Quincunx

 

wednesday newstrip

New Zealand city council ends contract with wizard after two decades of service · China denies media reports it tested nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, claims it was a space bot · first dinosaur era crab discovered – fully preserved in 100-million-year-old amber · ‘We need him to deliver’: BidenMyTime faces wrath of disappointed supporters · Buckingham Palace under fire for not revealing Queen's hospital visit sooner · NZ's canned wine exports set for multimillion-dollar growth as Wairarapa winemakers expand into the US · humanitarian catastrophe looms for Afghanistan if major powers deny Taliban rule, Pakistan warns · Greece recovers Picasso, Mondrian paintings stolen from gallery in 2012.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a pair of
elevator shoes 
that took me
straight to the 
top floor. Pity 
about the 
music that 
came with them.

Recently, at Series Magritte

Le Sabbat

He refused to work
on the Sabbath, which
is why the lights are
all turned off — the moon
gives me enough light
to find my way around —

& the painting is left
upside down — I won't
work but that doesn't 
stop my mind from
turning over, so putting 
things in unusual places 
often helps as a sort of 
associative trigger when
the next day comes around — 

& for any person passing
by, an upturned apple is
still an apple — I stole
that idea from Gertrude
Stein who I later paid back
by painting rose after rose 
after rose — but no one

has decreed that magic
can't be done on this day — 
I deliberately put that half-
full glass of wine there so
that when it hangs upside-
down with no spillage, what
else can it be but magical?

It's a long time

 

since I was #1 at anything.

wednesday newstrip

Australian companies are selling munitions & military technology to war-torn African countries under a Defence Department plan that critics have branded "grotesque" & unethical · Spelunky world record holder busted as a cheater · Netflix trans employees & allies plan walkout in protest at Dave Chappelle special · South African champion swimmer alleges former Australian coach sexually assaulted him as a teenager · researchers discover large rift in Arctic’s last bastion of thick sea ice — polar bears could vanish by the end of the century · Prince William blasts space race billionaires finding 'new place to live' before repairing Earth · William Shatner slams Prince William for anti-space remarks · the Queen condemns ‘really irritating’ world leaders for snubbing Glasgow climate talks.

New selected poems of Mark Young is now out

Songs to Come for the Salamander; Selected Poems 2013-2021: selected & introduced by Thomas Fink has just been co-published by Sandy Press & Meritage Press.

 

Mark Young
Songs to Come for the Salamander; Selected Poems 2013-2021:
selected & introduced by Thomas Fink
Sandy Press & Meritage Press, 2021
396 pages
$27.75 USD
ISBN: 978-1-7368160-4-2
Available through Amazon

Chosen by Thomas Fink from the 29 books of text poetry by Mark Young published since 2013, Songs to Come for the Salamander is a companion piece to the 2008 Pelican Dreaming, also selected & edited by Thomas Fink, & the 600-page 2013 The Codicils, which Young describes as nine books in one. It again highlights the variety, sly humor, & concern for social & political issues that the author is internationally known for. Many of his regular tropes — "A line from . . .," "Today the Postwo/man," & geographies are included, but they are only a small part of this delightful sampling from the 2500 or so poems from Young that have appeared in the nine years this selection covers.

"Some readers might assume that particular, highly pessimistic generalizations in Young’s poems are actually Mark Young presenting his sense of doom. The little ditty "democracy" registers the claim that "no-one// knows the/ words to" the "song" (the concept of democracy) even though "every-/ one sings" it, and "since violence is learned" tells us that "tolerance is no/ longer available, is replaced by trauma." Although nothing in the poems—not even such affirmations of aesthetic transport as "Constant Craving," which speaks of music "that acts as/ axis to steady everything around"—makes one identify the poet as a bright-eyed optimist, various moments in the work display too much respect for the complexity of cause and effect, limitations of human perception, the transience of trends, and sudden appearances of the unexpected to place sustained credence in large generalizations and foregone conclusions."
— from the Introduction by Thomas Fink.

Recent books by Mark Young from Sandy Press.

The Sasquatch Walks Among Us
Sorties

Today the post-
woman brought
me an original 
oil painting 
of Washington 
Irving Crossing 
The Delaware. 
                        "What
are you on about?" 
she snapped when 
I questioned
its provenance.

A mundanity

I am sharing the garden with
an ibis. I ask politely, but

it turns down my request   
to help hang out the washing.

geographies: Rainbow

 

wednesday newstrip

PCIe 5.0 high-power connector for next-gen graphics cards to deliver up to 600w to GPUs · Foo Fighters frontman & former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl opens up about life & loss in new memoir · roundworms melt down their organs to squirt milk from their vulvas for their young · Tyson Fury confirms dominance of heavyweight division with trilogy fight for the ages · Australian Pram Minister Scat SorrySon's quarantine barbecue 'curry night' sparks outrage · Far Cry 6 developer interview: ‘Revolution is violent, but not humorless’ · ‘Authoritarian-style’ law would allow Australia to use secret evidence to deport migrants.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a bacon & 
egg burger with 
aioli dressing. It 
wasn't what I 
wanted — I'd
actually asked
for the Gettysburg
Address — but
I didn't complain.
Hunger causes us
to compromise 
sometimes.

wednesday newstrip

Taliban bans shaving beards in Afghanistan's Helmand province, barbers report shift back to conservative cuts · COVID-19 pandemic has triggered greatest declines in life expectancy since World War II · gigantic comet approaching from outer Solar System may be the largest ever seen · Elon Muskrat ridicules President BidenMyTime after SpaceX completes its first all-civil mission · Drifblim carries people away, never to be seen again · UK extends truck driver visa program to ease pressure at the pump as fuel crisis persists · Martin Shkreli became the 'world's most hated man' as new documentary aims to understand how · orchid hunting is growing in popularity but there are fears the flowers are being 'loved to death.'

geographies: Nhill

 

Today the post-
woman brought
me a postcard
from André 
Breton who
writes that he
has changed
his family name
to Rieu, & is
making a motza
taking the mickey
out of the
musical world.