Magazine Poem

Some sort of light
described as chaste,
track over to

some sharply rendered
detail, maybe an object entire
or even an animal,

the image tweaked
just so with an unexpect-
ed adjective,

one from, say, the lusty
world of fine dining. Next,
a cryptic but flatly

toned reference to a bygone,
probably dead, beloved creature,
person or animal,

though probably not the
same animal from the second
stanza, if there happens

to be one there. Light again,
and this is the same thing as before,
just as chaste, but most

likely fading or falling or
diffusing or doing something similarly
dissipative. The private grief

probably starts to grow
lustrous here, civilization's a big
mess and nothing for it, war, blogs, etc.,

though the little private pain
will seem to have been assuaged
in a little way by the little tremor

of the poem itself. Finally,
the deal is sealed with another sharp detail
jump cut, an objective

correlative, as they say, that
shows you're tough, mostly poetic
instead of too sappy or intellectual.

JK Echoes JK

Have a sense of integrity.
We are in the realm of the spiritual.
the glory of God

Half of sin's appendectomy
Thee aren't a ream-ed spatial.
uh, gory upshot

this feeling
Liberate everyone.
It's great.

thus fouling
Lobotomate incher-bone.
Shish collate.

One must be victimized.
independent thought patterns
Whisper into the ears of millions of people.

When crush these fickle-dice.
unopen tent-bought bitterns
His purring goo dares a vermillion'd pee-bowl.

Mseaning

A madtter whaet msourns

Tg righs form bsed avpery mdrnng

Tg flnd a raeaon tg

Ath liist thsat

Lf uo mpre

Maddtrs snb mwaorsns ett

Credit/No Credit

What warmth
is honed to an edge on
what whetstone


These're the cuts
I live by, blunt bubbling
of crowds athwart


That shrouded
thing with shroud-like skin
furnaces along


in shuffles, or
don't you mark such things
with a little hiss,


or don't my
hungers go amiss, change
places, and repent,


doesn't the body
pitch forward into the cold
places, sharpening


itself, a bubbling
of hungers redoubled,
brought to bear


What's carried out
when I scorn the struck match,
seize cheaper fuel


Don't / you / do / it

Why Language Proper Ought Not Be the Deterministic Point of Departure for Exploring Semiotics

What we should look for is the first indication of symbolic behavior, which is not likely to be anything as specialized, conscious or rational as the use of semantic. Language is a very high form of symbolism; presentational forms are much lower than discursive, and the appreciation of meaning probably earlier than its expression. The earliest manifestation of any symbol making tendency, therefore, is likely to be a mere sense of significance attached to certain objects, certain forms or sounds, a vague emotional arrest of the mind by something that is neither dangerous nor useful in reality. The beginnings of symbolic transformation in the cortex must be elusive and disturbing experiences, perhaps thrilling, but very useless, and hard on the whole nervous system. It is absurd to suppose that the earliest symbols could be invented; they are merely furnished to the senses of a creature ready to give them some diffuse meaning. But even in such rudimentary new behavior lies the first break with the world of pure signs. Aesthetic attraction, mysterious fear, are probably the first manifestations of that mental function which in man becomes a peculiar "tendency to see reality symbolically," and which issues in the power of conception, and the life-long habit of speech. [Susanne Langer]

Road Agents

Abstract Oils:

crude, olive, hair, motor.