38 files changed, 609 insertions, 104 deletions

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+---
+title: epigraph
+subtitle: An epigraph
+genre: prose
+
+project:
+    title: Elegies for alternate selves
+    css: elegies
+    order: 1
+    next:
+      title: How to read this
+      link: howtoreadthis
+    prev:
+      title: Death's Trumpet
+      link: deathstrumpet
+...
+
+I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.
+From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future
+beckoned and winked.  One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and
+another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and
+another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and
+Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and
+Attila and a pack of [other lovers][] and queer names and offbeat professions,
+and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these
+figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out.  I saw myself sitting in
+the crotch of this fig tree, starving to [death][], just because I couldn't
+make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.  I wanted each and every one
+of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there,
+unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one,
+they plopped to the ground at my feet.
+
+[other lovers]: spittle.html
+[death]: deathstrumpet.html
@@ -1,6 +1,17 @@
 ---
-title: 'How to read this'
-project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+title: How to read this
+genre: prose
+
+project:
+    title: Elegies for alternate selves
+    css: elegies
+    order: 2
+    next:
+      title: And
+      link: and
+    prev:
+      title: epigraph
+      link: epigraph
 ...
 
 This book is an exploration of life, of all possible lives that could be
@@ -139,7 +150,7 @@ through like a magazine, or at least the way I flip through magazines.  I
 think writing is a communication of the self, and I think this is the best way
 to communicate mine in all its multiversity.
 
-[pessoa-exist]: 20.html
-[same river]: 31-mountain.html
-[elegy]: 98-words-meaning.html
-[kernel]: 11-arspoetica.html
+[pessoa-exist]: philosophy.html
+[same river]: mountain.html
+[elegy]: words-meaning.html
+[kernel]: arspoetica.html
@@ -1,9 +1,24 @@
 ---
-title: 'And'
-project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
-epigraph: |
-"What is your favorite word?"
-"And.  It is so hopeful."
+title: And
+genre: verse
+
+epigraph:
+    content: |
+        "What is your favorite word?"
+        "And.  It is so hopeful."
+    attrib: Margaret Atwood
+    link: 'http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/28/margaret-atwood-q-a'
+
+project:
+    title: Elegies for alternate selves
+    css: elegies
+    order: 3
+    next:
+      title: On seeing the panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site
+      link: apollo11
+    prev:
+      title: How to read this
+      link: howtoread
 ...
 
 And you were there in the start of it all \
@@ -27,5 +42,5 @@ and I didn't understand him he was far away \
 and I could tell I was missing something important \
 and you nodded to yourself at something he said
 
-[church]: 13-boar.html
-[grieving something gone]: 25-roughgloves.html
+[church]: boar.html
+[grieving something gone]: roughgloves.html
@@ -1,6 +1,23 @@
 ---
 title: 'On seeing the panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 10
+genre: 'verse'
+...
+---
+title: On seeing the panorama of the Apollo 11 landing site
+genre: verse
+
+project:
+    title: Elegies for alternate selves
+    css: elegies
+    order: 4
+    next:
+      title: Ars poetica
+      link: arspoetica
+    prev:
+      title: And
+      link: and
 ...
 
 So it's the [fucking moon][].  Big deal.  As if \
@@ -28,6 +45,6 @@ You keep trying to get away from it but it nuzzles closer \
 and sings you songs that sound like the cooing of a dove \
 that will only escape again into an empty sky at dawn.
 
-[fucking moon]: 43-deathstrumpet.html
-[rotten meat]: 25-roughgloves.html
-[hearts]: 98-hez-proverbs.html
+[fucking moon]: deathstrumpet.html
+[rotten meat]: roughgloves.html
+[hearts]: proverbs.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Ars poetica'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 11
+genre: 'prose'
 ...
 
 What is poetry?  [Poetry is.][is]  Inasmuch as life is, so is poetry.  Here is
@@ -37,5 +39,5 @@ reader does nothing to achieve this—they are merely the receptacle of
 the feeling that the poem forces onto them.  In a way, poetry is a crime.
 But it is the most beautiful crime on this crime-ridden earth.
 
-[is]: 98-words-meaning.html
-[mirror]: 28-moongone.html
+[is]: words-meaning.html
+[mirror]: moongone.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'The ocean overflows with camels'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 12
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 We found your [shirt][] deep in the dark water, \
@@ -24,6 +26,6 @@ flowed from you both like water from the rock.  \
 God spoke up, but nobody listened to him.  \
 We hung you up on the line to dry.
 
