QUOTIDIAN IDIOTS
10 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: books, fiction, life, oddity, writing
Most people use the word, “idiot,” and do not know it is a compliment. It means “self,” in Latin. An idiot is someone who is so totally unique that no one has ever seen the likes of them before. I call that a compliment!
I hope that people see me as an idiot. And if you, yourself, have ever felt like an idiot, The Dave says, “Good for you!”
When I paid my bill, Friday night, my server asked me,
1) “What are you DOING here, if I may ask” and
2) “May I?” look at THE FOUR ELEMENTS: Seasons Bleeding into Existence.
I was stupefied that they read more than the first three sentences; my writing style is quite idiomatic to only me.
Then, I asked them what they were doing for the remainder of the night. What followed was a stupendous, spectacular free-style slam verbal improvisation that riffed off of my story, mentioned tv by pixels and being pixilated (The Ghost and Mr Chicken, Don Knots), in short, going home and chilling. Chilling never sounded so stupendous.
I was stupefied, again, and sat silent with a stupid look on my face trying to process it all. I hope they felt idiotic, in a good way, because I assure you, I’d met a Realized Man, in the generic use of man, as German Mensch, which is a non-gendered noun. Girls can be Menschen.
Unfortunately, I did not have my poetry book on hand, LINES DRAWN AUTHENTIC: A Realized Man. But my server took the flyer for THE FOUR ELEMENTS, so they know how to reach me.
No way to work Jack Reacher into this.
For us, it’s not a matter of fitting in. It would do us damage to be the commodity that fits in–damage our oddity. We need to be Ionic, in the sense of Plato’s Ion, the artist. We need to be Ionic magnets and attract the likes of us to our own society, social structure. Let THEM fit in with US; if us and them is what it comes to.
ENIGMATIC DR DAVE ENTERPRISES, PRELUDED–Sole Proprietorship.
SHINING WORDS
09 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: books, poem, poems, poetry, writing
DEVI AND SHINING WORDS, Part 1: Poetry as an Aberrant Enterprise.
Ensconced pretty good at Remedy 124 Street but I’m writing without my glasses. I won’t see misspellings.
Right when I was fixing to write about poetry as an aberrant enterprise, my Sikh cab driver told me about “shining words.” The word for “shining” is “Devi” and that is what Hindus call Goddesses. For the very first time ever, I learned of the connection between Devi and Diwali. We’re pretty close to Diwali, if we’re not actually in it.
It’s a Festival of Light; it’s the Cosmic War of Light over Darkness. Those themes are in Christmas and Chanukah. In the darkest day of the year, we pray for Light to ultimately win.
My driver told me of a Vice Prime Minister of India whose words shined so brightly that Queen Elizabeth listened when he spoke. His words shone so brightly that they attracted people’s attention. It was all I could do to keep quiet and listen. He spoke slowly. But that wasn’t it. I am a teacher and a Shayari-Poet. I’m in the business of generating and expressing words. It’s my bread and butter. Without words, you wouldn’t have a poem. Without a whole lot of words, I wouldn’t have a dissertation or a book.
But it can be an occupational hazard for us to tend to do all the talking, or to dominate the discourse in a conversation. You want us to, when you are reading our literature, or when you are in our class. But not in a social setting. We have to be shape-shifters.
So I reined myself in and listened to this soft-spoken, slow speaking elder Sikh, because I knew he had something I wanted to know, maybe needed to hear.
POETRY AS AN ABERRANT ENTERPRISE
The trouble with poetry is it’s writing. Writing is a form of saying. So to write, you have to say something. Probably, my readers, right about now, are going, “Duh–uh, of course.”
But think about it. A poet is always walking around everywhere trying to think up things to say. I call that a pretty aberrant way to go about your life.
This is going to wrap up Part 1. I have some teasers about Part 2, and Parts beyond.
1) When you’re thinking up things to say, there’s always the question, “What do I want to say.” When I see Bill on Whyte Avenue, my script is written for me: “Hi, Bill.” Not with Poetry. Do I want to say something about art and the creative process, itself? Writing about playing scales is like that:
SOMETIMES IT COMES DOWN TO SCALES.
Do I want to say something about life? Narrowing that, maybe about life when you’re broke ass? Running with that, maybe finding heartfelt glory in living when you’re broke ass? If that theme works, maybe Hemingway living broke ass in Paris as an early writer, saving up his money for an annual ski trip with his wife Hadley to Schruns would he a good way to get at that idea. In fact, it becomes
SCHRUNS AND ALL IT MEANS,
which is a published poem in AWAKENINGS REVIEW. But before it is published, Sky Custer reads it in JT’s Bar and Grill at 1 am, they make a fist and goes, “YES!” takes a pic of my face with the poem next to it, asks me to dance, but I’m too shy, and through Sky Custer’s chain of connections, I meet Professor Blair Stonechild, at Indigenous University and author of “LOSS OF INDIGENOUS EDEN and the Fall of Spirituality,” and that book transformed my life! So thanks for liking my poem, Sky Custer, and sorry about the dance.
