preface to something in otoliths, “a fine collection of many e-things”

I swear to God I just read this.

update: April 18, 2011

(a)

against a pillow, pulse in my ear
almost-heart, blood rhythm

blood in my ear
(a heart in my ear) keeps ticking

(b)

pulse in my ear against a pillow
almost-heart, blood rhythm

blood in my ear keeps ticking
(a heart in my ear)

(c)

against a pillow (almost-heart)
blood rhythm pulse in my ear

a heart in my ear keeps ticking
blood in my ear

(revised november 18)

i shall wear my pauper’s cap and tap my dirty drum,

my dirty tambourine on the street corners of the world

that shall admit me or maybe not; that i cast no shadow

with my existence has  been long my core dream

¶

my express wish is to wrap myself

like a holiday package and very peculiar with its giant

red bow dyed with carcinogens

¶

my isotonic fortitude thus will be sorely tested

¶

[you are alien; i am alien myself; we must instigate much alienness

for our hoped-to-be materially better life]

¶

it could have been otherwise, i am relieved to tell myself,

it could have been otherwise.

¶

but it could have been otherwise, and my friend that is all i need

to lament

¶

###

& a happy birthday to me

Just in case Scribd messes it up, the last line is supposed to be the last two words in the piece. Enjoy!

Update: Well Scribd did mess it up, but is okay nao. I can breathe.

(Non-sequitur: Wika nga ni Lourd of RASP, hindi ako makahinga magsuntukan tayo.)

Update: And another revisefest. Enjoy!

Update Aug 27: new versions posted:

Upon Hearing…

Local Colour

Random Statements

Laguna Copperplate—Namwaran—Prospective land reclamation in Laguna de Bai might unearth more artifacts—Calatagan Pot Inscriptions—April 21—It’d be fun to have Social Studies textbooks begin with the discovery of the Laguna Copperplate—Foreground certain new awarenesses & over the long term improve the nation’s aggregate self-esteem

Ernesto Cardenal—Thomas Merton—Nicaragua—Similar histories! But theirs is better—Solentiname Islands in Lake Nicaragua—Marjorie Evasco’s title poem in Dreamweavers—Ochre Tones—Long out of print—anyone got a copy?

1/f fluctuation—human life’s normal pace—movies have been steadily approaching 1/f fluctuations, which explains the more naturalistic look of contemporary films, tv shows, mtv etc.

Susana Baca—Maria Lando—the song uses Anadyplosis—Anamorphosis—Peru—Putomayo!—once upon a time not too long ago when I was a counter-boy—Maria solo trabaja, solo trabaja, solo trabaja—Here’s another song

Picture of Allan Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and a birdy

The Amen Beat

Toba

Ursula Dudziak of Poland—Papaya Song—Elizabeth Frasier—Viragos

Borborygmus, words such as

Jorie Graham and symptoms such as vascular constriction

Theodor Adorno: Lyric Poetry and Society—where can I read this?

Monty Python—finale of Life of Bryan—open graves! Disturbing—In light of recent local events, disturbing resonances

Basics of Chaos Theory—Lorentz Attractor—periodic, state-state and waterwheel graphs—butterfly effect—fractals almost, but not quite, repeat themselves—this is brought to you by the numbers 1.6 and 4.669

CIP—Centro Internacional de la Papa

Ani Lorak—Shady Lady

Undin. UNDIN!!! (Undine)

Aja Aja Bara Aja—I am convinced of my need to watch this film to tie up some loose threads, if you will, in a certain poem-in-progress—Good luck with that—there’s a scene where the goody-goody counterpart of the film’s lead is asked by her Buddhist mother superior to deeply dwell on a question regarding a certain sagely man’s beard as depicted in a scroll-ink painting—and the question is?

Sous Rature—Derrida’s Trace—Différance—deferred and differing—because surely what the world needs is more wordplay—foreplay

Transcendental Numbers—sounds like a nice name for a book

Em dashes en dashes and hyphens—they all look the same in this theme—must change—Update: 3 dashes in html mode does the trick

—Teka, isip pa ako ng iba.