Sunday, January 10, 2010

If you're still out there hiding, on the run...



Thanks to everyone who braved the cold and made it out to the Basement last Tuesday night. It was a grand time all around. Just grand. We'll do it again soon. I promise--stay tuned...

Ask the Dusk



I saw men walking through deep, dark alleys. I marveled at their madness.

Don't ask questions, just go find it.

I See a Darkness



I was on the firing line for a long time. The shots came continuously, but they always missed. Until one day last week--and I took it right in the gut. As I doubled over, I could only think of how long it took. And I couldn't understand it, it seems so simple now. Simple like how on a hot August twilight all you really need is lemonade on ice. (Put a little something in that, take it with us). I understand now.



So does he:

"Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying"


Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I Had Been a Polar Explorer

I Had Been a Polar Explorer
by Mark Strand

I had been a polar explorer in my youth
and spent countless days and nights freezing
in one blank place and then another. Eventually,
I quit my travels and stayed at home,
and there grew within me a sudden excess of desire,
as if a brilliant stream of light of the sort one sees
within a diamond were passing through me.
I filled page after page with visions of what I had witnessed—
groaning seas of pack ice, giant glaciers, and the windswept white
of icebergs. Then, with nothing more to say, I stopped
and turned my sights on what was near. Almost at once,
a man wearing a dark coat and broad-brimmed hat
appeared under the trees in front of my house.
The way he stared straight ahead and stood,
not shifting his weight, letting his arms hang down
at his side, made me think that I knew him.
But when I raised my hand to say hello,
he took a step back, turned away, and started to fade
as longing fades until nothing is left of it.

This is how it used to be, but not how it is anymore:
I Am A Polar Explorer