I know

that Camus knew
rather little, if anything,
about being an Outsider. 

A fabulous Spanish harpist

at the Basilica of San Prudencio de Armentia, Victoria, Álava.

photo by Fabio Casalini

No antic hay.

Most of us sometimes have the need to get away,

– hence the practice of vacation or extended holiday.

But many are trapped, and the only place to go

is the other side of life: back before 

we were conceived: as everlasting stay-away.

I'll spare you the visuals.

The other day I saw a photo of a man who had returned

to France from Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.

I thought: 'that skeletal figure looks just like me'.

Then I realised that he wasn't 84, but 33.

Can you taste the difference between a €5 and €8 wine?

Jonathan Hesford, who has a Postgraduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University, New Zealand, writes:

"while there is a huge diversity of wines,
not many consumers have a very diverse appreciation of them."

A Romanesque sea-creature.

One of over a hundred painted panels
on the ceiling of the church at Zillis
(Grisons) Switzerland. At this time
the earth was thought to be flat
and surrounded by mysterious oceans
in which monsters roamed.

photo by Fabio Casalini

Fake Heliolatry

or solar claptrap.

 If it takes such a Hollywood super-spectacular
event to induce 'spirituality' in millions,
briefly,

it's pretty obvious that
there isn't much of it about.

My friend Diogenes reminds me
that billions of lesser beings
without 'souls'
including slime-moulds

were trampled underfoot.

Someone wants to be seen while looking.

A sad greyhound is bored.

photo from St Petersburg by Dmitri Lovetski

Yet another problem

for us humans is that, 

unless we are very strong 

interiorily, we can thrive

only on the approval 

of others in our

restrictive global hive.

Evening on the fourth day of the week لأربعاء , Safar 29, 1448.

Dinner-time :

thirty-one degrees,

a chunk of bread, a glass of wine

and a partial eclipse of the sun

in twilight, invisible

behind the trees.

Bipolar.

This old man
is not much fun,
yet not forlornly silly.
His moods have really
nothing to do with
the total eclipse of his willy.

To be expected.

 

IT'S YOUR ROUND.

Being very inward and retiring,
I quickly  found that BritIrish 
pub culture alienated me.
I wanted only half a pint
to sip slowly.

When, at a relatively advanced age,
I had worked out my sexuality,
I discovered with ensuing elan
that in certain pubs and bars
a mere half-pint (or in France a demi
or a coffee) might secure me
at least a half-hour's exciting scan
and sometimes a quick exit with
a sweet, bearded and exciting man.

In vino aliquanto

یک جام شراب صد دل و دین ارزد

In a little wine
in solitude
is much pleasure, some comfort
and a little insight.

Do not exceed the optimal dose.

در شراب اندک

A drop of wine evaporates –
and with it : you.

یک جام شراب صد دل و دین ارزد

R.I.P. Aspidistra

eliator variegata.
Forty faithful years.

I'm sorry that I never photographed you properly.

In my Irish home from 1980
to 2006.

In my first French house from 2006
to 2015.

In my present home from 2016.

What you need to know about Texas State Law

– and Mars.

For any disputes about services
“provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the moon”,
 Texas state law applies.

But “for services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars … no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. 

"Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.”

No surprise (again).

Even I can do that.
Gauging human intentions
is much more difficult,

let alone assess their toxicity.

I don't expect you to love me,

but I could easily become attached to you.

NON CONTRA NATURAM

Certainly not against Nature, and much easier
than heterosexuality to practise 'on the spot'
especially in warm climes –

with consensuality much easier to establish,
and associated fun and sport
more diverse and egalitarian,
not to mention
para-polymorphous-perverse –

same-sex erotic activity has surely been
at least as common as, and much more loose
than the procreative sort.

But there's the [other kind of] rub:
'confirmed heterosexuals'
are obsessed by progeny, paternity,
blood-lines, dynasticism 'racial purity' and genealogy
back to Adam, Abraham, Poseidon or Zeus.

Painterly, even so.

 

Rescuers work at the site of a Russian missile strike
in Kyiv on the sixth of August, 2026.

A refugee

on Refugee Camps :

"What's the use of safety
without a life ?"

This is also a good question
for millions who are outside camps.