Friday, March 26, 2021

Die Slo(u)w(g)l(h)y in a Taffy-Puller

My cherry tree, chimney, neighbor's trees, our moon, last night 10pm




Surprised me too, not crashing, I did nothing, I submitted to whatever and wherever and then, no, without even trying, without even noticing until last night in my front yard with my cherry tree and the moon (and Napoleon and Momcat sitting at my feet) I remembered I expected to be if not unhappy at least not happy and especially not happy without shadow per my usual ferris wheel rides

Day before yesterday I helped a student find basic resources for a term paper on Bond movies (specifically comparing and contrasting representations of British imperialism between Pierce Brosnan's Bond and Daniel Craig's Bond - nobody talks about Timothy Dalton's Bond) so that explains the poem at post bottom, it made me laugh, my first conscious acknowledgment my head not where I expected to be, and then yesterday's coffee in the rocking adirondack chairs on Hilltop quad with the most Anybody But Trumpist I know on campus and not even feeling the slightest urge to take bait (which is why I am able to offer you links today), and then after cherry tree and moon and black cats last night, surprised me too, happiness, and then I spent an hour with the best cat ever




Climate change and apocalyptic infrastructure
The new normal: Reality Police
vv Stuck in Mud vv
The big stuck boat is glorious
Battle hymns of the Old South
The letters' scent
Alice Notley: Notes on *Runes and Chords*
Thirty-one notches in The Fall's big belt





  

2021 March 24

Jeff Popovich

Taugh lork wat choday
grad student researching Bond
movies, reminded

to wonder again
over/under on total
thousands of bullets

shot at all Bonds, none
of which killed him. Bond my
Batman problem: just

cap the motherfucker
Fuck making him beg for mercy, die slo(u)w(g)l(h)y in a taffy-puller
Kill the motherfucker, haven’t you been watching?

2 comments:

  1. 1)that's a good looking tree and a good looking moon
    2)and a very good looking cat

    3)speaking of the environment - you could look at charles c. mann's article at the atlantic website


    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/charles-mann-can-planet-earth-feed-10-billion-people/550928/


    This article is adapted from Charles C. Mann’s most recent book, The Wizard and the Prophet. It appears in the March 2018 print edition with the headline “How Will We Feed the New Global Middle Class?”


    he contrasts the viewpoints of norman borlaug, of whom i have heard before, and william vogt, whose influence is found in several books i have read

    4)part of the following i came across in the portable dragon - this is from our friends at wikiquote

    Lin Yutang: Chin Shengt'an, that great impressionistic critic of the seventeenth century, has given us, between his commentaries on the play Western Chamber, an enumeration of the happy moments which he once counted together with his friend, when they were shut up in a temple for ten days on account of rainy weather. These then are what he considers the truly happy moments of human life, moments in which the spirit is inextricably tied up with the senses:


    "To cut with a sharp knife a bright green watermelon on a big scarlet plate of a summer afternoon. Ah, is this not happiness?

    I wake up in the morning and seem to hear some one in the house sighing and saying that last night some one died. I immediately ask to find out who it is, and learn that it is the sharpest, most calculating fellow in town. Ah, is this not happiness?

    It has been raining for a whole month and I lie in bed in the morning like one drunk or ill, refusing to get up. Suddenly I hear a chorus of birds announcing a clear day. Quickly I pull aside the curtain, push open the window and see the beautiful sun shining and glistening and the forest looks like having a bath. Ah, is this not happiness?

    To cut with a sharp knife a bright green watermelon on a big scarlet plate of a summer afternoon. Ah, is this not happiness?

    To find accidently a handwritten letter of some old friend in a trunk. Ah, is this not happiness?

    A traveller returns home after a long journey, and he sees the old city gate and hears the women and children on both banks of the river talking his own dialect. Ah, is this not happiness?

    To open the window and let a wasp out of the room. Ah, is this not happiness?

    To have just finished repaying all one's debts. Ah, is this not happiness?"








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  2. 1)mann is the author of the books 1491 and 1493 about the americas before and after the columbian encounter - our friends at wikipedia tell us that in the latter book

    Mann argues that Columbus paved the way to the homogenocene, a particular feature of the anthropocene that is marked by a global homogenization of (agricultural) species, diseases, and tools brought about by the migration and transport that set in with the discovery of the new world. Modern global food production largely relies on "invasive species" (crops, livestock) that existed only regionally before establishment of the new trade and transport paths.

    In the United Kingdom, the book is published by Granta Books and is titled 1493: How the Ecological Collision of Europe and the Americas Gave Rise to the Modern World.

    The book was adapted for younger readers by Rebecca Stefoff and published by Seven Stories Press in 2015 as 1493 for Young People: From Columbus's Voyage to Globalization.


    2)it was my error that resulted in two servings of watermelon in the list of happy moments

    2a)i have let a wasp out of a room more than once - it is a happy moment - i would call it a moment of biophilia - we read at merriam-webster.com that this is

    a hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature : a desire or tendency to commune with nature

    Biophilia is the term coined by the Harvard naturalist Dr. Edward O. Wilson to describe what he saw as humanity's "innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes," and to be drawn toward nature, to feel an affinity for it, a love, a craving.— Natalie Angier

    Do human beings have within them an innate sense of connection to other forms of life? If so, can this natural feeling, this "biophilia," both enhance our respect for ourselves as human and reinforce our sense of obligation to treat other forms of life with loving care?— T. H. Watkins

    The term "biophilia" was popularized by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm in the 1960s. In his work, he used the word (from bio-, meaning "life," and -philia, meaning "friendly feeling toward") to describe the biological drive toward self-preservation. In the late 1970s, American biologist Edward O. Wilson extended the word's meaning, seeing it as the perfect word for "the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms." More recently, "biophilia" has been in the news as the title of Icelandic singer Björk's 2011 project, a multimedia production that (according to the website for the Manchester International Festival) "celebrates how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe, from planetary systems to atomic structure."

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