OK, you go over there.
Top this, Mr. Mahogany, Mr. Mattress-Spring,
Mr. Coiled-Snake's
kin oil,
rock out, knock your block
out the wall you built.
Two-bit tooth-bit telephone cord
swirltangle-for-brains.
At the pass my call was cut off.
OK, you go over there.
Mr. Answerprecludesthequestion, Mr. Myliege,
I was foiled in my toiling.
The hurricane breeze blew crocodilic words,
lisping into my brain,
some strange weather from the north.
Oh, I see. You stand over there.
(First posted on Komposite Sketch.)
Friday, November 7, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
THAT TREE IS FAR AWAY
That tree is far away from city life.
Even if it were not so far away,
even if its roots smashed up the sidewalks of Huntington Ave.,
it couldn’t hear the 808 bass bombs that blast out your trunk
from block to shining block.
I have a chalice
no one drinks from
(not even I do)
made of
cold sun sharpened air.
Some actions are preceded by long disclaimers.
Some people are preceded by their actions.
Some people monger rumors, war and sickness.
The time for vanity is now. Time to turn
the other, more viable cheek.
These deskbound blues ring true. Not too far away
I know life is being lived—not just lives.
I am desperately aware that the wagon wheel
needs not this component, this spare part.
Endless shivering applause? Coughing up clouds?
A dead stump grows out of the brown ice,
duct-taped to it, branches of spite, malice.
Is that tree really so far away?
Listen up: over the hill or over the cliff?
Even if it were not so far away,
even if its roots smashed up the sidewalks of Huntington Ave.,
it couldn’t hear the 808 bass bombs that blast out your trunk
from block to shining block.
I have a chalice
no one drinks from
(not even I do)
made of
cold sun sharpened air.
Some actions are preceded by long disclaimers.
Some people are preceded by their actions.
Some people monger rumors, war and sickness.
The time for vanity is now. Time to turn
the other, more viable cheek.
These deskbound blues ring true. Not too far away
I know life is being lived—not just lives.
I am desperately aware that the wagon wheel
needs not this component, this spare part.
Endless shivering applause? Coughing up clouds?
A dead stump grows out of the brown ice,
duct-taped to it, branches of spite, malice.
Is that tree really so far away?
Listen up: over the hill or over the cliff?
SNOWBOAT
ALL THE big fat birds swoop
into the specter of newscast past.
The end is a burst of COLOR--
species of Fly discovered? Caught, encased,
shown the evolutionary door.
Gods, dragons, free lunches--
these are like the eyeful of sky
I rarely catch but often try
to imagine, like starting a fire
with a spoon and a rock.
the sea no salvation
the umbrella no understanding
the restroom no respite
Gosh, it's bright outside.
into the specter of newscast past.
The end is a burst of COLOR--
species of Fly discovered? Caught, encased,
shown the evolutionary door.
Gods, dragons, free lunches--
these are like the eyeful of sky
I rarely catch but often try
to imagine, like starting a fire
with a spoon and a rock.
the sea no salvation
the umbrella no understanding
the restroom no respite
Gosh, it's bright outside.
Friday, August 8, 2008
While quick witted, sarcastic jabs may not be my forte, I do appreciate the value of a clever insult, even when it's directed at yours truly. After stumbling across a website devoted to sarcasm, Sarcasm Society, and a blog post dedicated to classy insults, When Insults Had Class, I've decided to post some of the best sarcastic quotes I came across for your amusement and inspiration. Enjoy.
» Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
» I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here.
- Stephen Bishop
» The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.
- Frank Zappa
» He had delusions of adequacy.
- Walter Kerr
» He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
- Winston Churchill
» No, Groucho is not my real name. I am breaking it in for a friend.
» I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
» I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
» I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
- Groucho Marx
» He was happily married - but his wife wasn't.
- Victor Borge
» I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
» Familiarity breeds contempt -- and children.
» Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
» I would like to live in Manchester, England. The transition between Manchester and death would be unnoticeable.
- Mark Twain
» I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.
- Clarence Darrow
» You have delighted us long enough.
- Jane Austen
» He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.
- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).
» Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.
