while there was the streamlined craze 
now its the cartoon look
modeled on plastic
aiming for a novel reality  
hearing liverpool
warriors before the singing
wailing alone mythic
then some kind of styx speed glam
that life

were all going to take some  pleasure

in small things until the next  balloons

rise in a decade   
pleasure as body  
pleasure in oneself

load the monkey slide show
crash now and save for the future
bass play with the attention
up and close at will

this solo dance
before a thousand
distant
by infinite angle
devouring image

Physics is more like quantum organism than quantum mechanics. I think physicists have a tremendous reluctance to admit this. There is a long history of belief in quantum mechanics, and people have faith in it. And they don't like having this faith challenged.

In relativity, movement is continuous, causally determinate and well defined, while in quantum mechanics it is discontinuous, not causally determinate and not well-defined. Each theory is committed to its own notions of essentially static and fragmentary modes of existence (relativity to that of separate events connectible by signals, and quantum mechanics to a well-defined quantum state). One thus sees that a new kind of theory is needed which drops these basic commitments and at most recovers some essential features of the older theories as abstract forms derived from a deeper reality in which what prevails is unbroken wholeness.

Classical physics says that reality is actually little particles that separate the world into its independent elements. Now I'm proposing the reverse, that the fundamental reality is the enfoldment and unfoldment, and these particles are abstractions from that. We could picture the electron not as a particle that exists continuously but as something coming in and going out and then coming in again. If these various condensations are close together, they approximate a track. The electron itself can never be separated from the whole of space, which is its ground.

Imagine an infinite sea of energy filling empty space, with waves moving around in there, occasionally coming together and producing an intense pulse. Let's say one particular pulse comes together and expands, creating our universe of space-time and matter. But there could well be other such pulses. To us, that pulse looks like a big bang; In a greater context, it's a little ripple. Everything emerges by unfoldment from the holomovement, then enfolds back into the implicate order. I call the enfolding process "implicating," and the unfolding "explicating." The implicate and explicate together are a flowing, undivided wholeness. Every part of the universe is related to every other part but in different degrees.

In the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the "explicate" or "unfolded" order, which is a special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate orders.

Much of our experience suggests that the implicate order is natural for understanding consciousness: When you are talking to somebody, your whole intention to speak enfolds a large number of words. You don't choose them one by one. There are any number of examples of the implicate order in our experience of consciousness. Any one word has behind it a whole range of meaning enfolded in thought.

As in our discussion of matter in general, it is now necessary to go into the question of how in consciousness the explicate order is what is manifest ... the manifest content of consciousness is based essentially on memory, which is what allows such content to be held in a fairly constant form. Of course, to make possible such constancy it is also necessary that this content be organized, not only through relatively fixed association but also with the aid of the rules of logic, and of our basic categories of space, time causality, universality, etc. ... there will be a strong background of recurrent stable, and separable features, against which the transitory and changing aspects of the unbroken flow of experience will be seen as fleeting impressions that tend to be arranged and ordered mainly in terms of the vast totality of the relatively static and fragmented content of [memories].

One may indeed say that our memory is a special case of the process described above, for all that is recorded is held enfolded within the brain cells and these are part of matter in general. The recurrence and stability of our own memory as a relatively independent sub-totality is thus brought about as part of the very same process that sustains the recurrence and stability in the manifest order of matter in general. It follows, then, that the explicate and manifest order of consciousness is not ultimately distinct from that of matter in general.

Meaning is the bridge between consciousness and matter. Any given array of matter has for any particular mind a significance. The other side of this is the relationship in which meaning is immediately effective in matter. Suppose you see a shadow on a dark night. If it means "assailant," your adrenaline flows, your heart beats faster, blood pressure rises, and muscles tense. The body and all your thoughts are affected; everything about you has changed. If you see that it's only a shadow, there's an abrupt change again.

That is an example of the implicate order: Meaning enfolds the whole world into me, and vice versa-that enfolded meaning is unfolded as action, through my body and then through the world. The word hormone means "messenger," that is, a substance carrying some meaning. Neurotransmitters carry meaning, and that meaning profoundly affects the immune system. This understanding could be the beginning of a different attitude to mind-and to life.

Consciousness is unfolded in each individual. Clearly, it's shared between people as they look at one object and verify that it's the same. So any high level of consciousness is a social process. There may be some level of sensorimotor perception that is purely individual, but any abstract level depends on language, which is social. The word, which is outside, evokes the meaning, which is inside each person.

