Random Poetry 4

Contemporary/Margaret Atwood/This Is a Photograph of Me

It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)

Random Poetry 3

Modern Poetry/Louise Bogan/Alchemist

I burned my life, that I might find
A passion wholly of the mind,
Thought divorced from eye and bone,
Ecstasy come to breath alone.
I broke my life, to seek relief
From the flawed light of love and grief.

With mounting beat the utter fire
Charred existence and desire.
It died low, ceased its sudden thresh.
I had found unmysterious flesh—
Not the mind’s avid substance—still
Passionate beyond the will.

Uploading Images Post

Random Poetry 2

Contemporary Poetry/James Tate/Poem

The angel kissed my alphabet,
it tingled like a cobweb in starlight.
A few letters detached themselves
and drifted in shadows, a loneliness
they carry like infinitesimal coffins
on their heads.

She kisses my alphabet
and a door opens: blackbirds roosting
on far ridges. A windowpeeper
under an umbrella watches
a funeral service. Blinkered horses
drum the cobblestones.

She kisses: Plunderers gather
in a lackluster ballroom
to display their booty. Mice
testify against one another
in dank rodent courtrooms.

The angel kisses my alphabet,
she squeezes and bites,
and the last lights flutter,
and the violins are demented.
Moisture spreads across my pillow,
a chunk of of quartz thirsts
to abandon my brain trust.

Love

I took my love and I took it down,
I climbed a mountain and I turned around.

And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills,
Till a landslide brought me down.

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?

Update on reading progress

I just finished “The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood; it is interesting in that it has a novel within a novel within a novel. But I didn’t know it at first… which is why maybe I would appreciate it with a second reading – and I’ve never read any book as long as “The Blind Assassin” twice.

I’m continuing with two books:

The first one is a short memoir by Jeannette Walls. Another is the first book of a series of epic fantasy novels (like the Lord of the Rings) called A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin. (There is a TV show coming out this coming April adapted from this book.)

The Square of Bullshit

Host = radio host interviewer
Prof = professor of earth and atmospheric sciences interviewee

Interview

Host:   Introduction of professor etc.

Prof:    Thanks for inviting me etc.

I don’t just teach my student facts. I teach them how we arrive at such facts. How do we know, let’s say, the Earth is 4.6 billion years old. How do we know how big the earth is. And things like this, you know. Not just transmit facts and write down this is this, this is that, regurgitate it in an exam, but how do we actually find out about these things.

Imagine a square: this is the square of irrational thought. In the middle of the square, it says bullshit: it is a less than polite way of saying here is an irrational thought, something you can not really substantiate with rational thinking. Well, how do people come up with bullshit?

There are 4 types of people. They are:

Stupid: plainly, they just don’t have the brainpower to formulate a rational thought. More or less hardwired. Nothing you can do about it.

Naive: by long shot the largest of these four groups. They are not necessarily stupid. They just don’t have the necessary information or experience to make a rational conclusion about a certain phenomenon. And this is gradational, you could be a smart person, and very literate about a certain subject, let’s say nuclear physics, but you could be very naive about medieval architecture.

Naivety and stupidity are somewhat related, in that naive people are not necessarily stupid, but all stupid people are necessarily naive.

Liars: these are people who know better but are liars. They just sell something that is monstrously wrong, either for political gain or monetary gain. There are a whole bunch of people like this, who for example sell water dousing, little pendulums, or a few days ago, there was woman in the Edmonton journal who somehow changes the energy of a room with a little bell and the room is better. I don’t know if she is stupid or if she’s lying, but she certainly makes a lot of money off of it.

Delusional: if you wish, they are really mentally ill. There is something wrong in the chemistry in their brain. And it could be fixed, you know, either with counselling, or with drugs, or with education, or with any mixture thereof.

You really could break it down to these four types of people, with a little bit of overlap.

When we are talking something about, you mentioned ‘Hollow Earth Theory’, you know, when somebody says the earth is hollow. Ask yourself: is he stupid? Is he naive? Is he a liar? Or is he deluded? Then you get to the core of it.

And this is how I start my classes. Be sceptical. Query everything that I tell you. Students are naive for the most part. They are not stupid. Oh no, most of my students are quite smart people. But they are naive. They need information. They need a bit of impetus. And they come to the rational conclusions at the end of the semester or a little bit later.

Host:    Listeners, this interview is going to rock…