INSIDE UNDIVIDED (19)

a series of fragments & notes about Chance, Fate, and Context by Dara Wier ____________________________________

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ a problem with having a problem with what is called linear

once something has happened

then and maybe only then

is it possible for a human mental experience to be, to become non-linear

before that it was linear all right

which would relegate ideas of non-linearity to what’s over, or as they say, consign it to the past which maybe is why so much talk about non-linearity seems ultra sentimental, ultra nostalgic, ultra regretful, though it is like so many justifications for why art acts one way or another: rationalization based on past observation combined with vast generalization of so-called Reality

to once upon a time to once upon a time which turns out to always be about time that is over

to when it is over

for when it is no longer needed by time

for time to have something to hold onto

for time to have something to do with

then it is no longer linear

which may mean everything over’s non-linearity sometimes will at times make some kind of sense

~~~~~~~~~~~~ the relief one feels when making sense makes no sense at all when one can enjoy the luxury of that, when one can live with that, when that gives way to no next steps

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ stairway to Charter House at Wells Cathedral

a sea of steps

wondrous as it fulfills a terror-inducing vertigo’s fantasy fulfilled in a good solid beautiful sensible way

this has no possible linear interpretation, nothing otherwise than a time/space vortex conspiring

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Artemidorous’ Oneirocritica (Oxford U. Press) Daniel E. Harris-McCoy

Dreaming and Historical Consciousness in Island Greece (Harvard U. Press) Charles Stewart ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello, Apophenia,

You have saved my life more times, on more occasions, than I can count or name.

You have offered me Sense of a kind I can’t (don’t want) to conjure or contrive.

(why I don’t want to do this, why should I do this when it is done relentlessly without me, without my interference, with no doing on my part, the role one assumes or accepts, say for instance, being in a conventional audience, another story, a story for another time)

Someone somewhere at some time said the word “Apophänie” in order to say that there are characteristics at the onset of delusional thinking, that at the onset we don’t offset and are not off put or otherwise unsusceptible.

apophany from apo + phaenein

there is the opportunity to:

Experience delusion as Revelation.[4]

As opposed to epiphany which is somehow supposed to be not delusional, rather it is supposed to be: delusional’s partner:

apophany does not provide insight or interconnectedness, sadly this is what is said about apophany

it’s more apt to monotonously cause one to think one is experiencing Meaning

which it is said can be self-referential, solipsistic, paranoid:

“being observed, spoken about, the object of eavesdropping, followed by strangers”.[5]

A common example of perceived but non-existent patterns are paranormal sightings, including sightings of ghosts, Unidentified Flying Objects, cryptozoology, etc.

See divination See gambling See religious experience See synchronicity See conspiracy theory

See pareidolia See put it in writing See better not waste one’s time See what a surprise See a sudden awakening unaccountably everywhere at once (in which actually appears two times) (which is actually where and when everything actually is) See

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ sensation one’s brain is having when one is reading something or listening to something one knows is standing in for something else when one thing is said in order to avoid saying something else it depends so much on one’s tone in the prose or poetry whether or not doing this substituting is a powerful, fearful, I dare not say this, this is too much to say, I have to say something else that will instead having been said make room for what I’ve avoided saying this is not the same sensation as having no words for something

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

art-making of a so-called outsider has often been attributed to, said to be a consequence of isolation when it’s equally plausible that isolation is a result of art making which isn’t necessarily a bad thing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joan Jett The Runaways Cherry Bomb for #19

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Dara Wier is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Selected Poems, Remnants of Hannah, Reverse Rapture, and You Good Thing (now available from Wave Books). She teaches in the University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets and Writers. Her awards include the Poetry Center and Archives Book of the Year Award, a Pushcart Prize, the American Poetry Review’s Jerome Shestack Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She edits Factory Hollow Press. Visit her author page at Wave Books or read an interview.

INSIDE UNDIVIDED (18)

a series of fragments & notes about Chance, Fate, and Context by Dara Wier ____________________________________

a chameleon has a master who places it on plaid.  It is first frenzied, and then it dies of fatigue

(Jean Cocteau in an interview for PARIS REVIEW)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had a friend one time who told me she and a friend would be having tea, something they did once a year, always on the same day, I wish I could remember the day’s significance, if it had any significance in particular, it probably did.  During the tea it was their habit to introduce to one another beta they bought for the occasion, to watch them fight to the death as any self-respecting beta will do if given half the chance.

My friend seemed to be telling me this to convince me that she was a very interesting person, who did significant things, who could report on these things to others, who didn’t have ordinary feelings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

who hasn’t been mesmerized by a murmuration of birds–what with their scale-free correlationwith no, almost no, degradation as information moves through the flockwith the newest supposition or guess that they co-ordinate with their 7 nearest neighbors

This scale-free correlation allows birds to greatly enhance what the researchers call “effective perceptive range,” which is another way of saying that a bird on one side of a flock can respond to what other birds are sensing all the way across the flock—on the flock’s other side–away from where–

this is how thinking of words in motion in multiple uncountable and when truly active unpredictable combinations and meetings, ship-in-the-night slips, gives poems their kinetic and otherwise uncanny and mysterious ways

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Theoretically the person who’s reading a book or pages in a journal or this, is invisible to the one who’s responsible for the book or pages, the words.  Theoretically the meeting between reader and what’s read is anonymous, invisible, unquantifiable, (e.g.

when where why howhow longwhat speedwhat intentionwhat circumstanceswhere does it matterhow sowhat for

reading alone, one never seems alone when one is reading

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naomi, Louisiana  1950s/1960s

Where we had a pet alligator

we kept an alligator penned up & prisoner

it lived pitifully in a pit by the corner of a barn

We threw it leftovers and fish and animal insides

we cleaned out for cooking

It hissed at us when we came near

The most horrendous, possibly traumatic, I would say so, yes,  memory associated with this:  my cousins and uncles clubbed a hundred or so domestic rabbits one morning; cleaned them, threw their skins and insides to the alligator, sold the rabbit meat from our roadside stand and set the alligator loose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Animal Club

a small club, an exclusive membership, my father, my mother and me, based on my love of animals and animal spotting, I was between 4 and 8 then

my father was president, mother secretary, me treasurer, presumably because our club was without funds

the club was my parents attempt to convince me that we were a family, we had a purpose

but we did have funds and eventually I stole them to use for a purpose I believed amounted to something

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

talking English with and otherwise communicating with animals

