparently, for this book--when Aristophanes showed up as Aristophanes' instead of Aristophanes's (phonetically: Air Iz Toff An EEz poss Ehzz: sounding ever so musical now, too) The same thing happened for Jesus: Jesus' instead of Jesus's (spelled out: J-E-S-U-S poss S).

Now, I happen to have the MLA stuff clear lately because just a few months ago a policeman from Arlington emailed me in a frantic state of mind because he had been to court that day, where he had submitted a written report of a traffic accident and was testifying against a defendant when the defense lawyer tore him up one side and down the other on cross examination. He was made to look a completely ignorant fool, and was still smarting from it. THe problem?--he had written his report using all the posssessives wrong. No lie: that was how this defendant got off the charges: policeman did not know his rules for writing, thus it follows the policeman could not be trusted to give an accurate report of the incident [2 exclamation points]. How would it be to suffer that cross examination?--isn't it bad enough when your 4th grade English teacher does it to ya in front of the whole class? That was nuthin compared to this episode of suffering over the language. So he asked me to direct him to accurate info on use of possessive case in writing, which I did. Actually, I typed it into an email for him, from out of the MLA Handbook. He was very nice about it all. It seemed particularly surreal to me at the time, but not so much now (since I've learned and traveled a lot around lately and have actually had even more bizarre writing experiences than this--if you can believe that... . We also had some pause to question the use of brackets inside parentheticals, which use at the printer's seemed to follow no discernible logic. And *we do like* our logic in this and all things. What a lovely, loveable thing is logic, no?

But anyway, for those who like to hear about Shopping with Fei. I also saw Fei today [1 exclamation point] She was a little disappointed that I did not go to China Town when I was in SFO (she had asked me specifically to go there so I could report back to her all about it) but she understood. So we will be having a shopping trip soon [2 exclamation points]

In other startling life-breakthroughs & news: am going to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens here (field trip [1 exclamation point]) (I suppose this should be classified as a sort of a date tho I can't stand that idea--it feels way too 14ish) [2 exclamation points]) But yes, that will be this weekend and if there is time (is there ever enough time to really look at all the flowers on any given day in such a full life?) maybe the Museum, too. Oh boy [3 exclamation points].

More soon: Radio UTA (broadcast internationally), weekly poetry readings begining Aug 28. I think I'm slated to read for a half hour on Sept. 11. More on that soon.


chris at 5:28 PM |

 

Dept. of Images-of-the-Times-Blogging:

Cool pics at Tim's, of some favorite blogger-poets reading at Oxygen in SFO the other night,

and cool cartoons, at (but of course!) our favorite monkey's, Jim's: the same night's "Lost Photos" ...

: )


chris at 3:36 AM |

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

 

(More) Like Chanting

Yes, Stephanie! That's it exactly, and I want to add how that trace of physicality, or embodiment in the slowing down to recite each semiotic mark in the text being edited, is very pleasant. We are now done with the most minute detailing--appendices, notes, Works Cited--and have moved on to the main *body* of text. I've been over this text before, twice, as proofreader; this time is final, tho--the galleys. Somewhat ironically, also in a very pleasant way, I find it interesting that the critical-theoretical focus is on new ways of thinking about Reader Response theory. And then again, on a topic lost sight of until recently: Utopia in literature--its social impact and how readers take it and make their own ideas out of a text like Bellamy's. A lot of resonance in that, I find.


chris at 6:33 PM |

 

Dept of Extra Special Poets, Poetry & Poetics:

An Instance of Sondheim's "Moving Territory"

This in from Alan Sondheim, who posts his experimental work to the SUNY Buffalo listserv daily (nightly?--he usually posts around midnight or after). I find his work particularly fun and intellectually provocative. I have yet to hear much about Alan in Blogland, so I thought to contact him for some work, and am posting the poem, "changing faunal landscape in kingston pennsylvania," that Alan posted to Buff-po yesterday.

