bucket of dross

24.2.13

the corotating waters at the back
i thought to halt at setting
though if setting is my object
why do they persist

roll roll the curtains again down,
the worlds revolve (they do
as cold as they were in 'em)

This pointless exercise makes dull virtue out of
insufficient need. the words revolve.

sub empson

the dove dismembered brakes in air
that fades beneath a city block
the little foxes at their feet
are livid at the carriage clock

how many roads must a spam
how many words of this crap do you have to produce
before the worthwhile stuff comes out
between the dead and the living something
how much eliot has to be written out first

nettle?

the dove distended breaks the vase
is more than i could know

the gove despairs pollutes the air

the dove discoloured breaks the bank
the dove disbanded bakes the pear
the dove dissembled dreams to dare
the dove imperilled flees the lair
the dove discouraged fakes its own death, while
the dove embargoed dies midair
the dove defending rakes the stairs
the dove despondent everywhere
the dove distilled in Delaware
the dove undaunted takes the biscuit

the dove impounded hounded where
the dove in time outruns the hare

and at the older points
at the still
after the remembered points have spoken

those southern constellations
the yellow bus numbers

after the poorly remembered

i extricate the new discovered snow
i expurgate the newly scattered snow
to your scattered snowflakes snow

the snowflake flaking flakes the air
the only pyre is ice or fire

at the frost fair; or, in awe of the elephant

elephants across the frozen thames
with cartloads of chestnuts
roasted in vast open pits

seriously, though, what is the point?
this is pretty thoroughgoing stupid

how many turds must a bog flush down

how many doves must a gove shoot down
how many goves must a tove slithe down

you have to write worse than this first
you have to stop caring more than this first
you have to produce the true worst

in these more embattled moments you begin to glimpse (what i would call the
real) the particular

that's nice dear

if as you say you like abstraction
well then abstract out THIS

somehow the ritual of putting down the tired old phrases began to take on a
distressing significance. there was more than mud coming out from these,
riverine and estuarine, sibylline
oxblood and olive

more defunct than half-remembered, really
it would be better to be half-forgot
the disparate pieces

there was more than mud between the snow and the cold toesies

well you thought that was quite enough
TURNS OUT,

the next task in the idiot guide to literature is the full scale stream of consciousness
shitbag reverie chat
i should set the alarm clock
TURNS OUT NO
and the closed car at twelve

the closed set at nine
(as i affirmed at setting)
is my object

nine closed sets in nine fir trees
nine closed curves

sad isn't it really, that empson has barely had a look in
from partial fires
from partial firs
the doves remain, the curves remain and fly

as this in kew
whose dog are you
inconsequently thirsts for who

pray tell me why
the red dawn sky
the cones forsake them by and by

beau brummels fat friend
steady radlett eyes
truly disgusting fingernails
UNPICK THAT ONE
he was king. he went mad.

it was revealed to me, once, that time went round
although strange creatures were packed into the interstices
nevertheless the contours of the thing were clear enough
clear as that lovely estuarine mud
that coats the foils and spoils the spuds
the spuds in foil are coated crud
smash the pots and burn the suds
thats what binbag buggins wants
pass the hot potato

went round you say?
vaughan saw more
though webster was more possessed by death
time and his train revolved further
under the aspect of eternity
ab ovo

saw the skull beneath the skin
saw the skin beneath the hat
saw the hat beneath the sky
on ilkley moor a curlew cried

a curlew cried in ilkley square
a bartailed godwit rent the air
a barbelled halfwit rent the room
a bellbottomed harpy
a copperbottomed oceangoing numpty

what about growing a neckbeard then,
eh, eh?

cormorants and eglantine
consonant with

celandine and eglantine
cormorants and egrets

the only egress is at the rear of the basket
please alight at the outer door
doors may be closed for several seconds prior to opening
please bring any relevant Bayesian priors with you for inspection

if you were at the Camden Palace and they were only letting in
Bayesian priors this evening, what would you have to show at the door?

doors may be closed up until the very moment that they open
beware of falling scenery
beware of both dogs
be warned that almost everything is more complicated than you thought it was

the correct way to exit this basket is to proceed to the back of the car
bring all reliable maps with you to the muster point
and all flat mappes are one are one
so doth our death touch the Resurrection
cross those strings below the bridge if you want to play that

all flat maps are one are one
flat maps flatpack one to one
cat flap cat nap arnold's cat map

where can i find a map of the cat?

the map is not the territory
oh shut up you boring old sod, the humanities are over that way
please keep to the other end of this building
it's on the tenth floor not the first one
yes, that is the lift

