SACCADE

epic, επικ
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Everything is conspiring around you:
the waters, the fabrics have been thickening,
the golds and the browns prepare their volumes.
There comes a day of sun and then a day of snow,
There is a deceptive real-life colour.
Mirrors and cars fly past,
Everything rushing to some centre.
The centre of your life where you have never been
Antonio Jose Ponte in Para Ana Olivares

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P:

We come from a distant past that we've forgotten,

and now we look up to the sky at the stars,

we are the mystery that even we can't decipher,

the mystery of man

the story is told in stone and broken arrows,

in traces of cities unknown, lost in sand,

in columns and castle walls, silent in unseen statues,

the history of man.

Sarah Vaughan 'The Mystery of Man'
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on the floating, shipless, oceans
i did all my best to smile
'til your singing eyes and fingers
drew me loving to your isle
and you sang, "sail to me, sail to me,
let me enfold you,
here i am, here i am
waiting to hold you"
did i dream you dreamed about me?
were you hare when i was fox?
now my foolish boat is leaning
broken lovelorn on your rocks
for you sing, "touch me not, touch me not,
come back tomorrow: o my heart,
o my heart shies from the sorrow"
i am puzzled as the newborn child
i am troubled at the tide:
should i stand amid the breakers?
should i lie with death my bride?
hear me sing,
"swim to me, swim to me,
let me enfold you,
here i am, here i am,
waiting to hold you"
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(tim buckley / larry beckett)


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DPS:
Perhaps none of this will matter
Years down the line
How will I look back on when
I lived beyond my needs and out of time
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image: rene magritte - song of love

BEATIFIC

who can convince the sea to be reasonable?

Pablo Neruda

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Beach Boys - God Only Knows

I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it

God only knows what I'd be without you

If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

God only knows what I'd be without you

God only knows what I'd be without you

If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows

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DPS:
the smallest thing
i’m talkin’ tiny
miniscule, minute
teenie weenie
i dare to swear
i mean micro!
hardly tadpole!
!It saved me
in the nick of time

p:
Oh what a hell of a show
But what I want to know
What exactly do you do for an encore?
Cuz this is hardcore
.
Pulp This Is Hardcore

statuesque

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Image : Eric Zener - Sacred Breath

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Counting Crows Round Here
from August And Everything After




P:
Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog
Where no one notices the contrast of white on white
And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right
I walk in the air between the rain through myself and back again
Where? I dont know
Maria says shes dying through the door I hear her crying
Why? I dont know

Round here we always stand up straight
Round here something radiates

Maria came from nashville with a suitcase in her hand
She said shed like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land
Just like shes walking on a wire in the circus
She parks her car outside of my house
Takes her clothes off
Says shes close to understanding jesus
She knows shes more than just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when shes nervous

Round here were carving out our names
Round here we all look the same
Round here we talk just like lions
But we sacrifice like lambs
Round here shes slipping through my hands

Sleeping children better run like the wind
Out of the lightning dream
Mamas little baby better get herself in
Out of the lightning

She says its only in my head
She says shhh I know its only in my head
But the girl on car in the parking lot says
man you should try to take a shot
Cant you see my walls are crumbling?
Then she looks up at the building and says shes thinking of jumping
She says shes tired of life she must be tired of something

Round here shes always on my mind
Round here hey man, we've got lots of time
Round here were never sent to bed early
And nobody makes us wait
Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late
I cant see nothing, nothing round here
Catch me if Im falling
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DPS:
Just like statues
that begged the muse

to call away
Like statues
dying to break
and turn back into clay

endeavour

… I emerged from the story as though my eyes were glazed, not quite as happens in dreams, but, rather, as though I were on that morning threshold when you slowly awaken from a dream, you confuse the first conscious reflections with the last glimmers of the dream, and you cannot make out (or have not yet crossed) the border between dream and reality…
Umberto Eco in ‘The Mists Of The Valois’ (from ‘On Literature’)

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I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour
Henry David Thoreau
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DPS:
…that’s what they’re there for. but when i speak them i wish you could pick up the colours of my voice. you could say a word, big or small, in any colour, really. with you its always rainbows. i just can’t explain it. i hope you don’t mind.

