THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT THE SMALL PRESS ~

 

R E A D   M E

Wakefield Press

2024

FOREVER ELAINE MAY ~

R E A D   M E

     St. Martin's Press

     2024

JESSE ED DAVIS ~

 

J E S S E   E D   D A V I S

          Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

DRAWN TESTIMONY ~

 

Ghislaine Maxwell, seated second from right, was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021 after a monthlong trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.Credit...Jane Rosenberg

R E A D   M E

     Drawing & riveting

[ BA ]

      HANOVER SQUARE, 2024

RESIDENCE ~

 

I HEREBY

 ANNOUNCE

(and I am Nobody)

 that the

47th Presidency

of 2025

in true FLUXUS

 Manner,

will be owned, lived,

 suffered

by all of us —

 residents of the

 

USA and the rest of

 the World

the EARTH

as our combined and

 self-fulfilled

ART WORK. Not

 politics,

 

not geography, not

 anyones,

ALL OF OURS. We

 will rejoice

and suffer together.

 Those who

voted for, voted

 against, didn’t

vote, couldn’t vote,

 never will

VOTE. Here we are,

 all together,

in our ART WORK.

FEEL IT.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THIS IS THE BEST ARTICLE YOU WILL

READ TODAY ABOUT THE STATE OF AMERICA —

 POLITICS, PEOPLE, YOU, ME

GOSPEL HARMONETTES ~

 

Slavoj Źiźek ~

 

    M O R E !

SONGS OF MIRABAI ~

 

Some Songs of Mirabai

           ________________________

paga bandha ghumgharyam nacyari

Binding my ankles with silver

I danced —

people in town called me crazy.

She'll run the clan

said my mother-in-law,

and the prince

had a cup ofvenom delivered.

I laughed as I drank it.

Can't they see?

Body and mind aren't something to lose,

the Dark One's already seized them.

Mira's lord can lift mountains,

he is her refuge.

mhare dere ajyo

Come to my bedroom,

I've scattered fresh buds on the couch,

perfumed my body.

Birth after birth I am your servant,

sleep only with you.

Mira's lord does not perish —

one glimpse of the Dark One is all she requests.

jagamam jivana thora

Life on this planet is fragile,

why take up a burden?

From mother and father

come birth,

but from the font of creation comes karma.

People waste life,

heaping up merit like they're buying and selling —

it's pointless.

I sing out the raptures

of Hari, go into passions with sadhus,

nothing disturbs me.

Mira says — it's your power Dark One,

but it's me who crosses

the limits.

nenam lobham atakam

Wolfish eyes fixed on the Dark One,

hungry, restless,

scouring every inch of his body.

When he came into view

smiling faintly,

lit up with moonlight.

I nearly collapsed by the door.

My family speaks of their plans

to restrain me

but my eyes flash through every obstruction.

Don't they know somebody's claimed me?

I lift to my forehead

every word uttered,

some ugly, some tender —

without the Dark one's approval

nothing survives.

kina sang khelum holi

Terrible solitude

festival day

now that he's gone.

Damn these rubies and pearls,

I'll string devotional beads

at my throat.

And here's an old hermit cloak —

now that fod and house

are distasteful

it matches my feelings.

What makes me like this?

It's a riddle.

You take me to bed

then go off and fuck

some other girl.

Does she have you under her spell

that you can't even write me?

Mira's bundle of nerves in your absence.

Look at her,

an unwatered weed when the

Dark One's away, 

            she wilts in the rubble.

______________________

Songs of Mirabai

translated by Andrew Schelling

White Pine Press, 2024

COMPANION FOR THE JOURNEY VOLUME 31