I loaf and loiter at my ease. Misquoting the textbook, and improving it a bit.
Where are the words that will enchant the hooligans? They're comin' up on PBS.
A vegetarian's obnoxious virtue. And clever games, and talk of mercy.
It's the best thing on commercial television. So I've heard. I haven't watched television since the Watergate hearings.
The vowel-and-consonant distribution of exotic names.
One is a juice and one is a "beverage."
Attention is a loan shark. Pay attention.
Carols and lessons at three o'clock. I'll be asleep, in all likelihood.
O spirit of optimism, am I man enough to sustain thy cordial stresses?
There's a party next Thursday night at seven. Will you be there? We're meeting at the Bow and Arrow Pub.
We don't know each other, but I met you in the summer. I don't have any college degrees. In fact, my presence here is probably lowering property values.
Why not just listen to the radio? I love a rainy night.
I was sixteen before I could mispronounce "Adonaïs" correctly.
It's patently obvious that we are becoming inventive.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Ghazal
Beshrew this Persian form, this sticky glue-puzzle!
I'm ready to throw it out and start a new puzzle.
Give me synesthesia and a splash of color,
Give me tradition, apple pie, a true-blue puzzle.
Give me nuts and bolts, brass tacks, the hard facts,
Give me a child-proof difficult-to-unscrew puzzle.
I despise the ease of pedestrian enigmas,
Of the winding path, of the pebble-in-the-shoe puzzle.
I require a larger-than-life brain-tease, a tall order;
Give me a six-foot-eleven or seven-foot-two puzzle.
It's hard to write a ghazal when you've had beer to guzzle,
But I'm willing to try a hearty stout, a dark brew-puzzle.
Where are you going with this, O Eastie-bred dylan?
I'm off to Wales to solve a Cwmrhydyceirw puzzle.
I'm ready to throw it out and start a new puzzle.
Give me synesthesia and a splash of color,
Give me tradition, apple pie, a true-blue puzzle.
Give me nuts and bolts, brass tacks, the hard facts,
Give me a child-proof difficult-to-unscrew puzzle.
I despise the ease of pedestrian enigmas,
Of the winding path, of the pebble-in-the-shoe puzzle.
I require a larger-than-life brain-tease, a tall order;
Give me a six-foot-eleven or seven-foot-two puzzle.
It's hard to write a ghazal when you've had beer to guzzle,
But I'm willing to try a hearty stout, a dark brew-puzzle.
Where are you going with this, O Eastie-bred dylan?
I'm off to Wales to solve a Cwmrhydyceirw puzzle.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Coffee
O coffee most matutinal and mighty!
O fortifying friend! O cup o' joe!
You strengthen and you waken sluggish brains!
O happy Saturday of indoor leisure!
Long morning at the keyboard, with a mug
Full of your dark mysterious potency!
O energizing java, you inspire
Poets across the continents and oceans
To sing your praise with strenuous hearty sounds!
Critics may counsel calmer beverages,
Elegant orange juice or Adam's ale,
But we find joy in you, O coffee bold!
O fortifying friend! O cup o' joe!
You strengthen and you waken sluggish brains!
O happy Saturday of indoor leisure!
Long morning at the keyboard, with a mug
Full of your dark mysterious potency!
O energizing java, you inspire
Poets across the continents and oceans
To sing your praise with strenuous hearty sounds!
Critics may counsel calmer beverages,
Elegant orange juice or Adam's ale,
But we find joy in you, O coffee bold!
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Lazy Bastardism: A Notebook
Great essay by poet Carmine Starnino (a name that is new to this reader) at the Poetry Foundation website. Beginning with Italian-Canadian dialect expressions, going on to the poetic aspects of certain Catholic prayers (and the modernistic draining of all poetry therefrom), approbatory mentions of everyone from Cummings to Donne, from Simic to Stallings, and a swipe at the "lazy bastardism" of a recent US poet laureate.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Quotation
To tell someone "I love you" is tantamount to telling him or her, "you shall never die."
