|
|
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
| |
1:46 pm - umbrella
|
Haven't posted one of these in awhile. Here is one I have been playing with enough to like.
Homonyms
Say organs and it's unclear
whether you mean the instruments
that make the fugue of the body
or the ones looming in cathedrals.
Say plain and the adjective
describes the landscape,
the topography unremarkable,
the land guileless and broad.
Say left and I would turn,
maybe to change direction
or maybe to see who had gone.
But say love, and sometimes
you could mean the way
a dim room brightens
at midday, when the sun
comes from behind a cloud,
and you are still in bed.
You could mean crying.
You could mean candles burned
to their ends. You could mean
the cardinal the cat left
on your stoop, still intact,
one red wing crossed
over his chest, eyes darkened.
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, September 10th, 2009
| |
12:50 am
|
|
by blind taste test, pabst blue ribbon was unanimously chosen by all judges as the best of the crappy beers.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, August 28th, 2009
| |
1:50 am - bloop
|
apparently it was just the start of school i needed to get the poetry flowing.
two poems in two days.
and before long, my prolific writing is sure to become good, right? Right?!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
| |
1:20 am - womanizer
|
i am in love with lady gaga. she is the real shit. she is the first legitimately big thing after madonna.
and by the real shit, i mean she is completely frigging out of her mind. in addition to this, i love her because:
-she looks like a tranny
-she writes her own songs (meaning that she is the mastermind behind such gems as "lets have some fun, this beat is sick; i wanna take a ride on your disco stick") and used to write songs for akon, the pussycat dolls, and fergie (among others). i would kill to know if she is the genius behind "T to the A to the S-T-E-Y girl you tasty."
-burlesque.
-she is even catchier than britney spears at her best
-this quote: "In my show I announce, 'People say Lady Gaga is a lie, and they are right. I am a lie. And every day I kill to make it true.' It's the dream of my vision, it's the lie that I tell, whether it's an umbrella or it's a hat or it's the way that I shape my lipstick. And then eventually it becomes a reality. My hair bow was a lie and now it's true." WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN
-this interview:
she sounds a lot dumber in this one than a bunch of others, but she is just so freaking nuts it gives me goosebumps. around 1:35, when she says she'd cut off her leg? priceless.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, August 14th, 2009
| |
2:49 pm - tribe
|
last night was my first night in the new house in carrboro! it is lovely. i am still unpacking. we have so much space, and the ceilings in my new room are nice and high--it feels almost like a cube.
i woke up this morning with a little confusion, just staring up at the ceiling, which is beadboard (as are the walls). the new texture disoriented me.
i have two ten foot high built-in bookcases which flank the window across from my bed. each one is at least three feet wide. i wish i had so many more books to fill them with! i am trying to figure out clever ways of taking up space.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, August 9th, 2009
| |
7:01 pm - Electric relaxation
|
Orlando was not too much of a vacation. More than anything, I feel exhausted. Our three days at the beach were what I wanted more of. Disney World is a fun place (and a lovely place, for that matter), in small doses. It would be much more fun if it were not surrounded by the terrifying neon-lit abyss of Kissimmee and Orlando.
I saw Devin Nystrom perform in the High School Musical 3 show. He looked great! It made me really happy--his (and all of the performers') happiness wasn't faked. It was genuine and unironic. He picked a little girl out of the crowd to dance with at one point, and it made me truly glad to see how geeked she got about dancing with Devin. When he brought her back to her parents, I saw that she had on a High School Musical t-shirt. She couldn't stop jumping up and down.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, July 27th, 2009
| |
1:47 am - racquets
|
things that are stupid
- lacrosse
- vomiting
- those unpopped kernels in the bottom of the popcorn bag
- white bread
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, July 19th, 2009
| |
2:55 pm - news images
|
Losing My Religion for Equality
by Jimmy Carter
I have been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.
The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.
In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.
The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.
It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.
I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.
The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."
We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.
The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.
I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.
The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Friday, July 17th, 2009
| |
1:15 am - otters
|
too often these days i get fixated on a phrase and it sticks in my head like a song. they are little snippets of unfinished iambic lines, that half-assed blank verse i always write, like poems that want to be written.
most recently, it's been:
"the arched supports of railway bridges"
"across the beltway girdling the city"
i bought a canister of cocoa butter the other day and i still haven't gotten used to my hands smelling like i just dipped them in a boiling vat of something sweet in the hershey factory.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, July 4th, 2009
| |
2:18 am - dudes
|
things i love about bodies in general
-collarbones
-shoulderblades
-noses
-bellies (fuzz preferable)
things i love about my body in particular
-feet
-shoulders
-eyebrows
-nipples
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
| |
1:22 am - should be
|
i should be a haircutter. i de-mulleted tony's hair for the second time yesterday. it is very short and it looks good in the back, where i hacked at it with three different pairs of dull scissors.
