Thursday, June 4, 2026

You pay the prophets to justify your reasons


Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!

I Can See Through the Clouds

A Short Story of Falling:

It is the story of the falling rain
to turn into a leaf and fall again

it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower

and every flower a tiny tributary
that from the ground flows green and momentary

is one of water's wishes and this tale
hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail

if only I a passerby could pass
as clear as water through a plume of grass

to find the sunlight hidden at the tip
turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip

then I might know like water how to balance
the weight of hope against the light of patience

water which is so raw so earthy-strong
and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along

drawn under gravity towards my tongue
to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song

which is the story of the falling rain
that rises to the light and falls again

Alice Oswald. 

#throwbackthursday

Wow, crazy.

From the drone archives: Blake Island, the Cathlamet arriving at the North Terminal, and the Emerald City. (2020)

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

I Am a Camera


Into the Lens, not to be confused with the Buggles' version.


I do like both, but unsurprisingly, Trevor Horn and I have different preferences (I am inclined toward the more proggy orchestrated Yes track over the hauntingly ethereal Buggles offering).  And I notice there apparently was no time for wardrobe changes, which I find kinda funny given the Ship of Theseus nature of the band in later years...

Escaping the Matrix

Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2):

woke up this morning
feeling excellent,
picked up the telephone
dialed the number of
my equal opportunity employer
to inform him I will not
be into work today
Are you feeling sick?
the boss asked me
No Sir I replied:
I am feeling too good
to report to work today,
if I feel sick tomorrow
I will come in early

Pedro Pietri.

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

You're the magnet to my soul


The 2002 show we attended was during the Magnification tour, so here's the title song.  


That was the last Yes album I bought, in point of fact.  It's fine; better than the previous half dozen from where I sit.  I do like The Quest (2021), and have even blogged a couple tracks from it, but I just stream these days.

Lebensmagnetismus

The Moon’s Magnetic Field Once Came from an Asteroid:

When you walked in
it was like recognizing
 
the moon when he returns.
His lover bites his cheek; she
 
has no choice. All we see
is the dissolution, then await
 
the reconstruction.
Each time, the sky
 
yanks her into his orbit.
I want to say I’m sorry.
 
I want to say
You win. Our bodies are like
 
the confessional booth these
poems are stuck in. Even
 
the priest can see that sin.
You’ll be all spit and honey—
 
or maybe I’m the poisoned
flower gnawing on its own
 
lip because it has no hands
to reach for you. Only words
 
that are as useless as the pollen
for saying anything. I continue
 
to serve them even with your hands
around my throat from across
 
the room. Your voice is home,
I answer it like a bat guided
 
across the atmosphere. This
is a narrative that cannot end
 
well but wants to, but must.
I’ll continue to go down kicking
 
and you’ll be sweet as anything
until you bite back. No, it can’t
 
end here—we won’t let it.
Billions of years have passed
 
since an asteroid last hit
the moon: clearly some
 
magnetic fields can be sustained.

Rebecca Morgan Frank.