Friday, March 23, 2012

20120323




we use the old to handle the new

this is how ancient languages (and most all languages are ancient)
handle the new modern world

this is how we all handle new information
in conversations: new, buffered via the old and familiar

this is how a learner handles a new language,
improvising towards the new
with whatever is old to them, familiar to them, easy to them, readily
used by them.

this is how we use the old to handle the new,
the familiar to handle the novel.

[it is your family, your elders, showing you how to go out into the bigger world of the unknown]

Monday, March 12, 2012

20120312




i'm tired of songs of the dead.

i don't live in elegy
i want the past for the future

i want the different for its help,
not its difference.

i want to recover the spark,
not the ash.

tasty as they are,
i don't want to slave in the kitchen,
cooking up jams and preserves

find me out in the garden,
replanting disused seeds
and drinking in
that crisp green growth

made and remade
of each day's new rain and sun

find me there.