#objective correlative

[webntrmpt2x]

[resurrectedwarrior76]

Dog

The first time I read Dog, it was about a dog wandering the streets enjoying the surroundings and taking in sights and smells of the city. Reading the poem, a second and third time led me to believe that there are some political connotations. The dog talks about a police officer that may not taste good, and that he would rather eat beef but then says that he does “not hate policemen but has no use for them” and proceeds to say that between a cow and the “policeman either might do.” Maybe he really does hate policemen enough to eat them should the opportunity present itself. Shortly after those statements he walks past Congressman Doyle who he states he is “not afraid of but that he is just another fire hydrant” to him. The irony and objective correlative of it is that dogs do pee on fire hydrants, but many humans might like to do the same to some congressmen if they were not taking the chance of being imprisoned for it. But this dog does not have time to pee on the congressman because he is free regardless of the “discouraging, depressing, and absurd” comments he hears. He goes on to say that he is free and cannot perjure himself and will tell the truth because of democracy and the right to be honest and or have free speech if you will. He does not want to be just another “dog” that is told what to do and to follow the normalcies of life without putting his perspective into things. He does not want to be another puppet “with his head cocked sideways, like a living question mark” not knowing anything about his existence or purpose in life. 

Dog 

BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI 

The dog trots freely in the street   

and sees reality   

and the things he sees   

are bigger than himself   

and the things he sees   

are his reality   

Drunks in doorways   

Moons on trees   

The dog trots freely thru the street   

and the things he sees   

are smaller than himself   

Fish on newsprint   

Ants in holes   

Chickens in Chinatown windows   

their heads a block away   

The dog trots freely in the street   

and the things he smells   

smell something like himself   

The dog trots freely in the street   

past puddles and babies   

cats and cigars   

poolrooms and policemen   

He doesn’t hate cops   

He merely has no use for them   

and he goes past them   

and past the dead cows hung up whole   

in front of the San Francisco Meat Market   

He would rather eat a tender cow   

than a tough policeman   

though either might do   

And he goes past the Romeo Ravioli Factory   

and past Coit’s Tower   

and past Congressman Doyle   

He’s afraid of Coit’s Tower   

but he’s not afraid of Congressman Doyle   

although what he hears is very discouraging   

very depressing   

very absurd   

to a sad young dog like himself   

to a serious dog like himself   

But he has his own free world to live in   

His own fleas to eat   

He will not be muzzled   

Congressman Doyle is just another   

fire hydrant   

to him   

The dog trots freely in the street   

and has his own dog’s life to live   

and to think about   

and to reflect upon   

touching and tasting and testing everything   

investigating everything   

without benefit of perjury   

a real realist   

with a real tale to tell   

and a real tail to tell it with   

a real live   

              barking   

                         democratic dog   

engaged in real   

                      free enterprise   

with something to say   

                             about ontology   

something to say   

                        about reality   

                                        and how to see it   

                                                               and how to hear it   

with his head cocked sideways   

                                       at streetcorners   

as if he is just about to have   

                                       his picture taken   

                                                             for Victor Records   

                                  listening for   

                                                   His Master’s Voice   

                      and looking   

                                       like a living questionmark   

                                                                 into the   

                                                              great gramaphone   

                                                           of puzzling existence   

                 with its wondrous hollow horn   

                         which always seems   

                     just about to spout forth   

                                                      some Victorious answer   

                                                              to everything   

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Dog” from A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. 

Source: A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1958) 

[iyeshaisriley]

Cornelia Street is an objective correlative. I love that!

[thoughtingdown]

[glennhefley]

You Will Have an Emotional Connection -- You Will

You Will Have an Emotional Connection — You Will

So many papers I’m running into that believe we are apparition!  I swear, if out of body living were possible, these folks would never come home. Some are great to read, but most are frustrating. Example, Papers with Studies attempting to disprove by argument or empirical data, the emotional connection  and emotional reality that we have with Fiction Novels.  (more…)

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[engl3150b]

Object-Centric Flash Fiction

from Mon., April 3

“Making Poison” by Margaret Atwood “Sticks” by George Saunders “The Wig” by Brady Udall “The Barbie Birthday” by Alison Townsend

(refer to TS Eliot’s idea of the “objective correlative”)

[openworkspace]

I am my art, and my art is

paper, motion on paper, eraser shreds and leftover pencil smudges, diligence, unfinished sketches, watercolor palettes, a painting of light, birds, wings, motion, the tap-tap-tap of a keyboard at 2am, insecurity, diligence, piano keys, a girl in the mirror, smiling, a still moment, crying, earphones in, tasting tears, reaching, tasting friendship, tasting bliss, warm hugs, diligence, code, words, colors on a laptop screen, earphones out, skylines and sunsets and rain and the stars, motion, cartwheels on concrete, diligence, jumping jacks, splits, finally reaching a goal, all test cases passed, validation, a filled canvas, growth, motion, warmth— a subtle sort of happiness.

-January 2017-

[artofcompost]

Student blog: Words the Rede Fulfill

Here's another student blog, on the ways of wicca.

A lot of ways to believe in Aphrodite, Ἀφρόδιτα, whom Sappho calls ἀθανάτ and ποικίλοφρον, athanatos, poikilophron, deathless and spangled in mind, as I wrote about once here.

She could be for you an outer being as real as mom or dad or auroch or furniture. Or did anyone ever believe in spirit beings in quite that way? Maybe only atheists ever have.

She could be something liminal, a threshold…

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