- Moses Hadas
An exchange between John Wilkes and the Earl of Sandwich (both English Parliamentarians of the 18th century):
–The Earl: “Egad, sir, I do not know whether you will die at the gallows or of the pox.”
–Wilkes: “That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles or your women.”
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Kids Are Alright
I've lost count of the number of nights I've sat here thinking of something interesting to write, It's taken me nearly a month of thinking and sleeping just so I could compose my thoughts enough to even write more then half a page. I don't think I'm a natural, or if I am then it's very latent, or doesn't exist at all.
I'm very pleased to say that I haven't crashed any more canal boats. I haven't been near a boat really since that incident and I never plan to again. Quite frankly, I think boats are rubbish. But I digress. I often think of the things I'm scared of. I have an unnatural fear of our eight legged friends and a slightly irrational fear of standing at the edge of the platform on the underground, but really, the one thing I fear most is at about 40 I think I'm going to go through some sort of emotional and mental breakdown, followed by months of expensive counselling. Why? Read on...
When I was 14, my dad was going through what he has self titled a 'funny turn'. He drove faster and started hanging about with lots of antipodeans. He also got his ear pierced which I unfortunately had to witness on one of the weekends he looked after me. A middle aged bloke, your Father no less getting an earring is pretty strange for a young kid to take in.
Dad's are meant to be dad's, not born again ravers. It had a really annoying little ball on it as well.
Then he dragged me over to some house one boxing day, Dinner, hang about, go home. Or so I thought. The people at this dinner were at least ten years younger then he was, it was the first time I'd seen someone do a line of cocaine. Fucked up. I was sitting in the living room away from the madness at the table when some vile Kiwi walked over 'Got any Morcheeba?Yeah? '. The way she was dancing, almost like she was having sex with herself in slow motion. I couldn't wait to leave.
The worst part of the above, was that I think I could see these people laughing at my dad behind his back. I really wanted to tell him to stop being such a fass. But in another more twisted way, I kind of wanted him to carry on and find out the hard way.
In between all this I ended up living with him. Fuck me, although moving out at 18 has pretty much indebted me until the age of about 25, it was the greatest move I ever made.
To get to the point of the subject my biggest fear is not being kicked to death by scallies walking home, or being attacked by midgets or arachnids, it's getting to that age and finding out that I have become him without realising.
Bollocks to the kids, I think the adults need Counsellors.
I'm very pleased to say that I haven't crashed any more canal boats. I haven't been near a boat really since that incident and I never plan to again. Quite frankly, I think boats are rubbish. But I digress. I often think of the things I'm scared of. I have an unnatural fear of our eight legged friends and a slightly irrational fear of standing at the edge of the platform on the underground, but really, the one thing I fear most is at about 40 I think I'm going to go through some sort of emotional and mental breakdown, followed by months of expensive counselling. Why? Read on...
When I was 14, my dad was going through what he has self titled a 'funny turn'. He drove faster and started hanging about with lots of antipodeans. He also got his ear pierced which I unfortunately had to witness on one of the weekends he looked after me. A middle aged bloke, your Father no less getting an earring is pretty strange for a young kid to take in.
Dad's are meant to be dad's, not born again ravers. It had a really annoying little ball on it as well.
Then he dragged me over to some house one boxing day, Dinner, hang about, go home. Or so I thought. The people at this dinner were at least ten years younger then he was, it was the first time I'd seen someone do a line of cocaine. Fucked up. I was sitting in the living room away from the madness at the table when some vile Kiwi walked over 'Got any Morcheeba?Yeah? '. The way she was dancing, almost like she was having sex with herself in slow motion. I couldn't wait to leave.
The worst part of the above, was that I think I could see these people laughing at my dad behind his back. I really wanted to tell him to stop being such a fass. But in another more twisted way, I kind of wanted him to carry on and find out the hard way.
In between all this I ended up living with him. Fuck me, although moving out at 18 has pretty much indebted me until the age of about 25, it was the greatest move I ever made.
To get to the point of the subject my biggest fear is not being kicked to death by scallies walking home, or being attacked by midgets or arachnids, it's getting to that age and finding out that I have become him without realising.
