‘Red Swallow’…..Reasons For Reading…..From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……
by Bernie Bell - 08:37 on 09 July 2024
‘Red Swallow’…..
Here’s one for the IT Crowd….
“Red Swallow” by Bartholomew Barker
Her crimson fingernails rest
on my arm, seven seconds too long.
She's twirling her movie-star hair—
a courting cue I once read
about in a book on body language.
Maybe she's just being friendly—
I've been confused by female behavior
before but she seems fascinated
by my desk job and laughs at math jokes
like the one about the 10 types of people.
When she learns I work in IT, she invites
me to her hotel room to fix her laptop.
This must be a dream or a simulation.
They guys back at the Agency
will never believe my luck.
https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2024/07/06/red-swallow-at-masticadoresusa/
This reminds me of that film where a couple of lads create their ideal woman on a computer. She comes to life - and isn’t the compliant creature they thought/hoped she’d be!....
https://www.intofilm.org/films/9846
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Reasons For Reading….
….well written books. I saw this on a Facebook page.....
And my comment was…
“For 'difficult' read 'challenging'...an opportunity to absorb new words and ways of expressing. Jeeeez - what a world.”
When a person reads a well-written book, consciously or unconsciously, they ‘pick up’/absorb words and ways of using words - they pick up on clearer ways of expressing themselves.
F. Scott Fitzgerald achieved recognition as a writer because he is a good writer, as did Shakespeare, Dickens, etc etc. I hope that John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, etc etc. will be similarly read and recognized many years into the future – and recognized for writing well, in individual ways – ways which ‘wake up’ the reader and possibly get them thinking and also writing in stronger, clearer, individual ways themselves.
End of rant.
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……
“WHILE WE’RE FOCUSING on film over the next few months, we are also taking time to enjoy the ritual of summer reading and catching up on some books we’ve been excited about—some new, and some emerging classics already demanding a second read. The Light Eaters, by climate journalist Zoë Schlanger, teems with the mysteries of plant consciousness—from a pea shrub that can hear water to a willow that can alter the nutritiousness of its leaves. If you enjoyed our interview with Aboriginal scholar Tyson Yunkaporta, or have seen his essay in our latest print edition, Time, be sure to read his remarkable first book Sand Talk. Crystal Wilkinson’s Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, which emerged from an essay of the same title she wrote for us in 2019, is full of ancestral stories and recipes that remember and honor the culinary traditions of Black Appalachia. And lastly, Sun House, by David James Duncan, is a unique and often humorous story about what an embodied shift in consciousness might look like in a world going out of balance. We’re also sharing a special conversation with David about the book on everything from the influence of Christian and Zen mystics, to mountains that walk, and the mystery of divine love.”
An interview with David James Duncan
A few weeks ago, Emergence executive editor Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee sat down with best-selling author of the cult classics The Brothers K and The River Why, David James Duncan, to speak about his new epic novel Sun House—a story following the journeys of an eclectic collection of characters, each seeking Truth and meaning, who come together to form an unintentional community in rural Montana. Deeply funny and wildly original, it examines the ways a heart can be broken open and transformed by both the beauty of the natural world and deep experiences of mystical transcendence. David talks about the impetus behind the novel to impart an experiential model of contemplative inner life that might help navigate a future of social, cultural, and ecological unraveling that looms large. Wide-ranging and at times beautifully tender, the conversation explores how the wisdom of the great mystics—from Zen master Dōgen to the 13th-century Christian theologian Meister Eckhart and the Beguines—can be relevant in uncovering responses to the crises we face, which hold an essential spiritual dimension.
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