A female journalist wears a virtual reality headgear outside the Great Hall of the People where opening session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Beijing, on Thursday: photo by Ng Han Gua/AP, 3 March 2016
over and over, as though by one starving, then once taken in impossible to digest, should never have taken
that, ignored the warning labels, let the cat
that, ignored the warning labels, let the cat
bat the cork around the desk until it nestles next to the chapstick, then madly attack
the elastic band that holds the notebook together, which snaps and then snaps back, mad
pursuit, mad in the taking, the trap wired perfectly, the bait proved brilliant
in the enjoying for a while then later not, the taker was you, spirit now dead and melted
into thin, thin air, along with all the other floating spore cells, then the sluggish
pursuit, mad in the taking, the trap wired perfectly, the bait proved brilliant
in the enjoying for a while then later not, the taker was you, spirit now dead and melted
into thin, thin air, along with all the other floating spore cells, then the sluggish
passage through the thumping night of old Lord Hrothgar the Deafened
the thousand threads of dangling water-smoke wreathed around the iron heart of the oak
the night shadows thickening against the sheen of the water-spears
the neat and curious marbled veins
the wither'd hand of the kind of old white hooded nun, guiding in the long narrow school room
saying I know him, I know him, knew him as a boy, knew his father, old Joe Edgethrow
the melancholy crawl toward death the long dark river drawing slowly the wet leaves
through the hanging mist, the slow words hanging, th'infirm hand, the shaky intent, to throw off all familiar
cares and woes, ha, while we unburthen'd crawl reptilian, before Thoth the Oath Keeper,
swearing we are spores, saying anything, we can still pretend cares and woes, ha, while we unburthen'd crawl reptilian, before Thoth the Oath Keeper,
Chinese pandas given by #China's President Xi arrive in #SouthKorea: image via ST Foreign Desk @STForeignDesk, 3 March 2016
Business of #censorship: How Weibo filters sensitive news in China @Yaglu @@pressfreedom: image via Liberationtech @Liberationtech, 3 march 2016
Security officers sit inside the Great Hall of the People before the opening session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in Beijing, China, on Thursday: photo by Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters, 3 March 2016
Hostesses for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference take pictures and chat at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing: photo by Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse, 3 March 2016
Hostesses
for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference take
pictures and chat at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing:
photo by Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse, 3 March 2016
Security personnel in front of Tiananmen Gate during preparations for the National People’s Congress. How far Mr. Xi is willing to go now that economic warning sirens are sounding may become clearer after the Communist Party leadership presents its economic plans to the congress, which opens Saturday.: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 3 March 2016
Security personnel in front of Tiananmen Gate during preparations for the National People’s Congress. How far Mr. Xi is willing to go now that economic warning sirens are sounding may become clearer after the Communist Party leadership presents its economic plans to the congress, which opens Saturday.: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 3 March 2016
Recruiters talk to job seekers at a job fair in Beijing last month. A whole generation of Chinese youth raised in a roaring economy over the past decade is coming of age in a period of material uncertainty as jobs come less easily.: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 3 March 2016
Recruiters talk to job seekers at a job fair in Beijing last month. A whole generation of Chinese youth raised in a roaring economy over the past decade is coming of age in a period of material uncertainty as jobs come less easily.: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 3 March 2016
A Kurdish woman looks at the damage to buildings a day after clashes between Turkish special forces and Kurdish militants in Sirnak, Turkey: photo by Cem Turkel/European Pressphoto Agency, 3 March 2016
A Kurdish woman looks at the damage to buildings a day after clashes between Turkish special forces and Kurdish militants in Sirnak, Turkey: photo by Cem Turkel/European Pressphoto Agency, 3 March 2016
Turkish special ops grafiti from @Cizre
"He ordered, we did it"
via @140journos: image via Akan Erdemir @aykan_erdemir, 3 March 2016
Turkish special ops grafiti from @Cizre
"You've seen the power of the Turk" via @140journos: image via Akan Erdemir @aykan_erdemir, 3 March 2016
A Kurdish man walks past a destroyed shop front, the day after clashes between Turkish special forces and PKK militants broke out in south-east Cizre district in Sirnak, Turkey: photo by Cem Turkel/EPA, 3 March 2016
A Kurdish man walks past a destroyed shop front, the day after clashes between Turkish special forces and PKK militants broke out in south-east Cizre district in Sirnak, Turkey: photo by Cem Turkel/EPA, 3 March 2016
A boy looks at Greek police as refugees and migrants block the train tracks calling for the opening of the borders at the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni on Thursday: photo by AFP, 3 March 2016
People lie on train tracks and in front of Greek policemen during a protest of migrants. By @SakisMitrolidis: image via AFP Photo Department #AFPphoto, 3 March 2016
Migrants and refugees face Greek police as they wait to cross into Macedonia at the Greek-Macedonian border: image via AFP Photo Department #AFPphoto, 3 March 2016
A woman looks for her husband and son as she is allowed across #Greece #Macedonia #border photo @lgouliam @AFPphoto: image via SundayTimesPictures @STPictures, 3 March 2016
#RefugeeCrisis: A woman screams as she waits to cross the Greece-Macedonia border, near Gevgelija. Photo @dilkoff: image via Stéphane Arnaud @StephaneArnaud, 2 March 2016
