Friday, January 21, 2011

Only By Sucking, Not By Knowing, Can the Subtle Essence Be Conveyed

If asked by a blegchiatriast if I was having thoughts of blegicide I'd have to admit the word hiatus has begun dimly blinking in the back of my mind. It has nothing to do with diminishing readership - despite my best efforts to be more allusive and obscure, readership is up and thank you very much, which only encourages me to become more allusive and obscure: I'm always going to be plagued by the fallout over Eric Clapton's Michelob commercial in the 1970s. There's nothing a not big enough to be a sell-out fears more than selling-out when nobody cares whether he sells-out.




Yes, I've been visiting my closet of avatars, sorting through my crates of tropes and cliches. Everything I say about the clusterfuck I believe though I know my urgency sprints indulgently ahead of the pace of the kaboom. It's fun; you do it too, but it took decades, centuries, to peak, and even if the collapse takes a quarter of that time, it's watching minute hands move on a clock. It's not a bang or a whimper but a sigh and a grind and Friday afternoon meetings to argue semantics and assign blame.




Thank Lord Etcheverry opening day is two months away because I need to argue semantics and assign blame face-to-face and laughing about a representative but funnier clusterfuck. As for Blegsylvania, we're all geriatric Rotary Club members now.

As for hiatus, no, but compulsion's gotta stop, though I bet a pint it won't.






IMPROVISATION ON LINES BY ISAAC THE BLIND

Peter Cole

Only by sucking, not by knowing, 
can the subtle essence be conveyed—
sap of the word and the world's flowing 

that raises the scent of the almond blossoming, 
and yellows the bulbul in the olive's jade. 
Only by sucking, not by knowing. 

The grass and oxalis by the pines growing 
are luminous in us—petal and blade—
as sap of the word and the world's flowing; 

a flicker rising from embers glowing;
light trapped in the tree's sweet braid 
of what it was sucking. Not by knowing 

is the amber honey of persimmon drawn in. 
An anemone piercing the clover persuades me—
sap of the word and the world is flowing 

across separation, through wisdom's bestowing, 
and in that persuasion choices are made: 
But only by sucking, not by knowing 
that sap of the word through the world is flowing.


12 comments:

  1. I'm surprised to see that the good news wasn't about Obama hiring General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

    Six Sigmas and such as, people! Get your black belts while they're hot...
    ~

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  2. Don't you DARE go on hiatus. (Though I am relived you gave that sweet pussycat a rest.) I didn't click any links today but that song had me trampolining on my bed. Thank you, Planet!

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  3. It's either hiatus or possible relaxing of editorial restraints. Oh yes I can. Yay!

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  4. Thanks for the nod.

    Rest well, if you do.

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  5. Critically, I'd like to offer a critical critique of black text on a black background. Spinal Tap was impressed.

    Tell the editor to go to hell (though hiatusing is always understood as occasionally necessary).

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  6. Thanks as always for the linky love.

    Blooger screws up youtube vids on the latest Mac OS; they shift down and to the right, covering shit up.

    You scooped me on the Philosophical Novel. Gotta' say something. Nice pull on the good life. What is it anyway? And what does it matter?

    Would that then be the Rememberment Plan?

    Hey, and don't kid yourself: you sell out every single day of your life. We all do in this Capitalist empire in which we reside. It's just how you choose to do it. And how much. But you know that.

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  7. I feel compelled to ask about the nature and source of the 'editorial restraints' under consideration. Because I pick at scabs.

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  8. Nothing to bray about, though I should add that if you think you've seen bleggalgazing, you only think you've seen bleggalazing.

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  9. This a comment to yesterday's post because there is no post today. This is just a ploy to win a pint, right? A compulsion is a terrible thing to waste.

    drip

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