Troubled Water

  All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.      It is raining today in the mountains.      It is a warm green rain with love in its pockets for spring is here, and does not dream of death.      Birds happen music like clocks ticking heaves in a land The Return of the Rivers (1957) I like to think (and the sooner the better!) of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky. I like to think      (right now please!) of a cybernetic forest filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms. I like to think      (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched ov...

    A huge shoe mounts up from the horizon, squealing and grinding forward on small wheels, even as a man sitting to breakfast on his veranda is suddenly engulfed in a great shadow almost the size of the night.     He looks up and sees a huge shoe ponderously mounting out of the earth.  Up in the unlaced ankle-part an old woman stands at a helm behind the great tongue curled forward; the thick laces dragging like ships' rope on the ground as the huge thing squeals and grinds forward; children everywhere, they look from the shoelace holes, they crowd about the old woman, even as she pilots this huge shoe over the earth. . .     Soon the huge shoe is descending the opposite horizon, a monstrous snail squealing and grinding into the earth. . .     The man turns to his breakfast again, but sees it's been wounded, the yolk of one of his eggs is bleeding. . .    The Wounded Breakfast A man had just married an automobile.     But...

“Love has many faces. And if you love, you have to be strong enough to look upon all of them. The essence of philia is, I think, far harsher, far crueller, than we care to admit. There is one thing without which philia cannot exist; and this is not a matter of feeling but of the will. Philia —the love appropriate to your pack—is the will to do something for those who are of your pack, even though you desperately don’t want to do it, even though it horrifies and sickens you, and even though you may ultimately have to pay a very high price for it, perhaps heavier than you can bear. You do this because that is what is best for them. You do this because you must. You may never have to do this. But you must always be ready to do it. Love is sometimes sickening. Love can damn you for all eternity. Love will take you to hell. But if you are lucky, if you are very lucky, it will bring you back again.” “We do other creatures an injustice and ourselves a disservice when we forget from where ou...

Timothy with his Grandmother Lois or The Prophetess Anna Teaching a Child (c.1650) - Willem Drost Hipério E pensar que lá longe na estrangeira terra, nesse exílio que dura há tantos anos, vive aquele Pastor [ O Rei, D. Duarte Nuno ] que salvaria estes campos da morte e da ruína e dos lobos cruéis estas ovelhas!... Pastor mais luso e nosso outro se não conhece; tem puras qualidades que rebrilham entre as dos guardadores da honra e da mantença das lavouras. Ele é bravo e é pobre; a nossa Língua fala que um século vivido entre as alheias jamais fez esquecida; aprendeu na dureza e alta dignidade do pão do seu exílio a saber como os pobres são honrados quase só pelo serem, e como o ventre obeso dos tiranos do mando ou do dinheiro é cousa dura e feia. Se ele um dia viesse aos nossos lusos prados acabava-se a dança dos pastores que são hóspedes caros ou ligeiros da cabana onde em feno perfumado se repolteriam todos, monarcas da desordem ou da vil tirania. Oh! a danada dança, dança desord...

«Todas as pessoas que quisessem conseguir menos morosidade na vasta e labiríntica trajectória a percorrer nas repartições públicas tinham que recorrer aos compadres e que distribuir abundantes luvas [...] Adquiriam-se todas as espécies de certidões, diplomas de exames, aprovações em concursos, colocações, isenções de direitos [...] usando claramente do empenho, do peculato, da concussão e da ameaça [...] Para isso é que superabundavam, nos postos mais elevados, os delegados das várias patrulhas políticas.»  David Neto - Dôa a quem doer (1927) Retirado de: O clientelismo partidário durante a I República: o caso do Partido Reconstituinte (1920-1923) João Manuel Gonçalves da Silva   Análise Social, vol. xxxii (140), 1997 (1.º), 31-7 [...] Durante a primeira fase da República (1910-1917), António Maria da Silva, primeiro como independente, depois como membro do Partido Republicano Português / Partido Democrático (PRP/PD), dedicou a sua atenção, sobretudo, a assuntos relacionados ...

[...]  You’ve worked with one instrument, the ARP 2500, over many years. I saw a TV documentary about you where you prominently say, “I have music in my head as an idea before I start”. Did you feel that you were at one with your instrument? I cannot start a piece if I don’t have an idea of what it would become, what we may call a theme, but what I would call the spirit. The spirit of what I wanted to do should be there before because I am a very poor improviser! And I keep that spirit, that theme in mind, quite often several months before I start to do something. So, when I come to make the sounds it’s already there, I know… … how I can get it out of the machine? To a certain extent, yes. Not at the beginning of course. I have been living with my ARP for more than forty years now, so it’s a very long marriage! At the beginning I had to be more careful but after a while it was quite alright. So it takes a long time for you to write a piece of music? Oh yes, it takes quite long. Whe...