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a kingdancer picks a petal:

The time I like is the rush hour, cos I like the rush
The pushing of the people - I like it all so much
Such a mass of motion - do not know where it goes
I move with the movement and ... I have the touch

I'm waiting for ignition, I'm looking for a spark
Any chance collision and I light up in the dark
There you stand before me, all that fur and all that hair
Oh, do I dare ... I have the touch

Wanting contact
I'm wanting contact
I'm wanting contact with you
Shake those hands, shake those hands
Give me the thing I understand
Shake those hands, shake those hands
Shake those hands, shake those hands

Any social occasion, it's hello, how do you do
All those introductions, I never miss my cue
So before a question, so before a doubt
My hand moves out and ... I have the touch

Wanting contact
I'm wanting contact
I'm wanting contact with you
Shake those hands, shake those hands
Give me the thing I understand
Shake those hands, shake those hands

Pull my chin, stroke my hair, scratch my nose, hug my knees
Try drink, food, cigarette, tension will not ease
I tap my fingers, fold my arms, breathe in deep, cross my legs
Shrug my shoulders, stretch my back - but nothing seems
to please

I need contact
I need contact
Nothing seems to please
I need contact

PETER GABRIEL - I Have The Touch

aestivator

credo quia absurdum est
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…the deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves
Nietzsche in The Gay Science

DPS:
i’ve seen it at work, it grows and then breaks
history repeating, empire building

P:
Wheres the love song to set us free
Too many people down, everything turning the wrong way round
Blur Out Of Time
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Is tenure what you want? I turn around and walk away
Karl Precoda in Witness

geist

water does
"Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does"
.
Margaret Atwood ‘The Penelopiad’

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A Sorta Fairytale


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You lead me down, to the ocean
So lead me down, by the ocean
You know it's been a long time,
You always leave me tongue tied
And all this times for us
I love you just because
You lead me down, to the ocean
The world is fine, by the ocean
You know this time's for real
It helps the heart to heal
You know it breaks the seal of the talisman that harms
And so you look at me and need
The space that means as much to me
So lead me down, to the ocean
Our world is fine, by the ocean
You know the way it is in life, it's so hard to live up to
So why are you still dressed in your mourning suit
I assume, I assume
You'll lead me down, to the ocean
Don't leave me down, by the ocean
The ocean.
Here comes the wave, here comes the wave
Here comes the wave, down by the ocean
The ocean

Richard Hawley ‘The Ocean’
from ‘Coles Corner’

DPS:
two steps back,
to take it all in,
how it had grown,
the garden of my childhood years
and the way it grew that day
the wind blows the dandelions to smithereens
one more step back
i find a space to rest

HELIOX (WANDER)

Love Is the 7th Wave
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‘Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the most desperate, admirable and noble kind of love’
Delmore Schwartz

DPS:
Night after night, writing for my dear life, hands tired and camel eyes heavy.
Hmmm...
Suddenly I wonder, how will they keyboard effect the brain with both hands writing the neon life?
Yawn…
Hey!
What happened to the clocks?


P:
Zero 7
This World

Another child is born
Another race is won
Another dream is shattered
Another day has begun
This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be

Another broken heart
Another lesson learnt
Another harvest eaten
Another night is gone
A new day's begun
Even your dreams they can be real
This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be

This world is still afloat
No not in Noah's boat
We've only lost the vision
Of the stars we're meant to be

This world is full of love
We still have hope

BLISS

‘Beauty, the splendour of truth, is a gracious presence when the imagination contemplates intensely the truth of its own being, or the visible world, and the spirit which proceeds out of truth and beauty is the holy spirit of joy. These are realities and these alone give and sustain life’.
James Joyce in ‘James Clarence Mangan’ lecture (15 February 1902) from Umberto Eco’s ‘On Literature’

DPS:
I’m a yo-yo
I guess I’ve gotta love it ...
Up and down,
lest I hit the ground-
I play me
n’ spin till silly
or way beyond...
Somehow,
Always fond

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coming out of my cage and I'm doin' just fine

the killers - mr brightside

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if something is not beautiful, it is probably not true

j. keats

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Every Day I Write The Book

estuarine

Nightswimming
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‘It is the business of the future to be dangerous. The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur’
Alfred North Whitehead in ‘Adventures In Ideas’

