|
Go west, young
man! they used to say. Today we have to say: Shoot yourself young man, there is no hope for you!'
Henry Miller 'The Air
Conditioned Nightmare."
"You will win because you have more brutality than you need." [Could be said to Bush too]
Unamuno
"Because Hertzog behaved like a philosopher who cared
only for about the very highest things-creative reason, how to render good for evil, and all the wisdom of old books. Because
he thought and cared about belief. (Without which human life is simply teh raw material of technological transformation, if
fashion, salesmanship, industry, politics, fianance, experiment, automatism, et cetera, et cetera. The whole inventory of
disgraces which one is glad to terminate in death."
Hertzog by Saul Bellow
"This
planet is a penal colony and noone is allowed to leave. Kill the guards
and walk." William Borroughs
"in a sea
swimming with sharks, it is strongly advizable not to look like a disabled fish." WB
"this history
of the planet is the history of idiocy highlighted by a few morons who stand out as comparative geniuses." WB
"Human,
Allen, is an adjective and its use as a noun is.. regrettable." WB
"The media
extend to fabulous lengths the human nervous system, the power to record and receive, but without content themselves, cannibalizing
the world they purportedly represent and ingesting those to whom in theory they report, like drugs inserted into a bodily
system, they eventually take over the body they feed." Misquoute from "Word Virus"
"Sometimes paths last longer than
roads." WB
I am unable to understand how a man of honor could take a newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust.
- Charles Baudelaire
Prisoners
i sually at the helipad
I see them stumble-dance
across the hot asphalt
with crokersacks over their heads,
moving toward the interrogation huts,
thin-framed as box kites
of sticks
& black silk
anticipating a hard wind
that'il tug & snatch them
out into space. I think
some
must be laughing
under their dust-colored hoods,
knowing rockets are aimed at Chu Lai -that
the water's evaporating
& soon the nail
will make contact with metal.
How can anyone anywhere love
these half-broken figures
bent
under the sky's brightness?
The weight they carry
is the soil we tread night & day.
Who can cry for them?
I've heard the old ones
are the hardest to break.
An arm twist, a combat boot
against the skull, a .45
jabbed
into the mouth, nothing
works. When they start talking
with ancestors faint as camphor
smoke in pagodas, you know
you'll have to kill them
to get an answer.
Sunlight throws
scythes against the afternoon.
Everything's
a heat mirage; a river
tugs at their slow feet.
I stand alone & amazed,
with a pill-happy door gunner
signaling for me to board the Cobra.
I remember how one day
I almost bowed to such figures
walking toward
me, under
a corporal's ironclad stare.
I can't say why.
From a half-mile away
trees huddle together,
&
the prisoners look like
marionettes hooked to strings of light.
[YUSEF
KOMUNYAKAA, Dien Cai Dau, Hanover 1988, p. 35]
"The Greeks used to say," he said bitterly, using a phrase that
had been a long time on his mind, "that when a man became a slave, on the first day he lost one-half of his virtue."
"In a car on the road, surrounded
by darkness, the existing forms vanish abd with them vanishes the distraught, guilt tormented self. Speed, strangeness and
space, dark forests, heavily shouldered mountains and open prairies, bring new transient forms, semi-forms, even formless
forms rushing into place. All of these are fleetingly familiar for all of these are life. And because life is holy, the soul
moves in behind and the wheel and 'every moment is precious"
Warren Tallman
When yesterday in the Valle Giulia you came to blows
With the
cops,
I sympathised with the cops!
Because cops are the sons of the poor.
Pier Polo Pasolini
Cold Mountain Poems
The path to Han-shan's place is laughable,
A path, but no sign of cart or horse.
Coverging
gorges-hard to trace their twists
Jumbled cliffs-unbelivably rugged.
A thousand grasses bend with the dew.
A hill
of pine shums in the wind.
And now I've lost the shortcut home,
Body asking shadow, how do you keep up?
