tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560522491574692802024-03-13T05:42:36.465-07:00A CABINET OF ORDINARY FEROCITIES
poems/assorted writings/interviews/ all by Jon Cone/ unless otherwise indicatedJon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comBlogger265125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-91330938793784848182023-02-17T11:05:00.006-08:002023-02-18T07:23:07.575-08:00My Most Recent Chapbook NEW YEAR BEGUN (Subpress Editions)
Here is a link to my chapbook collection NEW YEAR BEGUN published by Subpress Editions:
https://cccpchapbooks.bigcartel.com/product/new-year-begun-selected-poems-of-Jon-cone
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMym5ec-3B83d12F7Q3mmp5G0_ceDJFvHLaaxpTEfnHbr5zXdZ3Kr84i5AdVAjDerAoVp6Vvs9ev5yezEI7xZ2vhoA-2QZrm80oecycGdX9Ro9WsAcMePjLPJ_ZdtQZMv76V5x4yFG2b7GC7w5IZiXgAAfcoiBWzGZIuWUUyIYbnR6t5H1TB9iyufF/s1064/IMG_7240.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMym5ec-3B83d12F7Q3mmp5G0_ceDJFvHLaaxpTEfnHbr5zXdZ3Kr84i5AdVAjDerAoVp6Vvs9ev5yezEI7xZ2vhoA-2QZrm80oecycGdX9Ro9WsAcMePjLPJ_ZdtQZMv76V5x4yFG2b7GC7w5IZiXgAAfcoiBWzGZIuWUUyIYbnR6t5H1TB9iyufF/s400/IMG_7240.webp"/></a></div>
***
Please consider supporting small presses by purchasing their products.
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-10302254402983359442023-02-17T10:47:00.004-08:002023-02-17T10:54:54.924-08:00A REVIEW OF MY CHAPBOOK NEW YEAR BEGUN: SELECTED POEMS (2022) by KYLA HOUBOLT New Year Begun, Chapbook of Selected Poems by Jon Cone,
CCCP Chapbooks, https://cccpchapbooks.bigcartel.com/
One of the main pleasures in Jon Cone’s poetry (New Year Begun, Selected Poems, CCCP Chapbooks) is that, while many of the images are surprising, even shocking, and often dark, they do not startle. They are instead given a container that presents them like glowing jewels to be admired, or better, absorbed. It’s as though Cone does not need to grab attention with his use of dark imaginings or dark realities, but is simply including them, in an almost matter of fact way, because they are facets of experience we all share.
In ‘A Winter’s Tale of River and Bridge’ a man has moved to a town, a very ordinary, quiet sounding place, and as he goes out looking for work on a winter day, he happens to see what might be a body in the river he crosses. There is, of course, nothing he can do, and no drama is involved in the telling of this, simply a clear and musical evocation of bitter cold, and what might happen as one walks to town.
Or take ‘Names That Could Not Possibly Be Known’:
“Time is a dust-lake
where memory sinks like a sullen beast
deep into the darkest corner”
What is implied repeatedly in these poems is the sense that there are depths of experience each of us has which can never fully be known, only glimpsed or partially revealed by careful language – language that is careful not to say too much nor to try to explain. Language that simply relies upon our sense of recognition arising from a place where we also fail to be able fully to express all that is there but which we know so well. It’s almost comforting to have these encounters with a severed hand, or with a body in a freezing river, – the comfort of the way “tall
boots lean against tall boots”, mutely.
The poems included here range from very short, two or three line pieces, to the fourteen page final piece, ‘The Legible Notebook Entries of William “The Selanate” Runecoke’. This consists mostly of a series of tiny, diary-like and haiku-like snippets:
‘5
Spring–
a crazy gone world –
my shadow on wet ground’
or
‘14
Her trembling dog–
the old socialist grandmother
tends to radical turnips’
One longer segment is a tender message of the diarist Runecoke to his wife which includes the enigmatic and consoling phrase, “Our responsibility is to give solace back to the quiet”.
I could even suggest that it’s a deep sense of quiet that pervades these pieces, even in the pieces that stand out for their lighter qualities, such as “The Omega Intersection” with its “twelve suns of Gorlax” or “Numbers” and its several “radiances”. A matter-of-factness that conveys the sense that, yes, we all know such follies, such evils, such absurd and dark encounters, and the poet is merely presenting a selection of these to be witnessed.
I come away from these poems feeling a kind of warmth toward my human family, a quality of acceptance that approaches grace. I also come away with an appreciation for the skill of this poet in offering these reflections in a manner that reaches deep into a recognition of our shared human territory. This is a collection that gives “solace back to the quiet.”
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-65864313183362321302022-04-18T09:50:00.009-07:002022-04-18T10:11:47.257-07:00I Wrote a Comic Book About a Superhero (Liminal: Shadow Agent) <p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I wrote a comic book script and Greying Ghost Press has published it as a free-standing work - that is, without art. (Though the covers are gorgeous!) I loved comics when I was young and over the years I've dreamed of writing in that form. While I could not find a comic publisher willing to look at a stand-alone script, Greying Ghost did and what has been done with it has surpassed my loftiest expectations. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Here is the link to the page where Liminal: Shadow Agent part 1 can be purchased: </span></p><p><a href="https://greyingghost.bigcartel.com/product/liminal1"><span style="font-size: large;">Liminal: Shadow Agent Pt. 1 by Jon Cone | greying ghost (bigcartel.com)</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And here is the link for part 2</span></p><p><a href="https://greyingghost.bigcartel.com/product/liminal2"><span style="font-size: large;">Liminal: Shadow Agent Pt. 2 by Jon Cone | greying ghost (bigcartel.com)</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Cover of Liminal: Shadow Agent part 1</span><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoJDqsHpvx73BY6-gzOhaXnyLz1_pgliiK3k0ftoqPxZtYBsNaSsHZSYvjnXuJuCMj-Z_JEzJvTMqpFuWf70MVlm9IFH0TDTfaE40UgYc4l_woFH_5taHX9yA6i2RB6Usx8KlGbpLL3PpXGdAx9_ytU-93eVgiOoKcvV7hvpxLCSwr4jRuPpy1fD8_" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1843" data-original-width="1316" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoJDqsHpvx73BY6-gzOhaXnyLz1_pgliiK3k0ftoqPxZtYBsNaSsHZSYvjnXuJuCMj-Z_JEzJvTMqpFuWf70MVlm9IFH0TDTfaE40UgYc4l_woFH_5taHX9yA6i2RB6Usx8KlGbpLL3PpXGdAx9_ytU-93eVgiOoKcvV7hvpxLCSwr4jRuPpy1fD8_=w285-h400" width="285" /></a><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Cover of Liminal: Shadow Agent part 2 </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhtpYlj9Bk2yIL54jUDZRbyToLU-Fawurh12w4eL43fHBSsrhwP9ew0GgHUE-UNxQfIYxZZiPQ1xO_i4MXX9KC1d6IGQ7w_mtGUERbrZMd5faSbnpM8kRlgZwVpjkMsXyi7sIFOr8N4Wm2VjA61U1N_AfM8hdKu3EHtMRSlX55Kr7PB8N-1JJqJLnv3" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="643" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhtpYlj9Bk2yIL54jUDZRbyToLU-Fawurh12w4eL43fHBSsrhwP9ew0GgHUE-UNxQfIYxZZiPQ1xO_i4MXX9KC1d6IGQ7w_mtGUERbrZMd5faSbnpM8kRlgZwVpjkMsXyi7sIFOr8N4Wm2VjA61U1N_AfM8hdKu3EHtMRSlX55Kr7PB8N-1JJqJLnv3=w285-h400" width="285" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Thank you for supporting the small press. </span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-76583162420211001082021-11-27T06:00:00.016-08:002022-07-20T10:12:04.559-07:00Notebook <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">GRAD SCHOOL </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There were good people: fine, generous, quaking - </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Perhaps some didn't care. </span><span>A few wanted you dead. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Who could blame them? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Some few others only wanted you </span><span>pick up an armful of moldy straw </span><span>on the low way out. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-83665782338751363412021-10-19T06:17:00.006-07:002021-10-25T13:36:34.625-07:00Notebook <p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">First Snow </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I ate a great many griddlecakes</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">for the moment I am warm </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-80129679245465669172021-10-03T05:55:00.008-07:002023-05-23T09:21:10.398-07:00OCTOBRE II <p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">*</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In October I wander: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">le bateau rouge </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">e</span><span style="font-family: times;">t le chapeau bleu. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 2.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 3.0pt; margin: 3pt 0in 0in 2.5in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-51168629748746043812021-10-01T13:35:00.006-07:002021-10-18T04:54:24.495-07:00OCTOBRE I <p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The line traces the marital stress: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">Je n'ai pas de maison </span> </span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-74670850106743279122021-09-16T12:23:00.003-07:002022-02-07T14:39:11.410-08:00Notebook Page <p> <span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">IF
INSOMNIA IF UNFOUND </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-spacerun: yes; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sleep
answers many predicaments. There are days when the best one can do is sleep for
a while, get up and take a stab at a dreary task and then go back to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who knows if the embrace of sleep waits
there?<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I have a good friend who
suffers from insomnia. She is pale, thin, quiet, distracted, determined, and