-[shirt]: 24-lovesong.html
-[left hook]: 25-roughgloves.html
-[father]: 15-angeltoabraham.html
+[shirt]: lovesong.html
+[left hook]: roughgloves.html
+[father]: angeltoabraham.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'The Boar'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 13
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 Now the ticking clocks scare me.  \
@@ -23,6 +25,6 @@ it locked, found the [house][] empty
 
 with a note saying, "Condemned."
 
-[empty]: 31-mountain.html
-[Fifteen feet]: 38-telemarketer.html
-[house]: 21-i-am.html
+[empty]: mountain.html
+[Fifteen feet]: telemarketer.html
+[house]: i-am.html
@@ -21,6 +21,6 @@ because he liked to pretend that the rabbit \
 was running from a fox, and the rabbit \
 always ended up safe, back in his hole.
 
-[hearts]: 98-words-meaning.html
-[they spin]: 28-moongone.html
-[knot while mating]: 34-spittle.html
+[hearts]: words-meaning.html
+[they spin]: moongone.html
+[knot while mating]: spittle.html
@@ -24,5 +24,5 @@ within them, intent on ending life.
 Will you hear my small voice amongst the creaking, \
 or will it be the chance bleating of a passing ram?
 
-[God]: 13-boar.html
-[will try]: 21-i-am.html
+[God]: boar.html
+[will try]: i-am.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Feeding the raven'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 16
+genre: 'prose'
 ...
 
 You never can tell just when Charlie Sheen will enter your life.  For me,
@@ -33,6 +35,6 @@ the [clock][], I went to the bathroom door.  I knocked carefully---once, then
 twice---to no beaming face, no flowers.  I opened the door.  There was shit
 on the floor and the window was open.  There was a breeze blowing.
 
-[dog]: 98-hez-purpose-dogs.html
-[translation of a translation]: 41-todaniel.html
-[clock]: 13-boar.html
+[dog]: purpose-dogs.html
+[translation of a translation]: todaniel.html
+[clock]: boar.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'On formal poetry'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 19
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 I think that I could write formal poems \
@@ -21,5 +23,5 @@ My prepositions too---God, where's it stop?  \
 The answer: never.  I will never stop \
 writing poems, or hating what I write.
 
-[knitting]: 25-roughgloves.html
-[McNugget]: 26-ronaldmcdonald.html
+[knitting]: roughgloves.html
+[McNugget]: ronaldmcdonald.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'I am'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 21
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 I am a great pillar of [white smoke][].  \
@@ -22,5 +24,5 @@ there are still more.  I don't think I know \
 where all of them are.  I [don't think][not think] I can get \
 to all of them anymore.  There are too many.
 
-[white smoke]: 43-deathstrumpet.html
-[not think]: 22-howithappened.html
+[white smoke]: deathstrumpet.html
+[not think]: howithappened.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'How it happened'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 22
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 I was away on vacation when I heard--- \
@@ -20,5 +22,5 @@ never saw a single drop of rain.  I'm [the drunk][] \
 sitting on the curb who just pissed his pants, \
 holding up a sign asking where I am.
 
-[already written]: 33-shipwright.html
-[the drunk]: 98-hez-problems.html
+[already written]: shipwright.html
+[the drunk]: problems.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Love Song'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 24
+genre: 'prose'
 ...
 
 Walking along in the dark is a good way to begin a song.  Walking home in
@@ -26,5 +28,5 @@ caught.  Even those who cry dry their tears.  I cannot tell you all I want
 because I want to tell you everything.  There is no art because there is
 no mirror big enough.  We wake up every day.  Sometimes we sleep.
 
-[old shirt]: 26-ronaldmcdonald.html
-[every song]: 37-swansong.html
+[old shirt]: ronaldmcdonald.html
+[every song]: swansong.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Rough gloves'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 25
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 I lost my hands & knit replacement ones \
@@ -18,6 +20,6 @@ the only way I have to knit a love \
 against whatever winters we may enter \
 like a silkworm in a spider's blackened [maw][].
 
-[cheek or thigh]: 16-feedingtheraven.html
-[break a hand]: 40-weplayedthosegamestoo.html
-[maw]: 32-serengeti.html
+[cheek or thigh]: feedingtheraven.html
+[break a hand]: weplayedthosegamestoo.html
+[maw]: serengeti.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Ronald McDonald'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 26
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 When Ronald McDonald takes off his [striped shirt][], \
@@ -34,5 +36,5 @@ stuck to him like so many feathers with the tar
 of his everyday associations.  His plight is that \
 of everyone's---we are what we do who we are.
 
