… More
Tag Archives: James Joyce
The Aurochs and the Beaver
The beaver was so full of charm.
The aurochs felt such great alarm.
Stop being so happy.
I like feeling crappy!
Stand down or I’ll do you great harm.
The beaver laughed well never… More
X is not Y and Neither is Z
A is for always and be is become.
C cogitates then D says it’s done.
Everyone falls grave here in jeopardy.
Kenning loves mingling, now one plurality.
Quick… More
How to Die
First, you must find a reason not to live. There exists uncountable reasons but you must choose at least one and try to make it as ineffable as possible so the people you leave behind may… More
Octave
The rune carvers, the people who knew the Rune Poem by heart, probably sang it. There’s a lot of evidence for that, not to mention putting a story to music makes the retelling easier… More
Rune Casting: Ear
Tell me your future. Tell me, what do you hope will happen before you’re dead? And what is it you are afraid of? Never mind. Doesn’t matter what. The future is not in the what,… More
ᛠ
EA. Diphthong: a compound vowel. This one is deceased, we don’t use it any more. What did EA sound like? Maybe like EO, maybe like AU, emphasis on the E or the A because all Old English… More
… Bibliography
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: Complete Text Reproduced Micrographically. Clarendon Press, 1971.
Alexander, Michael. Beowulf. Penguin Books, 1995. Penguin… More
Vern Tonkin
Spanish was my first language but I was a toddler when my family moved to the States, where my world became English only, that I grew up as an English speaker and thinker and struggled … More
How to See the Pair in the Middle.
The rune carvers thought in pairs. They had a whole pronoun classification for the two that are also one, so it is no surprise to find pairs in the Rune Poem, matched thematically: the… More
P is for Poetry
Old English poetry was performed, probably sung, and not just for entertainment. The Germanic tribes Tacitus visited at the end of the first century would prep for battle by barding,… More
♂︎
Mars and Tiw share a day. They might also share a symbol: ♂︎ ᛏ. The earliest symbols for Mars the planet were of a pointed spear, or a spear with a shield drawn as a circle with a line running… More
… The Future
You can’t have a society without a collective understanding of time. You can’t. Show me one. Time is the basis of everything, our idea of what it is now, what it is when we… More
… 
L is for Letters for Titles
What do you do?
I’m a writer.
What are you writing?
A blank period of time. Wilderness. I don’t even know. Say something. It’s too long to say. Damnit say something… More
X≠Y≠Z: (X+Y)-Z=(Y-X)÷Z
Y: Here come the water works.
X: I’ve been carrying you!
Y: No, I’ve been carrying you. Nobody carries me.
X: You’re delusional. You’d be nothing without… More
ᛚ
Alveolar dental sonorant: using your gum ridge and teeth, leave your tongue free laterally, partially impeding your vocal resonance: now sing. Lalalalalalalahhhhh! Largo! Lalalaaaaaaaaah!… More
ᚻ
Voiceless spirant. Make a narrow aperture of your mouth and throat and leaving your vocal cords aside, force air through. Create friction, steam up the mirror.
At the beginning of … More
Translating Lagu
Waterways were busy places during the time of the Rune Poem, making for convenient connections between coastal settlements and with ports of trade farther afield. However, it gets… More
How to Skip Town
It’s time to go. It’s past time. If you need to get out of here yesterday you’d better do it with an eye on the future, that knife blade of a now you’re balancing… More
ᛟ
O ᛟ, you shapeshifter. Once you signified all O sounds, until you slipped sideways and joined up with E. Twins you were, they spelled you two ways Œþel and Eþel, depending on what you… More
Light
The Day and Torch stanzas are as similar as night and day and everybody knows it. The living (cwicera) know (cuþ) it in the torch stanza, you’d have to be dead not to, and it’s… More
Crann Bethadh
Crann Bethadh means tree of life in Old Irish. It’s an oak tree. The Celts used to plant them in the center of villages where they could be the axis mundi, the pillar holding everything… More
How to Bathe a Gannet
So your gannet colony stinks of ammonia, guano, and a bit like fish, well what did you expect, they are gannets. All crowded together. Eliminating. If your gannets are befouling the… More