DPS:
Dear Go-Go Girl,
I’m sorry I was too shy to tell you the story of the words on your shirt.
Make it up to you some time…
Take Care
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living on juice
eating out of tuna cans
mobile home
with my dairy queen
tied me a knot
but she had to cut me loose
i liked her a lot yeh

like lovers do, like lovers do
i liked her a lot, like lovers do

julia came
eating a tangerine
friday the third
four-thirty
she tore out a page
of my magazine
then she went away yeh

like lovers do, like lovers do
she went away like lovers do

saturday girls
keep you warm a while
but sunday sunshine
kills all conversation
you look in her eyes
and you see circles
then she lets you get away, yeh

like lovers do, like lovers do
you get away yeh, like lovers do

everyday you`re so sad to see me
and i`m so glad to take the blame
it`s always going to be that way

living on juice
eating out of tuna cans
mobile home
with my dairy queen
tied me a knot
but she had to cut me loose
now i`m looking at you yeh

like lovers do, like lovers do
i`m looking at you now, like lovers do
and i`m looking right at you now, just like lovers do
and i`m looking right at you now girl
just like lovers do, like lovers do
like lovers do
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Lloyd Cole Like Lovers Do

ACQUIESCENCE

you are what you love, not what loves you

from the film ADAPTATION

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(argos)

Is it you?
Could it be, really?
I stuck around for years
Just to see you one more time
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I swear I heard your voice from afar -
I barked with disbelief
I thought ‘Could it be?’
I guess I wished it
This sweet relief
Even though I suspected
It would be the end of me
.
I could recognize your tread
from an even greater distance
Now I wag and
wonder how
my heart could endure
this instance
.
I can’t stand these fleas
the seize,
the bees,
the tease -
I see your silhouette on the shore
I hold on for a closer glimpse,
Eyes old
And eyes so sore,
Life abandons ailing limbs
.
It is you I behold,
Somehow, I muster one last cry -
My heart has just caved in
My time has come to ...

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In "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins", Borges describes 'a certain Chinese Encyclopedia', the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, in which animals are divided into:

those that belong to the Emperor,
embalmed ones,
those that are trained,
suckling pigs,
mermaids,
fabulous ones,
stray dogs,
those included in the present classification,
those that tremble as if they were mad,
innumerable ones,
those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
others,
those that have just broken a flower vase,
those that from a long way off look like flies.

Jorge Luis Borges (RIP, August 24, 1899 - June 14, 1986)

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It is complete now
Two ends of time are neatly tied
Concrete Blonde Tomorrow Wendy

a child’s laughter or the dawn chorus

Image: Eric Zener - Two Lovers Treading Water

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Harold Pinter

Meeting (from WAR)



It is the dead of night.

The long dead look out towards

The new dead

Walking towards them


There is a soft heartbeat

As the dead embrace

Those who are long dead

Walking towards them

They cry and they kiss

As they meet again

For the first and last time

(August 2002)

It's hard to be man when there's a gun in your hand
Tears For Fears from Head Over Heels

( P)


Echoes
of afternoons and playgrounds
float off
as if hot air balloons
(DPS)

MADRE

NO SECOND TROY
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
W B Yeats

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ignis
quoquihabin
ardon
calax
spiridon
rusin
fragon
fumaton
ustrax
vitius
siluleus
aenon

Twelve words for ‘fire’ in twelve dialects of Latin, courtesy of Virgilio Grammatico Marone in Epitomi ed Epistole (IV.10)

The saddest thing I've ever seen on my tv screen
Was a dying man who died for his dream
Toughest thing I've ever heard
Was that new-born scream in this sneaky world
Wet Wet Wet ‘Angel Eyes’
from ‘Popped In, Souled Out’
(P)
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"There are nine different words in Maya for the color blue in the comprehensive Porrua Spanish-Maya Dictionary but just three Spanish translations, leaving six butterflies that can be seen only by the Maya, proving beyond a doubt that when a language dies, six butterflies disappear from the consciousness of the earth."

Earl Shorris from the essay The Last Word

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Babe, lets keep it simple
Yeah, why don’t we keep it light
I don’t feel like talkin’ bout
Them heavy things tonite

(DPS)

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hyaline

Nausicaa’s Lament
Did I sometimes feel a sharp pain
In my hand and in my heart
Did I disperse it t’other organs -
Slowly kill my every part
DPS
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Stevie Smith - Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

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Spiritualized - Broken Heart .