-[striped shirt]: 12-theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
-[yellow gloves]: 25-roughgloves.html
+[striped shirt]: theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
+[yellow gloves]: roughgloves.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'The moon is gone and in its place a mirror'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 28
+genre: 'prose'
 ...
 
 The moon is gone and in its place a mirror.  Looking at the night sky now
@@ -15,5 +17,5 @@ a cloud above him, which due to optics has looked like someone else.  The
 cloud blocks out the moon which is now a mirror, and the viewer is
 completely alone.
 
-[alone]: 10-apollo11.html
-[Earth]: 32-serengeti.html
+[alone]: apollo11.html
+[Earth]: serengeti.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Mountain'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 31
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 The other side of this mountain \
@@ -25,5 +27,5 @@ sitting on a [dusty pew][].
 A hawk soars over the mountain.  \
 She is looking for home.
 
-[apollo]: 10-apollo11.html
-[dusty pew]: 08-and.html
+[apollo]: apollo11.html
+[dusty pew]: and.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Serengeti'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 32
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 The self is a serengeti \
@@ -18,5 +20,5 @@ a storm cloud builds on the horizon \
 Are you [running][] toward the rain or away from it \
 Do you stand still and crouch hoping for silence
 
-[formal]: 19-onformalpoetry.html
-[running]: 35-squirrel.html
+[formal]: onformalpoetry.html
+[running]: squirrel.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Shipwright'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 33
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 He builds a ship as if it were the last thing \
@@ -22,5 +24,5 @@ nail after nail into timber after timber, \
 but the wind [finally blows][] him into the growling ocean \
 and the ship falls apart on its own.
 
-[louder]: 10-apollo11.html
-[finally blows]: 12-theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
+[louder]: apollo11.html
+[finally blows]: theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Spittle'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 34
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 My body is attached to your body by a thin spittle of thought.  \
@@ -15,5 +17,5 @@ a square-jawed businessman with a briefcase full of memory?  \
 I want to kiss the world to make it mine.  I want to become \
 a Judas to reality, betray it with the wetness of emotion.
 
-[God]: 22-howithappened.html
-[shirt-sleeve]: 24-lovesong.html
+[God]: howithappened.html
+[shirt-sleeve]: lovesong.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Squirrel'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 35
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 He is so full in himself: \
@@ -20,5 +22,5 @@ from his being by the slow inexorable evolution \
 of squirrels, that is why all squirrels \
 are so full in themselves, full in who they are.
 
-[birds singing]: 31-mountain.html
-[dance]: 98-hez-movingsideways.html
+[birds singing]: mountain.html
+[dance]: movingsideways.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Swan song'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 37
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 Swans fly overhead singing goodbye \
@@ -19,6 +21,6 @@ Together, we are each other.  You \
 and I have both nothing and everything \
 at once.  We own the world and nothing in it.
 
-[ithappened]: 22-howithappened.html
-[mirror]: 28-moongone.html
-[trumpet]: 43-deathstrumpet.html
+[ithappened]: howithappened.html
+[mirror]: moongone.html
+[trumpet]: deathstrumpet.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'Telemarketer'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 38
+genre: 'prose'
 ...
 
 It was one of those nameless gray buildings that could be seen from the
@@ -47,11 +49,10 @@ if she were used to correcting people about the particulars of her
 title.  But how often can that happen?  Larry thought, and he was suddenly
 deeply confused.
 
-"Oh, sorry, ma'am, uh, Miz Loring, but I wanted to know whether you'd
-like to, ah, buy some…" Larry put his head in his hand and started
-twirling his hair in his finger, a nervous habit he'd had since
-childhood, and closed his eyes tightly.  "Why don't you have anything
-better to do?"
+"Oh, sorry, ma'am, uh, Miz Loring, but I wanted to know whether you'd like to,
+ah, buy some..." Larry put his head in his hand and started twirling his hair
+in his finger, a nervous habit he'd had since childhood, and closed his eyes
+tightly.  "Why don't you have anything better to do?"
 
 Immediately he knew it was the wrong question.  Even before the silence
 on the other end moved past impatience and into stunned, Larry had a
@@ -72,6 +73,6 @@ Quietly, with the same patience but with a [bigger pain][], Jane said, "My
 husband just left me and I thought you could take my mind off of him for
 just a minute," and hung up.
 