For me, Alan's work is always a good read--"good" meaning it gives me pause to continue to question dominant cultural ideas and ideals. Furthermore, yes, this is also work to learn a lot from (the dialectical engagement I find productive, if you followed the Aristotle post here, yesterday). Alan's experimentalism goes immediately meta, to questions, via the poetry itself, about who or what determines what can be defined as poetic experiment. In other words, he's using poetry to question the what & why, the fundamental ground, the essences of what is traditionally understood as basic to poetry itself--poetry's mind, as it were. This is difficult and admirable. Alan's work takes off from the meta, and goes into many beautifully intricate mathematical, linguistically anaphoric, and computer prog places I have never been well acquainted with but can still greatly appreciate.


changing faunal landscape in kingston pennsylvania (by Alan Sondheim)

for jg ballard

new species sighted: blue herons (3),* green heron (1)
influx of muscovy ducks and canadian geese*
muskrats in drainage ditches
influx of virginia possums (opossums)
intensification: rabbits,* skunks
moving territory: broad-shouldered hawks (5)* into central town
insects: small green back black-striped grasshoppers (1)*
spiders: shield spiders (have to check into nomenclature)* (30-40 approx)
some small waterbirds unidentified (inland)
numerous crown coral fungi*
archaic and other bacterial efflorescences around sulphur vents*
increase in numbers of bats
increase in crow flocks

*, photographed

-- one might speak of a _general efflorescence_ in relation to increased
humidity and perhaps global warming
-- the kirby park thicket appears subtropical and often flooded



What I find provocative in this particular poem is the instance of "moving territory," that, given the context of Alan's continued experimentalist approach to poetry, and given the environmental crisis we live in territorially and that we add to everyday yet cannot seem even to recognize and radicalize it individually or collectively, a poem listing "fauna" for a given region is a piece of dire documentation, and more: it is a warning of what will soon be missed if we cannot wake up collectively. The poem is an accounting of what has lived and transpired, even while this materialization exists, moves on in its subtle relation we can hardly recognize in our crisis. For, the crisis is such that we exist in lives not able to recognize more than our own small but overwhelming needs: how many wrist watches do I own?--what plane must I catch to get where I am expected to be?--what money must I make to continue to live my particular luxuries? These are what concern us. Then comes a poem, this poem, photographically teeming with hawks and spiders and "coral fungi" in ways not dissimilar to how The Iliad is full of catalogues of ships and people lost in war. The poem, experimental though its contexts, also takes on a very traditional rhetorical role: it invites pause about what else about life besides our little selves is here with us, and is terribly fleeting. For what reasons and at what cost can planes be missed, I have to ask after reading this poem.

The poem allows us, if we are paying attention, to continue to ask, what can be done about our larger human, cultural enterprises of destruction? And maybe to discover some workable answers, too.

Alan, thanks for such provocative writing.

Alan's web presence:

sondheim.org

asondheim portal

anu.edu

Trace Projects

finger sondheim@panix.com



chris at 12:29 PM |

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

 

fr. Sappho
Transl. Josephine Balmer

111


The stars around the lovely moon
[one line row opening tidal now]
[... more tide of poetry]
[one line row opening tidal ever]

hide their brightness when it is full
[another line row opening now like tide ever]
[... more poetry magnetics]
[another line row opening romantic aspects]

and shines the clearest over all
[one more line row opening like a Wall Street
rhetorical product]
[...stop the killing]
[again as in dreams,
sea lion outer dusk life]

the earth
[all bracketing is predictable:]
[our lovely magma ruin
speculum of oil
we are overrun
of mall]


interspersions: chris murray





chris at 8:49 PM |

 

Dept of Talking it Out: Differing Rhetorical Ways to Gather Knowledge about a Subject
(Choosing to argue so to Win or Prove a Point [forensics],
or to Learn more & Create [deliberation])

From Aristotle, Art of Rhetoric (I.i. 10-15), translated by John Henry Freese (Loeb, 1975, pp.7-15)), on political oratory & the differences between forensic argumentation and deliberation over a subject:

"[A]lthough the method of deliberative and forensic Rhetoric is the same, and although the pursuit of the former is nobler and more worthy of a statesman than that of the latter, which is limited to transactions between private citizens, they say nothing about the former, but without exception endeavour to bring forensic speaking under the rules of art. The reason of this is that in public speaking it is less worth while to talk of what is outside the subject, and that deliberative oratory lends itself to trickery less than forensic, because it is of more general interest [noted: "or more intelligible to the ordinary man"].

"For in the assembly the judges decide upon their own affairs, so that the only thing necessary is to prove the truth of the statement of one who recommends a measure, but in the law courts this is not sufficient; there it is useful to win over the hearers, for the decision concerns other interests than those of the judges, who, having only themselves to consider and listening merely for their own pleasure, surrender to the pleaders but do not give a real decision [noted: "judges are likely to be led away by the arguments which seem most plausible"].

