wishlist

From Chapter E:

Westerners revere the Greek legends. Versemen retell the represented events, the resplendent scenes, where, hellbent, the Greek freemen seek revenge whenever Helen, the new-wed empress, weeps. Restless, she deserts her fleece bed where, detested, her wedded regent sleeps. When she remembers Greece, her seceded demesne, she feels wretched, left here, bereft, her needs never met. She needs rest; nevertheless, her demented fevers render her sleepless (her sleeplessness enfeebles her). She needs help; nevertheless her stressed nerves render her cheerless (her cheerlessness enfetters her).

Eunoia is the shortest word in English containing all five vowels - and it means "beautiful thinking". It is also the title of Canadian poet Christian Bok's book of fiction in which each chapter uses only one vowel.

mug shot

You sit here now on the hard chair and think about these things and you don't know whether you are happy or sad. And you wonder if you'll ever think some day about now, and if then everything happening now will be nice to think about.

Alvin Levin. Love is Like Park Avenue. New Directions.

McNally Jackson Books.

holiday over

it was a good one.

the bookshops i went to........

At Least It Was

I thought I saw you on the train

I hid behind some men
I had never seen you look so good
I'm glad you're doing well

I went out for a walk today
To think of things unsaid
Of course I found I'd said too much
So I laid all that to rest

And when the day falls
I guess it was love
And when the day falls
At least it was

You thought of the name to call me
I guess that's how it goes
I know a few with the same name
Yes, I'm sad I'm one of those

Ungraceful as I am in loving
And leaving I'm the same
It's way too late to say I'm sorry
But I'll say it anyway

And when the day forwards
I guess it was love
And when the day forwards
At least it was

At Least It Was. Emiliana Torrini

Two years he walks the earth.

No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.

--Alexander Supertramp, May 1992

Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild.

I pictured

a low timber house with a shingled roof, caulked against storms, with blazing log fires inside and the walls lined with all the best books, somewhere to live when the rest of the world blew up.

Bruce Chatwin. In Patagonia.

We should strive

to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow. With out them we grow weak like the Eloi in comfort and security. We need to constantly be challenging ourselves in order to strengthen our character and increase our intelligence.

H.G. Wells. The Time Machine.