Michael March: Half Pint
Half Pint live from Prague
Half Pint's Wound {18 June 2009}
The wound—remains—invisible.
Half Pint's Elegy {15 June 2009}
To those born later—“there is no answer to your question”.
Half Pint's Bertolt Brecht {12 June 2009}
He—“who speaks of the enemy—speaks of himself—.”
Half Pint's Tadeusz Borowski {11 June 2009}
“We developed our own criteria—for beauty.
The most beautiful city?
Frankfurt—reduced—to rubble.”
Half Pint's Other Half {5 June 2009}
Half Pint craved—the misused bodies—of indelible women.
Looking down—his eyes were attached—to his stomach.
“Fish rots from the head.”
Half Pint's History {3 June 2009}
Half Pint noted—American history always has a happy ending.
Only Lincoln—never smiled.
Half Pint's Genie {1 June 2009}
The recession genie—had only one wish.
Shove—it.
Half Pint's Diamonds {29 May 2009}
At last—Half Pint grasped American capitalism—
socialism in the sky with diamonds.
Half Pint's Horseshoe {26 May 2009}
He who finds a horseshoe—finds—an idiot half-smile of
a still-dying age—italicized—in every home.
Half Pint's Miłosz {22 May 2009}
“Soil of annihilation—soil of hate. No word will purify it—ever.
No such poet will be born.”
Half Pint's Gaza {20 May 2009}
“To accept human slaughter—means to become—
an accomplice—and a betrayer—of the dead.”
Half Pint's Revolt {18 May 2009}
“Chaplin of shadows”—Half Pint wandered—on the outskirts
of heresy—not from a reasoning mind—but from the revolt—
of his stomach.
Half Pint's Limits {15 May 2009}
“Consciousness, intelligence, light, grace—love of the good—
such subtle distinctions”—were not his concern.
Half Pint was an alien—a solitary creature—unable to
communicate with crabs.
Half Pint's Lateness {13 May 2009}
“And the rain is late in coming—and the smile—
is late in coming—and joy is late in coming.”
For Half Pint—always arrived late.
Half Pint's Primo Levi {11 May 2009}
The saved—cannot be saved. The drowned—remain drowned.
“It’s not my fault—if I live and breathe, eat, drink, sleep—and
put on clothes.” Insomnia—in the bed of being.
Half Pint's State {6 May 2009}
The country was either nuts—salty—difficult to open—using
your teeth—or bats—easily broken—flying in the dark.
Half Pint chewed it over.
Half Pint's Slowness {4 May 2009}
“Can people move so easily from veneration—to contempt?
(Oh yes, dear fellow, oh yes.)
Is goodwill so fragile—so precarious a thing, then?
(Of course, dear fellow, of course.)”
Half Pint's Heirs {1 May 2009}
Half Pint lived in a fools democracy—where complacency
ruled—“born with grey hair at their temples”—the lowly did
violence to the truth.
Half Pint's Dream Songs {29 April 2009}
Henry:
—Are you radioactive, pal?
—Pal, radioactive.
—Has you the night sweats & the day sweats, pal?
—Pal, I do.
—Did your gal leave you? —What do you think, pal?
Tzara:
—Thought begins in the mouth.
Half Pint's Chalk Circle {27 April 2009}
“Your daughters—shall all become—prostitutes—
all your sons—turn into poets.
The chalk of details—belongs to tailors.”
Half Pint's Samuel Johnson {24 April 2009}
“He who makes a beast of himself—gets rid of the pain—
of being a man.”
Half Pint's Giorgio Agamben {22 April 2009}
“There is no human essence—the human being is a potential
being—and, in the moment in which human beings think—
that they have grasped—the essence of the human—in its
infinite destructibility—what then appears is something—
that no longer has anything human about it.”
Half Pint's Kleist {20 April 2009}
“I ask God for death—and you I ask—for money.”
Half Pint's Thirst {17 April 2009}
“Rum was—Plato—in our heads.”
Half Pint's Circle {15 April 2009}
“Sin begins—the moment—you leave the circle—
and watch—from the outside.”
Half Pint's Polis {13 April 2009}
Half Pint possessed polis envy—“the bitter need of the few—
to protect themselves—against the many—to protect their
island of freedom—against the surrounding sea of necessity—
against its indecent shapelessness.”
Half Pint's Akhmatova {10 April 2009}
“If everything is lost—then—everything is easy—
We live by habit—which we must—unlearn."
Half Pint's Pasternak {8 April 2009}
“In his face—there is something of the Arab—and his horse—
an alertness—as if a rock—or an oak tree—had spoken.”
