TOM CLARK: Keats Death Boat

Quetzalcóatl... CDMX 2018...: photo by Fermin Guzman, 24 February 2018

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exits down a hallway after speaking at a news conference at the State Department. @realDonaldTrump has fired Tillerson in a major staff reshuffle just as Trump dives into high-stakes talks with North Korea. @AP_Images (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik): image via Andrew Harnik @andyharnik, 13 March 2018

Rex looking kind of crushed here, Donnie, never know where it might end up

@realDonaldTrump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One at the WH. Trump fired Sec. of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday and will nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him, a reshuffle as Trump dives into high-stakes talks with North Korea. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik): image via Andrew Harnik @andyharnik, 13 March 2018

Reading @davidbutow's #Pompeo Insta as commentary (and landscape), the future is grave: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 13 March 2018

Y'all know @TheDemocrats are about to help confirm a torturer, right? #GinaHaspel should be in prison.: image via #deMOCKracy @BernieUpstateNY, 13 March 2018

Better not give this woman a pen, Donnie, never know where it might end up

@realDonaldTrump hands out pens to steel workers after signing an order imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. #tariffs @nytimes: image via Doug Mills @dougmillsnyt, 8 March 2018

That’s some strange affect. Photo @MandelNgan @GettyImages @CNNPolitics #tariffs: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 13 March 2018

Pat my aura and see what happens but don't push this box off the desk or you're fired

President Donald Trump talks with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Agent while touring prototypes for the U.S.-Mexico border wall in San Diego Photo Kevin Lamarque: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 13 March 2018

The fat c_t with the fake flight deck cum baby duck tail haircut

dropped into san diego today and said he

thinks california wants a border wall, but alas

california doesn't think so, and but what would a moron like you know

anyway flubbo. The fact is donnie, what california doesn't

want is you, but you already knew that. Or would were

you not a moron. So it's farewell rex hello rockface mike hello torture lady. Are

we having fun yet. No donnie no we are not. By the way

if you ever visit the rich people in the hills up this way

you'll quickly learn that without cheap Mexican labor

no work would ever get done. Mexicans will work cheap

and all day long for you donzo, you freakin moron you.

Without them this town is dead. They ride up the hill all day

in their brokedown pickups with their equipment and tools

in the back, doing all the dirt work for the rich white

people who hurry up and down the freeway feeder getting

and spending and never getting their hands dirty. They are

universally polite because they know they are here only

on sufferance from you. It's a really precarious life.

In the past week alone donnie I've witnessed
two nasty crashes involving yard workers in beat up pickups

and big white SUVs. In the first a truck coming down marin at los angeles
and hitting the last steepest bit of 18 degree decline
crunched into the back of an SUV, bounced a bit and

exploded (blown out brakes) a few feet from

my ancient shocked person as I attempted to traverse

the insane eight spoke Circle, producing fire and sparks and smoke
blooming and showering all about, and fear

and confusion. I reeled back. Soon enough the driver and

another man and a woman, a crew of yard workers, were beside me,

standing on the corner, amid the shattered glass and tangled metal,

experiencing the abomination of whiteworld desolation.
They had smartphones and were fiddling with them.

When I commiserated the driver assured me

it was okay, he is covered. The white person in the SUV

departed the scene leaving the wretched workers stranded

there, awaiting the police, forlorn. Yesterday the incessant rain

and rush hour insanity combined to produce another, worse

crash just in front of the haunted house, which rocked

and shook upon heavy impact, as always happens when the freeway

feeder claims another victim. All five cats in house at the time
immediately went to ground. High pitched alarm signal
triggered by impact pierced air
with nutty sound like parakeet nervous breakdown and did not stop.
Here again an unequal contest large white tanklike SUV

vs small banged up pickup. The pickup came out of it

with a crushed rear end and two very scared occupants, driver

and another, standing downcast in the rain under the garage awning

of Bob from Oklahoma, who, being a solid citizen, assisted

in the arrest by rolling up his big foreboding front gate

to allow the interrogation to take place

out of the rain. The cop was asking the driver his address.

Not getting a good answer, and the interrogated man

now began, nervously, to recite addresses, and more addresses, and soon

it became clear that this was not going to end well

for the workmen. On the crushed back end of their little

red pickup was inscribed, in white paint,

"Mi Homita", surrounded by a large wobbly outlined heart.

