definitely worth having (as well as his other 3 books). Get an early start on your Upfromsumdirt library.
07.03.2026 05:16
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definitely worth having (as well as his other 3 books). Get an early start on your Upfromsumdirt library.
Don't get me started on the grandkids.
"You saving this [name food item] for anybody?" "Well we could feed the birds. . .but since you're here. . . ."
Standing in front of the refrigerator, door wide open "just lookin'" out of habit.
When I was in college they taught me that capitalism means that there are capitalists, who own productive resources, like say factories, and they hire people to make stuff and then sell it. They can’t pay their workers so much that they don’t make a profit, but they have to pay them at least enough that they can afford to buy the stuff the factory produces. Feudalism, in contrast, is when you just take your profits directly by charging rent, fees and dues, turning people into debt peons, or otherwise shaking them down. Nowadays the vast majority of corporate profits don’t come from making or selling things but from “finance,” which is a euphemism for other peoples’ debts—charging rents, fees, interest and whatnot. It’s feudalism in the classic definition: “direct juro-political extraction” as they sometimes put it. David Graeber
From an interview David Graeber gave about Bullshit Jobs.
davidgraeber.org/interviews/i...
Here's a link to a collection of renku from about 10 yrs ago. The late Keith Abbott and I started doing these linked verses in the mid 80s, encouraged by Earl Miner--we were known as The Miner School of Haikai Poets. nuallainhousepublishers.com/poetry-for-s...
Sandy is a natural, no pretense, solid. We started writing haikai no renga (linked verse) through the mail in the mid-90s, writing one with her now and Maureen and 2 other poets (mail/email).
I'll let Sandy know about this. She is not online.
“We have become a civilization based on work in itself. We have come to believe that men and women who do not work harder than they wish at jobs they do not particularly enjoy are bad people unworthy of love, care, or assistance from their communities. It’s as if we’ve collectively acquiesced to our own enslavement.”
From his book, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018)
Highly recommend this quartet of poetry selections
A parting thought for the day
“Since one cannot know a radically better world
is not possible, are we not betraying everyone by
insisting on continuing to justify, and reproduce,
the mess we have today? And anyway, even if
we’re wrong, we might well get a lot closer.”
- David Graeber
if you're on your knees, , , ,
Year of The Fire Horse (4724) postcard printed on repurposed cardboard, stencil and stamps
It was a regular feature for poets to quote folk songs in the Song Dynasty, so like 12th century.
Seem to remember an issue of Michael Andre's Unmuzzled Ox had photos of CS in one of her performances. . . ?
"Anarchism is just the way people act when they are free to do as they choose, and when they deal with others who are equally free, and therefore aware of the responsibility to others that entails. This leads to another crucial point: that while people can be reasonable and considerate when they are dealing with equals, human nature is such that they cannot be trusted to do so when given power over others. Give someone such power, they will almost invariably abuse it in some way or another." . - David Graeber
It never ends well when one person has a lot of power over another.
“I would propose that we just rip up the discipline of economics as it exists and start over. This is my proposal in this regard: I think we should take the ideas of production and consumption, throw them away, and substitute for them the idea of care and freedom. As feminists point out, even if you are making a bridge, you are making a bridge because you care that people can get across the river. You make a car because you care that people can get around. So even production is just one subordinate type of care as what we do as human beings is take care of each other.” — David Graeber
Most work is caring for other people.
Starting on Monday, Blue Sky will be Russian River Books & Letters only social media site. Looking forward to building the page up and interacting with all of you bibliophiles!
You will be seeing us a great deal more on here and please come visit our little bookstore if you find yourself in the West Sonoma County!
Earthly, Poems by Jean Follain, & Jump Cuts, Essays by Mark Polizzotti from The Sound Cave
thenewblackbartpoetrysociety.wordpress.com/2026/01/26/w...
Congrats!
A sirventes (an old Occitan curse) for the current occasion.
Here's the link to the publisher's site and How To Order nuallainhousepublishers.com/how-to-order/
Here's a terrific review of my novel Ode To Sunset, A Year In The Life Of American Genius by Owen Hill, author of The Giveaway. Read it and then subscribe to his substack. owenhill2.substack.com/p/ode-to-sun...
"Violence is so often the preferred weapon of the stupid: indeed, one might say it is one of the tragedies of human existence that this is the one form of stupidity to which it is most difficult to come up with an intelligent response.". . - David Graeber
When you see comments on Social Media defending the violence of ICE, it is worth keeping this quote in mind.
Thanks John, always interested in Calasso. I used to average around 70 books read in a year. Now I'm lucky if I top 25. I blame the smart phone; smart phone=dumber user.
Year End Recommendations from The New Black Bart Poetry Society; noir fiction and Black poetry.
thenewblackbartpoetrysociety.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/y...
"lets itself be read"
