Suspended in the New Fade, Part 18

does anything ever really get finished?

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 17

the greatest frustration of suspension
is knowing that it is necessary

it's impossible for anyone with
a lot of things to do
to get all of it done all at once

the act of suspension
is the art of trying to
work on that and because
it's completely impossible
to ever know exactly how
to accomplish that
you end up with a lot of things
in suspension

that's the real problem of the New Fade
the fact that so many things
are in development
that they've all basically stopped up
like the Three Stooges
somehow getting themselves stuck
in the same door because none of them
wants to budge

well anyway let's hope that
eventually one of them does

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 16

it will always baffle me to know
that there are people who believe
that they must suspend themselves
artificially in order to feel as if
they can appreciate the possibilities
and that they will argue to make
that legal even though it will
always provide the same
disappointing results that you
will always have to chase
when you can do that without
such chemical meddling
and actually remember how you did it

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 15

destiny is an act of faith

living in the New Fade

complicates destiny

perhaps more than

any other period

in history

in times past

it was possible to know

exactly what you

were going to be

almost from the moment

you were born

of course it was with

dawning awareness

that you realized 

that your life had

limitations and that

altering your fate

would take a

monumental act of will

in the New Fade we

disguise that notion

as the American Dream

where anyone can do

anything they truly desire

the real trick is that

although this is certainly true

many, many people have

taken great pains to ensure

that it is still difficult

part of the reason is that

there are in fact

many, many people

in the world and many

of them are interested

in achieving the same thing

you are and so it's like

farming the same land

for too long and discovering

that you must rotate and

cooperate in order to yield

optimum results

the compensating method

for balancing ambition

in the New Fade

means that while everyone

can pursue their destiny

sometimes it takes longer

than you might have thought

a miserable suspension

few people are willing to

acknowledge talent

without an equal amount

of savvy and so you wait

and you wait until perhaps

everything works out

it's true that great talent

is seldom encouraged

in any age and is in fact

silently oppressed

too many voices have been

kept silent throughout history

only to be heard by later ears

what makes this such

an attractive impulse?

why do contemporaries

reject their native genius?

in the New Fade perhaps

it's easier to appreciate

this common phenomenon

but it's no easier to fix

we know everything

or so we think

and so we question 

everything too

it's the process of working

it all out where suspension

finally gives rise to progress

and we all cross another bridge

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 14

the best part of being suspended in the New Fade
is that it is not a permanent condition

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 13

in the globalization movement of the New Fade
it's a wonder that most people are still
suspended in tiny worlds

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 12

suspension is a quagmire
and that's exactly what the New Fade is

it's a quagmire
with everyone trapped
in suspension
questioning everything
accepting anything
using dark magic to stay afloat

suspension can be a bridge
that you can travel beneath

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 11

a dream is a suspension of reality

there is always truth in dreams
but it's a matter of discovering
where the truth lies
and where the distortion
and what it all means

dreams are like philosophy
the only time all of humanity
is united in the same ambiguity

tell me yours and I'll tell you mine

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 10

who's to say what's good poetry
especially in the New Fade?

at best it's a suspended judgment
seeing that hardly anyone but poets
seems to care

poetry is something of an
affected irony these days
worn like a coat

and who is even to judge it
anyway?  what criteria exist
to determine?

it's all subjective
unless of course it really stinks

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 9

some will argue that the real problem of the New Fade
is a permanent sense of arrested development

perhaps other cultures in other times enjoyed entertainment
but not to the degree that we do now

it might be argued that modern man exists to amuse himself
or is trying desperately to make that official

the greatest misery is to be denied the ability to do this
forced in the meantime to experience everyday misery

the world isn't any different today than it was before
and yet more and more people are allowed to wallow in fiction

fiction is something that has always been at the surface of reality
though now it is both a distraction and a way of life

to reconcile one's interest in fiction and their ability to ignore misery
has become the driving force of suspension in the New Fade

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 8

Ellah and her secret echo Elah
approve of all they see in the New Fade

this is not surprising
as they are the gods of these times

they are trickster gods
the only kind possible
shifting from moment to moment
so that whatever people currently believe
they amply represent

what else should a god do
when faith is so hard to find
in intangible things?

the rebellion against old regimes
continues to be against old methods
not so much what they represent
and this includes our religions

perhaps there is no name except El
where the world is constantly exploding
and the survivors are picking at the scraps
and each other in a mad scramble for life
empowered by the Sun to give themselves
a belief in the facade of their existence

in the shadow of the valley
rode a hundred disciples
ready to sacrifice themselves
in some crude bastardization
of events that happened
a hundred times before
but only once when it mattered

it's funny that all of this is so convoluted
even though it takes place
in a serious place on a serious earth

sometimes the apocalypse is the same as paradise

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 7

what if i were to tell you that
all this suspending in the New Fade
is a direct result of America?