"... Now as the function of Dialectic as a whole or one of its parts [noted: "Dialectic here includes logic generally"], to consider every kind of syllogism in a similar manner, it is clear that he who is most capable of examining the matter and forms of a syllogism will be in the highest degree a master of rhetorical argument, if to this he adds a knowledge of the subjects with which enthymemes deal and the differences between them and logical syllogisms. For, in fact, the true and that which resembles it come under the purview of the same faculty, and at the same time men have a sufficient natural capacity for the truth and indeed in most cases attain to it; wherefore one who divines well in regard to the truth will also be able to divine well in regard to probabilities. It is clear, then, that all other rhetoricians bring under the rules of art what is outside the subject, and have rather inclined to the forensic branch of oratory.

"Nevertheless, Rhetoric is useful, because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly maed, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible. Further, in dealing with certain persons, even if we possessed the most accurate scientific knowledge, we should not fine it easy to persuade them by employment of such knowledge. For scientific discourse is concerned with instruction, but in the case of such persons instruction is impossible; our proofs and arguments must rest on generally accepted principles... when speaking of converse with the multitude.

"... It is thus evident that Rhetoric does not deal with any one definite class of subjects, but, like Dialectic [is of general application]; also, that it is useful; and further, that its function is not so much to persuade, as to find out in each case the existing means of persuasion. ... what makes the sophist is not the faculty but the moral purpose."


chris at 1:02 PM |

 

Dept of Gee, How'd This Happen?

Been back from trip to San Francisco a week now.
Should be all resettled into the Texas routine
and all it's oddities. No go.
I hate to admit it but I guess I might as well confess:
I I had a great trip, is all there is to it.

Will have to see what trouble I can find to get into around here:
you kno: go watch the mercury rise in an outdoor thermometer, do a library run, wander a thrift store, fall in a swimming pool, hang around the university cafeteria, go to church, then a strip mall? THe other day I went to the one coffee shop near here (there are two in Arlington, I think). They had blocked Blogger access on their computers (I posted from there July 4th--nothing racy or anything--but for some reason now it's blocked), so that's no fun.

We're planning real radio broadcasts of poetry readings from the campus radio station soon. Will keep y'all posted on that. And classes start here on Aug 18, so am getting ready to teach. Will be using Kristen Prevallet's Scratch Sides, from Skanky Possum Press for a junior level writing course. That should be good fun--I'm really looking forward to seeing what students do with some of the text/image materials and means in this text.

And am going tomorrow to meet with the new GTAs over Writing Center pedagogy and routines. They're in training this past two weeks.

Am still doing the near-chanting-editing project, too.

Maybe I'll use up my freebie Audblog here tonight or tomorrow... dunno. Maybe find a ball game... or Ice skating at the mall (I'm so behind the times: that this exists seems really odd to me). Or a movie: anyone have any suggestions in movies? Nothing out of the mainstream I'm afraid--Arlington Texas really is just all mall.

:)


chris at 2:01 AM |

Monday, August 04, 2003

 

Thanks so much for the fine report on last night's poetry reading, Stephanie!
the report was done so well,
I was all but there
(a moment, or nearly)



chris at 11:49 PM |

 

Um, James, I took the quiz. I don't know what else to say. Is this a reversible condition? Please let me know!

Here are my quiz results:

Which New Brutalist Are You?

You are James Meetze. You are very suave & are a dashingly good dresser. You strongly desire to bring emotion back into "innovative" poetry, yet you disdain pure confessionalism. You are the spokesperson for The New Brutalism and behind that charming smile and those shiny western shirt snaps, you are secretly planning world domination. You love kittens, which shows your true sensitive side. Your poems make people weep.


chris at 11:04 PM |

 

From Stephen Vincent's book length poem, Walking**:

"IV

"Walking full volume. The talk talking.
A dream dreaming. A torn ear.
Plumb the baked plum pie.
Masonic & Geary. The Pub. Marvin
Gaye. A bullet into his
what an argument. Love cross
a silouette in pink. In yellow
flower tubes. Blood tubes. City
Diagnostics. The local immune.
or not. Data: the red cylindrical.

*

"Walking I love you, as if another day,
I love you, what way? Which dove?
White light on an orange:
his sense, her sense, the orgasm
a large color a blue.

*

"Walking the open thrusting bud.
Walking open the thrusting bud.

