Monthly Archive for June, 2007

Wires and Strings

Published on June 19, 2007 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

It may very well be that in our con­scious inner lives, the inter­play among our senses is what con­sti­tutes the sense of touch. Per­haps touch is not just skin con­tact with things, but the very life of things in the mind. –Mar­shall McLuhan

If I could just do this right now, I would know what to do next.

Though you are in the midst of some of the wildest coun­try in Amer­ica, and even though you may want to walk unac­com­pa­nied, you will be safe. You will be guided by a wire. There are wires on both sides of the path, and you can reach from one wire to the other in most places.–Dr. Alfred Etter, author of Aspen Braille Trail trail markers

I’ll just do this:

Fin­ger­ing pine and fin­ger­ing the word, pine.
This touch sep­a­rates, that rub breaks.
Each thing raised and capa­ble of sound.

Each thing as inti­mate as the mole at the cen­ter of my back.
The raised tail of the ani­mal that bur­rows under my skin.
I press my back against a wall and feel it press­ing back.

I know exactly where every thing is hid­den.
My fin­ger is attached to a string attached to tails and pine nee­dles.
In the dark I raise my fin­ger­tip and fol­low the sweet sting.

Good omens.

Published on June 7, 2007 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments

I think it is appro­pri­ate to inau­gu­rate this blog with a (par­tially found) poem. I found The Let­ters of Vin­cent Van Gogh in a used book­store yes­ter­day and took it as a very good omen.

But I always think that the best way
to under­stand tim­bre, touch–
to know God–is to love many things.
Like high­ness, low­ness, time and a half, to
Love a friend, a wife, some­thing, what­ever you like,
and you will be
per­fectly dis­tant, per­fectly tick­led,
on the right way to know­ing more,
per­fectly in mind
about it. That is what I say to myself.
But one must love
gram­mar and pat­tern­ing,
with a lofty and seri­ous inti­mate sym­pa­thy,
with an editor’s eye,
with strength, with intel­li­gence,
with mem­o­riza­tion,
and one must always try to know deeper,
to know the high­ness and the low­ness, the
bet­ter and more. That leads to God,
the per­fectly timed and half-memorized.
That leads to unwa­ver­ing faith,
per­fectly touched.
So there it is. The first. More to come.