What must be valued
I’m learning,
in clarity and in error,
are spaces
where
feelings are held.
Here—in a poem?
And elsewhere
(JJ)
spaces where feelings are held
Category: language
we must tap the well of our own collective imaginations
“There are very few contemporary political spaces where the energies of love and imagination are understood and respected as powerful social forces.”
“we must tap the well of our own collective imaginations” (RK)
“In life, the monsters win” (GRRM)
An ordering of imaginaries felt in the here and now
Maneuvers to other planes of there.
It’s fine, I’ll stay here dreaming poems and smiling in italics.
A Poem by Álvaro de Campos Fernando Pessoa, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari, NYR June 22, 2023 issue
It’s so amusing this bystanding part of life!
AG2023_2120456a or as fresh as I remember
“It’s your daughter, Mom! Want to say
hello to Rita?” My surprise each time
that he still asks, believes in asking.“Hello, Rita.” A good day, then;
Eurydice, Turning by Rita Dove (Playlist for the Apocalypse); via On Being 041122.
the voice as fresh as I remember.
I close my eyes to savor it
AG2023_1055822a or ground the potential
“We tend to be reckless or forgetful of plants, but they ground the potential for multicellular animals like us. Without them, we’re lost”
“all life as we understand it persists by drawing on its environment”
“There’s at least as much suffering as pleasure and as much distress as tenderness in the evolution of life” (MC)
Something I Can Never Have – The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine via Westworld.
AG2023_1000098a or only order, beauty
“… everything there would address our souls, privately, in their sweet native tongue.
There, there’s only order, beauty: abundant, calm, voluptuous.”
AG2023_1055771a or that ponders its own condition
“We are a species that ponders its own condition. The underlying difficulties of being an animal remain, no matter what culture or era a person is born within. We all face real worries and dilemmas as a consequence of being alive among a multitude of lives.
This book is a defence of what it means to be an animal. It doesn’t involve belittling us or losing sight of the obvious differences that mark us out. Nor does it result in a confused preference for what might be thought of as natural. Rather, this is an argument for a deeper understanding of how we think about life. Our animal origin is the story of our place in the world. It’s the basis of how we give meaning to our existence. This is an impossible task without first accepting that humans are animals. This should be straightforward, yet it isn’t. In truth, we live inside a paradox: it’s blindingly obvious that we’re animals and yet some part of us doesn’t believe it. It’s important to try to make some sense of this. And then, once we accept that we’re animals, to think about what flows from that.”
How to Be Animal A New History of What it Means to Be Human, Melanie Challenger
Stars and grace
“… I had a daydream
The Birds Outside My Window Sing During a Pandemic, Lee Herrick
and got lost inside of it. There were dozens
of birds for some reason, who sounded like
they were singing in different accents:
[…]
You’re made of stars and grace.
Stars and grace. Stars—and grace.”
