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* the friday influence
The sawdust that fell from your hair, I find in my poem today. (Monochord #330, Yannis Ritsos) *** For today’s Friday Influence, I present the work of the Greek poet Yannis Ritsos (1909 – 1990). The above is from a series entitled “Monochords” that was written in one month while in exile, August 1979. Reading […]
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* bert meyers, poems in pockets, and update
Evening on the Farm – Bert Meyers Time for a jacket now, and to put my hands away. I must learn from the stars how a field should look. But one by one, bright children, the stars rush downstairs to meet my horses and hay with an astonished eye. *** […]
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* poets in novels and countdown update
“Coming on the scene, he thought what a mercy shipwrecks were, how clean, their horrors swallowed by the sea. Not so here.” *** The above is from the book I just finished, Bruce Duffy’s Disaster was my God: a novel about the outlaw life of Arthur Rimbaud. The book covers in a meandering manner the […]
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* quote for the weekend
“He who cannot howl will not find his pack.” – Charles Simic *** I consider this blog part of my howl. Thank you for reading. J
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* an admission and the friday influence
Watermelons – Charles Simic * Green Buddhas on the fruit stand. We eat the smiles and spit out the teeth. *** So, I’m going to come clean and admit that I’m a geek about astrology. I don’t swear by it but I do check my horoscope daily and find my chart to be an interesting […]
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* Holderlin, details, and making time stop
“Poetry is the establishment of Being by means of the word” (Heidegger) *** Now there is a definition and defense of the lyric poem if there ever was one. Heidegger said the above statement in an essay on the work of Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1842). This week, at the insistence of a new acquaintance, I have […]
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* using ‘like’ and liking it
(a note on motion) The heart is a thing in motion, like the stars, like the ocean. (J) *** In early 2010, I filed for divorce. I had never thought I would get married, much less that if I did that it might not work out. Owning up to a relationship not working hurts no […]
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* milosz and some friends
Recently read an interview with Czeslaw Milosz where he says: “My motto could be that haiku of Issa—“We walk on the roof of Hell / gazing at flowers.” ” * Which speaks to the power of the short lyric poem – a haiku in this case – that it can be carried in one’s mental […]
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* a focus and a start
(winter morning by the Sandia Mountains) in the distance the peaks speak (J) ***** The phrase sensitivity to language that I have used in previous posts stems from an interview with Charles Simic in which, discussing the practice of writing everyday, he notes that by doing so one maintains “a certain sensitivity to […]
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* why america needs better poets and the countdown begun
This morning at breakfast I shared this following anecdote about Pablo Neruda: “To decorate his houses he has scoured antique shops and junkyards for all kinds of objects. Each object reminds him of an anecdote. “Doesn’t he look like Stalin?” he asks, pointing to a bust of the English adventurer Morgan in the dining room […]
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The Friday Influence 