In Title Meant

Before Christmas . . . the poem needs more (un)working.

Cryptic Poetic

On the way home through Thicket,

I got a low-speed ticket

for driving way long too slow;

so, I floored the board at go,

went gone so fast at length last

through light-speeds beyond space passed.

Still unworking as my family and I spend our December 2021 in my boyhood home of Salem in the Arkansas Ozarks . . .

No Time to Work

A Little Trial . . .

Cryptic Poetic

On the way home through Thicket,

I got a low-speed ticket

for driving way long too slow;

so, the board I floored at go,

went gone so fast at length last

through light-speeds beyond space past.

Still a lot of work to do. Or unwork.

Warp-Speed Ticketing of the Future

Another Attempt at Authorship . . .

Cryptic Poetic

On the way home through Thicket,

I got a low-speed ticket

for driving way long too slow;

So floored I the board at go,

went gone so fast at length last

through light-speeds beyond space past.

It's sounding more like a poem every day. I'll have to do something or other about that . . .

Trying Again

Another Attempt at Authorship . . .

Cryptic Poetic

On the way home through Thicket,

I got a speeding ticket

for driving way long too slow,

so I floored the board at go,

went gone so fast at length last

through light-speeds beyond space past.

I'm getting there, I think. I think I'm getting there. But where is the there I'm coming from?

Thicketed?

Verb used as adjective? Looks like an adverb.

Where once had lain open field now surged upward and at length and great breadth a thicketed realm.

Getting There

Cryptic Poetic

On my way home through thicket,

I was given a ticket

for driving way much too slow,

so I floored to the board go

went gone too fast at long last

at light-speeds beyond pace past.

Getting There? There's a Chance you'll make it if we tend to our garden . . .

Practice is Imperfect

Cryptic  Poetic

On my way through a thicket,

I was given a ticket

for driving way much too slow,

so I floored to the board go,

went gone my reward, for fast

was light-speed beyond pace past.

This 'poem' still needs a lot of work just to achieve mediocrity.

Now Better Behaved

No longer oddly,

the blog now acts godly.

BBB

BBB > BOTTOM LESS BOTTLE  OF BEER 

bbb > Bottomless Bottle of Beer > 666

The above was an allusion to the sign of the beast by way of the uncapitalized letters bbb, which look somewhat like the numbers 666. This was an allusion I made to connect the special beer with the devilish intentions of one of the characters in my novella.

Blog Acting Oddly

 If my blog seems to be acting oddly, that's probably because it's acting oddly. Lately.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

My Bestiary

I have an imaginary bestiary called Hodges’ Bestiary. Or maybe Hodges’s Bestiary? I’m never sure of the rule concerning that crux of the biscuit. Anyway, the bestiary contains 50 beasts, thus 50 poems. Here is the first:

Glowworms, Glowworms

We called them “lightning bugs,” special creatures.

“Fireflies,” said the outsiders instead.

“Glowworms,” said some mad kids, as if features

 like “glow” were hiding deepest secrets in each head.

And they’ve yet to solve the problem of just how

such worms take leave of earth and take to air.

Let’s leave them with that mystery, for now,

as though there were no emptiness still there.

I’m never sure of the rule concerning apostrophes, as I said, but I’ll get a lot of practice on it since I intend to turn my bestiary into a book of poems. My poems are currently in Carter Kaplan's Emanations (ninth edition, pp. 205-221).

Some Poetry from the Mind of Vitasta Raina

I've just read a three-part poem by Vitasta (or is it Raina?), and I feel I've been back to the onset of civilization, thousands of years ago and yet only yesterday, with place names identifying who has been dispossessed over those years, especially, perhaps, over the more recent ones, but I know too little of that history, whether ancient or just yesterday, to understand the references and know what is meant.

But I do have a question to ask about something in these lines, namely, is the word "And" correct:

I met a palmist once, in Varanasi, saffron and divine,

And individual in an individuated street,

A hand without a wrist, a soul without reflection.

Or is this "An" correct:

I met a palmist once, in Varanasi, saffron and divine,

An individual in an individuated street,

A hand without a wrist, a soul without reflection.

Which is correct? I think the latter is correct, the former being a typo, but I could be wrong.

The entire poem - which is excellent, by the way - can be found on pages 284-288 in Carter Kaplan's Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet.

Undefeated Streak?

In the November 18th edition of The Korea JoongAng Daily, the expression "undefeated streak" was used to describe the fact that Korea has gone undefeated (with one tie) in the five games since (and including) Turkmenistan in June, when Korea won 5-0.

My Query: Does the above count as an "undefeated streak"?

A Gay Kim Jong-un?