What I mean by "thought" is the whole thing - thought, felt, the body, the whole society sharing thoughts - it's all one process. It is essential for me not to break that up, because it's all one process; somebody else's thoughts becomes my thoughts, and vice versa. Therefore it would be wrong and misleading to break it up into my thoughts, your thoughts, my feelings, these feelings, those feelings... I would say that thought makes what is often called in modern language a system. A system means a set of connected things or parts. But the way people commonly use the word nowadays it means something all of whose parts are mutually interdependent - not only for their mutual action, but for their meaning and for their existence. A corporation is organized as a system - it has this department, that department, that department. They don't have any meaning separately; they only can function together. And also the body is a system. Society is a system in some sense. And so on. Similarly, thought is a system. That system not only includes thoughts, "felts" and feelings, but it includes the state of the body; it includes the whole of society - as thought is passing back and forth between people in a process by which thought evolved from ancient times. A system is constantly engaged in a process of development, change, evolution and structure changes...although there are certain features of the system which become relatively fixed. We call this the structure.... Thought has been constantly evolving and we can't say when that structure began. But with the growth of civilization it has developed a great deal. It was probably very simple thought before civilization, and now it has become very complex and ramified and has much more incoherence than before. Now, I say that this system has a fault in it - a "systematic fault". It is not a fault here, there or here, but it is a fault that is all throughout the system. Can you picture that? It is everywhere and nowhere. You may say "I see a problem here, so I will bring my thoughts to bear on this problem". But "my" thought is part of the system. It has the same fault as the fault I'm trying to look at, or a similar fault. Thought is constantly creating problems that way and then trying to solve them. But as it tries to solve them it makes it worse because it doesn’t notice that it's creating them, and the more it thinks, the more problems it creates.

A few years ago The New York Times noted that some physicists were critical of grand unification theory, saying that not much had been achieved. Defenders of grand unification theories said it would take about twenty years to see results.

It seems that people are ready to wait twenty years for results if you've got formulas. If there are no formulas, they don't want to consider it. Formulas are means of talking utter nonsense until you understand what they mean. Every page of formulas usually contains six or seven arbitrary assumptions that take weeks of hard study to penetrate.

Younger physicists usually appreciate the implicate order because it makes quantum mechanics easier to grasp. By the time they're through graduate school, they've become dubious about it because they've heard that hidden variables are of no use because they've been refuted. Of course, nobody has really refuted them.

Straight lines are a way of mapping space and time. Since space-time may be curved, the lines may be curved as well. It became clear that each general notion of the world contains within it a specific idea of order. The ancient Greeks had the idea of an increasing perfection from the earth to the heavens. Modern physics contains the idea of successive positions of bodies of matter and the constraints of forces that act on these bodies. The order of perfection investigated by the ancient Greeks is now considered irrelevant.

The most radical change in the notion of order since Isaac Newton came with quantum mechanics. The quantum-mechanical idea of order contradicts coordinate order because Heisenberg's uncertainty principle made a detailed ordering of space and time impossible. When you apply quantum theory to general relativity, at very short distances like ten to the minus thirty-three centimeters, the notion of the order of space and time breaks down.  You have to ask what we mean by order. Everybody has some tacit notion of it, but order itself is impossible to define.

In classical mechanics, movement or velocity is defined as the relation between the position now and the position a short time ago. What was a short time ago is gone, so you relate what is to what is not. This isn't a logical concept. In the implicate order you are relating different frames that are copresent in consciousness.

Anything I know about "me" is in the past. The present "me" is the unknown. We say there is only one implicate order, only one present. But it projects itself as a whole series of moments. Ultimately, all moments are really one. Therefore now is eternity.

Death must be connected with questions of time and identity. When you die, everything on which your identity depends is going. All things in your memory will go. Your whole definition of what you are will go. The whole sense of being separate from anything will go because that's part of your identity. Your whole sense of time must go. Is there anything that will exist beyond death? That is the question everybody has always asked. It doesn't make sense to say something goes on in time. Rather I would say everything sinks into the implicate order, where there is no time. But suppose we say that right now, when I'm alive, the same thing is happening. The implicate order is unfolding to be me again and again each moment. And the past me is gone..