Bollocks to the kids, I think the adults need Counsellors.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Out to Sea
"Come back." She thought as the sound of an unanswered call ended abruptly, transforming the harsh ring into the lifeless impersonation of a human voice. "You have reached the mail box of..." He was gone; useless as a friend, and eventually, as a person. He was riding an introverted wave. She imagined him as a shipwrecked sailor on the island of Sirenum scopuli, rotting away as he lay hypnotized by the inescapable song of the Sirens. Soon enough the song would end and so would he.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
A homage to the lost art of mixtapes
Remember back in the day, sitting by your boom box, waiting with your finger on the record button in anticipation of your favorite songs? When I was in middle school, there was a boy who used to make me rap mixtapes. This was how you shared music back then. It was something that took time and effort, and it was really special. A few years later everyone was burning mix CDs... and nowadays we just share entire libraries worth of digital music in practically no time at all.
I just came across this website called Muxtape. I absolutely love the idea behind this! You sign up for an account and you can make a "muxtape" by uploading 12 songs and placing them in which ever order you see fit. You can check out other people's muxtapes and share the link to yours with anyone... It's quick and simple and gives me a warm nostalgic feeling. Go try it out and comment with a link to your muxtape!
You can check out mine here:
http://seialkali.muxtape.com/
I just came across this website called Muxtape. I absolutely love the idea behind this! You sign up for an account and you can make a "muxtape" by uploading 12 songs and placing them in which ever order you see fit. You can check out other people's muxtapes and share the link to yours with anyone... It's quick and simple and gives me a warm nostalgic feeling. Go try it out and comment with a link to your muxtape!
You can check out mine here:
http://seialkali.muxtape.com/
Monday, April 7, 2008
There is no tradition in our relation.
I found you in the shade. You were a crescent of light emerging from dead leaves, gutted fruits.
Cheeks blushed like peaches from before. Your eyes flourishing with ideas, resting in a garden of no more.
I sit before you and think, letting your eyes feed me. We sit in complete silence like two flowers in a patch of ecstatic soil. I think, think how one pushes through soft flesh to reach the hard and indomitable core. Water slides by in a brook & we sit.
Contemplating lives, loved ones and futures. We swim in the soil and get dirt in our hair. There is no tradition in our relation. Birds sing, but don't interfere.
I wouldn't wash the dirt from my hair, turning my head to mud; nor comb the rocks and twigs from it. Nope. Somewhere (someone suggests...) is a great magnet to which all things are drawn. And what with gravity, physical laws, et al., we spin around it as we approach. Like the Maypole or a carnival ride that stops in town, for a few. sweet. moments.
Cheeks blushed like peaches from before. Your eyes flourishing with ideas, resting in a garden of no more.
I sit before you and think, letting your eyes feed me. We sit in complete silence like two flowers in a patch of ecstatic soil. I think, think how one pushes through soft flesh to reach the hard and indomitable core. Water slides by in a brook & we sit.
Contemplating lives, loved ones and futures. We swim in the soil and get dirt in our hair. There is no tradition in our relation. Birds sing, but don't interfere.
I wouldn't wash the dirt from my hair, turning my head to mud; nor comb the rocks and twigs from it. Nope. Somewhere (someone suggests...) is a great magnet to which all things are drawn. And what with gravity, physical laws, et al., we spin around it as we approach. Like the Maypole or a carnival ride that stops in town, for a few. sweet. moments.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
On Adultery
Every once in a while there's a topic that seems to pop up in multiple situations in my life. Today that topic is adultery. I've had a lot of experience with adultery, both personally and from hearing stories about friends and even enemies (don't ever fool yourself into thinking your business doesn't get around). It's kind of funny what people do and say behind each others backs, myself included. I've got enough information to at least damage a couple of relationships, and the sad part is, most people can probably say the same thing. And yet, it's always the messenger who gets proverbially "shot". Not to mention, despite whether the cheating party is forgiven or not, the person who had nothing to do with the relationship usually ends up taking most of the blame. Where is the sense in any of this? Although, I guess love is a senseless emotion.
I think it's really funny when people scoff at the idea of an open relationship without even considering that they're probably indirectly in one anyways. What would happen if we lost this sense of our lovers as somehow "belonging" to us? Is jealously in relation to our lovers an inherent feeling, or is it socially constructed? Could a society where people were completely honest with each other, slept with whoever they wanted openly, and had multiple romantic relationships at once ever possibly work?
