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In antiquity, there are references to the Amnesia Mountains, yet no trace has been found of how many mountains this might include, nor has there been any agreement upon which continent they lie. Some have suggested they might not exist, a chimera range, existing only as a trick of temperature and light. Others claim naturally occurring electrical fields that cause the short-term memory to falter, which would allow such a panorama to be hidden, repeatedly, from view. These mountains could be the many-named, endlessly re-baptized by all who discover them.
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An early translation of what became the story of “Cinderella” mistook fur for impossible glass, an error that has long replaced the logic of origins. One version of the list of Sumerian Kings wrote that Alulim ruled Eridug, one of the Ancient Mesopotamian city-states, for 28,800 years. How is this possible? And did Methuselah really live to 969 years old, or Adam to 930? One explanation offers that, given how all these Old Testament lifespans end with numbers 0, 2, 5, 7 or 9, they might simply be combinations of two “sacred” numbers: sixty and seven. Seven was Biblical, and sixty the Babylonian numerical base. Context remains so important. For the same reason that someone born two weeks prior to me, on 1970’s leap year day, isn’t considered a teenager, compared to my mid-fifties. And besides: who could ever walk in glass footwear without destroying their feet?
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Long after he had retired from public life, Sir Edmund Hilary, the first to climb and conquer Mount Everest, was scheduled to be interviewed as part of a magazine profile. The first thing the visiting journalist noted was that the elder Sir Edmond, while still in relatively good health, had become almost housebound, unable to negotiate the incline from doorstep up to the road, or from the road leading into the village. His will and his want had been worn down by gravity. He had already climbed his full height. He could go no further.
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a reminder, also, copies of my collection The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) are still available. I seem also to be terrible with housekeeping, as I’ve two fall titles now available for pre-order: my poetry collection, World’s End, (ARP Books) and the anthology groundwork: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing).