We plod our steps the best we could
onto a hastily rising earth—each tread,
the thud of our foot against the loosened soil
stirs up another cloud of dirt that opens
itself eagerly, to our sweat-layered selves
Slope heaving onto slope, we lost count
of how many miles above air we had come
Grasping for what’s left of the atmosphere,
we push on, without rhythm or regard
for much except the promised, unknown beyond
Stubbornly, we hoist our aching limbs,
fumbling step onto step—until in a single breath
the space before us recedes onto itself—
a sudden affirmation of mountains, skies
morning air, mixed with sunlight.
Someone once told me that poetry is not
so much a hobby but character-building;
we can claim no credit for the god-sent
delight here and there; instead
our task is to resist
the temptation of errors—
it is a game of patience,
each hurtled word but a wobbling step,
until we not only see the open sky
but also the shifting light of that exact hour,
that makes it
our own.
Tom Cruise chases down bad guy no.5
nimbly swerving the highway, igniting
steely explosion noises and serial crashes
Nicole Kidman shrieks at a shadow,
slicing the night and its dark windows—
it could’ve been equally a killer or a ghost
Shatters of expensive glass, the
escalating insults hurled
between a couple without love;
The movies duly teach their imitators of life:
Sound is the first ingredient
in the making of disasters.
And the earth relents not in competition:
Quakes, hurricanes, and waterfalls
None would ever seem complete
without disconcerting brawls.
Only I continue to falter, defying
nature with shifting shocks and calamities
That do not speak or howl
Your turned away face,
My swelling heartbreak—
Buildings are crumbling and volcanoes are
too surely erupting, somewhere,
but nothing carries through the air to stir
The rest of it
that feels like a muted comedy
unable to casually tell a joke when we
need it the most.
1) Maurice Sendak on the Colbert Show
What a f—king amazing old man! The Colbert irony worked perfectly with the irreverence of this iconic children’s book author.
Some of my fave one-liners from the night- you might need a bit more context to fully appreciate them, but I kind of love them even just for the punch in the words alone
(make sure to watch the video interviews to get the full effect)
2) Solution-oriented journalism?
Switching gears a little bit for something that takes itself far more seriously- but I appreciated, nonetheless. This great NYTimes column was talking about having more coverage on solutions and positive endeavors in journalism than blasts of negativity. This resonated deeply with me not only on an emotional level, but also a logical one. It could have profound impact on our discourses about progress. Only when we start understand the options for change ahead of us can we have actual constructive discussions and build on each other’s ideas.
“We all need a “welcome counterpoint to the ‘unending gush of we’re-going-to-Hell-in-a-handbasket [we] feel bombarded with daily.’”
3) “Fastness”
Did you know that this word does not just mean to be fast?! It has a rather beautiful meaning of also being “a fortified or secure place of refuge.” I rather love it all the more for being tucked away in such an unexpected word.
4) p2pu.org
What a great website and idea. P2PU is peer to peer open education project- think of it as a community of people having dedicated topics that they endeavor to explore and learn together through exercises/content shared by members interested in disseminating knowledge or having wider discussions. Much cooler than some of the vacuous, consumption-driven platforms that exist out there today.
5) Walk the Earth
Confession: I discovered this much longer than a week ago. But they are so so so so awesome that I had to mention them in my inaugural post of CTFCK. Make sure to check out:
6) XKCD book/Breadpig
Obviously, XKCD is nothing new- but I didn’t realize they had a book! I am excited about getting my hands on it so I can consume it without all the annoying clicks for Next > or Back >. It is published by Breadpig, which I find to be quite cool as well (founded by the co-founder of reddit, its mission statement is “to make the world suck less.”); all of Breadpig’s product proceeds go to charity.
7) How a Book is Born
Great article (made into a mini book on Amazon) on Vanity Fair from a while back featuring an insider looking at the publishing industry. By far the best account I have read of so far in popular media. Again, I didn’t quite get to it this week, but it’s probably one of the best things I read in late 2011 so it makes the cut.
—-
That’s it for this week! Let’s see how long I can keep this up!
These are the things I remember
Breath-stopped, heart-stopped,
A moment above air, hoisted by
Two stupid boys—just before
A precipitous drop, quickly—then
The reflexive buoyancy that surrounds
A warm towel grazing against skin
In scents of laundry and wood;
Melted cheese between slices of ham,
Sometimes peanut butter too
Long roads, long meadows, and
Even longer skies. Sunsets fusing
Into fluorescent lights of gas stations
Dotted with comforting snack selections
Interminable drives
I have never been one for poems about
Rocks, trees, and the weather
It was not until later that I understood
They are no more than anchors
For things like a happy childhood,
A hard day’s labor, and peace—
Moments that are forgiving of being so alive.
I learned for the first time today
about quantum particles, those whirring
little things that are closer to the
mystery of the universe than any of
our bodies, buildings, thoughts and feelings
Invisible twins in distant opposites
spooking us with their unanimity—
twinkling in sync light years apart
What craziness! They call it
nonlocal entanglement, a cute
mouthful, I would say, almost poetic.
God bless this abstraction, this exquisite
unseeable miracle that hurtles over my head
I concede that this may be the bizarre ingredient
that makes it all tick. There are days
when I am willing to believe it all.
Then there are others littered with
mundane discourses of traffic, groceries
paychecks and lost keys—when I can’t
quite make up my mind about whether it is
all too much or too little to be inspiring.
Those are the nights when—
your legs over mine,
magical—even if not quite as subtle
may be my preferred proof of life.
I know, I know. I am always falling in and out of love with too many handles and blogs- have a strange wanderlust for these self-publishing platforms. I promise I will carry through this time. It might even last as long as Xanga (just looked, it’s still there! *cringe*)
An unexpected observation I made is how much more impersonal my Facebook has become over the years, while my blog entries- a medium that you would think would be more capable of intellectual depth given its lack of constraint on word limit, have fully disintegrated into adolescent rants. Shockingly, Facebook is now my choice medium of knowledge/curation dissemination- how did you manage this Mark Zuckerberg? Gotta hand it to you.
This blog is an attempt to start recording my more intellectual self and pursuits (no, I am not being satirical); lest I ever forget I was once an wide-eyed 26 year old, reveling fully in my and the world’s quarter-life-crisis.
PS: Wordpress is so stupid.