Probably not.
This is not to say that I know much about the vast majority of cultures, but it if I had to take a guess I'd say that people all over the world absolutely love drama. This is why we don't celebrate stories about how someone walked to the grocery store, bought dinner, walked back home and ate it. The most famous stories all have at least one thing in common, drama. A world without conflict is fucking boring, not to mention impossible. People will always have opposing opinions and interests, and there will always be those times where we'll only think about ourselves. Why? Daniel Goleman has a thought provoking take on that. But for the time being I'm focusing specifically on adultery.
I'm not quite sure what I really want to say, except for that I'm a little disturbed by all the lying and betrayal I've witnessed in the past few days. It's not the fact that people in relationships are sleeping around that bothers me, it's all the dishonesty about it that really makes me feel uncomfortable. Can you ever really completely trust anyone, myself not excluded? I don't believe we really can. Is this a problem we can and/or should fix? I guess it depends on your take in life. I'm beginning to think that maybe we shouldn't. Part of what makes life exciting is doing something risky. Also, having a secret can really give you this amazing sense of adventure and control over your life.
Anyways, I don't personally believe in a right or wrong, only outcomes. Whether you're trying to decide if you should cheat on your significant other or to sleep with that irresistibly attractive married man in your office, make sure you consider all the possible outcomes for your potential romp before acting upon your desires. Because heaven forbid anyone should be honest about their actions.
I think it's really funny when people scoff at the idea of an open relationship without even considering that they're probably indirectly in one anyways. What would happen if we lost this sense of our lovers as somehow "belonging" to us? Is jealously in relation to our lovers an inherent feeling, or is it socially constructed? Could a society where people were completely honest with each other, slept with whoever they wanted openly, and had multiple romantic relationships at once ever possibly work?
Probably not.
This is not to say that I know much about the vast majority of cultures, but it if I had to take a guess I'd say that people all over the world absolutely love drama. This is why we don't celebrate stories about how someone walked to the grocery store, bought dinner, walked back home and ate it. The most famous stories all have at least one thing in common, drama. A world without conflict is fucking boring, not to mention impossible. People will always have opposing opinions and interests, and there will always be those times where we'll only think about ourselves. Why? Daniel Goleman has a thought provoking take on that. But for the time being I'm focusing specifically on adultery.
I'm not quite sure what I really want to say, except for that I'm a little disturbed by all the lying and betrayal I've witnessed in the past few days. It's not the fact that people in relationships are sleeping around that bothers me, it's all the dishonesty about it that really makes me feel uncomfortable. Can you ever really completely trust anyone, myself not excluded? I don't believe we really can. Is this a problem we can and/or should fix? I guess it depends on your take in life. I'm beginning to think that maybe we shouldn't. Part of what makes life exciting is doing something risky. Also, having a secret can really give you this amazing sense of adventure and control over your life.
Anyways, I don't personally believe in a right or wrong, only outcomes. Whether you're trying to decide if you should cheat on your significant other or to sleep with that irresistibly attractive married man in your office, make sure you consider all the possible outcomes for your potential romp before acting upon your desires. Because heaven forbid anyone should be honest about their actions.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
commodification of human emotion.
Oh what a strange world we'd live in if we could really neatly package human feeling.
The worst part is hypocrisy hiding in theses ads for the International Red Cross, while the Canadian Red Cross, despite the blood bag filled with compassion, doesn't accept blood donations from gay males. Apparently it's 1981.
You'd think that by 2008 any humanist and forward-thinking organization would realize that supporting this kind of homophobia is dangerous. We all know that AIDS is not a gay disease. We all know that AIDS doesn't discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, class or race.
AIDS can be contracted by everyone. Everyone (except gay males) can donate blood. Therefore, anyone with AIDS can donate blood. To maintain this kind of discrimination against gay men is pointless, offensive and does nothing to protect the blood supply. All it really accomplishes is preventing sick people from getting blood they could use.
Compassionate, tolerant, aware? Get it together Red Cross.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A French, Buddist monk tells us how to be happy...
Taken from TED: Matthieu Ricard
"What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community."
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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