Thought

of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, and the like;

(to me all that those persons have arrived at sinks away from them, except as it results to their bodies and souls,

so that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,

and often to me each one mocks the others, and mocks himself of herself,

and of each one the core of life, namely happiness, is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,

and often to me those men and women pass unwittingly the true realities of life, and go toward false realities,

and often to me they are alive after what custom has served them, but nothing more,

and often to me they are sad, hasty, unwaked sonnambules walking the dusk.)

Laws for Creations

LAWS for creations,

For strong artists and leaders, for fresh broods of teachers and perfect literats for America.

For noble savans and coming musicians.

All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the compact truth of the world,

There shall be no subject too pronounced - all works shall illustrate the divine law of indirections.

What do you suppose creation is?

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior?

What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God?

And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself?

And that that is what the oldest and newest myths finally mean?

And that you or any one must approach creations through such laws?

Vocalism

1

VOCALISM, measure, concentration, determination, and the divine power to speak words; are you full-lung'd and limber-lipp'd from long trial? from vigorous practice? from physique? Do you move in these broad lands as broad as they? Come duly to the divine power to speak words? For only at last after many years, after chastity, friendship, procreation, prudence, and nakedness, after treading ground and breasting river and lake, after a loosen'd throat, after absorbing eras, temperaments, races, after knowledge, freedom, crimes, after complete faith, after clarifyings, elevations, and removing obstructions, after these and more, is it just possible there comes to a man, a woman, the divine power to speak words; then toward that man or that woman swiftly hasten all - none refuse, all attend, armies ships, antiquities, libraries, paintings, machines, cities, hate, despair, amity, pain, theft, murder, aspiration, form in close ranks, they debouch as they are wanted to march obediently through the mouth of that man or that woman.

2

o what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices? Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow, as the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere around the globe. All waits for the right voices; where is the practis'd and perfect organ? where is the develop'd soul? for I see every word utter'd thence has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.

I see brains and lips closed, tympans and temples unstruck, until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose, until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies slumbering forever ready in all words.

does idleness breed idleness, perhaps? that could account for why we have so much fear of it. i've been having strange thoughts, that a philosophy of pragmaticism and fecundity was what was necessary to keep america's immigrants industrious. in the early days, it was absolutely necessary to be very industrious in order to survive a land that was almost totally uncultivated (that is, the way europeans were accustomed to surviving.) most people immigrated to enjoy the fruits of their own labor in a self-deterministic society (labor being the key word, and the requisite for being self-determinate.) derek jensen, a favorite author of mine, writes about the terribly destructive nature of our industry and how it has rendered us blind to the joys and blessings of living and nature, how production was the virtue that made possible the slave trade, the horrible conditions of capatilism before the progressive movement. his books culture of make believe and a language older than words to me are both a must. he thinks that without our paranoid drive to industry and production, we would be like the animals in the world who graze, that we would have very much idle time.

if the bible is the most influential book in american thought, then i would cite ecclesiastes. "vanity of vanities! all is vanity. what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? a generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever." (eccles, 1:2-4). also there is a "...time to plant, and a time to pluck up what has been planted." (3:2).

i leave you with a quote from dante:

"now when his feet had put away the haste
which robs all actions of their dignity,
my mind, till then in one strait groove compressed,

expanded, letting eager thought range free,
and i looked up to that great mountain, soaring
highest to heaven from the encircling sea."

-Dante, Purgatorio, Canto III, 13-18

-Rex

"Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul,
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom of midnight oil." -Yeats

It is always a good idea to see what is going on with rexgregory.com wallpapers under the 'photos' section.

Happy Birthday.

-Rex