brilliant. Often, she is exhausted beyond measure. I encourage her. My ideas
seem reasonable and therefore good. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">“Have
you tried affixing psalms to a long wall in the early evening? I mean really long.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>Polite </b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>is the </b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>silence.</b></span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Imagine yourself crossing
the bridge at night. Black water below, moon impossibly bright. It’s like a
pilgrimage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You pause to consider the
moon. What beauty!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it costs not one
penny! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">My mother and father died
years ago. I forget who went first. My sister’s husband is dead. My brother’s
wife died unexpectedly last week. I do not know where my parents’ ashes are. I truly
have no idea. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-50906979352018349242021-06-22T08:37:00.044-07:002021-09-10T15:26:24.907-07:00NOTEBOOK PAGE <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Norman Dubie </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">By
mid-summer a crest of interest in cider and code. A proxy named William shall
be raised to the sky whose designation is now the Consummate Irrigation of
Sorbet. The votive-name shall be a whispered glottal stop and all meat shall be
quartered, potatoes halved, puddings poured then cooled into foundation blocks. Erotic mythologies shall by means of increased levies see improvement and
national pride attached thereby to newer graceful shuntings. Meanwhile, all girls perform engineering calculations, while boys under
subtle duress move about the kitchen in heels and tight rhetorical skirts. The
elders find themselves banned from uttering the phrase “for the sake of
solids, gasses, liquids, and plasma.” Mandatory diaries the only literary form
permitted. Haphazard entry-scrawl made punishable by lash. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Feb. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">7</span><sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> : Dreamt
of venturing. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Feb. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">9</span><sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">:
Looked for residuum. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Feb. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">10</span><sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> : Tree
planting below thunder. Wore thrift-store khakis. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">March </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">2</span><sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">: A bird.
Coo coo! Coo coo!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">March </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">5</span><sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">: Wore fedora and serge vest. Pitiless is the sun. Lost </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>a shovel. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Found a shovel.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.0pt; margin: 9pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">And in
cheerless cavities of the Blind Consortium of the Low Fowle University scholars
dim as talcum settles. A frantic, funicular hummingbird gutters like a candle
in the garage with broken windows. The gods of the north have finally fallen
asleep. They wear tunics bloodied by red muds from the long trench. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-1525557145954008422021-04-22T12:04:00.032-07:002021-06-18T13:26:12.274-07:00Prose Abandoned at Some Point I Do Not Remember <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">On
Nothing and the Non-Political: a Satirical Amusement in Associative Criticism <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">I would like
to say that I have nothing to say but Mr. J. Cage (Pomona Collage, DNF) in his Harvard lecture of 1964,
has already done that. He went there on that occasion, on that day in that month of that year, to say nothing and that is precisely what he said, that nothing. Or he went there to say the something he did say about the nothing that he wanted to say but was said anyway by its not being said. One wonders. Everything
is political, even the non-political. Which is to say that being political is
one of the most ideologically freighted ways of being non-political. The
distinction between the political and the non-political has yet to be
established, though it should be as there must surely be things which are non-political: an
apple, a shoelace a shaft of sunlight with dust twirling, to suggest some few candidates. However, if they are political - that is, they are not non-political - then where should we place them on the political spectrum. And what
of the spectrum itself: that too must be political and if it is where would the
spectrum place itself, politically speaking, on the spectrum. (It has long been a suspicion that for the left all is political, whereas for the right nothing is political other than the left's insisting all is political even the non-political.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">There is a branch of contemporary philosophical thought – or should I say ‘philosophical
textuality’ – that posits the impossibility of thought beyond language
understood in its most basic sense. We’ll not visit that understanding here because
if we did we would surely find ourselves far from the subject of this lecture.
