|
"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
|
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Hey, Y'all: Check out Tony Robinson's post today: that *god hates shrimp*-go-make-your-own-church-sign-generator!* I love it! Frabulously cantankerous!
And scroll down to go take the po-test at Tony's: it's not like that one last week at Ron's. You can have fun with this one. See my post below. Though of course I am a complete idiot, as you all knew, but hey, I did have fun with this po-test. Now, y'all go have fun, too
chris at
5:42 PM
|
Excellent: PLR
No surprise at all, since they are consistently outstanding, but there is some extra good stuff in this excellent new issue of editor Louis Armand's Prague Literary Review:
Here is Lev Kreft in the cover article, "Mission(s) of Art"--which is disturbingly adorned by an arresting b/w photo of those monumental and ominous figures that effectively represent the west and which literally criss-cross the populated and the wilderness spaces of the U.S. west, imposing the towering sense of big brother/automaton-blown-to-the-max of roboto-form: POWER lines: the towers of power lines--which article topically and coincidentally lands here akin to my post below about the problematics of applying or naming something artistic as "beautiful":
"...Connected to the 'beautiful soul' or correct morality, as in Shaftesbury, Hutchison, Diderot and others, it still could not gain higher ethical importance. Art should have a decisive role at the heart of the modernist project, or it would become an activity of no consequence. Of course it should have a moral stance, but does it have a mission? " Kreft gives a fine tuned mini-history of the problem.
Also outstanding, to my mind, is the article, " 'Balkan Art': Location and the Dangers of Self-Recognition, " by Srdja Pavlovic : "...Balkans mark the European border of audibility. From this land of fratricidal murders, blood and belonging, and atavistic tribal passions, western Europeans listened at a distance to the whispers of many voices of 'disabled nations. ..."--which admirably questions how western elitist perspectives continue to colonize and cannibalize the art of the perceived ethnic 'other'.
Needless to say, this is some heavy duty intellectual thinking-through-writing, refreshingly poised critically as aimed at western ideological colonizing and cannibalizing in general, and unlike so many U.S. mags of similar genre, PLR is not at all shy or coy about it, but tells it like it is, with intelligence.
PLR: Nice Work!
chris at
1:57 PM
|
A special Happy Saint Pat's Day! to Danny O'Connell, and to my Dad,
brothers Jimmy and Patrick, and sister Jo.
Early in the a.m. I noticed that Google had it's usual rainbow of letters,
but no special dress for this holiday.
Puzzled me, since they usually do something.
Well, I see Google has its tasteful green dress on now, but I think I prefer the vampy one above. What do y'all think?
chris at
6:50 AM
|
I hadn't yet seen anything of Cipher Journal, with its emphases on translation, till now. Mark DuCharme announced it yesterday. It's edited by Lucas Klein, and it is absolutely wonderful. This issue has a very provocative and innovative critical piece called "Addressed to No One," by Kent Johnson and Mark DuCharme, on Spicer's After Lorca, written as a dialogue in letter form. Fascinating & substantive. Check it out!
chris at
6:30 AM
|
Steve, on the "B" word: yes, I'm glad you questioned my reference because it gives me a chance to be more clear and to say that perhaps I did toss it out there in a way that could be seen as superficial or even careless, tho unintentionally so. Add to that how I lean toward subjective senses of it and don't mind using the term beauty (no cap tho) these days, even though it is way out of fashion in all circles of critical discourse. But my defense of it begins as this: I think we are not yet done with it as a useful term, and in many ways beyond the modernist and postmodern fascination with its bitter, hellish flip-sided disappointments, going back to Rimbaud (among others), all of which I adore but also question : "Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie etait un festin ou s'ouvraient tous les coeurs, ou tous les vins coulaient. Un soir, j'ai assis la Beaute sur mes genoux.---Et je l'ai trouvee amere. Et je l'ai injuriee... ." * Rimbaud draws a dramatic scene that is far more stark and dichotomous than that invoked by either of us, yet that is still a major part of the background to be dealt with whenever raising the issue of *Beauty* in poetics, so should be cited, as here. Once it came into question as an unstable ideal, bitterness about it grew and it was rejected as a useful notion. Well, we can also question that, no?
But I was thinking of something else, too: Martha Nussbaum's work delving into the equally disparaged notional ideal, "goodness." ** (I have actually had the pleasure of a brief discussion about this with Nussbaum, and she is as amazing in person as she is in writing). I'm also fully aware, as well, of the history of Platonic problematics involved here.