*

"Not walking, the talk, his, hers.
A gray on the hills. Twin Peaks.
What they, he, she, diversify.
The shift here, there, over the
hinge. What sing, swings
the song lips the fingers: he, she
pony green pony grey pony pony

*

"Walking full volume down the, sing.
Sing Sally, sing slow, sing hot.

*

"No one here by that name.
What's absent remains.
What name father, he, the
lost brother? A thread white across
some country porch; an American prairie,
a driveway, concrete or asphalt,
the porch, brick or concrete. ..."


**Stephen Vincent, Walking (Junction Press, 1993) 53-54.



chris at 12:40 PM |

 

The editorial chanting thing
goes something like this:

army of windmills question mark one comma P period parenthesis double quote mark allusion to Don Quixote two double quote mark parenthesis period

and so forth.


chris at 12:09 PM |

Sunday, August 03, 2003

 

Dept of Love & a Lifetime's Writings on It:

Emily in Love with Susan: Vice Versa

(all quoted material from Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith:
Open Me Carefully)**


"108

"The Luxury to
apprehend
The Luxury 'twould
be
To look at Thee
a single time
An Epicure of Me
In whatsoever
Presence makes
Till for a further
food
I scarcely recollect
to starve
So first am I
supplied--
The Luxury to
meditate
The Luxury it was
To banquet on
thy Countenance
A Sumptuousness
bestows
On plainer Days,
whose Table, far
As Certainty--can see--
Is laden with a
single Crumb--
The Consciousness--
of Thee.
________Emily


"238

"The Heart
has many Doors--
I can but knock--
For any sweet
"Come in"
Impelled to
hark--
Not saddened
by repulse,
Repast to me
That somewhere,
there exists,
Supremacy--
___________Emily


"248

"Tell the Susan
who never
forgets to be
subtle, every
Spark is
numbered--

The farthest
Thunder that
I heard
was nearer than the Sky,
And rumbles
still,
Though torrid
Noons
Have lain
their Missiles
By--
_______Emily


"128

"Dear Sue'
Just say one
word,
"Emily has not
grieved me"
Sign your name
to that and
I will wait for
the rest--
__________Emily

"the text of this letter-poem continues onto the verso, with the address, "Sue." When the sheet is unfolded, it appears that Susan has signed her name to this agreement.


"122

The Crickets
sang
And set the
Sun
And Workmen
finished One by
One
Their Seam the
Day upon--

The low Grass
loaded with the
Dew
The Twilight
stood, as Strangers
do
With Hat in
Hand, polite and
new
To stay as if,
or go--

A Vastness, as
a Neighbor, came,
A Wisdom, without
Face, or Name,
A Peace, as
Hemispheres at
Home
And so the
Night became
____________Emily

"on verso in pencil, by Susan

"I was all ear
And took in strains that
might create a seal
Under the lids of death

"upside down

"Despair is treason
toward Man
And blasphemy
to Heaven.

"Emily and Susan found one another's work mutually inspirational."

%%%%%%%%%***********!!!!!!!!!!#############@@@@@@@


A Few Words about Kinds of Love & Emily Dickinson's Love:

It seems to me that the quality of love

here is not so much one of romantic sensibility

but rather of exquisite care, devotion,

mutual trust, as these would be enacted through desire

by a certain quality of supreme physicality which is life being lived

or at the least, a reverence for the physical

alongside or in balance with the metaphysical.

Desire only for the sake of having desire sucks.

Thus, with the Emily Dickinson model of love--

as distinguished from, say, what is figural

in an *Angie Dickinson* model (by contemporary poet, Mike Magee),

there is something desireous of that which is modestly

enduring (though rapturous, of course)

and endearing. So, I trust we can all put away

our worst fears of romanticist longings vapidly

swallowing selves whole into utter disappearance

as in television magnetism. In other words:

we need the Angie Dickinson counterpoint as antidote at this

juncture because the world & the we in it have fucked up

a reasonable and realistic desire for the devotional aspects of

love. That does not mean there are no avenues of, or for, reparations.

chris murray

**Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith, Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson (Paris Press, 1998)


chris at 2:20 PM |

 

Dept of Wish I Could Be There:

Shows all signs of being a great reading in SFO tonight.
If' you are up there, then go:

Oxygen Bar on Valencia, SF, 7pm.

Nick Piombino, Cassie Lewis, Catherine Meng, Tim Yu, Stephanie Young, Del Ray Cross, Jennifer Dannenberg...

Best Wishes to all the readers!


 

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