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Foreword
Vale
This is Allen Ginsberg's last book, particular to his determining intent, his last writings when in hospital aware of his impending death, his last reflections and resolutions—his last mind. When he was told by the doctors that he had at best only a short time to live, he called his old friends to tell them the hard news, comforting, reassuring, as particular to their lives as ever. Despite the intensely demanding fame he'd had to deal with for more than forty years, he'd kept the world both intimate and transcendent. It was a "here and now" that admitted all the literal things of each day's substance and yet well knew that all such was finally "too heavy for this lightness lifts the brain into blue sky/at May dawn when birds start singing on East 12th street..." He was, and remains, the enduring friend, the one who goes with us wherever we are taken, who counsels and consoles, who gets the facts when it seems we will never be told them, who asks "Who'll council who lives where in the rubble/who'll sleep in what brokenwalled hut/in the moonlight..." He kept a witness of impeccable kind.
The playful, reductive, teasing verses, which could sometime make this world seem just the bitter foolishness it finally has to, sound here clearly. What is the grandness of death, of a body finally worn out, at last the simple fact of stubbornly reluctant shit and a tediously malfunctioning heart, of "all the accumulations that wear us out," as he put it, when still a young man? There is no irony, no despair, in delighting as one can in
"No more right & wrong/yes it's gone gone gone/ gone gone away...'
" No poet more
heard, more respected, more knew the intricacies of melody's patterns. He took such pleasure in the whimsical, insistent way the very rhythms could take hold of attention, bringing each word to its singular place. "Chopping apples into the fruit compote-suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer!" His company insisted upon music and he danced with a consummate grace.
Now we must make our own music, albeit his stays with us forever. William Blake's great call, "Hear the voice of the bard…..," now changes to "The authors are in eternity," because ours is a passing world. Yet the heroic voices, the insistent intimacies of their tenacious humanity, hold us in a profound and securing bond. Where else would we think to live? Our friend gave his whole life to keep faith with Whitman's heartfelt insistence, "Who touches this book touches a man." So Allen Ginsberg will not leave us even now. "To see Void vast infinite look out the window into the blue sky."
JUNE 13, 1998 Robert Creeley
P.S. When I was a kid in Ukraine, I used to imagine living my life in reverse. I thought I had already experienced everything, and now I was just reflecting on those memories. I have a deep love for poetry. This week, I’m only working two and a half days! How dare I take it easy? But this is my 30-year anniversary gift to myself this summer. I plan to go to the movies, attend concerts, visit parks, and enjoy coffee. Also go to Long Island and other places outside of NYC. When I take my time and don’t rush, I truly feel alive. I realize I am here, fully present, rather than caught up in thoughts of where I should be next. It’s such an incredible feeling to embrace life and appreciate its everyday routine. Life is too short!
looking east up the ewes valley. towards the borders, liddesdale hills, and hoghill farm. as the sunrise starts to burn the mornings mist off the valley and hilltops, as seen from the top of the wrae hill. with the busy A7 main road heading north east to edinburgh, and the small river ewes, meandering it's way west towards langholm, and it 's destination-the river esk, (border esk) through the green-tranquil ewes valley. langholm, dumfriesshire, scotland. view large
Built around 1850, these are the remains of the Diamond Springs Stage Station
Diamond Springs was an important point along the Santa Fe Trail because it was the last safe stop going west and the last dependable source for clean water. The trail west of Diamond Springs did not have reliable water supplies and Indian attacks were frequent.
On May 4, 1863, a band of pro-slavery guerrillas attacked the station, killing the station master and severely wounding his wife. After the attack, the station was moved 6 miles (9.7km) away to a new place, appropriately enough called Six Mile Stage Station.
Diamond Springs is so named because the spring nearby was described as “The Diamond of the Plains” when it was first discovered.
This wall was blown down last Friday by Storm Eunice.
The Our Daily Challenge group has chosen Power of the wind as today's topic.
Stuck for an idea for your daily 365 photo? Join the Our Daily Challenge group for inspiration.
This abandoned farm has fallen into disrepair, yet the concrete walls of the silo remain reasonably intact. The farm house however, is a different story.
Hammersmith, Fulham Palace Road. Alex Chinneck’s 10-tonne ‘torn brick’ artwork, installed in 2017, adorns the main front wall of the Assembly London office development (architect: T P Bennett). Entitled "Six Pins and Half a Dozen Needles", it appears to be splitting the building in two.
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, West London, Greater London, England - Assembly, Fulham Palace Road
April 2024
Picher, OK, was a mining town in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, and the area around it was a major producer of lead and zinc in the first half of the 20th Century. At its peak, more that 14,000 men worked the mines in the area, and 4,000 more in mining-related services. Eventually, the mines played out and the last one closed in the late 1960s, leading many people to move away from Picher.
The result of this activity was huge piles of mine waste (chat) in various places in and around Picher. Although not economically viable, the chat piles still had trace amounts of lead in them, and the wind would stir up fine dust particles which the townspeople would inhale. Contaminated water turned the local creek red, and sinkholes began to appear as the abandoned mines collapsed.
In 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency declared a 40-mile (104km) square area around Picher one of the most contaminated areas in the United States. A study in the mid 1990s showed about a third of the children in Picher had elevated levels of lead in their blood. The federal government began buyouts of the remaining residents in 2005, but not all took the offer. In 2008, an EF-4 tornado cut a path through the remainder of the town killing 7 people and destroying many houses; none were rebuilt. In 2009, Picher disincorporated and the school district dissolved, making it a modern-day ghost town. More wildlife than people now inhabit the area, but Picher’s legacy remains. Early in 2015, more than 1,000 migratory birds were found dead in Picher; the cause was thought to be zinc poisoning.
Infrared
I have chosen the Broken stuff group for today's visit of the We're Here! group.
Stuck for an idea for your daily 365 photo? Join the hereios of the We're Here! group for inspiration.
Theme Music:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJkFChVcbmw
Make It Interesting • Challenge 3 (Bonsai)
Source image with thanks to William Neuheisel</a
A late entry for the Collective 52 Photo Group prompt "Abracadabra"
Betty Willis, the creator of the Blue Angle sign and the world famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign died April 19th 2015 at the age of 91. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Willis
Red Hot Chili Peppers City of Angels Lyrics
I don't want to be here. I want to go back to Israel even though they have a slight war atm all my friends are there. I've been there before for a month when it was the Lebanese war in 2006, it was a little scary but you just stay away from the war scene. My friend's in the army there but luckily he only started training 2 months ago they wouldn't send it to Gaza. I've been home 2 months now and I miss it.
I took this photo in Zfat, the lamp post and the mountains it was so pretty.
During the numerous earthquakes in Christchurch the land which ran alongside the Avon river on Avonside Drive slumped towards the waterway. Houses which were wooden framed and had an external brick veneer started to sink into the liquefied soil. This caused the brick walls to crack, but the houses’ occupants though shook up were saved by the wooden framework from the houses collapsing on them.
Pentax 6x7, Ilford HP5
Talked to the guy that lived here and he said a car drove through the wall into his apartment the night before. No one was hurt.
It's fair to say this house isn't in great shape! It's the one at the end of the road, and what you can see is the adjoining wall between the two properties. Yes, that's how little there is of it left.
I wouldn't want to be living in the remaining house - that crack is more than a bit disturbing!