the whole point was to keep secrets for their own sake. keeping a secret means challenging the whole world. all the tragedies that have ever befallen humanity were caused by loose lips; the only thing that’s kept the world intact is the existence of secret alliances, mysterious links between people or communities. nothing should be revealed, everything should be hidden, and there should be no such thing as “common knowledge”. at the end, at the very end, when all the little secrets come together, the world itself will become nothing but one big secret. and when the day comes for that big secret to be revealed, everything will at last be known.

a sourceless quote gracing the last leaf of my notebook,

a conspiracy that holds my beliefs, sustains them,

a resonating mantra for 2011.

happy new year!

briana taylor

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

mark strand

comme des garçons s/s & f/w 1998

we play by ear but learn the words by heart
(visions we have by head); yet even when
the sight of the remembered page has dimmed
the jingles that we gleaned from it remain
lodged with us, useful, sometimes, for the work
of getting a grip on certain fragile things.

john hollander, by heart