tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post5142323135077662193..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: NationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86544137516612443572009-12-18T04:25:58.997-08:002009-12-18T04:25:58.997-08:00Heyy Tom
I read some of Jim Morrison. Made little...Heyy Tom<br /><br />I read some of Jim Morrison. Made little sense to me.<br /><br />Could you enlighten me please.<br /><br />Aditya.adityahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16078144194220301083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-23759831466465790512009-12-18T03:59:09.000-08:002009-12-18T03:59:09.000-08:00Many thanks, again, Aditya. For your true poet&#...Many thanks, again, Aditya. For your true poet's discerning eye.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76893928439409395442009-12-18T03:27:14.614-08:002009-12-18T03:27:14.614-08:00Intricately built, Tom. I like it.
Pretty wonder...Intricately built, Tom. I like it. <br /><br />Pretty wonderful analogies and sequences in life, visible only to the most discerning eye are at play. <br /><br />It is a privilege to read your work.<br /><br />Aditya,adityahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16078144194220301083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-39000410360168193072009-12-16T05:39:48.082-08:002009-12-16T05:39:48.082-08:00Yes, Zeph, the seemingly instinctive recoil of hum...Yes, Zeph, the seemingly instinctive recoil of human from fellow human, whatever its (probably largely unconscious) origins, is terribly saddening to behold. I think sometimes of the lore of the London plague years of long ago. But this current demonstration of aversion seems curiously less specific. The persons who are stepped round and over and avoided as though unseen may well be afflicted with t.b., MRSA, H5N1 or who knows what, but none of that can quite account for the virulence of the revulsion we are seeing. It's almost as if the species were trying to divide itself off from itself in some way, or to deny from itself the truth about the interconnectedness of all people--that famous global village thing which comes to seem pretty hollow, resembling less any village ever known than a planetary wilderness of suspicious, distrustful monads.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80724718526616779962009-12-15T16:09:31.972-08:002009-12-15T16:09:31.972-08:00Very powerful, Tom. It captures the strange way s...Very powerful, Tom. It captures the strange way so many rich or 'comfortably off' people apparently think that poverty is catching and that those infected with it must be kept at a distance.<br /><br />Or perhaps they're just afraid because they do instinctively realise how easily it could be them standing there and muttering about spare change...Zephirinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02809525772159756122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86810354864798209642009-12-13T10:27:30.270-08:002009-12-13T10:27:30.270-08:00Tom, I am very flattered. Wow. Thank you for that....Tom, I am very flattered. Wow. Thank you for that. <br /><br />Any chance I could bother you for some advice? If so, drop me a line otto (at) ottomattiq (dot) com.~otto~https://www.blogger.com/profile/08859835662556335529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-83616894365781757322009-12-13T02:01:04.265-08:002009-12-13T02:01:04.265-08:00Otto,
I wrestled with this piece a while, trying ...Otto,<br /><br />I wrestled with this piece a while, trying to get it (and me) to observe a certain distance from a situation that was/is maybe a little too immediate for "comfort".<br /><br />Confession: it was reading your work (urban realism, truthfulness to the moment, brave example) that allowed me to get up the nerve to finally post it. Not to blame its flaws on you, but... Credit where due.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-42196915182187865122009-12-12T11:00:17.295-08:002009-12-12T11:00:17.295-08:00I wish I had something poetic and insightful to sa...I wish I had something poetic and insightful to say other than: I loved this - a lot.~otto~https://www.blogger.com/profile/08859835662556335529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-43561423322279729512009-12-12T09:29:21.289-08:002009-12-12T09:29:21.289-08:00That's Life<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiUqfxFttM&feature=related" rel="nofollow">That's Life</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-30516364496967659062009-12-12T08:38:36.171-08:002009-12-12T08:38:36.171-08:00was it sinatra who sang "riding high in april...was it sinatra who sang "riding high in april, seriously shot down in may"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-78845375501746774852009-12-12T08:36:04.112-08:002009-12-12T08:36:04.112-08:00the romantic desperation
of words
the difference b...the romantic desperation<br />of words<br />the difference between on the road<br />and <br />on the street<br />scares the crap out of me.<br /><br />I have been homeless<br />three times<br />and my words "never again"<br />haven't ever been heeded by time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-70779726463036210412009-12-12T03:49:59.750-08:002009-12-12T03:49:59.750-08:00Indeed, Tom. I have long held that there are no sa...Indeed, Tom. I have long held that there are no safety nets. Or at least, that they are an illusion. <br /><br />But we only find out when we hit that hard pavement ourselves. I can relate.u.v.ray.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02866397025200956617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-90934194385817697492009-12-12T02:40:47.798-08:002009-12-12T02:40:47.798-08:00Here is Ray's link done up for quick access:
...Here is Ray's link done up for quick access:<br /><br /><a href="http://the-beat.co.uk/revolution/" rel="nofollow">revolution</a><br /><br />there is no release<br /><br />from the monotony of grey<br /><br />november streets<br /><br />scarred with the contortions<br /><br />of so many desolate lives<br /><br />& starvation is a dish best served cold<br />_________<br /><br />Alas Ray and Zev the pictures we see in your two fine poems are pictures not of the past but of the present as it becomes the future.<br /><br />Wherever that subway prophet is meditating now let us hope it is some variation upon what they used to call, ah so hopefully, a better place. (Probably it would not take much.) <br /><br />________<br /><br />I must confess that this area of "subject matter" is less distanced for me than I would like or art might require. After being rather unkindly put out of work a few years ago and then suffering a stroke I learned that the social safety net has great rents and gaps. Trip and fall and it turns out you might just keep falling, velocity accelerating with time as in a comic physics equation. You are quite a bit less likely to land on a convenient trampoline than on the hard pavement where all these poems find their locus. The place is real but there is no genius loci, only the abjects, those tired clowns of a failing circus economy. The "us" and "them" frontier grows less clearly defined with the passing days, until there comes the time when one is terrified to find oneself, beyond all the desperate romance, sharing the perspective from Down Under.<br /><br />Indeed in my imagination, my remaining area of mobility, I find myself travelling often in the Southern Hemisphere these days.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-49882054542612251472009-12-12T01:18:13.127-08:002009-12-12T01:18:13.127-08:00I tackled similar observations here:
http://the-b...I tackled similar observations here:<br /><br />http://the-beat.co.uk/revolution/<br /><br />Of course, I lack your finesse, Tom. It's rather a rant I am afraid.u.v.ray.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02866397025200956617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-37686893939528649252009-12-11T17:09:13.235-08:002009-12-11T17:09:13.235-08:00#71. Another Ghost Of New York
November 4, 2009
br...#71. Another Ghost Of New York<br />November 4, 2009<br />brooklyn bridge buddha<br />subway tunnel saint<br />homeless haunter<br />tattered teacher<br />martyred mother<br />sad and alone<br />laying your blessed head<br />on the cold tiles<br />night after night<br />greeting me mornings<br />with your indifference<br />piles of food water bottles<br />change bills clothes mats pillows<br />empty jars torn books<br />all the offerings<br />of passersby<br />averting eyes at pee squattimg<br />picking privates<br />we know no matter our hope<br />that we are you<br />you are the Endless<br />as we are<br />and I wonder<br />where you<br />meditate nowAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com