Tag: nature
-
* oh, right – it’s spring!
What a pity! – Tu Fu The flowers fly – why so fast? As I grow old, I wish that spring would linger. What a pity that scenes of joy Came not all in my youth and prime! To set free the mind there must be wine, To set forth one’s feelings nothing is better […]
-
* questions with Pablo Neruda & Mary Oliver
XXXIII. And why is the sun such a bad friend to someone walking in the desert? And why is the sun so friendly in the hospital garden? Are these birds or fish here in nets of moonlight? Was it where they lost me that I was able to find myself? Pablo Neruda, from the Book […]
-
* rivers, Jim Harrison & you
In a life properly lived, you’re a river. You touch things lightly or deeply; you move along because life herself moves, and you can’t stop it; you can’t figure out a banal game plan applicable to all situations; you just have to go with the “beingness” of life, as Rilke would have it. Jim Harrison […]
-
* one year later & three chinese poets
[the lyric poet] always says “I” and sings us through the full chromatic scale of his passions and desires – (Nietzche) Think what you will of Nietzche, he goes overlooked as a poet – and I don’t mean his actual poems but more the spirit with which he approached his writing. Like the quote above […]
-
* Linda Pastan, apples & the friday influence
This week on the Influence: Linda Pastan! What moves me about the lyric below is how it follows the turns of simple tone and lets the subtleties gleam. What does that mean? Peep the line: maybe the wind would wind itself – with its alliterative w’s, but also how the word wind turns over in meaning and pronunciations from noun to verb, seamlessly. […]
-
* Your guest is as good as mine…
Just a quick note to promote the latest issue of Stirring: A Literary Collection! I served as Guest Editor for this issue and had the honor of reading through submissions. Lots of good stuff. Below is an example of some of the fine work to be found in this issue. Fontanelle – David Mohan After […]
-
* Eugene Gloria & the friday influence
This week on the Influence: Eugene Gloria! I have only recently become acquainted with Gloria’s work through his second collection, Hoodlum Birds. Through the collection, he displays an ease and elegance with the line that is both admirable and engaging. In the poem below, I’d like to point out two dynamic parts (among others) to watch […]
-
* Akhmatova & some news on the friday influence
Willow – Anna Akhmatova “And a worn-out cluster of trees.” — Pushkin In the cool nursery of the young century, I was born to a patterned tranquility, The voice of man was not sweet to me, But the wind’s voice I could understand. I loved burdocks and nettles, But the silver willow best […]
The Friday Influence 