Steve HollandVerified account @steveholland1

Pres Trump arriving at border wall prototypes

Reading The Pictures Retweeted Steve Holland

Reading The Pictures added,

All the world’s a final round beauty contest.
image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 13 March 2018

When he makes his first presidential visit to California on Tuesday, Donald Trump will see prototypes of the wall he wants to build on the border with Mexico. @ProyectoElCerco (el cerco = the fence) is a photo project documenting the state of fences already along the border: image via Sophie Nicholson @sohnic, 13 March 2018

#Mexico Undaunted by Trump's wall, migrants vow to go over it. #AFP Photo: image via AFP photo @AFPphoto, 13 March 2018

#Mexico Undaunted by Trump's wall, migrants vow to go over it. #AFP Photo: image via AFP photo @AFPphoto, 13 March 2018

#Mexico Undaunted by Trump's wall, migrants vow to go over it. #AFP Photo: image via AFP photo @AFPphoto, 13 March 2018

Texcoco, Edomex 2018...: photo by Fermin Guzman, 26 February 2018

Chimalhuacán, EDOMEX 2018...: photo by Fermin Guzman, 7 March 2018

#Syria Syria war has killed more than 350,000 in 7 years: monitor #AFP Photo @Ammar Suleiman: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 12 March 2018

Syrie: la France demande à la Russie de faire "arrêter le bain de sang" (ambassadeur ONU) #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 12 March 2018

Hitler's war crimes in #Russia's Stalingrad 1942 #Putin's war crimes in #EasternGhouta #Syria today: image via Amer almohibany @amer_almohibany, 13 March 2018

Hitler's war crimes in #Russia's Stalingrad 1942 #Putin's war crimes in #EasternGhouta #Syria today: image via Amer almohibany @amer_almohibany, 13 March 2018

Bnei Brak, Israel. Israeli border police scuffle with ultra-Orthodox Jews taking part in a protest against army conscription: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock, 13 March 2018

Kashmiri men carry a youth who fell unconscious during the funeral of rebel Easa Fazili, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Monday, March 12, 2018. A gun-battle between Indian troops and rebels early Monday killed three insurgents in disputed Kashmir and triggered more anti-India protests and clashes, officials said.: photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP, 12 March 2018

People gather around the body of a Slain militant Eesa Fazili, during his funeral procession in Srinagar.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @basiitzargar, 12 March 2018

Thousands of people participated in the funeral prayers of slain militant Eesa Fazili in Ahmednagar area of Soura.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @basiitzargar, 12 March 2018

A Kashmiri masked boy takes pictures with mobile phone during the funeral procession of militant Eesa Fazili in Srinagara.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @basiitzargar, 12 March 2018

Clashes erupted between protesters and security forces in Soura area of Srinagar, after the funeral prayers of a B.tech student turned militant Eesa Fazili.: image via BASIT ZARGAR @basiitzargar, 12 March 2018

If Eisa Fazili's funeral tells us one thing, it is the magnitude of people simply wishing to see a #FreeKashmir A sea of mourners bid farewell to Eisa Fazili today in #Srinagar #Kashmir Lens Syed Vikar: image via Bea @HerNameIs_Bea, 12 March 2018

In Mumbai thousands of farmers march together in pain and anger. In Kashmir thousands of people do the same. And our chosen representatives don’t give a damn. Media is there’s. And then they have trolls.: image via Pradeepika Saraswat @iampradeepika, 12 March 2018

In Mumbai thousands of farmers march together in pain and anger. In Kashmir thousands of people do the same. And our chosen representatives don’t give a damn. Media is theirs. And then they have trolls.: image via Pradeepika Saraswat @iampradeepika, 12 March 2018

Funeral of a local militant Eesa Fazili in Soura area of Srinagar, Kashmir on March 12, 2018. Fazili an engineering student was killed in a gunfight along with his two associates in Hakura village of south Kashmir's Anantnag. Police said. @lookaround81: image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 12 March 2018

Your emotional life is not written in cement during childhood. You write each chapter as you go along. (Harry Stack Sullivan) - Schools reopened across Srinagar, Kashmir after remaining closed for more than two months for winter break. @lookaround81 March 10,2018. : image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 10 March 2018

Restrictions in parts of Srinagar, Kashmir on March 07, 2018 #ShopianKillings @lookaround81 #childrenofkashmir : image via Faisal Khan @lookaround81, 7 March 2018

An activist lies on the floor inside the Louvre museum, as he stages a protest trying to call attention to migration driven by climate change, and notably to criticize activities of French oil giant Total, a prominent sponsor of Louvre activities, in Paris, Monday, March 12, 2018.: photo by Christophe Ena/AP, 12 March 2018

From Junkets on a Sad Planet: False Confidences at Sea (Aboard the Maria Crowther, September 1820)

Herring gull in flight, south coast of England: photo by Arpingstone, 2003

The second day out, at Gravesend, a pretty young female consumptive passenger, also bound for Italy, came on board, and joined their little English traveling party. She was just Fanny Brawne's age, and just as obviously as Keats himself, not long for this world. Looking upon her with a haunted fascination as if looking into a mirror, he talked himself into exhaustion that second night at sea for her benefit and his own as well -- and to Severn, later in their cabin, confided she appeared to be at a more advanced stage of wasting than himself; as identically in her turn did the female passenger, Miss Cotterell, when for a moment they were alone together on deck, confide to Severn that poor sad Keats' state seemed to her much more pitiable than her own.

