Tag Archives: truth
January 26th, 2010
-->
In the center of a clearing
in a place where no one dares go
you’ll find a tall tower of stone brick
nestled among large contorted rocks
that hug its foundation
from where it rises up
a cloud buster
with a crowning cone roof
made of small welded fragments
of brass and copper
a narrow sedge hat
gently resting on a tall silo
from which almost unobtrusively
a drain pipe juts out at the top
and softly pours a thin stream
of thick, viscous, black oil
that falls straight down
and lands squarely on the head
of a bald Rapunzel;
she is a sad, pathetic thing
hiding her eyes
while holding up her face with her hands
high up in the tower’s only window;
the oil hits her head, dead center
and pours away to either side
again falling straight down
and giving Rapunzel
long thick strands of hair
that no prince will ever climb
and no witch will ever cut.
Lace front wigs growing coarse and dull
on sheiks who don’t need them;
heady days are ahead, an oil rush
over rocky planes, olive oil will make
their hair silky and shiny
even wavy, and full of
elastic truth.
– matt at shadow of iris
[This poem was inspired by the work of Esao Andrews]
November 21st, 2009
-->
The following was written by me as a comment on this post at Peanuts and Bubblegum, a really neat and fun blog:
I look at it a bit like this — and of course, there’s no need for you to agree — we are each sending out spotlights to see what’s out there. If there were no truth (or reality) those spotlights wouldn’t reflect off anything. It’d just be a cold meaningless blackness.
But it’s not. Our spotlights pick up all kinds of wonderful, beautiful images when we look to see what’s out there. Only each spotlight is picking up but one narrow aspect of all that’s out there to be seen. And where we make the mistake is when one person thinks what his spotlight reveals is the whole thing, the whole truth. Even to the point of thinking someone else’s spotlight just can’t be right, because it isn’t his or hers.
If I say the world’s flat, there’s a little bit of truth in that, isn’t there? I mean it certainly looks that way. Just like no spotlight ever gets the whole truth, most of them are picking up at least some bit of truth.
I think artists are in the business of creating more and more spotlights. Highlighting this one or that one, fixing up this one, dusting off another, just trying to catch as much as they can of all the wonderful truth that is out there to be shined upon.
There are those practical people whose business is to determine which spotlight is best for which problem, and which spotlight is more limited than another, and how to classify spotlights and so on, but I don’t see that as the artist’s job, necessarily. The artists just has to keep revealing more and more, as much as they can, of all the beautiful and radiant truth that is out there to be seen.
Having written this much, I guess, I’ll throw this up at my blog …
Any opinions! Please comment.
April 10th, 2009
-->
Study the remains of
native religious literature
and find forgotten potentials
take the fragments
and bring them together
you’ll find
a shadow on the wall
wine will spill
and trickle off the table
as the wind blows
and vines shiver
the roses will be aglow
and cast a glimmer
on your blade ready to strike
the unseen enemy
the shadow on the wall
credit taken
never given
maxed out
a dull club
that pounds you daily
all this you sweep aside
a new image forming
it’s that shadow on the wall
a flicker on the screen
says the truth it out there
a fax streams through
the message in an old script
not occult, just forgotten
you’re beginning to get it
the shadow on the wall
hermes by your window
tapping gently
thoth clearing his throat
to get your attention
you’re knee deep in it now
and there’s no going back
the spirits of old
have come out to play
and they dance around you
that’s your shadow on the wall
spells, enchantments, formulas
words of power
they’ll bind you, if you let them
so put them all aside
find your way
an eternal way
from an intuition
let there be a revelation
a path revealed
the transmitter and transmitted
becoming one
the shadow on the wall
now bright and orange
is the inner dimensions
of your truth
only your truth
is the truth
now writ large
your shadow on the wall.
– matt at shadowofiris
March 8th, 2009
-->
[Here is an open letter to Agent Snowflake who has responded to me at her blog here. There is room here for future essays. Even if you aren't Agent Snowflake, please comment ... my children are waking up and I have to run ...]
Dear Agent Snowflake,
Isaac Newton’s law of gravity have now been superseded by Einstein’s.
It seems clear that Newton’s laws are not a true reflection of the way the universe is. Especially not as Newton conceived of them.
Now, not only are Newton’s laws flawed, being inferior to Einstein’s, these laws for Newton represented a great deal of his religious faith. His strong belief in a creator who created the world in a particular manner.
So how is one to read Newton?
I don’t know, I guess it depends on what you are looking for.
One thing is certain, Newton’s laws are what got us to the moon, not Einstein’s.
So here we have the flawed ideas of a sort of religious fanatic taking us to the moon? How does that work?
Well, one point is that despite being imperfect, and despite being motivated by religious concerns, Newton’s laws do seem to be telling us something (like how to get to the moon). While Newton probably didn’t have going to the moon on his mind, he must have sensed the importance of his ideas. That they were *greater* than he was in some sense.
I think its vitally important that we all recognize that ideas are independent of their creators.
When I write, generally I am not attempting to write about myself in any direct sense. I mean, it goes without saying what I write does reflect a lot of about me, just like Newton’s ideas reflect a lot about him. But my point is, there’s more there than that, and it’s that *more* that’s important to me. If I am successful at some point, I want to write something that supersedes me. (I’m not claiming I’ve done this, it’s not for me to say. I will say that I’m just getting warmed up here. I’ve barely set my big toe into the tepid water so far as this blog is concerned. Give me some time.)
Finally, on another point, regarding negativity, suffering, darkness and so on. My mind does seem to catch a lot of images like this. Not so much as someone who is obsessed with grossness or slasher films (as I find stuff like that distasteful) but sadness and pain. I’m not entirely sure why that is myself. I don’t think it reflects my own life.
One image, if you haven’t encountered it before, that you might want to explore is the image of the bodhisattva. As I understand it, the bodhisattva is an individual who was about to attain enlightenment and as such obtain eternal bliss. However, rather than move towards the final stage, the bodhisattva elects to remain on earth so as to help others free themselves of their own suffering. This is a beautiful image, but not one free of pain or suffering. In fact, the bodhisattva like Jesus seems to actually embrace suffering.
The truth is what it is.
You know, too many people are their own tyrants. Sort of a tyrant of one. (I include myself.) We shouldn’t rule too hard over our emotions, nor should we seek to reinforce some particular emotion over another. What we should seek is truth, and in that pursuit hopefully our emotions will fall into place. You can’t seek truth via reinforcement. It just doesn’t work that way. I regard the path of the artist as one of seeking truth through creative acts that reveal the world to us. But creativity can be destructive; it destroys that which preceded it. At least that’s one aspect of it. Reinforcement, if it has a role to play at all, is not that of leading us to the truth.
I don’t say that I’ve worked any of this out but only strive here to try and give you some food for thought.
If I have time later today, I’ll throw up on my blog a small passage about the bodhisattva.
Sincerely and best wishes,
Matt Dioguardi
