Tag Archives: dead

the dead

The dead are more present than the living, who are distracted by the weight of it and can never collect their thoughts.         The living never catch the beginning or the end of what is said, mucked up in middleswamps where … Continue reading

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why seek the living among the dead?

a hint of chill underautumn not yet time to settle. harvesttime is right for a new year spring is easy, but this,this is the time to begin to begin – a gentlereminder of cold death. gathergrain for flour, flour for … Continue reading

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cat physicists

think outside boxesopening: two statesin which curiositycould kill a cat, the only thing betweendead and alive an actand a conjunction. Deadto the world alive or dead,they like the odds, dreama moment awake to the surpriseof some human who wanted to … Continue reading

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city of dreams

every city a body of dreamscrossing. every crossing a placeto cut a deal. every deala soul sold. every soul a dreampeopled by ghosts,                              a city of the living,a city of the dead, a city of the unborn,every city teeming with dreamersdreaming … Continue reading

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to the author of the puzzle by the interstate that helped me stay awake on a drive to alabama

when you write If you diedtoday, where would you spendeternity? “If you died”with “would” suggests you knowI haven’t or won’t, but how? And ifI die today, how will mydying be connected to myspending of eternity? Does onespend eternity the wayone … Continue reading

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dead tree poet

A dead tree never fails to catch my eye,if only for a moment, while Iinscribe the contrast of a thing once livingagainst ecstasies of all that is inthe act of it. There is a song in itthat will not settle … Continue reading

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all this light we live in

One of the most appealing things about Chris Ellery’s All this Light We Live In is the eclectic, often surprising, play of styles across a theme as consistent as a carefully constructed philosophical argument. Traditional forms are interspersed with free … Continue reading

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let sleeping dogs lie

Imagine a cat in a box. Strike that. The cat imagines itself. It goes without saying, in the box, provided you leave the lid off. And a physicist, who does not, of course, go without saying. Slightly stooped. Tiny, wire-rimmed … Continue reading

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only the horses

25,000 civilians killed in Iraq      BBC headline, 19 July 2005 Parks populated by bronze horses who carry stonefaced generals long dead unfold the common sense of people who have always settled for war. Keep your feet on the ground, they … Continue reading

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sing

Sing anger, goddess…      Iliad 1.1 Do professors still fill lectures with wondering whether tragedies can be written without heroes in a so un Greek age?       A failed suicide kills three while every day suicides make weapons of everyday lives turned … Continue reading

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