All that brought in as qualifier, what I found in your poem, especially evinced by the two stanzas cited, is the way things that are disruptive are compellingly beautiful, and that is because it is radical--fusion and transformation. Disruption creates openings for change, and bridges between worlds, thus it cannot be limited or static. So is active, a motion, an action, thus another sense of beauty. To pose in two breaths side-by-side, on the one hand, "monsters" in need of 'slaying', and on the other hand, the commonplace, comic/gangsterish, alternate-register invoked by "youse guys," is something I think of as beautiful. Fairly simple, actually. Beautiful because disruptive, and on many levels--though also apparently simple. That is what I brought to this reading table--how I read the poem. Please keep writing the way you do, searching for the thing that can carry the "thought before it's turned into words" !
* the Rimbaud quote as translated by Louise Varese: " Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed. One evening I seated Beauty on my knees. And I found her bitter. And I cursed her... ."--Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell, translated by Louise Varese. New York: New Directions, 1961 (2-3).
** See her work in The Fragility of Goodness.
************************UPDATE :) *************************
I wrote a comment in the comment box responding to Steve's patient assessment of my exposition above, but the comment was too long for my haloscan apportionment, so i'll post the entire thing here, both his reply, and mine:
* * *
Steve writes:
Have read this whole post you took lots of time to write but will later when not so busy. Looks quite thoughtful, Thanks lots!
Was mostly saying that I am ambivalent about the worth of that (and all my, smile) poem(s), so I don't know what is B-word.
The myths of Beauty and Beasts, I think possibly taken up by Rilke, too, are (or used to be to me years ago) very intriguing. That's another subject, kind of, but let's pursue it at a later date sometime. Yer "Gangsters" take in innnerestin, too.
P.S. the HK's, even though I half-dissed those, too, are on much footing, I think. Like any of them?
More later, though I will also be working tonight on web site and magazine, probably, though I will at least post two more HK's written, I think this morning -- it's hard to say, I'm writing a lot and at all hours...
* * *
CM writes:
Gosh, Steve, you work too hard! so many things going on for you. but that is what it takes, i know, to do poetry in this life. rock on!
Now, the HK poems: thanks for redirecting my attention back to those, Steve. For, of course they deal very well with questions of the B word, and without all that dumb Plato flakk! This sharp one for example:
**[poem posted below is by Steve Tills, at Black Spring blog]**
Poor Helen Keller
Lacking sight, struggling at the School of Quietude to envision a concept of Beauty
No, I cannot determine
that
the lady wearing turquoise
polyester slacks and fire truck red
with plastic zippered winter jacket at
the nearby convenience store
lacks beauty or grace
because her face is wide
like her person. What
class of athletic value
does one choose, aesthetic value, does one choose to apply
in orders
to make
such judgments? Must I
use your eyes or
is there another way
I might employ my own
insight?
Try as hard
as I may,
new experiments
everyday, I find small consolation
in the literatures of fashion
which would improve
my aesthetic faculties
and teach me to comprehend
the truth of this word, beauty.
**[poem above by Steve Tills]**
Can I say in response that I think I might finally be, um... seeing ... something? :)
Also, it's interesting, on meta levels that without realizing it my expository post also uses the term "fashion" to describe a similar thing. Textuality seems to take on a life of its own, so is always more than a little scary, methinks--as is psyche, and a strange beauty in that too ...
Best Wishes,
c
chris at
5:12 AM
|
These are great: Gabe Gudding's pics from a poetry reading in January at St. Louis, with Dale Smith, Kent Johnson, Dave Hess, Aaron Belz, Jonathan Mahew--great pics. Looks like lotsa fun.
chris at
4:57 AM
|
YaY ! ! HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY ! !
chris at
4:43 AM
|
 Your Energy is Pink. You have achieved a perfect
balance between spiritual awareness and
material existence. You are usually
affectionate and warm, showing compassion and
love for others. Others find you genuine,
cooperative and friendly. You are a
humanitarian and you possess a deep
understanding of life. You may aspire to
philanthropy, or you may find yourself heading
or volunteering for agencies that create change
for the good of the whole. You are a leader
and are willing to take on much responsibility.
