Impalement, Laughing

December 1, 2022 Jerry King Comments 0 Comment

On a state
designated by a shorthand name, (impalement),
I am writing these few lines in the form
of a theme for meditation:

I imagine: an object of attraction.
The flame
Shining and light
Consuming itself in itself
Annihilating itself
And in this way revealing emptiness,
The identity of the attraction,
Of that which intoxicates
And of the void.

I imagine
Emptiness
Identical to a flame,
The suppression of the object
Revealing the flame
That intoxicates
And illuminates.

No practice can take you to the goal…
In any case, I think it’s suffering, devastating the being, exhausting it, which opens such an intimate wound.

–excerpt On Nietzsche, by Georges Bataille, trans. by Stuart Kendall p. 73

The news came yesterday on a NPR report:

Christine McVie, the British-born Fleetwood Mac vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player whose cool, soulful contralto helped define such classics as “You Make Loving Fun,” “Everywhere” and “Don’t Stop,” died Wednesday at age 79.

We saw the band perform several years ago, a reunion tour, as they had not played together for many years. Truly in the presence of a live performance, or in the quiet of a gallery captivated by a sculpture, on the street transfixed by an architects work, — one shudders with a sense of the divine, or even, laughs…

That’s impalement.

You Make Loving Fun

by Fleetwood Mac

Sweet wonderful you,
You make me happy with the things you do.
Oh, can it be so?
This feeling follows me wherever I go.

I never did believe in miracles,
But I’ve a feeling it’s time to try.
I never did believe in the ways of magic,
But I’m beginning to wonder why.

Don’t, don’t break the spell.
It would be different, and you know it will.
You, you make loving fun,
And I don’t have to tell you, but you’re the only one.

You, you make loving fun.
It’s all I wanna do.
You, you make loving fun.
It’s all I wanna do.