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Though I have a broken heart

I'm too busy to be heartbroken

There's a lot of things that need to be done

Lord I have a broken heart

Though I have a broken dream

I'm too busy to be dreaming of you

There's a lot of things that I gotta do

Lord I have a broken dream

And I'm wasted all the time

I've gotta drink you right off of my mind

I've been told that this will heal given time

Lord I have a broken heart

And I'm crying all the time

I have to keep it covered up with a smile

And I'll keep on moving on for a while

Lord I have a broken heart

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image: eric zener - family

voskhozhdenie

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Image : Eric Zener - Ascension
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you don’t need to find answers for questions that weren’t asked of you
bloc party ‘two more years’
from
silent alarm
P
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DPS:
I set a trap
For myself
It feels
Great
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‘I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere which is like silence but not empty’
Mark Haddon in ‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’
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Jane Wieldin Rush Hour

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Engelbert Humperdinck
Lesbian Seagull

She flies so gracefully over rocks and trees and sand

Soaring over cliffs and gently floating down to land

She proudly lifts her voice to sound her mating call

And soon a mate responds by singing "Caw, caw, caw"

Come with me, lesbian seagull

Settle down and rest with me

Fly with me, lesbian seagull

To my little nest by the sea

With me, that's where you belong with me

I know I can be strong when you're with me

She skims the water

At the new time to seek

Her fish and she emerges

With one squirming in her beak

She plays among the waves

And hides between the swells

She walks the beach at twilight

Searching for some shells

Come with me, lesbian seagull

Settle down and rest with me

Fly with me, lesbian seagull

To my little nest by the sea

With me, that's where you belong with me

I know I can be strong when you're...you're with me

And in the evening

As they watch the setting sun

She looks at her as if to say

The day is doneIt's time to find their shelter

Hidden in the dunes

And fall asleep amidst

Music of the moon

You and me, lesbian seagull

You just watch the world, oh my

Just you and me, lesbian seagull

Side by side with me till we die

You and I, we can make it if we try
Our love will keep us flying high until we die
(P)






I’m sorry I said that, but I was angry
Yeah, I was so pissed off
Please forgive me
I usually keep my animals in the zoo
Sometimes some of them escape
Its just something that they do

(DPS)

DEVOVED

(TOIL)
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Why are we weigh’d upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness?
All things have rest: why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
Still from one sorrow to another thrown;
Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber’s holy balm;
Nor harken what the inner spirit sings,
“There is no joy but calm!”—
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?

Choric Song II from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s
‘The Lotos Eaters’

DPS:
I’ll tell ya what used to kill me… coming home late at night, and finding them huddled on the couch, numb, at one with the TV set. I’d reach the top of the stairs and greet them. They’d say ‘Hello’ – but just that. They’d say it without sending a glance my way. They were always too absorbed in whatever it was they were watching. As soon as I realized this, I mean as soon as I realized the inhumanity of it all I decided it was time to pack my things and get outta there.

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P:
Dial-a-Song
I Palindrome I

I Palindrome I
Born on the 5th of July
One door shut, another one closed
I Palindrome I

She king of Brooklyn she
Master of all she surveys
Lives a life unencumbered by me
She king of Brooklyn she

Man, when I was a young man
Not like I'm driving a rocking chair now, but
Man, when I was a young man
I was free

I Palindrome I
Mister 5th of July
One door shut, another one closes for
I Palindrome I

Man, when I was a young man
Not like I'm driving a rocking chair now, but
Man, when I was a young man
I was free

I Palindrome I
Something just fell on my head
Born on the 5th of July
I Palindrome I

I Palindrome I
I Palindrome I
Something just fell on my head
Something just fell on my head

REVIVER

p
They Might Be Giants
I Palindrome I
And I am a snake head eating the head on the opposite side
.

The Cars - Magic
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(DPS)

On the way to some place
Why was I in such a hurry?
Expecting pain from elsewhere
It found me where I felt most strong

Memories escape me now and
I’m holding on to nothing
Nah - I ain’t got nothing
But for once nothing might be enough

.

(sea girls)

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each

I do not think that they will sing to me

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the waters white and black .
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

T.S. Eliot ‘The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock’

!ohbutilovedallofthem!

Image: Eric Zener - Grand Oasis
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dps:
a long walk, alone

I walked for such a long time
I walked so far from my dear sea
To find a place where Neptune
Would be too far to salt the breeze

I found a place where a lone bushman
Stared at the oar I held in hand
He asked ‘What’s that you carry,
What use have you of a winnowing fan?’

