Poem by Wallace Stevens

ON THE ROAD HOME

It was when I said,
“There is no such thing as the truth,”
That the grapes seemed fatter.
The fox ran out of his hole.

You….You said,
“There are many truths,
But they are not parts of a truth.”
Then the tree, at night, began to change,

Smoking through green and smoking blue.
We were two figures in a wood.
We said we stood alone.

It was when I said,
“Words are not forms of a single word.
In the sum of the parts, there are only the parts.
The world must be measured by eye.”

It was when you said,
“The idols have seen lots of poverty,
Snakes and gold and lice,
But not the truth;”

It was at that time, that the silence was largest,
And longest, the night was roundest.
The fragrance of the autumn warmest,
Closest, and strongest.

Bad News

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22818963/

lyrics

Kingston Advice

(The Clash)

In these days you can get no rice
No razor blades but you can get knife
In these days see the people run
They have no food but the boy have gun
In these days they don't throw the stone
Nor use the voice they use the gun alone
In these days to be an oddity
Be hunted down like a scarcity

In these days don't beg for life
Wanna take Kingston advice?
Oh please don't beg for your life

In these days the beat is militant
Must be a clash there's no alternative
In these days nations are militant
We have slavery under government
In these days in the firmament
I look for signs that are permanent

In these days with no love to give
The world will turn with no one left to live

In these days I don't know what to do
The more I see the more I'm destitute
In these days I don't know what to sing
The more I know the less my tune can swing

In these days you can get no rice
No razor blades but you can get knife
In these days see the people run
They have no food but the boy have gun

Poem

Tara Found

in the cloudless,
powder-blue air,
found through
an open window,
lock or no lock,
the dream of reality
slaps like glass
or the reality of a dream.
If you need
a helpful hand
to turn the latch
to your own forgiveness
or the next day,
reach for my metallic hand
shaped like a key
or stevedore knot
or my palm-shaped heart.

Poem by Wallace Stevens

MEDITATION CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL

The wild warblers are warbling in the jungle
Of life and spring of the lustrous inundations,
Flood on flood, of our returning sun.

Day after day, throughout the winter,
We hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason
In a world of wind and frost,

And by will, unshaken and florid
In mornings of angular ice,
That passed beyond us through the narrow sky.

But what are radiant reason and radiant will
To warblings early in the hilarious trees
Of summer, the drunken mother?

Poem

Where is Lancelot?

“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose

your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.”

-- George Bernard Shaw

Out of the silent kingdom
the gyrfalcon soars
from the killing field,
over the allure and polished
stone walls, bleached castle towers
and merlons above the oak gates,
beyond the keep and stagnant
green moat to the dense forest,
furrowed fields and gnarled thickets
surrounding the low-lying,
copper-colored pasture
of wild barley and rye
near the Huntsman’s cabin
and rock riddled river bed where
Sir Lancelot fucks
Guinevere while thoughts
of taxes and knights at war
eat the last desire of the circular King.

my favorite painting

Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) by Diego Velazquez

why?

Ctesibius of Alexandria

CTESIBIUS OF ALEXANDRIA (fl. 285-222 BC)

Life
Even though his work has not been fully studied, it is obvious that as an inventor and mathematician Ctesibius was second only to Archimedes in the world of ancient Greece. His work on the elasticity of air was extremely important, earning him the title of father of pneumatics, for the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses are his. Like all his other works, however, his "On pneumatics" has not survived. His "Memorabilia", a single compilation of his research, cited by Athenaeus, is also lost

Ctesibius is considered the founder of the Alexandrian school of mathematics and engineering, and was probably the first head of the Museum of Alexandria. Unfortunately, very little is known of his life and work, beyond the fact that he was the son of a barber from Aspondia, a suburb of Alexandria, and lived from about 285-222 BC.


Work
In his study "On pneumatics", he proved that air is a material substance; and he devised many mechanisms operated by compressed air, beginning with a system of adjustable mirrors in his father's barber shop. He invented the piston pump, the pressure pump and the double siphon; he perfected and multiplied the uses of the water clock in many different contexts; and he devised numerous types of catapults and other engines of war, many of which have been preserved. He also constructed mechanical figures operated by ratchet gears which he used to ornament his water clocks.

Ctesibius is best known for three major inventions:

a) the suction pump,

b) the water clock, and

c) the hydraulis, a musical instrument (the ancestor of the pipe organ), of which a single fine carved specimen has been discovered.

The suction pump is still in use today in various forms, chiefly in fire engines. Vitruvius tells us that the water clock was famous in its day, while the hydraulis was an extremely important discovery in the history of civilisation.