What color is your energy? brought to you by Quizilla
chris at
3:09 AM
|
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Check out Deborah's "Queen of Chain" poems on Barney's Cremaster series: wow !
chris at
11:18 PM
|
So nice to find this, Li--oh, what intricate poems!
chris at
4:23 PM
|
My email at UTA is out again, and will be all day, they tell us--and I'm adding this later, but now they say it'll be out all night, again. I wonder what's going on--big spam attack?--glowing, global worms?--well, it keeps me from a lot of files I've stored in there, so keeps my work up in the air for now.
But hey, if you want to contact me, please do so at
cmurray88@yahoo.com
Thanks!
chris at
2:09 PM
|
Definitely spring here. Air scented of flowers. So nice!
chris at
12:51 PM
|
YaY!! The new baby is here! Big Hugs and Congratulations to Dale Smith and Hoa Nguyen on the birth, Saturday, March 13, at 3:52 p.m., of Waylon Hart, 8.4 lbs., 20 in. long. Check out the Possum Pouch: Dale writes that everyone is doing well.
chris at
11:58 AM
|
Archbishop Desmond Tutu will lecture here at UTA next week:
South African Archbishop, Nobel Laureate and Social Activist Desmond Tutu will lecture on "God has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 25, in the Rosebud Theatre, E.H. Hereford University Center. A reception and book signing will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.
Tutu is chancellor of the University of the Western Cape. He holds honorary degrees from numerous universities, including Harvard, Oxford, Columbia, the Ruhr, Kent and Aberdeen. In addition to his Nobel Peace Prize, he has received the Order for Meritorious Service Award (Gold) presented by President Nelson Mandela, the Archbishop of Canterbury's Award for outstanding service to the Anglican Communion, the Prix d'Athene (Onassis Foundation), the Family of Man Gold Medal Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize.
chris at
11:50 AM
|
Bravo: Guillermo interviews Frank Lima
chris at
1:09 AM
|
On Tony's 4 point quiz:
I beg off except for question # 4 (with all due apologies to the writers of these works and to Tony: i am responding like one responds to a piece of paper or a grilled steak, something laden with processes involving chemicals and heat. or a pacemaker.) :
first off: I really do not care who the persona is that wrote any one of these poems. does-not-matter at all. response is gut from the get go, then it settles into some kind of taxonomous filter-system: better get maako or somesuch. gut matters, maako does not. defining gut: food goes there to move on to the next like. some say gut does not require analytics. of course it does, how is the question, and yet it may not matter.
but here is what i think:
on A, I'll take everything but the title--yet I would be tempted not to read at all with that title. it would be like calling your novel *Poodle Shit,* ya kno?
on B, I like something less enfused, enthused, at pains to explain. something that lets the poem breathe on its own?
on C, I am in love for the first time this hour. rocks. economy and saudade, a devastion, a rend, a necessity in the midst of all that is consumptive and banal. guess that response marks me, eh? ah well. this is a good poem, to my mind.
on D, this is exactly what I would say if my mother died. she did die, nine years ago. this poem has resonance that is pinned to plaster walls in Brooklyn or Monterrey. Not Chinle nor Flagstaff. still, most lovely to dance.
chris at
12:17 AM
|
Monday, March 15, 2004
Beautiful, Fraught by Beauty, yet still, Sweet :
"Dreams of monsters we tried to recognise
as our fathers but could not
slay. Who are youse guys
dying to fool, we say?
...
Or then after declining those*, yet another
prescription, that all conform to
'lines.' The prescription from
within."
--Steve Tills (who rocks, in case y'all didn't know that yet... ), Black Spring Online
*pronoun ref does not refer to subjects in the previous stanza--oh heck!--go read this one in its entirety... : )
xo,
cm
chris at
11:40 PM
|
Yes!--this latest issue of BlazeVOX2k4 is lookin' so good!
chris at
7:46 PM
|
I Love this flash!-- fantastica! and big congrats on this work, Kent, and Goeffrey (whose Blaze Vox would rhyme with 'rocks'-- for good reason ... )
: )
chris at
7:28 PM
|
UTA email is going down again tonight--at least this time they gave us some warning--out from 8 pm to 7 am. If you want to contact me, please use my yahoo address:
cmurray88@yahoo.com
thanks!
chris at
6:33 PM
|
a Wow! for Jean's new blog, Okir
chris at
4:20 PM
|
check out BadGurrrlNest
chris at
3:42 PM
|
lovely work with the new photos!
chris at
3:16 PM
|
Finding some good stuff at the *Dumbfoundry* (not least its name !)
