Hal Johnson's Blog

I continue to beg your indulgence while I write and post poetry. What else is there to do, here, at the end of all things? Also, please come say hello to me at the Branford Book Festival, May 9, 10–3, Main Street, Branford, CT! And maybe keep me solvent by buying a book?

Of "buy me a coffee" (so-called)

The Ancient LawText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFor the first time, since time began, The last till time is ended,For six foot five of natural man The ...

ome see me at the Branford Book Festival, May 9, 10–3, Main Street, Branford, CT!

Keep me alive! Patronize my books!

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artist unknown (to me)

Go to Part 1: Keter, Part 2: Hokhmah, Part 3: Binah. Perhaps also go to a place from which you can buy books I wrote? And come see me at the Branford Book Festival, May 9, 10–3, Main Street, Branford, CT.

Fund my annotating brain problem

by "buying me a coffee"

p. 159
•Hesed: Oft. Chesed. The sefira of love, making it suitable for Casaubon’s amorous detour in Brazil. To get from Binah to Hesed, one travels southeast (not quite right for an Italian’s trip to Brazil). In some diagrams of the Tree of L...

If you buy a book, you'll make my day!

Jerry: The best revenge is living well.
George: There’s no chance of that.
•Seinfeld (1991).

If my throat is cut, may my blood rust the blade that does it.
•Zelazny, Lord of Light (1967).

O that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
•Shakespeare, Othello (1604?).

To avenge one’s self on an enemy, is to receive a second life.
•Publilius Syrus, Sentences (C2).

There is no heaven but revenge.
•Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)...

Once again I crave your indulgence as I present an example of my favorite dying or dead art form, viz. poetry.

My books are all prose!

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedWhy do they open their eyes in death? They, I say, not we becauseI, for one, as of yet draw breathWhile all this multiplicityOf dead parade in front of me And do what every dead man does,Viz: stare at a truth I cannot see.Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when...

Keep me alive! Patronize my books!

Hal Johnson Books is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Jo Albistur!

ALL THE BOOKS YOU CRAVE!

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published Yet how can I tear myselffrom my own heart? I’m not a lizard, I can’tgrow it back.•Nabokov, The Tragedy of Mr. Morn (1924).

The world is like a revolving die, and everything turns over, and man changes to angel and angel to man, and the head to the foot and the foot to the head.
•Nachman of Bratzlav (ca. 1805), quoted in Martin Buber, The Tales of Rabbi Nachman (1906).

Again there will be Socr...

“I’m reaching out with something simple, painless, and refreshingly not-salesy.”
•an email I received

Read my books! No AI!

If you write books (as I do), every once in a while a reader will write you out of the blue. This is nice! I’ve cold-written authors myself—in my youth, because I was insufferable, I used to point out mistakes in books to the people who’d made them, but I did it nicely, and authors love talking about their books, so it generally led to a friendly discussion. The people who’ve ...

Dig my books!

Hal Johnson Books is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Samm Schwartz!

If you find these annotations useful, please consider purchasing one of the books I wrote, or buying me a coffee (tea, most likely). Go to Part 1: Keter, Part 2: Hokhmah.

p. 47
•Binah: “Understanding.” To get to this sefirot from Hokhmah, one travels due “west.”

Chapter 7

p. 49
•epigraph: Lec is a near-contemporary Polish poet and aphorist (“An empty envelope that is sealed contains a secret” –Unkempt Thoughts). The book quoted appears to be posthumous.

•Académie de Saint-Cyr: Presumably a school of t...