Things We Wrote On the Walls in My First Condo on the BeachScriptural quotes from Everett Fox’s translation of The Five Books of Moses, when possible, the KJV, other poetic translations, or my own otherwise. Ruach Elohim Ruach Elohim Ruach Elohim Breath of God Breath of God Ice cream every day God is the Aleph. God said, Bereshit—which I translate as “Let it begin with Beht.” The face of God wild over the deep, rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters-- God separated the light from the dark. And God called to me, calling the shadow under the roof of the Beht “safe.” And God sheltered all of creation and all that was to follow creation beneath the sheltering Beht, beneath the roof of the beginning of His Beginning, Bereshit. God sheltered all the letters that appeared before Him before beginning the creating, so the letters for the creating would be as safe as the Word itself together with the light & the dark the waters & the land the fish & the beasts the heavens & the earth. And God made us on the last day of God’s creating. God blessed us. There was setting, there was dawning: the sixth day. John said later or at the same time or is yet to say, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. David sang, He makes me to lie down in fields of tender grasses. He leads me beside the living water. He restores my soul. David sang, Yea! Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no harm, using the ancient syllable ra, meaning physical harm, not evil. The labor of women in childbirth comes to mind when we read ra because there is no spiritual harm. Childbirth. The beginning of Woman’s love. In the same way, Israel only meant the man (Ish) fought (ra) with God (El). God gave Jacob a new name on the bank of the river where they fought. Jacob fought with God in the way that some people are born to fight with God. Like me. I am not a fighter, though. I just am. I do not fear harm from God. All I want is to cross the river together. To be closer. And no, I’m not afraid to fight You for the right. A new name. I needed two new hips when I was still quite young. We love and we labor we live and we die and most of us love children. A woman makes love without fear of giving birth when it could so easily kill her. Women are born to love the child whether we or she loves or dies. A daughter is our beginning; she is our Word. Your Word; my word. Daughter, I am your Beht and the sky that shelters you; it will always be so. My friend Katanya told me she had a dream: I got a letter. It said “Katanya. Feed my sheep.” Three times. God had a door to His workshop, where He had written His words and equations and the Calculus and some measurements. Now the door is lost. How does a door get lost? Somehow, the words and the Calculus I adore are still in the doorway—anyone can see them passing from one life to another. Solomon said, Lean not unto thine own understanding.
Notes for a sort of bilingual poem:
1. Ruach Elohim means “Breath of God.”
2. God is the Aleph, which is why the creation does not begin with Aleph. 3. Bereshit is the first word of the Torah, and it is usually translated as “In the beginning,” or “At the beginning.” Bereshit starts with the second Hebrew letter, Beht, which looks like a backwards squared off C, and Hebrew is read right to left, so that is why I say all of creation is sheltered inside it. 4. Before the creation began, all the Hebrew letters presented themselves to God on fire in a beautiful ceremony (Hebrew folklore). Only after God has the letters can God begin with the creating, which is why the Word is so powerful. 5. The word ra simply meant physical harm. 6. Ish means man, El means god. So Israel means “man wrestles with God,” which is exactly what Jacob did all night long on the other side of the river from where Rachel has just had her baby. He would not let the angel go until the angel told him his name, which he refused to do, or blessed him. For some part of this, God touched Jacob’s hip and hurt it. After this event, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. This was a compliment. 7. Near the end of the Gospels, God asked Peter to feed his sheep three times. Most people think we are the sheep. Peter became the first leader of the Church. 8. I shall fear no evil is from the 23rd psalm, KJV. 9. He makes me to lie down in fields of tender grasses is a better translation of Psalm 23. 10. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God is the way the Gospel of John begins. 11. Lean not unto thine own understanding: Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV.
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We have entered an age of undifferentiated living—the machine is inseparable from the mode of living and life has become an extension of our technological selves. The other half is speaking for us and we are more and more interwoven with the tools of our trade. This is not a particularly new phenomenon but one which has been recently thrown into stark relief. In fact it goes all the way back to the most primitive examples and the birth of the other half.