Gabriel Marcel, quoted by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in God and Man (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2004), p. 114
Gabriel Marcel, quoted by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in God and Man (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2004), p. 114
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Semi-significant anniversaries
2010 will mark:
-- 20 years since I left college
-- 25 years since my discovery of Dylan Thomas
-- 25 years since The Breakfast Club (mega-popular John Hughes film) and "Apostasy of Love" (one of my weirder poems)
-- 25 years since that Seamus Heaney reading at Boston College, where I got my copies of Field Work and Station Island autographed
-- 30 years since my first day at Boston Latin School
-- 30 years since my first trip, with my parents, to Quebec City
-- 70 years since my dad was born! (Yikes!)
-- 20 years since I left college
-- 25 years since my discovery of Dylan Thomas
-- 25 years since The Breakfast Club (mega-popular John Hughes film) and "Apostasy of Love" (one of my weirder poems)
-- 25 years since that Seamus Heaney reading at Boston College, where I got my copies of Field Work and Station Island autographed
-- 30 years since my first day at Boston Latin School
-- 30 years since my first trip, with my parents, to Quebec City
-- 70 years since my dad was born! (Yikes!)
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Music at yesterday's Mass
Ding dong merrily on high,
In heav'n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv'n with angel singing.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!
E'en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And "Io, io, io!"
By priest and people sungen.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!
Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rime
Your evetime song, ye singers.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!
In heav'n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv'n with angel singing.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!
E'en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And "Io, io, io!"
By priest and people sungen.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!
Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rime
Your evetime song, ye singers.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!
Friday, January 01, 2010
In defense of Pope Pius XII
Cardinal Seán O'Malley devotes the initial part of this week's post at his blog to defending the late Pontiff against charges of Nazi sympathies.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The true meaning of ALL ARE WELCOME
"I don't think you should check us out." If you're not a welcoming sort (read: leftist), stay away!
Via Mark Shea.
Via Mark Shea.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Poetry meme UPDATED
Found at Inscapes (a blog that comes recommended by the sagacious William Luse), after clicking on the label "poetry."
UPDATE (12/28): I was just rereading the post from which I stole the meme below, and found this sentence:
Yikes! Lawrence? Lawrence??
The ghost of Dylan Thomas, I'm sure, forgives the blogger!
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
1. The first poem I remember reading/hearing/reacting to was .....
2. I was forced to memorize ..... in school and .....
3. I read/don't read poetry because .....
4. A poem I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is .....
5. I write/don't write poetry, but .....
6. My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature .....
7. I find poetry .....
8. The last time I heard poetry .....
9. I think poetry is like .....
My answers:
1. The first poems were of course the songs I heard on AM radio before the age of three ("American Pie" and "A Horse with No Name" were particular favorites). Then, later: Beatles lyrics, and Robert Frost (age 11, just as I was beginning to write rhymes of my own).
2. Memorably, I was forced to memorize Poe's "Annabel Lee" in school. I was out of school when the assignment was given, to be done by the following day. So that following day I was in class, sweating bullets and frantically hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me before I had the chance to memorize the piece right then and there! In 30 minutes, I managed to memorize enough of the poem to earn a grade of 15 out of 20.
3. I read poetry because for me, it is almost the only kind of literature worth reading!
4. Favorite poems include Dylan Thomas's "Prologue"; Shakespeare's sonnet 18; Catullus's "Odi et amo" (I hate and I love); many poems by Cummings; Theodore Roethke's "I knew a woman, lovely in her bones"; Countee Cullen's "A Song of Praise"; "O Holy Night" in French (Minuit, chrétiens); and a hundred others.
5. I used to write poetry. Nowadays, I perpetrate a feeble kind of light verse every once in a blue moon.
6. See answer to #3!
7. I find poetry where it can be found, which is almost everywhere.
8. The last time I heard poetry was my own viva voce reading of A Child's Christmas In Wales last night. Prose poetry, but poetry nonetheless!
9. I think poetry is like nothing else in the world. (Oh, what am I supposed to say?) I think poetry is loads of fun. And more, I think poetry is necessary, at least for me.
