Around that Corner

he throws strategy into the river, watches it sink
because it cannot sing like it said
singing could float

the quick anger that flutters up
like butterflies
will become
butterflies
crawling out of his mouth

and, to quote Creeley,
"etc."

Firefly Lights on a Boothang

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds--"The Firstborn Is Dead" excellent stuff
.
cranberry-tasting tea with hibiscus in it
.
last track on White Magic's full-length
.
my new straw cowboy hat
.

Another snap in the snapping into

focus

“I think people have taken advantage of the evolution in language toward postmodern pastiche and non-sequitur,” Berman offers. “People who want to be a songwriter or lead singer, but don’t have anything to say, are provided with this sort of loophole in the culture.”

Stuff, 4 - 6

My Emily Dickinson (Susan Howe)
T. Monk vs. E. Satie = Monk Satie
Long runs along the Hudson
Pizzas made from scratch
Small research into great baseball names of the past: Rusty Staub, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, etc.

Stuff Cinco

The songs posted on Man Man's Myspace page, from their new album. "Top Drawer" and "Hurly Burly" especially.

Stuff In The Spirit of Your Lincoln Bio

"The Metaphysical Club"--Louis Menand. A book on William James, Dewey, Charles Sanders Pierce, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. / A sample, an extract from Dewey: "...the non-social individual is an abstraction arrived at by imagining what man would be if all his human qualities were taken away."

Thomas Aquinas. Who I haven't read, but who wrote something I read in another book I've been skimming. If there were ever a thesis statement for the nobility and wonder of being, this would be it: "Every creature shares in the dignity of causality, that God has shared with all creatures."
Every creature participates in the dignity of causality, would be my humble, agnostic revision of it.

Steve Reich's "Desert Music". A pretty good soundtrack for waking up in the morning to bake biscuits and sip coffee to.

Hope Hunter and Amy and doing well. Thinking of you, Abe.

For The Man Who Takes Himself, His Work, or His Dog Too Seriously

Image this:

Stuff, Just Arrived

Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography

(I am following this man where he leads me)

"In a society of hunters, Lincoln did not hunt; where many males shot rifles, Lincoln did not shoot; among fishermen, Lincoln did not fish; among many who were cruel to animals, Lincoln was kind; surrounded by farmers, Lincoln fled from farming; with a father who was a carpenter, Lincoln did not take up carpentry; in a frontier village preoccupied with physical tasks, Lincoln avoided manual labor . . . Lincoln raised questions--and gave different answers than his neighbors" (44 - 45).

Stuff Quatro

"Mr. Rain"--Velvet Underground
Zopilote Machine--The Mountain Goats
The Age of Magnificence: The Memoirs of the Duc De Saint-Simon
The Will To Live--Schopenhauer
"Mahatma Ghandi: A Revaluation" & "A Taste Of Zen"--Arthur Koestler
"Simone Weil: Beyond The Legend"--Jean Amery
The Selected Poems of Robert Browning

Tearing it out of context, he belches it forward

"Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it."

Stuff #3

Robert Penn Warren--Collected Poems (mostly the stuff from the late 60's/70's).
"Strong Democracy"--Benjamin Barber
"Piano Works I"--Charles Ives
"Horssssing"--Fuck Buttons

"Werner gave praise to the film overall, especially the bacon taped to the wall during the bathtub scene."

Stuff # 3

Entertainment: The Wire, first season
Advocacy: The Roots, Rising Down
Poetry: Super Soccer Stars on Sunday morning

Contest: Second that emotion

Stuff #2

Moussa Dumbia--"Keleya" . Afro-beat with big energy.
Essays by Wyndham Lewis: "The Values of the Doctrine Behind 'Subjective' Art" & "Picasso"
"The Lives of Others"--a film
The title track off Nick Cave's new album--"Dig, Lazarus, Dig!"
Mucca Pazza--live. Steve, do yourself a favor and catch this band live, if you can. An enormous punk rock marching band!
"Consciousness: A User's Guide"--Zeman
Essays by John Ruskin--"Of Truth of Space" & "Of Water, As Painted By Turner"

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta / Feedin the poor and hepin out with they bills