Scope!

I have tuned in to your yearning for resolution, O Seeker. I know that your heart fervently wants the riddles to run their course, the mysteries to be revealed, the uncertainties to be quelled. And I have ransacked my imagination in search of what consolation I might provide to appease your quest for neat, simple truths. But what I have concluded, O In-Between One, is that any solutions I might try to offer you would not only be fake, but also counterproductive. What you actually need, I suspect, are not answers to your urgent questions, but rather, better questions; more precisely formulated questions; more ruthlessly honest questions. Dig deeper, please. Open wider. Think fatter.

The Decades Roll

The decades roll

I look back

from 36

to 26

16 to 6

I am now sitting in A COMFORABLE GREENCOURDUROY chair

it is circular

concave like a satellite dish

It folds in half and has a green carrying case

I bought it at Target for 39 bucks

At 26 I would have been sitting in a different spot

maybe crosslegged on a bean bag meditation cushion

at a buddhist temple or retreat tent

weathering cold november nights

breath steaming

to keep the chill from the tip of my nose

or in the summer heat walking around a two story high golden reliquary monument

chanting the sacred sylables and watching my mind wander from past to present to future

in a slight of hand to keep my ever present yet ellusive core self concept intact by a constant soap opera like round of mental chatter and cognitive fabrications

At 16 still mushrooming out of adolescence with a vengence

the calm quiet bright eyed child

mutated like a buterfly into a lupa caterpillar and verging on larvae grub

that suddenly awoke to suburban enui and wanted to shock

the walls of social and personal compartmentalization

to wake up to complexitiy with the simple rages and naive lust and uncertainty

clear confusion and mistake making as a grand gesture of insolence

NOW i begin to think about the health of my aging parents and watch with

proud excitement at each new step my young nephews take

I am preparing to be married again next summer

and am settling into a very comfortable and reasonably appointed

home in the west central florida suburbs

unemployed

unencumbered

unhurried

underestimated

but not undone

Flute plays softly in the background

a fresh Himalayan breeze

blown across the dig-iverse

I must go witness the virtual

bloodshed

of community theater

from the distance of

an arm

and the breath

of the Rio Grande

Whatever that portends

Epic Writing Excerpts II-Moral Climax of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

After watching the Robert Burns PBS documentary on Mark Twain I was very moved by this excerpt and the story of Aunt Rachel the ex-slave.

So I decided to re-read Huck Finn and start this new thread to this blog on Epic Writing. One of the key observations made was that the difference between American writing and the previous Euro-centric literature was the impact of "Space and Race" This places Huck and Jim at the epicenter of the birth of American literature.

In my search for images I have serendipitously encountered a blog by Neil Moore a modern day Oddesey on the Mississippi at http://flashriversafari.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/islands-in-the-stream/#comment-113

3. It was a close place. I took . . . up [the letter I’d written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.

Explanation for Quotation 3 >>

These lines from Chapter XXXI describe the moral climax of the novel. The duke and the dauphin have sold Jim, who is being held in the Phelpses’ shed pending his return to his rightful owner. Thinking that life at home in St. Petersburg—even if it means Jim will still be a slave and Huck will be a captive of the Widow— would be better than his current state of peril far from home, Huck composes a letter to Miss Watson, telling her where Jim is. When Huck thinks of his friendship with Jim, however, and realizes that Jim will be sold down the river anyway, he decides to tear up the letter. The logical consequences of Huck’s action, rather than the lessons society has taught him, drive Huck. He decides that going to “hell,” if it means following his gut and not society’s hypocritical and cruel principles, is a better option than going to everyone else’s heaven. This moment of decision represents Huck’s true break with the world around him. At this point, Huck decides to help Jim escape slavery once and for all. Huck also realizes that he does not want to reenter the “sivilized” world: after all his experiences and moral development on the river, he wants to move on to the freedom of the West instead.

Close

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/huckfinn/quotes.html#explanation3

Epic Words-A Timeline of Great Writing. I. Gilgamesh

I thought this would be 

an interesting jumping 

off point for the exploration 

of Epic Writing. To compare and 

contrast with later ones.

