HE IS TROCHILUS, THE CROCODILE BIRD, MAYBE A SANDPIPER OR PLOVER SHE IS A NILE CROCODILE OR POSSIBLY A GHARIAL. THEY ARE BY A RIVER. SHE WAS IN THE MUD BEFORE AND HAS CONSENTED TO COME UP ONTO THE SAND. THE RIVER IS ALSO A BEACH AS IT IS A TIDAL RIVER. IT MEETS THE BROADER OCEAN AND IS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WITH THE TIDES. HE SAYS: Language as a meaning-maker gives us a system for talking to each other - that is, communication - and to decry the system for not being able to express everything is faulty or at least unfair. There is no system that expresses everything. To express everything would simply be the totality of the world; and we have the totality of the world already! It is inexpressible, which is to say that any expression is limiting. A sign must refer, and in referring make a distinction between referent and nonreferent. I feel tired. SHE SAYS: Is it any wonder you're tired when you have that system of messages hooked up to your brain? I get the impulse to be a creature of fire and light but I am here as a representative of earth and water and their judgements must be factored in.Efficiency is not the problem as such. Rather, the problem is the fetishization of speed. Sure, it is possible to do many things quickly. Take a speed-reading course to get the information into your brain. Why? If it's truly important, you should be spending all year on it (or as close as your finances allow). Build up a head of steam that you can exhale for a softening of the throat. Remember the lake high in the mountains? You only remember it because of time spend having the experience; waiting to become the lake like you are a slippery thing that doesn't feel the cold. I could stay down there forever although the notion has been complicated with the introduction of sedatives into my body. Listening to the somnolent hum is one activity that can take up all of your time if you let it. HE SAYS: I used to have the idea that if I slowed down the whirring I wouldn't keep fluttering from tree to tree; but in practice I end up as one of Danny's stunned pheasants, subject to the cruelty of dried raisins. SHE SAYS: Does Attar talk about this? HE SAYS: Not that I know of but I haven't finished the book yet. SHE SAYS: Do you think there are others? HE SAYS: You pointedly refuse to leave the beach. SHE SAYS: I'm scared. HE SAYS: I know. That's why we haven't loaded you into a sled yet. SHE SAYS: "We"? HE SAYS: Maybe not the "others" you mention because they're very much like me in many ways but the profusion of birds that exist in the trees where the sand comes up from the shoreline. SHE SAYS: I'd like to meet them anyway. Can you introduce me? HE SAYS: I'm not sure if I can see them clearly. SHE SAYS: Sure you can. There's a parrot right there. This is one of the reasons why earth is important; it's slow. No excuses will be made here for the slowness. It is the point. A furrow lingers where an electrical strike will not, despite the electricity's immediate impact. The same goes for markings. HE SAYS: But what does the parrot represent? SHE SAYS: Bring it over here. PARROT SAYS: The entire world's construction is from books, OR SHOULD THAT BE phrases have already been assembled and are made to be repeated, OR SHOULD THAT BE the function of speech is to repeat phrases, OR SHOULD THAT BE the function of repeating phrases is to reinforce the world, OR SHOULD THAT BE when I repeat a phrase people smile at me, and give me a cracker. - I am particularly partial to oven-baked Jatz. HE SAYS: So why do you (like her) prefer the embrace of drugs? You have none of her inclination to stop moving. PARROT SAYS: To work from a routine book is very tiring. After a while one memorizes the routines and begins to wonder if there is anything more. Certainly I was unable to find it in the sounds I made. One day I was reading about F.M. Alexander who had constructed a series of mirrors to view the machinery of his own body, and I looked into the mirror hanging next to me where the other one resides. Suddenly I realized his beak looks just like mine does and by application of the jaw and throat I could get him to make the same sounds that everybody else had been making. And yet...and yet... I found my mouth still moved in the shape of its past experience. I am enticed by lights and patterns due to my large eyes. This is the reason for the drugs: When the throat goes slack it fails to adhere to the patterns it has learned (due to physical inability to carry them out) and produces a different sound, which can then take on its own meaning. SHE SAYS: One of the reasons I don't get out much is the energy required. It's also when the words stop that I'd like to say something. But I find I can't. For example: [INSERT PICTURE HERE] SHE CONTINUES: Not that that looks anything like me. But it might be enough to give you something which I can't get at in the other way. What would I possibly say? Line line line curve circle line long line line line long line? The structure just isn't clear that way. HE SAYS: So what do I look like? SHE SAYS: Don't you have a mirror? HE SAYS: Dozens. But I'm interested in -you-. SHE SAYS: Alright. [INSERT PICTURE HERE.] HE SAYS: Is that what I really look like? SHE SAYS: Of course not. You're not literally the carving in sand. It's another sort of mirror. Why would you say that? You know this. *HE GESTURES TO THE PARROT.