lost May 22, 2007
Posted by mwj as identity, poetry, self. 2 comments.Yesterday I lost my wallet at a bottle depot. After canceling my money cards, I began the task of ensuring that somebody else doesn’t pretend to be Matthew W. Jenkins. This involves calling credit bureaus, contacting vital statistics, and trying to get a new driver’s license.
The experience has been particularly traumatic because I am getting married in less than 25 days and we leave for Europe right after the wedding.
(more…)
Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.
– Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling Thinking
Eidolons October 18, 2006
Posted by mwj as art, poetry, religion. add a comment.Re-examine all that you have been told… dismiss that which insults your soul.
–Walt Whitman
The star-spangled Anacreon May 1, 2006
Posted by mwj as poetry, politics. 1 comment so far.So apparently the American national anthem is based on a drinking song entitled To Anacreon in Heaven.
Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics originally as a poem about the defense of Baltimore in a key battle of the War of 1812, but they were soon adapted to this stylishly bawdy song honouring the early Greek poet Anacreon. The melody had become a theme song for The Anacreontic Society, a group which was “dedicated to “wit, harmony, and the god of wine.”
Thanks to KnowledgeNews for this one.
Eliot March 19, 2006
Posted by mwj as poetry, writing. add a comment.garlic and sapphires in the mud
and the rose and the fire are one
like a patient etherised upon a table
Rumbling February 11, 2006
Posted by mwj as poetry, technology. 2 comments. 
Master, do you hear the New,
rumbling and quaking?
Harbingers arrive
to proclaim its reign.