2.546 : 10/31/06 : Interstitial

Interstitial entry on the long way back
taking any opportunity to hack
elegant widgets
crazy kludges
anything to pass the time while it drudges
In between the stretch
and the break for working
pull another soft draft
off this fountain I’m jerking
they say all the magic
from here to Halloween
lives in the narrow places
that lie between
everything they call important
and the things that really hurt
between slaughtering the high hog
and losing your shirt

what

2.545 : 10/30/06 : Wrecker

I’m a wrecker
a dumb swinging ball
two one oh el bee ess
better watch where I fall
I can’t be a genius
can’t seem to get rich
so instead I am just
gonna up and
wreck this bitch
who cares if it’s good
who care’s if it’s complete
tomorrow and tomorrow
it’s all just a repeat
that dustbin of history
is hungry as hell
so I might as well
keep wrecking
till they ring that bell

what

2.544 :10/29/06 : Bone-Ache

2,735 : 62 ?



Bones ache like they’re
being powdered
if this pounding skull was
any louder it’d
Drive me senseless
I really thought it
would be simple
the briefest pause
the slightest dimple
Now look oops
ten years good bye
should I have held out
for a bigger piece
of the pie?
It’s just the bone-ache
talking
It’s just I’m so damn tired
it’s only that I hoped
it’s just the way I’m
wired
I’ll push past the ache once more
Still groping stupid for that door

what

2.543 : 10/28/06 : The Vig

This one’s the vig
excess fast
english on the dice
and how it all slips past
I’ve got this thing wrong
should slow down
the rolling
but I’m impatient
and I can’t stop
hearing that bell
tolling
A little action
just a margin
is all I ask
while I keep barging
into games
I’ve no place in
so far over my head
I can only spin
another wheel another reel
beg what I can’t borrow
the rest I’ll have to
steal

what

2.542 : 10/27/06 : In the Aftermath

In the aftermath
believe it or not
after the trial by ordeal
had beat the snot out of me
I had a notion
though I’d have rather had a plan
an inkling how I’d swing it all
finally outfox the man
the lead up had got
as bad as it’s gotten
and I know just how bad it is
I never have forgotten
and I’ll never forget this one
either while I live
it seems that in the aftermath
that’s all I’ve got to give
but really it’s quite simple
just a scribble on a scrap
and a notion to parlay it
right into a treasure map

what

2.541 : 10/26/06 : Screw Up

Another screw up
bollixed transmission
another match
don’t want
to betray our position
it seems we always gotta be
somewhere fighting
the romance
of the cluster bomb
is I admit inviting but
screw up your
courage your
indignation
screw up your
belligerence
we’re nothing if not patient
screw up; grab another form
and start the process over
while your still warm corpse
spins outraged between
pushing all that clover

what

2.540 : 10/25/06 : Horror Essence

Why does
that essence exist
why does it plague me
the horror the horror
what is says
and what it’s for
he was a
cynical cat all right
I could reel off
that sort of poetry all night
I tell myself
soon inspiration
the grace I imitated
crucial station
to station
I heard about it in a
book what irony
but it meant all the same
to me
I’m turning my back
on the horror essence
look at me
learning all my lessons

what

2.539 : 10/24/06 : Significance

I can’t tell you everything
that seems significant to me
and so it seems impossible
the information
ever shall be truly free
Sowed rot on rice
I ate its young
I found I saw
and spoke in tongue
no music could
release the wreck
or move the dial
one minute speck
and in that hole
I locate all the woe
and strife
but it balances each time
I contemplate
the knife

what

2.538 : 10/23/06 : Triptych

I pay special attention
to the latches
and the hinges
fool me twice a shame
to waste
a culling
and your cringes
I just wiped out
all of a bad week
a pause
a rush of
prostrate slack
Now I rally to my flag
and
wrench my banter back
on the left a hook
of solid gold
the right, illumed
the tale told
and right dead center
spread and pinned
the specimen
myself, I grinned

what

2.537 : 10/22/06 : Bridge

2,728 : 55 ?