Of the Father's love begotten ere the worlds began to be, he is Alpha and Omega, he the source, the ending he, of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see evermore and evermore. Oh, that birth forever blessed when the virgin, full of grace, by the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race, and the babe, the world's Redeemer, first revealed his sacred face evermore and evermore. This is he whom seers and sages sang of old with one accord, whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word. Now he shines, the long-expected; let creation praise its Lord evermore and evermore. Let the heights of heav'n adore him, angel hosts his praises sing, pow'rs, dominions bow before him and extol our God and King. Let no tongue on earth be silent, ev'ry voice in concert ring evermore and evermore. Christ, to thee, with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to thee hymn and chant and high thanksgiving and unending praises be, honor, glo...

Obra de Artur Bual na casa Eugénio de Andrade na Póvoa de Atalaia (Fundão) Vou fazer-te uma confidência, talvez tenha já começado a envelhecer e o desejo, esse cão, ladra-me agora menos à porta. Nunca precisei de frequentar curandeiros da alma para saber como são vastos os campos do delírio. Agora vou sentar-me no jardim, estou cansado, Setembro foi mês de venenosas claridades, mas esta noite, para minha alegria, a terra vai arder comigo. Até ao fim. Vastos campos Hei-de aprender um ofício de que goste, há tão poucos, talvez carpinteiro, ou pedreiro. Construiria uma casa neste chão de areia com pedras húmidas, lisas, ou cheias de limos, frias, são tão bonitas, com seus veios cruzando-se, ou afastando-se de costas uns para os outros. Havia de meter-me por esses miúdos caminhos de chibas para ver, ao fim da tarde, chegar os saltimbancos em toda a sua glória, que me apontam as nuvens lentas, muito brancas, afastando-se.  As nuvens em Memória doutro Rio (1978) O meu país sabe às amora...

The other side of the water makes a figure of me. Who listens, at dusk, now I can no longer pretend no one is there. Who was I when I could? I was singing. A love song. High. A child, trying to call it on. All speech is failed music, a man I failed to make love me had said over coffee, paraphrasing someone. Address There was the idea of love and then what. Man Discovers Fire, Burns Self. Practices losing weekends, months, a season even, never enough not to be too much. Like always wanting more cocaine until the moment he wishes he’d done less, the middle of the night is so short and morning so long when slept through. That’s one solution. Sex works best, probably, but an excess of feeling can be exhausted. I mean exhausting. I tried exercising but I liked not exercising too much. Poetry if you’re hopeless, novels if you like to feel smart, though feeling smart only feels good if you’re not. Better not feel too much or too little of anything to feel good. Balance is recommended unless y...

«[...] News came from Commodore Teague pretty often. He appeared to be flourishing in his new abode over the water, and had set up a pleasure-boat on the Scheldt. He sent pressing messages for Greylands to visit him and Tom Dance and his son intended to avail themselves of the invitation. The Commodore inquired after old friends, even to the ghost of the Grey Monk, whether it "walked" as much as it used to walk, or whether it didn't. The Hutt remained without a tenant. Not a soul would take it. Events had severely shaken the bravery of Greylands; the ghost had shown itself much in the last year, and the Hutt was too near its haunting place, the Friar's Keep, to render it a comfortable residence. So it remained untenanted, and was likely to remain so. Greylands would almost as soon have parted with its faith in the Bible as in the Grey Monk. And the participation of the Master of Greylands in those illicit practices was not disclosed or suspected, and the name and repu...

"If we seek the roots of the success of European imperialism, we must be off to the Middle East, to Abraham, to Gilgamesh and the cultural ancestors of all of us who eat wheaten bread, smelt iron, or record our thoughts alphabetically… We – you who read and I who write this sentence – are part of that continuity; these words are in an alphabetical form of writing, a very clever Middle Eastern invention produced by peoples even more directly influenced by the Sumerian example than we are. The Sumerians and the inventors of the alphabet, and you and I, no matter what our genetic heritage, are in one category: heirs of post-Neolithic Old World cultures. All Stone Age peoples, including the few living, and all pre-Columbian Amerindians, however sophisticated, are in another. The indigenous populations of the Neo-Europes were in the second category until Europeans arrived from beyond the seams of Pangaea. The transition from one category to another was a harrowing one, and many individ...