Howie Good’s handmade collages have appeared or are forthcoming in Mayday, Sulphur Surrealist Jungle, Defunkt, Drunk Monkeys, decomp, The Offshoot, Mad Swirl, Mercurius Magazine, Scapegoat, Wrongdoing, Willows Wept Review, Uppagus, Pine Cone Review, and Otoliths.
Lachlan J McDougall is an Australian Word Technician working in cut-up and experimental literature. They are interested in smashing the Control Machine in all its guises and have chosen the written word and symbol as their weapon. Their books I was out.. the mice were in... and Blue Flute: Stories and Artwork can be purchased on Amazon.com.
His social media links are as follows: Facebook – Lachlan J McDougall - Author Twitter - @AuthorLachlan Instagram @lachlanjmcdougall Website – lachlanjmcdougall.wordpress.com “I’m sorry!” Michael shouts at his naked body in the mirror. He tenses as many muscles as he can and shakes violently, staring into his own eyes the entire time. “I’m fucking sorry!” He runs out of the bathroom and flings himself onto his bed where he writhes and grunts, punching blindly at the air and sheets. His thrashing grows sluggish as he gradually relaxes. He pants, tangled in a blanket, heart pumping in his ears.
It’s late January. Winter quarter at the University of Oregon is in full swing and Michael should be occupied with the weighty coursework his syllabi announce. But he isn’t thinking about school at all. He’s far away, stuck in the events of the previous year, his mind now replaying the last conversation he and his ex-girlfriend Elise ever had. Heikki Huotari attended a one-room school and spent summers on a forest-fire lookout tower. Since retiring from academia/mathematics he has published poems in numerous literary journals, including Pleiades, Spillway, the American Journal of Poetry and Willow Springs, and in five collections.
I slept in the treehouse I had built with my father ten years before. It moved and made sounds in the wind. All night I dreamt satan was trying to come inside, he wanted to take me. His first form was a great Puritanical devil, skinny, faceless and cloaked. He climbed the latter, bent and tapped on the window. He spoke gently with offers and bargains, asked to enter with the entreaty of an ancient swindler. I told him no. He stood up, his fingers were curled roots, he folded them back into his palm and his cloak fell over his hands. He went down the latter. He returned in various forms. When I continued to deny him he tried coaxing me outside. I don’t remember if it was threat or trick or desire but something he said worked and I opened the door and went out. I climbed down the latter, turned and found him in the form of a wolf. At my feet was an old aluminum can. I pressed it flat in my hands. It split open and I used its sharp edge to cut the throat of the wolf. Blood was everywhere, its fur, my hands. The gash throbbed open and shut. The wolf struggled and gurgled for many minutes. I did not move. I listened to the sound of it choking on its own blood.
Antidotal AlchemyYou pervade my uninoculated heart
like a strong flu virus strain. First the chills and then fever sweats, challenge any movement on my part. If you glance in my direction, I toddle wobble light-headed and have to brace myself against a wall to keep from losing all balance. My head throbs when you speak but my throat is razor raw and I manage a nod as if about to lose consciousness. I have no natural immunity and you know it. Yes, Dr. NoI’m told to go sit in the waiting area while “the laser heats up,” and for an instant, I’m not at the clinic or some anxious old man unable to see out his left eye, I’m with Sean Connery/James Bond in Dr. No, the scene where he’s tied spreadeagle on a steel table, and even as the fiery red laser beam that cuts through metal creeps closer and closer and closer to his, you know, “equipment,” he banters with the archvillain, demonstrating to each of us caught in our own desperate straits the art of living bravely under imaginary circumstances.
Joshua Martin is a Philadelphia based writer and filmmaker, who currently works in a library. He is the author of the books automatic message (Free Lines Press), combustible panoramic twists (Trainwreck Press), Pointillistic Venetian Blinds (Alien Buddha Press) and Vagabond fragments of a hole (Schism Neuronics). He has had numerous pieces published in various journals including Otoliths, M58, Don’t Submit!, Ygdrasil, RASPUTIN, Ink Pantry, Nauseated Drive, and Synchronized Chaos. You can find links to his published work at joshuamartinwriting.blogspot.co
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