that occur involuntarily

moon pieces the willows crotch together watch mangled sun spots start out over water and wait for willow earth to etch willow earths evening I dreamt the thing in the door didnt change not the house changes the kid in the door changes at dusk the house haunts kids blown out boards burnt cycling in orbit around shadow the willow dreamt the pile of leaves stuffed with old mans bones etchings

Syd Barrett

when im up im up in the morning thinking about Syd barret SYddd Barrettttttt when im up in the morning the RULO CULT moves me to church with Jesus again on a cross past my bed sex sex wherethe 13 coyotes become 13 djs on west 14th street Falls City NE where all Asceticism begins and wakes me up at 68355 and wakes me up with gravel thrown at me and wakes me up cold the piss I piss after I piss that sudden gasp for water after drinking in the sturdy sunday suns gaze the accumulation of all material wealth with desert fathers great plains in me

ole Gary lives bout three miles south a here

by Ryan Jenkins on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 8:31pm · Gary is still drunk at the Flee Market must have been one of those nights lightning on the horizon illuminates the dirt on my face and the river im avoiding you can take a piss from here and hit his chicken coop not even here a scratch heavvy truck traffic at sunset for some reason I doubt ther visitin me horrible remnants of slobbery someone was drunk here last night and I doubt I was involved 1985 heard gun shots every night Mike Ryan and the whole goddam mess to much litter in the yard our neighbor does not care for our carelessness opening my eyes the cat in the garage wakes me going through my cans burning the book in the moonlight, it has been years since anyone read it now we know for sure outside the window she left through i notice a broken washing machine and numerous yellow weeds knocking on the screen door thunderheads billow behind me I forget what i came for at dawn losing my balance falling into cellars Tegan Snyder one time I went over to ol' garys place. it was around 2:30 in the afternoon. normally the dogs would bark and attack you. nothing happened. got to the door. knock knock. gary? no response. gary? no response. so i opened the door and walked inside. normally u wouldn't do this to gary. just so happens that garys lying on the floor. seems like someone else is aswell. i dont know him. gary is in his usuall suspenders. quite the fashion. no realy movement detectable. must be in a blackout state. 2:30 in the afternoon. Gary is passed out. Blacked out. April 29, 2008 at 4:16pm · Like Tegan Snyder gary is quite the blacksmith. his drinking doesn't interfere with his ability to maintain. gary used to be known for his drinkin. he still is. everyone knows. sometimes he just wouldn't show up for work. he works at a machine shop. he can weld all sorts of things. pabst blue ribbon can be found in the basement of the machine shop. they buy it from sams club by the crate. gray doesn't drink anymore. he quit. everyone knows. gary is still known for his drinkin. April 29, 2008 at 4:24pm · Like

winters big spirit puts the hedge back up the osage orange tears at cedar thicket whole nights put together with no moon sky on sky scrapes

Tree House by Nancy Willard

Start with a tree, an old willow with its feet in the water, and one low branch to let you in and a higher branch to let you upstairs, and a lookout branch to show how far you've come (the lake before you, the woods at your back), and now you are close to those who live in these rooms without walls, without doors: one nuthatch typing its way up the bark, two mourning doves calling the sun out of darkness, three blackbirds folding their wings tipped with sunset, twelve crows threading the air and stitching a cape that whirls them away through the empty sky, and don't forget the blue heron stalking the shallows for bluegills, and don't forget the otter backpaddling past you, and the turtles perched on the log like shoes lined up each night in a large family, and don't forget the owl who has watched over you since you were born. Be the housekeeper of trees, who have nothing to keep except silence.