-[ocean]: 12-theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
-[eagle perched]: 31-mountain.html
-[bigger pain]: 11-arspoetica.html
+[ocean]: theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
+[eagle perched]: mountain.html
+[bigger pain]: arspoetica.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'We played those games too'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 40
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 I saw two Eskimo girls playing a game \
@@ -25,5 +27,5 @@ I will never be able to say how \
 we share this blemish like conjoined twins.  \
 I will fail you always to remember you.
 
-[my daughter]: 08-and.html
-[spittle]: 34-spittle.html
+[my daughter]: and.html
+[spittle]: spittle.html
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ---
 title: 'To Daniel: an elaboration of a previous comment'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 41
+genre: 'verse'
 ...
 
 There are more modern ideals of beauty \
@@ -21,4 +23,4 @@ I've never seen, although from many I've
 heard it's good.  But it's still irrelevant--- \
 no matter how comely, she lacks talent.
 
-[trumpet]: 43-deathstrumpet.html
+[trumpet]: deathstrumpet.html
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 ---
 title: 'Death's Trumpet'
 project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+project-order: 43
+genre: 'verse'
+
 epigraph: 'So Death plays his little fucking trumpet.  So what, says the boy.'
 epigraph-credit: 'Larry Levis'
 ...
@@ -31,5 +34,5 @@ He's playing a first-person shooter.  Death walks past him \
 and watches out of the corner of his eye.  The kid's good.  \
 Death wants to congratulate him.  His trumpet is in his hand.
 