In
a tangle of cliffs I chose a place-
Bird-paths, but no trails for men.
What's beyond the yard?
White clouds clinging
to vague rocks.
Now I've lived here- how many years-
Again and again, spring and winter pass.
Go tell families
with silverware and cares
"What's the use of all that noise and money?"
Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail.
In summer, ice doesen't melt
The rising sun blurs in
swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart's not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You'd get it
and be right here.
I settled at Cold Mountain long ago,
Already it seems like years and years.
Freely drifting, I prowl the woods
and streams
And linger watching things themselves,
White clouds gather and billow.
Thin grass does for a mattress.
The blue sky makes a good quilt.
Happy with a stone underhead
Let heaven and earth go about their changes.
I
Have lived at Cold Mountain these thirty long years.
Yesterday I called on friends and family:
More than half had gone to the Yellow Springs.
Slowly consumed, like
fire down a candle;
Forever flowng, like a passing river.
Now, morning, I face my lone shadow
Suddenly my eyes
are bleared with tears.
In my first thirty years of life
I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles.
Walked
by rivers through deep green grass
Entered cities of boiling red dust.
Tried drugs, but couldnt make Immortal;
Read
books and wrote poems on history.
Today i'm back at Cold Mountain;
I'll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.
There's a naked bug at Cold Mountain
With a white body and a black head.
His hand holds two book-scrolls,
One the way and one its Power.
His shack's got no pots or oven,
He goes for a walk with his shirt and pants askew.
But he always carries the sword of wisdom:
He means to cut down senseless craving.
Cold mountain is a house
Without beams or walls.
The six doors left and right are open
The hall is blue sky.
The rooms are vacant and
vague
The east wall beats on the west wall
At the center nothing.
Borrowers don't bother me
n the cold
I build a little fire
When I'm hungry I boil up some greens.
I've got no use for the kulak
With his big barn and
pasture-
He just sets up a prison for himself.
Once in he can't get out.
Think it over-
You know it might
happen to you.
Some critic tried to put me down-
"Your poems lack the Basic Truth of Tao"
And i recall the
old-timers
Who were poor and didn't care/
I have to laugh at him,
He missed the point entirely,
Men like that
Ought to stick to making money.
When men see Han-shan
They all say he's crazy
And not much to look at
Dressed in rags and hides.
They don't get what I say
I don't talk their language.
All I can say to those I
meet:
"Try and make it to Cold mountain."
Han Shan translated by Gary Synder Synder
"Youth," said the man, "is joy. And youth is neither strength nor nimbleness, nor even youth as you describe
it, it is the passion for the useless." Joy of mans dreaming (Jean Giono.) <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>for
those who dont know, oscar acosta is hunters travelling companion, his 'samoan' attourney in fear and loathing in las vegas,
a native of texas, i found this here funny letter which makes me thing of all you good folks, particularly those of us uniquely
south african who have had run ins with the law.. this was sent to h.s.thompson in 1967.. by his 'samoan' .. lawyer..</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hunter,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>True that most men live lives of great desperation, with the emphasis on 'most'.
Then theres the freakheads, flopouts, flamethrowers and narcs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Chrisst, three days in Mexico and I've been screwed several times (broads), drunked up, doped up, in jail, fights
blah blah! in that order.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But my head is good and my
spirits never in better shape.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My friend wasn't home
when I arrived late friday.Checked into a cheap hotel in juarez with roaches for room mates. I had $185 with me so
I put $150 in the 'safe'.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Went out and did the town.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Returned next morning to check out. Asked the clerk for my loot. What loot. Senor,
heres the receipt, Senor. Sorry, senor, there is no money of yours in the safe.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2> You mother fucker, senor, where's my dinero?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Turned out the guy who
took my money was not THE clerk, but a 'mere' acquaintance who was watching the store while the REAL clerk was out of hearing.
So I cussed the bastards out and went into my room to pack. Five minutes later the inevitable knock on the of the narc knocks
on my door.... </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Senor this man claims you have insulted
him.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You goddam right I insulted him, the stupid shit!