Sojourns in the Parallel World by Denise Levertov

We live our lives of human passions, cruelties, dreams, concepts, crimes and the exercise of virtue in and beside a world devoid of our preoccupations, free from apprehension—though affected, certainly, by our actions. A world parallel to our own though overlapping. We call it 'Nature: only reluctantly admitting ourselves to be 'Nature' too. Whenever we lose track of our own obsessions, our self-concerns, because we drift for a minute, an hour even, of pure (almost pure) response to that insouciant life: cloud, bird, fox, the flow of light, the dancing pilgrimage of water, vast stillness of spellbound ephemerae on a lit windowpane, animal voices, mineral hum, wind conversing with rain, ocean with rock, stuttering of fire to coal—then something tethered in us, hobbled like a donkey on its patch of gnawed grass and thistles, breaks free. No one discovers just where we've been, when we're caught up again into our own sphere (where we must return, indeed, to evolve our destinies) —but we have changed, a little.

watching cnn

five more murders but first a yogert commercial with your fat fuck husband turning into JOhn Stamos drinking bud heavy with his fat fuck friends now a father and son go camping but not without a Apple touch pad nook deal reader so they can watch the fucking lorax when it rains now the politician is sorry for what he said an hour ago he wont say it again

Rolla MO

At a distance the Ozarks itch in me im not sophisticated im from Missouri a Siberian elm grows in almost every trailer park the moon light dripping thru its scraggly shit the downward spiral of defoliation and slime pause only for multiple domestic disturbances

Zen Crude-ism with Justin fyfe in Colorado

I felt more alive than ever when we dammed up that creek together smoked that shit done got lost up In Colorado you me dupree that corey kids dog and all the bears you dreamt of eating us alive almost every other night I cant place my finger on it spent half the day placing stones on slippery creek bed rerouting earth earth rerouting us silent water put together in action

an obituary for someone elses farm

using maps to decipher land for reference I use pivots no longer in existence dried up circles evaporated on outdated maps Im sending letters to dead farmers IN a dead mans office i find large pine cones boots maybe his seed corn caps everything still frozen in place like a shrine important notes and phone numbers no longer used on a disconnected phone these letters go unnoticed they wait in boxes or are sent to fraudulent land trusts forgotten by trusties

Four poems for Robin by Gary SNyder

Siwashing It Out Once in Suislaw Forest

I slept under rhododendron
All nightblossoms fell
Shivering on a sheet of cardboard
Feet stuck in my pack
Hands deepin my pockets
Barelyableto sleep.
I rememberedwhen we were in school
Sleeping together in a big warm bed
We were the youngest lovers
When we broke up we were still nineteen
Now our friends are married
You teachschool back east
I dont mind living this way
Green hills the long blue beach
But sometimes sleeping in the open
I think backwhen I had you.

A Spring Night in Shokoku-ji

Eight years ago this May
We walked under cherry blossoms
At night in an orchard in Oregon.
All that I wanted then
Is forgotten now, but you.
Here in the night
In a garden of the old capital
I feel the trembling ghost of Yugao
I remember your cool body
Naked under a summer cotton dress.

An Autumn Morning in Shokoku-ji

Last night watching the Pleiades,
Breath smoking in the moonlight,
Bitter memory like vomit
Choked my throat.
I unrolled a sleeping bag
On mats on the porch
Under thick autumn stars.
In dream you appeared
(Three times in nine years)
Wild, cold, and accusing.
I woke shamed and angry:
The pointless wars of the heart.
Almost dawn. Venus and Jupiter.
The first time I have
Ever seen them close.

December at Yase

You said, that October,
In the tall dry grass by the orchard
When you chose to be free,
"Again someday, maybe ten years."

After college I saw you
One time. You were strange.
And I was obsessed with a plan.

Now ten years and more have
Gone by: I've always known
where you were--
I might have gone to you
Hoping to win your love back.
You still are single.

I didn't.
I thought I must make it alone. I
Have done that.

Only in dream, like this dawn,
Does the grave, awed intensity
Of our young love
Return to my mind, to my flesh.

We had what the others
All crave and seek for;
We left it behind at nineteen.