-[moongone]: 28-moongone.html
-[little boy]: 15-angeltoabraham.html
+[moongone]: moongone.html
+[little boy]: angeltoabraham.html
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+---
+title: 'Liking Things'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 7
+project-prev: 'problems.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+The definition of happiness is *doing stuff that you really like*.  That
+stuff can be eating soup, going to the bathroom, walking the dog,
+playing Dungeons and Dragons; whatever keeps your mind off the fact that
+you're so goddamn unhappy all the time.  That, incidentally, is the
+definition of like: *that feeling you get when you forget how miserable
+you are for just a little bit*.  Thus people like doing stuff they like
+all the time, as often as possible; because if they remember how
+horrible they really feel at not having a background to put themselves
+against, they will want to hurt themselves and those around them.
+
+The funny thing is that something we people really like to do is hurt
+ourselves and those around us.  We do this by thinking other people are
+more unhappy than we are.  We convince themselves that we are truly
+happy, ecstatic even, while they merely plod around life half-heartedly,
+or, if they're lucky, incorrectly.  We take it upon ourselves (seeing as
+we are so happy, and can spare a little bit of happiness) to help them
+become happy as well.  We fail to realize that the people will probably
+not appreciate our thinking that we're better than they are somehow, for
+that is what we do even if we don't mean it.  We forget that we are also
+unhappy, and that we are just doing things we like in order to cheer
+ourselves up a little bit, which really means that this cheering is
+working; but there is such a thing as working too well.  So in a sense
+what I'm doing here is cheering myself up by reminding you that you are
+unhappy; I'm trying to keep you honest in your unhappiness; and I admit
+this is usually called a dick move.
+
+In fact, the best way to overcome happy-hungering (this is the term as I
+dub it) is commit as many dick moves as possible, to keep people
+remembering that unhappiness abounds.  If you see someone smiling like a
+little dog who knows it's about to get pet or get a treat or go to the
+vet to donate doggy sperm, smile back.  Grin toothily (a little too
+toothily for a little too long).  Their smile will start to fade if
+you're doing it right.  Saunter to them, slide as if you're an Olympic
+quality ice-skater, as if you're a really good bowler who knows he's
+playing against twelve year olds and'll win by a hundred.  Get really
+close.  Far too close for what most people would call comfort.  And remind
+them of how awful life can be: "I really like your [shirt][]---really only
+children chained to looms can get that tight of a weave," you can say,
+or "You're not really going to recycle that coffee cup, are you?"  They
+will probably get angry, but that's what's supposed to happen.  By making
+dick moves, you can overcome what may be the biggest evil on this earth:
+Happy-Hungering.
+
+[shirt]: theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+---
+title: 'Moving Sideways'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 5
+project-prev: 'proverbs.html'
+project-next: 'problems.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+A dog moving sideways is sick; a man moving sideways is drunk.  Thus if
+you want to be mindful of the movings of the universe sideways, become
+either drunk or sick.  By doing this you remove yourself from the
+equation, and are able to observe, without being observed, the universe
+as it dances sideways drunkenly.
+
+Shit wait.  The problem is not that by observing you are observed
+(although quantum mechanics may disagree[^1]), because obviously dogs
+don't know we're observing them when we watch them through cameras in
+their little yard while they play and eat and poop---who poops knowingly
+on camera?  The problem is *the actual act of observing that distorts the
+world into what we want it to be*.
+
+What I want to know is this: Why is this necessarily a problem?  The dog
+is made, by mankind, to frolic and poop and sniff and growl and dig.  Why
+cannot the man be made to observe the world incorrectly around him, and
+worry about it?  Men have always wandered about the earth; does it not
+make sense that also they should wonder in their minds what makes it all
+work?[^2] In fact this is the very center of the creative being: the
+ability to move sideways, to dance with reality and judge it as it
+judges you, much like teenagers at the junior prom.
+
+Of course, reality doesn't judge us back.  But that doesn't mean that it
+doesn't!  If you think it's judging you, then *observe in your
+surroundings your own insecurities*.  It is obvious that this way of
+doing things is far from vogue; usually projecting [inner pain][] onto the
+outer world is classified as pathology.  However, this is because it is
+assumed that the outer world is *on its own terms*, which it obviously
+isn't, as far as we know.  It follows that as [there is no backdrop][backdrop]
+against which to judge our quirks, the quirks must not exist.  Thus all
+is right with the world.
+
+[inner pain]: telemarketer.html
+[backdrop]: philosophy.html
+
+[^1]: Quantum mechanics, as is well known, are the most hornery and
+    least agreeable of all mechanics.  The cost to get one quantum
+    serviced is usually at least eight times more expensive than the
+    cost of an average automobile tune-up, for reasons not clearly
+    known.  The quantum mechanics themselves claim it's the smallness of
+    their work that justifies the price, but it doesn't really look like
+    they're doing anything, and besides, my quantum always seems to
+    break again within six months---maybe I'm just driving it too hard.
+
+[^2]: I attempted to strike this terrible pun from the account, but
+    Hezekiah demanded I keep it if he were to continue the relation of
+    his prophecy-slash-advice column
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+---
+title: 'Philosophy'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 3
+project-prev: 'purpose-dogs.html'
+project-next: 'proverbs.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+Importance is important.  But meaning is meaningful.  Here we are at the
+crux of the matter, for both meaning and importance are also
+human-formed.  So it would seem that nothing is important or meaningful,
+if importance and meaning are of themselves only products of the
+fallible human intellect.  But here is the great secret: *so is the
+fallibility of the human intellect a mere product of the fallible human
+intellect.* The question here arises: Is anything real, and not a mere
+invention of a mistaken human mind?  By real of course I mean
+"that which is *on its own terms*," that is, without any [modification][] on
+the part of mankind by observing it.  But such a thing is impossible to
+be known, for if it be known it has certainly been observed by someone,
+and so it is not on its own terms but on the terms of the observer.  So
+it cannot be known if anything exists on its own terms, for it exists on
