Cor Van de Heuvel vs Arizona Zipper

Two 'Haiku' masters sending postcards to each other. Found in a NYC junk shop.

via

Fibonacci sequence poem

Brian Bilston's poem 'Word crunching'. Based on the Fibonacci sequence. I like!

via

Jean Cocteau on Art, Poetry and Creativity

“Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.”
“Art is science made clear.”
“A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.”
“Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.”

via

Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl' goes online

Stanford Libraries publishes the full set of drafts of “Howl” online. Thank you!

Animation in video by Eric Drooker.

Fuckin' Concrete Contemporary Abstract Algebra Introduction

Really! If I would find it in a bookshop I would buy it. Check them all out. I'm wondering if they are out of print or still available.

"I'm such a spoiled old toad ... I was blessed with a crappy life" - Charles Bukowski in 1993

One afternoon, Bukowski sat down to record the audio version of his classic, Run With the Hunted. The session took place in his home with his wife by his side. These are the outtakes.

Listen and watch 'Grown-up' Children's stories

Ten years ago, Jeff Antebi, the founder of the record company Waxploitation, asked musicians and contemporary painters to collaborate on a collection of children’s stories for grown-ups.

Click here for more

This one (Wishing Well Fountain) is written and narrated by Alison Mosshart, illustrated by Dan Baldwin.

William Powell regretted writing The Anarchist Cookbook

Last year the writer of The Anarchist Cookbook, William Powell died of a heart attack (R.I.P.). He wrote the book when he was 19 years old. Later in life he regretted he wrote it and became a Christian.

Click here for more info

Wait! Marcel Proust playing air guitar?

I'm shocked. Marcel Proust ... okay ... playful ... what! ... playing air guitar ... no, no, no, no, impossible.

But here's the proof.

via

Very naughty Aleister Crowley [NSFW]

In 1920 Aleister Crowley wrote this 666-word sex poem 'Leah Sublime'. It's one of the most obscene pieces of literature ever written. And certainly for 1920.

Definitely not suitable for kids, not suitable for work and not suitable for Valentine's Day.

More info here

This is Leah Hirsig

And here is the poem:

Amanda Palmer reads Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Protest poem

"To sin by silence", the first words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's 1914 Protest Poem. Read by Amanda Palmer.

via

PROTEST

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and childbearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.

Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,
Until the mother bears no burden, save
The precious one beneath her heart, until
God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.

Can you smell the books?

Hilprand Brandenburg of Biberach was the first person who personalized his books with a bookplate, in 1480. I lost mine unfortunately. But mine wasn't as beautiful as the ones in this post on Hyperallergic. With a bit of imagination you can smell the books.

via

This the the one from 1480:

And some other examples:

Franz Kafka's 'Before the law' animated

Franz Kafka's parable 'Before the law' animated by Alessandro Novelli with the title 'The Guardian'. And may I say, very well done.

via

The Guardian from Alessandro Novelli - NEWGOLD on Vimeo.

Don't Panic!

Steve Teeps designed this jacket of infinite improbability, inspired by Douglas Adams' book 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'.

Literary Jukebox

Very nice blog. Literary Jukebox, a side project by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings). Literary quotes matched with a song.

Patti Smith Reads Jack Kerouac's 'The Last Hotel'

Patti Smith reads Jack Kerouac's 'The Last Hotel' on Soundcloud.

The last hotel
I can see the black wall
I can see the silhouette on the window
He’s talking, at a rhythm
He’s talking, at a rhythm
But, I don’t care
I’m not interested in what he’s saying
I’m only interested in the last hotel
I’m only interested in the fact that it’s the last hotel
Deep, discordant, dark, sweet
The last hotel
The last hotel
Ghosts in my bed
The goats I bled
The last hotel

James Joyce & Mimmo Paladino

I WANT!!!! (sorry for the high volume) OMG Mimmo Paladino did these beautiful etchings for James Joyce's Ulysses.

via

We Were Never Born

We Were Never Born by Dosnoventa.
director: Sergi Castella
filmmaker: Hector Ferreno

And the beautiful text by Jack Kerouac:

"I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree on a cold winter day. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don't worry. It's all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever.
Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity.
We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea.
I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space, but the emptiness of space will never crumble away because it was never born."

WE WERE NEVER BORN from Dosnoventa on Vimeo.

William S. Burroughs 'Naked Lunch'

Very appropriate, William S. Burroughs reading Naked Lunch and the screen is black. Just close your eyes and undergo.

Matt Kish Does Joseph Conrad

Want! Matt Kish illustrates (every page!) Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness.

via