If everything is miscellaneous,
then no existing structure,
system, or binomial nomenclature
governs particular groups
of individual things.
The game plan, or
organizing principle
is up to the players.
Is this revolutionary
or merely scientific?
Creating such a system
can take an Aristotelian,
deductive, a priori path:
a given set of types
defining whole classes
orders, families, geni, species
of individual items,
establishing the rules top-down
by theory-driven practice,
like Linnaeus (not his real name)
Or a Wittgensteinian,
inductive, pragmatic path:
a collection of prototypes
drawn from those items,
leaving open the definition
of the family resemblance
between similar examples
by practice-driven theory,
like Mao or Darwin or Dewey
(John not Melville).
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
NaPoWriMo Day 25: May Day
May Day is many things to many people.
As kids we drew pictures of May Poles
in school with people dancing around.
Newspapers showed black and white photos
parades of tanks and missiles in Red Square,
a patriotic display of hammers and sickles.
Then spring became a time for antiwar protest,
and May Day became an alarm again,
a call not to arms but to stop the war machine.
Was it Nixon who renamed it 'Law Day'
for congressmen to talk about order
and decry the dangers of disagreeing?
Ancient Celtic tradition had its Beltane
fertility ritual with fires and dancing
around a phallic pole, ribbons spreading
like petals around it. Warm weather returns,
seeds are sown, birds and bees make babies,
new growth begins and crops will be harvested.
My nontraditional May Day consisted
of working out in the yard, paying bills,
downloading and managing files,
riding a bike to the bank and the library,
reading the business section of the paper,
and listening to rain on the roof.
As kids we drew pictures of May Poles
in school with people dancing around.
Newspapers showed black and white photos
parades of tanks and missiles in Red Square,
a patriotic display of hammers and sickles.
Then spring became a time for antiwar protest,
and May Day became an alarm again,
a call not to arms but to stop the war machine.
Was it Nixon who renamed it 'Law Day'
for congressmen to talk about order
and decry the dangers of disagreeing?
Ancient Celtic tradition had its Beltane
fertility ritual with fires and dancing
around a phallic pole, ribbons spreading
like petals around it. Warm weather returns,
seeds are sown, birds and bees make babies,
new growth begins and crops will be harvested.
My nontraditional May Day consisted
of working out in the yard, paying bills,
downloading and managing files,
riding a bike to the bank and the library,
reading the business section of the paper,
and listening to rain on the roof.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
NaPoWriMo Day 24: Big O
What distinguishes the greatest players
from the many very good ones who
are merely the best at what they do?
I'll tell you: it's being the best at
several things and doing what needs to be done.
Oscar was the best passer (maybe ever)
and one of the best defenders; he led
the league in scoring, moved without the ball,
and could rebound with the best.
One year he averaged a triple-double!
Wilt was by far the best scorer,
maybe the best rebounder and defender
(when motivated), and he could dish out
assists at will, but not so consistent.
Michael, always motivated, had no peer
as a scorer or defender; he could pass
or rebound as needed, and
he willed his team to win.
Magic, more like Oscar, was pass first,
shoot second, run the floor, team defense,
rebound as needed, AND
he could play all five positions.
LeBron has to decide every night
whether to be the scorer, passer,
defender, or rebounder and how
to get his teammates involved.
I never saw Mikan play, but they say
he was unstoppable. I did see Cousy,
Russell, Jabbar, and Bird, possibly
the smartest players ever, if not the best.
from the many very good ones who
are merely the best at what they do?
I'll tell you: it's being the best at
several things and doing what needs to be done.
Oscar was the best passer (maybe ever)
and one of the best defenders; he led
the league in scoring, moved without the ball,
and could rebound with the best.
One year he averaged a triple-double!
Wilt was by far the best scorer,
maybe the best rebounder and defender
(when motivated), and he could dish out
assists at will, but not so consistent.
Michael, always motivated, had no peer
as a scorer or defender; he could pass
or rebound as needed, and
he willed his team to win.
Magic, more like Oscar, was pass first,
shoot second, run the floor, team defense,
rebound as needed, AND
he could play all five positions.
LeBron has to decide every night
whether to be the scorer, passer,
defender, or rebounder and how
to get his teammates involved.
I never saw Mikan play, but they say
he was unstoppable. I did see Cousy,
Russell, Jabbar, and Bird, possibly
the smartest players ever, if not the best.
Day 23: Ritual
The clearing of the cubicle begins:
make a pot of coffee although
no one else is in the office.
Remove mementos from fabric walls,
except for a couple of parting shots,
and purge papers from cardboard files,
shredding the confidential ones,
to leave an empty desk behind.
Pack a few books in boxes to take home;
some were used for reference, and some
are products you've had a hand in making.
Place precious photos in a clear plastic
envelope with clippings, cards, a pen or two,
and bits of memorabilia. Carry two boxes
out to the car, slip your card-key
under the door, and exit the building.
make a pot of coffee although
no one else is in the office.