I feel ancient, as though I had
Lived many lives.
And may never now know
If I am a fool
Or have done what my
karma demands.

tv tv tv

Introduction


A.N. Whitehead once stated that “The major advances in civilizations are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.” This seems to be quite relevant, and almost directed at the most influential technological advance in our society, television. Television is reshaping every aspect of our social, and personal lives. It seems that every thing has been changed and is being changed by television. Societies have always been shaped more by their means of communication or media, than by nature. Humans find meaning in their modes of communication. Different modes of communication bring different thought process to humans. We must realize and study the implications and effects of our technologies on human kind. Television being the most present and widely viewed media in our lives, seems to be a good place to start analyses.
It seems that every tool, or media is an extension of the human body. With the extension of one human faculty another is overshadowed. The wheel is an extension of the foot, and thus the foot is over shadowed by the wheel, as our main mode of travel. Media or technology changes our relation to our environment, when media changes we change. It seems as though electronic media as an extension of man seems to resemble the extension of our mind, or nervous system. Marshall McLuhans four laws of media states that every technology amplifies part of our culture, and makes an aspect previously amplified obsolete. It seems that amplified electronic media is making written media obsolete. With this disintegration of the written word is coming a change in human thought. With written word as our main mode of communication came reasonable thought, and contemplation. As electronic media becomes our means of communication our thought processes are becoming brash, and irrational. Our consciousness is clearly being changed, and created by our media.

Discussion


Believe it or not before the invention of television there were other inventions that changed our modes of communication. They were the alphabet, and Gutenberg’s printing press. Before print culture man existed in an oral environment. Any hand written communication was still meant to be read aloud. Hand written manuscripts could hardly be mass produced at any substantial rate of speed. Speech was our means of communication.
The invention of the printing press separated writing from speech and made the visual sense of communication dominant over the oral, and spoken sense. The spoken word was dimensioned by the printing press. The invention of the printing press created a huge shift in how information was transferred. It made it possible for society to see what was going in it, and in the world around it. Knowledge came into the hands of the common people. There were more copies of books, and more access to them. Literacy rates increased, as did reading standards.
With the rise of the printed word Oral language, or the spoken word was replaced more and more by the printed word. The world of the printed word had emphasis on logic, sequence, history, objectivity, detachment and discipline. The new world of televisions emphasis is now quite different. Television emphasizes imagery, narrative, present ness, simultaneity, immediate gratification, and quick emotional response. With T.V. there is no longer time for contemplation, like there is while reading. Logical analytical thought was ushered in by reading. A sentence creates a linear thought; it shows a cause and an effect. An action and reaction are fully represented. With television we are often left hanging. There seems to be no need for an explanation, or cause for action. If logical analytical thought was ushered in by reading than logical thought must be being ushered out by television.
As Neil Postman stated “It seems that it was no accident that the age of reason was co-existent with the growth of print culture.” The availability of print technology created a global source of information in which other people’s ideas were better known and available. Ideas were able to be combined, and combined for the benefit of human society. We had a global community of shared knowledge, which led to the industrial age, and many other advances. Now it seems we sill have this global knowledge, but it is quite full trivial useless knowledge. It seems we are in a state of information overload. How can we sort through so much information being thrown at us? We must be picky at what we absorb. It seems it is quite easier to make these judgments while reading, rather than viewing television.
Television has fully ushered back oral communication, and thought processes relevant to it. For television is a combination of visual and spoken communication, it is one of a kind. While written communication can be more precise, it also provides more thought, and comes with a great deal of preparation. Oral communication can be more effective in expressing meaning to an audience. For with oral communication there is usually a visual aspect, unavailable in written or printed word. The effectiveness of oral communication comes from the extensive amount of gestures, signals, intonation, and infliction available. In the oral form a speaker has more control over what the listener while hear, than control a writer has over what a reader will read. This is the distinction between precision and effectiveness. Television with its deadly combination of endless imagery has taken oral communications effectiveness to the next level.
Televisions as a medium of sound and imagery has boundless influence on the human mind. Images are hard to refute, for images and pictures have no context except for proving themselves. There is nothing more to an image than what is there. It seems for humans seeing is believing. On T.V. Less and less attention is placed on dialogue. Images overshadow what is being communicated through words. The image doesn’t have to have anything to do with that is being said, we connect them anyways. News shows are packed with smiling good looking news casters who tell us of war and famine. Commercials selling us unhealthy fast food are filled with clowns, and happy customers. Beautiful women appear in underwear to sell us deodorant. These images have nothing to do with the commercials message. The images are not relevant, but are interesting, and persuasive to our image hungry public.
Television amplifies the present moment, it does not matter what happened before this, this is what is happening now. One topic or images moves quickly to an unrelated other topic, and so do our minds.
It seems we are connecting image, and language into on e form, when in fact they are quite different. For language explains image, or builds image from thought. Our thought processes have become fragmented and short sighted. Our technologies have in fact changed our thought processes, sight and sound have now been combined into one persuasive all consuming medium.
Media limits and shapes the conversations that can be carried out using a specific medium. As Neil Postman stated ”Its hard to talk about philosophy using smoke signals.” What will happen when an entire populations main source of knowing about its self is biased and insufficient? Television has become our main source of public discourse, or our main source of cultural identity.
Television is a severely limited source for many things. It hardly has a broad range of opinions, for about five broadcasting companies own all the stations. Who knows what kind of biases go unseen, and have exterior motives and influences. If you are looking for and open minded, broad source of information T.V. is not the place. Even with this said television remains many if not most peoples primary source for understanding the world around them. It seems people just don’t know any better, and television is so accessible.
Every aspect of human culture is now represented on television, so why does one need to look anywhere else? Whether it be news, religion, music or education it can be found on television. One must understand even though all subjects are on T.V. they are no designed to inform, but to entertain.
Television has failed again and again to fail at any other function but entertainment. Thus television packages everything as entertainment, no matter how serious the subject. The problem with television is not that it provides us with entertaining subject matter, but the problem is all subjects are presented as entertaining

