Tag: travel

Swamped

On By vequinoxIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Excerpt

With that, the meeting was over. Eteo walked back to his office and called Mario at once to propose that Pacific Trends keep all the offering in house. On return he promised to give the guy at Wolverton something else in the future, or even get him in on this after the broker’s warrants were out. That sealed the deal. Mario agreed, and Eteo went back to watching his screen. Platinum Properties was doing great, Golden Veins the opposite. He called Richard Walden.

“Have you heard anything?” Eteo asked him

“No, nothing so far,” Richard admitted.

“When did you call last?”

“Yesterday afternoon. I guess they must still be working on it.”

“I wouldn’t assume that. I don’t like this at all. Why don’t you take a quick flight down there and check things out for yourself?”

“Go to Texas?” Richard’s voice sounded alarmed.

“Why not? It’s your money they’re spending.”

There was an uncomfortable silence at the other end of the line before Richard said, hesitantly, “I’m actually not that fond of airplanes and flying.”

“Okay, send one of your directors.”

“There must be another way,” Richard replied. “Let me call the finder, the man who brought me this deal. I’ll talk to him.”

“All right, but let me know what you find out. Who is it anyway? Do I know him?”

“It’s Walter Cooper.”

“I know Walter. I could talk to him. Yes, it might be better that way. Leave it to me. I’ll call him and get back to you,” Eteo said and put the phone down. He noticed he was breathing fast. It upset him.

Then he saw the big trades of Platinum stock, big chunks all bought by Nomura. He smiled and relaxed. The market looked clean even beyond the three dollar mark. He had hit a good one, he knew, and if Mario’s Nostra is agreed on by this group, he had better keep as much stock as he could for his accounts and give lots of it to his key people, the ones who did most of his business. Eteo had a large number of accounts, but only about fifteen percent of them traded often. Those were the clients he needed to reward when a good issue came along. Mario’s Nostra Ventures was beginning to look like it could be one of them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

Ken Kirkby, A Painter’s Quest for Canada

On By vequinoxIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Excerpt

“And I suppose you propose that you’re the one who is
going to find these marvellous new things.”
“Actually,” Ken said, “I am – many of them. I have already found some
but they’re mine and they’re secrets.”
“Well, you seem to have some feelings about this.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Go ahead then – express your understanding of this.”
“Yes sir.” Ken picked up the chalk and drew two birds. One bird was
flying along while the other one lay crumpled at the foot of a brick wall
that it had crashed into.
“What precisely does that mean?” the master asked.
“This bird is flying along without thinking about Pythagoras’ Theorem
and this bird was thinking about Pythagoras’ Theorem and flew into
a wall.”
“I suppose you think you’re very funny,” the teacher said.
“In my universe I think I’m funny,” Ken said. “And I enjoy being funny.”
“Is that so?” the teacher said. “And I suppose you think this is very
funny.”
“No sir, it isn’t very funny. It’s actually very, very sad.”
“Yes,” he said, walking to his desk. “Sadder than you think.” He wrote
something on a piece of paper, folded it and handed it to Ken. “Take that
to the headmaster,” he said.
Ken left the classroom to the sniggers of the other students and searched
for the headmaster’s office.
This behaviour about drawing the birds was spawned by the treatment
that I got when I walked in there. I was dealt with in a rather stupid way.
If there were twelve points in one’s life that were important, this incident
would be one of my key ones. I’ve always had somewhere deep inside me a
sense of knowing the moment when I am in the moment. To this day I can’t
explain how that happens but I do know when I’m in it. It had become apparent
to me that there were very specific rules for the “good” people – the
“nice” people – and those were the people who had lots of money. The poor
people lived in a different world. And the rich people were hiring minions
such as this teacher to do their bidding. The rich people didn’t want to look
after their own children – they just shunted them off to boarding schools.
Ken found the office and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a voice called.
Ken walked in and handed the folded note to a woman sitting behind
a desk in the small anteroom. She unfolded it, scanned what was written
there and looked back up at Ken with a curious half-smile.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981073573

Yannis Ritsos – Poems, Volume I

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Moonlight Sonata

Φορές-φορές, την ώρα που βραδιάζει, έχω την αίσθηση
πως έξω απ’ τα παράθυρα περνάει ο αρκουδιάρης με τη γριά
βαριά του αρκούδα
με το μαλλί της όλο αγκάθια και τριβόλια
σηκώνοντας σκόνη στο συνοικιακό δρόμο
ένα ερημικό σύννεφο σκόνη που θυμιάζει το σούρουπο
και τα παιδιά έχουν γυρίσει σπίτια τους για το δείπνο και δεν τ’
αφήνουν πια να βγουν έξω
μ’ όλο που πίσω απ’ τους τοίχους μαντεύουν το περπάτημα της 
γριάς αρκούδας –
κι η αρκούδα κουρασμένη πορεύεται μες στη σοφία της μοναξιάς 
της, μην ξέροντας για που και γιατί-
έχει βαρύνει, δεν μπορεί πια να χορεύει στα πισινά της πόδια
δεν μπορεί να φοράει τη δαντελένια σκουφίτσα της
να διασκεδάζει τα παιδιά, τους αργόσχολους, τους απαιτητικούς,
και το μόνο που θέλει είναι να πλαγιάσει στο χώμα
αφήνοντας να την πατάνε στην κοιλιά, παίζοντας έτσι το 
τελευταίο παιχνίδι της,
δείχνοντας την τρομερή της δύναμη για παραίτηση,
την ανυπακοή της στα συμφέροντα των άλλων, στους κρίκους 
των χειλιών της, στην ανάγκη των δοντιών της,
την ανυπακοή της στον πόνο και στη ζωή
με τη σίγουρη συμμαχία του θανάτου – έστω κι ενός αργού 
θανάτου  –
την τελική της ανυπακοή στο θάνατο με τη συνέχεια και τη 
γνώση της ζωής
που ανηφοράει με γνώση και με πράξη πάνω απ τη σκλαβιά της.

Sometimes as evening comes I have the emotion

that outside the windows the bear handler goes by with

his old heavy she-bear

her hair full of thorns and thistles

creating dust on the neighborhood road

a lonely cloud of dust that rises like incense in the sundown

and the children return to their homes for supper and

are not allowed out anymore

although behind the walls they guess the old

bear’s footsteps –

and the tired bear marches in the wisdom of her loneliness

not knowing where or why –

she has grown heavy and she can’t dance on her hind legs

anymore

she can’t put on her lacy bonnet to entertain the children

the loafers or the ones who are hard to please

and the only thing she wants is to lie down on the ground

letting them step on her belly thus playing her

last game

showing her formidable power for resignation

her disobedience to others’ interests the rings in her lips

the needs of her teeth

her disobedience to pain and life

with her certain alliance with death – even a slow death –

her final disobedience to death with the continuance

and knowledge of life

that ascends with wisdom and action above her slavery

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763076