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Le Chat Noir
Je ne comprend rien à la poésie
Je n'ai rien à faire ici
A vous de jouer mes amis.
Posted by Jérôme à Paris on July 2, 2004 at 05:30 AM | Permalink
Comments
I don't get poetry either.
Posted by: four legs good | Jul 2, 2004 8:29:15 AM
History has many cunning passages,
contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering
ambitions,
Guides us by vanities.
Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such
supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 2, 2004 8:52:19 AM
the laws of understanding are many
four legs good i hope your eyes are closed
jérôme - i do not understand & i've been doing it for 40 years
these are just extracts from longer works that i think speak to now & i know that's not english
41.
eyes staring clearly/at paintings/i've proceeded/with salvation
a simple duality/when going down/& climbing up/from the brink
where betrayals burnt/an unfortunate image/on my skin
unity of opposites/quantitative to qualitative/negation
of negation/i'm an expert/awarded with medals/in time slipping
below a mark/you placed there/to measure distance/you knew
i was paying/fare to destination/hoping you'd arrive/crying
on my shoulder/was a world/tilting on axis/i couldn't control
my vast enemies/also became incorporated/into this flesh
while keeping score/of many invasions/entering skin/i took risks
hoping a calander/would be invented/days would dissapear
hours too/even minutes seconds/moments we can't/calculate
whether dragon danced/before it died/or stood up/moving towards us
this is myth/my mind understands/but my heart/cannot perceive
42.
& god created/woman worst film/i've ever seen/that didn't star
red skelton/was a comedian/who never laughed/in our faces
at measures taken/shining shoes/cleaning face/washing skin
tp keep clean/i'll swim in/the dead sea/until water's red
with my blood/you don't have/to guess where/it comes from/ice
burning in furnace/all my recollections/notes & diaries
in cinema/it would have/been directed/by charlie laughton
perhaps nick ray/in last days/when he didn't/want to see/anymore
film stock rotting/on a shelf/somewhere in california/condo
an actor fucks/his own image/senseless & apelike
just like nietzsche/sd in book/on higher morality/daybreak dawn
whatever who cares/these windows covered/dust & shadow/mingling
into one another/while i discuss/my anatomy/with a physicist
do odds get better/or dow/have to retreat/from mathamatics/into sound
thrashing new laws/gravity for example/infinite becomes definite
tired of possible/permutations of discovery/made in desert
men & women/wetting pants/proving their science/only drastic melody
worth listening to
43.
let no man/write my epitaph/is a film/i should have/been in
that's a conceit/i shall live/with before dying
44.
i'm stumbling outdoors/amongst ferns cactus/foliage illustrated
on a wall/in foreign city/there are figures/for future objectives
to be discussed/in ways moral/& decisive postures taken/accumulate this
any experience pile/them high children's/shoes glasses suitcases
gold teeth skin/all are collectibles/in somebody's account
for that/in your fucking/history just word/as far as i am
concerned that universe/so small/that you can't/dissapear
behind your name/collection of consonants/unattractive to ear
mine yours theirs/these useless appendages/hanging from head
microphones in midst/picking up signals/all too intelligible
i haven't known/peace & quiet/for so long/i don't know
what it's like/being food carrier/at last supper/near garden
where betrayal given/it's beautiful name/appears transcedental
to me now/all those stories/are discontinious line/dissapearing
quicker than expected/their meaning gone/quicker than expected
all commandments useless/in current framework/they're awards
handed out/in a competition/where everyone passes/finishing line
get first place/stand in line/hold hands high/shake your heads
this suitable movement/for our times/when ballet finished
all orchestration gone/heart a whimper/in front row/clapping
while musicians play/out of tune/an old song/remembered from war
when we were/at peace/can you remember/that time/i cannot
remember i cannot/remember i/remember
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 1:58:40 PM
i mourn the passing of the greatest actor of the modern era - marlon brando
your gift was a great one
a long & beutiful night, my glorious warrior
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 2:05:10 PM
Still Steel
I thought my bit of prose by TS Eliot perfectly summed up Western Media?
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 2, 2004 2:11:59 PM
RGiap:
Go back over there and read it please, and come with your verdict. It's country Ameriican song lyrics.
It's all right if you tell me I should keep my day job.
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Jul 2, 2004 2:15:16 PM
r-giap - is it irony or are you serious when you say you don't understand? Maybe I AM a poet after all?
Posted by: Jérôme | Jul 2, 2004 2:24:09 PM
jérôme
it's a little bit of both
i've been publishhed since i was 14 so other people obviously think i know
but here teaching people - i also learn - profound lessons that have assisted me technically
& i learn concretely - what constitues creation & yes probably you are because your bueprint show au moins a poetic instinct
think it is a sold blueprint but allows for transformations
thank you also for the brando thread - i think his passing merits our attention
as they mock ali they also mpcked marlon & i think in their different arts these americans really gave something to us who exist outside the beast
the oeuvre of marlan brando is enormous & i am not one of those to reduce him to three or six films - in every one - even the worst there was something of this force of nature
if you like jérôme - creation is a force of nature
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 2:39:04 PM
I suppose my creativity is more rational and organised and disciplined. Not very passionate, but caring?