A woman reacts as #migrants demonstrate at the #Greece #Macedonia border near Gevgelija #AFP Photo by @dilkoff: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 2 March 2016
Macedonia defends use of tear gas against migrants, on February 29, 2016. @llgouliam #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department #AFPphoto, 1 March 2016
#Calais: A man stands by as a makeshift shelter burns in the so-called 'Jungle' migrant camp. Photo Philippe Huguen: image via AFP Photo Department #AFPphoto, 3 March 2016
Tusk tells economic migrants: stay away from Europe @FulyaOzerkan: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 3 March 2016
Syrian refugees are detained by the Turkish Coast Guard after trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos: photo by Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse, 3 March 2016
Syrian refugees are detained by the Turkish Coast Guard after trying to to reach the Greek island of Lesbos: photo by Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse, 3 March 2016
Children stand in Mytilene as migrants and refugees arrive on the Greek island of #Lesbos. Photo @Aris Messinis: image via AFP Photo Department #AFPphoto, 3 March 2016
A
A dog accompanies models who present creations by Indian designer
Manish Arora as part of his Fall/Winter 2016/2017 women’s ready-to-wear
collection in Paris, France, on Thursday: photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters, 3 March 2016
A
A dog accompanies models who present creations by Indian designer
Manish Arora as part of his Fall/Winter 2016/2017 women’s ready-to-wear
collection in Paris, France, on Thursday: photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters, 3 March 2016
A model holds a dog as she presents a creation by Manish Arora in Paris: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 3 March 2016
Mitt Romney gives live, scathing critique of Donald Trump:.: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 3 March 2016
LIVE: Trump says Romney would have "dropped to his knees" if he had asked him to in 2012: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 3 March 2016
Exclusive: Koch brothers will not use funds to try to block Trump nomination: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 3 March 2016
Exclusive: The Koch brothers aren't coming to derail Trump: image via Reuters Politics @ReutersPolitics, 3 March 2016
Villagers shout pro-freedom slogans during the funeral procession for Asif Ahmad, a suspected rebel, in Dadsar, south of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir: photo by Mukhtar Khan/Associated Press, 3 March 2016
Villagers shout pro-freedom slogans during the funeral procession for Asif Ahmad, a suspected rebel, in Dadsar, south of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir: photo by Mukhtar Khan/Associated Press, 3 March 2016
A girl plays with a plastic badminton racket in an old quarter of Delhi: photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters, 3 March 2016
A girl plays with a plastic badminton racket in an old quarter of Delhi: photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters, 3 March 2016
A woman walks along a canal on a sunny day in Tokyo: photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters, 3 March 2016
A woman walks along a canal on a sunny day in Tokyo: photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters, 3 March 2016
An employee wearing protective gear working in front of a furnace on the premises of Salzgitter AG in Salzgitter, Germany: photo by Juliana Stratenschulte/EPA, 3 March 2016
An employee wearing protective gear working in front of a furnace on the premises of Salzgitter AG in Salzgitter, Germany: photo by Juliana Stratenschulte/EPA, 3 March 2016
A mobile cloudy front moves above the French riviera city of Nice. #AFPphoto: image via Valery Hache @ValeryHache, 3 March 2016
3 comments:
Feels like there's something dark and powerful speaking in these last two poems, Tom, reaching tentacles down amongst the visual images, probing, testing for damage, feeling for the tender spots, picking over the rubble and the litter, foraging. I dunno - sorry if that's way off. I'm going to hang on to that image of the brilliant flying girl in Delhi with her tatty plastic bat, like there was hope in it or something.
You know, Barry, I do believe there is that, in it.
The double take that comes with seeing the whole image after seeing a detail has been seeming more important to me than it probably is. I suppose the effect is strongest when seeing the whole revises our sense of things. According to that simple rule of thumb, the second child in the picture, sitting there against the wall, ought to be reminding us that while the ecstatic skyward lap elates, momently we're going to be earthbound again. However, when I maneuvered my magnifying glass, I discovered that the second child appears, in fact, to be every bit as elated as the first. This recognition destroyed my general theory in the same moment it helped me to concur with what you have so kindly and gently and correctly implied.
My practise has been to try to learn through discovering and understanding the points of tension in he world. That's probably the first image I've posted in some time that does not embody one of those points of tension. Of course, that's why I picked it -- an attempt to relieve the mood. The question about this approach might then be, is it just my mood that I'm imposing, or is it, in some sense, actually the mood of the world?
Tom - my memory is - and correct me if I'm wrong - that over the years you've had a fair few analagous images of kids scrapping together some small improvised playground for themselves in amongst the political/economic/environmental warzones. Is it sentimental of me to be hooked by these as glimpses of a human energy tending towards play and growth that keeps pushing through in the face of death's multiplying fronts and engines? Yes, probably, but I'm inclined to forgive myself. (I'm talking very much about my responses, of course, rather than presuming anything about your intentions).
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