Sunday, October 23, 2005

they view the world, they pick at the holes

Apparently the Great Wall of China was built in parts by groups of workers.

‘…many great gaps were left, which were only filled in gradually and bit by bit, some indeed, not till after the official announcement that the wall was finished. In fact it is said that there are gaps which have never been filled in at all… and which cannot be verified, at least by any single man with his own eyes and judgement, on account of the extent of the structure.’ Kafka





We are walls. We meander through life, looking for holes that we know are there, if only we could find them. Before and behind - holes are our weakness - holes that undermine our entirety, that let our enemies through. We need surveyors to stand afar and point to our holes. We need an endless supply of bricks to try to fix them.


Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Introducing Forsyth



Please welcome Forsyth - the latest visitor to join our happy home.

Phrenology - The study of the shape and protuberances of the skull, based on the now discredited belief that they reveal character and mental capacity.

Initial explorations suggest tendencies to perfection, secretiveness, and love of the home.

Or maybe its just a result of 33 years of banging my head against the wall.

Monday, October 17, 2005

on in/significance

An attempt to find ones own place within a greater significance. To see the letters of your name trapped under the feathers of a birds wing, at rest or in flight. To hear disappointments repeated in the stones that grumble, thrown by the tide, again and again against the beach. To see hope sparkle, just for a second as sunlight catches moving glass. Rarer, to sense love - a snowflake, shadowed, falling before a full moon - casting a fortune set to melt by morning.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

they shine for you

I'm reading Peter Pan, which I never did as a child. I now know I wouldnt have understood or appreciated it if I had.

A few years ago I read a Japanese book about Lao Tsu and modern physics - ever since I have felt nervous of stars, of what they are and what they are up to.

This paragraph may have calmed my fears.

"Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glass-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder." J.M. Barrie

So now I think about whether I am an older star or a little one...



Friday, October 07, 2005

With thanks to Escher

An empty box asking for a name for my blog, I looked around and on my Escher calendar saw his quote for tomorrow -

"It sometimes seems to me that we are all afflicted with an urge and possessed by a longing for the impossible" MC Escher


He only has something to say at weekends, unlike me.
Another box asking for a site name, I recalled an old haiku -

tessellating fish
head fits tail fits fin
marine infinity dream j.e.m.