In one sense, everything, including me, is dying every moment into eternity and being born again, so all that will happen at death is that from a certain moment certain features will not be born again. But our whole thought process causes us to confront this with great fear in an attempt to preserve identity. One of my interests at this stage of life is looking at that fear.

                                         david bohm (1917-1992)

harlye tail rigid silky edge
chortles furiously

not going to even look at you

standing above

with a tooth stuck out

but you love it

72 don't mess with him
crazy three pounds

surviving  the viking

surviving  miami

showing   the butt

all these people

lining up to give

story for attention

easily compartmentalized

but never missed

with a cost unknown

reading by magic

journey talk

interior comfort

moving back and forth

working

 

take take take

good as seals violet

smoothcool riff

beatles vox

liam in bubbles

moon on drums

eno playing frankie

p's dance trumpet flare

singing pages of perspective

from a Spanish crag

soft tremulous organ

high in the clouds

strugglin in the square

live 1960 so what

slave giant holding thousands

every night in a glass case

 body looking up

leaves in front
pink glens

bitches brew smmmooth

your animal cells

swimming with  plants

gnosis

streamlined craze

in a plastic

cartoon

deep  time

booming there

is no time

but the best

the only time is now

not five years ago

not imaginary

eglyphics

streaming

art as language

picture poems

with interior play

old Grand people

sculpted sand

dry bone clean

cartoon millennia

virtuality

watching you walk by

seeing all of us die

without aside

beauty Catfaced  and 

cracked in open land

waiting alone

for despair blues

to soothe

shamed by exposure

of  details

jelly larva

buttered and baked

trapped beneath bone

not a peep

peering  at

a collapsing life jacket

forecasting my chances

in a land of metal

thinking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the sparse truth

the idea is that one can use randomness as a sensing mechanism; that is, as a way of extracting information about an object of interest from a small number of randomly selected observations.  for example, we have seen that if an object has a sparse gradient then we can "image" this object by measuring a few Fourier samples at random locations rather than by acquiring a large number of pixels.

this point of view is very broad. suppose we wish to reconstruct a signal f assumed to be

sparse in a fixed basis, e.g. a wavelet basis.  then by applying random sensing (taking a

small number of random measurements)  the number of measurement we need depends far

more upon the structural content of the signal (the number of significant terms in the wavelet expansion) than the resolution N.

                candes romberg & tao

                                                 

it started out awkward

to look at her that close

couldn't believe he was inside her

but then she moved in pleasure

and took over

he was the sort of man who wouldn't hurt a fly  he was not my patron he preferred full granaries my roar meant slaughter yet here we are together in the same museum  i see the temple where i was born or built where I held power i see the desert beyond where the hot conical tombs hide my jokes the dried-out flesh and bones the wooden boats in which the dead sail endlessly in no direction what did you expect from gods
with animal heads

we're given blood and bread, flowers and prayer and lip service if it's selfless love you're looking for you've got the wrong goddess i just sit where I'm put  composed of stone and wishful thinking that the deity who kills for pleasure will also heal that in the midst of your nightmare the final one a kind lion will come with bandages in her mouth and the soft body of a woman and lick you clean of fever and pick your soul up gently by the nape of the neck and caress you into darkness and paradise

                                            margaret

two girls in a corner of the party's kitchen

huddle over the stolen iphone
deciphering the pass

-just start calling out words in it

--jet

set?

--no pilot

next one

--gouache?!

children that talk of madness

as vacations

lucid intermissions

a repeatable pattern:  code

base of all present thought

Church News

Stephen the first saint was tried for blasphemy against Moses and God.  He was stoned to death in 34 by a mob encouraged by  St. Paul.

Stephen's final speech was presented as accusing the Jews of persecuting prophets who spoke out against their sins:

Which one of the Prophets did your fathers not persecute, and they killed the ones who prophesied the coming of the Just One  of whom now, too, you have become betrayers and murderers.

The Roman Empire began its rule of Vienna in 15 B.C. and  soon established a well watched border on the shores of the Danube, building a chain of forts. The stone benches facing the west side of the cathedral were the roman wall of the fort Vindobona.  At Vindebona a legion of 6000 men was based. The area of the dome was a Roman burial ground and it is possible that a Roman temple existed there as well. One stone from the past at the right side of the portal is a gravestone from the 3^rd century of a soldier of the tenth legion based in Vienna.  Excavations in 2000 revealed graves 2.5 meters below the surface  which were carbon-dated to the 4^th century.

