why does the phoenix (billet 3)
Why does the phoenix want to garb me in fire? Another pile of ash on my pillow. Phoenix fiery billet-doux. “Things unintelligible, yet understood.”
(click to read the previous billet-doux)
do you know what but not how?
you will lose the path
in the fog of your emotions.
do not regret the past.
understand it.
you are the mud in which a stone is sunk.
clear your mind.
pick up the stone.
wetness skeins it like marble, smooth sculpted on
what shore?
where did you find this artifact?
what you call your life
is how you avoid living.
living–the outrageous adoration, absurd affirmation
of is’ness amidst all-vanish-es.
throw the stone of your heart
into the fire.
it might be an egg or a seed
that must be scorched
before it will hatch.
my dream
Owl recorded my dream. Listen: cosmic dream radio.
I woke up yesterday. This is what I remember:
I can’t help but think that some of this was due to one of phoenix’ flaming billet doux.
But there was no ash on my pillow when I woke up?
cosmic dream radio
COSMIC DREAM RADIO
![owl radio dome [she is sleeping]](http://conversewithbirds.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/owl_radio_dome_text.png)
(if the embedded player doesn’t work in your browser, use the download link–it will open the file in another window and play it.)
why does the phoenix (billet 2)
Wake up. The phoenix staked another billet-doux through my pillow with a splinter of arrowwood.
It is on fire.
Wake up.
Fizzling like a sparkler.
Billets hard to hold through waking. They sizzle at the edge of dream. Wake up. They burn themselves out. Pillow ash brings intense, peripheral feelings, mis-sequenced, uncertain, numinous.
(click to read the first billet-doux)
***
BURNING DOOR. IN AND OUT AND IN
LET US BE WITH EACH OTHER
THE DAYS COUNT THEM]S[?]
STAND BESIDE
PULL CLOSE
IT IS NICE TO BURN
( OH
INTOXICATING THE LIGHT
figures (overwhelm) redux
I feel overwhelmed. So I decided to reblog these figures from some time ago. Figures, as I mention on my about page, are what I use to illustrate complex concepts. I am working on some new figures, too, which I will publish later. I think they are about the word ENOUGH, but we’ll see.
Black swan would like you to know that he is overwhelmed, too. He is squawking and flapping his wings in the tidal marsh below to communicate his persistent shock and dismay. We ate TURKEY on Thursday, not swan, but it still was not a good day for the black swan. (click here if you don’t know what I’m talking about). Soon, I’m going to have to dump out the bones, and I just hope they’ll fall somewhere he’ll never see them.
So here’s an old post, on the word OVERWHELM.
Figures [click to enlarge]:
fig. 1
- figures 3, 5, & 22
I look up
like I’ve fallen down stairs.
be what (text excavation)
moon. across. sun.
seize [ ]
breath
startle. her
flock scatters
breath [ ] swells
[ ] [ ] [ ]
be what. rush of feathers
thousand-fold
my refrigerator
When cicadas hum and green things spoil themselves for autumn,
let’s go to the kitchen and stand contemplatively in the light of the refrigerator door.
Let’s grab leaves and roots and pulpy ovaries, throw them on the counter and make choices.
Let’s use sharp knives and pull with our fingers.
Let’s put things in pots and boil them.
Let’s stir and sizzle and poke until they’re done.
When they are, bring out the earthenware and a bottle of something intoxicating!
Let the night burn like sugar!
Let the days be warm and crisp as a salad!
Let us be bountiful with each other and sharp.
Let us labor and be well fed. ( oh
it’s nice to smell oil burning
to cut into gourds and hearts
to come inside when the sun gets all teary-eyed
and sit close in the last bit of warmth.)
my refrigerator
figures (overwhelm)
Figures [click to enlarge]:
fig. 1
- figures 3, 5, & 22
Early morning
when birds start the grey rustling of their undergarments and dawn spills into its bowl like piss
I look up
like I’ve fallen down stairs.
why does the phoenix want to garb me in fire?
I first asked this question in my post on fashion.
[cued]
( Phoenix: no fear of darkness. darkness/fathoms/fire. journey/easy. it circles/home. ODALISQUE ODALISQUE ODALISQUE/you’re afraid of fire. I bring a light/a match/and strike it. FORGET MYSELF AND WATCH YOU. COLLAPSE/LIKE WAX/COLLAPSES. AROUND AN INTERIOR FLAME.)
figures
[ ] Odalisque.
click to enlarge.
Fig. 1
Fig.2
Fig.2 (Verso)
Fig.13
(ghosts carry blessings & strange dreams around sharp corners through cracks in the sill.)
(moonlight turns the turn of the stair into an ascension.)
(nails loosen.)
(boards creak.)
(ghosts carry blessings and strange dreams in their open palms.)
(breathlessly.)
(careful
they are exquisitely delicate
accumulations.)
(tangles of dust pins string hair.)
still life
The day (Sunday) being breezy easy and nothing to do
I sit in the window arranging grass in glass bottles.
This is my life, you see, and I’ve a blue box of a room, but all, in its arrangement, is still.
This is my life, you see, but all is restful, all is still.
I am the odalisque who lives in an obelisk. I converse with birds.