I dug a hole real deep and
Fixed the oar in that there earth
I looked up to the heavens
pressed my hands together
and gave thanks

.
.
Men in a war
If they've lost a limb
Still feel that limb
As they did before
He lay on a cot
He was drenched in a sweat
He was mute and staring
But feeling the thing
He had not

Suzanne Vega Men In War

shhh!

Ambulance
I hear an ambulance
Over the patter of the rain
I ask you about the ambulance
We kiss away our pain
You say
‘Sirens is such a funny word’,
You rap about their hysterical persistence
You tell me, you tell me
a tale about a whale - -
You hug me, You hug me -
You know it never fails - -
.
‘In a place like this we’ll never be safe
from the harm of them sirens’ wails …’
.
I think that’s what I said -
But I can never be sure…
Not anymore,
No, I can never be sure.
And besides,
with all these sirens
I can hardly hear myself think.
.

.

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‘…and then I thought I had to be like Sherlock Holmes and I had to ‘detach my mind at will to a remarkable degree’ so that I did not notice how much it was hurting inside my head’
Mark Haddon in ‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’
.

the boyracer feels a victorious heartbeat

after finding a note from a friend on his windshield

the note?

verse from walt whitman's leaves of grass...

what did it say?

"failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged

missing me one place search another

i stop somewhere waiting for you"

w. whitman

.

P:
we bury our secrets in the garden
bloc party ‘two more years’
from
silent alarm

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less ordinary

.

So long have we known each other
So little do we know
The Family (Prince) – Desire
P

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On a nightride
Falling stars, moon: lemon slice –
Dreaming out loud
of the simple life

Oh, but the Grind
Someone said something
but I didn’t have a pencil on me
No, I didn’t have a pencil

So, I decided
to take it in

DPS

.

the boyracer's CAKE mixtape:

carbon monoxide

the distance

stick shifts and safety belts

satan is my motor

long line of cars

surfacing

a funny way

the boy racer
got into his car
drove down to the waterfront
stood at the edge
looked out as far as he could
smiled
and thought
how things had
a funny way

(dps)

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.

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P:
It's just that sweet little mystery
That makes me try
Try
Try
Try
Wet Wet Wet ‘Sweet Little Mystery’
from ‘Popped In, Souled Out’

BUOY

P:
I used to be a sailor
Who sailed across the seas
But now I'm just an island
Since they took my boat away from me
Oh no
I don't like being stationary
I like the rocky wavy motions of the sea
I sit and rot behind these padded walls
Hoping one day they'll fall
And set me free
.
Tracy Chapman from I Used To Be A Sailor
.
Gung ho
high or low
used to things
turnin’ out so
(DPS)

cycle lapse

Image: Eric Zener - The Search
.
(DPS)

spiel
You ask me how my day was and I give you the usual spiel about dancing and dreaming and slavery and suicide - the latter I just throw in to check if you were paying attention, and of course you weren’t, and of course I was only joking - but not quite.

legend
On some nights I dream of my grandpa. He only had one eye. He was a legend in his own time and a legend in my mind. Even though he only had one eye he never wore a pirate’s patch over it. I always thought that was a waste of a bad eye. If I were ever left with one eye, I’d definitely wear a pirate’s patch and try to pass myself off as one of the bad guys.

dodgy
Sometimes at night I see this recurring nightmare…Henry Fonda in a trench-coat on a bridge coming my way. When he gets up close I see he only has one eye. He has a patch over the faulty one with a stud in the center. I always wanted a pirate’s patch.

soggy
Do you want to know how the nightmare ends? I’ll tell ya anyway… Henry pulls a double barrelled gun out of his trench-coat and points it in my face. I usually wake up at this point in a nervous sweat. It’s always really foggy…and everything is soggy.

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P:
Is there a line that I can write
Sad enough to make you cry ?
Gin Blossoms - Found Out About You

boquitas pintadas

Image: Eric Zener - Illumination
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Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star

AEOLIAD
I told you my stories. You loved them so much. When we took breaks, we’d go up to the top of the mountain. There you would create a breeze. I told you so many stories. The ones you loved most were the ones you thought you’d heard before. You’d say ‘Wait! I gotta go for a pee’ … you’d go set zephyr free, come back and say ‘Now, where were we?’
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I’m the only one here laughin’
Laughin’ till I wet my pants
Laughin’ till I am in tears
To the punchline’s beat I dance
(DPS)
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I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes
Butthole Surfers - Pepper

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The title of this post courtesy of Manuel Puig

painkiller

(ούτις)
If anybody ever asks who did this, I will say it was Nobody, Nobody…Nobody did.