Remove mementos from fabric walls,
except for a couple of parting shots,
and purge papers from cardboard files,
shredding the confidential ones,
to leave an empty desk behind.
Pack a few books in boxes to take home;
some were used for reference, and some
are products you've had a hand in making.
Place precious photos in a clear plastic
envelope with clippings, cards, a pen or two,
and bits of memorabilia. Carry two boxes
out to the car, slip your card-key
under the door, and exit the building.
Day 22: Now's the Time
Charlie Parker's 'Now's the Time'
is a coherence theory of truth
not conforming to or dictating a
reality outside itself but
obeying its own internal laws
and logic with complete integrity.
is a coherence theory of truth
not conforming to or dictating a
reality outside itself but
obeying its own internal laws
and logic with complete integrity.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Day 21: Wild in the City
Flowers native to North America
grow inside a fenced backyard;
saplings started from seeds sown
by birds or wind or water seeking
a spot to rest and root in some
unlikely habitat in gutters,
ditches, cracks in pavement by
the sidewalk, alleyways, and vacant lots.
The hawk in the maple tree beside the school;
the wrens outside our kitchen window
humping on their sheet-metal house, and
a brand new nest in the rambling roses
on top of the pergola; Sunday morning
dozens of butterflies swarmed the ajuga;
A family of squirrels lives halfway up
the pine beside the garage, their territory not ours.
grow inside a fenced backyard;
saplings started from seeds sown
by birds or wind or water seeking
a spot to rest and root in some
unlikely habitat in gutters,
ditches, cracks in pavement by
the sidewalk, alleyways, and vacant lots.
The hawk in the maple tree beside the school;
the wrens outside our kitchen window
humping on their sheet-metal house, and
a brand new nest in the rambling roses
on top of the pergola; Sunday morning
dozens of butterflies swarmed the ajuga;
A family of squirrels lives halfway up
the pine beside the garage, their territory not ours.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Day 20: Wildly inappropriate appropriated wildness
Wilderness mind is dissolving duality
in work of fourteen artists
whose work together
ranges from photography
to nonrepresentational painting,
performance, and installation.
References to water,
suburban irrigation systems,
the arctic ice cap,
Barr owls, sea otters,
golden trout from the Sierras,
locations from San Pedro Harbor to Mozambique.
Within the frame of wilderness,
themes of degradation and emergence,
natural cycles and mystery,
concern for the environment,
connected oneness and hope,
artistic diversity and interrelatedness.
Visitors experience a
collaborative alternative
to more traditional strategies
of agency through domination
and the possibility for everyone
to experience wilderness.
Uninhabited nature or
visual messages communicated
in workshops and programs
offered to the community
to inspire visitors to participate
in effective stewardship.
Wilderness may call to mind
places of intense experience
far from civilization and
reveal itself to be more than a location
of uncultivated, abandoned, inhospitable conditions
inhabited only by wild animals.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century meaning
expanded Romantic transcendental
reflections of longing and desire,
the best antidote to our human selves
mysteriously remain the site
of something profoundly Other.
Places are wastelands or sacred spaces,
not the places of experience
as frightening or divine opposition
apart from the human world
pure, preserved, and protected
from industrial defilements of daily life.
We disagree. We consider
high-minded dualism a dynamic conflict
a local or global, physical or imaginary
state of mind that defies location
in which social structure relaxes,
logic slips away, time and space collapse.
This open state of wonder
inspires fear, disorientation,
foreboding, and sublime landscape
in degraded urban grittiness
in an unexplored corner
of an unremarkable backyard.
Artists from Antarctica,
icebergs, and carcasses of dead birds
seek a complete relationship of
responsibility and respect
both planetary or microscopic
that we unavoidably impact.
in work of fourteen artists
whose work together
ranges from photography
to nonrepresentational painting,
performance, and installation.
References to water,
suburban irrigation systems,
the arctic ice cap,
Barr owls, sea otters,
golden trout from the Sierras,
locations from San Pedro Harbor to Mozambique.
Within the frame of wilderness,
themes of degradation and emergence,
natural cycles and mystery,
concern for the environment,
connected oneness and hope,
artistic diversity and interrelatedness.
Visitors experience a
collaborative alternative
to more traditional strategies
of agency through domination
and the possibility for everyone
to experience wilderness.
Uninhabited nature or
visual messages communicated
in workshops and programs
offered to the community
to inspire visitors to participate
in effective stewardship.
Wilderness may call to mind
places of intense experience
far from civilization and
reveal itself to be more than a location
of uncultivated, abandoned, inhospitable conditions
inhabited only by wild animals.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century meaning
expanded Romantic transcendental
reflections of longing and desire,
the best antidote to our human selves
mysteriously remain the site
of something profoundly Other.
Places are wastelands or sacred spaces,
not the places of experience
as frightening or divine opposition
apart from the human world
pure, preserved, and protected
from industrial defilements of daily life.
