Thursday, November 30, 2023


Today the post-
woman brought
me a walking
frame. I couldn't 
keep up with it.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

wednesday newstrip

Musician Post Malone is on tour in Australia & has been spotted swanning around in his pyjamas · still ‘searching’: Hamas yet to track down dozens of hostages · New Zealand's upcoming government to scrap law curbing tobacco sales · overwhelming majority of Australians support a First Nations voice despite referendum defeat, Australian National University survey finds · Indian army digs by hand to free 41 trapped tunnel workers · Nasa reacts to reports about an asteroid hitting Earth in 2024 · Elongated Muskrat preaches peace: "Those who are intent on murder must be neutralized. Then the propaganda must stop. They're just training people to be murderers."

Friday, November 24, 2023

QBR


Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody

plays on the jukebox in my mind

as the Mercury keeps rising.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

wednesday newstrip

How did Israel know there was a ‘bunker’ under the Al-Shifa Hospital? Because they built it 40 years ago when they controlled Gaza · Texas woman convicted of killing pro cyclist 'Mo' Wilson sentenced to 90 years in prison · baking sorted: yoghurt is the secret to a moist, fluffy, tangy bake · SpaceX launches its giant new rocket but a pair of explosions ends the second test flight · digital curator Giulia Carla Rossi: ‘there is a misconception that if something is on the internet it will last for ever’ · Taylor Swift fan dies at concert in sweltering Rio de Janeiro heat · Eyad Al-Zaeem told Reuters he lost his aunt, her children & her grandchildren in the air strike in Khan Younis, & that all had evacuated from north Gaza on Israeli army orders only to die where the army told them they could be safe.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

wednesday newstrip

Gaza health authorities said on Friday that at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have died since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas · will rise in COVID cases spark the return of masks? · is a US senator's blocking of hundreds of military appointments as an abortion protest threatening America's national security? · U.K. supermarket chain axes almost all self-service tills after backlash from shoppers · Israel is bombing hospitals in Gaza with Israeli doctors’ approval · the moment I knew: I learned he had a new girlfriend & flew across the world to win him back · Iceland evacuates town as concerns rise a volcano may erupt · a self-driving pram? The new technology that will change the way we live.

Monday, November 13, 2023

Today the post-
woman brought
me a brochure
from Monsanto

that claims the
use of genetically-
modified crops
will break the cycle 

of poetry that is
endemic in some
third world 
countries. Should

that happen, I 
can see the entire
world becoming a
much poorer place.

Wednesday, November 08, 2023

wednesday newstrip

Adobe is selling artificially generated, realistic images of the Israel-Hamas war which have been used across the internet without any indication they are fake · T.®ump reacts to his sons' testimony in fraud trial: 'So sad to see them persecuted' · Israel has called up 360,000 reservists as it goes to war with Hamas. But Benjamin Netanyahu's son is not one of them · how is decaf coffee made? & is it really caffeine-free? · Australian trade minister hopeful lobster, beef sanctions to end by Christmas after Prime Minister Albumen Overeasy completes trip to China · inside Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc, the alleged doomsday cult under investigation in the Philippines · Al Pacino, 83, ordered to pay $30k a month in child support to 29-year-old girlfriend.

Friday, November 03, 2023

John / Geraets Zooms / in on me

at https://johngeraets.com/countertop/.

The poems I read at the beginning are both from 100 Titles From Tom Beckett. They can be found on line at:

#7 Omniscient Narrators get it on in the Bois - Offcourse
#8 de Boulogne - Scud

Thursday, November 02, 2023

Now out from Otoliths

Otoliths has just released karl kempton’s portraiture: oceano dunes to tide line.


karl kempton
portraiture: oceano dunes to tide line
full color
157 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6455483-0-3
$US34.95
Direct URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/karl-kempton/portraiture-oceano-dunes-to-tide-line/paperback/product-m2d5wdv.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Until midnight this Friday, Lulu have a 20% discount running. Promo code: PREVIEW20. Promo codes for future weeks can be found each Monday at the Lulu Press Facebook page.

portraiture: oceano dunes to tide line, volume 11 of discourses, is a collection of photographed forms and objects presented as individual portraits from the oceano dunes to oceano beach tideline on the southern portion of california’s central coast. the discourses series documents poetically and photographically kempton’s insights into his local environment.

*

When I first was introduced karl kempton’s work he was doing a series of visual poems called “runes.” The runes were highly textural in nature, and amazing because they were so carefully created on a typewriter. I see the same care in these new works, although since they are photographs the care is in karl’s perceptive eye defining these stunning images. For these portraits of how the sea paints the shore are also runes in the sense that they have the magical quality that some people ascribe to runes - certainly they have the ability to change how one perceives the world. The images captured here transcend mere visual poetry or photography and their simplicity / complexity invites us to contemplate the ineffable.

— K.S. Ernst

*

Most pieces in Karl Kempton's beautiful and intriguing collection of untitled photographs are close-ups of tiny things solely or mostly made of sand by the wind. They are frozen in their unfinished gestures, which communicate with us. I mean they are in the process of starting a new, more abstract and ideogrammatic life, morphing from nameless constellations into barely recognizable quasi-symbols of trees, birds, flowers and human shapes, especially faces — in our imagination. At the same time, a simultaneously strong impression of their uniqueness and material vulnerability remains with us and contribute to the effect of seeing them animated. They have anima. The intensity and ambiguity of the images also calls into mind Henri Michaux’s memorable ink blots. But in Portraiture, background and foreground, "canvas" and composition are written by the same undulation of the sand dunes. So a third, concurrent impression might be that there is no separation at all.

— Márton Koppány

karl kempton (b. july 1, 1943, chicago) lives with ruth, his beloved wife, in oceano, california. he is a poet, visual poet, editor, publisher, writer, photographer, curator, archaeo-astronomer, and environmental activist. they are retired micro-green growers of sprouts and wheatgrass using biodynamic additives. their daughter, amy franceschini, a widely respected and influential international artist, is the founder of futurefamers.

his lexical and visual poems and photography have been widely published nationally and internationally with over 45 print and over 15 web titles. He is considered the architect of the chumash heritage national marine sanctuary currently in designation process protecting over 7,000 square miles of marine environments and oceanographic features along the southern portion of the central coast of california.

Wednesday, November 01, 2023

wednesday newstrip

Israel is killing almost 1,000 children a week in Gaza. Can that be called self-defence? · Maine mass killing suspect had mental health issues, purchased guns legally, authorities say · Australia’s free trade deal with EU collapses as both sides accuse the other of being unwilling to compromise · a Korean man has died after choking on a ‘live octopus’ dish, going into cardiac arrest after a tentacle became lodged in his throat · journalists in Lebanon were 'explicitly targeted' in deadly strike near Israeli Border, report says · ex cyclone Lola brings more rain for North Island of New Zealand, yachts damaged in Auckland, roads flood in Northland, Coromandel · Israeli ground operation pushes deeper into Gaza. They’re calling them “ground incursions” — sounds much nicer than “ground invasions.”