Blahblah, argue, spit, cuss, Senor. I was arrested for insulting the dignity of the old man and using obscence language in
the presence of others, mainly two old farts sitting i n the lobby.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I wasn't thinking. I could have
bought them off for five bucks each. there were two of them. But my dander was up so I flounced into jail knowing justice
would prevail.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>I have heard of Mexican jails and Mexican justice before but since those telling the stories were gringos
I always believed it was a combination of prejudice and unfamiliarity with the language..nope!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't have time to
describe it justly, suffice it to say, crud, crap,cold, stupidity, stench, barf, ugliness.. dilapidated is too nice a word.
Sixtry ugly poor drunks in a room 8 X 40. Since I was late I had to stand. I had maybe two cubic feet to myself.
There was no roof and we had a cup of beans for breakfast and a cup of beans with a slice of bread for dinner. What do you
think this is, a hotel senor?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The cold here, when it
is, is worse than in Aspen. My balls ached, no sleep for two days, dirty, grubby, and still shit faced I suffered for 24 hours.
Until my trial.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My arguments were well prepared. Had all day to think it over. Here I come, Juez,
ready or not, I will blow your mind, Senor Juez.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I peekj
in the door and see a lady. Voila! A lady, I can win over easier than a senor...Enter OScar into a room not unlike the cell.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lady:(Reading) It says here that you insulted a man and used obscene words in
front of others, is that true?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Oscar: If the court please///</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lady: Is that true!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Cop: Just answer the question, Senor! (threatening)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Oscar: Your honour, I would like to explain that I am an attorney and..</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Lady: One more time Senor, Is it true that you insulted this man in the hotel (eyes a'blaring now cause
I've taken too much time for my trial.. delay of justice and all that.)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Oscar: We had an argument over this matter...</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lady:
It also says you insulted the policeman, the arresting officer. Is that true also?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Oscar: (nods, cause he's smart by now and knows he should admit everything to hurry things up.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lady: That'll be $1200 pesos. Or thirty days.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Oscar: I'm sorry. I don't understand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lady:
The multa is $1200 pesos; $300 pesos for each offence.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Oscar:
(figures quickly) But your honour, that only amounts to $900 pesos.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Lady: (thinks for a moment) Didn't you use obscene language in the presence of the arresting officers also, Senor?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Oscar:(smiling humbly) Oh, that's correct, your honor. It is my error, forgive
me.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In round figures, thats about $100 (american)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Then
a man directs me into acubelike thing about 6 X 4 and offers me coffee and cigarettes and is very, very nice, Senor. After
an hour of pleasant chitchat he asks if i'd like to get out. Or do i intend to put in the thirty days.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Out, man, out now! Well, we can fix this matter up, don't worry. I'll help you
I am your friend. Maybe the only friend you have in all of Mexico, is that not true? Yes, si, Senor, you are my
benefactor, my only salvation. Help me, please.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Well. We got a message to my friend in Juarez, sold my record player pawned my
clarinet, radio and camera and I was finally called, ten hours later, to the front. I had put about $25 in the bag
when I checked in. They gave me a receipt. They took me into another room and searched me again. The first guy had let me
keep my cigs, matches, gum and the receipt. The second guy took it all. He's taken care of my receipt for me, Senor.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
I'm five feet from freedom and the money is not in the sack.
Fat cop (is there any other kind of cop - gareth): Is everything in order, Senor?
Oscar: No, senor, the money is missing.
Fat cop: Money, Senor?
Oscar: Yes, Senor I had $25 dollars, American, when I came in.
Fat cop:(ostentatiously looks over list, checks it against contents.) No Senor, you must be mistaken, there is no
money in here. The receipt says nothing of any money except for these coins.
Oscar:(five feet from freedom) The receipt I had said.
Fat cop: (smiling like a bastard) Let me see your receipt, Senor.