+its own terms we certainly will not know anything about it.
+
+By this it is possible to see that nothing is knowable without the
+mediating factor of our mind fucking up the "[raw][]," the "real" world.  But
+by this time it would seem that this chapter is far far too
+philosophical, not to mention pretentious, so I must try again.
+
+[modification]: i-am.html
+[raw]: spittle.html
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+title: 'Prelude'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 1
+project-next: 'purpose-dogs.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+Of course, there is a God.  Of course, there is no God.  Of course, what's
+really important is that these aren't important.  No, they are; but not
+really important.  All that's important is the relative importance of
+non-important things.  Shit.  Never mind; let's start over.
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+---
+title: 'Problems'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 6
+project-prev: 'movingsideways.html'
+project-next: 'likingthings.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+The problem with people is this: we cannot be happy.  No matter how hard
+or easy we try, it is not to be.  It seems sometimes that, just as the
+dog was made for jumping in mud and sniffing out foxholes and having a
+good time all around, man was made for sadness, loneliness and
+heartache.
+
+Being the observant and judgmental people they are, people have for a
+long time tried to figure out why they aren't happy.  Some say it's
+because we're obviously doing something wrong.  Some say it's because we
+think too much.  Some insist that it's because other people have more
+stuff than we do.  These people don't have a clue any more than any of
+the rest of us.  At least I don't think they do, and that's good enough
+for me.[^1] I think that the reason why people are unhappy (and this is
+a personal opinion) is that they realize on some level (for some it's a
+pretty shallow level, others it's way down there next to their love for
+women's stockings[^2]) that there is no background to put themselves
+against, no "[big picture][]" to get painted into.  This makes sense, because
+on one level, the level of everyday life, the level of *observation*,
+there is always a background---look in a pair of binoculars sometime.  But
+on another level, that of ... shit, wait.  There are no other levels.[^3]
+
+What's more, people try to explain how to get happy again (although it's
+doubtful they were ever happy in the first place---people are very good at
+fooling).  Some say standing or [sitting in a building][] with a lot of other
+unhappy people helps.  Some say that you can't stop there; you also need
+to sing with those other unhappy people about how unhappy you are, and
+how you wish someone would come along and help you out, I guess by
+giving you money or something.  I say all you really need to be happy is
+a good stiff drink.[^4]
+
+In any case, people have for some reason or another, and to some end or
+another, always been unhappy.  And people have always tried to figure out
+ways to be less unhappy---one of the most important things to people
+everywhere is called "the pursuit of happiness."  I think that calling it
+a pursuit makes people feel more like dogs, who are the most happy
+beings most people can think of.  By pursuing happiness, they're like a
+dog pursuing a possum or a bone on a fishing rod: two activities that
+sound like a lot of fun to most people.  I think most people wish they
+were dogs.
+
+[big picture]: ronaldmcdonald.html
+[sitting in a buiding]: feedingtheraven.html
+
+
+[^1]: This seems to be an attempt on Hezzy's part to set an example for
+    mankind.  It should be noted that he is an alcoholic, and not in any
+    shape to be an example to anyone.
+
+[^2]: It is thought that only the leg coverings of the female sex are
+    here referenced
+
+[^3]: You have hereby found the super special secret cheat code room.
+    Yes, this is just like Super Mario Brothers---you can skip right to
+    the end.  Go and face the final boss already!
+
+[^4]: See footnote, above
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+---
+title: 'Proverbs'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 4
+project-prev: 'philosophy.html'
+project-next: 'movingsideways.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+[Nothing matters; everything is sacred.  Everything matters; nothing is
+sacred][sacred].[^1] This is the only way we can move forward: by moving
+sideways.  Life is a great big rugby game, and the entire field has to be run
+for a goal.  The fact that the beginning two verses of this chapter have the
+same number of characters proves that they are a tautological pair, that is,
+they *complete each other*.  Sometimes life seems like a dog wagging its tail,
+smiling up at you and wanting you to love it, just wanting that, simple simple
+love, oblivious to the fact that it just ran through your immaculately groomed
+flower garden and tracked all the mud in onto your freshly steamed carpet.
+Life is not life in a suburb.  [There are no rosebushes, groomed never.  There
+is no carpet, steamed at any time.][rosebush] The dog looks at you wanting you
+to love it.  It wants to know that you know that it's there.  *It wants to be
+observed*.[\^2]
+
+[sacred]: words-meaning.html
+[rosebush]: lovesong.html
+
+[^1]: Thank you Tom Stoppard.  Ha ha ho ho and hee hee.
+
+[^2]: Ah ha!  I knew this was going to happen at some point.  Now things
+    are going to get more interesting because the dog wants what we
+    thought was a bad thing, right?  Right?  Didn't we go through that
+    part about how observing made it impossible to really know anything,
+    and I had to start over because it's really hard to figure out what
+    you're talking about when reality slips out of your hands like a
+    fish, but you're not a cat with claws so it just flops right outta
+    your hand back into the lake.  (By the way, Nirvana is thought to be
+    what a drop of water feels upon flopping into a lake---doesn't that
+    seem important?  Doesn't it seem like a fish and a drop of water here
+    are connected?  It helps, of course, that the fish represents Reality
+    here.)
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+---
+title: 'The purpose of dogs'
+project: 'Book of Hezekiah'
+project-order: 2
+project-prev: 'prelude.html'
+project-next: 'philosophy.html'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+Okay, so as we said in [the Prelude][], there either is or isn't a God. This
+has been one of the main past times of humanity, ever since ... since the
+first man (or woman) climbed out of whatever slime or swamp he thumbed his way
+out of.  What humanity has failed to realize is that an incredibly plausible
+third, and heretofore unknown, hypothesis also exists: There is a dog.
+
+In fact, there are many dogs, and not only that.  There are also many types of
+dogs; these are called breeds, and each breed was created by man in order to
+fulfill some use that man thought he needed.  Some dogs are for chasing birds,
+and some are for chasing badgers.  Some are for laying in your lap and being
