baby: n; characterless complaint.

balance: v; the depth of depression is a measure of the expanse of mania (and/or vice versa).

ball: n; life is a ball bouncing between the miraculous and suicide.

banality: n; banality always appears in sharp focus.

barb: n; if god is smiling it is because i am hooked in its lip.

barbarian: n; as though to invalidate the notion of human progress barbarians always appear at the end of civilizations to herald their end as well as to ensure it. the barbarous is a river which periodically overflows its banks, uprooting and carrying away everything except the conditions for its own existence.

baroque: n; the moment a curator determines the format for which art and the expression of art is possible, that is, the moment when the format exists a priori to art is the moment when art is defeated and where bureaucratic elaborations, baroque embellishments, will emerge triumphant.

barren: adj; a country that can produce no viable leaders is like a tree that produces no leaves. confronted with such a situation any reasonable person would wonder if the perhaps the sun had disappeared, or maybe the branches had been cut off, or at the worst, the tree had been uprooted or killed by some unseen subterranean mechanism.

barrier: n; we reach the limit of language whenever we say, or imply by pointing, the word is.

be: v; 1. to persist, to resist the tendency to on-wardness (ens), to step back from this and remain (esse) firmly in oneself. 2. at the center (the nucleus, the sun, the heart) of our language faculty there is to be. from this there arises a psuedo-center, the false prophet of to have (there also formed, co-incidentally, the shadow of to be, which is why. or perhaps to be is the shadow of why ?). 3. to be is our human endowment. it is the possibility of language, of identity, of human activity. the language faculty is very complex but at its center is a single human capability, a single mutation which has resulted in being to be experienced, lived, imagined, despised and so on. as humans we contain a specific physical locus which is expressed as to be. 4. the poem is the linguistic exploration of the possibilities of to be. 5. is is the (human) experiential basis. it is where we live; it is our living. everything else that occurs alongside is is our looking, our reaching, our thinking, our remembering... 6. a sentence does not have meaning, a sentence is meaning, it is the manifestation of to be (instead of to have). 7. poetry is is— the copula to be. and so, a society, a person, that does not know poetry, that does not recognize poetry is not. 8. in the beginning was the word. that word was be. more than a command, more than a catagorical imperative, be is the seed from which all knowledge, all experience derives. all life is suffering— this is the substance of to be. and so to be, to point at something and say that is, to proclaim i am, we are etc. is to re-iterate and embody this most basic insight.

bearable: adj; for the one who knows how much suicide weighs exactly, life becomes bearable.

bearing: v; every word is pregnant with the entire language. to bear across, (effectively, to deliver) is the functioning of metaphor.

beauty: n; 1. beauty is what does not exist- Rousseau. 2. the footsteps, the whispers, of a covert union of fact and value. 3. beauty asks me to leave what i should never have entered with the intention of remaining. 4. “a gentle weariness of evening” –Nietzsche.

becoming: v; to provide with or to adorn with coming. (but, since come is related to arrive and to arrive is to reach/attain the shore) becoming is to provide with or to adorn with the shore.

beg: v; if a person cannot earn a living by begging near a church it is because the church has died (and there is no living to be had). it is as though a child were trying to suckle a skeleton.

begin: v; the lazy mind, the mediocre mind, will read an entry in this book and stop there believing that such a thing is the end of the journey, a summation, when in fact it is a beginning. this book is, if anything, an endless attempt to begin.

beginning: n; this is where heaven and earth were reportedly created. unfortunately, i live in ending.

being: n; 1. when considered as an object being is the object par excellence (Scholem), that is, it is infinitely interpretable. this is the characteristic of the mystical name of god, the original word and is analogous to the being as outlined by Heidegger. 2. or brains, as an organ which is capable of receiving impressions, is therefore innately and necessarily biased (open to) being (existence / existents). 3. writing is a counter-offensive, a resistance to my being, to my ability to act. however, writing, instead of being, instead of acting, is a surrender.

