Where's that title from?









Altarwise by Owl-Light


I.

Altarwise by owl-light in the half-way house
The gentleman lay graveward with his furies;
Abaddon in the hangnail cracked from Adam,
And, from his fork, a dog among the fairies,
The atlas-eater with a jaw for news,
Bit out the mandrake with to-morrow's scream.
Then, penny-eyed, that gentleman of wounds,
Old cock from nowheres and the heaven's egg,
With bones unbuttoned to the half-way winds,
Hatched from the windy salvage on one leg,
Scraped at my cradle in a walking word
That night of time under the Christward shelter:
I am the long world's gentleman, he said,
And share my bed with Capricorn and Cancer.



-- Dylan Thomas

23 March 2008

You Know You're Really Not Catholic Anymore When . . .

. . . you had absolutely no idea today was Easter until you saw it on someone else's blog!

Now God will never love me.








I never could understand that weird occult system that they use to figure out what date Easter is. Something about the cycles of the moon. (Which is actually kind of cool, except for the fact that I never have any freakin' idea when Easter is.)

Also, I have to admit that, even though I think the current pope (the real one, not the very cool one pictured above) is a hypocritical creep who speaks publicly against the Iraq war even though he was instrumental in getting Bush re-elected, I am nevertheless sort of pleased by the occurrence of the Easter mass at St. Peter's. It's clear to me that the reason Christianity is undergoing a boom in some parts of the world, among some people, is that the meager productions of the secular mind are absolutely inadequate. It is irrelevant whether or not one "believes" in the claims of religion; this symbolic/mythic way of imagining the world is absolutely necessary for the human psyche. The psyche needs these symbols to fully and properly experience life. The only "alternative" is the low-grade pop nihilism that suffuses most of the popular, secular culture.

(I use the term "secular" somewhat loosely, to describe the attitude that presumes "spiritual" consciousness is false or unavailable or of little interest. One may be unaffiliated with any formal religion without being secular. It's about consciousness, not creed. Some so-called "Christians" are secular. Some atheists are not.)

Anyway. Some people today are actively, joyfully engaging a symbol of spiritual rebirth. Others are . . . not. I wish I were in the former group, but it seems I'm in the latter.

At least I have poetry. Sort of.

Happy Easter!

14 March 2008

That's Me, All Right!


I must admit, I think these things are cool. This one is generated from my manuscript (and literary doppelgänger), Thrown.

created at TagCrowd.com




In other news, the Ph.D. application scoreboard reads as follows:

1 win--with funding
1 win--without funding (which isn't much of a win, really)
1 loss (I'm making a voodoo doll in the image of their school mascot, and I've got the pins all ready to go)
2 draws (which is to say, 2 wait-listings, which really should count as 2 losses, but my ego prefers to list them in this "sort-of-yes" category)
5 still unreported

I had expected news from all of them by this date, so the wait is a bit frustrating. This is almost as bad as the Democratic primaries! But I'm glad for the 1 win-with-funding; otherwise, I might be feeling a touch of anxiety right about now. Oh, well. The saga continues . . .

I knew I should have included "met Jorie Graham" on my c.v.!







05 March 2008

Auuggh!




Imagine making art that more than 20 people actually see, and which is capable of making people genuinely happy while at the same time providing genuine insight into contemporary life.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the wrong line of work.