UPDATE (12/28): I was just rereading the post from which I stole the meme below, and found this sentence:
Some of the most beautiful and moving poems I know are not “pretty”; they are harsh, maybe even dissonant, and treat ugly subjects, for example, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens, or Lawrence’s “Do Not Go Gentle.”
Yikes! Lawrence? Lawrence??
The ghost of Dylan Thomas, I'm sure, forgives the blogger!
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
1. The first poem I remember reading/hearing/reacting to was .....
2. I was forced to memorize ..... in school and .....
3. I read/don't read poetry because .....
4. A poem I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is .....
5. I write/don't write poetry, but .....
6. My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature .....
7. I find poetry .....
8. The last time I heard poetry .....
9. I think poetry is like .....
My answers:
1. The first poems were of course the songs I heard on AM radio before the age of three ("American Pie" and "A Horse with No Name" were particular favorites). Then, later: Beatles lyrics, and Robert Frost (age 11, just as I was beginning to write rhymes of my own).
2. Memorably, I was forced to memorize Poe's "Annabel Lee" in school. I was out of school when the assignment was given, to be done by the following day. So that following day I was in class, sweating bullets and frantically hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me before I had the chance to memorize the piece right then and there! In 30 minutes, I managed to memorize enough of the poem to earn a grade of 15 out of 20.
3. I read poetry because for me, it is almost the only kind of literature worth reading!
4. Favorite poems include Dylan Thomas's "Prologue"; Shakespeare's sonnet 18; Catullus's "Odi et amo" (I hate and I love); many poems by Cummings; Theodore Roethke's "I knew a woman, lovely in her bones"; Countee Cullen's "A Song of Praise"; "O Holy Night" in French (Minuit, chrétiens); and a hundred others.
5. I used to write poetry. Nowadays, I perpetrate a feeble kind of light verse every once in a blue moon.
6. See answer to #3!
7. I find poetry where it can be found, which is almost everywhere.
8. The last time I heard poetry was my own viva voce reading of A Child's Christmas In Wales last night. Prose poetry, but poetry nonetheless!
9. I think poetry is like nothing else in the world. (Oh, what am I supposed to say?) I think poetry is loads of fun. And more, I think poetry is necessary, at least for me.
Friday, December 25, 2009
José Garcia Villa
Bring the pigeons watermelons, Abelard.
The order has cool philosophic purity.
This is not largesse but Roman nobility.
Bring the peacocks oranges.
Turn the philosophy to sensuousness.
Pallas Athene is Greek thereby.
But if we bring the watermelons pigeons?
If we bring the oranges peacocks?
Is that very difficult?
This would not be Greek nor Roman,
This would be purity without philosophy.
This would be artistry.
José Garcia Villa, poem #34, in Doveglion: Collected Poems, ed. John Edwin Cowen, intro. Luis H. Francia (Penguin Books, 2008), pp. 21-22.
The order has cool philosophic purity.
This is not largesse but Roman nobility.
Bring the peacocks oranges.
Turn the philosophy to sensuousness.
Pallas Athene is Greek thereby.
But if we bring the watermelons pigeons?
If we bring the oranges peacocks?
Is that very difficult?
This would not be Greek nor Roman,
This would be purity without philosophy.
This would be artistry.
José Garcia Villa, poem #34, in Doveglion: Collected Poems, ed. John Edwin Cowen, intro. Luis H. Francia (Penguin Books, 2008), pp. 21-22.
Prayers
This Christmas evening, it's probably a good idea to pray for the peace of mind of the troubled woman who ran at the Holy Father as the late-night Christmas Mass began, and for the healing of Cardinal Etchegaray who broke a bone (his hip, was it?) during the confusion.
Incarnation
by Dr. Eric Milner-White (1884-1963)
What is man that thou visitest him,
and the son of man that thou so regardest him?
LORD, let me kneel before thy miracle
-- an infant in a stable
on a human mother's breast,
from all eternity thine only begotten Son,
thy Word from before beginning,
God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God,
of his own choice, of thine own purpose,
made mortal man.