well, in a certain sense
that's exactly true

the New World was so named
because it flaunted old rules
and created new ones

it was always outside of
common perception

its natives could easily
have been the equals
to any of those who
came to claim their land

yet they chose to exist
in the beginnings of the New Fade
in which time has no meaning

progress is a state of mind
a matter of choice
rather than the basic order of reality

the New Fade in the New World
became something of a curse
imported into the abstract concept
of globalization

all things are new here
just as they've always been
a part of the animal kingdom
even before there were animals

that's the nature of time
impervious and disinclined
to believe that humans need
anything more than
what they always had

which is what has always existed
before and after there was
the ground beneath our feet

it is our dubious acceptance
of our own rules that keeps
the New Fade alive

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 6

sometimes suspensions
are a matter of choice

this does not
necessarily mean
that they're
any more a good thing

but that's what
they can sometimes be

suspensions
in other words
can be many things
for many different reasons

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 5

"suspension" can mean a lot of things

and sometimes those connotations

can be related or they can be 

considered entirely on their own

this one is familiar like your own scent

something you've experienced before

and lived with and maybe it's not

what you would have asked for yourself

but you have it and that's that

this one sidled up like a friend

like a lover slipping back into old habits

after a break and expects nothing

to have changed but of course things have

and now what you want is maybe that lover

but with a few differences

there was nothing wrong before

it's just that maybe what you need now

is different from what you needed then

and if the lover is still faithful they're realize

that and maybe already be that and that's

probably they were your lover in the first place

because they change as you change 

this one sees maybe an inkling that

what you learned in the past has been fruitful

and multiplied and changed the rules of the game

which still operates with the same strategies

but now you're better prepared to play

and you'll know what to do and you will get

better results and you will perhaps make it work 

this time

well, as we always say, we'll see

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 4

sometimes suspensions end with terminations
but that doesn't make them anymore meaningful
only weird quirks of curious thinking

if you want to call it that

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 3

suspension is a terrible thing

suspension is limbo
and no way to know
what will happen next
and so you feel vexed

suspension is a place to be
like climbing a tree
only if you know how to get down
assuming that you are not a clown

suspension is rarely up to you
but when it is pray to have a clue
because if you don't you'll wonder
if you're back there in one more blunder

suspension is something you've earned
and perhaps something you've already learned
but it's also something you don't need
not that you get to plead

suspension is something you want to fight
knowing that it's a terrible plight
but you won't and you can't
like someone's gift plant

suspension is a terrible thing

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 2

poems can rhyme
but they don't have to
and it's only the desperate
who think they must

that's what it's like
to be suspended in the New Fade
not knowing much
but assuming you do

Suspended in the New Fade, Part 1

we're all trapped here in the New Fade
thinking that we'll all get paid
with all our best plans laid
and that the color jade
is what we made
and that we will not fade
and that we must wade
or perhaps raid
and give each other aide
but really believing ourselves forbade

Sick Days of the New Fade

i honestly don't know how it worked before
but i'm glad that there are sick days in the New Fade

War in the New Fade

all war is motivated by greed

if you do not believe this statement
then perhaps you understand
what war means in the New Fade

it's more complicated now
than ever before

the last time nations went to war
in the traditional sense
it was the second war to end all wars

we've all been waiting for the third
and maybe it's naive to say
that the New Fade represents
war becoming a quagmire
worse than anything
we ever knew before
a struggle for minds
more than on battlefields

i guess we'll see

PoetiX in the New Fade

poets stopped trying to be vibrant
when they started believing their own hype

they gave the ground to the bards
and lost their voice

Education in the New Fade

what is enough to be learned,
facts or practical applications
of those facts?

what is more important,
the grade in a classroom
or the ability to retain
that which was supposed
to be learned?

education in the New Fade
values superficial knowledge
and exults in the status quo

"no child left behind"
is a terrible things for teachers
just looking to get through the day
and blaming their inadequacies
on budget issues that have
nothing to do with the quality
of the mind, which is
what it's all about

Scientific Method in the New Fade

scientific method became the new religion
at the dawn of the Atomic Age, the other name
for the New Fade

the trouble is that scientific method
became the Gregorian Chant of these unholy times

everyone says that this is the best of all possible worlds
in which to examine the past present future
and yet none of these are illuminated
when all of them are lost in an endless file,
the wheels on a car overturned on a slippery road,
spinning fruitlessly

The Myth of Interpretive Analysis in the New Fade

all progress halts when those who are supposed to accomplish it
martyr themselves at the altar of interpretive analysis

interpretive analysis seeks to stupefy everything
without achieving anything

so that the only thing that is achieved is talk
and it's always the end of the world

if there were actual thought put into the process,
this might change

Cleverness & Innovation in the New Fade

cleverness is punishable
in the New Fade,
just in the way it was
for Galileo & Tesla

innovation is rewarded
in the New Fade,
just as it was
for da Vinci & Edison

cleverness is the ability
to contradict

cleverness attempts
to persevere

innovation is the ability
to conform

innovation attempts
to endure

cleverness
brought us new things

innovation
brought us refinement

cleverness
is not mainstream

innovation
is the mainstream

cleverness & innovation
contradict each other
only because one is seen
to threaten the other

one is old age,
the other is youth

in the New Age,
everyone clings to youth
and shrugs off old age,
preaching to old age
but believing in youth

these are things that will need
to be rectified
if the age is to pass