[Locked to people who like poetry]

[superiorspectre]

This is more or less a test of just how specific one can get with these locks. Psychic journal system and all. I'm still getting used to this. And if nothing else, I wanted to have this here, just for myself.

Shattered Head

A life hauls itself uphill
through hoar-mist steaming
the sun's tongue licking
leaf upon leaf into stricken liquid
When? When? cry the soothseekers
but time is a bloodshot eye
seeing its last of beauty its own
foreclosure
a bloodshot mind
finding itself unspeakable
What is the last thought?
Now I will let you know?
or, Now I know?
(porridge of skull-splinters, brain tissue
mouth and throat membrane, cranial fluid)

Shattered head on the breast
of a wooded hill
Laid down there endlessly so
tendrils soaked into matted compost
became a root
torqued over the faint springhead
groin whence illegible
matter leaches: worm-borings, spurts of silt
volumes of sporic changes
hair long blown into far follicles
blasted into a chosen place

Revenge on the head (genitals, breast, untouched)
revenge on the mouth
packed with its inarticulate confessions
revenge on the eyes
green-gray and restless
revenge on the big and searching lips
the tender tongue
revenge on the sensual, on the nose the
carrier of history
revenge on the life devoured
in another incineration

You can walk by such a place, the earth is
made of them
where the stretched tissue of a field or woods
is humid
with beloved matter
the soothseekers have withdrawn
you feel no ghost, only a sporic chorus
when that place utters its worn sigh
let us have peace

And the shattered head answers back

And I believed I was loved, I believed I loved
Who did this to us?

-- Adrienne Rich, from Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998 (1999)

Comments

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

You like broken things, don't you?

[superiorspectre]

Well, at least this works for someone.

As I see it, everything breaks eventually. I don't see the point in hiding from that fact. And the world just takes what's broken into itself, and keeps building on over it.

Even broken things have that much power. Even when they're forgotten.

...I'm Suzie, by the way.

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

I'm April.

And I'm broken. Less than I used to be, though. The Vesimer put me together again. Gave me a functional mental structure. It's very nice not being completely insane.

[superiorspectre]

It happens to the best of us.

I haven't met the Vesmier, but anyone who can provide a functional mental structure seems decent enough.

Some people will tell you sanity's overrated, but they obviously haven't had to deal with life without it.

It's enough to make me wonder just how far I'd have fallen back home

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

People don't know what it's like to lose themselves.

They don't want to know. It's... dark and painful and terrifying, and you can't do anything but wait and see if someone notices and can help.



...something's wrong. The air's off, or... It was lovely meeting you, I have to go. Something's wrong with Kara and I don't know what.

[superiorspectre]

...And most of the time people don't notice.

I'm glad that someone did, for you.


Likewise, and I hope everything's all right with your friend.

[elashte.livejournal.com]

I saw a famous man eating soup.
I say he was lifting a fat broth
Into his mouth with a spoon.
His name was in the newspapers that day
Spelled out in tall black headlines
And thousands of people were talking about him.

    When I saw him,
He sat bending his head over a plate
Putting soup in his mouth with a spoon.

~Carl Sandburg, Soup

[superiorspectre]

Sandburg was never a particular favourite of mine (that's reserved for Dickinson and Whitman), but random poetry in response is always welcome. Thank you for sharing it. :)

...I never did apologise for what happened before. I really didn't mean for everything to go so wildly out of control.

[elashte.livejournal.com]

I discovered an appreciation for Sandburg after moving to Chicago, actually, though I think the term "favorite" may be reserved for certain Dutch and Polish poets. Unfortunately, I think they lose something in translation.

Please. Apologies are unnecessary. I know how volatile sotuations can be, especially when one adds the Doctor into the mix.

[eelseason]

Pretty specific, apparently.

[superiorspectre]

Well, that's good to know.

...I've got to admit, I'm a bit surprised this worked for you. But then, we never did know anything about you.

[eelseason]

I seem like the sort of person who wouldn't like poetry?

[comeladydeath.livejournal.com]

That's really sad.

Does it have to be?

[superiorspectre]

Perhaps it doesn't have to be, but life does tend to be. Things break down. They get forgotten. And life just incorporates that and moves on.

It's sad, but it can also be beautiful, if you look at it a little differently.

[comeladydeath.livejournal.com]

Before I grew my wings out, one of my friends always said this one to me:

Nada te turbe;
nada te espante;
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda,
la pacïencia
todo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene,
nada le falta.
Solo Dios basta.

It kept me good through a lot of interesting... I had an interesting childhood.

[alt-tardis.livejournal.com]

{{ z_n+1 = z_n² + c }} !!

[superiorspectre]

What

Oh!

That was completely unexpected. But lovely.

I'm Suzie, by the way.

[alt-tardis.livejournal.com]

identify object{self} == 'TARDIS' !!

:D

is.{appreciation}(object{occurrence}{introduction})

[superiorspectre]

It's a pleasure to meet you, as well.

You're not human, I take it?

[alt-tardis.livejournal.com]

identity == entity{'TARDIS'}{species(timamine)}{form(cognomechanical|multispatial|multitemporal|multidimensional)}{function(pack-guardian|transport/habitat(transtemporal))}

[superiorspectre]

You're a timeship? A sentient timeship? That's brilliant.

It's an honor. :)

[alt-tardis.livejournal.com]

:D ♥

[samsara-dharma.livejournal.com]

You can lock to just abut anything controlled by thoughts, I think. I mean, there's no locking to "people about to die in the next week" or anything like that, but if you can determine it by thinking it, you can probably lock to it.

Hi :). I'm Karunamayee. Who are you?

[superiorspectre]

That has to be incredibly useful. Thank you.

And I'm Suzie. Nice to meet you, for a certain value of 'meeting'. :)