Sunday, June 30, 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Happy Hour


When the doomsday asteroid sails to strike,
elephants of the blazing plains
will gather about a baobab
and dance on their hind legs;
ostriches will fly for the first
above the circling leathern skulls,
and birds that flame the most in hottest regions
will molt every sunset feather into empty evening grey.

When the asteroid's burning belly burrows into the plates,
turning them to tsunamis of molten glass,
herds of sasquatches will hurtle
from the forested hills in flames;
rank with sulphur, they will bear down
like skunk comets, down the hillsides, reeking;
burning twiggy, knotted fur, wailing cries,
howling a sound that will cause
any within hearing to instantly die.

When the ashen plume gushes up with the hemorrhaging
of the earth, unknown swimmers from the seas
will surface on the naked shores:
eyes like beads and eyes like bulbs,
teeth like needles and lips like frogs,
slimy, skeletal or luminescent,
muscular or whippish, crushing or zinging
with lightning tails of death.
They will proclaim the sins of the highest towers -
creatures forever unseen, swimming
the blackest, emptiest, ocean depths

that will become unhoused and waterless.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Monday, June 24, 2013

Saturday, June 22, 2013




3H, B and 6B



6B, B and maybe 3H or 2H

Friday, June 21, 2013




2B and some others I think








Charcoal and white



A pencil of some kind

 





3H, B and 6B

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Globalization


"Sometimes globalization is viewed in fatalistic terms, as if the dynamics involved were the product of anonymous impersonal forces or structures independent of the human will. In this regard it is useful to remember that while globalization should certainly be understood as a socio-economic process, this is not its only dimension. Underneath the more visible process, humanity itself is becoming increasingly interconnected; it is made up of individuals and peoples to whom this process should offer benefits and development, as they assume their respective responsibilities, singly and collectively. The breaking-down of borders is not simply a material fact: it is also a cultural event both in its causes and its effects. If globalization is viewed from a deterministic standpoint, the criteria with which to evaluate and direct it are lost. As a human reality, it is the product of diverse cultural tendencies, which need to be subjected to a process of discernment. The truth of globalization as a process and its fundamental ethical criterion are given by the unity of the human family and its development towards what is good. Hence a sustained commitment is needed so as to promote a person-based and community-oriented cultural process of world-wide integration that is open to transcendence.

"Despite some of its structural elements, which should neither be denied nor exaggerated, “globalization, a priori, is neither good nor bad. It will be what people make of it”. We should not be its victims, but rather its protagonists, acting in the light of reason, guided by charity and truth. Blind opposition would be a mistaken and prejudiced attitude, incapable of recognizing the positive aspects of the process, with the consequent risk of missing the chance to take advantage of its many opportunities for development. The processes of globalization, suitably understood and directed, open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale; if badly directed, however, they can lead to an increase in poverty and inequality, and could even trigger a global crisis. It is necessary to correct the malfunctions, some of them serious, that cause new divisions between peoples and within peoples, and also to ensure that the redistribution of wealth does not come about through the redistribution or increase of poverty: a real danger if the present situation were to be badly managed. For a long time it was thought that poor peoples should remain at a fixed stage of development, and should be content to receive assistance from the philanthropy of developed peoples. Paul VI strongly opposed this mentality in Populorum Progressio. Today the material resources available for rescuing these peoples from poverty are potentially greater than before, but they have ended up largely in the hands of people from developed countries, who have benefited more from the liberalization that has occurred in the mobility of capital and labour. The world-wide diffusion of forms of prosperity should not therefore be held up by projects that are self-centred, protectionist or at the service of private interests. Indeed the involvement of emerging or developing countries allows us to manage the crisis better today. The transition inherent in the process of globalization presents great difficulties and dangers that can only be overcome if we are able to appropriate the underlying anthropological and ethical spirit that drives globalization towards the humanizing goal of solidarity. Unfortunately this spirit is often overwhelmed or suppressed by ethical and cultural considerations of an individualistic and utilitarian nature. Globalization is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon which must be grasped in the diversity and unity of all its different dimensions, including the theological dimension. In this way it will be possible to experience and to steer the globalization of humanity in relational terms, in terms of communion and the sharing of goods."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate

Making Games


We never knew of conkers,
the tame game that became the name
for the nuts in England.

But at the alley's end
we gathered them, calling them chestnuts.
With bushels in our shirts,

we divided into regimens
at kept distances, and lobbed them like grenades
at each other, high in arches

across the cul-de-sac.
At alley's end, grew the benefactor
and keeled the fenceless fence:

at junction of corners,
blurring of property lines,
grew the climbing tree,

and the source of our weaponry.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Viva Cristo Rey

I watched For Greater Glory last night.

I thought the film was watchable.

Here's Patrick Madrid talking about the Cristeros War:


Sunday, June 9, 2013

Chichikov

THE CAMP 
By Pavel Chichikov

Encampment of the atheists
A well-known slum and shambles
Outside the gates of Paradise

Hovels made of black-tarred paper
Smokey fires fed with rubber
And old electric wire

Those who camp there dress like hoboes
Huddle near the bilious fires
Draped in sacking and old clothes

On the mountain overhead
A sound of lutes and joyful singing
Flights of dancers moving, angel-led

Some abandon camp and climb
But others will not leave for now
Who think they live in passing time

Who think that they are still alive
And huddle near the smoky flames
Afraid to move until the world arrives

What is the music that we hear?
Ask the few courageous dead
But others claim there is none, out of fear

There are many who complain
About the peace-disturbing noise
                        But while they camp here heaven will remain 



TWISTING FUNNELS 
By Pavel Chichikov

Missouri spring, I-70
Near the town of Mexico,
Lurid sunlight on the highway
Above the fields rise two black clouds

Great dignities, the crowns of ogres
Speak through channels in the air,
Articulate by thunderbolt
Words of ions modulate

While from the local radio
Warnings of impending twisters,
Cars go forward towards the west
Complacently through streams of sunlight

Back and forth the dialogue
Between the pregnant ogre clouds,
But nothing like a funnel falls
Across the waiting helpless fields

So are we now awaiting storms
That spit their lightning overhead
But never seem to burst and spin
But rise and dissipate instead

Scatter, but the storms return,
Perhaps someday they will touch down
To blow the world to kingdom come,
                        Twisting funnels going round

The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Saturday, June 1, 2013






pencils, I think it might have been HB




pencils