+petted all day.  Some dogs don't seem to be really for anything, besides being
+fucking stupid and chewing up your one-of-a-kind collectible
+individually-numbered King Kong figurine from the Peter Jackson film.  But the
+important thing is, (and here we go with important things again) all dogs have
+been bred by people for performing some certain function that we think is
+important.
+
+Note: *Just because we think it's important doesn't mean it is
+important.* But it might as well be, because what we as humans think is
+important is important.  But be careful!  just because something's important
+doesn't mean it means anything, or that it actually makes anything happen.
+Even though just because something makes something else happen doesn't mean
+it's important.  [Shit][].  Let me start again.
+
+[the Prelude]: prelude.html
+[Shit]: feedingtheraven.html
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+---
+title: 'Words and meaning'
+project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+genre: 'prose'
+...
+
+"How astonishing it is that language can almost mean, / and frightening
+that it does not quite," Jack Gilbert opens his poem "The Forgotten
+Dialect of the Heart."  In a similar vein, Hass's "Meditation at
+Legunitas" states, "A word is elegy to what it signifies."  These poems
+get to the heart of language, and express the old duality of thought: by
+giving a word to an entity, it is both tethered and made meaningful.
+
+Words are the inevitable byproduct of an analytic mind.  Humans are
+constantly classifying and reclassifying ideas, objects, animals,
+people, into ten thousand arbitrary categories.  A favorite saying of
+mine is that "Everything is everything," a tautology that I like,
+because it gets to the core of the human linguistic machine, and because
+every time I say it people think I'm being [disingenuous][].  But what I mean
+by "everything is everything" is that there is a continuity to existence
+that works beyond, or rather underneath, our capacity to understand it
+through language.  Language by definition compartmentalizes reality, sets
+this bit apart from that bit, sets up boundaries as to what is and is
+not a stone, a leaf, a door.  Most of the time I think of language as
+limiting, as defining a thing as the [inverse of everything][] is not.
+
+In this way, "everything is everything" becomes "everything is nothing,"
+which is another thing I like to say and something that pisses people
+off.  To me, infinity and zero are the same, two ways of looking at the
+same point on the circle–of numbers, of the universe, whatever.  Maybe
+it's because I wear an analogue watch, and so my view of time is
+cyclical, or maybe it's some brain trauma I had in vitro, but whatever it
+is that's how I see the world, because I'm working against the
+limitations that language sets upon us.  I think that's the role of the
+poet, or of any artist: to take the over-expansive experience of
+existing and to boil it down, boil and boil away until there is the
+ultimate concentrate at the center that is what the poem talks around,
+at, etc., but never of, because it is ultimately made of language and
+cannot get to it.  A poem is getting as close as possible to the speed of
+light, to absolute zero, to God, while knowing that it can't get all the
+way there, and never will.  A poem is doing this and coming back and
+showing what happened as it happened.  Exegesis is hard because a really
+good poem will be just that, it will be the most basic and best way to
+say what it's saying, so attempts to say the same thing differently will
+fail.  A poem is a kernel of existence.  It is a description of the
+kernel.  [It is][].
+
+[disingenuous]: likingthings.html
+[inverse of everything]: i-am.html
+[It is]: arspoetica.html
@@ -9,9 +9,22 @@
 <p><em>Note: you're on Windows right now, so make sure and type <code>bash compile.sh</code> to run the program.</em></p>
 <p>At the top of each file, there should be a YAML block that looks something like this:</p>
 <pre class="sourceCode yaml"><code class="sourceCode yaml"><span class="ot">---</span>
-<span class="fu">title:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Title of poem or whatever&#39;</span>
-<span class="fu">subtitle:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Subtitle, if it exists&#39;</span>
-<span class="fu">epigraph:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Include epigraph here, if it exists&#39;</span>
-<span class="fu">epigraph-credit:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Who said the epigraph or wrote it or whatever&#39;</span>
-<span class="fu">project:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Original project here&#39;</span>
+<span class="fu">title:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Title of poem&#39;</span>
+<span class="fu">subtitle:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Subtitle&#39;</span><span class="er"> # optional</span>
+<span class="fu">genre:</span> <span class="st">&#39;[verse|prose]&#39;</span>
+
+<span class="fu">project:</span>
+<span class="kw">-</span> <span class="fu">title:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Original project name&#39;</span>
+  <span class="fu">order:</span> <span class="kw">[</span>number<span class="kw">]</span>
+  <span class="fu">prev:</span>
+  <span class="kw">-</span> <span class="fu">title:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Title of previous thing in original project&#39;</span>
+    <span class="fu">link:</span> <span class="st">&#39;link to that thing&#39;</span>
+  <span class="fu">next:</span>
+  <span class="kw">-</span> <span class="fu">title:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Title of next thing in original project&#39;</span>
+  <span class="kw">-</span> <span class="fu">link:</span> <span class="st">&#39;link to that thing&#39;</span>
+
+<span class="fu">epigraph:</span> <span class="co"># optional</span>
+<span class="kw">-</span> <span class="fu">content:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Quote from outside&#39;</span>
+  <span class="fu">link:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Link to online version of epigraph&#39;</span>
+  <span class="fu">attrib:</span> <span class="st">&#39;Who said the epigraph&#39;</span><span class="er"> # optional</span>
 <span class="co">...</span></code></pre>
@@ -23,13 +23,24 @@ like this:
 
 ````yaml
 ---
-title: 'Title of poem or whatever'
-subtitle: 'Subtitle, if it exists'
-epigraph: 'Include epigraph here, if it exists'
-epigraph-link: 'Link for the epigraph online (required)'
-epigraph-credit: 'Credit for epigraph (optional)'
-project: 'Original project here'
-genre: 'Genre of file: [verse|prose]'
+title: 'Title of poem'
+subtitle: 'Subtitle' # optional
+genre: '[verse|prose]'
+
+project:
+- title: 'Original project name'
+  order: [number]
+  prev:
+  - title: 'Title of previous thing in original project'
+    link: 'link to that thing'
+  next:
+  - title: 'Title of next thing in original project'
+  - link: 'link to that thing'
+
+epigraph: # optional
+- content: 'Quote from outside'
+  link: 'Link to online version of epigraph'
+  attrib: 'Who said the epigraph' # optional
 ...
 ````
 