2) It is true that Robert Frost said, “Poetry begins in a pang.” And Wordsworth calls poetry, “The still, sad music of humanity.” That’s fine and all except for any of those things to be a poem, it needs words. If it stayed a pang, and a pang only, it would not be a poem–it would be a hug. If it stayed the still, sad music of humanity, it would be an instrumental–maybe a symphony or ALL BLUES by Miles Davis. A poem qua poem (sorry) needs words. Words are all artificial and made up to mean this or that. There are no naturally-occurring words.
That’s what makes poetry an aberrant undertaking: we are forever thinking up things to say, and we gotta say them in words someone wants to read.
Just today, though, I heard shining words.
ENIGMATIC DR DAVE ENTERPRISES, PRELUDED
EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE I WAS IN 20 YEARS AGO
09 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
EXACTLY WHERE I WAS 20 YEARS AGO: homeless, friendless, stuck in a bedroom in someone’s home who doesn’t want me there. Except in 2006, it was a church member who didn’t wsnt me in their home, and I was starting what I believed to be a promising new career as a Pastor. Now, I’m unemployed, and the church hasn’t employed a Pastor–it’s sat vacant 3 years.
ART MYSTICISM–PHILOSOPHY OF ARTISTS AND ART, Part 1: Introduction
06 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
What this is NOT, is a Philosopher thinking and talking about Art. That’s Aesthetics. Aesthetics is a thinker thinking about “The Good; The Beautiful” as in Plato’s SYMPOSIUM; or Emmanuel Kant’s CRITIQUE OF JUDGEMENT.
What this IS, is an Artist’s explanation of what Artists do. Artists are said to be misunderstood. They are misunderstood, though, because we don’t explain ourselves. For good or bad, The Dave has a rigorous philosophical background, AND I’m an Artist. I’m intending to explain us.
We think VERY DIFFERENTLY than occupational capitalists. We feel differently. We see reality differently.
TOPICS:
Introduction
TOUCHED WITH FIRE–Art, in Latin: “Ars, Artis,” relates to “cultivation,” to fire–“ARson,” fitting for clothing, or “ARm, armor” which, in turn, relates to “shoulder”–arm. Does an Artist draw with their ARM, a piano or guitar player, play with their ARM? And all Artists “cultivate” their Art.
Inspiration
WHAT IS THE SUBJECT; WHO IS THE ARTIST?
03 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
QUICK SKETCH:
BARGAINING WITH THE OUTLAWFirst drawing since 2006. Just a sketch and I’m not happy with the Outlaw’s eyes. They look insecure, not fierce.
Like an actor, when I draw, I need to fill myself with the mood I am portraying. Insecure could be more the artist than the subject. The photograph is the subject of the drawing; the drawing is the artist.
How’s THAT for critical theory???!!! That critical theory angle makes BARGAINING WITH THE OUTLAW great art. Look out Andrea Fraser! My sketch is now Performance Art. Yikes!
ENIGMATIC DR DAVE ENTERPRISES, PRELUDED
DAVID DRAWS! Drawing is a lot like playing Music.
Poetry, Music, Graphic Arts–I think I’ve got the bases covered. Oh, wait: Dance. Nope. Well, maybe. Nope.
MARRIAGE HYMN–Yes, Hymn
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
People react differently to the word, “Hymn.” I find it wonderful how many 20-Somethings are finding Religion. I think it’s because they grew up without it, so they are coming at it fresh, with a clean slate.
Older people very often reject anything to do with Religion, including me, myself because I am/was associated with Religion.
I think people my own age, 70, resent me, personally. Because I quit Christian Ministry. I’m still a believer–don’t stop believing, I always say. It’s just the pay is bad.
I was 21 when I wrote MARRIAGE HYMN. That was in 1976. Here, in 2026, I note that I wrote a whole Marriage Hymn in 1976 that is completely “ungendered!” Can you imagine that???!!! I didn’t know what I was doing at 21 in 1976!
RINTRAH–THE LION WHO WOKE TOO LATE: ME
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: art, artist, creativity, painting, writing
Rintrah slept most of their lives. Incarnated as The Dave for the last remembered time, The Dave never knew what to grow up to be–despite, at 18, asking everyone.
He is an Artist at 70, and 20th-Century America didn’t have aptitude tests for that career choice. Still doesn’t.
I came to Canada in 2006 to begin a new career as a Swedenborgian Christian Minister. I was un the middle of a drawing that I asked a female bass player to pose for, while I took some stills to work from. I loved the way she played upright, acoustic bass with her eyes half closed. I approached her after the show and she thought I was a musician (I was a memory of a musician, then), who wanted to jam out on her bass. “Our policy is to refuse . . .” she started to say.
When I explained myself more fully, she graciously stood and began to play, eyes half-closed. I snapped some stills with a disposable camera I bought at a drug store: there were no cell phones back then.
Among all my worldly goods, I brought my portfolio to Canada for a “real job” called Swedenborgian Christian Minister. After 3 years of never drawing, before Canada I had drawn THE BEST SKETCH I EVER MADE ALL MY LIFE. I do not understand it. No practice drawings. Must be my Muse awakened.
