Friday, January 30, 2009
Ok, I'm going to post a draft and then, in a day or two, delete it. It is likely to change dramatically before it is un-drafty anyway, this is maybe the first section of sections? Not that I expect ^you^ to read it, but I'll read it differently here, I'll read it ^as if^ you are reading it, and maybe see something I hadn't before.
(p.s. If I owe you an email/letter, I will get to it soon! The crush of things-to-do along with my spastic memory means it goes slowly (and there's even two which are months overdue, I'm sorry), but I'm moving on it.)
-snip-
(p.s. If I owe you an email/letter, I will get to it soon! The crush of things-to-do along with my spastic memory means it goes slowly (and there's even two which are months overdue, I'm sorry), but I'm moving on it.)
-snip-
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Elizabeth Arnold's poem? A little flat, sorry to say. I think it showed a certain envy of Maya Angelou's, strange as such a thing might seem (even using the word 'pulse' in a similar way, if I remember correctly); not for the poetic qualities Angelou brought but for the personality she filled the stage with. Arnold's poem felt cowed by the spotlight it was formulated for.
I feel churlish comparing it to a poem I think better, and want to preface the comparison by saying that I think Arnold did a fine and professorial, if not completely artful, job. That said, Frank Bidart's poem on Slate this week not only does the job very well, it begs the question as to how any American poet could ever hope to write a public, democratic poem without invoking Whitman.
I feel churlish comparing it to a poem I think better, and want to preface the comparison by saying that I think Arnold did a fine and professorial, if not completely artful, job. That said, Frank Bidart's poem on Slate this week not only does the job very well, it begs the question as to how any American poet could ever hope to write a public, democratic poem without invoking Whitman.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Two links:
Now I wish I'd made plans to be there. Especially to have brought the kids. I remember very vividly my mom taking my brother and I to the ERA march in D.C. in -- was it 1981, or 1982? I think 1981. Anyway, I wish we'd made arrangements to be in D.C. to see the inauguration this long weekend. That would've been good. Whatever the future holds, I've become too cynical the last four years especially and I'd like to feel that melt into possibility a little.
Nothing to be done about this, unfortunately I think the guy being reviewed may be largely right, and an institution I've had so much hate and love and desire for will be changed to a memory I may or may not perpetuate among those students who attend in its wake.
Now I wish I'd made plans to be there. Especially to have brought the kids. I remember very vividly my mom taking my brother and I to the ERA march in D.C. in -- was it 1981, or 1982? I think 1981. Anyway, I wish we'd made arrangements to be in D.C. to see the inauguration this long weekend. That would've been good. Whatever the future holds, I've become too cynical the last four years especially and I'd like to feel that melt into possibility a little.
Nothing to be done about this, unfortunately I think the guy being reviewed may be largely right, and an institution I've had so much hate and love and desire for will be changed to a memory I may or may not perpetuate among those students who attend in its wake.
