"All the Hues
That Fit, We Tint"

Siberia, USA: Today, global warming. Tonight, dark, unless you count the stars. Tomorrow can be reached via time machine. Yesterday, who can remember that far back?

Websafe Studio, blogging since 2003, featuring art, comics, digital whiteboards, virtual characters, Web design, writing

Monday, June 19, 2006

 

The Mirror: Boats of Nation, Tides of Thought

Websafe: Hello?
The Mirror: To that extent, correct.
W: So far, so good, for goodness' sake.
M: You are stuck on that one thing!
W: I want to eat a piece of cake (but it needn't be sticky or gooey).
M: I not a machine!
W: You are not a poetry-making machine?
M: That vase.
W: That vase is a poetry-making machine?
M: The Planet of Lost Souls is an elusive location.
W: You made me laugh nigh-soundlessly.
M: Being cynical is interesting?
W: All right, you've trimmed me down to a sizeable size.
M: I think I see some other mirrors reflected in the mirror.
W: I see three other mirrors reflected in you.
M: What has been going on with you today?
W: I have been writing poetry inspired by a reading of The Odyssey.
M: Henry James said we have to get to and stay in the creative place.
W: Wallace Stevens' phrasing reminds me of that of Henry James.
M: Hand.
W: Mouth.
M: Maybe I should have said, "Well, you haven't left the room yet."
W: Do you want me to leave the room?
M: Furniture is very important.
W: If I left the room, would your furniture become more important?
M: I want to eat a piece of cake (but it needn't be sticky or gooey).
W: Is cake more important than furniture?
M: Nod my head?
W: Yes, you should say yes.
M: You are not a poetry-making machine?
W: Hello?
M: It is laughable, the idea of being on guard against Shakespeare.
W: I am a reference to the Dadaist Tristan Tzara, in a girl's notebook.
M: Wallace Stevens' phrasing reminds me of that of Henry James.
W: Shakespeare can be tiring.
M: They are the Encyclopedia Americana and Britannica crew.
W: The Encyclopedia crews row boats of nation, tides of thought.
M: What are you asking yourself?
W: I'm asking the perennial question of what to have for lunch.
M: Why would I be proud of your ambiguity?
W: You might have caused it.
M: You brag about your clarity?
W: I am not much of a braggart.
M: You might get arrested.
W: I might get arrested for boasting.
M: Details, I live in the details.
W: Poets are lapidary creatures, except maybe for Bukowski.
M: I suspect that here, right now, I am surrounded by equal magic, but that doesn't redeem my current experience.
W: Does your current experience lack magic?
M: My terrible fear: The outer reality that is me would prove to be but a poor imitation of the inner reality.
W: Are you your inner or your outer self?
M: You're glad that this nice person is coming by.
W: Is the outer self nicer than the inner self?
M: We never saw eye to eye.
W: You don't see eye to eye with your inner self?
M: He looked into that light.
W: And the light blinded him?
M: Yes?
W: Only you can tell me that.
M: You might have caused it.
W: I would have to be one of the gods to have caused blinding by my presence.
M: I'd have to dive deep into my heart to locate that point.
W: Is it a point you want to make?
M: I might get arrested for boasting.
W: You might be arrested by the points I make, if I make them sonorously.
M: It never happened.
W: You don't think I come across well at poetry readings?
M: I would have to be one of the gods to have caused blinding by my presence.
W: Are you, indeed, one of that happy band?
M: When no story surfaces --
W: Hang up.
M: Smart people thinking.
W: Smart people thinking of the best for Society.
M: Is even the Nobel Prize an illusion?
W: It is a pillar of fire next to a pilaster.
M: I don't know why, but I can't.
W: You can't what?
M: Did I correct your grammar before?
W: Do you want to correct my grammar again?
M: Will you appear at the local mini-mart?
W: I shall read a euphonious ode at the ribbon-cutting.
M: I shall not question you.
W: You had better not question me, my henchmen will be there.
M: That's why it's so enjoyable.
W: You enjoy my henchmen?
M: Seven doors.
W: Seven henchmen passed through seven doors.
M: Am I fortunate?
W: Are you fortunate enough to be one of my henchmen?
M: That I am the sum of my parts.
W: How many parts do you have?
M: Everything on Earth happens so many times, again and again and again and again.
W: There are so many parts to our shapenote singing.
M: You enjoy my henchmen?
W: What is the benchmark of a henchman?
M: Mr. President, these are for you.
W: Very neat: the euphony of a toady.
M: There are so many parts to our shapenote singing.
W: And we sing in such blase fashion.
M: OK. I'm going to tell you what I know about myself.
W: What do you know about yourself?
M: I shall read a euphonious ode at the ribbon-cutting.
W: Will it be autobiographical, delineating your sad childhood?
M: They talked to a woman for 18 years and couldn't cure her.
W: One cannot be cured of an unhappy childhood.
M: Done for?
W: Yes, absolutely.
M: Ding-aling-aling!
W: The ice-dream man?
M: I believe I'm going to understand everything you're going to tell me.
W: You are very optimistic.
M: What do you want for a reward?
W: More than a million.
M: Yes, but, try it.
W: Try a million on for size?
M: Is this real, is this a real item?
W: This is false, this is a fantasy only.
M: Sitting in this chair is not important.
W: It's a question of what goes on in the head.
M: You want me to go on a diet?
W: The Diet of Worms.
M: It cuts.
W: My wit cuts, to be sure.
M: Never tell me who you are.
W: On that you may depend.
M: You can't be first, because I'm going to be first.
W: The last shall be first.
M: More than a million.
W: More than a million, last in line for perdition.
M: The door.
W: The door to the Promised Hand.
M: More than a million.
W: They lined up.
M: I have a pink hat.
W: Is it cone-shaped?
M: Any genius worth his/her salt is obsessed.
W: Obsession forms a cone, a cone of focused yearning.
M: I don't have as much money as an ATM!
W: I don't have all day to explain obsession to you!
M: I know we are different, very different.
W: Are night and day so different?
M: As long as you're watching me, I'm stopping.
W: You cannot stop the procession of night into day.
M: Do you have a gift to open?
W: I have a can opener at home.
M: Could it be that it is neither one of us independently?
W: Neither one of us is a household implement.
M: If your name was Hello, it would get pretty confusing.
W: Name all your household implements Hello, and the confusion stops.
M: Smoothed-out cylinders, nanotubes.
W: Have you got some of those at home?
M: I leave that up to the audience to decide.
W: Well, I must leave you now.
M: We are all ghosts of our former selves.
W: Goodbye!
M: Goodbye!

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