~~~~~~~

becoming a panther

this I had to do when it was called for to protect my children

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this bears on why we might put more pressure on, have more attention for, attribute more purpose to,  etc., one word more than we might multiple words

Marilynne Robinson’s idea:

The Bible is terse, the Gospels are brief, and the result is that every moment and detail merits pondering and can always appear in a richer light——-we can bring our own feelings to bear in the reading of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s not the end of the world to say, Maybe I don’t like what I’m doing all that much but I have to keep doing something until I start doing something else, with perhaps the result I will like it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m thinking it is really necessary to determine not so much the nature of things but the nature of one’s relationship to things.  Is one also a thing?  Yes.  Living, moving things, “breathing” things, yes.  And one’s relationship to our perceived nature of time.  Time may be most flexible and inflexible, ineffable, so strict, unforgiving, completely a figment, it is maybe the mystery underlying all mysteries, very likely.

~~~~~~~~

on p 73 in The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt:

Others suggested that if you could perceive the smallest particle of a man, you would find an infinitesimally tiny man; and similarly for a horse, a droplet of water, or a blade of grass.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I guess it’s inevitable one thinks of Frankenstein’s nameless creature

(I am thy creature, I ought to have been thine Adam, instead I am your fallen angel whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed)

when one thinks about collage, assemblage, cut-up, mash-up, juxtaposing, and puzzling combinations of…………

one thinks of creation

one thinks of what comes into being

Impossible not to pity the creature

whose whole complete being

comes from something we recognize,

something in itself something,

something already a lot like something

we are making something out of and

we are making something into.

Other things as well.

How something comes into being.  Why someone feels as if owning up to source material is imperative or leastways interesting.  That.

Interesting.  Why so interesting, why so documentary, why so time laden and burdened, why so earnest and hard-working in time, why so accountable, why so singular, why so obsessive, why so narrowed, why so analytical, why so self-conscious, why so difficult, why so impossible.

QuirkClassic

cut-ups and cut-up collections

and this song:

◊

________________________________________________

Dara Wier is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Selected Poems, Remnants of Hannah, Reverse Rapture, and You Good Thing (now available from Wave Books). She teaches in the University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets and Writers. Her awards include the Poetry Center and Archives Book of the Year Award, a Pushcart Prize, the American Poetry Review’s Jerome Shestack Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She edits Factory Hollow Press. Visit her author page at Wave Books or read an interview.