What is man that thou visitest him,
and the son of man that thou so regardest him?
O CHRIST, let me kneel before the wonder of thy Glory
thus made manifest to all flesh;
to be made one with thy lowliness,
one with thine obedience,
one with thy majesty of love,
in a union, that by thy grace
shall know no divorce
unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Eric Milner-White, My God, My Glory : Aspirations, Acts, and Prayers on the Desire for God, ed. Joyce Huggett (London : Triangle/SPCK, 1994), p. 57
What is man that thou visitest him,
and the son of man that thou so regardest him?
LORD, let me kneel before thy miracle
-- an infant in a stable
on a human mother's breast,
from all eternity thine only begotten Son,
thy Word from before beginning,
God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God,
of his own choice, of thine own purpose,
made mortal man.
What is man that thou visitest him,
and the son of man that thou so regardest him?
O CHRIST, let me kneel before the wonder of thy Glory
thus made manifest to all flesh;
to be made one with thy lowliness,
one with thine obedience,
one with thy majesty of love,
in a union, that by thy grace
shall know no divorce
unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Eric Milner-White, My God, My Glory : Aspirations, Acts, and Prayers on the Desire for God, ed. Joyce Huggett (London : Triangle/SPCK, 1994), p. 57
Thursday, December 24, 2009
O come, all ye faithful ...
Adeste, fideles,
laeti triumphantes,
venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte regem angelorum!
Venite adoremus Dominum!
En, grege relicto,
humiles ad cunas
vocati pastores approperant :
et nos ovanti gradu festinemus!
Venite adoremus Dominum!
laeti triumphantes,
venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte regem angelorum!
Venite adoremus Dominum!
En, grege relicto,
humiles ad cunas
vocati pastores approperant :
et nos ovanti gradu festinemus!
Venite adoremus Dominum!
A kid's answer to a Santa question
This was on the news around here. A reporter was asking little kids questions about jolly old St. Nick, and one of the questions was, "How fast does Santa's sleigh fly?"
A girl of about six came up with the best answer. She thought about it and said, "Ten seconds per second."
A girl of about six came up with the best answer. She thought about it and said, "Ten seconds per second."
Monday, December 21, 2009
Take it up to the next level
Do you or some of your co-workers utilize -- I mean, use -- these jargonistic terms?
Sunday, December 20, 2009
On a happier note!
Enbrethiliel gives us a characteristically cheery post for her Sacerdotal Sunday: about the Curé of Ars; about "sin detection" and running shoes; about smiling at the thought of returning to dust, and other good things.
And yes, on Ash Wednesday, I wish I could hear the priest say to me, in "sexist" iambic Elizabethan: "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return."
And yes, on Ash Wednesday, I wish I could hear the priest say to me, in "sexist" iambic Elizabethan: "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return."
Saturday, December 19, 2009
More unpleasantness
Anti-Christian graffiti mars the site of the Last Supper. Graffiti and so forth.
Via Catholic and Enjoying It!
Via Catholic and Enjoying It!
Trashing Pope Pius XII
The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League can, and should, shut their faces.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thomas Merton, great Christian pacifist
The race situation is certainly ugly and out of hand, and I see it as pretty hopeless. But it was to be expected. Too bad it tends to nullify all the good work and all the sacrifice of Martin Luther King and his followers. But if the country insists on practicing terrorism in Viet Nam then it deserves to get a taste of it at home. Only the ones who get it aren't the ones who deserve it.
Thomas Merton to James Laughlin, letter, August 1, 1967. From Thomas Merton and James Laughlin: Selected Letters (W. W. Norton & Co., 1997), p. 326 [italics mine]
Thomas Merton to James Laughlin, letter, August 1, 1967. From Thomas Merton and James Laughlin: Selected Letters (W. W. Norton & Co., 1997), p. 326 [italics mine]
Sunday, December 13, 2009
John Ashbery
For those readers that are interested, here is Helen Vendler's review of John Ashbery's latest collection, Planisphere.
Via The Provincial Emails.
Via The Provincial Emails.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)