NK Eide

Today's Bakerism

"...it invites us to consider how we might discover the invisible divisions and occlussions that words impose on our ways of seeing the world." 30 December 2006.

*See Footnotes at left for more on Bakerisms.

Juxtapost 5

"The report, which covers the period from early August to early November, found an average of almost 960 attacks against Americans and Iraqis every week, the highest level recorded since the Pentagon began issuing the quarterly reports in 2005, with the biggest surge in attacks against American-led forces."

Ambiguity

The tree trunks in our headlights are bright white worms,

inside a truck-shed, white tires are hung like paintings;

the best photographer dare not retouch them—

not everyone accepts their claim to greatness.

If blood doesn’t spurt from my eyelashes, when

I meet a work of art, it isn’t art—

too much persuasion is famine, enough a miracle,

yet God is good, he sees us all as straw dogs.

Even the toothless, trodden worm can writhe—

in the night-moment, even a halt-pacifist,

nursed on leaflets and wheat-germ, hears the drum-step

of his kind whistle like geese in converging lines,

the police weeping in their fog of Mace,

while he plants the black flag of anarchy and peace.

Robert Lowell. “Trunks.” In History. 1973.

Juxtapost 4

"The absence of an immediate new American plan for Iraq is adding to anxiety among Iraq's moderate neighbors, who identify with the country's minority Sunni Arab population, and has opened the way for new proposals from many quarters, in Iraq as well as in Washington, about the next steps."

My generation

My generation. We had dreams
and we created George W. Bush.

New generations. Rise up!
Take the streets!
Make change!
The world is yours!
Change it! Change it!

Patti Smith on stage 25 June 2005 at Royal Festival Hall, London, England.
Track 9 on CD 2 of Horses/Horses, 2005.

Juxtapost 3

"A bipartisan commission warned Wednesday that ''the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating,'' and it handed President Bush both a rebuke for his current strategy and a detailed blueprint for a fundamentally different approach, including the pullback of all American combat brigades over the next 15 months."

Today's Bakerism

"Take these associations seriously enough and they hint at a life-threatening quality -- in some sense -- instinct in representation as a way of interrogating the real." December 2, 2006.

*See Footnotes at left for more on Bakerisms.