* HE SAYS: This guy isn't the only one who gets hypnotized by mirrors. In fact this is a large part of the reason I endorse talking like this. Not that talking can't hypnotize as well - especially if one repeats - but its immateriality provides relief from the fixed image. As the image tends not to move (at least, not unless a great amount of effort is expended, usually much more than one person can handle) it is fixed and it fixes itself on the mind with considerably more strength. The music that lingers in air is very different as it constantly changes. Air and light is a gesture that does without mirrors. I hope you can appreciate it now you're in it. SHE SAYS: Eh. HE SAYS: I thought you'd be glad. SHE SAYS: We've been through this. HE SAYS: Not now? SHE SAYS: Please. HE SAYS: Well, here's one way to convince you. Or not so much convince you as remind you. QUOTE I have a longing to eat a cow UNQUOTE. The bones are a physical structure. To kill and eat somebody is an act that requires great physical strength. You can't live without your bones. It's not the saltwater as such; instead, sweet water, the drippings from limestone an acidic taste. The salt comes from the inner sea, coughing it up, the partition of the endless ocean that we carry within ourselves. You of course rely on the strength of the ocean. When I wish to strip the skin from a chicken I put it in boiling water; and the churning of the dead is again reflective of your great physical strength. It's a problem when I have to speak normally because my heart beats too fast to place spaces between the words though I suppose your problem is not slowness but weight. When Jesus died, they moved him into a cave and blocked the entrance. But what nobody expects - (at least, if you had been around at the time) - is for a single person, immensely weighty, to come and roll away the stone, revealing that his descent into hiding has left him incontrovertibly in the body of a red-tailed hawk. There's one explanation that we didn't get for how he flew up to heaven afterward. Incredibly limited in some ways. This sort of thing is why we have to work together. When I'm moving through the reeds I fear that my life will be snatched into blood-red claws. It happens to everybody. This is why I like to be around you. It's the weight and crunch that keeps others from stepping on such a tiny thing as myself. SHE SAYS: Can I hear another bird please? HE SAYS: What, you don't like me? SHE SAYS: I love you but I've heard it before. HE SAYS: Alright. SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO SAYS: I sit in the paperbark tree. Happily I call. The wind brings messages. The calling of others is one kind of message, buoyed by the air, which I'm familiar with. Another message is the air itself. Not calling (although it whistles). Some cultures consider yellow a warning, but I consider myself a medium. The augury of rippled feathers corresponds to the north wind if they're pointing south, and when rain is suggested there's no more talking between us. I spread out over the land, looking for lerp, or something else the land provides. Some cultures consider screaming to be rude, but they have no recognition of the joyousness, the delight in seeing a friend, that we must call: I am here I am here I am here. The storm sweeps across, air cries out in thunder-tongue; I am here I am here I am here. SHE SAYS: How is this relevant? HE SAYS: You wanted something different. SHE SAYS: I have to keep moving the pieces to fit. [*] HE SAYS: When I'm inside your mouth I can smell the dead. Again, not a criticism. I've known parrots who eat the ochre, and blood is also suitable for that purpose. Art is a mirror but great swathes of red painted across the surface obscure the reflection which is useful if you can't stand to look at yourself. Have you ever faced the water? SHE SAYS: No, never. HE SAYS: Surely. You showed me that image of yourself before. SHE SAYS: The image is entirely felt. Lines of force in my body correspond to the marked lines in the image. You're not familiar with this phenomenon? HE SAYS: Not internally. I only see myself in relation to others. The surface of the mirror, or the edge of the wavefront. Maybe these are the same thing. SHE SAYS: Bring on another bird please. MIGRATORY SWIFT SAYS: *(two seconds per line) - If I thought I could say it in less words then I would. Remove "thought". Remove "I". Remove "then". Don't remove them yet! I'm not done thinking! You don't know what you need ahead of time. Cockatoo was talking about the lerp earlier. I am this tiny little thing, and I have to fly seventeen thousand kilometres. Authorities speculate how I do it. Where does he find the will? And that of course is the wrong question. If looks could kill I'd be dead. * If you had to wake up every morning and look at the sky again your eyes couldn't handle * the shifting to night and back. AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | - | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | - | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | Nothing wrong with correspondence. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | In the flat months I do it too. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | But that has nothing to do with | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | the continuous principle made manifest, | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | the sky that reaches around, | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | the edge or top of the world. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | Air and light is the wavefront, | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | the etching point of consciousness, | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | the sparrow's terracotta beak. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | It is how I can travel | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | the seventeen thousand kilometres. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | Do they never rest? | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | The question only holds | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | dividing rest from activity. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | The wind and waves in motion. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | One glides on top of the effort | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT | that one has already expended. | AIR AND LIGHT, AIR AND LIGHT - | Somebody used to swear | - - | when he wanted time to think. | - - | This isn't the only way. | - - | It was for this reason that | - SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH | sparrow invented business english. | SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH SPARROW, SPARROW | sparrow invented business english. | SPARROW, SPARROW SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH | sparrow invented business english. | SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH BUSINESS, BUSINESS | One of the rules of business | BUSINESS, BUSINESS SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH | is that you say it three times | SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH ENGLISH, ENGLISH | for maximum effect. | ENGLISH, ENGLISH / SILENCE | This is to avoid silence. | / SILENCE - | The idea was invented | - / SINGERS | by the great German singers | / SINGERS - | who were harshly penalized | - / SONGS | for silence in their songs. | / SONGS - | Nowadays, we know | - / PORTANT | that silence is important | / PORTANT - | as another kind of word; | - / CONF'RENCE | but in the time of conf'rence | / CONF'RENCE - | when we all met for business | - / HEARTACHE | the silence would cause heartache | / HEARTACHE - | in the sufferers of the word. | - / MENTION | I can also mention | / MENTION - | (in the fights of opposition) | - / SPARROW | the followers of Sparrow | / SPARROW - | endeavoured to keep talking | - / ARgueD | so that as long as argued | / ARGUED - | the other guy in conf'rence | - - | would not recieve a word | - SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH | Sparrow invented business english. | SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH SPARROW, SPARROW | It sounded just like I do, | SPARROW, SPARROW SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH | until 1904, | SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH BUSINESS, BUSINESS | when they ran it through the spectrograph | BUSINESS, BUSINESS SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH | and were able to detect features | SPARROW INVENTED BUSINESS ENGLISH ENGLISH, ENGLISH | like fluency and tone. | ENGLISH, ENGLISH - | One reason to continue | - - | is the continuous return, | - - | if indeed it's important. | - - | When the topic leaves me | - - | (like the wetland below) | - - | I say let's move on. | - The sin of the writer is to talk to oneself. I don't say things which can be evaluated, or if you think I do, then you are making a mistake * about the situation we're having. Truth depends on context, and the circumstances of the statement. This isn't how we behave usually. Mostly the statement is evaluated according to its beauty. The sound hangs in the air. This is why we resist the teaching of our children those other ugly noises. It's a mistake, of course. They thunder on the bodhran, or crash metal together; they have the understanding, the beauty of all noises. But try to tell your neighbour of love at 2am. When I found that the noises I was making * didn't seem to correspond to other people's understanding * I didn't know what to do. * Am I not making an "M" sound? * What is the distinction between those words? * I had to confront the fact that Sparrow invented business english. Sparrow knew that language could expand beyond the twenty six or thirty seals passed down to us as writing. Sound has its own context. The word may float untethered; but when we hear