According to reporter Michael Lee, contributing an article and its headline for Wednesday's Korea JoongAng Daily (November 17, 2021), "Kim Jong-un (is) reported out and about for first time in a month" (emphasis mine).

Breaking News!

Johnson@Johnson is breaking up to form two companies.

Johnson@Johnson will now be known as Johnson and Johnson.

I get these videos titled: "Can you know God?" (And confusion ensues.)

Nobody: "No."

Video: "No! Yes!"

Nobody: "No? Yes?"

Video: "No no! Yes yes!"

Nobody: "No no!? Yes yes what?"

Video: "No to no know. Yes to yes know."

Nobody: "I just say no to know to know."

And so wider . . .

Some Types of Money

So, I'm learning something about money. Here are a few types of money:

1. Fiat Money. Examples: Banknotes (paper money) and coins.

2. Commodity Money. Examples: Precious metals (e.g., gold), salt, beads, alcohol.

3. Representative Money. Examples: Certificates, paper money, token coins.

4. Fiduciary Money. Examples: Checks, bank drafts.

There are others out there, too. I'm merely familiarizing myself with these terms.

Money

I've recently realized that money is both currency and commodity. Is this an interesting or trivial fact? I've never heard anybody say this. Is it a fact?

Planned It

My copy of this year's Emanations, When a Planet was a Planet, was recently released (October 3, 2021) by Carter Kaplan (Editor), and my copy has now arrived. 

As ninth in this anthology series, it is dedicated to the dishonorary exclusion of Pluto from the category "Planet." Here's what you'll find in this volume:

The ninth volume of the critically acclaimed Emanations literary anthology series, Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet presents stunning new art, illustrations and writing from around the world. The forty-two contributors represent South Korea, Canada, India, Oman, France, Nigeria, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Germany, Spain, the Philippines, Sweden, Japan and the United States. Comprising a broad range of graphic and literary expressions, this new volume wonderfully sustains International Authors' commitment to innovation and experimentation, with unusual visual pieces, intriguing artists' statements, idiosyncratic memoirs, dynamic poetical constructions and cutting-edge speculative fiction.

The publisher is International Authors, and you can learn more at the website, which I'd link to, but the software won't allow me to do so right now, so that link is pending.

Latent Paradoxes and Contradictions

Does discussing absolute nothingness instantly involve one in paradoxes and contradictions?

Too Much Of Nothing?

Thinking about nothing has been an enriching experience for me. I now know far more about nothing than I ever knew before.

Stuck on Existence

Relevant to my meanderings is this post Kevin wrote about a year ago:

In order for some X to have (possess) something, X already has to exist. It therefore makes no sense to say "X has existence" because you're trapping yourself in an infinite loop (or "vicious circle"): X has to exist before it can be said to have existence. The very property X is supposed to have must be in place before X can be said to have it.

But could not the concept of X exist, as a concept, but X itself not (yet) exist and would thus need to be brought into existence?

Property

Another way to ask yesterday's question of whether or not existence is a predicate is to ask if existence is a property.

Existence

My thinking on nothing is related to the question of whether or not existence is a predicate.

Nothing More To Say

My hunch is that being is necessary, but I see no way of proving the point, so I'll drop this issue for now.

Absence and Nothing

Consider:

Thing

Concept

Presence

Absence

Operations:

PT

PC

I promised to look at these terms again, in order that I might clarify them. 

Let me note the Operations:

PT means Presence of Thing

PC means Presence of Concept

Think about these and Nothing.

Since Yesterday:

In reflecting upon these terms, I realized that Absence is not synonymous with Nothing. "Absence" retains a residue of nostalgia for the Presence it has lost. "Nothing" retains none of that. 

Is Nothing Clarified Here?

Consider:

Thing

Concept

Presence

Absence

Operations:

PT

PC

I promised to look at these terms again, in order that I might clarify them. Let me note the Operations:

PT means Presence of Thing

PC means Presence of Concept

Think about these and Nothing.

This Clarifies Nothing

Consider:

Thing

Concept

Presence

Absence

Operations:

PT

PC

I'll look at these terms again tomorrow.

I felt nothing

 In English, one does not say, nothings, e.g., "I felt nothings." Are other languages like English in this regard? Or not?

What the Hell?

Here's another example of my grandmother using the word "nothing" instead of  a curse word:

Grandmother (speaking to a neighbor lady on a wintry late afternoon): "I've never known it to get so cold this early in winter."

Neighbor: "Yeah, and what with that cold air moving in, it'll be below zero by morning."

Grandmother: "By morning, nothing! It's thirteen below right now!"

Note that these numbers are on the Fahrenheit scale. Thirteen below zero Fahrenheit translates as twenty-five below zero on the centigrade scale.

The word that my grandmother was avoiding was probably the word "hell."