Founded in 1137 the partially-constructed Romanesque church was solemnly dedicated in 1147 to St. Stephen in front of nobles who were about to embark on the Second Crusade. At the beginning of the city St. Stephen was situated outside the settlement and the area was used as a cemetery. Although the first structure was completed in 1160 a great fire destroyed much of the original building and a larger replacement structure reusing the two towers, was constructed over the ruins of the old church and consecrated on 23 April 1263.

The church was dedicated to St. Stephen and  was oriented toward the sunrise on his feast day of 26 December, as the position stood in the year that construction began. Built of limestone, its construction lasted 65 years, from 1368 to 1433. The first organ is mentioned in 1334. At its pulpit St. John Capistrano preached a crusade in 1454 to hold back Muslim invasions of Europe.

Vienna was besieged twice in history by Turkish troops, in 1529 and 1683. 

During these battles the tower served as the main observation and command post for the defence of the walled city and it even contains an apartment for the watchmen who until 1955, manned the tower at night and rang the bells if a fire was spotted in the city.  At the top of the tower there was a crescent and a star until 1687.

An 18^th century Baroque statue shows St. Francis under an extravagant sunburst trampling a Turk.   

After two miraculous incidents in 1696 with a madonna and child picture and the mother in the picture shedding real tears, Emperor Leopold I ordered it brought to the Cathedral, where it would be safe from the Muslim armies that still controlled much of Hungary.   The pictures owneres of Pócs wanted their holy miracle-working painting returned but the emperor sent them a copy instead. Since then, the copy has been reported to weep real tears and work miracles.

At the tip of the tower stands the double-eagle imperial emblem with the Habsburg-Lorraine coat of arms on its chest surmounted by a double-armed apostolic cross which refers to  the imperial style of kings of Hungary.  The richly coloured roof is covered by 230,000 glazed tiles. On the south side of the building the tiles form a mosaic of the double-headed eagle from the empire ruled from Vienna by the Habsburg family.

The main entrance to the church is named the Giant's Door referring to the thighbone of a mastodon that hung over it for decades after being unearthed in 1443 while digging at the foundations.

The largest bell hangs in the north tower at 44,380 pounds. It is the largest in Austria and the second largest swinging bell in Europe.  It was cast in 1711 from cannons captured from the Muslim invaders.   Ludwig van Beethoven discovered the totality of his deafness when he saw birds flying out of the bell tower as a result of the bells' tolling but could not hear the bells.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had been appointed an adjunct music director there shortly before his death  and this was his parish church during the writing of Figaro.   Wolfgang was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave under burial laws decreed in 1784 that all — rich or poor — were required to be buried unembalmed and without coffins in communal graves. These laws were still in effect when Mozart died in 1791 and he was married there, two of his children were baptised there, and his funeral was held in the Chapel of the Cross.

In 1735, Vienna experienced an outbreak of the bubonic plague. In an effort to keep the Black Death at bay, the numerous cemeteries surrounding the Stephensdom and the charnel house (a building for storing stacked bones) were emptied, and thousands of bones and rotting corpses were thrown down into the pits dug in the floor of the crypt. The downside to this arrangement was that the smell of the catacombs would occasionally waft up into the church and make religious services seem longer than usual.

To combat the unfortunate smell, as well as make room for more bodies, a few unlucky prisoners were lowered into the pits where they were forced to scrub the rotting flesh off the plague-ridden and disordered bodies, snapping and breaking the skeletons down to individual bones, and stacking them into neatly ordered rows, skulls on top.

The Ducal Crypt located under the chancel holds 78 bronze containers with the bodies, hearts, or viscera of 72 members of the Habsburg family.   Over 60 jars of imperial intestines rest in the ducal crypt including one containing Hapsburg Queen Maria Teresa'­s sovereign stomach. Perhaps these vehicles of disgestion were kept to preserve forever any evidence of poisoning.  Recently one of the seals on the jar broke, leaking 200 year-old visceral fluid onto the floor. The stink was so awful that it took a day or two before someone was willing to address the situation.

The construction of the Kaiser's tomb spanned over 45 years, starting 25 years before the emperor's death.  The body of the tomb has 240 statues and is a glory of medieval sculptural art.

