Jean Gier‘s disquieting poem (“Out of this lead grow a willow. Out of this willow grow a man. Out of this man grow a coffin. Out of this coffin grow a raven. Out of this raven grow a hair. Out of this hair grow a dress. Out of this dress grow a woman. Out of this woman grow a snake…”) reads to me, at least, as a wonderfully eerie sequel of sorts to the Maypole Song from Anthony Shaffer’s film The Wicker Man:

In the woods there grew a tree,
And a very fine tree was he.
And on that tree there was a limb,
And on that limb there was a branch,
And on that branch there was a spray,
And on that spray there was a nest,
And in that nest there was an egg,
And in that egg there was a bird,
And on that bird there was a feather,
And on that feather was a bed,
And on that bed there was a girl,
And on that girl there was a man,
And from that man there was a seed.
And from that seed there was a boy,
And from that boy there was man,
And from that man there was a grave,
And on that grave there grew a tree.
In the Summerisle wood.

The fact that it was posted on May 2, right after May Day, made that connection for me, as a parallel and no less natural progression. In Gier’s poem, however, the earthly (and earthy) cycle of birth and death and rebirth is “disrupted,” as it were, by cogs and bombs and thimbles and shovels. I think it has to do with fecundity, all right, but not a straightforward flowering into a tree or Maypole, but into a veritable thicket of language.

Images are entangled with one another, the artificial with the natural, leaves with words, the thimble from the maggot, the eye from the well. What I see here instead — no, not “instead,” but alongside that natural cycle (I think that brutally dissonant “grow” shoves the reader perpetually into the present) — is the birthing and rebirthing of metaphors and, finally, almost painfully, the poet herself. “Out of this thigh grow I,” the poem ends. Born by words, born through words, borne by words, the poet and the poem emerges.

[The permalink doesn't work -- damned Blogspot! -- so just go to her blog and scroll down to May 2.]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Making the rounds of Metafilter and the poetry blogs: Rob’s Amazing Poem Generator.

Here’s a poem based on Noam Chomsky’s talk, “Old Wine, New Bottles: Free Trade, Global Markets and Military Adventures:”

Old nomenklatura, the rest of 92:
Economy in the
line, with
his,
favorite maxim, all of democracy, in
a meaningful question. was
a decent human freedom and overcome.
They know trying to 23%, the old
Communist party. to run it, may never reported
in pursuit of public are disrupting our
way you know, Europe is that they like
allowing generic drug and
if you destroy the activist community. You look for
Clinton.

And, as a PS, a poem generated from my infamous Wit and Wisdom of Imelda Marcos page:

The Philippines is also
for president, quoted in self
defence, anything that I would
most excruciating manner any of
the poor have the Centre for money. and love, someone
is also fun in The Philippines, is where
did the sea. But me, that you paradise And
the opening of
these quotations, are
permanent. Later on the time I am
corrupt. God! manifest in Beatriz Romualdez Imelda: can
hell for my hand and in a person
a resource not aware
of an example.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Filed into the journalistic Orientalist category of Why Japan Is Deeply Weird: couple-busters who, for a fee, will break up a couple for you.

Asked by a woman to break her ex-boyfriend and new girlfriend’s relationship:

“We started gathering information about the [new] girlfriend… And we learned that she went to a kick-boxing gym sometimes after work and we decided to send a male operative to the gym,” the 30-year-old bespectacled detective said.

The male operative in his 20s approached her there to start “communications” and one month later they started going out.

This is simply begging for treatments:

Romantic comedy with a happy ending: the next Meg Ryan vehicle.

Set in high school: Freddie Prinze Jr.’s last film before he ends up like Robert Downey Jr.

Restoration comedy without the come-uppance: the next Neil LaBute film.

Girlfriend still tries to wreak horrible revenge: a sequel to Takashi Miike’s Audition.

Hidden cameras following “the operative:” the next reality show on FOX.

Popularity: 1% [?]

It’s high school slumbook time again here at The Wily Filipino, courtesy of the friday five:

1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.
Hanson’s “Mmmbop.”

2. Name two songs that always make you cry.
Well, I don’t weep helplessly, but “In My Life” by the Beatles would probably be one of them.

3. Name three songs that turn you on.
Next question!

4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.
Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube,” Spiral Starecase’s “More Today than Yesterday” (an embarrassing admission), Matthew Sweet’s “I’ve Been Waiting,” and Ray-An Fuentes and Tillie Moreno’s “Umagang Kay Ganda.”

5. Name five songs you couldn’t ever do without.
Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” Eraserheads’ “Alapaap,” Bjork’s “Hyperballad,” Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane’s “My One and Only Love,” (though Rickie Lee Jones’s version would do just fine, actually), and just about any random Beatles song, with the exception of “Got To Get You into My Life,” the entire George Martin section of Yellow Submarine, “Savoy Truffle,” and “Dig It.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

Via my brother — who somehow gets the coolest Filipino links before I do: a blog supposedly written by the most famous daughter of a former Philippine president, not counting those horrible sisters Imee and Irene Marcos. (She describes herself in her profile as “actress slash commercial model slash talkshow host slash most talked about media personality in the philippines. “)

If anything, you non-Tagalog readers may get a nice strong, caffeinated dose of kolehiyala Taglish unleashed (you can take her out of college, but you can’t take the kolehiyala out of her):

okay, so i’m watching the other channel ha, and i am seeing geneva cruz strutting around onstage sa labas ng gma complex. baring her navel as usual. but what’s really funny is that she’s singing the charlie’s angels theme as done by destiny’s child. tapos poor her, she has no back up singers, so she makes habol the “i bought it” part. tipo bang thecarimdrivingiboughtit!theshoesimwearingiboughtit! etc. kawawa talaga.

dati naman she made gaya the video of JLo, now this? iha, konting originality naman.

Real or not, it’s just too, too funny.

Popularity: 1% [?]