I heard Campbell wants that monomyth back
plenty more soup in that old bird

funny that once you settle into this routine it becomes routine
the words revolve like vacant women
gathering fuel for ancient pots

there are several subroutines
sub sub empson
sub sub specie empsonitis
a thousand shades of ambiguity
in a thousand furnished rooms
fifty you say?

the dragon hatched a cockatrice
and clasped the yellow soles of feet

Tacked together like an articulated henhouse
all the stale phrases answer the drill
Nouakchott, Porto-Novo, Antananarivo
Unreal

harrison was going on about those sodding geraniums again
you can't just pick one image i said
(the stink of boiled cabbage was beginning to get to me)
i had had it with the rue sepile
the pastel city the ideal city
the drowned city the unreal city
norbiton orbital

closes that particular chapter
and lights out for the real world, so-called


******************************************************************
25.2.13

OH ADDING DATES ARE WE? THAT'S AMBITIOUS DEAR

avocet at the outset
ousted from the mudflats

one clue left on the poxy independent five clue crossword

avocet
advocate
advocaat
advert
subvocalise

subtle is the
lapwing lacewing
in the end, the only truly indispensable one of those
is
is -

the camber sands amusement park
the adverse camber lumber jumper
unencumbered at the outset
outset inset instep twostep
learjet thickset twinset avocet
avocado avolcano
avagander avabanana

lava lama llama larder lada aga saga lager larger argy bargy argyll
idyll ideal adele adelie ideally idealise valise
vandalise vanitas monetise montage portage badinage badass
fracas maracas caracas cucaracha co co rico

say this is integrable
say this is an integral part
say this is an integer argument
say this takes an integer as an argument
say i'm a pedantic bastard
say it takes a nonnegative bastard integer

say it takes a bustard bastard
and the bastard bustard pastured
and my garden teem with spices

if the burden burdens bustards
bustard custard tastes ok
pass the bastard bustard custard
pass the lovely pigeon jelly
and some of that lovely estuarine mud

eggs with ham'n'spam'n'gammon
eggs with jam'n'mustard too
eggs with legs and spam with jelly
bustard'n'mustard'n'custard

like shooting fish in a barrel
larry the barrel
barry the laurel
alice the camel is two of a kind

if the bastard bustard bursts
cover it in custard

AND ON THAT PROFOUND NOTE

if the bastard bustard bursts
spill the pots and boil the yurts

bail the pails and stack the bales
save the whales and starch the shirts

lurching into crisis
sailing into byzantium
lurching into bywater
belching into lymington
leaching into belmopan

brillo pad
brillo goodo wacko biffo
brilyant radyant salient patient

radyo silence


******************************************************************
6.3.13

And at last I came to Viriconium
reading about weak measurements again
pass the port
The Future Simple of something or other
page something I think it was
jolly good port this
Utor?

makes a sound like fifty hounds questin'
swef, swef, ma douce Beaumont
Hark to Beaumont the valiant

well you don't get many points for writing out other people's books
unless you do it a bit cleverer than this
goo night lou etc.
those were pearls

Belching into Lymington you say?
A fine idea sir, have a banana
Havanavocado

There are a bunch of things in that hedgerow, i'd leave them alone dear
something from something and something and something
and resembling them as death resembles life
PASS THE PORT GRUMMORE I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS

i thought that was an interesting usage case
have you considered the failure case
i think you may be a basket case
headcase in case packing case OH THIS A GOOD GAME lower case IN YOUR FACE
surcease surcharge surcoat surtainly sur surmount surpass susurrate susu the cat

sospiri

sozzled
nozzle
ozzilate
titillate an ocelot

myrtle the turtle is such a slow poke
myrtle the turtle just thinks its a joke
oscar the ocelot's such a old fart
but if you informed him he'd take it to heart
well this is epoch defining stuff right here
the spirit of the age!
the defining voice of a generation!
oscar the defining voice of this lost generation of ocelots
these ocelot generations, Oscar's, Wilde's
And mine?
well mine was Wittgenstein's no doubt
sweet pastoral too when someone else explains
although my memory leaves the eclogues out
this writing shit between other people's lyric poetry is working out nicely
DO I GET A PRIZE
yes give er a coconut
co co rico no not that again

walking up to the very boundary line again
i saw spread out along the marginal land
the power of the marginal!
adam cadre says write a million words
i don't think i'm there yet
i don't think a million words of this drivel counts anyway

the power of the marginal!

