| WORDS | the alphabet is high-tech | DIGITAL + PHOTO + PRINT + RESUME + BIO [ H O M E ] |
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| My People by Patti Smith We have come to a time where it is necessary to put our toys aside. Our pleasure toys, our war toys, our benevolent toys. All may be put aside. And not paper nor script nor plume nor lens nor gun nor electric guitar. Everything aside. The rosary, the ark, all of our history, our needs, our aspirations. All aside for one thing. An ear to hear. A sound to utter. We must lay aside the plow, the net, the schoolbook. Our loves our family, we must lay aside for a few precious moments. Where we are each none but ourselves possessing our own heart, our own mind and our own voice. Each of us a man alone, and hearing with that lone ear and crying out that lone cry. Each of us joined and rejoined by the other. The whole of humankind having no desire save the opportunity to participate in having a clean slate, an empty canvas, an unburdened sky. Each of us accounting for ourselves, affirming that we have an individual voice, with no affiliation, nothing but to be one self just as every other, every other being. We will be unto ourselves one voice and in that measure be the measure of all. One voice of a people composed of millions of individual voices. And what shall we utter? |
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Gloria Steinem
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The truth will set you free.
But first, it will piss you off. |
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Marianne Williamson
A Return to Love As quoted by Nelson Mandela, 1994 Inauguration |
Our
deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens
us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and
fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your
playing small doesn't serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about
shrinking so other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born
to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some
of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our
own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Emile |
N O T H I N G
will be accepted on authority. Only the evidence of the senses and the call of his desires will be his authorities. |
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Chalres Simic
Errata (excerpted) |
Remove all periods
They are scars made by words I couldn't bring myself to say |
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William Shakespeare
Hamlet |
O day and night,
but this is wondrous strange! |
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Lorenzo
Sex and Lucía |
Bullseye, butterfly. |
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Willem Dafoe |
I aspire to get to a place where I am not dependent on external things to tell me how I feel—not to be chasing after stuff—to be deeply centered and deal with life with the same kind of grace and a certain kind of equanimity. Pain is something inevitable in life and suffering has to do with how your mind works; what your mind identifies with. If you can get the right perspective on things then you are free. And if you are free, then you can be generous; if you are generous, then you can make beautiful things. |
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Jean-Paul Sartre The Words |
What I like about my madness is that it has protected me from the very beginning against the charms of the ‘elite’: never have I thought that I was the happy possessor of a ‘talent’; my sole concern has been to save myself—nothing in my hands, nothing up my sleeve—by work and faith. As a result, my pure choice did not raise me above anyone. Without equipment, without tools, I set all of me to work in order to save all of me. If I relegate impossible Salvation to the proproom, what remains? A whole man, composed of all men and as good as all of them and no better than any. |
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Jean Paul Sartre The Words |
When i took up a book, I could see that though I opened it and shut it twenty times, it did not deteriorate. Gliding over that incorruptible substance, the text, my gaze was merely a surface accident; it did not disturb anything, did not wear anything away. I, on the other hand, passive and ephemeral, was a dazzled mosquito, pierced by the rays of a beacon. I would put the light out and leave the study: invisible in the darkness, the book kept sparkling, for itself alone. I would give my works the violence of those corrosive flashes, and later, in ruined libraries, they would outlive man. |
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Norman Maclean A River Runs Through It |
One of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself quietly becoming the author of something beautiful ... . |
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Joe Banks Joe Versus the Volcano |
I bribed them to sing a song that would drive us insane and make our hearts swell and burst. |
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Sam Shepard More Urgent Emergencies |
Neither of us could understand where the blood was coming from when all we were doing was kissing. |
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Walt Whitman This is what you shall do |
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. |
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Thomas Mann Tristan |
...he walked along the gravel path, holding his arms in a careful, prim posture; and something in his gait suggested that it cost him an effort to walk slowly—the effort of a man intent upon concealing the fact that he is inwardly running away. |
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Wordsworth |
The eye—it cannot choose but see;
we cannot bid the ear be still; our bodies feel, where’er they be, against or with our will. |
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Salinger Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters |
The bride’s father’s uncle and I brought up the rear. Whether he had intuited that I was his friend or simply because I was the owner of a pad and pencil, he had rather more scrambled than gravitated to a walking position beside me. The very top of his beautiful silk hat didn’t quite come up as high as my shoulder. I set a comparitively slow gait for us, in deference to the length of his legs. At the end of a block or so, we were quite a good distance behind the others. I don't think it troubled either of us. Occasionaly, I remember, as we walked along, my friend and I looked up and down, respectively, at each other and exchanged idiotic expressions of pleasure at sharing one another’s company. |
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Salinger Seymour: An Introduction |
I want your loot. |
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T.S. Eliot Prufrock's overwhelming questions |
Do I dare? Do I dare?