Posted by: Jérôme | Jul 2, 2004 2:48:58 PM
FLASHARRY
unlike our friend four legs good i am not in the business of judgement - everything that constitutes a real & honest attempt at communicating is authentic
in its character humanistic - i do not see a qualitative difference between a post with which the person has concentrated all their energies to try & synthesise this or that & a poem which for me is the most brutal & transcedental expression of conciousness
because i have worked with public in three continents since i was 14 - there is another added responsibility & that is to that public - to never lie, to never offer less than you are capable of & live the relation between poem & public as something sacred - seperate to the poet him/herself
& for me it is an enormous responsibility to honour that poetry while being reminded that as the person who wrote it does not privelege me more than others
cloned poster - not a great fan of mr eliot - from the arnolidian tradition through leavis/fish, the brothers bloom & their acolytes - the construction of elites through culture creates a sense of disgust in me
in france there has been a poet, rene char- who existed outside the margins in a very real sense, participated politically in an open manner - & who remains perhaps the greates french poet of the 20th century
enough of my rumination
adieu marlon - with all our love
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 2:52:51 PM
jérôme,
don't reduce your passion or a poets capacity for organisation
i think your blueprint exposes a great deal of passion & it has been your passionthat has kept us going here
& i organise 30 hours of ateliers here a week & i can tell you my friend, french administration requires an almost superhuman capacity for organisation
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 2:55:59 PM
cloned poster
want to be frank with you
you have sd on a number of occassion that you have plagiarised, lifted, copied material under your own name
for me, that is unacceptable - especially in such a fragile space as posting - it seems to me that perhaps even more than in creation itself - an absolute honesty is required
& yes you have noted after the fact that it was not yours - but it touches me as deeply immoral
what are you so frightened of that you cannot speak for yourself - your own ideas, your own throughts, your own poems, your own writing
if i do not know who i'm talking - hoow can i decently respond
because to copy is to impress
it is the opposite of listening
id rather wad through an ill conceived but honestly written post than one that does not come from the poster him/herself
that seems the minimum rule here - speak for & by yourself
give honestly - no charades & especially no posts that are written by someone else that you credit two or three post later
sorry if i'm beiong hard
but to be here is important
& i need your voices
but your voices
your voices
voices
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 3:19:04 PM
@remembereringiap
"sorry if i'm beiong hard
but to be here is important
& i need your voices
but your voices
your voices
voices"
You are being hard. If I can find a voice that expresses better than I can do, where is the contest?
If this is the voice of the new Whiskey Bar... well I'm outta here.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 2, 2004 3:33:25 PM
because it what you have got to say which is important or we could go to an encyclopedia
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 2, 2004 3:41:44 PM
Cloned Poster-
don't take offense, and do stay, please.
the convention, the courtesy to an author of any work is that when you quote them, you also attribute them.
if you know the title the words came from, the book the poem was published in, the year in which it was published...
these are all ways to share those words that mean so much to you and that also speak to others.
I enjoy reading quotes, and I even like that old practical cat, Eliot, no matter that he was part of the "new criticism."
I learned a lot by learning from a teacher who had studied under the agrarian poets/writers who were philosophical contemporaries of Eliot, like Robert Penn Warren and Allen Tate and other "Fugitive Writers."
And one important thing I learned is that you are honor bound attribute others' words..and by doing so, you help others to learn where to find works they find meaningful that you share.
Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 2, 2004 8:04:24 PM
She_la_la@fauxreal
That's both marvelous and honest.
Should I take a stab? Probably not. But here goes:
-----------------
Far better to be
a cloned poster
than an uncloned imposter...
Which is to say,
exactly what you said...
That is,
if you allow me to
imperfectly clone your quote:
"If I find a voice
that expresses better than I,
where is the contest?"
Precisely.
It is a win-win situation
An uncontested contest
Don't you see?
If not...
Let me put it simply,
nakedly,
on all fours,
with its butt in the air:
Stay.
You have value.
Don't for a moment doubt it.
Posted by: koreyel | Jul 2, 2004 9:50:16 PM
OMG! you guys rock!
here I was ,thinking I would come home from the bar and simply by virtue of having a buzz,
I could post some poetry.
Well,faint heart ne'er won fair woman, so here goes.
Back when the first gulf war was impending, I wrote a poem that had about 7 stanzas, a mere piece of doggerel. Years later,I realized that it was prophetic.
It was a snarky piece, trying to put into place an idea that if someone is giving you problems, replace them.
I will not recite the whole thing, just the last stanza, and then run pell-mell for the door ducking the thrown bottles.
To replace him would not be easy,
to his people ,he's a hero.
Not just anyone would do,
not a Franco, nor a Nero.
There is no quandary here,
The solution is very plain.
We must comb through every grain of sand,
And find a Saddam who's sane.
Posted by: Possum | Jul 3, 2004 1:23:38 AM
"And find a Saddam who's sane".