I wait for the
perfected page
the sum of all
translations
soon knowing will not
matter
we’ll be left
with the cold equations
give me a bridge
a space of pause
a track across it
a set of laws
I don’t believe I
should ever need another
crazy to assert it so
but I have done
without my druthers
nothing but
what god had graced me
with, up top the ridge
I strode out on
the bridge


what

2.536 : 10/21/06 : Trilogy

I’m writing a trilogy
about
unicorns and
maidens from the sea
the stones, the rings,
the wands
the staves
I expect a
million dollars
and raves
I’ll throw in some skin
and some twist suspense
and demand not
half an hour’s
recompense
when it comes to that
the distribution gamble
I got a feeling
my big break
won’t be more than
preamble

what

2.535 : 10/20/06 : Sewn

What can I expect to reap
of what was sewn
So far I don’t
believe how much
has plain transformed
2 years, what’s grown
and honestly
what hasn’t
and what waits
and what’s in store
I probably sounded
ridiculous
up to my neck
and more more more

what

2.534 : 10/19/06 : Plan

I had some sort of plan
it did not pull through
I’m all lit up and
stoned to boot
then there’s you
laid out on your back
sawing up logs
hey hell so what
take the leash off the dogs
dedicate an hour
I could have wasted
to the spirit I declared
to the love I tasted
It’s a plan hey hey
it’s a calling
it’s an avocation no
idea what I’m stalling
I’m a man
always falling
caught below my station so
just planless ass I’m hauling
 
what

2.533 : 10/18/06 : Milk

With a firm grasp
and a quick pull down
oh baby yeah
milk that bone
what a sweet little hand
such a sweet soft demand
such a sweet little set
of skills to have grown
baby milk that bone
catch every drop
squat down on that bench
go go go and don’t stop
any step that was took
any bend any book
it’s just a mean
bait and switch
go and milk that bone bitch

what

2.532 : 10/17/06 : Solid One Love

One love solid one
run over
get a gun
rock solid, one love
bare knuckle no glove
righteous mother
left cross
left behind
no great loss
tussling on the
green grass
knock you cockeyed
on your ass
all branch
no dove
heavy solid
one love

what

2.531 : 10/16/06 : Soul Ache

Acts of contrition and faith
sat still and
accepted my place
Excuses worn as thin
as a wraith
and look at
the soul ache
On my face
It’s the real thing
my bitches
it’s a supernova star
I’m gettin’
too big for my britches
but wherever, whatever
there you are
like a tooth uprooted
like a stump that’s itching
Rock it back to the back of the arc
will you contemplate
or relate to this woo I’m pitching
I’m grabbing my heart,
smart, raging just like Tony Stark

what

2.530 : 10/15/06 : Dissected

2,721 : 48 ?



Particle transmit
solid code:
3-D transhelical
mother lode
once perfected:
the apparatus
dissected
or so I
in the hubris of
my planning
had projected
prior to the consult
contemplate the insult
on the flesh compliant
On one good word reliant
So I sighed and let it pass
another drop
in the half-full glass

what

2.529 : 10/14/06 : Partisans

I cursed both houses
from my parapet
fuck’s sake Mercutio
ain’t you dead yet
more fool I
caught up with means and ends
caught between you idiots
you partisans
So hard to concentrate
so many demands
so many opportunities
pass through my hands
so many many best laid plans
dripping from the mouths
of the partisans
No more no more let it lie
the message in my ear
the twinkle in my eye
find some niche
between para and trans
try to make my peace
with the partisans

what

2.528 : 10/13/06 : Work Faster

Work faster: night is coming down
work faster: night is coming
Oh my God oh my God
this disgraceful beat I’m drumming
work faster: dawn is pressing
work faster: dawn soon breaks
the light no ghostly shade
can tolerate
look how the firmament shakes
work faster because no one knows
how long they’ll have to work
before the fail safe blows
and the pent up pressure
envelops us in vapor
for sure the red tape
aftermath
will bury us in paper
but I’ll scrape the
barrel bottom
for one last disaster
set my sights
lock it
and just work faster

what

2.527 : 10/12/06 : Stealth Writer

Still stealth required
never been fired
good as but then
rules are rules
no: it never happened
stealth writer creep along
sneak in another song
between all the dull leaves
of necessity
with nothing up my sleeves
I say it’s ethical
I step up when
I feel the pull
I’ve got a ways
to battle back again
but to put it in perspective
I’m nothing if not reflective
it might be absurd
but that is no sin

what

2.526 : 10/11/06 : Scatter

Dense with vapors clouded view
wood spirit solid phase see oh two
sublimation saturation
felt, projection
I’ll leave the rest to your imagination
tracked across the chamber’s span
dense as iron unseen by man
known only by the trace it leaves
forged in hearts of dying suns
or so it’s said and he believes
watch them scatter
minute to minute
damn lucky we’ve got
an atmosphere now i’n’it
going on just all the time
detected or not
the instrument is crude
but we make do with what we’ve got

what

2.525 : 10/10/06 : Backwards Again

Getting it backwards again
cart before horse
the horse eats the hay
and it all goes
nowhere of course
and yet again
full of sterling intent
I throw my back into
straightening the column bent
the bend sinister
the gloria dei
do as I do please
and not as I say
I call it progress
albeit in reverse
It’s only slightly better
Still it could be worse

what

2.524 : 10/9/06 : Rack

Oh oh oh they’ve
limbered up the rack again
oh my joints
my wrists my ankles
and my skin
what do they expect
to get out of me
after all this time
it’s not as if I
haven’t copped
to every type of crime
Dr. Rhetoric
Said it was all
just a mistake
I only had to submit
and wait for the
cure to take
sorry for my obstinacy
to make you break my back
sorry for my preference
my allegiance to the wrack 
 
what

2.523 : 10/8/06 : Tiny Brother

2,714 : 41 ?



Somewhere between victim
and victory
Pardon my continuum
my one two three
still listening to lovely
but I’ve met my other
my little
mentor
my little tiny brother
Yet to make
a man of what I am
like every time I said
that I was ready
and began
what was to be
has been by now
and what’s to be
could sever
any vow
According to hypothesis
but I instead stand hard
on this

what

2.522 : 10/7/06 : Brutal Clarity

Brutal clarity
lay it out sock it up
throw out universals
all that
smack about the
half full cup
the cup that
runneth over
the cup you’re deep into
I used to love that
tumbler
heavy glass and cobalt blue
so dark and heavy
couldn’t call the thing
transparent
brutal clarity
that I recall
I smashed the hell out of it

what

2.521 : 10/6/06 : Paraphrase

The opposite of improvise
is paraphrase
try to convince the shrink
that it’s not just a phase
try to kill the vibe
that I’m a reprobate
You think you’ve got the answer
just how do you rate
hear tell that what he said
it’s all vanity
I felt he wrote it special
meant it just for me
the egocentric fallacy
I think it means something
what I feel and think of
what makes my brass bell ring
I wouldn’t dare presume
to carry that to you
to try to make it universal
even so I claim it true

what

2.520 : 10/5/06 : Beyond Stoked

I’m standing in the tender
stoking up the ancient boiler
racing over hills and courses
I’m on a bender
where there’s fighting I’m a spoiler
beyond stoked,
thirty three hundred horses
and the stove is blazing white
and the coal’s up to my hips
my gleaming shovel my shining dome
Eradicate regret and spite
hesitation slops and slips
stoke it up and bring it home

what

commentary on the acts

I believe this song was a response to Justin Timberlake's offer to "bring the sexy back".   I don't know that it aged so well, but there it is.  The virtue of the song of the day (sometimes if feels like the only one) is that there is forever something new to cover its quotidian sins.

In other news the tagging project is just a damn mess like nearly every amateur effort at epistemology.  I've decided to put a hard limit at 200 tags and if (when, if I'm being honest) I hit that I'm going to have to make some decisions.  As it is what I'm getting out of the frequency-weighted tag display is that because I use the language, imagery and intellectual gestalt of religion as a sort of multi-purpose tool for representational lyricism the "religion" tag is about as useful as, say, a "symbolism" tag for a blog about literary criticism.

what

2.519 : 10/4/06 : Take it With You

Get the hell out of my house
you son of a bitch
you son of a bitch
you son of a bitch
get the hell out of my house
you son of a bitch
and take the sexy with you
take it with you
when you go
don’t you look back
or dare to think you know
I’ll turn you into a pillar of salt
erect you as a cautionary
spectacle of thought
do turn you face away
and take your fucking posse too
get the hell out of my house
and take the sexy with you

what

2.518 : 10/3/06 : Long Division

The cracks go all the way
to the center of the sphere
to where the molten
gyroscopic magnet lurks
it’s not built to
run forever ain’t you heard?
Long dead you’ll be
long dead I’ll be
I’ll bet you any
amount of money
we won’t be back
by 2283
put your money down on
put your money down on
the long division
that drops all
the way to the center
of the sphere
it won’t spin forever
ain’t you heard
what you new here?


what

2.517 : 10/2/06 : Make Us Cry Again

All your challenges
to theodicy
are based on the assumption
that God is nice
I’ve had a choice
ever since I can remember
I hafta assume the time came
I agreed to pay the price
Go on, you omnipotent bastard
Go and make us cry again
We just keep coming
and coming
and coming
I guess that you might guess
just what tune it is I’m humming

what

2.516 : 10/1/06 : Approach

2,707 : 34 ?



A different approach
from the freak de jour
stories of atrocity
nobody’s poor
nobody’s ugly
all about power
wrap it up wrap it up
only got an hour
poison in the ears
poison in the eyes
somebody plays a body
some nobody dies
the odd detail to make you squirm
effect the danse macabre
another hour of prime time
another poison barb

what