Author: Sineokov

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Was ist das–die Philosophie?

The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term. Under “things in the broadest possible sense” I includes such radically different items as not only “cabbages and kings”, but numbers and duties, possibilities and finger snaps, aesthetic experience and death. To achieve success in philosophy would be . . . to “know one’s way around” with respect to all these things, not in that unreflective way in which the centipede of the story knew its way around before it faced the question, “how do I walk?” but in the reflective way which means that no intellectual holds are barred.

~ Wilfred Sellars Continue reading →

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Sugar Magnolia :: Grateful Dead

Sugar Magnolia blossom’s blooming
Head’s all empty and I don’t care
Saw my baby down by the river
Knew she’d have to come up soon for air Continue reading →

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Attics of My Life :: Grateful Dead

In the attics of my life
Full of cloudy dreams unreal
Full of tastes no tongue can know
And lights no eye can see
When there was no ear to hear
You sang to me Continue reading →

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Looks Like Rain :: Grateful Dead

I woke today…
And felt your side of bed
The covers were still warm where you’d been layin’.
You were gone…
My heart was filled with dread.
You might not be sleepin’ here again Continue reading →

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Granita :: Umberto Eco

The present manuscript was given to me by the warden of the local jail in a small town in Piedmont. The unreliable information this man furnished us about the Continue reading →

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Life Itself is a Quotation


All the genuine, deep delight of life is in showing people the mud-pies you have made; and life is at its best when we confidingly recommend our mud-pies to each other’s sympathetic consideration. ~ J. M. Thorburn

Continue reading →

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A Dialogue About a Dialogue :: J. L. Borges

A: Absorbed in our discussion of immortality, we had let night fall without lighting the lamp, and we couldn’t see each other’s faces. With an offhandedness or gentleness more convincing than passion would have been, Macedonio Fernandez’ voice said once more that the soul is immortal. He assured me that the death of the body is altogether insignificant, and that dying has to be the most unimportant thing that can happen to a man. I was playing with Macedonio’s pocketknife, opening and closing it. A nearby accordion was infinitely dispatching La Comparsita, that dismaying trifle that so many people like because it’s been misrepresented to them as being old. . . . I suggested to Macedonio that we kill ourselves, so we might have our discussion without all the racket.

Z: (mockingly) But I suspect that at the last moment you reconsidered.

A: (now deep in mysticism) Quite frankly, I don’t remember whether we committed suicide that night or not.

[From Collected Fictions, by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley]

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Gravity :: DeWitt Henry

I think of small deaths, a sneeze, an orgasm; how close such seizures are at once to vacancy and to the utter concentration of black holes, pure gravity. At once experience past will, past memory or thought; and an absence too, a non-experience. Comatose, the epileptic fit; no chance to dream. And yet like dreams, I hear Continue reading →

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Love Love Love :: The Mountain Goats

King Saul fell on his sword
when it all went wrong
and Joseph’s brothers sold him down the river
for a song
and Sonny Liston rubbed some Tigerbalm
in his glove
some things you do for money
and some you do for love love love

Raskolnikov felt sick
but he couldn’t say why
when he saw his face reflected
in his victim’s twinkling eye
some things you do for money
and some you’ll do for fun
but the things you do for love
are gonna come back to you one by one

love love is gonna lead you by the hand
into a white and soundless place
now we see this
as in a mirror dimley
then we shall see each other
face to face

and way out in Seattle
young Kurt Cobain
snuck out to the garden
put a bullet in his brain
snakes in the grass beneath our feet
rain in the clouds above
some moments last forever
and some flare out with love love love

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No Woman No Cry :: Bob Marley

Said – said – said: I remember when we used to sit In the government yard in

Trenchtown, Oba – obaserving the ‘ypocrites As they would mingle with the good people we meet. Good friends we have, oh, good friends we’ve lost

Along the way. In this great future, you can’t forget your past; So dry your tears, I seh.

No, woman, no cry; No, woman, no cry. ‘Ere, little darlin’, don’t shed no tears: No, woman, no cry.

Said – said – said: I remember when-a we used to sit In the government yard in Trenchtown. And then Georgie would make the fire lights,

As it was logwood burnin’ through the nights. Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,

Of which I’ll share with you; My feet is my only carriage, So I’ve got to push on through. But while I’m gone, I mean:

Everything’s gonna be all right! Everything’s gonna be all right! Everything’s gonna be all right! Everything’s gonna be all right! I said, everything’s gonna be all right-a! Everything’s gonna be all right! Everything’s gonna be all right, now! Everything’s gonna be all right! So, woman, no cry; No – no, woman – woman, no cry. Woman, little sister, don’t shed no tears; No, woman, no cry.

I remember when we used to sit In the government yard in Trenchtown. And then Georgie would make the fire lights,

As it was logwood burnin’ through the nights. Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,

Of which I’ll share with you; My feet is my only carriage, So I’ve got to push on through. But while I’m gone:

No, woman, no cry; No, woman, no cry. Woman, little darlin’, say don’t shed no tears; No, woman, no cry. Eh!

(Little darlin’, don’t shed no tears! No, woman, no cry. Little sister, don’t shed no tears! No, woman, no cry.)

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Upward Over the Mountain :: Iron & Wine

Mother don’t worry, I killed the last snake that lived in the creek bed
Mother don’t worry, I’ve got some money I saved for the weekend
Mother remember being so stern with that girl who was with me?
Mother remember the blink of an eye when I breathed through your body? Continue reading →

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Passing Afternoon :: Iron & Wine

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms Continue reading →

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The Sea and the Rhythm :: Iron & Wine

Tonight, we’re the sea and the salty breeze
the milk from your breast is on my lips
and lovelier words from your mouth to me
when salty my sweat and fingertips Continue reading →

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Sodom, South Georgia :: Iron & Wine

Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
And Sodom, South Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas
Bows and a blanket of weeds Continue reading →

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Someday the Waves :: Iron & Wine

Waking before you
I’ve got a fever and a childish wish for snow
Seems like a long, long time
Since I spun you to this borrowed radio Continue reading →