Do I dare disturb the universe? And should I then presume? And how should I begin? Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball, To roll it toward some overwhelming question. Do I dare eat a peach? |
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Jack Kerouac Big Sur |
Shoo------Shaw-----Shirsh----- Go on die salt light You billion yeared rock knocker |
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Unknown |
Always happening, never happened. |
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David Sedaris Barrel Fever |
It is confusing when a stupid man plays dumb. |
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moi Shitake |
Fourteen seconds ago everything was fine. I was struck by how it was struck by my windshield, or birdshield as it was. I was struck by its brazen flight to its death. Ahh shit. Shit. Shit. A key. Another key in life’s mystery. If it hadn’t been for the glass, he could’ve flown into me. |
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Hans Christian Anderson The Emperor’s New Clothes |
“Am I stupid?” he thought. “I can’t believe it, but if it is so, it is best no one finds out about it. But maybe I am not fit for my office. No, that is worse, I’d better not admit that I can’t see what they are weaving.” |
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Tom Waits |
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends. |
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Wolves Phosphorescent |
They bury their paws in the stones and make for my heart as their home |
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Protection Massive Attack |
And I don’t have no fear I’ll take on any man here That’s the way it should be I’ll stand in front of you Take the force of the blow Protection |
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Green Gloves The National |
Get inside their beds with my green gloves Get inside their heads, love their loves Cinderella through the room, I glide and swan 'cuz I'm the best slow dancer in the universe |
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Hard Times Gillian Welch |
C'mon you Ashville boys turn up your old-time noise Kick 'til the dust comes up from the cracks in the floor |
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Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix |
Excuse me while I kiss the sky |
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Woodstock Joni |
We are stardust Billion year-old carbon We are golden Caught in a devil's bargain And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden |
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Love Is Won Lia Ices |
O you know I need yer mystic mind For you are leading us towards the un-blind We know that magic is a part of life Love is won when we aren't bound by time ... O love is won when we're bound and still feel free |
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Maybe Not Cat Power |
We all do what we can So we can do just one more thing We can all be free Maybe not with words Maybe not with a look But with your mind |
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The Moon Cat Power |
The moon is not only beautiful it is so far away. The moon is not only ice cold it is here to stay. |
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Nowhere Near Yo La Tengo |
All I know is when you smile I believe in everything. |
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Lay, Lady, Lay Bob Dylan |
Whatever colors you have in your mind I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine |
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Count Every Star The Ravens |
Count every star in the midnight sky Count every rose, every firefly Count every leaf on a willow tree Count every wave, every wave on a stormy, stormy sea |
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You're the One that I Want
John Farrar |
Meditate in my direction. |
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Cactus Tree Joni Mitchell |
There’s a man who sends her medals-He is bleeding from the war-There’s a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store-There’s a drummer and a dreamer-And you know there may be more-She will love them when she sees them-They will lose her if they follow-And she only means to please them-And her heart is full and hollow-Like a catus tree-While she’s so busy being free. |
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L.E.S. Artistes Santogold |
You don't know me I am an introvert an excavator I'm duckin' out for now a face in dodgy elevators Creep up and suddenly I found myself an innovator |
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The Ship Song Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
Come loose your dogs upon me And let your hair hang down You are a little mystery to me Every time you come around |
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I'm In Touch With Your World Ric Ocasek |
You can tuck it on the inside
You can throw it on the floor You can wave it on the outside Like you never did before You get the diplomatic treatment You get the force fed future You get the funk after death You get the wisenheimer brainstorm I'm in touch with your world |
Tugboat Galaxie 500 |
I don’t want to go to your parties
I don’t want to talk to your friends I don’t want to vote for your president I just want to be your tugboat captain |
North Dakota Lyle Lovett |
I drank myself some whiskey
And I dreamed I was a cowboy And I rode across the border To learn the ways of love |