Try to imagine the world 

that this was created out of

in 2000 BC approximately.

the address below will connect you with 

the extended text and commentary.

http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/0/0/11000/11000-8.htm

and http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/quotes.html for quotes below.

Plot Overview
The epic’s prelude offers a general introduction to Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who was two-thirds god and one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, or temple towers, surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically beautiful, immensely strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any woman who struck his fancy, whether she was the wife of one of his warriors or the daughter of a nobleman. He accomplished his building projects with forced labor, and his exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression. The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods. Gilgamesh then traveled to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge and other secrets of the gods, and he recorded them on stone tablets.

Important Quotations Explained

 
2. What could I offer

the queen of love in return, who lacks nothing at all?
Balm for the body? The food and drink of the gods?

I have nothing to give to her who lacks nothing at all.
You are the door through which the cold gets in.

You are the fire that goes out. You are the pitch
that sticks to the hands of the one who carries the bucket.

You are the house that falls down. You are the shoe
that pinches the foot of the wearer. The ill-made wall

that buckles when time has gone by. The leaky
water skin soaking the water skin carrier.
—Tablet VI
Explanation for Quotation 2 >>
 
4. As for you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
Make merry day and night.
Of each day make a feast of rejoicing.
Day and night dance and play!
Let your garments be sparkling fresh,
Your head be washed; bathe in water.
Pay heed to a little one that holds on to your hand,
Let a spouse delight in your bosom.
—Tablet X
Explanation for Quotation 4 >>
 
5. And so they traveled until they reached Uruk.
There Gilgamesh the king said to the boatman:

“Study the brickwork, study the fortification;
climb the ancient staircase to the terrace;

study how it is made; from the terrace see
the planted and fallow fields, the ponds and orchards.

One league is the inner city, another league
is orchards; still another the fields beyond;

over there is the precinct of the temple. . . . ,
Three leagues and the temple precinct of Ishtar.”

Measure Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh
—Tablet XI

morning pages 8.23.09

Time and time again

coming back to the moment

left off yesterday and not quite over

waiting for this and that and coffee

no urge for much

of anything

just percolating

toward tomorrow

the last day of summer

everything shifts gears

and the hamster wheel cranks up again

like a the cotton candy spinner

squeezes out the fun from green to blue and white

yellow artificial joy

I am just happy for toast

good toast if a bit dry

and the butter chunky

wanting nothing in particular

just wondering when the waves of desire

will turn tide and the storms

of emotion will turn back

for landfall

perhaps I will be in the

mountains by then

or in a cell

or just driving up the coast

to escape the bad paintings

and poems

that follow and the mediocre meditation

that always gives way to giddy statements or errant

questions and dull clock watching

smelling the incense as if that is all the difference

but its no fun getting down on oneself that just

the flip side of the same narcissistic coin

the common coin of our realm

I me mine and not

thou you yours

Feung sway mirrors

babbbling fountains

unread newspapers

unanswered messages

no schedule

to rot to grow

to fornicate

to garden, eat

fall asleep

wake, shower

change into

fresh clothes

or watch tv

never mind

talk of plans

and the

travels of

dreaming

let the dew drops fall or dangle

I want to dance...

Mount Kailash Thangka by Andy Weber

"Just a little person" theme song lyrics from Synechdoche NYC

I'm just a little person,

One person in a sea

Of many little people

Who are not aware of me.

I do my little job

And live my little life,

Eat my little meals,

Miss my little kids and wife

And somewhere, maybe someday,

Maybe somewhere far away,

I'll find a second little person

who will look at me and say,

"I know you You're the one I've waited for.

Let's have some fun."

Life is precious every minute,

and more precious with you in it,

so let's have some fun

We'll take a road trip way out west.

You're the one I like the best.

I'm glad I've found you,

Like being around you

You're the one I like the best.

Somewhere, maybe someday,

Maybe somewhere far away,

I'll meet a second little person

And we'll go out and play.

written by jon brion, sung by deanna storey