A Poem that Laughs

Incantations by Laughter Written by Velimir Khlebnikov   O, laugh, laughers! O, laugh out, laughers! You who laugh with laughs, you who laugh it up laughishly O, laugh out laugheringly O, belaughable laughterhood–the laughter of laughering laughers! O, unlaugh it outlaughingly, belaughering laughists! Laughily, laughily, Uplaugh, enlaugh, laughlings, laughlings Laughlets, laughlets. O, laugh, laughers! O, laugh [...]

A Keeper’s World

If the finder does not know whose it is, he takes it to the baron who is called Bularguchi, which is as much to say ‘keeper of lost property.” For, I would have you know that, if anyone finds a horse or a sword or a hawk or anything else and cannot discover the owner, [...]

NEW BOOK: Laughter by Anca Parvulescu

Philosophers have always been fascinated by laughter. They’ve asked all sorts of questions about it. Do animals laugh? Which part of the body is responsible for laughter? Can God laugh? What is the link between laughter and madness? These philosophers–from Plato to Nietzsche–realize one truth about laughter, that it is as strange as it is ordinary.  Of [...]

Book of Flowers: Entry # 2

Addiction /addictio/ Addiction is a wasting flower. There are thousands of species and hybrids. It blooms and fades as all flowers do, only it cannot fade alone. It takes with it the light and beauty of its surroundings. It blooms on a climbing plant that grows secretly, often without anyone noticing.  It’s the flower that no [...]

The Secret Life of the Imagination

The Imagination may perhaps be forgiven for occasional vagaries and for not keeping carefully within the limit of experience, since it gains life and vigor by such flights and since it is always easier to moderate its boldness than to stimulate its languor. But the Understanding which ought to think can never be forgiven for [...]

Book of Flowers – Entry # 1

Infatuation (infatuātiō) A perfect name for a flower that cannot live beyond the dusk of its first and only dawn. It has the look of a rose, a foolish rose. But it takes on the posture of poppies. The petals are thin. At the slightest touch of the wind, it flaps like a possessed dervish. The [...]

Dread..Dreadful…Dreadlocks

My stylist cringes at the word dreadlocks. “Simply call it locks,” she would caution, “There’s nothing dreadful about locks.” This quarrel over naming is not trivial. She realizes, like most philosophers do, that naming is everything.  But what if there are no locks without the dread in them? What if locks are locks only after the work [...]

Back To School Jingle

It’s been three months already, and I’m back to the grind. Nothing has changed. The struggle is familiar. The labor is still sweet. The hours are still piling up around me even as they are running away, leaving me with the queasy feeling that I’ll never catch up with them.  As usual, the semester is [...]