surcease circus
percy circus

the power of the marginal!
behold it and beware!
the power of the marginal
will save you from despair!
the power of the marginal
is more than i could know
the power of the marginal!

a shouty little lyric

incurved
elegiac couplets

elegiske melodien

double stop it
don't drop it
the captain's chest
just bring it over here
we're sailing on the morning tide, we're sailing on the morning tide,
we're sailing on the morning tide, we're sailing on the morning tide
pack up the ship with boxes and barrels

barrelarrelarrelarrel
notes are dispensed below the something
sense is dispensed from the narrow room
third from the left along that gleaming corridor
most of the sense accumulates on that shiny floor
it is then siphoned off and distilled
to make even a millilitre of sense requires vast quantities of the raw material
sense is a precious resource, kids, don't drop it
just bring it over here

to make even a fractional reserve (banking) of sense
requires forethought and dedication
and a certain eye for trivialities
and patience in the inescapable vicissitudes
and a calculated understanding of risk
and an adept hand at the wheelhouse
and a good working knowledge of when to just not bother
and a sense of physical fluency
and a disparate foregathering of antecedent causes
and maybe as many as fifty previous attempts
and full certification by any of our accredited partners
and a feel for the commonplace well tempered by the sensation of having once gone beyond it
and judicious use of a curvilinear coordinate system
and an inexplicable tingling at the dead centre of the solar plexus
and a decent emotional range
and nice shoes and maybe an umbrella
and a catamaran and the inclination to use it
and a spark of life
and a particular deep-felt need to relate to at least a small subset of the population
and the wild beasts shall follow you
the horses in the fields shall lift their ears in recognition
the motorways shall be silenced
there shall be an insistent hum
some particles will become electrically neutral
there will be intermittent music of unprecedented complexity
there will be free cake and a chocolate fountain
birds will drop from the sky like rocks but be miraculously unharmed
long forgotten relatives will come down from the mountains with tedious stories of a better world
you will have to leave your office
you will have to make your way along the unmarked path to the horizon
you will have to put down that cup of tea damn you!
you will be expected to have a transcendental metaphysic
you will be given a natural trumpet and instruction in how to play it
you will be released in controlled numbers and monitored at intervals
you will eat manmade objects indiscriminately and with little pleasure
and at the intersections
at the old forgotten places
in certain illuminated points
at the wellsprings and in the marginal land
we will coalesce
we will take on incomparable forms
our eyes will be internally reflected by the dew in the grass at our feet
a cool breeze will follow us
we will be insufferable
we will be refractory to most treatments
we will indirectly inspire an enormous literature
we will collect in the crevices of buildings
we will dispense the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and more!
we can of course parse sentences in any language and talk bollocks in most of them
we can dance the polka
part the waters
spin the bottle
pin the tail on the donkey
count the hairs on the head of a fly
fling caution to the wind
smell fear in even tiny quantities
lure ships
lead armies
herd cats
paint realistic pictures of astronomical objects
and at the last we can forget
we can have enough of this rubbish
we can cut the phone lines
pack the plates away
put the delicate apparatus into storage
fold our wings carefully into our wingcases
empty the bins
leave unclaimed items in sorted piles
close any remaining gates
back up important files

shut up this nonsense and go home

******************************************************************
11.3.13

clocks and chairs on the lawns all day
pack up the lawns with clockses and carols
pack up the ship with fibre bundles and bag models
pick up the shit with plastic bags
come get your black bin bags

'differential geometry' is a delicate name with some
delicate terminology: fibres, curvature, manifold, foliation, parametrised
families of paths, connections, structure group, tangent space
precision-made filigree constructions
inherited subtlety from the analysts and intricacy from the algebraists

not so delicate: BUNDLE
                 DRAGGING
drag those heavy bundles along!
lump em along that geodesic
go on lump all those indices along with you
no not three of the same one you tit

got any shit you want attaching to this manifold?
yeah?
ave a bundle
ave a banana was that?
shove it in this bundle mate and i'll solder it on

box of spinors fell off the back of a lorry
or, i have this shoddy four-index tensor, got a couple of algebraic properties,
dunno what it is really, i mean i can't *visualise* it

no matter! shove it in a bundle!
we'll put it to work in no time!

this BUNDLE shit is such a DRAG

confused: fibre bundle
all those delicate fibres bundled together!
can't end well
fibre tangle bundle drag
google fibre bundle rag

this here's the ranting deck
if you came here to learn *mathematics*, advise you go somewhere else

let's define it by its formal properties!
oh goody, the formal properties always are the exciting ones!
i hope it obeys the leibniz rule, that one's my favourite!
if it does, chuck it in a bundle!

