Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 49

CarrollBlog 7.19

THE MATTER

by Kim Addonizio

Some men break your heart in two…

—Dorothy Parker, "Experience"

Some men carry you to bed with your boots on.

Some men say your name like a verbal tic.

Some men slap on an emotional surcharge for every erotic encounter.

Some men are slightly mentally ill, and thinking of joining a gym.

Some men have moved on and can't be seduced, even in the dream bars you meet them in.

Some men who were younger are now the age you were then.

Some men aren't...

CarrollBlog 7.18

Why is the word yes so brief?

It should be

the longest,

the hardest,

so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,

so that upon reflection you could stop

in the middle of saying it.

Vera Pavlova

CarrollBlog 7.17

Black Umbrellas

by Rick Agran

On a rainy day in Seattle stumble into any coffee shop

and look wounded by the rain.

Say Last time I was in I left my black umbrella here.

A waitress in a blue beret will pull a black umbrella

from behind the counter and surrender it to you

like a sword at your knighting.

Unlike New Englanders, she'll never ask you

to describe it, never ask what day you came in,

she's intimate with rain and its appointments.

Look positively reunited with this black...

CarrollBlog 7.16

the finger

by Charles Bukowski

the drivers of automobiles

have very little recourse or

originality.

when upset with

another

driver

they often give him the

FINGER.

I have seen two adult

men

florid of face

driving along

giving each other the

FINGER.

well, we all know what

this means, it's no

secret.

still, this gesture is

so overused it has

lost most of its

impact.

some of the men who give

the FINGER are captains of

industry, city councilmen,

insurance adjusters,

CarrollBlog 7.15

Would be writers-- here's a really good list of things to look out for from Janet Fitch, author of WHITE OLEANDER & PAINT IT BLACK from an article in the Los Angeles Times:

1. Write the sentence, not just the story

Long ago I got a rejection from the editor of the Santa Monica Review, Jim Krusoe. It said: "Good enough story, but what's unique about your sentences?" That was the best advice I ever got. Learn to look at your sentences, play with them, make sure there's music, lots of ...

CarrollBlog 7.14

File under "What are friends for?"

"Everyone should live to be 92 years old, have an orgasm, and immediately drop dead."

I wrote this sentence in one of my books although I don't remember which one. A chum of mine sent it this afternoon and said it appeared (with proper credit to me) on a porno site beneath a black and white photograph the details of which were very, uh, graphic. Little did I know way back when those words marched out of my pen that they would end up with that...

CarrollBlog 7.12

Two silences are given to man:

The one surrounds him,

The other fills.

Man becomes the third one,

Listening as his words echo in those two.

Two words are given to man:

Yes and no.

He becomes the third one—a verb of time,

Flowing between the one and the other.

Two times are given to man:

Before him and after.

He is in between and follows the both.

Two lives are given to man.

He is the difference.

Sergey Mikhaylov

CarrollBlog 7.10

I read an article in a UK newspaper about a burglar who is going around stealing clothes off peoples' backyard clotheslines. It reminded me of when I was living in L.A. in the mid-90's. One day I looked out the window of my house and saw a skinny, creepy looking guy stealing all my just-washed laundry. Eventually he must have sensed someone was watching. He looked over and we made eye contact. I thought damn, if you're down to stealing strangers' laundry you need it a lot more than me. So I g...

CarrollBlog 7.9

from an editorial by David Brooks in the NY Times:

The great essayist Joseph Epstein once distinguished between being well informed, being hip and being cultivated. The Internet helps you become well informed — knowledgeable about current events, the latest controversies and important trends. The Internet also helps you become hip — to learn about what's going on, as Epstein writes, "in those lively waters outside the boring mainstream."

But the literary world is still better at helping...

CarrollBlog 7.7

"The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. You can change the way people live their lives. That's the only lasting thing you can create."