poecosys

yonder

2008-06-25T12:28:00.004+10:00

I've stopped writing here for now.

Everything is yonder...

2007-04-27T12:32:00.000+10:00

"Wherever he names the time (la bonne heure) in La Vita Nuova, Dante finds it in
terms of the number nine: “Nine times already since my birth had the heaven of light
returned,” “so that almost from the beginning of her ninth year she appeared to me and
I beheld her almost at the end of my ninth;” again, Beatrice appears to Dante nine years
later in the ninth hour of the day. The theme of the beginning in the end, of the first and
the last is repeated in the design of nines, where in the first vision of Amor Dante finds
the hour of the dream to have been “the first of the last nine hours of the night.” The
second vision of Amor is in the ninth hour of the day. A third comes on the ninth day of
a painful illness. Hours, days, years—months along, the nine months of gestation, seem
missing. Then, in accounting for the time of Beatrice’s death Dante tells us, “because
many times the number nine hath found place among the preceding words, whereby it
appeareth that it is not without reason,” he will discuss the meaning of the number.
First, he must show how the number nine appears in her death: “I say that according to
the Arabian style her most noble soul departed in the first hour of the ninth day of the
month; and according to the Syrian style, it departed on the ninth month of the year—
and according to our style, she departed in that year of our era, namely of the years of
our Lord, wherein the perfect number was completed nine times in that century wherein
she was placed.”

Robert Duncan, 'The H.D. Book'

New Finch Discovered (Alive)

2006-10-10T14:22:00.000+10:00

The previously unknown species, the Yariguies brush finch, Atlapetes latinuchus yariguierum,
has striking black, yellow and red plumage. (Blanca Huertas - AP)

"9th October, 2006, Lauren Drake, AP, BOGOTA, Colombia --

A colorful new bird has been discovered in a previously unexplored Andean cloud forest, spurring efforts to protect the area, conservation groups said Monday (...)

The bright yellow and red-crowned Yariguies brush-finch was named for the indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountainous area where it was discovered and which committed mass suicide instead of submitting to Spanish colonial rule.(...)

(...) this was one of the first time researchers were able to confirm a new bird without having to kill it."

...more...

The Rebirth of the Author

2006-10-10T00:17:00.002+10:00

"Perhaps it was all a mistake, a terrible act of misreading. Rather than a serious deconstruction of the author concept, perhaps Barthes's essay "The Death of the Author" was ironic, a close relative of Pop Art. After all, while "The Death of the Author" achieved its widest circulation in the U.S. in its 1977 version in Image - Music - Text, it is perhaps lesser known that the essay had appeared previously in English in the Fall-Winter 1967 issue of the avant-garde magazine Aspen: "each issue came in a customized box filled with booklets, phonograph recordings, posters, postcards" and even a Super-8 film. Contributors included Andy Warhol, John Cage, Yoko Ono, Hans Richter, Susan Sontag, and others. Barthes's essay -- translated by Richard Howard -- appeared in a double issue (the Minimalism issue) which explored "conceptual art, minimalist art, and postmodern critical theory." 1967-68: a serious time shaken by violence and protest, yes, but also a time of great experimentation and humor and absurdity. The pleasure of death; jouissance that has been lost as career academics used Barthes's essay, stripping it out of its playful dimensions, its at once urgent and resigned manifesto-like quality (...)

"Stripped of aura, of mystery, of distance, we are known today as mapped elements in a database. Surveilled, recorded, and marked, we are becoming the function of our components -- our decoded genes, the number of hits (hourly, daily, monthly) on our websites, our on-line purchasing histories. It is perhaps ironic that it is in the very forms of authorship that post-humanist critics strove to erase that we find our best chance of theorizing -- and resisting -- our own disappearance. Donna Haraway's ironic prediction -- "By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs" -- has assumed the shape of everyday social reality. Is it any surprise that for every technological advancement that renders a more perfect, flawless reality -- whether it be classical Hollywood's invisible style, or new film stocks and lenses that offer a cleaner and sharper image, or the hyperrealism of high definition, or the clean, hiss-less ring of the digital code -- is it any surprise that these are always accompanied by countermeasures that preserve and introduce errors, mistakes, degradations of the pristine image? Whether it be Italian neorealism, or cinema verité, or experimental films by the likes of Stan Brakhage, or the rough, "amateur" look of the Dogma 95 films, or even the blurred, miniature movies of web cinema -- all these serve as an antidote to the very forms of perfection that we seek. The author is stronger than ever today because she reminds us of an identity memorable for its utter failures. And to be reminded of our failures is to be reminded that we are human.(...)"

Nicholas Rombes @ ctheory

Techno-barbarism

2006-10-09T11:35:00.000+10:00

Today we were reminded again of our techno-barbaric age and its absolute shadow.

The Bomb — Saviour of My Generation.

The Cloud Appreciation Society

2006-09-21T11:23:00.000+10:00

from Upton, Lincolnshire, UK – A huge, pink pig, with legs to spare. (© Ian Loxley)

From the homepage of The Cloud Appreciation Society:

"LOOK UP AND MARVEL

At The Cloud Appreciation Society we love clouds, we're not ashamed to say it and we've had enough of people moaning about them. Read our manifesto and see how we are fighting the banality of ‘blue-sky thinking’. If you agree with what we stand for, then join the society for a minimal postage and administration fee and receive your very own official membership certificate and badge."