@@ -7,34 +7,55 @@
     <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes">
     <meta name="author" content="Case Duckworth">
     <!-- more meta tags here -->
-    <title>$pagetitle$</title>
-    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_poems.css">
-    $for(css)$
-        <link rel="stylesheet" href="$css$">
-    $endfor$
-    <!-- link to javascript? -->
+    <title>$title$ | Autocento of the breakfast table</title>
+    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_common.css">
+    $if(genre)$
+    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_$genre$.css">
+    $endif$
+    $if(project.css)$
+    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_$project.css$.css">
+    $endif$
     <!--[if lt IE 9]>
-        <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script>
+    <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script>
     <![endif]-->
     $for(header-includes)$
-        $header-includes$
+    $headerincludes$
     $endfor$
 </head>
 <body>
-    $for(include-before)$
-        $include-before$
-    $endfor$
-    $if(title)$
+$for(include-before)$ $include-before$ $endfor$
+
     <header>
-        <h1 class="title">$title</h1>
-        $if(subtitle)$
-        <h1 class="subtitle">$subtitle$</h1>
+        <!-- title -->
+        $if(title)$<h1 class="title">$title$</h1>$endif$
+        $if(subtitle)$<h1 class="subtitle">$subtitle$</h1>$endif$
+        $if(epigraph.content)$
+        <!-- epigraph -->
+        <p class="epigraph">
+        $epigraph.content$
+        $if(epigraph.link)$<a href="$epigraph.link$">&gt;</a>$endif$
+        </p>
+        $if(epigraph.attrib)$
+        <p class="epigraph-attrib">&mdash; $epigraph.attrib$</p>
+        $endif$
         $endif$
     </header>
-    $endif$
+
     $body$
-    $for(include-after)$
-        $include-after$
-    $endfor$
+
+    <nav>
+        $if(project.prev.title)$
+        <!--previous -->
+        <a href="$project.prev.link$.html">&lt; $project.prev.title$</a>
+        $endif$
+        $if(project.next.title)$
+        <!-- next -->
+        <a href="$project.next.link$.html">$project.next.title$ &gt;</a>
+        $endif$
+    </nav>
+
+$for(include-after)$
+$include-after$
+$endfor$
 </body>
 </html>