Modern experts have called Ctesibius the "Edison of the Alexandrian School". His other inventions include:

- Cannons operated by compressed air

- A hydraulic hoist, capable of raising very heavy weights

- A water clock, described by Athenaeus. It had a metal canister with a hole in the bottom, and a cylindrical base in which the water collected. The flow was precisely controlled by stopcocks, and the level of the water indicated the hour, which was read off a graduated scale on the outside of the vessel. The walls of the base were transparent, according to Galen, so the water level could be monitored. Vitruvius records that a cork disc floated above the base of the canister, and was connected with the system of gears, which moved slowly as the volume and therefore the pressure of water dropped.

lyrics

Anyone Else But You
by The Moldy Peaches


You're a part time lover and a full time friend
The monkey on you're back is the latest trend
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

I kiss you on the brain in the shadow of a train
I kiss you all starry eyed, my body's swinging from side to side
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

Here is the church and here is the steeple
We sure are cute for two ugly people
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

The pebbles forgive me, the trees forgive me
So why can't, you forgive me?
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

I will find my nitch in your car
With my mp3 dvd rumple-packed guitar
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu du

Up up down down left right left right b a start
Just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not smart
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

You are always trying to keep it real
I'm in love with how you feel
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

We both have shiny happy fits of rage
You want more fans, i want more stage
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

Don quixote was a steel driving man
My name is adam i'm your biggest fan
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

Squinched up your face and did a dance
You shook a little turd out of the bottom of your pants
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu du
But you

lyrics

Shanghai Sky by Joe Jackson

Strange
How the world got so small
I turned around and there was nowhere left to go
So sad
The dream always dies
Each new arrival closes places in my mind
But I can dream
Until I go
Of smells that I dont recognize
And by the river
In shanghai
The colour of the sky
Is something Ive never seen
After the summer rain
Children smile
Curious and kind
And the world is big again

Poem

C Moon

As rain falls on the wolf,
a baby cries
as if no air to breathe.

The crescent moon
scratches the starless sky,
screeches, manicure and chalkboard
screams in my head
and in the Bavarian forest
of my heart: limitless,
echoing deep, deep inside of me,
a hollow, metallic drum
where wolves and bears smile
holding a gun, shiny drool
in the caged, pagan moonlight.

Rain falls from the point
of the “C” of the moon
and you whisper, ‘C’est
la vie. L'amour va conquérir
quoi que ce sois.’ Is this
something that I can understand?

No air to breathe in the rainfall.
A wolf spies. A baby cries.

The moon beats a cadence
until the animals of the night
can dance no more. Pagan
eyes color the fire, birds, leaves,
smoke, clouds, hidden stars, sun.
The heart beats a cadence
until the animals of the night
can dance no more. Rain
falls. A baby cries. No air
to breathe. Could these be signs
that we should understand?
A wolf observes.

Poem....Domination of Black by Wallace Stevens

Domination of Black

At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came striding.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

The colors of their tails
Were like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
In the twilight wind.
They swept over the room,
Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks
Down to the ground.
I heard them cry -- the peacocks.
Was it a cry against the twilight
Or against the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
Turning as the flames
Turned in the fire,
Turning as the tails of the peacocks
Turned in the loud fire,
Loud as the hemlocks
Full of the cry of the peacocks?
Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?

Out of the window,
I saw how the planets gathered
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

Poem....Lovers on Aran by Seamus Heaney

Lovers on Aran

The timeless waves, bright, sifting, broken glass, Came dazzling around, into the rocks, Came glinting, sifting from the Americas To posess Aran. Or did Aran rush to throw wide arms of rock around a tide That yielded with an ebb, with a soft crash? Did sea define the land or land the sea? Each drew new meaning from the waves' collision. Sea broke on land to full identity.

Happy New Year........Long, Long Ago

Auld Lang Syne

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine^† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Poem

Gifts in a Dark Time

“The weight we lift with the finger of a dream…”
- from An Ordinary Evening in New Haven, Wallace Stevens

the velvet
parted lips
of the sculpted woman
cool one spot
beneath my chin
in the palm
of your palm.

the silken
brown shoulder-length hair
offers itself over
and over
to be combed, to be
tossed back
and about a black
velvet gown,
a string of pearls.

the burnt
sienna tongue
draws a line in the sand
of my desire, needs
to be crossed
as much as the ‘t’
in betrayal
or fidelity,
life and love lines
of your palm crossing
to make a point.

the silken
chestnut hair offers itself
over the shoulder
and in the palm
of the man to study in
adoration
and afterthought
for times of darkness,
for times of risk
and the creation
of our heart
and imagination.

Poem

Shelter

in the moss
on the backs of trees
I can always find
my way
home
and by memory
of Starry sunlight
in your sextant eyes:
North, South, West,
East. It is
a great comfort
to hear you,
your compass words,
if only in my head
where they always sound
sweet, intrinsic, full
of knowledge
of things I know
nothing of.

Happy Holidays to All!!!!!

Poem

my love II

my love walks with me like the lily
in her hair.
my love stays in my eyes
like the shadow of a hawk on the sand,
graceful and silent,
circling for prey.
my love dances eternally in my hands
like water or sand
as if nothing
could hold her.
my love whispers the meaning of her life
with each breath,
with each word.
my love carries my half of our heart
with her
when we are apart.

Mariscal Breeze

Along the ocean
edge and beach sand
a ghost crab races
a lone white triangle
on the horizon,
the breeze firm
as it kisses waves,
a spotted dog
chasing a ball thrown too far,
the yips
and barks
coming in
and out
with the smell of her
coconut-oiled skin
browning softly
as my loose hair,
beach umbrellas,
the wings
of a passing bi-plane,
distant moriche palm trees
and book pages
dance together
en masse
as she sleeps.