chris at
3:01 PM
|
--Bette Midler Rocks On (scroll a bit)--
via kari, Transdada, thanks for all you do!
chris at
11:59 AM
|
Writing something on Heather McHugh, and found this fascinating 70s book of hers, Dangers. Full of bite. Appropos of this clouded week (as it stands so far). Clouds with teeth. Sharp teeth. Unbidden images like that. Spare, sharp, yet framed in unasked for fog. The book, interesting, but the week?--bleh.
chris at
11:21 AM
|
from Heather McHugh * :
For Tad Miyashita, Who Makes Collages
Out of Trashed Letters, Teabags,
Firecracker Wrappers
Even a teabag's greater than its purpose,
soaking and slightly swollen, the old heart
steeping in the same old juice.
Falling in love is garbage.
You offer to make
tea, not believe. Not time. Not use.
After the fireworks, waterworks and brewing
have left us whole and heavy
evidences, short of art, you render them
lovely in their own undoing
weightless in the part
chris at
11:00 AM
|
Be Org: on Hear-it Dot Org & Problems in Ten-percenter Thinkin'--Via (thanks, Sam!) Chicago's Golden Rule Jones
While I wz surfing to catch up on things i've not had a chance to read, via Sam's Golden Rule Jones (one of the most informative and yet also the most diversified blogs available--just one of the best in my humble opinion), I found this great site that explains hearing difficulty.
Sam's post with the link to Hear-it dot org is very interesting, and contains a somewhat subtle critique: apparently Nikki Giovanni, while speaking at Duke for Black History month, made some strange (tho probably well-meant) statement about sending ten percent of the U.S. population into space so to give everyday people some common ground with NASA and its high-tech, to-date-exclusionary, projects.
Well, Sam points out how the kind of quantitative thinking (conceptualizing), that Giovanni could seem to be promoting, can be reshuffled into some very faulty results, once widened to be seen more relationally, as applied to many other ten-per-center kinds of groups, such as the 10% who are hearing impaired. I am one of them -and fortunately my condition is in just one ear so far. Mine may be arrested for now, I hope, even if it does eliminate stereo understandings sometimes, thus, orientation of self to sources of sound--so that mine is a workable condition not a total or near-total loss. Tho neither do I want to go into NASA's space right now (having literally heard first hand, woken from sleep by just about a year ago now, the disastrous, explosive breaking-up over Texas of the last Space Shuttle--I am sensitive: did I hear them screaming?--yes, i realized later--something was terribly off and it sounded like human grief, tho one of many, I also knew. did i imagine that? how so, if the event of the scream was not fiction?) even if there have been times in life when I have thought it might be adventurously interesting, if made available to everyday folks somehow, to move toward outer space ... .
But none of that is where Sam is going with this, if I read him right... . He's concerned with the thinking that would compartmentalize people in categorizations that are quantifiable rather than based on qualifiable criteria. My explanation is simplistically binary, true, but I put it that way only to open the door to further, multidirectional, extended thinking on the problem Sam has focused on, which implicates a larger cultural, epistemological/ontological/philosophically laden problem of theoretics, which Sam brought into view as a vital matter of praxis and everyday life. Thankfully.
So I was drawn to that and I investigated the links Sam set up, and lo, here is this very helpful, comprehensively expository yet accessible site about hearing, a site done in reading levels that do not require ten doctoral degrees.
I cannot emphasize how much such reliable information matters to the hearing impaired, to alleviate * frustration *-- which is one of the worst side-effects of hearing problems: awful to watch someone say something you know is well meant and important yet, not to understand them, or to misunderstand, and just as awful to be saying something and then to realize it is not heard.
But when you have ear troubles, it is incredibly difficult to find accessible answers about the problem and prognosis. The larger paradox or irony is this: Hearing is invisible, so most people don't understand much about your problem from the get-go. It works your relations with others, terribly. And for something so tiny as is the ear, and moreso, the inner ear, useful information about it is terribly ensconced and segregated by disciplinary rhetorics: you either get high-powered med stuff which is hard to wade through and which knowledge does not help you anyway (doctors resent that you have messed with their authority to decide what the problem is), or you get light-weight stuff from pharmaceutical companies trying too hard to persuade you about what drugs will clear your symptoms and many of those drugs can cause further damage.
