The art of conversation consists of two fine qualities

Knit & pearl alternately for four 
rows. Underneath it, in white 
wool, long enough to interest, yet 
not long enough to tire, with the 
words written in a clear, legible 

hand, this note: "This is not a pipe."
Written from the heart, the simple
eloquence of the words forces the 
ideogram to arrange itself accor-
ding to the laws of a simultaneous 

form. Avoid postscripts, punctuate 
carefully. Render the outline as a 
thin skin that must be pierced in 
order to follow, word for word, the 
outpouring of its internal text. A 

lie is not locked up in a phrase, but 
must exist, if at all, in the mind of 
the writer. In its millennial tradition
the essence of rhetoric is in allegory.
Never point. It is excessively ill-bred.

Sources:
This Is Not a Pipe, by Michel Foucault
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette (1860), by Florence Hartley

geographies : Avenel

 

A line from Marjorie Taylor Greene

Unsure if it's the Pope or the Presi-
dent who lives in The White House, 
this person then says something 
stupid like I'm sorry you're having a 

hard time. But excessive apologizing 
might also be associated with a men-
tal health condition; & there are some
other actions that can be taken, not so

partisan in their fearmongering. Send
a get well card with an elephant em-
bossed on the plain white envelope. Add
the message: We don't let criminals serve.

65,000 years of history at the Venice Biennale

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-12/archie-moore-venice-biennale-up-close/103789292

for Miss M.

cat / kookaburra 
late-night owl
the
avariciousness
of another
avatar

attacked by
angry ants &
in defence
a self-
inflicted
mortal blow

auto-erotic
asphyxiation 
attempting
to emulate
the Worm
Ouroboros

recently, at Series Magritte

Les Pierreries

So much alike as 
we peer from the
box we could 
pass as brothers. 

But what’s in a 
box is often more 
than just contain-
ment, what reso-

nates can be more 
than beauty is. Gems 
we might some-
times be referred 

to as; but what 
other facets will
be displayed when  
the lid is lifted?

wednesday newstrip

Hellblade II is very nearly upon us, & the system requirements have just been rereleased. You'll need, as per the table of specs, at least an Intel i5-8400/AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or equivalent CPU coupled with a NVIDIA GTX 1070/AMD RX 5700/Intel Arc A580 with 6GB VRAM to play the game on its “Low” preset at 1080p as a minimum experience, while pushing the game to its limits on “High” settings at a full 4K will require in the ballpark of an Intel i5-12600K/AMD Ryzen 7 5700X & NVIDIA RTX 4080/AMD RX 7900 XTX · new SARS-CoV-2 KP.2 variant defies vaccines with higher spread, study warns · a Queensland mother has shared her shock after finding a note about her newborn baby in her letter box that “left her in tears”.

a couple of recently released free downloadable pdfs,

one old work, one new.

eNumerations

I have just completed the preliminary draft for a forthcoming book, 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, & preparing the introduction led me to 'A List for Tom Beckett,' a poem I had written in 2006, & which had first appeared on this blog.

The surrounding text indicated that I had decided to include this list poem in a then-current project, Enumerations or eNumerations — it seems like I hadn't yet decided on a final title. So I sought out what else I could find from this project, & this pdf is a result of that search.

Only a fraction of it seems to have since seen the light of day. 'A List for Tom Beckett' later appeared in Word For/Word; five of the poems were included as 'New Poems' in my 2008 selected Pelican Dreaming: Poems 1959 – 2008; & I'm fairly certain that something may have appeared in one of Jukka-Pekka Kervinen's zines. Apart from that . . .

It's a bit of a mishmash. Visuals that seemed aligned to what I was trying to do, found spam, straight poems, code, output from the late Leevi Lehto's poem generator. But I find what I was trying to do at the time, & how that has since been refined, informative.

So, with thanks to harry k stammer for hosting it at Sandy Press, I present what I hope will be an interesting piece of past.

https://www.sandy-press.com/blog/enumerations-mark-young/


to your scattered bodies go

A collection of 50 poems from the past 12 or so months.

Because I've got two "big" books coming out later this year — the aforementioned 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, & the 600+ page The Magritte Poems — I decided to do a free downloadable pdf instead of my usual annual collection of recent poems. It's published by Scud Editions, who are also home to the companion Scud, one of my favorite journals to publish in, but not as well-known as it should be.

https://scudlit.blogspot.com/p/editions.html

Empathy

 

wednesday newstrip

Sumatran orangutan becomes first wild animal seen using medicinal plant to treat wound · a neighborhood fish’n’chip shop in a small Manawatū town in New Zealand, trading as Popeye’s for at least 20 years, has bowed to the legal threats of US fried chicken giant Popeye’s, forsaking its name · Mexican authorities say three bodies have been found in an area where two Australian brothers & their American travel companion are missing · ex-DoNuts T.®ump aide Hope Hicks tells court the former US prissygent asked her to deny affair with Stormy Daniels · undercover police lured businessman to New Zealand before $1.5b cocaine bust · Bruce Willis 'is doing OK' amid dementia battle.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a serious
dose of para-
noia. I thought
long & hard 
about leaving it
at room temper-

ature, but finally
decided to keep 
it chilled until I
could celebrate
people stopping
talking about me.

geographies : Timboon

 

Today the post-
woman brought

me an invitation
to nominate 

my favorite 
Impressionist

painting. What to
pick? I've been

weighing up the
crows & ponds.

wednesday newstrip

Plastic surgeons warn 'Ozempic face' has taken over Hollywood · scientists have finally discovered whether the chicken or the egg came first · Sky News host Liz Storer has praised DoNuts T.®ump for being a "jolly good" president & a "walking, talking comic" · Nancy Pelosi calls for NotJustAnyahoo to resign as she slams his "terrible" actions in Gaza · more than 150 pilot whales have been saved from stranding on a beach in Western Australia's southwest, but 31 have died · Putain ditches victory parades over fears soldiers will be hit by kamikaze drone · Monicker Lewinsky trolls Bill Clintoris with a Taylor Swift reference · Karen the adored ostrich dies after swallowing zoo staff member’s keys.