Anon and On Again

Deer in the Headlights

2012-01-01T17:57:00.001-05:00

"YOU AMERICAN?" the MC asked me in front of a room full of celebrating Christmas diners. I stood there like a deer in the headlights waiting for the next move. Immersed in Deaf culture for the first time, I vaguely understood the question.

My first semester ASL instructor scurried up to the front to save me. They chatted. There was a signed explanation to the audience, then applause as my mind played catch-up in the event swirling around me. I was a beginner, just learning sign language, here to support the community. Or something like that.

I made my way back to my seat as my dinner partner smiled -- acknowledging my return to more familiar ground. I looked in the envelope with the door prize I had been given and glanced quickly at the pizza coupon inside. "Oh, it's Canadian", I thought to myself, still pondering the earlier query about my cultural affiliation.

Now Hear This!

2011-12-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

An old friend invites me for coffee and offers a buffet of half-finished sentences, sound bytes on a roll, and transitions to somewhere. There is a slight pause as he begins the one story I manage to hear well enough to piece together. Regan tells me that conversations at home are often difficult, so he recently encouraged his wife to schedule herself a hearing test. The test came back normal, he says. He just mumbles.

Rule #4

2011-12-26T10:13:00.001-05:00

My house, my rules.

Rule #3

2011-12-26T10:10:00.000-05:00

There are no rules.

Double ( - Cross - ) Talk

2011-01-09T09:43:00.016-05:00

I wonder
                  why
                           we feed ourselves lines --

                                                            reason
                                                                  crossing
                                                                        over
                                                                           desire

                                                                                       j u s t
                                                                                          i f y i n g

                                                                                        the
                                                                          double-cross.

Romancing the Wild

2011-01-01T07:59:00.002-05:00

Home is where we remember the call back to wild being through the winds of time.

~~ Homage à trois

Reverse Mantra

2010-11-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

"I am sick, always already sick."

~~ Mark Taylor

Telling is Not Teaching

2010-11-12T07:57:00.000-05:00

Why do so many self-taught "educators" think that teaching means telling with autocratic posturing?

Sharing a Special Moment

2010-09-26T09:45:00.005-04:00

I make espressos on our new home machine.
Partner walks around the corner into the washroom for a quick visit,
then walks out a few minutes later and announces,
"That smells really good, doesn't it?"

I laugh out loud. Too much information.

Collective Agreement

2010-08-24T22:53:00.004-04:00

Article #

   I. Do Process

   II. Just 'cuz

   III. Just us.

Loose Change

2010-08-09T00:12:00.011-04:00

Perhaps we'll find

the things we

lo(o)se

in the liminal

(s)

in-between.

Cognitive Stress

2010-08-08T23:50:00.009-04:00

"Too many things
in too many places
across too many contexts"

Been there, do that, daily.

Bridge Crossing Now/here

2010-07-23T08:06:00.004-04:00

"One may cross the bridge without coming back again."

-- Chan-fai Cheung (096)

K/nowhere I return for naught.

"One may cross the bridge . . . "

K/Now here.

I live on.

Bible Study

2010-07-22T23:49:00.001-04:00

Who says, "God says"?

Borne Again Horizons

2010-07-22T07:29:00.004-04:00

"All image values are borne by a context."

-- Karl Bühler. Theory of Language.

I have been pondering new horizons of expectation. Bühler and Ijsseling help to describe, instigate, and re-fuel the process.

  Who is speaking? In what context? 
  Who benefits? 
  Who decides?

You and ME

2010-07-20T19:38:00.001-04:00

A new film and a new research center give a glimmer of hope to those living with a nightmare disease. Between you and me, can we share this space together?

What about Me?

Who in Deed

2010-07-18T09:52:00.002-04:00

"Who is speaking whenever something is said?
Who is writing whenever something is written."

-- Samuel Ijsseling

False Profits

2010-07-01T07:00:00.001-04:00

There's no prophet in re-inventing the wheel.

Between you and me

2010-07-01T06:56:00.000-04:00

I often wonder how words mean
as they stake their claim
in the wide open spaces
between you and me.

How do you mean?

2010-06-30T21:11:00.002-04:00

"All words used meaningfully must be . . . borne by a context."

Poetic L/edge

2010-05-14T09:56:00.010-04:00

I'd like to walk more on the poetic l/edge between 

     yes and no, 

         meditation and mediation,

                    I'm familiar and you're strange.

(Inspired by the wily Harlequin.)

One Line Eddy

2010-03-29T15:01:00.002-04:00

Can't find the words to string more than one line together.

Buoyant Chickens on the Loose in the Falls

2010-02-03T11:48:00.004-05:00

Anon and On Again has learned of the reappearance of the infamous "Poultry in Motion" fugitive in Niagara Falls. The driver of a yellow cube van allegedly smuggled an entire load of illegal rubber chickens over the U.S. border in an attempt to destabilize the Canadian dollar by flooding the market with the faux foul. When stopped for questioning, the driver fled south and dumped the buoyant contraband into the Falls before escaping. Tourists have crowded the area to watch the bootleg birds as they are flung from the raging waters to their demise at the bottom of the Gorge.