belief: n; 1. belief is a string upon which there are a succession of beads which are joined solely due to the presence of the string. this analogy has the strength of showing the parallel truths between our modern scientific method and the ancient practice of augury. it is like this: there is some stimulus (phenomenon) ® there is our sensory observation of it ® then there comes our response to this stimulus. it is like a vibration which moves in one direction along the string, the energy of which is used to recreate an image of the experience or to transcribe the experience within us (see geometry of perception). so, in science we may observe an object and come to the conclusion that it is blue; what this means is we are aware of the link between the phenomenon or object and our observation of that object. in other words we believe that what in this case we see is exactly what we see (there are no complex loops or shunts in the string, it is a direct line between one bead and the next). and then we may act on this conclusion. this is where the parallel lies between the scientific method and such superstitious practices as augury. in the above example, say we had a choice of action: if the object was blue we proceed with the experiment, if it is not blue then we should take some other action but not proceed with the action, in other words our observations and our data and conclusions either support our continuation with the experiment or they do not. in augury an augur will sit in a field and should a hawk fly over his left shoulder then the gods give their blessing to a proposed attack on Spain. in this example the gods are synonymous with data/conclusion/observation. as well, in both examples there is a belief that, as was previously stated, what is being observed is linked to our observation (object of interest--blue : attack on spain/concern--hawk/sign from the gods. the difference lies in the fact that one string has gained precedence over another string. perhaps it can be expressed as a probability, e.g. string a is more likely than string b. this of course doesn't mean that string a is more correct than string b, it just means that one string may find a greater effectiveness in a certain temporal/cultural setting than will string b. 2. from its OE root (gelefen) it is that part of life which we grab onto, or perhaps alternatively, that region of the net of life in which we are caught. 3. belief does not determine action, it comes after. like toilet paper. 4. the poet takes the phenomenon and the concept of belief so seriously that it is willing to denounce everything and believe in itself, and only in itself, letting personal ruin be the measure of the status of belief. the poet may be the most devotional being in existence.

Bellmer: n; 1. the body is like a sentence which invites dissection in order that its true meaning be reconstituted in an endless series of anagrams. 2. roses au coeur violet (roses with violet hearts) ; o, rire sous le couteau (o, laughter under the knife). 3. by following the order of living, that simple and precise line, one can very quickly and without any crisis find oneself in chaos. 4. bellmer's dolls and drawings are embodiments of an experience of doubleness. this doubleness is ambiguity as a lived event, as an in/de-forming reality. what we call ambiguity is only what we remember of such moments of doubleness.

Benjamin: n; “what is living will only overcome the tumult of annihilation in the ecstasy of creation.”

Bernhard: n; 1. “life is a school in which death is being taught.” 2. “in this world the real question to ask about a person has long been, not how humane he is, but how dog-like.” 3. the loser: the only way i can know that a work of art is great or genius is if it silences my particular art. confronted with this silencing i will either succumb to it or my art will be transformed, completely transformed, by it. any art that does not silence me, any art that justifies my art, that supports my art i can never know as great or as genius. all i can see in such sympathetic art is a support for my own undertakings and this is the problem, this is the undoing of the artist from its art (and from its world). the artist must inevitably seek to escape the art that is its support in order to question itself and its own efficacy. the artist must always seek the silencing art and then gather the courage necessary to develop a transformed and renewed art. 4. “i hate nature, because it is destroying me.”

betrayal: n; the intellect is a desparate and wholly human character. beware the man with thirty pieces of knowledge.

Beuys: n; the pinnacle of art is life.

bias: n; the success of hoaxes or frauds are evidence of a media bias. the success of such an event requires that its validity or truth-status be unquestioned. the converse simply cannot be, which is of course the case as a media bias becomes extreme.

bind: v; my use of structural metaphors expresses my understanding of that a house, for example, is an element which is able to integrate the imagination. one could think of such a structure as a binding agent which allows pigments to adhere to a surface with some permanency.

biography: n; 1. the last thing a poet writes is always a suicide note. 2. my biograph is extremely simple— i have always been extremely uncomfortable with the (necessary) conditions of existence. 3. as Montaigne realized, as a writer you are only ever writing yourself. and so, when i read a clichéd work, when i read a formulaic work, when i read a work that is unable to rise above predictability, banality, i am really encountering a person who is limited in this way. such a person, of whom there is no reason to know or to become involved with should certainly not be promoted. i should not be continually reminded of how important such a work (person) is especially when my experience assures me that the person in question has not even taken the steps necessary to earn the designation individual.

b(i)otany: n; in this dream i have a yard and in this yard i have planted trembles.

birds: n; considering how many birds there, and assuming that the death rate is not too far below the birth rate i am curious why, apart from those that have been killed by animals or have flown into a window, i don’t see any dead birds lying on the ground. perhaps when a bird dies of natural causes it doesn’t fall to the ground, but falls into the sky, into heaven.

bison: n; to be completely practical while denying the generative/supportive role of the spiritual plane of existence (which in fact does not depend on practical matters but which creates the conditions of which practical matters speak), such a man is the type who will kill a bison for money. such a man lives a dishonorable life whether there is a Plains Indian watching him or not, such a man is less than human.

bitter: adj; bitter has its own colour and it is the task of an artist to ensure that it matures into a palette.

blank: n; everyone writes a book about themselves. the fact that most people leave this book blank indicates how much they think of themselves.

bliss: n; that instant when chaos forgets itself and becomes Mozart.

bloat: n; it is not difficult to distinguish a person who has exiled its conscience, who is in the daily habit of denying its moral responsibilities. such a person has a spiritual bloat accompanying everything they do, a debilitating rotundity which makes it difficult if not impossible to fit into many of the spaces living presents.

blood: n; a snake without its body.

blue: adj; the sky is always blue on the other side of the cross.