(P) :
ANYONE
‘anyone can see through me,
But you’re not anyone’
Joan as Policewoman -Anyone
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the chains of habit are too weak to be felt
until they are too strong to be broken
Samuel Johnson

DPS:
I don’t want this painkiller no more
I get so hooked on it and then
I can’t make out the forest for the trees
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Turin Brakes - Painkiller (Summer Rain)
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Image: Eric Zener - Family Therapy

Great Waves

Image: Hokusai (1760-1849)
The Great Wave
or
The Breaking Wave of Kanagawa
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Children play at being soldiers. But why do soldiers play at being children?
Karl Krauss
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I sometimes think of her when I look up to the stars. I feel her lookin’ down on me, I swear. She’s like an angel of mine – one of many, cuz I need at least a dozen to get by. Sometimes, when the first raindrop of an incoming storm lands on my cheek, I feel her presence and I can almost make out her face in the clouds above. That’s when I get to feeling …
(DPS)

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Where has he gone
My dearest son?
Perhaps during the uprising
The cruel army killed him
Ah, you bad people
In the name of God, the most Holy,
Tell me, why did you kill
My son?
Never again
Will I have his support
Even if I cry
My old eyes out
Were my bitter tears
To create another River Oder
They could not restore to life
My son
He lies in his grave
And I know not where
Though I keep asking people
Everywhere
Perhaps the poor child
Lies in a rough ditch
And instead could be
Lying in his warm bed
Oh, sing for him
God’s little song birds
Since his mother
Cannot find him
And you, God’s little flowers
May you blossom all around
So that my son
May sleep happily
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Folk song originally in the dialect of the Opole region (Poland)
Translation by Krystyna Carter
from Henryk Gorecki, Symphony 3
(P)

CALYPSO

Image: Jeff Wall - Dead Troops Talk
A vision after an ambush of a Red Army Patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986
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P:

CALYPSO
suzanne vega

my name is calypso
and i have lived alone
i live on an island
and i waken to the dawn
a long time ago
i watched him struggle with the sea
i knew that he was drowning
and i brought him into me
now today
come morning light
he sails away
after one last night
i let him go.
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my name is calypso
my garden overflows
thick and wild and hidden
is the sweetness there that grows
my hair it blows long
as i sing into the wind
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my name is calypso
and i have lived alone
i live on an island
i tell of nights
where i could taste the salt on his skin
salt of the waves
and of tears
and though he,pulled away
i kept him here for years
i let him go
.
my name is calypso
i have let him go
in the dawn he sails away
to be gone forever more
and the waves will take him in again
but he'll know their ways now
i will stand upon the shore
with a clean heart
and my song in the wind
the sand will sting my feet
and the sky will burn
it's a lonely time ahead
i do not ask him to return
i let him go
i let him go

from solitude standing

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You’ve gotta play. I’m tellin’ ya, you’ve gotta. I’m sayin’ you are ready. Yeah, there’s a reason we kept you on the bench for so long. Rest assured, it is no reflection of our thoughts on your game, which is definitely, hmm… on. So! In this most crucial and timely of circumstances, we’d like you to get up and join the game. So! Whadayasay?!
(DPS)

the patience of angels

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A creature that hides and ‘withdraws into its shell’, is preparing a ‘way out’. This is true of the entire scale of metaphors, from the resurrection of a man in his grave, to the sudden outburst of one who has long been silent.
Gaston Bachelard
from The Poetics Of Space
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whirl

It whirled me silly-
I gasped -

It was too close –
Not close enough

It tore me in two -
I multiplied further

It became a part of me
For ever
(DPS)
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Starfish and coffee
Maple syrup and jam
Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine
And a side order of ham
If u set your mind free, honey
Maybe youd understand
Starfish and coffee
Maple syrup and jam
PRINCE
Starfish & Coffee
(P)
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Image: Eric Zener - Facing Change
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the title of this post courtesy of Eddie Reader