During World War II, St. Stephen's Cathedral was saved from destruction by retreating German forces when Captain Gerhard Klinkicht disregarded orders from the city commandant to "fire a hundred shells and leave it in just debris and ashes."

Harman Blennerhassett was born October 8, 1764 to Conway Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irish land owner, and his wife Elizabeth Lacy. At the time of his birth, the family was not residing at "Castle Conway," as the Blennerhassett estate was known, but rather at the English village, Hambledon, in County Hampshire. The Blennerhassetts were away from Ireland to avoid the violent raids on prominent Irish landlords by a group of peasant outlaws known as the Whiteboys.

Harmon was a direct descendant of King Edward III and recieved a very thorough education at the Westminster School in England, where he manifested a taste for classical studies and the sciences. He entered Trinity College in Dublin and graduated with distinguished honors. Blennerhassett then read law at the King's Inn Courts and was admitted to the bar in 1790.

Like most young aristocrats of the day, Harmon undertook a grand tour of Europe after his studies. Upon his return, he nominally assumed a law practice. But, being heir to a large fortune, he was by no means solicitous in obtaining clients. He devoted his time to the cultivation of his interests in the sciences, music and classical literature. He was also, ironically, dabbling in revolutionary politics.

Whether or not he formed political opinions on his own, or naively followed the rhetoric of others, Harmon joined the Society of United Irishmen in 1794. This group, inspired by the words of Thomas Paine and the French Revolution, were dedicated to ending British control of Ireland. He must have had some leadership capabilities, or perhaps it was because of his fortune, for he quickly became the secretary for the group.

Although the third son of his father, Harman inherited "Castle Conway," when his older brothers preceded their father in death. He inherited a fortune of 100 hundred thousand dollars.  Already a practicing attorney, the future of this 27 year old seemed as bright as the morning sun.  

In that year, his family sent Harmon to France on a rescue mission. The Reign of Terror was at its height and the Blennerhassett family feared for a young relative, Margaret Agnew, who had been studying abroad.  Harmon immediately fell in love with his eighteen year old niece Margaret.

Mrs. Blennerhassett was in all respects a very accomplished lady. Her figure, tall and commanding, was moulded in the most perfect proportions. Her features over which was spread a most brilliant complexion were beautiful. A strong grace which intelligence alone can confer. Brown hair, profuse and glossy, dark blue eyes, and manners both winning and graceful, ever attracted attention to her even in the most brilliant circles…Her mind was as highly cultivated as her person. She was a recognized poet, an accomplished Italian and French scholar and one of the finest readers imaginable. She especially excelled in the plays of Shakespeare, which she rehearsed with all the taste and spirit of a first-rate actor. In history and the English classics she was equally well read, and was often called to decide disputed points in literature. Few women ever lived who combined so many accomplishments and personal attractions.

Harmon was willing to risk the wrath of family, society and Church.   To the shock and consternation of their family they married. The marriage was considered incestuous and immoral by the laws of both the Churches of England and Ireland. Margaret was disowned by the family and the couple was ostracized.

The  Irish uprising failed miserably in 1797 and led to the persecution and collapse of the Society of United Irishmen. Hurt and angered by his family and society's view of his marriage and fearing arrest by British authorities, Blennerhassett and his young bride decided to start life anew in America. He sold his estates far below face value for cash to establish himself in the New World. Before leaving he purchased a large library of classical and scientific books, along with equipment to outfit a laboratory to conduct experiments.

The couple arrived in New York City, where their wealth and attractive qualities drew them into that city's elite circle. They spent several months there making inquiries as to where they might settle. On advice from friends they decided to explore the Ohio River Valley. They spent a considerable time in Pittsburgh and then traveling down the Ohio on a keelboat, they saw and fell in love with Backus Island, two miles south of present day Parkersburg, West Virginia.

They purchased the upper end of the island and named their wilderness Eden "Isle de Beau Pre."

He began construction, which would take 2 ½ years on what was to become the grandest building west of the Appalachians. While building was going on the family lived in an abandoned blockhouse on the island left over from the Indian Wars.

The house and grounds cost an amazing, for the day, forty to fifty thousand dollars to construct. It was a strange mixture of elegant Palladian architecture, Irish country house comfort, with a look of Italianate Queen Anne villas of the nineteenth century. Having approximately 8,200 square feet of living space, the house must have been one of the largest in America.

