WELCOME. Take a moment to kick off your shoes, relax, and refill your cup. Enjoy some poetry and a bit of art. Browse through the assorted offerings, and hopefully you'll find something helpful, informative, or just fun. Oh, And chocolate!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
What Wild-Eyed Murderer
by Peter Meinke
We shouldn’t worship suffering: the world’s
a spinning rack where suffering indicates
all goes well we’re alive and not curled
up in the black hushhush death dictates
as its first condition: no screaming there
We crown ourselves with thorns of past
transgressions Sharp spears of deed spare
no rib of pain: around the cross crashed
common lightning usual blood Who earns
our reverence should break both cross and crutch
in the face of suffering: while the rack turns
and tightens they’ll smile at the sense of touch
Suffering’s too common to be worth
anything joy too rare to be priced
The saints we search for will embrace the earth:
what wild-eyed murderer suffers less than Christ?
from: The Contracted World: New & More Selected Poems. Copyright 2006.
a spinning rack where suffering indicates
all goes well we’re alive and not curled
up in the black hushhush death dictates
as its first condition: no screaming there
We crown ourselves with thorns of past
transgressions Sharp spears of deed spare
no rib of pain: around the cross crashed
common lightning usual blood Who earns
our reverence should break both cross and crutch
in the face of suffering: while the rack turns
and tightens they’ll smile at the sense of touch
Suffering’s too common to be worth
anything joy too rare to be priced
The saints we search for will embrace the earth:
what wild-eyed murderer suffers less than Christ?
from: The Contracted World: New & More Selected Poems. Copyright 2006.
Perhaps a Marathon . . . Or a Bake Sale . . .
The Stages of Grading
by Debby Thompson
Stage I
Stage I begins in benign resentment. You’re determined, this time, not to let those 80 term papers and final exams destroy you. It won’t be like the last grading marathon at semester’s end. You will stay in charge. You have 800 pages to grade, 400 on American Drama and 400 on Literary Theory. You take out your purple grading pen.“Power serves as an overhanging subconscious,” says the first sentence. You experience your first twinges of pain. But it’s mild, still mild. You can still giggle at the assertion that “we adopt our social roles in order to panda to society.” You picture your social role—your teacher persona—as a black-and-white herbivore performing in a zoo for a crowd of unruly students. Then a character in a play you read this semester, you learn, suffers from “post-dramatic stress disorder.” He’s also in a “post-depressive state.” You’re still pre-, but barely.
Stage II
Stage II presents with mild but steady localized pain, mostly along the GI tract, and an inability to concentrate. Despair is still contained, but it’s eyeing the lymphatic system’s freedom train. Women are “co-modified.” Men are “discluded.” Role models are “immolated.” Passages are “taken out of context due to objective reality.” “Often times” is everywhere.Bad things are happening to language.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is “African,” while Shakespeare’s Othello is “African American,” and Shylock is “a Hebrew.”
Stage III
This stage manifests in moderate but bearable generalized pain.
IT GETS WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER . . . Read on . . .
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
by Emily Dickinson Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!
BOOK REVIEWS. Sort Of.
The Cat, the Wife, and the Weapon - Leann Sweeney
These books make me a bit nostalgic for my quilting days. Sigh.
And what is with that assistant coroner? How can she still have a job?
All I have to say is that Jillian handles her with more grace than I ever would. (But then she has a better writer than I have.)
And what is with that assistant coroner? How can she still have a job?
All I have to say is that Jillian handles her with more grace than I ever would. (But then she has a better writer than I have.)
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
A Wonderful Find for Poetry Month
is a website featuring regular people, reciting their
favorite poems.
Our goal is simple: use technology to help folks share their love of poetry with others.
Our goal is simple: use technology to help folks share their love of poetry with others.
BOOK REVIEWS. Sort Of.
The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland Aged 42 and Three-Quarters - Barbara Silkstone
Interesting.
I'll be honest. This woman does not think things through.
Alice is a grandmother but her thought processes put me in mind of someone much younger with much less experience. Still it was an interesting read.
I'll be honest. This woman does not think things through.
Alice is a grandmother but her thought processes put me in mind of someone much younger with much less experience. Still it was an interesting read.
NOTE: These are not, in any way, meant to be comprehensive reviews.
They are intended to acknowledge that I have read the book and give my honest core impressions.
If a real review is what you wish, there
are many wonderful book blogs available, and I have provided some tools
to find them under the tab marked "Useful."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)