Monday, December 21, 2020

winter trees






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All the complicated details

of the attiring and

the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon

moves gently among

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.


—William Carlos Williams 



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Tuesday, December 15, 2020

con(structure






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The practical aspect of the scientific ideal is revealed in the progress of modern science from the eighteenth century to the present day. Its essential stages are the discoveries and putting into man's service, successively, of steam, electricity and atomic energy. But as different as these appear to be, these discoveries are based only on a single principle, namely the principle of the destruction of matter, by which energy is freed in order to be captured anew by man so as to be put at his service.

It is so with the little regular explosions of petrol which produce the energy to drive a car. And it is so with the destruction of atoms, by means of the technique of neutron bombardment, which produces atomic energy. That it is a matter of coal, petrol, or hydrogen atoms, is not important; it is always a case of the production of energy as a consequence of the destruction of matter. For the practical aspect of the scientific ideal is the domination of Nature by means of putting into play the principle of destruction or death.

Imagine, dear Unknown Friend, efforts and discoveries in the opposite direction, the direction of construction or life. Imagine, not an explosion, but rather the blossoming out of a constructive "atomic bomb". It is not too difficult to imagine, because each little acorn is such a "constructive bomb" and the oak is only the visible result of the slow "explosion" —or blossoming out—of this "bomb". Imagine it, and you will have the ideal of the great work or the idea of the Tree of Life. The image itself of the tree comprises the negation of the technical and mechanical element. It is the living synthesis of celestial light and elements of that which descends from above and that which ascends from below.


—Anonymous
Meditations on the Tarot


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Thursday, December 10, 2020

The Blue Bouquet, excerpt






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I thought that the world was a vast system of signs,
a conversation between giant beings.

My actions, the cricket's saw, the star's blink, were nothing but pauses and syllables, scattered phrases from that dialogue.

What word could it be, of which I was only a syllable?

Who speaks the word?

To whom is it spoken?


—Octavio Paz
Eliot Weinberger translation



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Monday, December 7, 2020

impart(ial







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Heaven and Earth are impartial;
they treat all of creation as straw dogs.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she treats everyone like a straw dog.

The space between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows;
it is empty, yet has not lost its power.
The more it is used, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you comprehend.

It is better not to speak of things you do not understand.


—Lao Tzu
from the Tao Te Ching
J. H. McDonald version


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social life, excerpt





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What I like about the trees is how
they do not talk about the failure of their parents
and what I like about the grasses is that
they are not grasses in recovery

and what I like about the flowers is
that they are not flowers in need of
empowerment or validation. They sway

upon their thorny stems
as if whatever was about to happen next tonight
was sure to be completely interesting.


—Tony Hoagland


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