Bly: n; firstly, there is nothing more ridiculous than a poet who has fallen out of poetry and who has nothing more to say yet keeps on talking. secondly, the men's movement (poems for men, retreats for men) is the regaining of a kingdom that men have never left. it is the winning of a paper crown which is to be worn proudly in this kingdom of theirs which is the kingdom they have always felt at home in, that is: the kingdom-where-there-are-no-women. any new identity for men must be won, must be earned, in the presence of women, not in their absence. the paper crown that is won by men in the absence of women is simply the apparel of adolescence and cowardice.

boats: n; history is a boat and mankind are sailors on that boat. the ocean is the process of history. the waves are high and violent and the boat rocks from side to side. the sailors are thrown en masse from side to side. when they reach portside for instance they all want to be on the starboard side of the boat. then the boat is tossed and they find themselves on starboard side from which they all look with longing portside. and so it goes century after century. no one is steering the ship and for all anyone knows it may be anchored.

book: n; 1. the book is a hospital, every bed occupied by suffering patients. 2. the characteristic of any good book is that it renders irrelevant and absurd the question what is it about?

boon: n; the two desirable fruits of the tree of knowledge are enlightenment / knowledge and eternal life. the fact that there are two fruits expresses the duality of our natures. the first fruit feeds the human-ness of our natures as knowledge is the boon of thinking beings. eternal life feeds the transcendent nature of our beings or our soul.

Borduas: n; “i plunge into obscurity with a quiet heart”.

boredom: n; 1. boredom attempts to divest itself of its worried energy, attempts to connect itself with some other, to become determined or specified. this connection (this i am bored because, or with...) should be denied. it should remain contained within itself and experienced as it is, for what it is because such an experience is an elementary experience of something which drives one along certain possibilities towards predictable dead-ends. 2. the desire to have grandchildren. 3. boredom bears no relation to suffering even though, when pressed, boredom will attempt to justify itself or explain its condition by invoking suffering (as though suffering were a relative, or a lover). the reality is that boredom searches for suffering. it wanders day and night looking but it is never successful. boredom does not know what suffering is, it could not even recognize it. but still it continues on its too loud and too quiet, too slow and too fast, too large and too small quest. and suffering rests, untroubled, in those places where boredom is not. 4. boredom can have children, melancholy cannot. 5. boredom is a failed saint.

botany: n; i thought poetry was like the rings of a tree- a record of growth, a record that is, of processes and not the processes themselves but a very definite mirror of them. this concept sounded quite nice to me. and then i came across, or rather stumbled into the idea that poetry is not such a thing at all, but that it is an impression of a particular state of being. it is the hole that exists after a tree has been torn from the earth. it is that empty space which held and was filled by a manifestation of being . this is very different from my initial idea. poetry is not a mirror of being but is a void which being eradicates and which re-emerges once being has been removed. this idea frightens me and i don't know why. it is like some sudden encounter with something that steps from the shadows on a dark empty street.

brahman: n; when the upanishads say that brahman is the door, it is therefore neither a place from which i depart or to which i arrive. it lies between two such worlds and there, as a barrier, makes both of these worlds possible.

brain: n; a thought-bladder

breach: n; sometimes, only for a moment, you experience something as being very thin— so thin a breath could tear it. this breach opens into a place that underlies everything. i have always wanted to climb into this place.

breakthrough: n; my encounter with the poems of paul celan was an example of a moment of creative breakthrough. in that moment specific poetic limitations i had been experiencing were dissolved. in the space of a couple of minutes i could feel my mind (and my self) transcending genres and sub-genres of poetics. it was as though in an instant the history of poetic possibility played itself out in such a way that i strangely (in a single gulp so to speak) understood it all. and where i ended up was the place i had always wanted to reach, the last place available to one who has crossed the entirety of poetics— the realm of negative poetics.

bridge: n; 1. there is always someone on the bridges i must cross. this person is either myself or is a caricature of myself. from a distance it is impossible to tell the two apart. as i approach it is difficult to know who is waiting to greet me. 2. there is a rift in our living, a rift we are born into the presence of. this rift separates me from the world, the subject from the object, substance from essence and so on. this rift is paradoxical— it is real and it is at the same time an apparition, a condition of our being. it is apparitional in that there is a bridge across this rift, i am of this world, the subject is not removed from its object, the substance is nothing without its essence. however, this bridge, this union is not something that our feet, that our minds can attain. it is this failure, or, this limitation, which reveals itself as the absence of this (transcendent) bridge. such an absence is the rift, the reality of our being.

browse: v; to browse is to do more than gaze. to browse is to graze (brouster), to feed on what is budding into presence. there is a pronounced anxiety in this human activity. these buds, thick and swollen, are consumed before they can bloom / fester. they are a source of nourishment …

for cattle.

the anxiety in this activity stems from our relationship to what is being consumed— we know that we cannot digest it; we know that consumption cannot remedy our hunger. our grazing / our browsing is an imitative act, an ineffectual rumination.