...the wind and the dust...

[dedletrbox.livejournal.com]

Saying Goodbye to a Singing-Girl Who Has Decided to Become a Nun
(Mo Shihtung)

You have called at the Gate of the True Vehicle,
your worldly self is no more.
You have said farewell forever
to the golden chambers,
the wind and the dust.

Lightly you wield the yak-tail whisk,
your singing fan lies on the floor.
You learn to position your meditation cushion
and laugh at the dancer's mat.
No more resentment when rouge fades
like red flowers.
No longer will the feathered hair appear in your mirror.
Mist light water--quiet Zen mind.
I know a new springtime
will bloom
in the Realm of Emptiness.


[When I first saw this title, I thought is was a joke! Does anyone remember a poem about the titles of chinese poems? I think it may have been written by Billy Collins]

Nikki Moustaki - Extremely Lightweight Guns

[natelyswhore.livejournal.com]

Extremely Lightweight Guns

      I don't like makin' money, I just love sellin' guns
                                –Don, of Don's Guns, Bloomington, Indiana


Literally no recoil, and if the steel is cold, I don't know it. If bullets taste like gardenias, like tongues, like bathwater or greasy fingers, wine flow-ithing over in my tin field cup, I don't know it. I don't like makin' money, I just love sellin' guns. I ache all day for a smooth-bore shot; I'm a hammer-cocker, trigger-friendly, barrel-ready-slide that slide and make the sight sure-I want the longest operating rod you got. I want to stare down that dark pill, find my mark, carry the pheasant home. Don't give me no three-fingers-to-the-left-aim-high-aim-low: I respect your right to not carry, you respect my right to. When I was seven I lifted my dress for a boy's bee-bee muzzle. At fifteen chased by a pack of sexy Cubans wielding pistolas. At twenty, the United States Marine and his heavy M60. I have an ivory two-shot in my panties drawer, a loaded revolver under my downy pillow, and at the pawnshop, a rack fuller than a pin-up calendar. I'll mail 'em unmarked if you ask. I got a modern Howitzer out back, you can rock that cradle for a couple bucks. But it's not the money. There's nothing sexier than the Bill of Rights. Well, maybe an old cannon with a full wad and a wooden rammer. How do bullets taste? Some say gardenias, tongues, bathwater, greasy fingers, deep red wine flowing over in your cup. A bullet's core snapping into point, your mother's sweet voice. The shot recoiling into your hands, the pitch in your legs after a father's belt. Pull it again. The real impact, again. I've got steel between my teeth. My dentist loves me. The neighbors hate me. I ask the guns every day, fuck me.


 


 

Proverbs of Hell - from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake

[dferahgo.livejournal.com]

Proverbs of Hell

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap.
Bring out number, weight, & measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Pride's cloke.
Prisons are built with the stones of Law, Brothels with the brick of religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
Teh nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of the lions, the howling of the wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
Let the man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
The selfish smiling fool & the sullen frowning fool shall both be thought wise, that they may be a rod.
What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits.
The cistern contains; the fountain overflows.
One thougth fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
Every thing possible to be believed is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
Think in the morning, Act in the noon, Eat in the evening, Sleep in the night.
He who has sufferd you to impose on him knows you.
As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayer.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Expect poison from standing water.
You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.
Listen to the fool's reproach! it is a kingly title!
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion the horse, how he shall take his prey.
The thankful reciever bears a plentiful harvest.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.
When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; lift up thy head!
As the caterpiller chooses the fairest of leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
Damn braces; Bless relaxes.
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!
Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands & feet Proportion.
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl that every thing was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improvement makes straight roads, but he crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not, nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or Too much.

-----

Do comment and let me know which you like best. ^_^

"The Fox" by Adrienne Rich

[belladonna2881.livejournal.com]

I needed fox Badly I needed
a vixen for the long time none had come near me
I needed recognition from a triangulated face burnt-yellow eyes
fronting the long body the fierce and sacrificial tail
I needed history of fox briars of legend it was said she had run through
I was in want of fox

And the truth of briars she had to have run through
I craved to feel on her pelt if my hands could even slide
past or her body slide between them sharp truth distressing surfaces of fur
lacerated skin calling legend to account
a vixen's courage in vixen terms

For a human animal to call for help
on another animal
is the most riven the most revolted cry on earth
come a long way down
Go back far enough it means tearing and torn endless and sudden
back far enough it blurts
into the birth-yell of the yet-to-be human child
pushed out of a female the yet-to-be woman