Work, Eternity, And Memory.

When Zeus finally gave Sisyphus his eternal punishment,
for his cunning and hubris, and the gods opened
the first quarry to help humans recognize themselves,
how much was Sisyphus permitted a sense of Deja-Vu
with each rock rolled up the hill that fell down again?

'Go Forth And Multiply.... '

Inside the few good ideas there are in the world
there are the seeds so many thousands more bad ideas,
just waiting to get out and propagate themselves
through the collective human consciousness.

They team and mill about
when we try to act out
those few good actions
humans are ready to do.

(Plant) Life On Mars

Everything you were unlikely to be told but would need to know 
about surviving a life in outer space for a long period of time.

This Carnal Earth

The following was quoted in the front of a book of reviews of television, 'Glued to the Box' by Clive James, which was published before the age of the internet. The quote itself was written well before the telephone had taken off, and long before the classic age of three channels of analogue television in Britain, which is the period that Clive James collected television reviews cover. But it expresses clearly how little we travel for all that we change the means of transmitting information.

'Humanity will surpass the first dirigibles as it has surpassed the first locomotives. It will surpass M. Santos-Dumont as it has surpassed Stephenson. After telephotography it will continually invent graphies and scopes and phones all of which will be able to go round the earth in less than no time. But it will always be only the temporal earth. And it will be possible to burrow inside the earth and pierce it through as I do this ball of clay.  But it will always only be the carnal earth.'

-Charles Peguy (1873-1914), written in 1907.     

Deathwatch

At the tills of my local supermarket
I returned to talk with my favourite cashier.
He is always a tonic after trawling the isles
for my few items, that takes ages to find.

He had a florescent green strap on his wrist,
on it there were lights that were flashing.

I asked him about this, and he replied
'It monitors my health, whilst telling me the time.
It was sold to me by my health insurance.
They lower the premium which I pay them
when I wear it....  '.

'Oh' said I 'I thought that it was the watch
that would tell you when you were going to die,
as sold by technologically advanced undertakers.'.

We laughed at our mutual incomprehension,
and joked about 'best before' dates for humans,
as if we were similar the stock of the shop.
The conversation ended with me speculating
which of my relatives we might send
this undertakers watch to, for Christmas.

He knew nothing of how deeply
the false cheer of Christmas sales
depresses me, beyond belief.

We both knew that he would soon
be stacking shelves with Christmas stock
but his all-year-round cheer was better. 

Putting The 'less' Into 'Blessed' (2)

Because out of your thrift and generosity
will come other people's self sufficiency

If I Am Going To Be Pointless

I would rather do it slowly,
the ease of my journey
might allow me the luxury
of finding a purpose
because of how slow I am.