Half Pint's Kiss {7 April 2009}
Half Pint blew Obama a kiss—wind was a source of energy.
Prague remained a promised land—where the former misled
the outgoing.
Half Pint's Tsvetaeva {6 April 2009}
“From a world—where my poems—were as necessary as
bread—I came into a world—where no one reads poems—
where poems are needed like dessert—as if anyone needs
dessert.”
Half Pint's Life {3 April 2009}
“By uprooting oneself—one seeks a greater reality—
Life is a place—where it is forbidden to live.”
Half Pint's Vanity {1 April 2009}
“What’s meaning—but vanity?”
Half Pint's April {30 March 2009}
“April comes—like an idiot—babbling and strewing flowers—
far off—voices in a hut—you cannot understand, nor reply.”
Half Pint's Stalin {28 March 2009}
Like Stalin—the minister of culture—grovelled on the killing-
floor. “Ideas are more powerful than guns—why should we
let them have ideas?”
Half Pint's Terror {25 March 2009}
Half Pint conceived—the terror of his aloneness—unchaste in
its use. “If not being in despair means—neither more nor less
than not being in despair—then it is precisely to be in despair.”
Half Pint's Tears {23 March 2009}
The Prince returned from Washington—in tears.
The radar would be shipped to France.
Half Pint held back his tears.
“Better to cry—with money.”
Half Pint's Clothes {20 March 2009}
“Whose mind do I have now—whose clothes am I wearing?”
Half Pint's Kierkegaard {18 March 2009}
“The biggest danger—that of losing oneself—can pass off
in the world as quietly as if it were nothing. Every other loss—
an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc.—is bound to be noticed.”
Half Pint's Infinity {16 March 2009}
“In the darkness of secrecy—sinister interest—evil in
every shape—the last days of mankind are endless.”
Half Pint's Discount {13 March 2009}
Half Pint took sides—if not a count—than at least a discount.
If not a minister—then at least a foreign minister.
“The desperate man has no native land.”
Half Pint's Antiquity {11 March 2009}
“A person who does not engage in self-reflection,
who has no concern for the well-being of others—
who is without an existentialist framework for
ethical and fair living—is inauthentic.”
Half Pint reflected on his surroundings—
Half Pint's Paradise {9 March 2009}
Camus: “My paradise lay in the virginity of others.”
Half Pint: “Paradise—the eternal present.”
Loyola: “Those men in a body moving toward hell.”
Half Pint's Charity {6 March 2009}
Kafka: “Sex is the punishment for love.”
Half Pint: “Opposites repel.”
Rimbaud: “Charity is the key.”
Half Pint's Justice {4 March 2009}
“There is no justice—there are only limits.”
Half Pint's Essence {2 March 2009}
Half Pint distilled his essence—“the serpent of his sordid
unconsciousness was nailed to the cross of his intellect—
not knowing and knowing—life and death—were entwined
as one piece of fabric”—stunned by the mad scent of a rose.
Half Pint's Guston {27 February 2009}
“The nervousness of the maker is what one has—
very little else—and even ‘else’ is rancid—like old,
dried sea-weed clinging on.”
Half Pint's Rebellion {25 February 2009}
Heraclitus: “Dogs bark at strangers.”
Half Pint: “Dogs bark at dogs.”
Camus: “Rebellion is the barking of mad dogs.”
Half Pint's Point {23 February 2009}
Half Pint was hungry for news—to avoid total immobility.
He accepted corruption without turning a cheek —to avoid
pointless conversations.
Half Pint's Flow {20 February 2009}
Half Pint followed the flow—the country was small—
with a big kitchen.
Half Pint's Bones {18 February 2009}
“Soft, weak, obscene, disgusting—juggling with dismal
thoughts”—Half Pint was—in the way. Even his death—
his decomposed flesh—“cleaned, stripped, peeled—proper,
clean as teeth”—was in the way—for now.
Half Pint's Nausea {16 February 2009}
“Now I think of no one any more—I don’t even bother looking
for words. It flows in me—more or less quickly. I fix nothing.
I let it go. My thoughts remain nebulous most of the time—
they sketch vague, pleasant shapes—and then are swallowed
up. I forget them almost immediately.”
Half Pint's Sartre {13 February 2009}
“Objects should not touch—because they are not alive.
You use them—put them back in place—you live among
them—they are useful—nothing more.”
Half Pint's Iris {11 February 2009}
Half Pint “painted nothing with words—made no gestures—
never altered the tone of his voice. He kept his eyes half-
closed—and one could barely make out, between his lashes,
the lowest rim of his grey iris”.