Which has, I concede, not been sketched yet in a compelling or meaningful way
but has been presented as something sensed, something about which most thinking
people would already have encountered in the nature of an ‘inkling’ – that is,
something made by an anecdotal awareness. Thought then, and language then,
and the political then, and the nothing from which the political adheres as a
necessary condition of textuality that contradicts its very possibility. The possible
is just that: it is that which holds hands with the impossible. We shall not
come back to this point; however, we shall refer to it when need requires we do
so. Philosophy begs certain silences as a means to allow the moving forwards or
backwards, however it moves: one image that seems useful is that of a spinning cup
in which people are set and strapped and disoriented for various purposes: one
of which is a crude sensory delight. Not all find such delightful, but many do.
I do not. Age does things to the inner ear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">The political
again, and the non-political. But what of the not-political: nature surely in
its actions can be said at least to provide a confirmation of the famous
Freudian flexibility: a cigar and nothing more than a cigar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are political but it is always another
who sees the political there and such seeing is as if in advance of a strict judgement
coming, a florid and cruel condemnation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">The
non-political as distinct from the not-political: is this a worthwhile
distinction to worry about. Health care is a worry, but that distinction – non or
not – well, it hardly seems to matter for some. I would suggest, as a start,
that the matter be viewed merely as an assumption that guides the game of language
in the direction of a certain textuality. Marx and Engel’s in the <i>Communist
Manifesto</i> – an agitated political textuality, no matter one’s own political
inhibitions – has in it a lyrical yearning after an end to certain sorrows –
poverty, gross inequalities in the distribution of wealth, unfairness in the
possibilities presented to those who work without shoes and those who have
closets full of shoes </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">And bells
ring from the white clapboard church</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">High on
the bare hill shaped like a covenant stone <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And voices
ring from out of the fog <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And
thunder rolls its great cart out of the East <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And wild coats soar <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And the
cost of an orange made impossible</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And the
young man yearns to hold the hand of the young woman <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And the
helicopter readies its guns <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And swift
boats their small canon<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And the
cemetery awaits the political and non-political alike <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And no
one cares about the not-political <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And one age is the invention of another <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And huts beckon as we near <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">I would
say that I have nothing to say, the venerable Mr. J. Cage once said, in a lecture
delivered at Harvard in 1964 – in truth, I have no idea what school Cage delivered
his lecture (was it a lecture?) nor the year. I have attempted to say nothing
too but have failed because in saying certain empty things I might very well
have said one or two things of substance. Forgiveness, dear reader, is sought, kindness wrought. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">FIN <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-26284194306804254072021-04-02T07:14:00.013-07:002021-06-08T10:47:09.690-07:00A NEW POEM (Work-in-Progress): Jon Cone <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>Home: an essayy</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt;">And that was that, lines drawn. Therein
sections of land for family or families. It gives what is fruitful the land of apportions.
</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And they cunningly made no writ to stand on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">The great waters can never be
assigned, nor the sky nor sun nor moon nor stars, nor the land the portion of
the body of our Mother. No people shall have advantage over any other. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">A rod is </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">16 ½</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> feet. A
chain is </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">66</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">feet or </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">4</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> rods or </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">100</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> links.
A link being </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">7.92</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> inches. A mile is </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">320</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> rods, </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">80</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> chains,
or </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">5,280</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> feet. A
square rod is </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">272 ¼ </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">square feet. An acre contains </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">43,560</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> square
feet. And an acre contains </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">100</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> square rods. And an acre is
more or less </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">208 ¾</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> feet square. An acre is </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">8</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> rods
wide by </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">20</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> rods
long or any two numbers (of rods) whose product is </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">160</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> and so
forth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt;">A sectional map of a township with adjoining
sections. Such land, such rich soil, a veritable Eden!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">Odysseus the sea’s surveyor,
cunning reader of maps he returned home from exile by labyrinthine route. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The memory of my father’s stutter is a
threshold forever linked in my mind to the idea of home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother asking my father to sing, “Oh sing
for me Peter you’ve a lovely voice.” And rough as an old nail he sang. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And the farm called Magiscroft
comprising a large white house with green trim, a smaller white cottage with
rose trim, a garage, a barn, a chicken coop no longer used. The land fenced,
including a gentle creek and small pond. The pond that would freeze in winter.
