Arclist

Journal

Ralph Melcher

Ralph Melcher
Location
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Birthday
April 13
Title
Writer
Company
Arclist
Bio
Ralph Melcher is a poet and essayist living and working in Santa Fe New Mexico.

MY RECENT POSTS

MY RECENT COMMENTS

Ralph Melcher's Links

Salon.com
JANUARY 28, 2012 7:20PM

Biology

Notwithstanding Chris Matthew's comments this week referring to Republicans who believe in Creationism as "Troglodytes" (a view with which I share some sympathy) the arguments waged between biologists about the true nature of evolutionary processes are vastly more intriguing (and… Read full post »
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JANUARY 17, 2012 11:18PM

Two Movies

Two exceptional movies framed the past year for me. 

The Tree of Life begins as a seed of light and then expands to the whole territory of existence. Through the memories of ordinary life juxtaposed with glimpses of the primal forces of creation we are given a view of a/… Read full post »
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JANUARY 8, 2012 5:23PM

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

First of all. allow me to introduce you to DSKRPT, a new site created by my son Gabriel. You will find essays, creative speculation and links to all kinds of of inspiring corners in realms of art and language. To get a flavor you might start with this intriguing post on the/

… Read full post »
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JANUARY 8, 2012 5:20PM

The Revelation

This being the beginning of 2012, when more than a few await the end of the world, the 12th Planet, the Second Coming, or whatever their favorite version of The Revelation, I offer this:

They made signs in blood along the way that they went, and their folly taught them that… Read full post »

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NOVEMBER 13, 2011 3:08PM

Notes From Insane America - 2

The Cure
 
"Like the people still trying to go to the bank after the dollar collapsed. They peered in the windows, punched the buttons of the automatic tellers. Still believing they could make things happen just by wanting them, still acting like Americans, though America was gone."
  &nbs
… Read full post »
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NOVEMBER 11, 2011 10:22PM

Notes From An Insane America

Zombieland

If you've seen even one zombie movie you know that the first rule for fighting zombies is don't try to negotiate!! It's pointless and it will almost certainly get you killed and turned into one of them. When you encounter the zombie there is only one mode of survivable/
… Read full post »
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NOVEMBER 6, 2011 12:19AM

The Analysis

How can I explain to you the profound disassociation that's required to live the life of me? 

First of all, that's all I appear to be motivated to do, over and over again, in new versions that continually change so that when I'm done with one explanation it becomes difficult… Read full post »
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OCTOBER 6, 2011 11:00PM

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Steve Jobs and I

As a young writer I filled a hundred notebooks with my longhand scrawl but never really came to terms with the typewriter. In 1984 I started hearing about the 'word processor' and decided to take an introductory course on the basics of 'personal computing' at the Denver Free University. We started… Read full post »
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OCTOBER 5, 2011 10:32PM

Change Poem


CHANGE POEM


I walked the edges of the volcano and looked at change,
forests dying and reborn, rocks that melted and turned to dust.

There are rivers that cut through time. The earth itself
is getting old and will come to nothing soon enough.

Astronomers and mathematicians are fantasists
who search to fill… Read full post »

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AUGUST 26, 2011 1:49AM

Over The Volcano

 

"This suggests that market capitalism began as, and still remains, a form of salvation religion: dissatisfied with the world as it is and compelled to inject a new promise into it, motivated (and justifying itself) by faith in the grace of profit and concerned to perpetuate that grace, with a… Read full post »
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AUGUST 7, 2011 10:35PM

The Limits of Reason

What follows began as an argument about Obama. We'll get back to that later, but first I'd like to reflect on some lessons learned and address a few points that were raised in a recent online encounter with several former acquaintances on my second foray in to the Facebook jungle.  … Read full post »

3 Comments
AUGUST 2, 2011 10:23PM

Ghosts

What's the power of ghosts?

Let me begin again. Let me pretend that I hadn't started my first conversation over the Internet in 1984 just after I bought my first modem and plugged it into my Mac. 

Let me pretend that I just stumbled upon this page in
… Read full post »
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MAY 15, 2011 3:29PM

Joking Matters

Two ingredients essential to every successful leader and every successful comedian are the ability to laugh in the face of adversity (to not drown in self-importance) and (most important) timing. 

