#c k williams

[mooneyedandglowing]

By C. K. Williams

[poem-today]

A poem by C. K. Williams

The Gas Station

This is before I'd read Nietzsche. Before Kant or Kierkegaard, even before Whitman and Yeats. I don't think there were three words in my head yet. I knew perhaps, that I should suffer, I can remember I almost cried for this or for that, nothing special, nothing to speak of. Probably I was mad with grief for the loss of my childhood, but I wouldn't have known that. It's dawn. A gas station. Route twenty-two. I remember exactly: route twenty-two curved, there was a squat, striped concrete divider they'd put in after a plague of collisions. The gas station? Texaco, Esso -- I don't know. They were just words anyway then, just what their signs said. I wouldn't have understood the first thing about monopoly or imperialist or oppression. It's dawn. It's so late. Even then, when I was never tired, I'm just holding on. Slumped on my friend's shoulder, I watch the relentless, wordless misery of the route twenty-two sky that seems to be filming my face with a grainy oil I keep trying to rub off or in. Why are we here? Because one of my friends, in the men's room over there, has blue balls. He has to jerk off. I don't know what that means, "blue balls," or why he has to do that— It must be important to have to stop here after this long night, but I don't ask. I'm just trying, I think, to keep my head as empty as I can for as long as I can. One of my other friends is asleep. He's so ugly, his mouth hanging, slack and wet. Another -- I'll never see this one again -- stares from the window as though he were frightened. Here's what we've done. We were in Times Square, a pimp found us, corralled us, led us somewhere, down a dark street, another dark street, up dark stairs, dark hall, dark apartment, where his whore, his girl, or his wife or his mother for all I know dragged herself from her sleep, propped herself on an elbow, gazed into the dark hall, and agreed, for two dollars each, to take care of us. Take care of us. Some of the words that come through me now seem to stay, to hook in. My friend in the bathroom is taking so long. The filthy sky must be starting to lighten. It took me a long time, too, with the woman, I mean. Did I mention that she, the woman, the whore or the mother, was having her time and all she would deign to do was to blow us? Did I say that? Deign? Blow? What a joy, though, the idea was in those days. Blown! What a thing to tell the next day. She only deigned, though, no more. She was like a machine. When I lift her back to me now, there's nothing there but that dark, curly head, working, a machine, up and down, and now, Freud, Marx, Fathers, tell me, what am I, doing this, telling this, on her, on myself, hammering it down, cementing it, sealing it in, but a machine, too? Why am I doing this? I still haven't read Augustine. I don't understand Chomsky that well. Should I? My friend at last comes back. Maybe the right words were there all along. Complicity. Wonder. How pure we were then, before Rimbaud, before Blake. Grace. Love. Take care of us. Please.

C. K. Williams (1936-2015)

[liorlen]

Pyr y’n gwna ni byrhoedled? / Digawn llawryded, / kywestwch a bed.

[derangedrhythms]

Tell me again about silence.

C. K. Williams, Lies; from 'Patience Is When You Stop Waiting'

[theinsomniacindian]

C&P and Macbeth pretty much have the same plot

[pranklinfierce]

Nothings quite as funny to me as shit that's just wrong and confusing

[laughy-sapphy-blog]

Cause of Death: the official script being released for episode three of The Last of Us

[davidhudson]

W. C. Fields, January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946.

[psybrepunk]

Thinking about creating a Discord server for talking about science fiction literature and its influence in other media. I just wanna talk about science fiction books so bad.

So anyways, if you have the desire to talk to other people about scifi lit too and want to join a Discord, say something to me, and if I get enough people I'll make the server.

Authors I like that will undoubtedly be topics of conversation:

Alastair Reynolds

Isaac Asimov

Greg Bear

Frank Herbert

Philip K. Dick

Arthur C. Clarke

William Gibson

Bruce Sterling

Greg Egan

Carl Sagan

C. J. Cherryh

George R. R. Martin (yes he writes scifi too)

C. S. Lewis (ditto)

[antebellumite]

so this might be exaggerating things a bit….

[lil-als]

A historical hunger games simulator (and me)

Jimmy Carter kills everyone.

Already he’s killed three people.

Czolgosz and I are hunting together, Robespierre almost killed Bernie, Breckenridge being creepy

Dammit, Madison. Dammit Czolgosz. Also Coolidge auto corrected to Koolaid when I was making this…

Oh goodbye Hayne… also who is giving Breck a hatchet? OK Mary.

Carter kills another one. Weird as fuck alliances. Oh Clay.

Carter killed another one! And so does Jackson!

lots of people die. Including me.

What an anticlimactic death.

Honestly, she’s the best person to win this. I’m not mad.

Jim my Carter had six kills. SIX.

[outstanding-quotes]

C.K. Williams

[derangedrhythms]

There is a burnt place / In the silence.

C. K. Williams, Lies; from 'Don't'

[dodomingo]

William Reid has become one of my favorite artists

Playlists of his Lyric songs under read more

[preacherman316]

"I Thank My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ"

Recently the Houston Texans defeated the favored Cleveland Browns in the NFL playoffs. Following the game, Texas rookie quarterback C. J. Stroud was interviewed and began with these words: “First and foremost, I just want to give all glory and praise to my Lord, Jesus Christ.” Stroud is well known for references regarding his faith during interviews. Last year before the NFL draft, Stroud…

[fandom]

Books

Huge congrats to The Iliad. It's only taken 3,000 years. This list is brought to you by Tor Publishing Group, which you're probably familiar with, given what tops the list this year.

The Locked Tomb series +3 by Tamsyn Muir

The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series -1 by Rick Riordan

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Six of Crows duology +3 by Leigh Bardugo

Dracula -3 by Bram Stoker

The Warrior Cats series -1 by Erin Hunter

A Song of Ice and Fire -1 by George R. R. Martin

The All for the Game series by Nora Sakavic

The Discworld series +7 by Terry Pratchett

A Court of Thorns and Roses series +3 by Sarah J. Maas

The Silmarillion -1 by J. R. R. Tolkien

Pride And Prejudice -3 by Jane Austen

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Raven Cycle series +3 by Maggie Stiefvater

The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Wings Of Fire +9 by Tui T. Sutherland

The Secret History -7 by Donna Tartt

The Trials of Apollo series -4 by Rick Riordan

The Iliad +10 by Homer

The Odyssey +24 by Homer

The Folk in the Air series -8 by Holly Black

The Animorphs series +5 by K. A. Applegate

The Stormlight Archive +8 by Brandon Sanderson

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Moby Dick +24 by Herman Melville

1984 +6 by George Orwell

Fables by Bill Willingham

The Diaries of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka

The Song of Achilles -10 by Madeline Miller

The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare

The Simon Snow series -10 by Rainbow Rowell

The Throne of Glass series +13 by Sarah J. Maas

Nimona by ND Stevenson

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard +6 by Rick Riordan

The Bell Jar -15 by Sylvia Plath

The Dreamer trilogy +6 by Maggie Stiefvater

The Shadowhunter Chronicles -15 by Cassandra Clare

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Captive Prince -1 by C. S. Pacat

The Twilight Saga -7 by Stephanie Meyer

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

The Deltora Quest series by Jennifer Rowe

Romeo and Juliet -8 by William Shakespeare

The Far Side by Gary Larson

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde +2 by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

The Picture of Dorian Gray -31 by Oscar Wilde

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

The number in italics indicates how many spots a title moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded titles weren’t on the list last year.