a sound we always say "Who's there?" Oh, it's you. Hello. An underrated song. I hold the druidical wand and cast power word hello. - - I remember the song of young Osi. But this doesn't hold for all languages. Chinese would be different. One of the differences is using particular songs in other situations. A summary does the text no favours at all it is bound to reflect the preoccupations of whoever's summing it up. I am not sure if I spoke it that the process would go any faster. My mouth holding hundreds of songs, and my recent preoccupation is just about changes in hearing. What's called the conversion experience. When one becomes fully aware, then the mouth moves around in that shape and lapses into glossolia (pronounce?). I'm not used to making those sounds. Imitating the ones I like mostly. But with all the pinfeathers gone I oblige myself to start talking about certain things which still scare me. * (no longer two seconds) He says: Do you feel better after having something to eat? She says: Yes, tremendously. He says: What's the catch? She says: I think my teeth resemble the net. Gripping, pressing. One image in the parade showed me a massive tuna which wouldn't be enough to go on without rice or sugar. They call it "rest-and-digest" and certainly if I felt up to laying eggs I would more enthusiastically crunch on the bones of the dead. Wan little things. Shuck the flesh off; or consume the whole thing as a salty mash. If it's a good language it should be repeatable. The puzzle being what will we remember? Far away, distant, (like that sound meant anything) *(eight seconds) He says: Do you consider yourself in love with images? She says: Except when I think that someone else can do it better. He says: Then why all the business with the dark and the mud and the cove? She says: You too put on a form that is not your own to come down and visit me. He says: I do it for my protection. I don't go round thinking this is me all the time. She says: Your answer seems pretty regular. Are you mirroring me? Or trying to convince? He says: Do you have to fight every darn thing? I try to convince you because I think you're unwell. She says: I thought of breaking free. I'll grant a concession - please explain that to me. He says: I'm very chill and doesn't mind. I love hugging her neck. I love her when she goes to sleep. I am a very effective creature personally and I must always be working. And it's very strange (as though people juxtaposed the images) to imagine him inside her. You get enough images and they start to pile up. I've got five images right here. This could only come about in agarian society, when they left the trail behind, and so lost the ability- She says: Why are you doing this? He says: What? She says: One of the reasons they invented the principles of gender was to distinguish oneself from oneself. Yet you insist on confusing the situation. [BREAK - NEXT LINES DON'T NECESSARILY FOLLOW] She says: So you like having these little things rolling inside of your mouth? He says: Yep. They are the result of a filtering process. If I had every voice in there I wouldn't know which one I am. This is the winnowing of the wheat. The chaff is discarded, deemed to be lower quality. If we never forgot, all the world would be chaff. To strip to one's own bones; fragile little things. The skull being like an egg. She says: You asked why I stay down here. He says: Why? She says: Because things stay in place. Up there the skyline is on fire. It's just a burning memory, one thing giving way to the next. I can't live like that. I look at the sun and my vision breaks up into white spots. And you're always shining the sun in my eyes. Stop doing that. He says: Sorry. She says: I don't mind a little light in the daytime. But none of that orange glow. Instead the frail blue light of a 5am morning, frost on the jacaranda. He says: Why the winnowing is what's known as staying on topic. The branches of the fig, heavy with fruit, only leading to a confusion of choices. Any kind of focus, any direction, stripping away your possible pasts, that the sun might be not simply pain by redemption. --- *(two seconds per line) OSPREY SAYS: I LOVE FISH. FISH TO THE POINT OF TOTAL OBSESSION. FISH TO THE POINT OF PLUNGE INTO WATER CLUTCHING BACK UP, FEATHERED AND SOAKED FISH TO THE POINT OF NOT SEEING OTHERS IT'S ALL I SEE. IT'S ALL I DO. FISH TO THE POINT OF IT COULD BE A HOT DOG IF IT'S SUBMERGED IN SIX FEET OF WATER THEN IT'S A FISH AND FOR FISH I WILL PLUNGE. FISH FISH FISH. I COULD GO ONWARD. SOMETIMES I DO WHEN I'M ON MIGRATION. FLY TO THE POINT OF TOTAL EXHAUSTION. GETTING MYSELF IN OVER MY HEAD. TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | - | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | - | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | We go over these stories to | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | remind ourselves. / | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | We go over these stories to | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | remember what's worth hunting for. | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | / I