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A Basho Snow
Come, let’s go snow-viewing till we’re buried. –Basho How do you make snow sing? The great haiku artist Basho knew how to wring meaning out of the simplest natural detail. Born Matsuo Kinsaku in 1644, the Japanese poet later known simply as Basho established himself in his lifetime as the foremost Japanese writer of a…
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Liberty Cracks
The greatest Leonard Cohen lines: “Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in.” Saw the actual, original, iconic cracked bell in Philadelphia today. The Liberty Bell. “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Funny thing…
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So Unconscious Desire
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Frank O’Hara’s Today
I’ve been thinking a lot about the great New York poet Frank O’Hara – he strolled the Manhattan streets in the 1950s and ’60s writing brilliant, hilarious autobiographical poems about everyday life, kind of like the first blogger. I cannot find any of my O’Hara volumes at the moment, but here at least is a…
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Glistening Fur
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Raindrops and Book Groups in Miami
At a pre-Book Fair backyard party under the Miami palms and a light drizzle of rain, I talked to writers. One had published a novel about the last week of Marilyn Monroe’s life. One was working on a history of Los Angeles and water. One, a MacArthur-winning poet, had written about sea monkeys. One had…
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Bottled Up
It has come to my attention that there are myriad bottles afloat out on the ocean, more than I ever imagined. The messages contained within may sometimes be sentimental, but they might also constitute scientific inquiry. In fact, the oldest found message in a bottle, dating back 98 years, was part of an oceanographic study…
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The Land Where the Bong-Tree Grows
What do you do with a quince? Or a bushel of them. I have a quantity on hand courtesy of my brother. The romantic mythology surrounding quinces is marvelous. In ancient Greece, well wishers tossed fresh quinces into the wedding chariot of the bride and groom. It’s believed by scholars that the apple in the…
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Fire Starter
The winter firewood came today, three face cords worth, and stacking it had its usual perspiratory pleasure. What it made me think of was The Odyssey (we’ve been listening to Ian McKellen’s superb rendition) and that incredible moment when Telemachus and Odysseus recognize each other in the hut of Eumaeus the swineherd. I see their…
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Word Game
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King Lear
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Spring
The Winter being over, In order comes the Spring, Which doth green herbs discover, And cause the birds to sing. The night also expired, Then comes the morning bright, Which is so much desired, By all that love the light. This may learn Them that mourn, To put their grief to flight: The Spring succeedeth…
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Poetry Makes Nothing Happen
“Life is just one ecstasy after another.” Margaret Anderson Oliver the pit-beagle found a dead, stiff, contorted snake on the ground as we made our way around the “walk” for the first time this season and raised it gleefully in his jaws until Gil took it and tossed it in the slough. That’s the second…