Thursday, 9 April 2026

 

If you're only killing time then it will kill you right back 


 

Do something instead of killing time. 

Because time is killing you.


 

Listen to your heart. 

It knows all things, 

because it came from the Soul of the World

 and it will one day return there


Pencil

 

First quality: 

you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. 

We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’



‘Second quality: 

now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. 

That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. 

So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.



‘Third quality: 

the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes.

 This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’



‘Fourth quality: 

what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. 

So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’



‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: 

it always leaves a mark. 

in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action



 

Is not the beautiful moon, that inspires poets,

 the same moon which angers the silence of the sea with a terrible roar?


Wednesday, 8 April 2026

 

A rose dreams of enjoying the company of bees, but none appears. The sun asks:

“Aren’t you tired of waiting?”

“Yes,” answers the rose, “but if I close my petals, I will wither and die.


 

The secret is here in the present. 


If you pay attention to the present, 

you can improve upon it. 


And, if you improve on the present

, what comes later will also be better


Tuesday, 7 April 2026

 

The Marquis De Sade said that the most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit



 

The feelings we live through
in love and in loneliness
are simply, for us,
what high tide
and low tide are to the sea.


 

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountaintop,then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs,then shall you truly dance


 

The mirror reflects perfectly;

 it makes no mistakes because it doesn't think. 

To think is to make mistakes.


 

We always have a tendency to see those things that do not exist 

and to be blind to the great lessons that are right there before our eyes


 

Anyone who lives in their own world is crazy. 

Like schizophrenics, psychopaths, maniacs. 

people who are different from others.


On the other hand,

you have Einstein, saying that there was no time or space, just a combination of the two. 

Or Columbus, insisting that on the other side of the world lay not an abyss but a continent. 

Or Edmund Hillary, convinced that a man could reach the top of Everest. 

Or the Beatles, who created an entirely different sort of music and dressed like people from another time.


 Those people--

and thousands of others--

all lived in their own world.




 

Life can seem short or life can seem long, depending on how you live it


 

Scars speak more loudly than the sword that caused them


 

Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly 

than suffering that is apparently bearable; 

the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our souls, 

until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness 

and it stays with us for the rest of our lives



 

Faith is not Desire. 

Faith is Will. 

Desires are things that need to be satisfied, whereas Will is a force.

 Will changes the space around us,


 

The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader. 

That's why we go to movies and say, "Oh, the book is better.


 

Darkness is impossible to remember.

Consequently cavers desire to return to those unseen depths where they have just been.

It is an addiction. No one is ever satisfied. Darkness never satisfies.

Especially if it takes something away which it almost always invariably does.



 

Under the cover of darkness people do things they'd never do under the harsh glare of day.

 Decisions feel wiser. People feel bolder. 

But when the sun rises, you have to take responsibility for what you did in the dark.

 And face yourself under the cold, harsh light of day.



Monday, 6 April 2026

 

If you reveal your secrets to the wind,
you should not blame the wind for
revealing them to the trees


Sunday, 5 April 2026

 

Jesus waited three days to come back to life. 

It was perfect

 If he had only waited one day, a lot of people wouldn't have even heard he died. 

They'd be all, "Hey Jesus, what up?" and Jesus would probably be like, "What up? I died yesterday!" and they'd be all, "Uh, you look pretty alive to me, dude..." and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the dude'd be like "Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro..." 

And he's not gonna come back on a Saturday. Everybody's busy, doing chores, workin' the loom, trimmin' the beard,

 NO. He waited the perfect number of days, three. 

Plus it's Sunday, so everyone's in church already, 

and they're all in there like "Oh no, Jesus is dead", and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin' up the aisle, everyone's totally psyched, and FYI, that's when he invented the high five. 



Easter Poem (for John Cotton), by Ted Walker


I had gone on Easter Day
early and alone 
to be beyond insidious bells
(that any other Sunday I’d not hear) 
up to the hills
where are winds 
to blow away commination. 

In the frail first light 
I saw him, 
unreal and sudden 
through lifting mist,
a fox on a barn door, 
nailed
like a coloured plaster Christ
in a Spanish shrine, 
his tail coiled around his loins.

 Sideways
his head hung limply, 
his ears
snagged with burdock, 
his dry nose
plugged with black blood. 

For two days
he’d held the orthodox pose.

The endemic English noise 
of Easter Sunday morning
was mixed with the mist swirling
and might have moved his stiff head.

Under the hill 
the ringing had begun. 

As the sun rose red
to press on 
seemed the best thing.

I walked the length 
of the day’s obsession.

 At dusk 
I was swallowed by the misted barn,
sucked by the peristalsis
of my fear 
that he had gone,
leaving nails for souvenirs.

But he was there still. 
I saw
no sign. 
He hung as before.
Only the wind had risen
to comb the thorns from his fur.

I left my superstition
stretched on the banging barn door.



Sun 5 Apr 2026 Easter

Lent ends with Easter Sunday

 

 Lent ends with Easter Sunday 

the day Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead


Easter Sunday

 
























Easter Poem - Fox On A Barn Door


I had gone on Easter Day

early and alone

to be beyond insidious bells

(that any other Sunday I’d not hear) 

up to the hills

where are winds 

to blow away commination. 


