wedgewords

A wedgeword is a word that can be inserted between two given words so that when split between those given words two longer words are formed, as in the following example: OUT(.......)LION. The wedgeword CRYSTAL when inserted between OUT and LION gives OUT(CRY.STAL)LION. CRYSTAL is therefore the solution. If more than one wedgeword is possible, only the longest counts as the correct solution. The number of dots does not indicate the length of the wedgeword. British English spellings apply. Now try these:

  1: UNDER(.......)LIED
  2: UNDER(.......)OUR
  3: RAM(.......)HEM
  4: FORM(.......)LED
  5: HE(.......)HE
  6: GRAM(.......)LING
  7: INTER(.......)END
  8: PEA(.......)OR
  9: CAR(.......)ATE
10: CARE(.......)PET

sleep

storm raging overhead.
still, he lies suspended,
cool in his cocoon of sleep.

an asinine analysis

The global capitalist system as it currently operates encourages individuals, as well as corporations and countries, to spend all their time putting together their own private piles, around which they then proceed to erect tall fences with signs saying, in bold letters, ‘Keep off! This is mine!’ This is the unfortunate result of a system in which every material thing can be had if you can afford the price, from exotic, out-of-season vegetables to a trip to the International Space Station, and it is not a good use of finite and now rapidly dwindling resources, especially when the thing in question is neither necessary nor useful.

This type of behaviour, this greasy pole of accumulation, can achieve only short-term rewards for a lucky few while sacrificing any prospect of long-term communal gains. And in the long run it is completely unsustainable. There is an appropriate word for this behaviour: avarice has all the right credentials to be that word, but there is another word that has an even stronger claim to be the right one to use here. Stupidity. Selfishness comes into the picture too, but that word merely underlines the stupidity of mindless acquisition: notice that the initial letters of the three words spell ‘ass’, which can be taken to mean whatever you like in this context, but one should not forget that the ass has been nothing more than a beast of burden throughout human history and is noted chiefly for obstinacy and not being very smart.

silence (a fragment)

1
the silence is resounding,
  pounding
    like the rain
on a rooftop, echoing,
  glowing.
    twilight’s bane
is the shadow in the dark,
  remark:
    spectral light
criss-crossing across the sky,
  low—high;
    shades of night
closing in. a sudden fear:
  unclear
    higher ground;
uncertain haze descending,
  blending
    sight and sound.

2
silence is a swirling green
  fog, seen
    but unheard.
silence is a resonant
  green slant,
    slightly blurred.

3
flying, fragmentary mind,
  unwind;
    it is air,
it is emptiness. and all
  must fall,
    for there, there
on the mysterious height,
  a light
    (now intense)
burns. and then down, the last spark,
  the dark,
    the silence.