OScar: (five feet from freedom, smiles) I lost it, Senor.
Fat cop: (the mark of the victor, smiles) Ah, then you have no proof is that correct, Senor?
Oscar:(Five feet from freedom) No, Senor.
fat Cop: And had you had any drinks that night, Senor.
Oscar: (Five feet from freedom) Yes, Senor, I was drunk a shell. I probably gave it to the whore
Fat Cop: Yes, that is probably what happened. These things happen (philosophically) Many times they happen to those who
come here to drink and sleep with our women... it happens, you know. Upon leaving I found out that benefactor, the guy who
got the message across, etc., he is a prisoner doing ten for dope. He asked me for my clothes but I convinced him
I'd send him a fiver when I got out. I wondered why he was so trustworthy. Now I know
I've paid for a week to stay here in El Paso. Got a few deals going <snip> but I won't knwo for a few days
what I'll do; as usual, everything depends on Him, in His good time; but I do know that all things work together for good,
to those who love the Lord, to those who are the called according to his purpose.. a fifth of tequila costs 96 cents so I
got no worries
the ancients who wished to demonstrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states.
Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, the first cultivated
their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they
first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their
knowledge. Such extention of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. From the son of heaven down to the mass of the
people, all must consider the cultivatation of the person the root of everything besides
Im not as big a fool as I
used to be, Im a smaller fool---- (p. 270)
Reality isnt bleak nor can it be said to be non-bleak either . . . (p. 323)
MY OWN PROVERB: Vest made for flea will not fit elephant . . . (p. 344)
I like too many things and get all confused
and hung-up running from one falling star to another till i drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to
offer anybody except my own confusion.
Jack Kerouac
We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked up at each other for the last time
Jack Kerouac
Information has been associated with power, war, and the
state since at least the time of the Greek gods. One ordinarily
thinks
of Ares, or the Roman refinement Mars, as the classical god of war.
But Ares was a rather narrow, undisciplined,
middle-ranking god
who did not think much about what he was doinghe just stood
there and fought, often rather impulsively.
This is not an appropriate
analogy for an epoch in which, increasingly, knowledge is fused to
power. Athena, the warrior
goddess of wisdom who sprung fully
armed from Zeuss head and became the benevolent, ethical, patri
otic protectress
and occasionally wrathful huntress who exemplified
reverence for the state, is the Greek god of war best attuned to the
information
age. Where warfare is about information, she is the superior
deity."
In Athena's Camp:
Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age <John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, editors http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR880/"
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR880/</A> Sappho <A href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sappho/sappho0.htm" http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sappho/sappho0.htm</A></DIV> Peer of the gods, the happiest
man I seem Sitting before thee, rapt at thy sight, hearing Thy soft laughter and they voice most gentle, Then
in my bosom my heart wildly flutters, And, when on thee I gaze never so little, Bereft am I of all power of utterance,
There rushes at once through my flesh tingling fire, My eyes are deprived of all power of vision, My ears
hear nothing by sounds of winds roaring, And all is blackness. Down courses in streams the sweat of emotion,
A dread trembling o'erwhelms me, paler than I Than dried grass in autumn, and in my madness Dead I seem almost.
By the cool water the breeze murmurs, rustling Through apple branches, while from quivering leaves Streams
down deep slumber.
This beautiful fragment is quoted by Hermogenes about A.D. 170
taisi [de`] psu^xros me'n e?'gento šu^mos
pa`r
d? i?'eisi ta` pte'ra ...
But the spirit within them turned chill and down dropped their wings. The Scholist quotes
this to show that Sappho says the same thing of doves as Pindar (Pyth. 1-10) says of the eagle of Zeus.
Another
reading is psau^kros "light", for psu^xros "moist or chill." The sense would then be "the spirit within them became light
and they relaxed their wings in rest."
Arti'ws m? a? xrusope'dillos A?u'ws.
Just now the golden-sandalled Dawn [has called].
|