i cut off large chunks and we piled them to one side, but all the rest of the hairs were just tiny scraps floating everywhere.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
| |
11:25 pm - old
|
i turned 21 yesterday. i did not drink anything except a mimosa with breakfast (courtesy of my mother) and a glass of wine before bed (courtesy of my father).
i have the rest of my life to go out drankin'.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
| |
4:01 pm - overwhelmed
|
i am charmed by my coworkers. they call me carolita and teach me spanish words. i have never wished i spoke spanish as badly as i do now.
it is so fantastic to be largely out of the UNC bubble. i like work--it is nice to sit with people who babble happily in languages i dont speak and talk to english speakers who are kids my age who've just taken different routes with their lives. people at UNC exhaust me sometimes with their resume-building earnestness. i appreciate people who can work with their hands and not bitch about it.
ive started running again. i hope that soon i will start to like it for reasons other than telling people that ive started running. because i am unnecessarily proud of it.
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
| |
11:52 am - large
|
i think i regard smelly people as somehow more people-y than people who smell nice, but smell nice in un-peopleish ways. boys who wear cologne or other nice smelling products throw me off. the same is true with people who wear very expensive clothes. the human body doesnt need too terribly many accoutrements.
maybe grungy, people-smelling people is the reason i like asheville so much.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, May 7th, 2009
| |
5:44 pm - sun
|
yesterday was tonys 21st birthday, and after studying for awhile, we decided to go on a drive. he drove my car way out into chatham county, and the rain stopped and started, and there was sun and there were dark clouds. everything was green and wet and smelled like grass and you could hear the tall stalks of grass rubbing each other, even over the high wind of the car. the sun shined on the blacktop and made it bright silver.
i hung my head out the window and smiled on everything.
i cried a little bit, just from the welling up of everything good inside me. sometimes i worry that i am not attuned enough to the suffering of others, but maybe it is compensated at least in part by being oversensitive to beauty.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
| |
1:11 am - under
|
there are so many beautiful, beautiful people out there. i just love to look at people.
tonys best friend chris was just here and they stayed at my house. i kept looking at chris and thinking about how beautiful he is--he has a creepy mustache and a euro-mullet and is generally a squirrelly little dude, but he is such a good boy and he is so beautiful. he sounds very soothing when he talks and he has such lovely blue eyes, even though i do not wish to be in that brain.
people are so much less foreign to me than everything else in the world. lately i have been looking at the springtime here and how beautiful it is, but it largely impresses on me its strangeness more than its beauty. trees are so beautiful but they are so weird. looking out my kitchen window is like looking into an alien landscape, with the spindly bark stalks covered in those new glowing green things shadowing the forest.
the other day, henry spelman hugged me after i read some poems at the cellar door reading and said, "bring it in, big dog." i would love it so much if my nickname were "big dog."
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Monday, April 20th, 2009
| |
12:48 pm - beedeebaaaaaah
|
im in my bed sick off of a latte i had LAST NIGHT. this is the last straw. coffee, i am done with you. you are delicious and keep me awake like nothing else i have tried. however, it is no fun to be kept awake while i am curled in a ball of belly grumbles with a bucket beside my head. and you are not THAT delicious, coffee.
i went to phi delts formal weekend on kiawah island with the mcelweener these past few days. we had fun and there was minimal debauchery. we stood out a lot, which was OK by me. i am trying to figure out why this is, exactly. i mean, john is just a mildly greasy hipsterish dude, so thats why he stands out. but i was clean and wearing not-crazy clothes--i even toned it down a little specifically for this weekend--but you still could have picked me out of a lineup of all the dates there as easily as if i had a flashing neon sign over my head reading, "THE ONLY ONE NOT IN A SORORITY." i think it might have to do with my color scheme.
we did tear it up on the dance flo', however.
also, i got a tan. a little one.
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, April 13th, 2009
| |
10:11 pm - salmon
|
i am so full of sushi that i am afraid fish chunks are going to start leaking out of my bellybutton.
2 for 1 specials on sushi are a really good thing.
in moderation.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
| |
1:09 am - me oh my oh
|
working at the rizzo sucks because people who were supposed to clear out by 9 were still hanging out at 11, so i didnt get to eat dinner until almost midnight.
working at the rizzo rules because i had filet mignon and goat cheese for dinner at midnight.
today i was listening to the radio in the shower and missy elliot's "work it" came on. i really like female rappers. hearing them talk about sex is refreshing. not that i endorse promiscuity, but i dont know--call me crazy, but i like hearing about women and sex outside of the context of women as slampieces. i just like hearing strong feelings and strong actions and strong desires expressed by the ladies.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Friday, March 27th, 2009
| |
1:22 am - submission
|
when i wake up in the cave, i pull myself up in bed and see myself in the big mirror which is attached to the dresser beside my bed. the sun comes in through my one high window at such an angle that no matter how bleary-eyed i look in reality, i always look radiant when i first see myself. i look like a princess, or someone sexy and mysterious. sometimes both. its a good way to wake up.
also, good news: i got accepted to senior honors in poetry! also, i am being published in cellar door again!
poetry makes a comeback.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
seaelleff's journal