oh, you who are young, consider how quickly the body deranges itself
how time, the cruel banker, forecloses us to snowdrifts white as
     god's own ribs

An excerpt from my favorite new poem I've discovered so far this April:
corydon & alexis, redux
by D. A. Powell

And speaking of cruelty and favorite things I've run across recently...in case you ( Read more... )

If you want to read a terrific, beautifully written story today, check out Erin Hoffman's Stormchaser, Stormshaper at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Although that's the city, rather than the show.

Yep, out and about. 
In St. Louis for a production of Miracle Worker, playing Helen Keller's mother, Kate Adams Keller.
Profoundly inspiring story and it's been fascinating to reacquaint myself with the historical facts of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan's life. Absolutely extraordinary individuals.

To ( Read more... )

Be Drunk   by Charles Baudelaire
Translated by Louis Simpson  
You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it-it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends ( Read more... )

‘“What is it that you need from these books?  What can you learn from them?”

How can you tell him?  On every urgent page, in every book born of human need, however flaccid, puerile, slight, or wrong, there is at least one sentence, one where the author is bigger than the writer, one that sheds the weight of its dead fixations and throws off the lead ( Read more... )

from Josh Marshall's TPM:
Lotta Fun

If you want to get charged up, take a look.

Obama in Manassas last night ...

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a non-same-sex marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by those who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."  ~Abraham Lincoln

When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.

***
INIGO
You seem a decent fellow ... I hate to kill you.

THE MAN IN BLACK
You seem a decent fellow ... I hate to die.

Mary Robinette Kowal posted a charming song that made me smile, from Deanna Hoak, who was encouraging people to post something to make others smile.
So.  While I don't have a song or video to offer, I do have Bigfoot.  Voila.


( Read more... )

I've told a couple of you I would have a poem up on-line in a few weeks, and voila, here it is!

I had the privilege of studying with Rachel Hadas this last summer at the 92nd St Y.  The class was terrific, with a strong focus on form, and so when asked to contribute, I wanted to choose a poem that reflected that.  This particular Minerva poem is ( Read more... )