The sweat doth drippeth from the brow

A hearty "Hail" from the hot zone to those in other hot zones. Now, who are they that say global warming is hooplah? Come work in Brightly's hothouse office for an afternoon, little misters. On second thought, stay away; stay far, far away.

O the hot little birds, they roll in dirt. They scrabble for shade, dirty sun-sponges they.

The Dickinsonian oracle sputters in the heat of the sunny southwest Midwestern Metroplis' afternoon:

What shall I do when the Summer troubles -
What, when the Rose is ripe -
What when the Eggs fly off in Music
From the Maple Keep?

What shall I do when the Skies a'chirrup
Drop a Tune on Me -
When the Bee hangs all Noon in the Buttercup
What will become of Me?
(E. Dickinson, from 915)

Paris Envy: Envy Object #3

Ah, la belle Seine...

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jour s'en vont je demeure.

The Dickinson oracle:

In thy long Paradise of Light
No moment will there be
When I shall long for Earthly Play
And mortal Company -
(E. Dickinson, 1145)

Spare witness

Why did Diane Arbus view herself, if she viewed herself (viewfinder, focus, f-stop, etc.), as a spare witness, as despaired witness, as self-disposable? On a contact sheet: a frame, a self-portrait, a double-exposure. That look of anxiety in her subjects' faces. Faces must stain film and witnessing eye. Her eye is here for a while.

The Dickinsonian oracle on double-exposure and the shuttered light:

Let my first knowing be of thee
With morning's warming Light -
And my first Fearing, lest Unknowns
Engulph thee in the night -
(E. Dickinson, 1254)

Love worry

How the ones one loves worry one. It must be true of children, but then there's the teenage flail, flail, flail. It's the four-pawed loved furs that fury worry. One must just listen for the purr.

The Dickinsonian oracle speaks:

No Rose, yet felt myself a'bloom,
No Bird - yet rode in Ether -
(E. Dickinson, 190)

Paris Envy: Envy Object #2

Les fleurs du marche.

Oo la la.

And the Dickinsonian oracle, for whom flowers are everything:

I know lives, I could miss
Without a Misery -
Others - whose instant's wanting -
Would be Eternity -

The last - a scanty Number -
'Twould scarcely fill a Two -
The first - a Gnat's Horizon
Could easily outgrow -
(E. Dickinson, 574)

Daunted

Oh, the camera angle. Oh, the minute hand and that regularity. Oh, the gravity, what mess and falter. Oh, to miss and stumble, despite the fine sand. Illusion's cushioned landing.

Today's Dickinsonian oracle. Read it and oh:

Because my Brook is fluent
I know 'tis dry -
Because my Brook is silent
It is the Sea -

And startled at it's rising
I try to flee
To where the Strong assure me
Is "no more Sea" -
(E. Dickinson, 1235)

Paris Envy: Envy Oblect #1

Les chaussures violettes aux rubans.

Sigh.

On fabulous footwear and other objects of envy, the Dickinsonian oracle speaks:

'Tis Customary as we part
A Trinket - to confer -
It helps to stimulate the faith
When Lovers be afar -

'Tis various - as the various taste -
Clematis - journeying far -
Presents me with a single Curl -
Of her Electric Hair -
(E. Dickinson, 628)

Jet lag and hunger

The Dickinsonian oracle is coming back to life, while we at Brightly try to shake off the jet lag and get over the sadness of having no fresh croissants for breakfast. Nor pain aux raisins. Zut alors.

On this festive, cool July 4, the Dickinsonian oracle offers this:

Further in Summer than the Birds -
Pathetic from the Grass -
A minor Nation celebrates
It's unobtrusive Mass.

No Ordinance be seen -
So gradual the Grace
A gentle Custom it becomes -
Enlarging Loneliness -
(E. Dickinson, from 895)

Queer Fireworks in July

Hey, light a firecracker and read my poem, "July Sestina," winner of the summer Loose Leaf Poetry contest. Kaboom.