I took the Drawing to an art shop to have an Artist frame it. “Please take care! I don’t think I can draw like his again!” I exclaimed! It’s on a stand on the floor, next to my piano keyboards, in my temporary Government-Housing, man cave. No big-screen tv in my man cave, although I like movies.
MY FRIENDS, WHY DID I STOP DRAWING???!!! Tell me because I don’t know.
I quit Swedenborgian Christian Ministry June 18, 2023 and I believe believers resent me quitting, resent me. I still believe, won’t stop believing. Just don’t want the job of professional believing. The pay is bad.
THE UNIVERSE awoke me from my slumber with one eye awake. Probably because it was sick, sick and tired of the Art spectre I was haunting Artists I wasn’t.
ENIGMATIC DR DAVE ENTERPRISES, PRELUDED
I am 70 years old. I quit Christian Ministry at 68 years old. But that’s just me.
Isn’t it remarkable how free-flowing this narrative is, without systematic development, like my sermons or published Articles in University Journals. Artistic–eh? We say “eh” in Canada.
An Art photo from a Social Worker’s waiting room.
TOUCHED WITH FIRE: ART AND MANIA, Part 2: William Blake’s and Our Spectre
28 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
William Blake was the first Romantic Poet and was a founding member of the Swedenborgian Church. He created a mythic giant character named, “Los.” Los symbolizes the Creative process. Los is pictured surrounded by fires and Artistic Creation is Los hammering out Art on a blacksmith’s anvil.
Los is the Spanish word “Sol,” spelled backwards. Sol is the sun. Wiki explains another aspect of Los that is interesting but I think it’s a reach. Wiki follows the other Spanish word, los–el, los. El means “the.” Plural is “los”–Dia de Los Muertos: “Day of the Dead.” If Los is plural of el, Wiki thinks Los can also mean El. El is the ancient Hebrew word for Creator God–El-ohim in Genesis.
In the image I am attaching, there is a batlike character hovering over Los. That is the character Spectre. Spectre haunts Los, Blake himself, and us. This time I like what Wiki says about Spectre:
“In Los’s case, the Spectre is Los’s–and Blake’s– Self-Righteousness and Pride, as well as the voice inside him that tells him he is wasting his time, Albion and humanity will never understand. The Spectre is a kind of challenge, something to erect an alternative to. It also has energy that Los can use. Blake speaks of Los’s forcing the Spectre to work with him at building the new city.”
I am continually asking myself,
“Why am I labouring so hard making my Poem right? Why am I sweating in the Fiery Forge, hammering on Los’ anvil? I’m not getting paid–it’s not even a real job. Nobody’s going to read this. I’m wasting my time.”
I have not answered the question why I’m doing it. Then I keep doing it.
ENIGMATIC DR DAVE ENTERPRISES, PRELUDED
TOO HOT TO HANDLE! We’re Touched with Fire
27 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: reading, William Blake, writing
TOUCHED WITH FIRE: ART AND MANIA–Too Hot To Handle
Why do people read a story? They want something bigger and more than average. An ordinary woman hooks up with and marries a Scottish Laird. They all live in a magnificent castle and enjoy boundless wealth--eh?
No one wants to read a story,
"Yah, I went grocery shopping and bought some carrots. Potatoes were on sale, so I bought some potatoes. I needed toilet paper."Consider this quote from the Swedenborgian Poet, William Blake. It’s a little bigger than grocery shopping. Blake is writing about Artistic Creation in an extended metaphor of giving birth. The character “Los” symbolizes the creator, Artist. Blake isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I like him:
"8. The globe of life blood trembled
Branching out into roots:
Fibrous, writhing upon the winds:
Fibres of blood, milk and tears:
In pangs, eternity on eternity.
At length in tears and cries imbodied
A female form trembling and pale
Waves before his deathy face
9. All Eternity shuddered at sight
Of the first female now separate
Pale as a cloud of snow
Waving before the face of Los
10. Wonder, awe, fear, astonishment
Petrify the eternal myriads."Wow, eh!? That Poet is hot, literally.
Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison wrote a research book whose title I use in my fb post: TOUCHED WITH FIRE. In her book, Dr Redfield-Jamison found that there is a higher incidence of mental illnesses in the arts community, than in the general population. Everybody always thought Artists are half-baked; Dr. Jamison gave it clinical validation.
I said that the Poet is hot. Blake lets us into just how hot he is. Again, talking about his own character, Los. Blake compares Artistic Creation to a blacksmith amid the Fiery Forge. William Blake also draws on Alchemical Imagery:
"Los ragd and stampd the earth in his might & terrible wrath! He stood and stampd the earth: then he threw down his hammer in rage In fury: then he sat down and wept, terrified: then arose And chaunted his song, labouring with the tongs and hammer."
I know this. I think all us Artists know this.
Too Hot To Handle!
ENIGMATIC DR DAVE ENTERPRISES, PRELUDED
David Fekete 