ITHACA AND EVERYTHING AFTER

After six whole days in Ithaca,
five of them prostrate,
I got to wonderin’ bout my end
And cursing my own fate
I caught myself there wishing
For yet another war
(DPS)
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Honeymoon In Beirut
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ON THE MOON, OR THE WAYWARD HUSBAND
On the moon, (he goes there quite often), there is a giant dry land oyster, who rathers dust than water. This oyster can talk because I say it can, says the man who goes quite often.
His wife is willing.
Willing what? Says the man who goes quite often.
To accompany her husband quite often. Deep in himself, he shuts his eyes and dreams he awakens someplace else. There a giant dry land oyster who rathers dust to water for reasons known only to itself. All of this is placed on the moon for reasons of privacy. When the earth is dark the moon is bright… One is thankful that the husband that goes quite often returns just as often; not completely, else he should not go again.
by Russell Edson in ‘The Very Thing That Happens’
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I write down everything that you say
So I don’t get lonely when you go away
Book Of Love, ‘Book Of Love’
(P)

THE ROSE

We’re already living after the end of the world. No need to fret anymore.
Norman O. Brown
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"...Children shelled ? That's all
Very well, but would you
Please keep the noise
Down low ?
Because you're waking
The lazy sunbathers ...
Oh, the lazy sunbathers
MORRISSEY
from The Lazy Sunbathers
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‘I’m from Japan. My father is a Ninja. My mother is a Geisha.’
Yumiko Kayukawa at La luz De Jesus Gallery (July 7 – July 30, 2006)
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So we talked about the horses. It felt nice being close to you that way. We talked all through the afternoon. I get teary eyed when I remember the site. It was as sweet as it had ever been. I thought about mentioning the Trojan horse there and then. But I was so overwhelmed I decided to leave it be. You know, these things I can’t put labels on, they’re all I want to see. And you..you were really something…saying something on the wind. I’m so slow…my pace. I’m so slow I’m always praying I don’t cause any harm. I’d hate to think I have. But it has happened before. And that Trojan horse I never told you about. It never intended to hurt a hair on a glowing head. I don’t really remember who was where or what it was I said. Sometimes, at times like these, these eternal moments, there is so much beauty, I think I could just pop.
(DPS)

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Belle And Sebastian - Me And The Major

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Me and the Major could become close friends cause we

Get on the same train and he wants to talk to me

Me and the Major could become close friends cause we

Get on the same train and he wants to talk

But there is too much history, too much biography between us

Me and the Major don't see eye to eye on a

Number of things, he'll take a guy like me and then

Me and the Major don't see eye to eye on a

Number of things, he'll take a guy like me

And put him in the army

Cause the Queen's own army makes a man of you

But he doesn't understand and he doesn't try

He knows there's something missing and he knows it's you and I

We're the younger generation, we grew up fast

All the others did drugsThey're taking it out on us

They're taking it out on us

Me and the Major are from different worlds,
but if I get stuck in the lift it's always with a toff

Me and the Major are from different worlds,

but ifI get stuck in the lift it's always with a man

Of noble standing who looks down on me like I was never born

I think the Major's going quite insane, he goes

Along the pavement and comes back again, oh yeah

I think the Major's going quite insane, he goes

Along the pavement and comes back again

Like he is on parade, and he is on parade

At least he thinks so

Now he is swapping his tent for a sheltered home

He doesn't have a family, he is living alone

He remembers all the punks and the hippies too

And he remembers Roxy Music in seventy-two

He doesn't understand and he doesn't try

He knows there's something missing and he knows it's you and I

We're the younger generation, we grew up fast

All the others did drugs

They're taking it out on us

They're taking it out on us

They're taking it out on us

I want a dance, I want a drink of whisky so I

Forget the Major and go up the town

Because the snow is falling

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Image: Eric Zener - The Choice

THE EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE …

If you’re going through hell, keep going
Winston Churchill
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There is no rest for the wicked
No shut eye for the hiding breed
No Z’s for denial’s naughty
No peace for the lonely seed
(DPS)
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P: Petal (?)
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EPIC CURE

Ω Muse
Just this...






















Image: Eric Zener - Man Out On The Edge

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The clocks do not work.
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‘The world is large, but in us it is deep as the sea’
R M Rilke
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‘…but many hearts will understand me…’
Gerard de Nerval in ‘Sylvie’
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vino, primera, pura
juan ramon jimenez
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DPS: Daily Pop Songs (?)
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I was the teacher, I was the pupil