Proem  Octavio Paz**

At times poetry is the vertigo of bodies and the vertigo of speech and the vertigo of death;
   the walk with eyes closed along the edge of the cliff, and the verbena in submarine gardens;
   the laughter that sets on fire the rules and the holy commandments;
   the descent of parachuting words onto the sands of the page;
   the ( Read more... )

One Art.   Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master ( Read more... )

The Poplar  Seamus Heaney

Wind shakes the big poplar, quicksilvering
The whole tree in a single sweep.
What bright scale fell and left this needle quivering?
What loaded balances have come to grief?

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I might have posted this one before, though I think the last Heaney I posted was St. Kevin and the Blackbird.

Vision. Erica FunkhouserWith age ( Read more... )

Excerpt from Ishmael Reed's poem, "I am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra"
(full poem under the link)

"I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Lord of the lash,
the Loup Garou Kid. Half breed son of Pisces and
Aquarius. I hold the souls of men in my pot. I do
the dirty boogie with scorpions. I make the bulls
keep still and was the first swinger to grape the taste.

I am ( Read more... )

An excerpt from T.S. Eliot's "East Coker", which is is in turn, part of the Four Quartets.

"IV

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant ( Read more... )

I went to Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge in the San Luis Valley yesterday. The San Luis Valley is a high mountain desert valley ringed by mountains on 3 sides -only gets 6-8 inches of rain a year and most of its water is snowmelt. Descendants of the Spaniards have lived there since the late 1500's. It's an odd place with quirky towns, flocks of sheep ( Read more... )

"...and simple outstretched limbs trying to pick up way too much, way too fast, where egos are measured with tabloids, where automobiles double for morals, where beliefs are like naps- you leave them behind when someone touches you- and a place where oil always takes precedence over life. I find myself sitting on a bus watching a small boy float ( Read more... )

This didn't post the way it should have, despite LJ's "post-dating" option.

1. The Armour of Contempt Dan Abnett
2. Night Watch Terry Pratchett
3. Transmetropolitan: Back on the Streets Warren Ellis (reread)
4. Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life Warren Ellis
5. Skin and other Stories Roald Dahl

1. The Armour of Contempt Dan Abnett
2. Night Watch Terry Pratchett
3. Transmetropolitan: Back on the Streets Warren Ellis (reread)
4. Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life Warren Ellis
5. Skin and other Stories Roald Dahl