The reason Obama won the last election and will undoubtedly win the next one is that he is a maste… Read full post »
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APRIL 24, 2011 12:19AM

The View of a Boulevard in Paris

(The subject of  one of Louis Daguerre's first photographic images is a View of the Boulevard du Temple, Paris, c. 1839.)

 

Jose Arguelles died a couple of weeks ago. Along with Terence McKenna, Jose was a leading revolutionary in the realm of temporal politics. His vision of/

… Read full post »
1 Comments
APRIL 2, 2011 6:42PM

Elliot

Dragging a box cutter through plastic,
placing boxes of crackers on a shelf,

a guy I know named Elliot, lumbering, toothless,
wearing a sweaty old hat, watches a minute, then tells me,

"I don't know how you do it. This chopping wood, carrying water 
stuff would drive me crazy. I just can't sit still/… Read full post »
1 Comments
APRIL 1, 2011 8:13AM

Totally Baffled

A message received from a friend:

"#yemen #bahrain #libya #japan. I have no idea where in my consciousness to put all this news of the world, or how to begin to understand where I have been until now oblivious. And the children appear to be losing."

- Mir

1 Comments
MARCH 10, 2011 10:58PM

A Victory

Surveying the national news delivers plenty of indications that, while the rest of the world struggles with their still struggling economies and how to respond to the increasing complexities of the Middle East situation, Americans have gone bat-shit crazy. I keep being reminded of that old Twilight Z… Read full post »
1 Comments
MARCH 9, 2011 10:35PM

Has IT Begun? (comments on Zeitgeist 3)

The first of the Zeitgeist documentaries was uploaded in 2007. Four years later the creator, Peter Joseph has trimmed  his vision into a more impressive work that doesn't veer off into useless trashing of religions and breathless revelations of 9/11 conspiracy scenarios. Instead, the most recent… Read full post »
2 Comments
MARCH 7, 2011 11:28PM

Faith Based

Maybe it's because I've become a practicing Buddhist. Maybe it's that I've always felt a strong personal connection with those realms that are beyond reason. Maybe it's 50 years of experiencing the repetitious futility of conventional politics. 

This evening I attended another rally at our state… Read full post »
2 Comments
FEBRUARY 26, 2011 12:46PM

An Education

"Egypt and Tunisia are the first nations to carry out successful revolutions against neoliberal regimes. Americans could learn from Egypt. Indeed, there are signs that they already are doing so. Wisconsin teachers protesting against their governor’s attempts to remove the right to collective ba

… Read full post »
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FEBRUARY 6, 2011 12:40AM

Goodbye Facebook

Dear Facebook friends (and actual friends),

After spending the morning reviewing the week's activity as people I've known and people I don't know and acquaintances I've made over the past forty or fifty years exchange messages on my 'Wall' as if they are a real community in the real world I was… Read full post »

1 Comments
FEBRUARY 5, 2011 12:23PM

Egypt

As events transpire that are reshaping history in as profound a fashion as the 9/11 attacks many Americans appear numbed out, not sure whether to great the day with hopefulness or fear. The hope is that the Muslim world can embrace democracy from the ground up and the fear is that… Read full post »
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JANUARY 16, 2011 6:01PM

Apologies to Arizona

I'm forwarding this message from a friend who lives in Arizona. I apologize for what seemed like a blanket condemnation of Arizona and its residents. My remarks referred only to my own very limited experience of the state prompted by recent events that appeared to confirm them. I could make… Read full post »
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JANUARY 9, 2011 2:37PM

Arizona

"We have become the mecca for racism and bigotry."

- Sheriff Clarence Dupnick, Tucson, Arizona


______________________________________

I've only been to Arizona a couple of times, the last time with my son on the way to Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri's intentional architecturally based community nor

… Read full post »
1 Comments
DECEMBER 21, 2010 9:20AM

On Pulling the Plug


In response to my recent post on Wikileaks people posed the question of what will happen if the government just "pulls the plug" on the Internet. My thought at the time was that this was impractical in that pulling the plug on the free flow… Read full post »
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