In the frail first light I saw him, 

unreal and sudden 

through lifting mist,

a fox on a barn door, 

nailed 

like a coloured plaster Christ

in a Spanish shrine, 

his tail coiled around his loins.


Sideways his head hung limply, 

his ears snagged with burdock, 

his dry nose plugged with black blood. 


For two days he’d held the orthodox pose.


The endemic English noise of Easter Sunday morning

was mixed with the mist swirling

and might have moved his stiff head.


Under the hill 

the ringing had begun. 


As the sun rose red 

on the stains of his bleeding

to press on seemed the best thing.


I walked the length of the day’s obsession.


At dusk I was swallowed by the misted barn,

sucked by the peristalsis of my fear that he had gone,

leaving nails for souvenirs.


But he was there still. 

I saw no sign. 

He hung as before.

Only the wind had risen

to comb the thorns from his fur.


I left my superstition 

stretched on the banging barn door.


Saturday, 4 April 2026

 

Happiness: 

The smell of cordite always makes her think of the fourth of July











 

Strange Little Girl: 

Whenever it rains you think of her




while the titular character has dramatic eye makeup, a shag cut, and a shirt that says, "Satin Worship." 



The album's namesake song — and most upbeat, straightforward musical moment, as it features tumbleweed keyboards — is "Strange Little Girl."

 The 1982 single by the Stranglers featuring a protagonist who's figuratively lost and trying to find her place in the world: 

"Strange little girl / 

Where are you going? / 

Do you know where you could be going?" 


The word "strange" is an interesting one to describe a person. 

The term isn't always wielded as a compliment; in fact, it's a verbal side-eye to convention. "Strange" is a close relation to "peculiar," another vaguely antique-sounding words that connotes someone who's offbeat and different.

 That Amos called the album "Strange Little Girls" — plural — is even more telling: These are a collection of offbeat people who don't fit into any sort of neat, tidy mold.


Vassago: Strange Little Girl


Vassago: Strange Little Girl Song by The Stranglers








 

Raining Blood:

 Actually the Gestapo picked her up





 Slayer's "Raining Blood," a song about someone mired in purgatory after being jettisoned from heaven; the implication is that it's somewhere he doesn't want to be. 

Amos has a different view: 

Instead, she envisions purgatory as a place of shelter, a refuge for a badass with supernatural tendencies.

 "She's a French Resistance woman whose sister was killed," she told Alternative Press about the "Raining Blood" character, who sports a jaunty beret and holds an ashed cigarette.

The woman "knows myths and is calling on power and working on alchemy" in response, however: "She went to the underground after the death of everyone she knew." 



Vassago: Raining Blood






 

Real Men: 

All of these things are true.




 "Real Men" Tori is tomboyish and defiant, in a power outfit: 
a white suit and wide belt.










 

Time: 

One day you will open your eyes and see her










 

New Age: 

All your tomorrows start here




"New Age" Tori looks like a hipster librarian, with dark hair flipped at the ends and cat's-eye glasses, 









 

Enjoy The Silence: 

Thirty-five years a showgirl










 

I Don't Like Mondays: 

She found the first body in a stairwell














 

Bonnie & Clyde: 

She wonders what her daughter will do







 

Heart of Gold: 

It's not glamorous... (on the twin pic) ...it's just business.




On a roaring "Heart of Gold," which is as noisy as Young's guitar hurricanes, Amos saw twins — or "economic espionage gals," as she puts it to Alternative Press — who "infiltrate corporations and access information and send it somewhere else. 

Good or bad, it depends what side you're on." 

This backstory certainly isn't obvious from listening to Neil Young's song, which is a loose, weary meditation on searching for meaning in life and the self. However, Amos' vision certainly complicates what the song's reference to a "heart of gold" could mean.



Vassago: Heart Of Gold Song by Neil Young






 

Rattlesnakes: 

She rides rollercoasters but never screams








The "Rattlesnakes" Tori has straight blonde hair and a KISS jacket.




The song features a main character named Jodie, who "wears a hat although it hasn't rained for six days" and packs a gun "on account of all the rattlesnakes." 


Cole is himself an empathetic writer, and so his character sketch of Jodie offers telling details ("her neverborn child still haunts her") that explain her behavior. 

Ever perceptive, Amos picks up on Jodie's heartbreak; her voice drips with sadness and understanding, ensuring the cover ends up deeply affecting.



Jodie wears a hat although it hasn't rained for six daysShe says a girl needs a gun these daysHey on account of all the rattlesnakes
She looks like Eve Marie saint in on the waterfrontShe reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance
She's less than sure if her heart has come to stay in San JoseAnd her never-born child still haunts herAs she speeds down the freewayAs she tries her luck with the traffic policeOut of boredom more than spiteShe never finds no trouble, she tries too hardShe's obvious despite herself
She looks like Eve Marie Saint in on the waterfrontShe says all she needs is therapy, yeahAll you need is, love is all you need
Jodie never sleeps 'cause there are always needles in the hayShe says that a girl needs a gun these daysHey on account of all the rattlesnakes
She looks like Eve Marie Saint in on the waterfrontAs she reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstanceHer heart, heart's like crazy pavingUpside down and back to frontShe says "ooh, it's so hard to loveWhen love was your great disappointment."






Cole took the main character from Didion's 1977 novel A Book of Common Prayer and "inserted her into the landscape" of the 1970 novel Play It as It Lays.