The ear is a very delicate, intricately beautiful little gray-matter-and-tiny-bone-eco-system & processive mechanism. & it is a disservice to folks whose hearing is damaged to reduce available information to only those two extremes: expert medical jargon or slippery drug companies.
But this site Sam linked to is right on target. Very nice. So, I've entered it in my links list. I hope others find it as helpful as I did.
One last note: Why should poets care about this?--some may ask.
I answer that if you love poetry then you love the sound of language, it's music and its sense (resonant meaning of sense here) and so you are invested in keeping your hearing as healthy as possible, in preserving it.
Okay: back now to the regular programming here...
chris at
12:41 AM
|
Sunday, March 14, 2004
I'm thinking of going down to Galveston for some ocean. It's spring break here and it would be nice to see some real beach, ocean expanses, change of scene, mindset, some widening perspectives.
chris at
10:01 PM
|
Thank goodness for Jill's insight!
I was feeling very discouraged today, and overwhelmed still from last week's overload at work. Actually, i'm thinking of closing down texfiles, and still might, but my perspective changed somewhat, was lightened somewhat, when I read this, so that amount of somewhat became very meaningful to me:
"... a day undecided in the sky - walking is good, walking and talking with Annette - our doubts, irritations and disappointments with 'the art world', 'poetry inc' - but you can't escape cant, gossip, ego parades, buggeration - how we're in it anyway, and not innocents, though neither of us good hustlers..."--Jill Jones, Ruby Street
I was amazed at serendipitous confluence: I was thinking along similar lines today--it is striking to me how very similar. I read this and wanted to cry--just because this hits the mark so well that it actually counterbalances some of the negativativity that is generated by such things as inescapeable as "gossip, ego parades, buggeration..."
That section begins, however, with this simple statement, which I realized on reading through, is excellent advice: "taking today easy," some that i am now following.
--many thanks, y'all!--
cm
chris at
9:54 PM
|
from Stephane Mallarme * :
Sainte
A la fenetre recelant
Le santal vieux qui se dedore
De sa viole etincelant
Jadis avec flute ou mandore,
Est la Sainte pale etalant
Le livre vieux qui se deplie
Du Magificat ruisselant
Jadis selon vepre et complie :
A ce vitrage d'ostensoir
Que frole une harpe par l'Ange
Formee avec son vol du soir
Pour la delicate phalange
Du diogt que, sans le vieux santal
Ni le vieux livre, elle balance
Sur le plumage instrumental,
Musicienne du silence.
* * * & as translated by Hubert Creekmore :
Saint
At the window ledge concealing
The ancient sandalwood gold-flaking
Of her viol dimly twinkling
Long ago with flute of mandore
Stands the pallid Saint displaying
The ancient missal page unfolding
At the Magnificat ourpouring
Long ago for vesper and compline:
At that monstrance glazing lightly
Brushed now by a harp the Angel
Fashioned in his evening flight
Just for the delicate finger
Tip which, lacking the ancient missal
Or ancient sandalwood, she poises
On the instrumental plumage,
Musician of silence.
(40-41)
*Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898): Selected Poetry and Prose, Mary Ann Caws, Ed. New York: New Directions, 1982.
chris at
12:33 PM
|
My email is out at UTA. If you would like to contact me, do so at
cmurray88@yahoo.com
thanks!
chris at
10:41 AM
|
from Audre Lorde * :
From the Cave
Last night an old man warned me
to mend my clothes
we would journey before light
into a foreign tongue.
I rode down autumn
mounted on a syllabus
through stairwells hung in dog
and typewriter covers
the ocean is rising
father
I came on time
and the waters touched me.
A woman I love
draws me
a bath of old roses.
(38)
* * *
Learning to Write
Is the alphabet responsible
for the book
in which it is written
that makes me peevish and nasty
and wish I were dumb again
We practiced drawing our letters
digging into the tip of the desk
and old Sister Eymard
rapped our knuckles
until they bled
she was the meanest of all
and we knew she was crazy
because none of the grownups
would listen to us
until she died in a madhouse.
I am a bleak heroism of words
that refuse
to be buried alive
with the liars.
(53)
* * *
Wood Has No Mouth
When a mask breaks in Benin
the dancer must fast
make offerings
as if a relative died.
The mask cannot speak
the dancer's tears
are the tears of a weeping spirit.
Brown grain mute
as a lost detail
Thoth
goddess of wisdom
disguised
as a baboon.
(35)
* Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us. New York: Norton, 1986
|
|