Half Pint's Monkey {9 February 2009}
“If you look at yourself too long in the mirror—you’ll see
a monkey.” Half Pint looked at himself even longer than
that—he saw well below the monkey, on the fringe of the
vegetable world—at the level of jellyfish.
Half Pint's Zoo {6 February 2009}
Half Pint fed creationism—
“we are not descended from the monkey—
but we are returning to him in great haste.”
Half Pint's Scent {4 February 2009}
Instead of washing—Half Pint wore Democracy—
the cheap fragrance—of two presidents serving behind bars.
Half Pint's Graffiti {2 February 2009}
Lenin painted the town red.
Klaus painted the town blue.
Half Pint hated graffiti.
Half Pint's Cry {31 January 2009}
“Nothing is pure, nothing is pure—this cry has poisoned
our century.”
Half Pint's Lao Tse {28 January 2009}
“The less one acts—the more one dominates.”
Half Pint's Camus {26 January 2009}
“He who despairs of events is a coward—he who has hope
for the human lot is a fool.”
Half Pint's Patočka {23 January 2009}
Half Pint pondered his “personal situatedness”—as a body-
organized-for-life. He adopted the third person—for every
one was lost.
Half Pint’s Inauguration {20 January 2009}
For Half Pint the inauguration was pure poetry—
“a homage to the majesty of the absurd which bespeaks
the presence of human beings”.
Like Lenz—he would be marked by the 20th of January.
“A man who walks on his head—ladies and gentlemen—
sees the sky below—as an abyss.”
Half Pint's Ecstasy {16 January 2009}
Half Pint entered the realm of tragedy—
an ancient, defective universe ruder than original sin.
“Shriveled in ecstasy”—at the side of a vineyard—he fought
like a young plant.
Half Pint's Wisdom {14 January 2009}
“Given a heart apt for suffering”—Half Pint guarded
the “perishable joys”. Wisdom alone is justice—
dispossessed of all rewards.
Half Pint's Heart {12 January 2009}
“What is unique is in pain with itself.”
Half Pint ran in all directions—after his own heart.
Half Pint's Eyelid {11 January 2009}
“Everything is simple—so simple that it becomes
incomprehensible. Everything is so close—that it draws
back behind the eyes—and can no longer be seen.”
Half Pint's Lenz {7 January 2009}
On the twentieth of January—Half Pint went across the
mountains—the way did not matter to him, up or down.
“He felt no tiredness—only sometimes it struck him as
unpleasant that he could not walk on his head.”
Half Pint's Dog {5 January 2009}
Half Pint got in the way of eternity.
“He had to live for the takings of a whore—
or the price of a dog.”
So he lived on.
Half Pint's New Year {1 January 2008}
Half Pint brought truth to the material--
"expressed restless energy, the will to act
without hope of success--the martyrdom of
the creature tormented by unrealizable
aspirations".
Half Pint's Holan {31 December 2008}
“Yet evil always rises up humanity’s spine—
spattered with blood like a dentist’s staircase.”
Half Pint sought freedom—voluntary gums.
Half Pint's Emperor {30 December 2008}
“Our neighbors in Yü and Jui pledged peace:
Emperor Wen always kindled native nobility.
And so we called him sovereign near and far,
sovereign we call him over before and after,
sovereign too over those who flee or return
and even over those who ridicule and resist.”
Half Pint's Prince {19 December 2008}
Havel put down The Prince—kissed his photo of Klaus.
Impressed by his disguise—he would never credit the truth.
“The conqueror is like all conquerors—the conquered like
all the conquered.”
Half Pint's Hell {17 December 2008}
“He talked incessantly, and there was no interrupting him.
You’d wait for him to catch his breath—but he wouldn’t.”
Half Pint found his voice—“others are hell”.
Half Pint's Story {15 December 2008}
Being—in—truth
Half Pint was shown the instruments.
“Real stories—in distinction from those we invent—
have no author.”
Half Pint's Despair {11 December 2008}
Half Pint eyed the forbidden fruit of despair.
The resin of language—shaped as a snake.
“What is pronounced strengthens itself—
what is not pronounced tends to non-existence.”
Half Pint's Realm {8 December 2008}
“Young reader—you won’t live inside a rose.
The country has its planets, its rivers—
but is as frail as the edge of morning.”
Half Pint's Sin {6 December 2008}
“Ill at ease in the tyranny—ill at ease in the republic—”
in one he longed for freedom—in the other for the end of
corruption.
Half Pint's Humor {3 December 2008}
Half Pint had a morbid sense of humor.
Half Pint agreed.
Let the CIA run our banks—
they know who’s credible.
