And Reading Hates You

He always claimed he knew he'd marry me the day I gave him two black eyes and broke his nose.  To this day I dont' know why I did.  But I am still regretting it. K. I. Press. What Are Little Girls Are Made Of .  Spine.  Gaspereau Press, Nova Scotia Canada, 2004

The tendency for us to be monolingual English speakers in the United States is actually something that is odd compared to the way most people experience language. John McWhorter, The Science of Language , The Great Courses, Chantilly, Virginia. 2008

Why what have you thought of yourself? Is it you then that thought yourself less? Is it you that thought the President greater than you? Or the rich better off than you?  or the educated wiser than you? (Because you are greasy or pimpled, or were once drunk, or a thief, Or that you are diseas'd, or rheumatic, or a prostitute, Or from frivolity or impotence, or that you are no scholar and never        saw your name in print, Do you give in that you are3 any less immortal?) Walt Whitman, A Song For Occupations, Selected Poems , Dover Thrift Editions, 1991

Now began a period of exhilaration and extreme poverty.  Varese's pockets were empty but he was free. Sometimes he almost starved and sometimes he had no place to sleep. But he had music and he was young.  He told me of nights when he slept under the arcades of the Louvre, grateful if the flics (cops) left him in peace, protected at least from the rain, if not from the cold.  At other times he had a lodging but no money for food.  And the hungrier he was, the more imperative his pride. Louise Varese, Varese a looking glass diary , Norton, New York, 1972.

When you see a crowd come home quickly, it will carry you into a burning nation, it will suppress your breath, make you a prisoner of your helplessness, open the shops of hearts.  At home anti-communism is waiting for you, a pantry full of winter supplies.  Neither to the left, nor to the right, warns grandfather, who has been through two wars and knows what he's saying. Actually, if people are dying in some town you happen to be visiting on a vacation, you can peacefully sit down to a democratic lunch and wait and see.  If necessary declare a hunger strike. Julian Kornhauser, When you see a crowd come home quickly , ed. by John McBride and Paul Vangelisti, Humps and Wings Polish poetry since '68, Los Angeles, New York, Invisible City / Red Hill Press, 1982

One would have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognize that Shakespeare's grand, equivocal comedy The Merchant of Venice is nevertheless a profoundly anti-Semetic work. --- Shylock is an anti-Barabas, turned inward, as much a deep psyche as Barabas is a cartoon.  Shakespeare's imitations of Barabas, Aaron the Moor and Richard III, do homage to Marlow, but Shylock exposes Barabas as a mere caricature, however brilliant and ferocious.  "I'll show you the Jew," Shakespeare says in reply to Marlow and so, alas, he has, to the everlasting harm of the actual Jewish people. --- I end by repeating that it would have been better for the last four centuries of the Jewish people had Shakespeare never written this play.   Harold Bloom.  Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice.   Riverhead Books.  New York. 2005

Open the gates of wisdom.  Tear the veil of ignorance.  Enter the abode of bliss and rest in peace for ever. If you cannot find God in the world, you cannot find Him in the Himalayan Caves. The elimination of ego is the sole condition of Self-realization To be lifeless and cowardly is not your nature, for in you lives God who is the Omnipotent and Omniscient. Pride is a sin.  Identification with the body is a sin.  Selfishness is a sin.  Ignorance is the greatest of all sins. Guirudev Sri Swami Sivananda.  Elixir Divine.  Devine Life Society Publication.  Himalayas, India.  1994.

nobody knows shit nobody lives anywhere hello dust! poetry's ridiculous write it feel proud strut look in the mirror believe you know this donkey stumbles blind over stones into walls ditches no words for grief or joy no words for his ruined heart Ikkyu.  Crow With No Mouth.  Copper Canyon Press.  Port Townsend, WA.  1989

The community of musicians has never before been confronted with the level of fragmentation that exists today.  Analytic method is divorced from musical reflex, composers from performers, and conventional repertoire from new repertoire.  In this century these polarities have developed because of the momentum of compartmentalization--a trend that has played an important role in many aspects of culture, education, and technology.  Countertrends in specific areas of human endeavor and in the work of extraordinary, multifaceted people have asserted themselves sporadically, but not with the same, sustained persistence as the overriding tendency towards specialization. A lack of mutual understanding is apparent both among and within the major groups of participants in musical life: composers, performers, theorists, and audiences.  Most contemporary composers write mainly for their colleagues and a narrowly defined group of listeners in major cities and universities....

What happens when we wallow in depression, self-pity oozing from every pore, and inflict that upon those about us?  Such a roster of harms done others--the kind that make daily living with us as practicing alcoholics difficult and often unbearable--could be extended almost indefinitely.  When we take such personality traits as these into shop, office, and the society of our fellows, they can do damage almost as extensive as that we have caused at home. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.  Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.   New York, NY. 

I have no ambitions or wants. To be a poet is no ambition of mine. It is my way of staying alone. Pessoa as Alberto Caiero Take care, exclusive idolater of Christ: life Is multiple, all days different from each other,      And only as multiple shall we      Be with reality and alone Pessoa as Ricardo Reis What do I know of what I shall be, I who don't know    what I am? Be whatever I think?  But I think so many things! And there are so many people thinking of being the same    thing of which there cannot be all that many! Pessoa as Alvaro De Campos Bliind, Science is working the useless ground. Mad, Faith is living the dream of its cult. A new God is a word -- or the mere sound. Don't seek and don't believe: all is occult Pessoa as Pessoa (1922?) Pessoa, Fernando. I Have More Souls Than One.  Translated by Jonathan Griffin.  Penguin Modern:19.  2018

We became familiar with every kind of bomb.  Least feared were the incendiaries, mainly because everyone knew, in theory, how to deal with them.  One incendiary crashed through the roof of our canteen, landed on a basked of eggs, and fried them on the spot and the story goes that the fire squad on duty made an excellent breakfast of them! The London Electric Wire Company and Smiths Limited. Every Kind of Bomb . December 1945.