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Comment by Gary Synder
In April, poet Gary Snyder visited the Twin Cities for a reading and was interviewed by local critic Chris Welsch. During the interview, Welsch said, "Poet Charles Simic recently wrote about what he called the ‘New American Pessimism," a sense that our big problems can’t be solved and that we’re unable to act together to address them. What’s your ( Read more... ) -
Poem: "The Things"
I found this last night on Garrison Keillor’s "Writer’s Almanac."
The Things
When I walk in my house I see pictures,
bought long ago, framed and hanging
- de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore -
that I've cherished and stared at for years,
yet my eyes keep returning to the masters
of the trivial - a white stone perfectly round,
tiny lead models of ( Read more... ) -
Dakota Names for Months
My youngest son and his bride (Scott and Rachael) were married last Saturday at the Gibbs Farm Museum, located near the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. On the grounds of the museum were a series of plaques giving the Dakota names of the various months of the year. I am reproducing them here.
January: "The Hard Moon"
February: "The ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
I find that I cannot get into the spirit of holidays that seem to celebrate war, violence and death. It is not that I doubt the sincerity of celebrants, or that I feel my sentiments are on a higher plain. There is just something that strikes me as perverse about it. The beer and truck ads on TV trumpeting "guts and glory" are particularly repulsive ( Read more... ) -
Melissa --- Greek dog
I am reading Alan Furst’s latest novel: Spies of the Balkans. It is set in a small fishing town in Greece in the 1940's, just before and then during the invasion by Nazi Germany. The main protagonist is a Greek police official. Part of the story concerns his dog, Melissa --- honeybee --- "...a big girl, eighty pounds, with a thick soft black-and- ( Read more... ) -
Poem for month: Death be not proud
I have set a goal for myself of memorizing a poem, fragment of a poem or speech each month. At first I thought of one a week, but I am old and retired and try to avoid anything that looks seriously like work. The verse below is a kind of softball, since I have known it for over forty years. I first heard it in 1968 during a memorial service for ( Read more... ) -
Anne Dillard, Spinoza and freedom
The following excerpts are from an essay by Anne Dillard entitled "Living Like Weasels."
The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at last ignobly in its talons. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel’s: open to time and death ( Read more... ) -
Poem "A Day at theBeach"
I found the following poem at Garrison Keilor’s "Writer’s Almanac." I just like and want to keep it.
A Day at the Beach
If he had been paying more attention
to whatever my mother was saying
from her hat beneath the umbrella
or watching more closely over my brother,
off ( Read more... ) -
Viking Names
I am reading a book about the Old Norse (a.k.a. "Vikings). Particularly interesting is their manner of naming themselves and each other. Most commonly boys took the name of their father ("Eric Son of John"). Sometimes it was a matter of appearance ("Leif the Red") or achievement ("Hakon the Bold.") Some names were descriptive ("Eric the Silent" and ( Read more... ) -
Poem --- Different Dogs
Some poems are not triumphant or ennobling and still manage to strike the heart. This is one such. It is from the New Yorker (Jan 17, 2011).
Different Dogs
I’m sitting here with this bony Doberman
atop a stinky knoll back of the Oklahoma
City Animal Shelter. I make sure to walk
the wretched ones. The others barked
raucously as she ( Read more... )