la cumparsita

(image modified from gustav moreau by lanny quarles on fb)

Retrospective.

All unprotected lefts end in Narcolepsy.

"I paid the fee, uploaded my driver’s license for identity verification by edX, buckled my seat belt, and entered the 'new era'." (via language log)

Rochelle Owens: 'Color Pool in Umbria, in Memoriam Al Held'

"1

First a question

then an outline

is it an anatomical form

the monumental painting

is it bearing a signature

and are the letters blurred?

Again the question

the monumental painting

is it an anatomical form

a form of optical effects

of peculiar power

is it bearing a signature

and are the letters blurred?

2

A dead man in a pool

closely and intimately the smell

of chlorine

dead in the swimming pool

of his Umbrian Villa

gorgeous the stone work

painted tiles medieval ruins

the drowned artist’s passion

his rural Eden

monumental the golden mosaic

the giant Cyclops

the gleaming brutal eye

splintering sunlight grapevines

fields of sunflowers olive groves

the drowned artist floating

circling drifting round and round

his rural Eden

a color pool of aquamarine

a dead man’s float

the full sweet lips open

Incredible the beauty

of the Umbrian maid a girl of fifteen

a farmer’s daughter

the muscles of her back

spirally arranged her honey-tone hands

slipping under layers of water

the drowned artist floating beyond

further and further

moving in circles diagonals

ovals rectangles squares triangles

moving beyond the honey-tone hands

further and further

the drowned artist seized

seized by Cyclops the giant

jittery energy the body of work

is work of the body

drifting geometries

3

Incredible the beauty

of the Umbrian maid a girl of fifteen

on her knees

moving in circles

polishing the marble floor

a farmer’s daughter

singing ‘amore mio amore mio’

the marble floor sparkling

smiling at her reflection

the full sweet lips open

In the afternoon

sipping Umbrian wine

tearing off the wing of

a roast pigeon a breast vein

as thick as a finger

4

Everyday Disturbances

in Umbrian farm country

sipping white wine

the faythful cut their tongues out

it is possible that a discarded wallet

holds the beggar spellbound

overzealous crushing the grapes

dangerous and violent the fruit

when the fish gasped Jesus laughed

the full sweet lips open

pulling off the skin of the fish

like a glove hearing a mourning dove

succulent the fillet rolled

rapturous the tongue of the monk

the volume of the fish sea water

spilled on the putrefied heart"

(via)