The children would skate and chase each other with long branches and sticks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">Having no home, having been born
in a village, having been taken from that village at the age of six months,
having crossed the Atlantic, having entered the St. Lawrence, passing through
Montreal to Toronto to Richmond Hill to Guelph to London, having felt unease a
permanent condition of living – a poverty of the soul. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And Saint Thomas the Patron
saint of surveyors who watched over the sectioning of the land West of the Mississippi
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And the prophet Ezekiel sacred draughtsman
and homeowner: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">That I too have been at home somewhere anywhere <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>along
the coast looking seaward or pinned or resting inland -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by the creek I
gazed upward at floes of cloud -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>this is the mind at leisure <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span>On
Mill Pond in January the children gathered in skates to play a rolling game of ice
hockey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shovels brought from home in the
event of heavy snow the ice would need clearing. The mill unused for 157 year [sic]. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">In winter boys hoped to see girls out walking. How sun-lit a
smile on a clear winter day … <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
same clouds that exist within the life span of droplets<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for ten minutes,
familiar not familiar, moving west so trees with their familiar bend <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">Never before seen old faces moving
homeward where families wait and one would hope love for the taking and giving and
the young man could take a young wife only upon demonstrating he could build a
roof <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And waking early to see stars <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And making coffee in the kitchen
ship-wrecked from night before <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And falling in love and then
taking forty years to fall out of love <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">That is a cruelty of no one’s
invention nonetheless a cruelty<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt;">Don't be deceived there are no victors in such case </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">The only importance is to throw one’s physical self
into the air from the hay loft to feel suspended in an infinity of ultimate
finitude and later the sun on one’s head bent over the thrill of the creek's blazing strangeness <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">The people of that land knew one day the gate would come down <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-57260404459299200902021-03-31T08:31:00.014-07:002021-10-08T04:41:50.657-07:00A New Dream Song Newly Discovered <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; tab-stops: 423.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">A DISCOVERED NEITHER FIT<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>FOR DREAM NOR SONG <i>for
J.B. who killed himself jumping off a</i></span><i style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt;"> bridge in Minneapolis, MN </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 423.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">He seemed plastered, swell - ever the person well worth listening to: his slow bronchial tenor rolling in like fog. He
puff-stopped, half-swiped his brow. Adjusted coke-bottle
frames. He
kept notes which he then lost. “Mother said …”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he didn’t complete the thought.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">No toothbrush near his person.
One suspects<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his tooth despaired. One suspects
him guilty of an
interest in swinging. Sodom! Gomorrah! His magnificent
head <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he
somehow tilted heavenward<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so as to consider invisible gusts and cool developments
in jazz. “Play chess?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I do.” [One hic two hic.] They play on deck under blankets. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Scholar’s mate! [Three hic.] Oh, good God, how ridiculous!” [Four.] <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">How plaster tenor teeth despaired<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>magnificent head somehow:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <i>H</i></span><i>uffy
Henry hid the day<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>huffy Henry dead. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-88229018014277752922021-03-30T13:30:00.000-07:002021-03-30T13:30:00.307-07:00Pound: a variation of line and theme <p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">An intricate engine for
produc<a name="_Hlk68008438">ing </a> bird-song &
glass globes of Byzantium </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">£6</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">
per unit cost </span> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-14420070656248666882021-03-09T07:56:00.018-08:002021-05-18T07:52:59.775-07:00A Few Words on Wright's Introduction to Buson:Haiku (Tavern, 2011)<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">Franz Wright provides a strange
little introduction to his small collection of translations based on the haiku
of Buson. I say it is strange because he hardly mentions Buson at all. He
refers to Basho and Shakespeare. (They were not contemporaries, though both
occupied the </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">17<sup>th</sup></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> century: Shakespeare in the first half and Basho
in the second.) He refers to Dante, who ‘wandered’ his own country, as did Basho
his. Wright reminds us, Dante did not do so ‘voluntarily’. </span><o:p style="font-size: 16pt;"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">As Basho wandered – not Buson – ancient
Japan (a “difficult and gorgeous country”) he used the haiku form to record
experience, to function one imagines as a kind of greeting card for establishing
community along the way and for making sense of living itself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then Basho died. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">In the history of Japanese
