#brian tierney

[othellho]

— Brian Tierney, from “You’re the One I Wanna Watch the Last Ships Go Down With”

[geryone]

Rise and Float, Brian Tierney

[collectingforgottenpoetry]

You say we should wait— It must have snowed all night or season,   we don’t seem to know   and there isn’t a clock; I say then   we should   wait, I   trust you. The white page is blank outside;   we haven’t heard in days. There is not enough time for a whole new plot. Inside, the wax dilates   wide around the candle. We sit in the dark and wait and are separate, but looking at each other—

We Dream The Dreams Dreaming Us, by Brian Tierney. As featured in Rise and Float: Poems, 2022 edition.

[therumpus]

For a band wreathed with as many indictments as laurels, as many charges of settling into post-avant-garde “dad-rock” as praise for their artistry, it’s no surprise that Wilco’s always been preoccupied with getting reborn. Frayed, painkiller-comedown tunes. Migraine drone. Disintegrating folk romanticism. Garage homage with bubblegum shoegazing. Slipping from skin to skin, if anything, is their hallmark; a restlessness that’s moved them through styles, sometimes unsure of the goal, but always with a deep interest in the studio-as-canvas. 

SOUND TAKES: Schmilco by Brian Tierney.

[hypkigoodquotes]

The Concept of Human Rights

Christianity provided not merely a general idea of equality but also the resources for an understanding of “natural” human rights. Whoever came up with the idea that a human being had “rights” not granted by the state and that could be appealed to against the state? Where did the thought come from that some things are owed to all persons, regardless of their social status, gifts, or abilities,…

[savings-club]

[missedstations]

"Dear Nephew" - Brian Tierney

Too much hope bloats the peasants was an old Church tenet. Your grandpa told me. He was a Catholic Priest, did you know that? When I’d finally asked him why he left he answered: ‘after years of waiting nothing came . . .’ Maybe waiting is what faith is. The way he’d patiently sip low- grade vodka from wax-paper cups most days all day to sand away his burrs, which grew back every morning. As for me, after I learned Mark’s gospel I knew how things would end I knew The State would win. Three more times. And when I crossed the street to where no son is saved it hurt to change, even though it was best to. I think for god to believe in me is what I’d wanted. This Easter, I heard through swung-open doors congregants singing as one Were you there? Were you there? Let me tell you, Lan, I wasn’t; I was in a car driving north passing San Quentin listening to Dylan sing the presidents, too, must sometimes have to stand naked.

[loosejournal]

Long Distance by Brian Tierney

Midway through, a haunted computer types its own questions:  “Would you like to meet a ghost?”  “Do you live to shovel sand or shovel sand to live?” It’s the best part of the movie,  I think you’d like it.  There’s this melody one character hears after in his head—it is the answer, we discover, to everything  not yet asked; a sort of dial tone overtakes you with dread while you’re watching him listen to a wind-blown curtain swell into a cello or a pear-shaped person, illegibility’s the point and also the mood. Or is it a vibe? I think moods are for people with choices  and children— Anyway the room’s crummy,  how was karaoke?  Will you call again later and sing it for me?