We disagree. We consider
high-minded dualism a dynamic conflict
a local or global, physical or imaginary
state of mind that defies location
in which social structure relaxes,
logic slips away, time and space collapse.
This open state of wonder
inspires fear, disorientation,
foreboding, and sublime landscape
in degraded urban grittiness
in an unexplored corner
of an unremarkable backyard.
Artists from Antarctica,
icebergs, and carcasses of dead birds
seek a complete relationship of
responsibility and respect
both planetary or microscopic
that we unavoidably impact.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Day 19: Memo to Mitt
FYI, I am available.
You will need a running mate
come convention time,
and you need to win Ohio.
I happen to be from Ohio.
It's a swing state. Pick me.
Like you, I have good hair.
I'm not a Mormon
but I've known several Mormons,
and they're very nice people.
How are you polling with the
Unitarian-Pagan-Buddhist-Taoist bloc?
Unlike you, I went to public schools
and a midwestern land-grant university.
My people are salt-of-the-earth
populist small-town working folk.
I drive a Ford and bake my own bread.
People will eat that up.
You and I were practically neighbors
in Michigan growing up in the sixties
when your Dad was governor.
I didn't go to Cranbrook.
I went to Groves down the road.
We go way back.
You want the suburban Mom vote?
My wife teaches yoga in Westerville,
and she's worked all her life, unlike some.
We both have values, just different ones.
We're so different, yet we're alike.
Kind of like America.
You will need a running mate
come convention time,
and you need to win Ohio.
I happen to be from Ohio.
It's a swing state. Pick me.
Like you, I have good hair.
I'm not a Mormon
but I've known several Mormons,
and they're very nice people.
How are you polling with the
Unitarian-Pagan-Buddhist-Taoist bloc?
Unlike you, I went to public schools
and a midwestern land-grant university.
My people are salt-of-the-earth
populist small-town working folk.
I drive a Ford and bake my own bread.
People will eat that up.
You and I were practically neighbors
in Michigan growing up in the sixties
when your Dad was governor.
I didn't go to Cranbrook.
I went to Groves down the road.
We go way back.
You want the suburban Mom vote?
My wife teaches yoga in Westerville,
and she's worked all her life, unlike some.
We both have values, just different ones.
We're so different, yet we're alike.
Kind of like America.
Day 18: I read the news today oh boy
eye-catching yet critical reporting
the leed has to get your attention
and try to keep it with a promise
that vaguely works as a premise
in a slightly flattering voice
that's just a bit unsettling
while reassuring readers
because they're so hip
they will know better
than the other crowd
in the vernacular
with just enough
intellectually
pretentious
buzz words
to spice
it up
sold
out
#
the leed has to get your attention
and try to keep it with a promise
that vaguely works as a premise
in a slightly flattering voice
that's just a bit unsettling
while reassuring readers
because they're so hip
they will know better
than the other crowd
in the vernacular
with just enough
intellectually
pretentious
buzz words
to spice
it up
sold
out
#
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Day 17: Detour
Spring evenings are made for riding
through twelve distinct neighborhoods
past five libraries, through seven parks,
across two creeks, past one lake and
one internationally important wetland.
But the trail ends where they're building
the new Dodridge Street bridge,
so I turned around and came back,
retracing the same path in later light
like Heraclitus stepping in the same river.
Halfway home my phone rang,
and I talked to Greg for a couple of miles,
delighted that he's healed after surgery,
an unexpected pleasure and receptive ear
for my own sudden course correction.
through twelve distinct neighborhoods
past five libraries, through seven parks,
across two creeks, past one lake and
one internationally important wetland.
But the trail ends where they're building
the new Dodridge Street bridge,
so I turned around and came back,
retracing the same path in later light
like Heraclitus stepping in the same river.
Halfway home my phone rang,
and I talked to Greg for a couple of miles,
delighted that he's healed after surgery,
an unexpected pleasure and receptive ear
for my own sudden course correction.
Day 16: Just a little bit lost
While riding my bike to the barbershop,
the bank, the liquor store, and home
on an otherwise ordinary Saturday,
a fellow cyclist but more serious than me,
judging by the shoes, the shorts, and the shirt,
asked me for directions to the bike trail turnoff
up Schrock Road and north through Westerville.
Miles later, a father and son in an SUV,
probably looking for South High School,
asked me for directions to Otterbein Street.
I think you might be mistaking me for
someone who knows his way around.
the bank, the liquor store, and home
on an otherwise ordinary Saturday,
a fellow cyclist but more serious than me,
judging by the shoes, the shorts, and the shirt,
asked me for directions to the bike trail turnoff
up Schrock Road and north through Westerville.
Miles later, a father and son in an SUV,
probably looking for South High School,
asked me for directions to Otterbein Street.
I think you might be mistaking me for
someone who knows his way around.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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