https://www.jehsmith.com/1/2018/12/its-all-over.html

“The essay touched a nerve, and most of the response to it was positive. One common mistaken interpretation, to which I want to respond, was that it amounts to an expression of “conservatism”. We are at a strange point indeed in our culture when a scoffing and dismissive attitude towards Hollywood entertainments such as action-hero movies, generated by market forces alone, may be seen as conservative. I continue to believe in a culture independent of these forces, and I bemoan the obsession of so many in our present age with monitoring the garbage output of the entertainment industry for signs of this industry’s affirmations of progressive values. I do not care about this industry. I think true progressivism consists in rejecting it, not in proclaiming the latest “iteration of Wonder Woman “good” because it managed to stay on-message relative to some particular conception of feminism, or that some movie with Emma Stone in it is “bad” because the lead role should have gone to a person of color. Who gives a shit? Who has time for this kind of stuff? Woke celebrity-gossip-mongering is still celebrity-gossip-mongering, and no one is going to convince me that it counts as political in any meaningful sense. Let’s make our own culture instead, with bold new visions of what art might be, rather than pushing Hollywood business moguls to do it for us.

I admitted in the essay to a certain fogeyism, so let me pull out a fogey trope and tell you how things were in the old days. In my late teens I used to drive thirty miles each way to go to the nearest art-house video-rental store, in order to take back home VHS tapes of the works of Ousmane Sembène, rightly called the Chekhov of Senegal. I loved his cinematic language, and I felt that through it I was gaining access to a certain true depiction of Africa. This and similar experiences leave me nonplussed and, yes, a bit angry, when, years later, I find myself reading excited young people declaring on Twitter that, with the release of Black Panther in 2018, we are “finally getting to see Africa depicted in film”. But that is not Africa; that is some fantasy bullshit. Africa has already been depicted in film going back several decades, by great African directors such as Sembène, and you are just not working hard enough if you expect movies to be delivered up to you as mass-release big-screen entertainments. I recently gave in and selected Black Panther while on a very long flight. I turned it off after ten minutes or so. It was just too stupid.”

The little words invented as we loved
Now have no other speaker but myself.
Lost, unique, the husband, so beloved,
These little words expressed our  joyous love.
In my speech, these words no longer live
I cannot use those words, our loving wealth.
The chosen words invented as we loved
Now have no other listener but myself.

Eeh, it were right crackin’ at school t’day
Wot wur thi sayin’ this time?
Thi said wi can do Greek next year
Ye’re not doin’ Greek
Why not,our Mam
Ye can’t even spek English
Why,  am I not canny enough?
No, we don’t spek English eether
Well, ye shud a thought eh that before y’ad me
Ye mean only  people with BBC eksents can bear childern?Well, we reckoned if we learnt English we’d lose our desire
F’wat, Mam
F’ that! Ye know… It, ye get what ah mean
No,Mam.Can ye not spell it our a bit more?
Spell it out, t’dad would tan me hide!
Still he must a dunnit,Mam
I dunno, it wer dark.Mebbe it wer the cat, ah thought
Surely the cat’s not mi  dad, is  he?
It weren’t this cat, it wer another called Billy.
Well, how come ah’m human?
You think ye’re human, but  am telling ye,ye got  t’cat’s eyes
Just his eyes? How abaht his whiskers
Don’t be so daft, our Kath,Ye’ve got his hair
But only on my head so far.Willa bi changin’ into a cat as ah mature?
Wi’ll have te wait and see.Put ‘t kettle on.We need some tea.
Why, what difference will that make now.I’m a cat,I’m a cat…. oh, what’ll  ‘et nuns say  ‘et Convent when ah tellum?
You keep away from ‘et Convent~
Why, our Mam?
Do as I tell you.Never confide in a nun
Well,Ah shan’t let ‘et cat fettle me.Ah’m not that daft
Well, yi can’t do Greek and that’s final
Kyrie Eleison,Kyrie Eleison
Wot’s that?
Oh, nothin’ at all
Christie Horizon
For God’s sake speak English!

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070

https://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/food-drinks/recipes/a12296/oven-baked-spanish-tortilla-recipe-wdy0913/

the art of poetry isn’t hard to master
make the syntax good and  entertaining
the  gruesome heart of poetry's a disaster

 
a meter errant makes  the lines come faster
an oxford  thesaurus   gets the listeners   waning
the art of poetry isn’t hard to master.

 
a genius woke and saw a verse rush past her
it only needed polishing and planing
the  gruesome heart of poetry, her  disaster


she left the oven on, it gassed her
ever since her folk  groan, paining
the art of poetry isn’t hard to master.

 

she saw her selves as coloured shapes in plaster
and round her mind, were ghosts all  weakly craning
the  gruesome heart of poetry brings disaster

there’s not a lot of hope if we’re complaining
for criticism  from hidden ghosts is draining
the art of poetry isn’t hard to master
the  gruesome signs of poetry bring disaster

http://www.sarahwilson.com/2018/03/hard-love-weak-character/

Extract:

“Existentialist angst always surfaces during times of human ugliness.

Arendt adds that it’s a moral imperative to not sink into banality, as righteous as not doing harm.

• Not comprehending what Brexit was about before voting proved irrevocably harmful.
• Not caring where your plastic bag ends up (because you’ve not engaged with the facts) is killing the planet.
• Failing to be bold in love is killing relationships…and making us all bored.
• Drifting, flaking, blaming, avoiding, turning blind eyes, going MIA when you’re needed, scrolling Instagram instead of reading long reads about stuff that counts…it’s making us all lesser.

And we know it. We don’t like it about ourselves, but what to do?