Better luck this winter 8:46pm Monday, Nov 26, 2007

Because my phone rang at the symphony
And now I listen to Bach alone in my room with whiskey
waiting
And I threw the pizza rolls at the scene kids ceiling
out of boredom and
Simply Because Bukowski told me to
Told me to drink more
Told me to have absurd relations with women
Hanks words made me
I'm not responsible for what I read
That’s why I spit in my friends face as he was
trying to help me
“I am Zeus I will burn you” I cursed
losing my wallet and other things in the snow
"jelly fish string theory all that shit"
That’s why I uttered vodka influenced REVOLUTION
And simulated gun shots with my hands at mere acquaintances
Literature causes me to do things
causes me to threaten to stab men with stutters
And burn cigarettes out on my nose
causes me to Blow paychecks on winter weather
going to work hung over and beer stained
menial job like my hero
Ive
Pissed on chairs
Ive pissed on people last winter
found out that Love is in fact a Dog from Hell
And yes the Sagittarius is still
the most philosophical of the signs

Cabin Fever Peru Nebraska11:54pm Wednesday, Dec 12, 2007

there is hard evidence outside
trees cracking and ice collecting on power lines
there are some people id rather see freeze than trees
why must nature harm itself?
im absently sliding down the street in the cold night
lights hit Icy branches perfectly
universal amazement for such displays
I approach my home nestled on a snowy hill side
has my unseen neighbor turned their Christmas star on
to light my way home?
inside I pretend to enjoy the company of strangers
whose at my window?
do I have a dept to pay?
leave me be I have no use for you!
im answered only with the crack of falling limbs
and the silent light admitted from unseen sources

These streets are frozen now. I come and go Full of a longing for something I do not know My father sits slumped in the deepening snow As I search, in

almost spring but darker
the dusk holds whats left of
the garden up
mush, rot, and leaves
a pumpkins last few weeks on this earth

boring
dull
evil

peaks in our windows again
an empty streets empty branches
blend
good with car exhaust
and long gridlocked commute


long waves of thaw
and winters blunt edge
working


the red bud and dogwood wait for me
the garden where
your Azaleas will hold me
melts
rhododendron in spring is
proof enough

An aspen or sycamore expanding

after death
the soul
addressing itself
wanders around

the window from which im surveying
defines me

the magnitude of the sycamore this morning
despite my best efforts
will simply not leave

its white bark pealing
its autumn scowl
absorbing the winters void
alone
and fogging the glass
between itself and everything else

An aspen or sycamore expanding

night noise from the garden
turned and twisted my
morning disappointment

and im almost surprised
youve not been burying the
birch or fawns tail without me

where that red frown becomes
clear sumac dawn
and the empty sun itself
wilts everything in October