Half Pint's Visa {1 December 2008}
Half Pint’s vote — “could force strange people in distant places
to reshape their politics and society”.
No one would need a visa.
Half Pint's Vote {28 November 2008}
“When bad men combine, the good must associate.”
Half Pint was prepared to vote.
His first impression was “of eating little fishes—
what you get is not worth the trouble”.
Half Pint's Sleep {26 November 2008}
Heraclitus: “All we see awake is death. All we see asleep is sleep.”
Paul Celan: “Speaks true who speaks shadow.”
Simonides of Keos: “We are all debts owed to death.”
Half Pint's Insomnia {24 November 2008}
For Heidegger—“language remains the master of man—language speaks.”
Half Pint held his tongue—over the insomnia of fish.
Half Pint's Match {21 November 2008}
“From the crooked timber of humanity—
nothing straight was ever made.”
Shop around—
“What gives light must endure burning.”
Half Pint's Relief {18 November 2008}
“Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation—
the other eight are unimportant.”
Half Pint felt relieved.
Half Pint's Joke {16 November 2008}
Have you heard the joke about the rabbi and the priest?
Priest: “Is it still a requirement of your faith that you do not eat pork?”
Rabbi: “Yes, that is one of our beliefs.”
Priest: “Have you ever tasted pork?”
Rabbi: “Yes, on one occasion I did succumb to the temptation and tasted pork.”
Rabbi: “Father, it is still a requirement of your church that your remain celibate?”
Priest: “Yes, that is still very much a part of our faith.”
Rabbi: “Father, have you ever succumbed to the temptations of the flesh?”
Priest: “Yes, Rabbi, on one occasion I was weak and broke with my faith.”
Rabbi: “A lot better than pork, isn’t it?”
Half Pint's Alphabet {14 November 2008}
Half Pint visited Inger Christensen in Copenhagen.
“afterthought—aftertaste—seclusion—and angels—”
Half Pint was offered the alphabet.
“you peel off some tree bark and eat it.”
Half Pint's Uncle {11 November 2008}
“If my aunt had nuts—she would be my uncle.”
Philip Guston renounced abstract art.
“My whole life is based on anxiety—where else
does art come from?”
Half Pint's Evil {8 November 2008}
“History is not the teacher—but the torturer of mankind.”
Half Pint weighed all possible evils.
“Evil is the systematic substitution of the abstract for
the concrete.”
Half Pint's Silence {6 November 2008}
Confronted with lies—Half Pint turned to Claudio Magris.
“The lie is quite as real as the truth. It works upon the
world—transforms it.”
Half Pint was left speechless.
Half Pint's Aesthetics {4 November 2008}
Half Pint read Hermann Broch.
“To create culture is to set up the absolute of civilization—
of life—in opposition to the absoluteness of death. This is
the key to the moral function of art—whose effect is to
undermine time and thus undo man’s consciousness of the
ultimate negative in the universe—death.”
Half Pint's Trial {3 November 2008}
For Roberto Calasso “loss precedes presence”.
Half Pint felt equally lost.
To avoid pointless conversations—
we pretend to accept our fate.
Half Pint's Act {1 November 2008}
No longer a class enemy Havel remained a class act.
Living in truth—he adored ovations from the Forum.
In truth—“unheard music is never sweet”.
Half Pint's Magic {30 October 2008}
For Pasternak—poetry was disturbing—“like the ominous
turning of a dozen windmills—at the edge of a bare field in the
black year of famine”.
Half Pint dabbled in immortality.
Like Achilles—“Death devoted, already dead”.
Half Pint's Cue {29 October 2008}
Mayakovsky sung—like a Romanian orchestra.
With the blue tongue of death—night wrapped the sky.
Auden grew faint—Half Pint played billiards.
“Everyone’s a horse—in his own way.”
Half Pint's Bite {27 October 2008}
Questions were non-violent—Answers fixed.
Simplicity ruled the law of true taste.
To be simple—to be equitable.
“Simply barking like dogs.”
Half Pint's Book {24 October 2008}
Like Pasternak—Half Pint sought “an unarmed truth”.
Like Edmond Jabès—he traversed the wound.
The world would be illuminated—truth unconcealed.
“When writers die, they become books.”
Half Pint's Finger {23 October 2008}
Half Pint was against everyone—it was his birthright.
Half Pint pointed his guilty finger.
“Everyone has enemies—the sick want company.”
Half Pint's Key {22 October 2008}
“The world is locked up—
everything is waiting to be unlocked.”
Half Pint understood the combination.
“Life is a place where it is forbidden to live.”