Fucking brilliant.
Posted by: galiel | Jul 3, 2004 2:08:11 AM
OK y'all, I confess I also dabble in verse -- light and heavy. here's a light bit.
No satirist can resist this tune -- I think Mark Twain had a good crack at it, satirising the Philippine invasion. My version sings fairly well (though you need good breathing), and is suited to raucous, roaring choruses (possibly with flourishing beer steins) on the "money in the bank" lines. Always wanted to talk a motley group into singing it in public, but never could find enough friends willing to make complete fools of themselves. btw for full effect you should slow down a bit on the "strive to make them stupid" phrase, so the listeners really get the point.
If I feel braver sometimes I'll post something more serious. 'Night all.
Posted by: DeAnander | Jul 3, 2004 2:30:02 AM
@DeAnander
You evil person,you!
I just sang all of the verses!
Almost like the red-headed gal in the whiskey
bar that jumped up on the bar and sang, and subsequent(sic) posters wailed, because they couldnt get the image out of their heads.
LMAO.
I must leave as well. Thanks for making me laugh on the leaving.
Posted by: Possum | Jul 3, 2004 3:11:29 AM
Ahhhhhh.... This is nice. It feels like WB in here when you leave behind the planning and tech questions.
I love you guys!!!!!
Posted by: Stoy | Jul 3, 2004 4:16:47 AM
Ooo oooo! I have a great idea for the title graphic. This is mostly a note to self because I am about to turn in and do not want to forget my idea:
A "weirdo style" (tm) head pitched back with a tankard held high above, and out of the tankard, pouring into the mouth on a nice swooping path in a classic yet almost fancy font: Le Speakeasy.
Le Speakeasy, its politics.
Posted by: Stoy | Jul 3, 2004 4:26:35 AM
The discussion between rememberinggiap and Cloned Poster I find very interesting.
Removing the possibility of hurt feelings, I think it’s actually worth pursuing for discussion’s sake.
Perhaps I’m oversimplifying, but the issues seem to me to be:
From rememberinggiap’s viewpoint:
1. It damages one’s soul to be dishonest at root level.
2. One risks never finding one’s own voice if the words of others are used to represent one’s own thoughts.
3. I may be wrong, but based on what I’ve learned over the past few months of rememberinggiap, I don’t think “ownership” of words – in the legalistic sense – is at all the issue (copyright, etc.).
From Cloned Poster’s side (although he/she is not specifically making all these arguments, I think they could logistically be made):
1. Argument could be made that passing on the words of others (uncluttered by footnoted attribution) is powerful and direct.
2. Why try to find a new way to express what already has been perfectly expressed? (Why reinvent the wheel instead of simply passing on the existing knowledge?).
3. The argument could also be made that the process is a sort of artistic collage of others’ words, and since we accept collage in visual art, why not in the written?
4. There is an art to choosing the apt quotation and applying it in the right circumstances.
Posted by: SusanG | Jul 3, 2004 10:56:02 AM
susang
think you have spelt out a part of my case
but what was at issue was theft - & i find even post modernist appropriations - theft
cloned poster sd at billmons one night that he had appropriated posts from commentaries on billmon & repôsted them on bbc as his own
has sd a number of times that he/she plagiarised articles/poems/texts
yes there has been an acknowledgement after the fact but i still find it morally questionable - even offensive
yr right susan that it's not about copywright even though that is not without its own questions
my real argument is honesty, decency & bringing the best of ourselves here even though there may be no rewards
i find the real thoughts, pat & alabama, for example - tell me somethong about the world by filtering it through themselves
even outraged who post a lot of information - does so with profound generosity & i can always see outraged - also he cites - it is not a complicated business to acknowledge & i think the site is for information & communication not self aggrandisement
that's why i have suggested if the others find my poems intrusive here - i will not post them - they have a lmife here in france
- but i am not here to use my expertise as a wall but hopefully rather as a bridge
there are so many of us, we all have different expertise, our experiences of the world so different - honest in our post seems to me the least we can offer each other
many a night here & at billmons i read post that really, really took care of other posters with time & attention, above all by listening
in the end all i was asking of cloned poster - was to speak with his/her own voice, when quoting "quote" but to not post something by someone else & then five posts later tell us it was plagiarised, written by someone else etc
perhaps i'm too serious
perhaps i take this too seriouslly
but i am also new to this
& while i offer apologies to any
i might have offended by lack of clarity
or precision - i do not apologise to cloned poster until he responds correctly to the question
still steel
Posted by: remembereringiap | Jul 3, 2004 11:50:49 AM
I just tried to visit Bernard's. moonofalabama.org takes me to the pairNIC page that others have described. dirtyglasses.typepad.com takes me to a text-only version of his site (no formatting). Hitting any comment-related link takes me to the pairNIC page too. Yet, some are able to access the site and comment - weird. I had viewed it successfully before he performed the domain mapping.
What really excited me was that Helpful Spook showed up! Hope someone directs him/her over here as well.
Posted by: OkieByAccident | Jul 3, 2004 12:38:42 PM
