October 2018 - Meandering home

Meditation on Persons

The question: What is a person? is more complex than it appears. Indeed, when we recognize the complexity of the question, and forget our assumption that a person should be a human being. We can no longer thing of a picture of homo sapiens, Vitruvian Man or his slightly obese contemporary counterpart, so the concept ...

30 October, 2018

animals, dignity, human, meditation, people, person

Philosophy

I keep coming back to this

I seek the company of others not to celebrate my narcissism, but to suppress it.

Brazil kaputt

In a radio interview with a Dutch correspondent living in Rio, she expressed horror. The most likely president elect of Brazil this coming Sunday, the army captain Jair Bolsonaro, is worse than Duterte, Putin, Erdogan, Orbán and Trump combined. He will usher in a whole new level of autoritarianism. This piece of garbage is against ...

24 October, 2018

Bolsonaro, Brazil, corruption, dictatorship, Latin America, military, racism, violence

Activism

"The secret courtesy that courses like ichor Through the old form of the rude, full-scale joke, Impossible to tell in writing." - Robert Pinsky, Impossible to Tell

Père et fils

Quel père: Quelle loi. L’infini lui. Et moi: Le petit lui. Trop petit.

23 October, 2018

father, French, son

Poetry

Reading: Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Shel Siverstein (1930-1999) was an American painter, poet and songwriter. I read a sweet little poem about the end of the line. Where the sidewalk ends There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins, and there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright, and ...

22 October, 2018

anthology, children, death, sidewalk, Silverstein

Poetry

Observation

What i am is also: world The world that was repelling me Or so i felt The world in which i had no say Not even about moving some of her smallest parts I feel embarrassed. So trivial my thoughts So puny my process. My time. I watch an ant that i don’t smash Walking ...

13 October, 2018

ant, purpose, world

Poetry

Reading: The Bluet by James Schuyler

James Schuyler (1923-1991) was an American poet, central figure of the New York School, close to Frank O'Hara and John Ashberry. The man, who had worked as a secretary to W.H. Auden, also won a Pulitzer Prize for his collection The morning of the poem. I read a poem about a flour in dour October, ...

12 October, 2018

autumn, bluet, flower, James Schuyler

Poetry

You can look back but you cannot go back

The sun has climbed to the center of my life, I feel the height. I am now allowed to play my role. Ahead of me: the big afternoon, the affirmations, the chiseling of cold metaphors, the wisdom of oracles, the old belief that we can tell darkness from the light, the relief of amor fati, ...

9 October, 2018

belief, horizon, life

Poetry

How to live

Learn how to live in overtime After all the things have been felt Teach yourself the glory of gratitude Become a bricklayer of moments In the shade of a towering ideology The one you followed for a while Be old enough for your age, and always wear a smile

4 October, 2018

live

Poetry

Professor Trompsky #2

Welcome back professor Trompsky, glad you took your time to talk about the controversial Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. - Thank you. These are very serious matters yes. I think he is the least capable person in America today to become a Supreme Court Justice. Every which way you look at it, this nomination ...

2 October, 2018

Chomsky, Kavanaugh, Trompsky, Trump

Activism, Laughs