Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bats, Lisps of Pride

In last night's fever dream I was reminded of the scene in Barth's Sot-Weed Factor (Barth being in my mind) when Ebenezer Cooke, upon landing in Maryland to take claim the plantation he inherited, stumbles upon a legal argument about private property and, fashioning himself a legal expert as well as poet, passionately argues for fairness to win and, with sanctimonious nobility, forfeits his rights to his fortune.

Me. Who'd you think I was talking about? After I lost my property, Obama screamed at me, calling me a pussy for expecting him to make decisions based on right and wrong. I've always loved fever dreams. Could do w/o the sore throat. In any case, I promised The Bats. Requests solicited and posted if I can find them:




UPDATE!















WOOD'S EDGE

Brenda Hillman

Infinity lifted: 
a gasp of emeralds.
 
I thought I felt 
the tall night trees 
between them,
 
no exactitude, 
a wait not even 
known yet.
 
I held my violet up; 
no smell. 
It made a signal squeak 
inside, bats,
 
lisps of pride;
 
ah, their little things, 
their breath: lungs of a painting,
 
they swept me 
in four ways, their square
plans, as I have made 
a good square saying,
 
you I 
you not-I 
not-you I 
not-you not-I,
 
ritual of hope 
whose weight 
has not been measured


10 comments:

  1. Thanks and/or/and thanks for the bump.

    When it comes to Libya, you've inspired me. To intervene or not to intervene? Neither!

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  2. What I don't understand is why your posts linking to IOZ consistently show up in my Gurgle reader well before the IOZ posts you link to. Magick?

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  3. I wonder if it's related to the comment problem re: newerblooger vs olderblooger. Maybe newerblooger burns feeds faster than olderblooger. I'm guessing IOZ is olderblooger (since I only got newerblooger last autumn).

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  4. Why use magick to explain when ESP is simpler and more elegant?
    ~

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  5. ESP's too simple. I prefer alchemy. All those smokes and bubbles are cool.

    And at least our bombs are dropped with a tinge of remorse. Sheesh.

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  6. Thanks for the heads up re FM. Turns out an overactive Spam folder devoured some of her comments, two of which I managed to rescue.

    Thanks, too, for the link. I hope you enjoyed my little round-the-world blegwhoring experiment. It's pretty remarkable, really: a cryptic comment at Seb's place in Tokyo generates a humorous allusional post by a doofus in the ATL which, in turn, generates an even more cryptic link in a post by a virtuoso computer jock in the nether reaches of Lord Baltimore's parrish which, in a yet further turn, generates a comment below it by said doofus. Cool, huh? It really is a small world, after all. Did I miss anything?

    Bats: Horizon, Straight Image, Courage, Under the Law (for CFO)

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  7. Bat-cave! Righteous.

    Opening salvo = double-righteous.

    Charles Wright reference made me think of one of The Law's notable professors at Longhorn Law, now dead, famous author of several important legal texts & treatises. He was one of my legal idol's (Eugene Gressman's) best buds on the circuit of The Law Academy.

    And I'm with Randal -- I dig alchemy.

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  8. I propose to you that ESP and alchemy are both forms of magickry.

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  9. Friends, I am appalled. ESP? Alchemy? Both, yes, magickry? WTF is wrong with y'all?

    Conspiracy! Corporate! Opossumry!

    It's truly a sad turn of events when *I'm* the one who has to show a little imaginative spark around here. I weep for the rebellion.

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  10. Opossumry!

    That's on the Food Network, isn't it?
    ~

    ReplyDelete