Title Apparent

2010-02-01T10:51:00.000-05:00

The emperor with no close is a ruse.

"Untitled"

2010-01-30T09:42:00.000-05:00

2010-01-29T12:55:00.000-05:00

"The title says it all."

hiatus

2010-01-26T08:39:00.002-05:00

I Met You

2009-10-26T20:29:00.003-04:00

“I met you,” the stranger said.
I knew he hadn’t, but why?
Still there he stood, silence bred.
“I met you,” the stranger said.
Furtive moment, eyes ahead,
outstretched hands with what words nigh?
“I met you,” the stranger said.
Mathieu from Quebec, no lie.

Disavowal: To Whom it May Concern

2009-10-26T17:12:00.001-04:00

In the adventures of who
on the back streets of now
lies an other you know
a reverse sacred cow.

Strange looking thing,
too twisted to tell
whose reflections it hides
in that mirror from hell.

God knows why it chose here
to get under my skin.
Now some other saint
can take this shrill in.

I never signed on
to bear this great weight.
Dislodge the anchor.
Let's set this ship straight.

With a kingdom to build,
my best years ahead,
can’t give up my dreams,
to love you instead.

Legitimation Crisis

2009-10-24T22:01:00.002-04:00

Perhaps the abject other
deserves to be feared
and loathed.

After all,
if it weren't so damn strange,
we would have embraced it
as one of our own.

To Whom it May Concern

2009-10-14T13:07:00.003-04:00

In the adventures of who
on the back streets of now,
lies an other you know,
a reverse sacred cow.

Strange looking thing,
too twisted to tell
what dangers it hides
in that mirror from hell.

The Same as an Other

2009-10-10T21:04:00.002-04:00

When who others an other,
who remains the same?

An-other Minimalist

2009-10-09T13:32:00.001-04:00

When who others whom,
who benefits.

Othering

2009-10-02T10:37:00.001-04:00

What makes the other "other"?
Is it the definite article?

Binaries in the Mine

2009-09-30T21:23:00.001-04:00

Binaries in the mine
fly through toxic air
for dwellers unaware.

Or not.

Talk-Over

2009-09-24T19:40:00.005-04:00

You can’t hide the greasy irony
dripping too quickly upside
that warmed up talk-over

trashing the possibility
of someone speaking
something you don’t
already know.

Minimalist

2009-09-24T16:49:00.000-04:00

Absence makes the art grow fodder.

Threshold

2009-09-11T15:17:00.000-04:00

Nancy writes herself
into existence
as her body
goes away.

Story beckons
through the threshold
of death borne again.

Nothing I Write

2009-09-10T07:14:00.001-04:00

Nothing I write
appears to be
something.

I wonder if,
so transformed,
memory reaches
for a time

when the nothing
that matters
speaks.

Dragonfly Muse Blues

2009-07-28T13:09:00.003-04:00

The good knight returns
while dragonfly a-muses
herself in absence.

Fellow Traveler

2009-07-12T16:55:00.002-04:00

I have watched you
romp
with flaming fury
for long enough to ponder
how the knight leaves
the chessboard well
and gently turns
to the dragonfly
at dawn.

(... and in that gilded backlight,
new life begins.)

Through Still Life Shadows

2009-07-11T16:32:00.001-04:00

There’s nothing here
so I move on
to something else
outside my grasp

where nothing matters
through closed expectations
and sedimentations
already there.

Strange body I live
mediating reflections
of still life shadows
in the open field of perception.

Nothing Matters

2009-07-11T09:01:00.004-04:00

I have not,
or so I thought,
as it slipped through my fingers
onto the field.

Nothing to Write Home About

2009-06-30T06:58:00.001-04:00

I have nothing to write,
not here, not now
as something slips my mind,
trading souvenirs of time
for fruitful things forgotten.

Graduating Textures

2009-06-11T17:09:00.001-04:00

You were a child once
playing with your hands
in the classroom,
tormenting teachers
who thought you should
be focused
on more serious subjects.

You were a teenager not long ago
seeking some wild place
and identity to call your own
while you bent words and rules
and turned your sail
toward bursting colors
of curious exploration.

Now a young man
with graduating textures,
you work your vision
of art and life
through the craft that calls
beyond this dazzling threshold
to the self you will become.

Advanced Workshop

2009-05-19T09:53:00.002-04:00

Move in closer.
Take it to the next level.
Eliminate background noise.
Follow your passion.
You’re almost there.
There are no rules.

Inertia

2009-05-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

Immaculate Conception

2009-05-04T08:31:00.003-04:00

It is tempting to think of the camera
as objectivity in a box
exposing real things to light

with no body in particular
behind the lens
prodding, guiding, clicking
turning, moving, framing

miraculously conceived images
without echo
of some active body within
a very particular somewhere.

Chronic Pane

2009-04-26T19:48:00.007-04:00

You can see the world itself
from the window of my sole --

      as long as you are me

      at this moment in time

      and don't change.

Oedipus Wrecks and other Ex

2009-04-23T09:39:00.002-04:00

you all know
that very old story
of the little fish
that got a way
with words
at home
where the son
don’t shine
out of daddy’s
assets
and mommy
lets the children
play house
in the dark
all day,
don’t you?

