@kimdorman.bsky.social
American poet residing in India / Corbel Stone Press
Reposted
Another sharp percept of poetry’s high processual work (“words in a cranial theater”!) and slow-arriving “get”—out of Merrill Gilfillan’s _Old River New River: A Miscellany_ (Red Dragonfly Press, 2019):
November 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Another sharp percept of poetry’s high processual work (“words in a cranial theater”!) and slow-arriving “get”—out of Merrill Gilfillan’s _Old River New River: A Miscellany_ (Red Dragonfly Press, 2019):
November 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
November 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Illiterate
I raised my face to the sky,
that huge stone of worn-out letters,
but the stars told me nothing.
-Octavio Paz,
from "Riprap"
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
I raised my face to the sky,
that huge stone of worn-out letters,
but the stars told me nothing.
-Octavio Paz,
from "Riprap"
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Illiterate
I raised my face to the sky,
that huge stone of worn-out letters,
but the stars told me nothing.
-Octavio Paz,
from "Riprap"
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
I raised my face to the sky,
that huge stone of worn-out letters,
but the stars told me nothing.
-Octavio Paz,
from "Riprap"
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
4 p.m., three black-hooded orioles in the guava tree ... leaden sky
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
4 p.m., three black-hooded orioles in the guava tree ... leaden sky
Rocking chair
Shaker
ca. 1820-50
Shaker
ca. 1820-50
November 24, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Rocking chair
Shaker
ca. 1820-50
Shaker
ca. 1820-50
10.30 a.m., butterfly above the young banana plant … in the field an egret’s long neck
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 AM
10.30 a.m., butterfly above the young banana plant … in the field an egret’s long neck
The hand of day opens
Three clouds
And these few words
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Three clouds
And these few words
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
November 24, 2025 at 5:15 AM
The hand of day opens
Three clouds
And these few words
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Three clouds
And these few words
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
6 a.m., the room dark … memory … imagined patterns of past events … light rain … lowing of cows
November 24, 2025 at 2:26 AM
6 a.m., the room dark … memory … imagined patterns of past events … light rain … lowing of cows
Vision
I saw myself when I shut my eyes:
space, space
where I am and am not.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
I saw myself when I shut my eyes:
space, space
where I am and am not.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
November 24, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Vision
I saw myself when I shut my eyes:
space, space
where I am and am not.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
I saw myself when I shut my eyes:
space, space
where I am and am not.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Reposted
“I’m not a serious thinker. I’m a writer: that’s very different. I think a writer’s intelligence has to be alive, has to be incomplete. It has to carry contradiction. It has to be sort of haphazard and amateur.”
- Benjamín Labatut
- Benjamín Labatut
November 23, 2025 at 10:02 PM
“I’m not a serious thinker. I’m a writer: that’s very different. I think a writer’s intelligence has to be alive, has to be incomplete. It has to carry contradiction. It has to be sort of haphazard and amateur.”
- Benjamín Labatut
- Benjamín Labatut
Reposted
Guy Davenport (b. 23 November 1927): “I can claim the effort, at least, of making prose ideograms in emulation of Pound’s poetic ones. An ideogram gathers components into a molecular structure that has charm rather than demonstrable sense.” (The claim, too, of Eliot Weinberger’s essayistic prose?)
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Guy Davenport (b. 23 November 1927): “I can claim the effort, at least, of making prose ideograms in emulation of Pound’s poetic ones. An ideogram gathers components into a molecular structure that has charm rather than demonstrable sense.” (The claim, too, of Eliot Weinberger’s essayistic prose?)
November 23, 2025 at 2:12 PM
6.26 p.m. dark … no electricity … two hours of heavy rain begins to stop … rare sound of a passing plane
November 23, 2025 at 1:01 PM
6.26 p.m. dark … no electricity … two hours of heavy rain begins to stop … rare sound of a passing plane
At the Door
People, words, people.
I hesitated:
up there the moon, alone.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
People, words, people.
I hesitated:
up there the moon, alone.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
November 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
At the Door
People, words, people.
I hesitated:
up there the moon, alone.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
People, words, people.
I hesitated:
up there the moon, alone.
-Octavio Paz,
from “Riprap”
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Po Chü-i
(tr. Arthur Waley)
(tr. Arthur Waley)
November 23, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Po Chü-i
(tr. Arthur Waley)
(tr. Arthur Waley)
Biography
Not what he might have been:
but what he was.
And what he was is dead.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Not what he might have been:
but what he was.
And what he was is dead.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
November 23, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Biography
Not what he might have been:
but what he was.
And what he was is dead.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Not what he might have been:
but what he was.
And what he was is dead.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Muriel Rukeyser)
Po Chü-i
(tr. Arthur Waley)
(tr. Arthur Waley)
November 23, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Po Chü-i
(tr. Arthur Waley)
(tr. Arthur Waley)
November 23, 2025 at 4:51 AM
The other
He invented a face for himself.
Behind it,
he lived, died, and was resurrected
many times.
Today his face
has the wrinkles of that face.
His wrinkles have no face.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
He invented a face for himself.
Behind it,
he lived, died, and was resurrected
many times.
Today his face
has the wrinkles of that face.
His wrinkles have no face.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
November 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
The other
He invented a face for himself.
Behind it,
he lived, died, and was resurrected
many times.
Today his face
has the wrinkles of that face.
His wrinkles have no face.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
He invented a face for himself.
Behind it,
he lived, died, and was resurrected
many times.
Today his face
has the wrinkles of that face.
His wrinkles have no face.
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
<Svapna> is the word that refers to the state of dreaming and, [the visible world around us can be seen as] <svapna-prapancha>, something 'spread out like a dream'.
-B. N. Goswamy,
"Dreams, Omens and Pictures"
-B. N. Goswamy,
"Dreams, Omens and Pictures"
November 22, 2025 at 3:32 PM
<Svapna> is the word that refers to the state of dreaming and, [the visible world around us can be seen as] <svapna-prapancha>, something 'spread out like a dream'.
-B. N. Goswamy,
"Dreams, Omens and Pictures"
-B. N. Goswamy,
"Dreams, Omens and Pictures"
November 22, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Apparition
If man is dust
those who go through the plain
are men
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Charles Tomlinson)
If man is dust
those who go through the plain
are men
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Charles Tomlinson)
November 22, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Apparition
If man is dust
those who go through the plain
are men
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Charles Tomlinson)
If man is dust
those who go through the plain
are men
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Charles Tomlinson)
Writing
I draw these letters
as the day draws its images
and blows over them
and does not return
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
I draw these letters
as the day draws its images
and blows over them
and does not return
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
November 22, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Writing
I draw these letters
as the day draws its images
and blows over them
and does not return
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
I draw these letters
as the day draws its images
and blows over them
and does not return
-Octavio Paz
(tr. Eliot Weinberger)
Sri Lankan scribe at work, ca. 1900
November 22, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Sri Lankan scribe at work, ca. 1900