I know some people’s response is that it’s all too much, that they can’t afford the energy to care, to think, to get engaged. I quote New York chef and owner of Prune restaurant Gabrielle Hamilton (a thinker, a doer, a liver) who found herself telling friends who can’t be arsed reducing food waste with some minor lifestyle adjustments:

“It’s hard for me to love somebody with a weak character like that”.

I’ve been wondering lately if I’m reaching the same point. I note that many of you on this blog and on my socials are feeling the same. I’m certainly struggling with flaccid, excuse-making, buck-passing characters at the moment. It’s dead difficult viewing such expressions of anti-humanity with mature, kind eyes. And walking away (turning a blind eye) strikes me as (almost) equally banal and flaccid.”

He fell so broke our lamp, a sphere of stone
Made by potters on the Suffolk Coast
The lamp was silent, it was he who groaned

I was not angry, though I may have moaned
I loved  our lamps but I loved him the most
He fell so broke our lamp, a sphere of stone

For human time  on earth is just a loan
And of it’s wasting, who am I to boast?
The lamp was  quiet, the man it was who groaned

Like a candle when the flame is blown
His  life force waned, I saw as I was  close
He fell so broke our lamp, a sphere of stone

By the following week, his  soul had flown
I heard the music of a distant Host
The room was  quiet, my  love  no longer groaned

Of the love of God, I long to boast
Despite that, some devil my heart froze
Why  go down  and break that lamp forlorn
The lamp  is silent, now I am alone

Prayer does not change God, but it changes those who prays. Soren Kierkegaard
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/soren_kierkegaard_107355

The half-blind  give advice  on where to look
The soft tongued sell us slogans of defeat
The religious read us stories  from old books

The  thieves  like  pointing out the crooks
While  we amble down the  vacated streets
The half-blind  give advice  on  how to look

We win a gamble yet call it  a fluke
We   love our loss, we like to be downbeat
The religious read us stories  from old books

The terrorists are now in charge of truth
The former rulers  in their slippers creep
The half-blind  give advice  on where to look

The teachers are afraid of learning loose.
The tangent to the circle is too steep
The aged read us stories  from old books

Love is rare yet sex is very cheap
Timers on the bed end duly beep
The half-blind  want  to control  just where we look
The religious agonise about that Book

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/dramatic-moments-in-the-confessional-7twxblptc

Hi Father, give me your essay
Essay, what on earth do you mean?
Sorry,I forget the word…. blessing?
How long is it since your last Confession?
Do you mean in Court?
Crime is not always a sin
That’s Good News!
But it is still illegal.
Stop yapping. I want to tell you my sins
That  sentence was very rude
Do you mean I should have got Life?
You should have been executed
But it’s no longer allowed
I  regret that, in  your case
Are you always so nasty to sinners
I never said you were a sinner.I am rude to everyone
Well, stop!
It’s an illness
That’s what they all say
I  muse about OCD
Is that a religious order…Old Catholic Druids?
Catholics can’t be Druids
Well, what is D?
Donkeys.
You don’t seem like a donkey
It’s a metaphor.It should be Asses but they don’t breed
You are  not meant to breed
I only breed cats
Well, to get back to my sins.I have kissed fifty women lustfully
How about men?
No,I am not inclined to kiss men
Thank the Lord.
I don’t think it’s wrong. Just I’ve not yet met the right one
Well kissing women is not so bad as long as they want it.
But how can I  tell?
You must get to know one and do things together
Like going to bed?
No, no. Go out for a walk. Go for a meal. Discuss your  common interests
My interests are  not common nor vulgar
Wow. You are clever
Cleverness is not the highest value in life
Don’t tell me!
Why not?
I am too clever by half according to my aged Mother
How come?
She knows I became a  priest out of pure laziness.No need to have a mortgage!
But to become celibate to avoid having to pay a mortgage seems extreme.
It seemed a good idea at the time!
My next sin is greed.I eat a box of chocolates every day
Why?
To avoid cooking
You can’t live on chocolate
I know. I go to McDonald’s
Why?
To eat burgers and chips
Silicon chips?
I don’t know but they taste good
Can I come?
Sure.if you forgive my sins
For your penance buy me a meal
That’s brilliant,Father
How did you guess?
What?
I really am your Father!
You liar

• I love men, but not the Toffs,
  Nor the ones with hacking coughs.
  I would like an artist most,
  Especially with hot buttered toast.

  I love men,do men love me?
  There’s only one true way to see.
  Do your best to put them off,
  Wear flat shoes and never laugh.

  Study Wittgenstein and Kant,
  Study all that’s difficult.
  Parse Quantum theory as a hobby.
  Learn long words from the dictionary.

  Dance with Riemann,  swing with Joyce;
  Read Ulysses in a Rolls Royce.
  Enjoy Chess, Trigonometry;
  Weigh down your mind with  Geometry.

  Look around and see who’s left.
  That’s the man who loves you best.
  Once you’re wed and have a home,
  You can free your mind to roam.

  Throw away your library,
  Let your senses all run free.
  Wear bright clothes and enjoy some fun.
  Your second life has just begun.

Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 Poem “America”: a Lost Ending

Extract

The most famous line in all of twentieth-century American poetry can be found in Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem, “America,” which was published in the Pocket Poets series by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights in the volume titled Howl and Other Poems. That famous line reads, “Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.” It’s addressed to America itself, and it has been quoted and popularized by anarchists, communists, beatniks and hipsters over the past 36 years.

The poem ends on a whimsical note, “America, I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel,” a not-so veiled reference to the poet’s homosexuality, and his sense that though he was queer he had a role to play in the society as a whole.

https://aeon.co/essays/health-warning-social-rejection-doesnt-only-hurt-it-kills?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6c7a876804-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_29_05_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-6c7a876804-70520193