Vale Steve Irwin

2006-09-20T11:11:00.000+10:00

Steve Irwin struggles valiantly with another croc, but fails to see the Grim Reaper
(cunningly disguised as a freeway eucalypt) coming up behind him.

Queensland Poetry Festival (from Melbourne)

2006-08-17T15:04:00.003+10:00

Hi Folks,

Well after the 'Map of the Lost' weirdness I find myself in Melbourne, already thinking about Brisbane.

I really love Melbourne. At present I am sitting in a massive warehouse, the front half of which is the practice space for a very excellent circus troupe. They are practicing as I type, which is fun to watch.

In the back half of the space our friend Joe has parked a nice big caravan (where we are staying tonight) next to his recording studio. Joe is a great musician and sound engineer, and will be 'doing the sound' for Kate's gig at The Artery tonight.

But the real reason for this post is to let all you folks in the blogosphere know about my gigs in Queensland next week, at the Queensland Poetry Festival

Check out the program and if you happen to be in Brisbane late next week, come along to what promises to be a great festival and a lot of fun.

Bye for now!

Map of Lostness

2006-08-11T21:17:00.000+10:00

Feeling A Little Lost Lately?

Me too. There's just too much going on, and sometimes I feel the whole world is becoming more and more lost by the day.

But it's comforting to know that other people feel the same way, and, indeed, someone is doing something about it.

I recently stumbled across the Map of Lostness, courtesy of the US International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention.

You can use this site to find out 'Where can I go?' to be a missionary.

"Step 1: Determine... Where are the lost?"

According to the Map of Lostness, Australians are "88-95% Lost", which makes total sense to me.

But at least we are the fourth least lost.

Here's the Map itself.

Notice that the White areas are OK, but the Black areas, it seems, are almost totally Lost...

Map of Lostness

The map shows the percentage of lost in each region. The black-colored regions are areas of the world where there are few if any believers in Christ. The white regions show a high percentage of people who profess Christianity. The United States represents one of the few areas of the world where the majority of the population professes Christianity.

(from 'Where Can I Go?', International Mission Board )

Melbourne Launch and Reading August 22

2006-08-04T19:47:00.000+10:00

I will be in Melbourne on August 22 to ‘launch’ and read from my new book of poetry, ‘blue grass’.

The launch will be presented by David McCooey at Readings Bookstore, Lygon St. Carlton from about 6:15pm on Tuesday 22nd August.

It would be great to see you there and catch up if you’re around!

Also, for those of you who enjoy acoustic folk music, my partner Kate Fagan and her band are playing on Thursday 17th in Fitzroy:

The Artery, Melbourne @ 87-89 Moor St, Fitzroy 8pm.

http://www.theartery.com.au/page/fagan.html

NO WAR

2006-07-27T23:16:00.000+10:00

A letter from Chomsky and others on the recent events in the Middle East (July 19, 2006):

The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.

That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.

Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?

Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.

This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.

Tariq Ali
Russell Banks
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Richard Falk
Eduardo Galeano
Charles Glass
Naomi Klein
W.J.T. Mitchell
Harold Pinter
Arundhati Roy
Jose Saramago
Giiuliana Sgrena
Gore Vidal
Howard Zinn

http://www.chomsky.info

blue grass

2006-05-01T02:34:00.000+10:00

My new book of poetry, blue grass, is now available from Salt Publishing.

Pam Brown, poet and co-editor of Jacket magazine, will launch blue grass at the Sydney Writers Festival.

Please come along and share a drink to help set this new book to the wind —

Friday May 26th at 6pm
Bangarra Mezzanine
The Wharf Pier 4/5
Hickson Road Walsh Bay
Free Event All Welcome

This came in recently from a favourite poetry correspondent, Myra Ellen:

"blue grass is the fifth book of poetry by multi-award winning Australian poet, Peter Minter.

Fierce in its attitude to life, visionary in its philosophical curiosity and fluent in its study of traditional and contemporary poetics from around the world, blue grass heralds the renewal of an engaged lyrical voice in Australian and international poetry.

Opening with a Homeric challenge to the contemporary imagination, to go

eastward into another land,
the bluegrass plain

and

find
what there is to say
of transformation, the sparkle, junk
& greenest hearts

blue grass embarks on an epic journey through extraordinarily everyday personal, natural and cultural landscapes.

The book is arranged across four parts, History of the Present, Auto Heaven, Australiana and Fresh Kills, and is interwoven by the Yonder Sonnets, an innovative series of meditations on journey and habitation. Minter draws on a range of modern European and American explorations in thought and form and remixes them with invigorating studies of traditions in voice and image.

The poems are readable and alert. They offer intimate and careful observations of places and people that are disarmingly precise in their detail. They reflect on politics, war and environmental devastation alongside avowals of being and relating. They sample images and riffs from popular culture, literature, music, news, art and film, throwing daily life into relief against a resilient, organically shared history. Few poets accomplish such an original balance between street-smart enquiry, closely felt meditation and poetic experimentation.

Above all, the poems are affirmations of existence. They are the work of a mature and daring imagination. They know that a deep appreciation of life’s fragility must be founded in positive acknowledgements of worldly things and relations, or more simply, in acts of love.

Peter Minter’s achievement is the invention of a radically contemporary lyricism — confirming his reputation as one of the most relevant and groundbreaking poets writing in Australia today."