literature, Buson is a later arrival. About Buson, Wright is less than forthcoming,
noting only that he was a “wonderfully gifted disciple of Basho” and left behind
“a very beautiful body of work all his own.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">For me, Wright’s small
collection of Buson remains much cherished to this day, as it makes the perfect companion for a cafe on a rainy afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23iLycZjw7XEG3nuIk__eALEOEbIL7YVqjSRO3umINxiuluSuNn0z7ff_sgGQ-MTuOPSm47lc8lVb1v4bD2YwG5UfO0otO4JnalvWsFjc-Oehq6cYpPJbwi8OWuOhiglB-BpIn7miV1U/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23iLycZjw7XEG3nuIk__eALEOEbIL7YVqjSRO3umINxiuluSuNn0z7ff_sgGQ-MTuOPSm47lc8lVb1v4bD2YwG5UfO0otO4JnalvWsFjc-Oehq6cYpPJbwi8OWuOhiglB-BpIn7miV1U/w407-h292/image.png" width="407" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><br /></span></span><div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Tavern Books: </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">https://www.tavernbooks.org/</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">Thank you for supporting the small and independent press. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">Jon Cone </span></div><div><p></p></div>Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-34956326933672926692020-06-05T13:35:00.005-07:002020-12-29T11:30:14.088-08:00Version<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b>
<br />
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span face="" style="line-height: 106%;"><span style="font-size: large;">From The BOOK OF ISAIAH 39:
1-8<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Hezekiah of Judah had been
gravely ill but survived. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">The king of Babylon sent a delegation to
Hezekiah. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">They took a letter written by
the king himself and a gift <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">which he’d personally
selected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Hezekiah showed the Babylonian
delegation his house <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">and the precious things therein.
The silver, the gold. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">The spices, the rare and
expensive ointments. The adornments. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
house and his dominion over the house. Hezekiah showed it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">When Isaiah the prophet son of
Amoz next met Hezekiah <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">he asked: “Who were those men
and where did <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">they come from?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Hezekiah
told Isaiah: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">“They
were a delegation come <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from
Babylon.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span face="" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Isaiah asked: </span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">“What did you show them?”<br /> </span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">“The
house and everything precious within the house. <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">The
silver, the gold. The spices, the rare and expensive ointments. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">The
adornments. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All that is in the house, I
showed them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">And my
dominion over all.”<br /> </span><br /><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Then Isaiah the prophet said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br />
</span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hear these words <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">from the
Lord of Hosts. The day nears <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">when<br /> </span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">all that is in your house, all
that your fathers gathered up and laid in store, will be<br /> </span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">taken from you<br /> </span><br /><br /><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
carried to Babylon, so that nothing precious <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">will be found in your house.
Nothing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br />
</span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">will remain.”<br /> </span><br /><br /><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">“And
your sons yet to be, those you will beget, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">they shall
be taken from you, and they shall be made <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>eunuchs in the
court of the king of Babylon.”<br /> </span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Hezekiah replied to Isaiah: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">“Good are the words you have spoken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">Surely there will be peace and
understanding<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span></span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">all the days of my life.”</span></span></span></h4>
<div>
<span face="" style="line-height: 106%;"><img alt="John Constable Landscape at Hampstead - Tree and Storm Clouds painting - Landscape at Hampstead - Tree and Storm Clouds print for sale" height="285" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQ6YP_tzL6QpowVi9_S4NOJT15EFjEf6FIMjlrXdJwPAoQRH8Os&usqp=CAU" width="400" /></span></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span face="" style="line-height: 106%;"><br /></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span face="" style="line-height: 106%;"><br /> </span><span style="line-height: 106%;">--- </span><span face="" style="line-height: 106%;">A free adaptation of chapter 39 from the Book of
Isaiah. My approach is based upon a reading of that text as found in the King James Version. I also consulted the New Oxford Annotated Bible/New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (Oxford, 2010). The lineation above does not conform to my original intentions. I tried to match what I'd written on my computer screen before copying it into the blog post above, finding ultimately that I could not do so. If you are a poet you will know how inhospitable e-blogger is to the creative use of space and unconventional employment of line. The poet is no less burdened by pain than any other person in this wretched age, but there are irritations peculiar to the efforts of writing a poem: situating a poem on a blog is one such irritation. Perhaps one day the activities of the poet will be given a measure of accommodation in this matter. </span></h4>