Take Your Cabal and Go Home

2009-04-22T20:46:00.000-04:00

In / Verse

I don’t know how you come here
thwarting the norm
next to the hive
avoiding the swarm.

Whatever your reasons
you thought were your own
you can take your cabal
now all the way home.

Regularly Scheduled Program Blues

2009-04-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

Notch your regularly scheduled program
with recycled vice
in the word bender
wonder machine
where you spin
that everyday maché.

Any Other Way

2009-04-17T08:04:00.001-04:00

I never knew any other way to be who I am
without your constant watchful eye
     clinging and clamoring for more
           of me than I could give
                to fill that special place
                that you must build
                     for those you devour.

Nothing to See Here Homily

2009-04-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

Lamentation can give ear to deafening silence,
      and voice to the particularly gritty experience of pain,

      when

           openness to stressed embodiment
           through shared human solidarity

                forge a way for you and me,
                     intertwining together.

Or not.

K/Nowhere an Exile Returns for Not

2009-04-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

Now deep in the abyss of uncertainty,

      I let go of the frenetic world that seduces

           from a healthy distance

      while dysappearing presence cripples

           the open embrace of embodied chaos.

There is no certain place to turn here,

      no objective lie that rises

           above the fray,

      no ebbing body ably hiding

           unforsaking absence.

Between here and now

      I feel the not that composes

          within ailing silence

           a new refrain of freedom:

                                    I am a critical body.

                                    Now here, I live on.

Collective Agreement: Workplace Rules

2009-04-10T13:24:00.000-04:00

- Do process
- Just 'cuz

If Nothing Changes Nothing

2009-04-09T14:07:00.001-04:00

- It’s time to change the little nothings.
- No one pretends to be home but the lights are on.
- Someone gains with nothing ventured.
- Something is going on.

Postmodern Multiple Choice

2009-04-08T16:41:00.000-04:00

A. Right or wrong
B. True or false
C. None of the above
D. All of the above
E. Both C and D

If Nothing Changes

2009-04-08T07:04:00.000-04:00

- The status quo queues.
- I think it’s all about me.
- Hegemony Cricket whistles a happy tune.
- Memory fails to pine.
- The buck stops here.

Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes

2009-03-31T10:26:00.000-04:00

What’s up with the new GM libidinal economy today?

“Go deeper. Go harder. Go faster.
. . . You get in; you get out quickly”
(Fritz Henderson. GM Interim CEO).

Does anyone else think that this is the best plan to bolster a free-falling industry?

Inertia

2009-03-31T06:15:00.000-04:00

Inertia is a relentless predator that clings and stalks as memory pines.

Rule #2

2009-03-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

Watch carefully the demise of Rule #1. Then start over.

Theory of Communication

2009-03-30T07:41:00.000-04:00

"Stay where you're to, til I comes where you’re at."

(from a traditional Newfoundland expression and folk song)

A Dandelion Ride: Jump in and Hang On

2009-03-29T07:17:00.000-04:00

“Where do we get” (if meaning is not univocal)?

* The threshold of experience as lived

* The soup kitchen of the unconscious

* To a house that polyvalence built
(a tricky mistress with overlapping suitors)

* Murky rapids across homeworlds of understanding

* An existential train station where “we” is not the chosen vehicle but a question of destination

* The way of the dandelion

* A choice of context

* Back to the fork in the road: What makes a thing what it is?

Nausea

2009-03-25T08:51:00.000-04:00

Somehow you manage to worm your way into the recesses of my gut,

     t
      w
     i
      s
       t
     i
       n
          g,

                goading,

                      meddling

                           like a jackhammer in jello.

I don’t know why I play with you any more.

One for the Hopper

2009-03-25T08:48:00.000-04:00

Words as empty vessels make turn styles for deceit.

Wry Bred and Water (A Love Song)

2009-03-23T08:34:00.000-04:00

I learned to be wry to survive as a child bit player
     in my family theater
     while you were bred on the rock
          of North Atlantic grit.

When we found each other’s hand
     on the coastline of alterity,
I discovered that we wry and bred
     could sustain each other
          in our journey home together.

“Let My Conscience Be Your Guide.”

2009-03-22T23:17:00.000-04:00

A 1990s Ode at the Birth of Hegemony Cricket

Don’t slowly turn and walk away.
Break the silence.
Face the fear.
Stop the terror.
Speak the truth.
Embrace alterity.
Counter hegemony.

Something Old, Someone New

2009-03-22T21:55:00.000-04:00

Despite the best in modern scientific resources, Humpty Dumpty has fallen and can't get up. His egg-shell exterior lays scattered in pieces across the post-familiar terrain. Once monitoring the world from a privileged position on the wall above, his fractured self is now openly subjected to the scrutiny of others below. Some of his supporters invest their considerable authority in futile efforts to put him back together again. Others cheer privately or publicly at his demise and fall.

Humpty can never be his old Self again -- despite the best of intentions.

Rule #1

2009-03-22T17:01:00.000-04:00

Rules are made to be broken.