Deram-me o silêncio para eu guardar dentro de mim a vida que não se troca por palavras. Deram-mo para eu guardar dentro de mim as vozes que só em mim são verdadeiras. Deram-mo para eu guardar dentro de mim a impossível palavra da verdade. Deram-me o silêncio como uma palavra impossível, nua e clara como o fulgor duma lâmina invencível, para eu guardar dentro de mim, para eu ignorar dentro de mim a única palavra sem disfarce – a palavra que nunca se profere. A palavra impossível Afinal, toda a minha poesia era verdade… A noite é infindável, e os dias são a mesma vastidão de carne apodrecida morrendo sem saber de que morria. Os rios são os mesmos, ou as ruas, que só levam lá de onde não saí. O silêncio é sempre a única resposta. Se não pedi, que haviam de me dar? Balanço Eu falo das casas e dos homens,  dos vivos e dos mortos:  do que passa e não volta nunca mais...  Não me venham dizer que estava materialmente  previsto,  ah, não me venham com teorias!  Eu v...

«[...] For Formafantasma , this crossflow of knowledge and experience taken from both their commercial contracts and their more autonomous projects has benefitted and informed the respective other. It has also given them a unique perspective of the design industry, allowing them to acknowledge the legacy of industrial production as the fundamental source for the designer's expertise and agency in contemporary society while also addressing its historic contribution to environmental instability. from https://formafantasma.com/studio № 2.6.3.14 – 1858, 2020, video still «The evolution of this form of commerce over time, and its tentacular expansion across the globe, has made it challenging to regulate. It grew out of the bioprospecting that took place throughout colonial territories during the nineteenth century, becoming one of the largest industries in the world both in terms of the revenue it generates and the impact it has on the planet's biosphere.» «A história mostra que tod...

 1 apricot trees exist, apricot trees exist 2 bracken exists; and blackberries, blackberries; bromine exists; and hydrogen, hydrogen 3 cicadas exist; chicory, chromium, citrus trees; cicadas exist; cicadas, cedars, cypresses, the cerebellum 4 doves exist, dreamers, and dolls; killers exist, and doves, and doves; haze, dioxin, and days; days exist, days and death; and poems exist; poems, days, death 5 early fall exists; aftertaste, afterthought; seclusion and angels exist; widows and elk exist; every detail exists; memory, memory's light; afterglow exists; oaks, elms, junipers, sameness, loneliness exist; eider ducks, spiders, and vinegar exist, and the future, the future 6 fisherbird herons exist, with their grey-blue arching backs, with their black-feathered crests and their bright-feathered tails they exist; in colonies they exist, in the so-called Old World; fish, too, exist, and ospreys, ptarmigans, falcons, sweetgrass, and the fleeces of sheep; fig trees and the products of fi...

Adoration of the Magi, Gentile da Fabriano , 1423 Come, all ye shepherds, ye children of earth, Come ye, bring greetings to yon heavenly birth. For Christ the Lord to all men is given, To be our Savior sent down from heaven: Come, welcome Him! Hasten then, hasten to Bethlehem’s stall, There to see heaven descend to us all. With holy feeling, there humbly kneeling, We will adore Him, bow down before Him, Worship the King. Angels and shepherds together we go Seeking the Savior from all earthly woe; While angels, winging, His praise are singing, Heaven’s echoes ringing, peace on earth bringing, Good will to men. Bohemian folk song ( Nesem vám noviny) ;  translated to English by Mari Ruef Hofer , 1912 «Podemos facilmente observar, porque os seus signos são de uma enorme evidência, que a vergonha é um sentimento que desapareceu da política. E digo “da política”, e não “dos políticos”, para evitar a psicologização e apelar, antes, à referência espinosista que, refutando uma falsa antinom...

Escrevo tateando letras. Experiência curiosa, pois não posso ler o que escrevi. Portanto, não escrevo para mim.  Para quem escrevo?  Escrevo para quem fui. Talvez aquela que deixei um dia persista ainda, em pé e parada e fúnebre, num desvão do tempo - numa curva, numa encruzilhada - e de algumaforma misteriosa consiga ler as linhas que aqui vou traçando, sem as ver.  Ludo, querida: sou feliz agora.  Cega, vejo melhor do que tu. Choro pela tua cegueira, pela tua infinita estupidez. Teria sido tão fácil abrires a porta, tão fácil saíres para a rua e abraçares a vida. Vejo-te a espreitar pelas janelas, aterrorizada, como uma criança que se debruça sobre a cama, na expetativa de monstros.  Monstros, mostra-me os monstros: essas pessoas nas ruas.  A minha gente. Lamento tanto o tanto que perdeste.  Lamento tanto.  Mas não é idêntica a ti a infeliz humanidade? Teoria Geral do Esquecimento (2012) p. 169-70 O telefone despertou-me numa fria manhã de Junho...