But following these alternating empty confidences, both desperately self-deceived invalids were constantly sick on the high seas, Miss Cotterell fainting like clockwork when the portholes of their common cabin were left shut, Keats swept by gales of coughing when they were left open -- as if their respective morbidities were in syzygy -- and Severn remembers Keats' face never lost that starved haunted expression after this time.

Tom Clark: False Confidences at Sea (Aboard the Maria Crowther September 1820), from Junkets on a Sad Planet: Scenes From the Life of John Keats (1994)

File:HMS Dauntless (1847) in a following wind.jpg

HMS Dauntless in a following wind, Nov 17, 1850: gouache by Capt. Cowper Phipps Coles, RN (National Maritime Museum)

From Junkets on a Sad Planet: En Route (Aboard the Maria Crowther, September 1820)

Seascape: Simon de Vlieger, 1640-1645 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

Woodhouse, Haslam, Taylor came aboard with us
Then left the boat at Gravesend waving goodbyes.
Directed by the eyes of others, I look inside myself
And that smothering sensation in my chest aside
Find now only giddy depths in which to fall
Freely. And once again after all here comes the night.
In the green distance the open sea reflects
An iron fate wedged against a flame grey sky.

Tom Clark: En Route (Aboard the Maria Crowther, September 1820), from Tom Clark: Junkets on a Sad Planet: Scenes from the Life of John Keats (1994)

Seascape: Simon de Vlieger, 1640-1645 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

From Junkets on a Sad Planet: Gravesend (September 1820)

Severn visited the chemist for laudanum at Gravesend,

Sent to buy cold solace in a bottle for Keats.

They were becalmed. He fell into frequent fevers.

Slowly they drifted past lights airs bright towns

Again, the death boat held in doubtful suspension

Like opium in alcohol. Listless passage

Toward awareness' blockaded harbor,

Temptation to lose control, go overboard,

Desperate recognition of his love situation

In which the very thing he wants

To live for the most will be his death's occasion

And yet he cannot help it. Who can help it?

Tom Clark: Gravesend (September 1820), from Junkets on a Sad Planet: Scenes From the Life of John Keats (1994)

Untitled [Newark]: photo by J Perez, 25 May 2013

Untitled [Newark]: photo by J Perez, 25 May 2013

11 comments:

TC14 March 2018 at 03:39
Stan Ridgway & Wall of Voodoo: Lost Weekend, from Call of the West (1982)

Stan Ridgway & Wall of Voodoo: Lost Weekend (live Atlanta c 1979)

Stan Ridgway & Wall of of Voodoo: Lost Weekend (live Beverly Theater LA 1982)

13th Floor Elevators: You're Gonna Miss Me (live Where The Action Is, 1966)

13th Floor Elevators: You're Gonna Miss Me (live American Bandstand, 1966)
tpw14 March 2018 at 07:08
I hope the fat cat is reading that poem right now. You get at our collective anger with great fierceness here, Tom.
Nora14 March 2018 at 13:11
Suspension is my favorite chemical state (is it a state? It's been too long since I took high school chemistry).

One of my ambitions (as a water dweller) is to get a dinghy and name it John Keats, only with the name painted upside-down so that when it's reflected the name writ on water.
TC14 March 2018 at 14:26
Hey many thanks Terry and Nora. I suppose it's always possible President Red Ass will get a briefing. Then again, also possible he'll be off on a long cruise on a short pier built entirely of thumbs. This is what happens when the Outer Boroughs take over Murica. Unstable elements all over the place. Everything in a state of permanent suspense, all the getaway dinghies shot full of holes by heavily strapped school guards. Only solution I guess, harden those dinghies! Harder! Harder!

TC14 March 2018 at 14:32
(Today's carefully chosen links by the way are links to epochs, Roky Erikson and the 13th Floor Elevators to the 60s, Stan Ridgway and WOV to the 80s, two epochs superior in every imaginable way to the present epoch, IMHO.)
kent14 March 2018 at 14:35
My ambition is to finally open that restaurant named K-EATS. I think your imagination can photo-shop the signage. No tipping, but "Negative Capability Welcome" lettered on the entry mat. First bagel's on me, TC. k
TC14 March 2018 at 14:57
Definitely see franchise possibilities here. Take the Mart out of K-Mart, sprinkle in the Eats, what do you have?

(You know, kent, the dudes who run the ovens at the local bagel shop have to get the whole show fired up and running by 1 a.m., so that the bakers and the vendors are on separate shifts, whereas I get the impression you actually do both jobs, one mere human, this is impressive.)
kent14 March 2018 at 17:19
TC,

Why I think that's the best thing any of our great American poets have ever said about me. It's better than a fucking Hopwood for sure.

k(MA,1977)
TC15 March 2018 at 04:12
Photo #4 here, for you
kent15 March 2018 at 06:57
I saw the pic before the note thinking, "I wonder if he's sending signals to me personally-like."
TC15 March 2018 at 15:12
Um, it could be he kinda was.

What else are friends for if not interpersonal signalling!

TOM CLARK

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Keats Death Boat | my little homey

11 comments: