Ezra Pound - T.S. Elliot - James Joyce - Yates - DH Laurence

I can't claim to be so erudite that I understand how to read poetry as sophisticated as the greats. I think I'm close to getting Hardy's poems from the library one day, but for the moment, I only really enjoy Bukowski as I see a bit of myself in him and a bit of Charles in me. Maybe when I'm an old git, I'll turn to the grown up stuff. I shouldn't be writing this much.

Do you know how all the names are connected including Eustace Mullins?

Obsessional Editing - Part Two

In the beginning it was non stop and over and over and over again. 

This is how the training commenced and subsequently took place. 

Charles Bukowski - The Last Night of the Earth Poems

In 2011 I read Charles Bukowski's Post Office and it was brilliant. He's like Orwell, not an extraneous word in the house.... and then I never read him again.

I'm always looking for an excuse to go to Southampton Central Library even though I've got a stack of books outstanding to read on my shelves. I finally remembered Bukowski and dropped by only to find out that the one book they had was overdue for months out on loan, probably never to come back. Would you like this one, the librarian asked.

The Last Night Of The Earth Poems. 

I made a face. I've never had much luck with poetry. OK I'll give it a try, and I walked out with one of the best books I've ever read.

There's no point going on about it when you can find out for yourself. It was a peerless companion in the pub with Ruddles and joints. It's impossible not to like Bukowski. 

Quarter Jewish, Nazi, Ugly, Funny, Sharp, Filthy, Bum, Gambler, Alcoholic, Loser..... Winner of words and meter.

Philosopher

I laughed out loud on my own many times.

If I get sent to Belmarsh, I'll be alright with just this one book.

Emily Barker ft. Frank Turner - Bound For Home (Official video)

The songs lyrics and the singer (Emily Barker) reached into my unconscious and pulled me out of a very deep sleep/unconsciousness. I fell asleep with the radio on and came round because of the haunting lyrics and music.

It's happened once before in Bangkok, around 2009 when I was running around on the KLEIN. In that instance it was ELOs Strange Magic, and I feel profoundly that both times were examples of Grace (the uncountable Christian noun).

Somebody Blew Up America... Who Who Who Who Who?

A very powerful piece of Jazz poetry by Amiri Baraka. Somebody blew up America.

The Buffoonery Of Materialist & Reductionist Science

Via Aangirfan

The Alchemy of Love - Rumi Poetry

 

Gil Scott-Heron - We Beg Your Pardon

T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot

About an hour and a half in total but not quite seamless in its story telling or as riveting as the great man's poetry. However it's an excellent introduction and I regretted learning he was known as the Pope of Russell Square when he worked at number 24 for Faber & Faber publishing who hired him for his business nous he'd earned in the city. I used to live just round the corner from this address in Bloomsbury opposite an old Charles Dickens address on Doughty Street but this was before the internet and I was never one to research things in libraries or I'd have mined the whole Bloomsbury Set thing a lot more I'm guessing.

Into The Wild - How To Disappear Completely

Into the Wild is the kind of movie that feels on more than one occasion like walking as a guest into a room for the first time where two or three people seated comfortably and with whom you've never met before instantly greet and connect with you in a way that can't be explained, but somehow enriches the universe and emboldens unconditional love.


Despite being a true story about running away from society and dependence on people I don't think I've ever watched a movie populated by more people I've instantly liked. It's worth watching just to listen to the poetic monologues between separated brother and sister. It's a film as close to the poetry of different landscapes as one could wish to encounter.

Arbeit Macht Frei

Religions don't' spiritualise

Schools don't educate

Health is a business

Business is unhealthy

Politics enslaves

Mass media manipulates

Food is poison

Freedom is loathed

Individuality is scorned

Markets are rigged

Governments are not your friend

Choose wisely

Radovan Karadzic

I just realised I got it wrong in that post the other day. It wasn't Slobodan Milosovich (who of course was an oaf) that wrote the poetry about staring at the sun like the BMW retina burning advertisement. Of course it was Radovan Karadzic. He was also a psychiatrist. Worth remembering in a world where people are all to easily persuaded of handing over the consciousness or limits of consciousness to the state. Here's the poem. I first heard it quoted by Slavoj Zizek:

Convert to my new faith crowd

I offer you what no one has had before

I offer you inclemency and wine

The one who won’t have bread will be fed by the light of my sun

People nothing is forbidden in my faith

There is loving and drinking

And looking at the Sun for as long as you want

And this godhead forbids you nothing

Oh obey my call brethren people crowd

JOY IS BMW

Slavoj Zizek talks about the necessity for the poetry that the Serbian Slobodan Milosevich wrote and used to stir the emotions of his countrymen to carry out war crimes against the Croats and other members of the Balkan states back in the 90's. I can't remember the exact wording though he quotes it in some of his online speeches. Roughly speaking it goes something along the lines of 'come with me, dont worry about the rules, today you can stare at the sun, you can play and do as you feel, free and unblinking from everyday life'.

Is one man's ethnic cleansing another man's (BMW's) brand experience? I'll find the exact words to the poetry and post it below when it turns up. Incidentally, Zizek says at the beginning of the video I link to at the start of this post exactly the same thing regarding images, as was quoted in the Wittgenstein fascist advertising complex post I did the other day. I'm quite sure they're unconnected other than perhaps mutual nods towards Baudrillard's gulf war simulacra or Guy de Bord's Society of the Spectacle.

I'm mildly amused that people at the screening of this thought it was cool. This is not unexpected from BMW customers.


Update

某些领导

身体越来越胖心胸越来越窄，
头衔越来越多学问越来越浅，
讲话越来越长真话越来越少，
权力越来越大威信越来越低，
年纪越来越老情人越来越小。

This is the only poem I've got into since I've been in China. On reading it for the first time I put down my mobile and stared out the taxi for a while. I think its more about power than a specific country or its officials, but what do I know?.... It was written in Chinese and perhaps the translation may have skipped some nuance? Or even a localised version of iambic pentameter. Either way I'm planet before country when it comes to nationalism. It's a logic thing really; entirely selfish I guess.

Here's the translation

Sketch of Officials

The body grows fat and fatter, the heart narrower and narrower
The titles accumulate more and more, the knowledge shallower and shallower,
The speeches longer and longer, the truths fewer and fewer,
The power greater and greater, the authority lower and lower,
The age older and older, the mistresses younger and younger.