A contemporary, Dr. S.P. Hildreth describes the house :

The island mansion was built with taste and beauty. No expense was spared in its construction that could add to its usefulness or splendor. It consisted of a main building, fifty-two feet in length, thirty in width, and two stories high. Porticos, forty feet in length, in the form of wings, projected in front, connected with offices, presenting each a face of twenty-six feet, and twenty feet in depth, uniting them with the main building, forming the half of an ellipse, and making in the whole a front of one hundred and four feet. The lefthand office was occupied for the servant's hall, and the right for the library, philosophical apparatus and study. A handsome lawn of several acres occupied the front ground, while an extended opening was made through the forest trees on the head of the island, affording a view of the river for several miles above, and bringing the mansion into the notice of descending boats. Nicely graveled walks, with a carriage way, led from the house to the pillars. A fine hedge of native hawthorn bordered the right side of the avenue to the house, while back of it lay the flower-garden, of about two acres, enclosed with neat palings, to which were trained gooseberry bushes, peaches and other varieties of fruitbearing trees, in the manner of wall fruits.

The Blennerhassetts filled the mansion with the finest furniture money could buy from the eastern United States and England. These all had to be hauled over the mountains and floated down the Ohio. Fine paintings, sculptures, oriental rugs, alabaster lamps, and marble clocks adorned the rooms. One room was paneled in solid black walnut. The gardens and greenhouse grew a variety of exotic crops. As stated earlier, Blennerhassett spared no expense in establishing his Eden.

John S. C. Abbott wrote of the man and his residence in 1875.

Thus there arose, as by magic, amidst the wilds of the Ohio, one of the most elegant mansions of modern days. All its internal appliances and external surroundings were of the most luxurious character. Mr. Blennerhassett's library contained a large and choice selection of the most valuable books. With native powers of a high order, trained by an accomplished university education, by foreign travel, and by intercourse with the most cultivated men of his day, he well knew how to use that library for his constant profit and for his unceasing delight.

Skilled also in the sciences, and with a strong taste for chemical studies, and all the correlative branches of natural philosophy, such as astronomy, botany, electricity and galvanism, he had supplied his laboratory extensively with the best apparatus for observation and experimentation which the arts could furnish.

He was constantly making experiments and eliciting new facts in these wonderful branches of natural science. In addition to these scientific accomplishments, he had made such attainments in the classics, that it was said he could repeat the whole of Homer's Iliad in the original Greek. In manners, Mr. Blennerhassett was very courteous, mild and yielding. His virtues were of the amiable character rather than of the more stubborn. He was easily duped by the intriguing who had sufficient sagacity to discern his weak points. His benevolence was unbounded, and his sympathy with the sick and suffering very intense.

Besides his books and scientific interests, both Blennerhassetts enjoyed hunting. Quail and other small game abounded on the island. The couple also enjoyed giving lavish parties for the local gentry and  blossomed as the premier social attraction of the Ohio Valley.  They used their island paradise to draw guests by the thousands. Blennerhassett and his wife, accomplished musicians, would play at these soirees. In this remote Eden, the Blennerhassetts had established a retreat from the objections of the outside world. Harmon Blennerhassett had it seemed, the perfect life of an Enlightenment country squire.

Due to the extravagant nature of the Blennerhassetts, accounts of their riches were greatly exaggerated. They had little income other than the interest earned by their capital which did not come close to meeting their overwhelming  expenses.

In the spring of 1805 the Blennerhassetts received a visit from the former Vice-President Aaron Burr. It is probable that tales of Blennerhassett's fortune had reached Burr who was in need of an investor for his plans of forming a western empire. The easily duped Blennerhassett was convinced by the witty and persuasive Burr to take part in the scheme. Margaret was completely captivated by Burr and his plan. Here was a chance, she felt for her husband to utilize all of his talents.

Blennerhassett's island would be the base camp and his money would outfit the expedition. He contracted to have fifteen large riverboats built to transport the yet- to- be mustered army  of  five hundred. One of these craft was a keelboat sixty feet long. This was to be the Blennerhassett's personal conveyance. As per his style, it was elegantly appointed, even having a fireplace and glass windows. Blennerhassett's money was also used to purchase arms, ammunition, provisions and whisky for a force of five hundred men.

