Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Frequencies


The Song

The small, high wailing
that envelops us here,
distant, indistinct,

yet, too, immediate,
we take to be only
the utterances of loose fan

belts in the refrigerating
system, or the shocked hum
that issues from the darkness

of telephone receivers;
but it speaks to us
so deeply we think it

may well be the beseeching
of the stars, the shameless
weeping of coyotes

out on the Mohave
Please.
Please, stop listening

to this sound, which
is actually the terrible
keening of the ones

whose hearts have been broken
by lives spent in search
of its source,

by our lives of failure,
spent looking everywhere
for someone to say these words.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Poem by Denis Johnson
from The Incognito Lounge (1994)


The painting, Solar music, is by Remidios Varo Spanish surrealist (1908-1963) -- Oil on masonite --
Characters she painted have been described as: "These dream-like people, personified psychic fragments possessing purpose but not consciousness."

She died young, at 55, of "excessive tension" , a holistic diagnosis described as:
Tension on these (eyeball) muscles, called the Rectus muscles, creates a condition of farsightedness, and is experienced emotionally as tension in the consciousness, as coming out of one's Self, focusing on Image. It may be experienced as suppressed anger, or anger at one's self (guilt), or a feeling that in some way, the individual is not as important as other Beings.

I am not sure how this condition could do you in ?


26 comments:

  1. consummmate artists..
    thanks for sharing their work.. wasn't aware of them and neither was familar with the affliction of the eyes..

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  2. Very deep and moving I have found enormous rocks have the ability to stop all sound and peace is found from this world of manmade sounds.

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  3. this poem has a very cynical sound

    :-(

    as i was reading this top down, i can feel the environment and the frustration and this one really hit me on my head.

    "by our lives of failure,
    spent looking everywhere
    for someone to say these words."

    it is very painful.
    feeling like a sore loser.

    :((((((

    a very good one.

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  4. hello the photo is not mine !!! just copied from devianart!!!
    http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs7/300W/i/2005/206/9/c/jump_by_chryztoph.jpg

    that's the link for the photo =P

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  5. Azer,
    I read it more as a warning to others.

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  6. the poem is fascinating

    and the painting makes me think of Holdstock's Mythago Wood

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  7. Such an perceptual disorder must be highly painful, like falling out of ones own body - actually an out of body experience, a displacement. Horrifying, indeed!

    I love such an edutainmental post!

    Thank You!

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  8. Me neither! I don't get it. The ambivalence of sounds...like the roaring of an aircraft is soothing to my dad who flew in WW2, but very annoting to my sister. Some can tune these things out and others can not shut out their scream. As to whether they are other beings? Who's to know...I kinda have my doubts.
    Now, the eerie call of a loon? I'd believe that might come from something beyond here!

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  9. I enjoy the gift you have of finding verse to photos or paintings.

    Wikipedia states that she died of a heart attack. I looked up the eye affliction and couldn't find a reason for death, but it was all very technical...I may easily have missed it!

    She was an incredible artist. Her story is very interesting, and I'm sorry she died so very young, at the height of her career.

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  10. How I love the words ..and the feeling that lingers in me

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  11. so deep, love the poem and you always find the perfect image.

    yeah, i'll be out for a while goatman and i'll be missing you and your post. be back!

    take care;)

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  12. Goatman! I was wondering about you a few days ago and so i googled goatman and came up with the phone book and a lot of hairy stuff.
    You have really immersed yourself in MidEastern culture...I remember it was only a short time ago that you had found Rumi, if my memory serves.

    Heres to Ducks!

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  13. Long Time - No See

    How are You Goatman?

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  14. Hai
    Great blog
    I'm happy I'm here
    I hope Sweet Dreams
    And I wish you success
    I hope my visit
    Mother of the World
    http://alghnam2312.blogspot.com/
    I hope to be friends
    With greetings

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  15. It's a joy to return here and read, Goatman.
    Apparently a lot of people still have words that add to the universe. Grateful they are not silent. Too.
    And that you are not...
    When I write now..I write to Ben. Formerly "Darkmind"...now just Ben. Who is becoming sane but who is still a very interesting human being.
    Should people correspond in "comments?" Probably not. Apologies and thanks.

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  16. " heart broken.... ,in life spent in search of its source"....

    how tremendously beautiful!!
    thanks for the pretty moonbeans Goatman!!
    j

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  17. the poem is interesting, thanks Gman

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  18. I like poems I don't get.

    Like your blog, too.

    Dubai? I don't get it. Bigger, bigger, bigger ... oh wait! We Americans used to do that. Now the Arabs and Indonesians and Chinese do it better than we do.

    I adore our species, but we are kind of flawed eh?

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    ReplyDelete
  20. This poem really amazed me...I think there are probably a lot of people screaming inside like this nowadays..I've seen them and felt them. Spirit is in pain and a longing for a voice of some kind..if that makes any sense to you.

    I'm going to read up on this woman artist. Thank you for sharing.

    Love and Blessings,

    Rhi

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  21. Incredible poem, incredible picture.
    The condition this person had sounds like it was connected to something worse such as pressure on the brain. The human body is interesting--a tiny thing going wrong can kill it, yet on occasion it can survive things there's no way it should.
    I am now following your blog! I followed it to the store when it went to buy groceries, and now I've followed it to its home. :-)

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  22. Omg! I clicked on it and enlarged the pic, it is incredibly awesome... and the poem so lovely and sad.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog and dropping a comment. You have a nice place here, I'll be sure to drop back by :)

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  23. This is very interesting and one can only speculate how a person could die of this condition. Perhaps something else. The struggle of the spirit in this reaches out and touches..

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