soaking you in. a senryu

your love a soft rain 
my heart a bad roofing job 
ceiling tile drip, drip

some other time, a senryu

time has come and gone
but the work, it stays the same
with no space to rest.

love, part iii. a senryu

you drive me crazy
like a record skipping on
and on endlessly

new server, new design, new features

Welcome to the new loneknight.org.

Over the weekend I signed up for SquareSpace, and liked the services they offer very much. I have moved the blog, poetry, and other content over to the new location. I hope you enjoy the new site!

rest stop, a senryu

oh Christ have mercy 
Lord pour out Your forgiveness 
on this fallen earth

the big easy, a senryu

sun warm and moon bold
jazz hands along the canal
Spring in New Orleans

Radiohead "The King of Limbs", a review

In this album Radiohead unveils the evolutionary love child of the electronica sound they birthed in 2000 with "Kid A", matured in 2001's "Amnesiac", and then crossed with a Jazz influence into the psychedelic near-dance beats that is "The King of Limbs". To paraphrase Thom Yorke, Radiohead seems to be taunting their wannabe imitators, "Good luck with this."

Tight guitar and fast bass line in 'Bloom' sets the starting pace in track one that is syncopated but accessably toe-tapping, a familiar greeting of the ambient sampling and patented airy crooning of Thom Yorke. In 'Morning Mr Magpie', Thom turns lyrically to the dark side with the haunting accusation, "you've got some nerve / comin' here." 

'Little by Little' kicks it up a notch adding in a heavier, distorted grunge guitar to the punchy rhythm that grows to a fever pitch in 'Feral', a heady attack of drums with sharp injections of vocal sampling. 

'Lotus Flower' brings the rapid drum beats, instrumental cacophony and Thom’s vocal strength back into a balance again. And just before the dance-track theme expires, 'Codex' allows the listener to rest their ears to an airy lullaby of lilting piano and soothing brass. 

Here enters what I consider the strongest stand-alone track on the album, 'Give Up The Ghost' blows your expectations to bits in a subdued acoustic ballad that warrants haunting by the ghost of Woody Guthrie. Yet it works very well as a counter-weave to the punch of 'Feral', preserving the delicate mood built within the album.

"The King of Limbs" is summed up in the final track, 'Separator', where the band brings us back to the syncopated rhythms; the environmental sampling; the sometimes-unintelligible crooning of Thom. It's sweet, it's dark, it's nuanced and intimate. Like the entirety of the album that it punctuates, 'Separator' not only sums up the total of its parts to the listener, but allows us back down into the valley -- only to demand we immediately hit replay to ascend the summits of "The King of Limbs" again and again.

I give "The King of Limbs" a 4 out of 4 star rating. This album is a testament to the collective genius of a band that continues to challenge us to experience music as an art.

Cake and Tea

"Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!" -- Dorothy, the Wizard of Oz

Thoughts are easier said when you have the ability to receive the immediate response and reaction of the person you are talking to; it can guide the deepest conversation in the most unforeseen directions. But sometimes it is nice to be able to finish an idea that was headed in a particular direction to completion, and allow it to be consumed at the leisure of it's reader (and not have to worry about chickening out before the end).

So maybe I should start with what I do know. 

I like you quite a bit. That makes me feel blushy and silly for saying, "what sort of a guy actually says that anymore?" But, sue me, I think you are swell. 

Like cake and tea. Like a warm autumn day when you step outside and realize the leaves have just turned but haven't fallen from the trees yet, and the smell of it jumps up at you suddenly in the same wind carrying giant cumulus clouds overhead. And you feel happy just for being there, having that experience, like discovering a secret that no one else knows but you. 

There is only so much you can say in words, only so much you can imply without hoping to see a reaction in someone else's face, to feel how they take it or react to it, accept it or just acknowledge it. I don't want to overextend what I can say just-in-words, to the point that I no longer see the you-in-person and not feel unsure about it. I do look forward to seeing you, laughing with you, and making you smile. To be able to gauge you for who you are, and where you are at, and not just the you I want you to be, however far away and in whatever situation we are in at any given moment, on any given day. 

My words and their meaning are like a fox chasing after a bird, or possibly worse, a bird diving after the fox. 

But if words are thoughts in motion, then mine are chasing after you.