Daily Archives: December 28, 2012

anaïs nin on unbearable lightness

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“I am the most tired woman in the world. I am tired when I get up. Life requires an effort I cannot make. Please give me that heavy book. I need to put something heavy like that on top of my head. I have to place my feet under the pillows always, so as to be able to stay on earth. Otherwise I feel myself going away, going away at a tremendous speed, on account of my lightness… As soon as I utter a phrase my sincerity dies, becomes a lie whose coldness chills me. Don’t say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you.”

~ Anaïs Nin

jeffrey lewis with helen schreiner – bugs and flowers (live)

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Jeffrey Lewis and Helen Schreiner perform a beautiful version of “Bugs and Flowers”.

Out in the forest
Out past the stone wall
Built by old farmers
Or older guys
I saw a railway
With tracks all rusted
Wild flowers blooming
Up through the ties

I set out walking
Just cross-tie walking
Out on the cross-ties
Where I could step

Sometimes I missed one
Sometimes there was none
Sometimes the flowers
Had eaten it
The sun was burning
The flies were churning
The trees were turning
Inside the sky
The tracks were rotten
Some trash forgotten
Sometimes a bottle with ash inside

I’ve been a walker
A sidewalk talker
Out on the sidewalks
Where I could step
Someday my body
Will look real shoddy
Wherever flowers have eaten it
Voracious flowers
Voracious hours
Voracious people
Voracious slime
Words like voracious
Just sound like nonsense
After you say them about five times

These flowers blooming
They are not human
These flies and insects
Are really weird
Their backs are shiny
Their souls are tiny
And by the zillions
They’ve disappeared
So if there’s life after
It’s packed with insects
It’s filled with flowers
No room for us
When they kick the bucket
They just say chuck it
They come and go like
Infinite dust

The human race’s
Beautiful faces
Changing places
Reform and bust
When we kick the bucket
Let’s just say chuck it
We’ll come and go like
Infinite dust