Tumult, by God. I saw a burning angel, vogueing in the corn. Somewhere’s the key that fits. Something vague creaks and whispers in the night beneath the ice under which also a river shambles still. I wait for the day when these murmurs come to stay. The whole family was crazy as shithouse rats. They … Read more
Right here where we’re standing used to be a proper god-damned street before those sons of bitches down in the state capital decided to run the interstate highway through the godforsaken middle of nowhere forty miles south of here. Used to be if you wanted to drive across the country up this way you had … Read more
Ruckert told the doctor that he felt as if he had been thrown from a boat. The doctor asked if he thought he had the strength to swim. “Strength is not an issue,” Ruckert said. “It’s a matter of desire. Where would I swim to? I can see no land in any direction.” Did he … Read more
For several months I had been staring at the words written in a square on the otherwise blank calendar on my kitchen wall: Meeting Mr. Mercy. I had scheduled this meeting back in the late spring, and only after a series of mysterious phone calls and false starts. Most of the phone calls would come … Read more
First I worked in this place in the Food Court that sold French fries and pretzels, for this Vietnamese guy who called himself Jose. Then I moved down another floor and worked at this place that sold nothing but total shit –no vision, none whatsoever: Rattling plastic frogs that croaked and paddled about in a … Read more
The magic that gleams an instant between Argos and Odysseus is both the recognition of diversity and the need for affection across the illusions of form. —Loren Eiseley, The Unexpected Universe Seven times the Bull of Divine Undoing brought down disaster and calamity on the Hamlet of the Unbelievers, and each time, spasmed by their … Read more
We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves. —Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings If the human heart sometimes finds moments of pause as it ascends the slopes of affection, it rarely halts on the way down. —Balzac, Pere Goriot There, there child. Come now. Every day can’t be brass … Read more
What then is required? Light! Light! Light in floods! –Victor Hugo, Les Miserables “Hold that thought,” he said, and disappeared into the dark part of the house. The dark part of the house was pretty much the whole house. He had a couple of kerosene lanterns in the living room, but otherwise he was living … Read more
I have a lot of time on my hands, and I recently discovered a new trick with (I like to imagine) some radical implications. I’ve always wanted to be either a saint or at the very least some kind of hero, but the older I get the more it looks like I just don’t have … Read more
Again and again we put our sweet ghosts on small paper boats and sailed them back into their death, each moving slowly into the dark, disappearing as our hearts visited and savored, hurt and yearned. —Jack Gilbert, from “Kunstkammer” There are other things besides monkeying around with words that are necessary, require commitment and discipline … Read more