well you can keep it, ehresmann
you can shove all manner of crap into your bundles, but Cartan's were better designed
and moreover were not called bundles, i hope

******************************************************************************
12.4.13

roseate aureate laureate brachiate
carpel-striated pre-echoed and
caryatids,
seven-branched candelabras spawning roses against the tangerine peeled and portioned
what ship soever

in what torne ship soever i embark
but to conclude of longitudes

take the loxodrome home

pre-echoes of some future cataclysm
there was more of this crap at my desk at two
my desk at two whose dog are you inconsequently thirsts for who
and the closed car at twelve

the loxodromes are the geodesics

intentionally i have started spewing at a fast rate today. sprint type. keep
producing some shit

same shit different line
shit on your face egg on your face eglantine and celandine
eggheads
eggplants

poleax polltax polecat pollexfen
politburo realpolitik politicking politic
urbane

limpopo limpet soup lymphnodelymphnoodle
lymphnoodlelymphnoodlelymphnoodle

there was an indefatigable sense of otherworldliness in the environs and clustering at
corners and under porticos, curlicued and cross-checked, hatched crossways back and
counter-carried under passageways; opened; cyclical openings cross-currents and cold
eddies; crenellated and tessellated.
cold currents thrid and [something] rhythmic tidal lyres

lyrebird firebird
wirebird tyrebird

expectant faces lined the promenades and trampled underfoot and underway, coltsfoot
poultice pumice populace lacework fretwork scrollwork

intricate latticed

in terms of new ideas, no not very much really
did i tell you about the dog
a labradoodlelymphanoodle
cockahoopladoodlepollo
four black feet and two white feet and two speckled grey feet
no ears at the front but a variety of eyes
said it had a collar but i saw none
sounded like forty hounds questin'
well, anyway, i picked up its scent on montagu street
tailed it crossways over the many traffic intersections
traffic circles and traffic ellipses and traffic cones
through the underpass and over the interjunction
up onto the downs road
along the downs road over the downs
there it ran cold but another had fallen in the traces
intricate latticed tracery of knotwork dolphins
traffic conic sections
trafficonic

fauxhawk foxhole foxglove glovebox glovefox globe thistle artichoke
interregnum
interrobang
*** intermission ***

[something] turned to!
turned to rhythmic tidal lyres
tidal mudflats
flatpack mudflats mudpack
flapjack mudflaps mudjack
         mudlarks

not a vintage year really, but sunshine could still be reliably bottled
in the northwest of the peninsula. no context but some good parsley sauce.
there were loftier plans in the early months of the occupation but somehow
the caterpillared arcades of the lyceum had run their thoughts dry, those who had set
up shop in the alcoves had moved on, the hardpacked soil was covered over
with hardcore and breezeblocks barricaded the back fire doors of the Aula Magna.
we audited a course in complex methods but the methods were too complex for our
taste. over time the flavours blended into one, which was a little like vegetable
stock, and all our conversations had the same consistency, again like vegetable
stock. we rolled up our remaining ideas into one ball and mothballed them.

there were terraced fields below the refectory halls and we retreated there
to hoe turnips and interrogate the remaining peasants. there was music in the cafes
at night and REVOLUTION in the air. the paddy fields were wings of bees, the dove
descending shelled the peas. below the terraced fields the rich alluvial soil
transitioned to tidal mudflats, and egrets picked individual rice crackers from
the heart of silted clusters.

there was no particular reason to stay but the landscape was compelling enough
and our alternatives indistinct enough. we drew complex contours in the mud to test
our newfound complex methods, critiqued them, withdrew to the real line for comfort.
the real line was the tide line and the littoral zone below was crowded with
strange life.

i will always remember those days. times wuz ard but we wuz appy.

see also: alluvion colluvium eluvium fluvial illuvium
i lluv iu too

**************************************************************
13.4.13

those that tilted aqueous and vitreous
possessed of an aqueous humour
firefly luminescent burned and braided air-abraded fragments
and correlated at the midpoint of the hangar

renewed my passport today
renew, renew, all things renew
the gannets flew and cockerels crew
and greater cows to lesser moo
and all, all things renew renew

as though you were living in the early days of a better nation

old drunks were possessed of an aqueous humour, lurched and counterbalanced,
sanguine and choleric,
precessed about their shoes and readjusted.
the caloric-powered omnibuses leak phlogiston from copper piping.

**************************************************************
14.4.13

it's been abstracted too far for my tastes and stinks of algebra all over
that putrid stench? that would be the dead rotten hand of algebra