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Cynical Girl Marshall Crenshaw |
Well I hate TV
There’s got to be somebody other than me Who’s ready to write it off immediately I’m lookin’ for a cynical girl |
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Sting Invisible Sun |
There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone |
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Elvis Costello Green Shirt |
Who put these fingerprints
on my imagination? |
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Good Fortune PJ Harvey |
Things I once thought unbelievable
in my life have all taken place When we walked through Little Italy I saw my reflection come right off your face I paint pictures to remember You’re too beautiful to put into words |
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I'm Always in Love Jeff Tweedy |
When I fold the cold
in my jet-lag palm When I soak so long I forget my mother |
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Tears Are In your Eyes Yo La Tengo |
Please tell me how
you know tomorrow by staring at your shoes |
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I Better Be Quiet Now
Elliott Smith |
I had a dream as an army man with an order just to march in my place while a dead enemy screams in my face |
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Trouble
Shawn Colvin |
It’s really hard to make your peace So give me some credit for the hell I’ve paid This world’s a blessing and a beast Every day |
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A Perfect Indian
Sinead O'Connor |
he’s shy and he speaks quietly
he’s gentle and he seems to me like the elf arrow his face worn and harrowed is he a daydreamer like me? |
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Man in a Shed
Nick Drake |
Well the story is not so very new
The man is me and this other guy is you So leave your house and come into my shed Please stop my world from raining through my head Please don’t think I’m not your sort You’ll find that sheds are nicer than you thought |
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Beautiful Mind The Verve |
Beautiful mind, or a beautiful body
I know which one I’m gonna end upon You say you will but you never promised thoughts You say I didn’t, I could, I’m sure I would if I knew that |
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Try Whistling This
Neil Finn |
and if i can’t be with you
i would rather have a different face if i can’t be near you i would rather be adrift in space if the gods desert us i will turn this chapel into flames if someone tries to hurt you i would put myself in your place |
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This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) David Byrne |
Out of all those kinds of people
You’ve got a face with a view I’m just an animal—lookin’ for a home to share the same space for a minute, or two And you’ll love me till my heart stops Love me till I’m dead Eyes that light up, eyes that look through Cover up the blank spots Hit me on the head |
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Anonymous Sleater-Kinney |
She’s worried, she’s worried, she’s worried
She said too much And talking, I’m talking, she’s talking Like books I’ve read It’s easy, it’s easy, it’s easy to shut yourself off Never on the record, it’ll never show up She wants to be, to be anonymous I sign, I sign, I sign anonymous Feel safe inside, inside those well-drawn lines Boyfriend, a car, a job, my white-girl life |
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Isn’t it a Pity George Harrison |
Some things take so long
But how do I explain When not too many people Can see we’re all the same And because of all their tears Their eyes can't hope to see The beauty that surrounds them Isn’t it a pity Isn’t it a shame |
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Fuzzy Wuzzy Luna |
Sexy, long sweater dresses
Chocolate, knee-high leather boots. |
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Riddle of the World Alexander Pope |
RIDDLE OF THE WORLD
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan The proper study of Mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A Being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast; In doubt his mind and body to prefer; Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err; Whether he thinks too little, or too much; Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd; Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd; Created half to rise and half to fall; Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all, Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd; The glory, jest and riddle of the world. |
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Solitude
Alexander Pope |
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground. Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Blest, who can unconcern’dly find
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
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since feeling is first
e.e. cummings |
since feeling is first
who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; wholly to be a fool
my blood approves,
we are for eachother: then
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somewhere i have never travelled
e.e. cummings |
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me
or if your wish be to close me, i and
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
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