</div>
<br /></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-54848152530434720842020-05-16T11:19:00.001-07:002020-05-16T14:09:45.231-07:00BORDERLINE CITIZEN: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood by Robin Hemley (University of Nebraska Press, 2020). <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"><img alt="Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood ..." height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61+1k+dUD6L.jpg" width="207" /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Robin
Hemley's "Borderline Citizen" is a wide-ranging, engrossing
collection of essays that combines memoir, travel, history, political analysis,
and personal meditation. Throughout these thirteen essays, Hemley wrestles with
questions of national identity, patriotism (and its ugly relative: jingoism),
the love of place that persists even within histories of evil, and the
confusions that arise when boundaries align according to the most arbitrary of motives
and understandings. It describes visits to exclaves, enclaves, land swaps, refugee
camps, far-flung possessions, graveyards, and dizzyingly complex (and sometimes
tense) borders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provides a
description of the Russian city of Kaliningrad, which was once the Prussian
city of </span><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Königsberg</span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, whose
most enduring son remains the philosopher Immanual Kant. (His afternoon perambulations
were reputedly regular enough for the housewives of that city to set their
clocks upon seeing him.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It describes a
visit to Cuba, and a meeting of American college students with an
African-American activist living in exile because of accusations of various
crimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me distill
several essays. The Netherlands and Belgium share what Hemley calls “the most
unusual border in the world”, known as ‘the Baarles’: there twenty-pieces of
Belgian territory can be found within the Netherlands, and seven pieces of
Dutch jurisdiction nestle snugly within Belgian arms. The result is mostly
comedic. (I say ‘mostly’ because one tragedy is recounted that lends a somber note
to an otherwise charming chord.) Another excursion finds Hemley traveling to
the border between India and Bangladesh, where people from exclaves of both
countries were brought home by an elaborate land swap. The return of citizens
to their home countries sounds like it should produce an unmitigated positive
end. Alas, like most well-intentioned endeavors there are bumps in the road:
refugee camps that continue as of the publication of this book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The trip
to the Falkland Islands (Isla Malvinas) is an experience with colonial
overreach. An archipelago off the southern coast of Argentina, the Falkland
Islands persist to this day as hard, desolate lands that stake an almost
ghostly connection to the motherland. Here Britishness seems ossified, a
strange 19th century remnant that bears little resemblance to
contemporary Britain. The majority of Falklanders are island born and that is
where their real allegiance lies. It is here, too, that Hemley encounters a
menace present just below the surface of civil encounter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
breathes a sigh of relief when he leaves those antiquated prides and furies
behind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Finally,
Hemley provides a wonderful meditation on graveyards, which he enjoys visiting.
Perhaps graveyards are the ultimate exclaves, or maybe enclaves. It’s hard to
determine how we should classify the individual plots one finds there. A
catalog of graveyards is presented and the distinctions made bring to my mind
both Borges and Benjamin. The meditation leaves us with those gardens where the
dead are everywhere in beauty – in the best examples – and in strifeless
communion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">**** <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Recommended
for: travelers, memoirists, history buffs; those interested in unusual locales,
politics, international affairs, global studies; readers of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>creative-non-fiction, and professors
preparing syllabi for a wide range of college courses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-24945890990711602432020-03-15T10:56:00.003-07:002020-04-17T09:37:43.087-07:00AN ICE CREAM TRUCK STALLED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD: plays by Rauan Klassnik and Jon Cone <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<img alt="Ice Cream Truck Cover" src="http://www.playsinverse.com/asset/icecream-cover-hi.png" height="400" width="257" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Above is the cover of the collection of plays that I co-wrote with Rauan Klassnik, and which was published by Plays Inverse (2020). If you enjoy the works of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Antonin Artaud, Alfred Jarry, Gertrude Stein, and so on, then these plays will have much to offer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is the link to purchase this volume:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.playsinverse.com/catalog/icecream.html"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.playsinverse.com/catalog/icecream.html</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The cost of our collection is modest. The volume is attractively designed. And the small press world is a tremendous source for new and exciting works of prose, poetry, and graphic arts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for helping the small press remain a vital force.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-55473559936870554082019-12-06T05:21:00.002-08:002019-12-06T05:21:48.869-08:00Poem <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">ON MY FEVER BED</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I've heard rumors </span></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-16838096317909146752019-05-06T18:10:00.003-07:002019-08-27T11:32:23.047-07:00FROM THE LATIN <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">I would rather admire </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">your collection </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">of antique skull-lamps </span></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-60050995302756460892019-03-29T17:05:00.002-07:002019-03-31T06:12:35.711-07:00COLD HOUSE: my latest chapbook <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hello,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Please consider purchasing my most recent collection COLD HOUSE from Espresso_Chapbooks, (Toronto, Ont., 2017).