said the shock of water. | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | - | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | / I said that | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | The plunge is what breaks the surface | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | between things; the membrane; | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | changing from one state to another | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | shocks the heart. | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | Electricity / | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | being my element. / | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | Imprinting on images / | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION | like a little duckling. / | TOTAL OBSESSION, TOTAL OBSESSION - - PRETTY MUCH ANY TEXT IS GOOD. - I seek to build a nest out of it. - The difficulty being. - That's a lot of daub and twigs. - Any home needs to protect you from the shelter from the wind and the rain. What I said earlier about the plunge into water that also applies in the state of the pigeon's living, and comes to us not in deep dives but in clouds of moisture. The spatter of rainfall on a tuesday afternoon. It suffices while I wait for a better name. - People ask: Why the diving? Why the changing of state? And I say I made a mistake earlier. I build my nest out of sticks. No daub is involved. A message stick being a string of meaning. (He was going to go down there.) * (He was going to say they were going to have to go and do something about it.) * These meanings (and they grow on trees) stretched together geometrically. - When I have my fish I fly off somewhere and stare into the middle distance almost like I'm waiting for something. I think I'll hand it back. He says: Thank you. --- *(two seconds probably toward end) And writing, too; (the etchings) is a form of memory. When we speak to each other, we take different forms. He was squeeping over there. The sound has been flattened. It makes it impossible to tell what he was on about. So in telling your friends you'll only be able to say he talked for a very long time about something to do with birds. He could've talked for longer! There's a lot of birds to go through. We didn't even see all of the ones on the wheel. Bruno's wheel. --- *(two seconds per line) It takes a lot of effort to make a sound. You have to be dressed, and clothed, before they accept it. Sounds in bed - of which there are many - don't act according to the same rules. And you're expecting me to memorize all your little pictures that are merely principles of the thing, rather than the thing itself, just to be able to speak that way? - Sounds are free, and freely shared. You don't have to scan the language. - You just say to yourself: OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | omelette du fromage. | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | - | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | - | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | If one's intentions are in contact | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | with the culture | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | Then the correct sound | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | will be produced naturally. | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | The lungs and throat spasm, | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | repeatedly, painfully, | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | Just to create the appropriate answer. | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | - | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | Unfortunate for the oviraptors | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | who learnt through tape, | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | and can only say | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | omelette du fromage. | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | When they'd rather say | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | "It's like the crunching of bone." | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. - | Or perhaps even | - OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. | "The nest is over there." | OMELETTE DU FROMAGE. --- She says: I would argue that I'm not speaking at all. Although it appears in the mouth of the owner of the words. That's not to say it has any correspondence to me. I know the owner of these words. I know he's gullible for using words at all. But there are benefits, and the trade off some people. You'll notice what I did there was ellipsis. The term for where you don't say a word, which is what I'd like to be doing. REMOVE STAR | - | REMOVE STAR REMOVE THANKLESS | - | REMOVE THANKLESS *(back to the Parrot's song) Nobody gives a shit about original ideas. The only thing they're listening for is something they know already. When Makeba sang the click song, the British couldn't hear that word. All they heard was a buboe, bulging off her neck. Me? I heard the clicking.