Half Pint's Vacuum {20 October 2008}
Austria was a failed state.
“An ethical vacuum.”
Half Pint tuned to Camus.
“The wise man—like the idiot—
expresses little.”
Half Pint's Trust {18 October 2008}
Only the mafia was trustworthy.
At least they did real work.
Half Pint replaced Plato—with Jean Genet.
“Beware of pure concepts.”
Half Pint's Agreement {16 October 2008}
Half Pint learned German by reading Czech newspapers.
The editorials had the pleasant air of Munich beer halls.
No more walls to hide our sorrows.
We are brothers again.
Half Pint's Character {13 October 2008}
Parliament was debatable—the Senate even worse.
Why blame the politicians?
“Character is fate.”
Half Pint's Medicine {11 October 2008}
Prague would play the victim.
Painting the naked truth.
Half Pint prepared the medicine.
Sex tourism in Wenceslas Square.
Half Pint's Goddess {10 October 2008}
Half Pint met the slum goddess of the lower East Side.
Her tattoo read: “Opulent poverty, regal indigence.
Live in it calmly—be at peace.”
It recalled Osip Mandelstam—before he was taken away.
Half Pint's Visit {8 October 2008}
Too much rubbish in the streets.
Send in the Italians.
The city prayed for rain.
Half Pint would visit Naples to clear the air.
Half Pint's Innocence {7 October 2008}
Prague had an ancient regard for law—no regard.
Half Pint saw law as punishment.
If all were guilty, who should be punished?
Only those pretending innocence.
Half Pint's Plan {6 October 2008}
“They know—yet they do.”
Half Pint read Hegel.
Marx had withered away.
The world needs more pay toilets.
Appearance did violence to the truth.
Half Pint's Truth {5 October 2008}
American radar would protect the world.
The world sought protection.
“We must suffer into truth.”
Half Pint preferred Aeschylus.
Half Pint's Zipper {4 October 2008}
Half Pint searched for Havel’s secret.
The mind of philosopher kings.
He found the zipper:
What’s up—stays up.
Half Pint's Tea {2 October 2008}
“Three things in the world he loved;
the choir at vespers, white peacocks,
and worn maps of America.”
Half Pint didn’t like crying children,
or tea with raspberry jam.
Half Pint's Cream {30 September 2008}
Unfortunately, you cannot choose your masters.
“Oh, you lickers of cream.”
Half Pint saw oblivion.
Life as a dance on graves.
Half Pint's Law {28 September 2008}
Half Pint welcomed the secret service.
If only they were secret.
It was the law of the jungle.
Even Darwin was a spy.
Half Pint's Position {28 September 2008}
Half Pint positioned himself somewhere between human
creativity and supernatural revelation.
He read Adonis.
“I entered the school of grass. My forehead split open,
my blood bereft of power. I asked myself: What should I do?
Do I wall the city in with bread? I scattered myself in porticos
of fire. We divided up the blood of kings. We hungered.”
A time between ashes and roses.
Half Pint's Prediction {27 September 2008}
Lenin: “It’s easier to spit, than to wipe it off.”
Marcus Aurelius: “The present is all we have to lose.”
Half Pint: “Heavy cream.”
Half Pint's Smile {26 September 2008}
“The law of revolution is red, fiery, deadly—revolution is
everywhere, in everything—it is infinite.”
Half Pint smiled.
At last, “we are condemned to hope.”
Half Pint' Charter {21 September 2008}
Half Pint was incorruptible—disobedient, not a servant.
Opposition didn’t require great character at all.
“It was just a matter of taste.”
Half Pint's Slump {20 September 2008}
Wall Street was off-the-wall.
Half Pint slumped about.
No more chickens in Kiev.
The great hunger would eat us raw.
Half Pint's Tooth {17 September 2008}
Half Pint put his mind in his tooth.
He could easily change his mind.
He suffered at the hands of society.
Only at the dentist's—could he safely open his mouth.
Half Pint's Identity {17 September 2008}
Half Pint hated tourists—all tourists.
He even hated himself.
In darkest Prague change ruled the heavens.
The alms of identity were not to be found.
Half Pint's Sunset {10 September 2008}
Half Pint listened to himself. He sounded the same.
Everyone sounded the same.
“The apparently simple questions demand a complex answer.”
No more sunsets to disturb our sleep.
Half Pint's Return {9 September 2008}
Half Pint decided to return “to the stone womb of his country.
The decision is a dramatic one. He would bitterly reproach himself.”
Half Pint’s infinite no collided with Vienna’s indefinite yes.
Heresy and rebellion reduced to grapes.