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjPPwe71GKFGHXPtZPt21-enDHNYJw_oGqo2QeBckyMYFi811PFxJjmISfjVpVMZzOjZwIEHGUhonhLCM6scSAQKf8C8gSjJNrq2qphNBv7Bvenfa3FyhR6F0qRW69ex7cwjczUjPp1Fy64Mch8BsKn4fc=s0-d" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is the link to their web-site:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.espresso-chapbooks.com/current.html"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.espresso-chapbooks.com/current.html</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for supporting the small press.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Jon Cone</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br /></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-87106234610397293622019-03-18T12:13:00.001-07:002019-04-03T20:25:58.254-07:00COME TO ABERDEEN FOR A WEE JOB <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Alas I whorled but I'm an
alcoholic fuck <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who
has cancer and no money and can barely leave </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">the hovel where I live
to walk to the end of way <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to pick up the body
of nail that each day tells of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">my growing debt without surcease by any known
horizon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-75940089883167619862019-02-17T06:26:00.000-08:002019-03-16T03:34:54.470-07:00POEM <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We tusk the hours, we shed, we blaze, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">we pig. And so the sense hardens, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">becomes obsidian deep in our souls, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">but there are no souls, there is none -- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">but they do exist, another says, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">leagued with this being which is catastrophe, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">which is always the same ceaseless state </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">of breaking, of falling, graveling down </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">to ravine the hoard-waters that glide </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">there, that flay. Flowers, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">open and deliquescent, that bend. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Grasses that move. </span></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-62594449435269277132019-02-13T07:17:00.000-08:002019-02-13T07:47:22.439-08:00PLAYS INVERSE ANNOUNCEMENT: FORTHCOMING <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">Here's an announcement from Plays Inverse.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Visit their website: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.playsinverse.com/catalog.html">http://www.playsinverse.com/catalog.html</a></span><br />
<br />
<img height="265" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzOYY0YXgAUgYHs.jpg:large" width="400" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for supporting the small, independent press.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Jon Cone </span></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-7449525657690920722018-12-20T13:05:00.001-08:002019-02-02T13:44:44.830-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">THE EDICTS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There shall be no murder on
Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
shall be no murder by stone.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There shall be no
murder by blade.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by toxin.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by fang.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by claw.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by dirt.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There shall be no murder by demolition. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by wasting.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by tree.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by flood.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There shall be no murder be destitution.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%;">There
shall be no murder by fist.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">There
shall be no murder by fire. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">These edicts go on they go on. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Unceasing flutes. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Put that needle away, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Das Kapital</span></span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">The wing is </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">the sona</span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">ta </span></span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">at sunrise. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556052249157469280.post-84185227164252908432018-10-17T03:13:00.002-07:002018-12-20T15:17:41.453-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">FROM A WORK IN PROGRESS</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">A., the
Estonian, was concerned about a letter he received from his publisher. Having
little to do, I offered to help him with his problem, which offer A. immediately
embraced. Posing as a psychiatrist, I wrote A.’s publisher a formal letter,
suggesting he was clinically insane and therefore unpredictable. He could even
be violent. Next day A. received a letter from his publisher in which the
problems were dismissed. There were many assurances that A. would see his work
published in accordance with his original intentions. No revisions or deletions
were needed. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">A. was overjoyed at this
news. He offered to take me to dinner to show his appreciation. Gracefully, I accepted
A.’s offer. However, I did insist we go to the most expensive restaurant in
town, reminding A. – who was visibly crestfallen at my suggestion and as poor
as I was -- that art always comes with a price.</span></span></div>
</div>
<br /></div>
Jon Conehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17397090185429465765noreply@blogger.com