Burr was only able to recruit one hundred men, for rumors were flying throughout the country concerning his motives. Burr was betrayed by co-conspiritor James Wilkerson to President Thomas Jefferson who issued a  proclamation calling for "all residents of the United States to bring to punishment all persons engaged in such treasonable enterprises as Burr's expedition".

Following the Proclamation, Governor Edward Tiffin of Ohio dispatched the state's militia to the Ohio River to block all traffic. The United States government also sent the Virginia militia to seize Blennerhassett and his island. 

 Harman  fled his island paradise only hours before the militia laid siege to it. Harmon escaped to Kentucky. Margaret was away in Marietta.

When she returned home, she found the house had been ransacked and greatly damaged by the militia.

Burr and Blennerhassett were apprehended and imprisoned in the Virginia State Penitentiary. Burr stood trial for high treason.The conspiritors argued two main points. First, no act of treason had ever occurred. Since the definition of treason in the Constitution requires an overt act of war against the country and since no act of war was committed then no act of treason existed. Second, arguing that since Burr was not even present when the supposed act of treason took place, he clearly could not be guilty.   Burr  was acquitted when a five month trial failed to produce any concrete physical evidence as proof of his plots. Blennerhassett's release soon followed, and both men were granted freedom, although their reputations, as well as their fortunes had been destroyed by the ordeal. Aaron Burr sought refuge abroad, in Europe.

Blennerhassett briefly returned to his island Eden, but could not afford to repair the damage that had been inflicted by the Virginia militia. The mansion burned in 1811.

Harman purchased a small cotton plantation and moved his family to the Mississippi Territory.  But, the Embargo, and crop failures doomed this venture.

 Destitute the couple returned to Ireland to live off the charity of an older sister. Harmann was able to find work as a lawyer in 1899 in Montreal, Canada.  In 1822 he returned to Ireland.   His wife who had considerable literary talent published The Deserted Isle (1822) and The Widow of the Rock and Other Poems (1824).

Harman died on the Isle of Guernsey  on February 2, 1831 from a series of apoplectic strokes.

After her husband's death Margaret returned to the United States. She petitioned the government for compensation for the destruction of her house. She asked for her rights not charity. Robert Emmet, of Ireland, and Henry Clay supported her cause. Congress decided to redress the grievance, but it was too late. Margaret  died indigent at a home for the poor in New York City in 1842.

In all, the Blennerhassetts conceived five children although they adopted another. Two sons and a daughter were born on Blennerhassett Island but only the sons survived infancy. Once settled onto their Mississippi plantation, Margaret  bore two more children, a son and a daughter. The daughter died in infancy.

Of the Blennerhassett sons only the youngest bore children, none of which reached adulthood, and when he himself passed while serving as a confederate soldier1862, the Blennerhassett name died with him. Another son died from a night of drinking and another died starving in a New York attic.

The body of Margaret Blennerhassett was exhumed in 1996 and returned to her home.  Harmon's body lies in an unknown unmarked grave on the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel.

so  paul

you are the most photographed

man of the last five decades

20  cameras every day

do you have a memory of everything

have you researched life at the vast libraries

detailing your every day

is it a fate worse than death

so little of interest to

the illustrated man

part of an edge cutting out

a process

g u essing pretty well

unconsciously
in a field

if god had wished to overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened

he could have done so by revealing himself to them so plainly that they could not doubt the truth of his essence

this is not the way he wished to appear when he came in mildness

so many men had shown themselves unworthy of his clemency that he wished to deprive them of the good they did not desire

It was therefore not right that he should appear in a manner manifestly divine
absolutely  convincing

neither was it right that his coming should be so hidden that he could not be recognized by those who sincerely sought him

he wished to make himself perfectly recognizable to them

thus wishing to appear openly to those who seek him with all their heart and hidden from those who shun him

he has qualified our knowledge by giving signs which can be seen by those who seek him and not by those who do not

     

      there is enough light for those who desire only to see and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition

    -  blaise out

a format that's open

asks for nothing

being famous

the ultimate alienation

seen as different

the true other

an animal

you at bottom

a wild animal

a wolfman 

teaching has only tamed

you're still pacing

coming out

how can one

be a photograph

exhibition

of the animal

inside you

my body

is only the perceptible

part of me

in this space

my mind is the body

of a  consciousness

a  personality

which I walk daily