Tag Archives: books

POETS Day! Judith Wright, Who’s from Australia

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[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday?

The idea…

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Poetry Foundation, and so Poetry magazine by extension or implication depending on which is now considered the over company, has a beef with Judith Wright. To be fair, they positively reviewed her collection, Birds, in the December 1964 issue, writing that “The form is conventional, the tone often that of a skillful, rhyming bird-lover. But the observation is acute and uncompromising and there is sometimes a surprising vigor in the transmission.” It’s praise as contrast to what is not said, but praise. And then, nothing.

Wright is among the more celebrated poets in Australia. If you’re just breaking into the Australian literary scene you’d be lucky to be considered for the Judith Wright Poetry Award for New and Emerging Poets. Got a new book out? There’s the Judith Wright Award for poetry collection by Australians. Alternately, your book or “poem of substantial length,” says Wikipedia, may qualify for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, given each year at the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. I’ve found descriptions and pictures of monuments praising her work for indigenous people, the extent and form of which I’m ignorant but it’s at least cleared the start-small-construction bar of worthiness. She worked to save the Great Barrier Reef in addition to playing a part in other environmental efforts. According to Wikipedia, “With some of her friends, she helped found one of the earliest nature conservation movements,” which is vague enough to conjure all manner of questions I’ll not need answered for the moment if ever but I’m sure you can read all about it at the Judith Wright Arts Centre in the Fortitude Valley suburb of Brisbane. She’s kind of a big deal.

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POETS Day! “Paul Revere’s Ride”

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[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

It’s Independence Day on a Thursday, so I’ll assume there’s no need to encourage anyone to start the weekend early.

I read The Declaration of Independence to my children every July 4th and every time I start to choke up at “firm reliance.” It was the ruin of so many of them and the most consequential insistence of agency since Magna Carta. Children should hear it outside of class, hear that resolute voice of Jefferson, press that it’s not a special day because we get to see a fireworks show but that we get to see a fireworks show because it’s a special day.

I don’t know what other celebratory stuff we’ll get up to. I’m thinking about spatchcocking a chicken and cooking it on the grill, weighed down with a foil wrapped brick or two: salt, pepper, a bit of spicy paprika and served with grilled rounds of pineapple over a bed of mixed lettuces and herbs tossed with a red wine or champagne vinaigrette. Maybe some white beans. Hot dogs are the easy celebration ‘Merica food of choice. If you want to overly complicate things, my hot dog sauce recipe is here and only considerably more expensive though way more labor intensive than buying a pre-made store brand.

This week’s poem is a long one, so I’ll be short. Longfellow made myth out of truth, and I’ve not read anything better on his “Paul Revere’s Ride” than Dana Gioia’s essay “Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: On ‘Paul Revere’s Ride.’” Years ago, I accidentally plagiarized Gioia. It was a cut and paste accident that was corrected as quickly as possible once realized, but for a horrid five minutes or so I credited myself with one of his quotes instead of crediting myself for a paragraph from an older post I wrote that included one of his quotes with proper attribution. Despite hyper-attentiveness to error regarding the man, I’m not going to quote from his essay here. Gun shy. Follow the link and read the whole thing. It’s short and, as would be expected, edifying.

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POETS Day! Bullfighting and Elizabeth Bishop

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Pectoral sandpiper by the JBWR East Pond

[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

I just saw a clip of Dick Van Dyke skipping at age 98. It’s an awkward skip, not because he’s hampered by age, but because he’s exaggerating his high step more in imitation of something from Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks sketch than what you’d expect to see on a playground.

Van Dyke gets made fun of for his “cockney” accent in Mary Poppins. Eddie Izzard said he sounds cockney by way of Australia, but Izzard says it “Australiyur.” I don’t think that’s fair. What do we know about this Bert character he played? Did he immigrate? What’s his backstory? We’re not being fair to Van Dyke as an artist. Dick Van Dyke in his trailer, imagining himself into the role, Stanislovski in his ear. Who is Bert? Images run past. A small boy with a stuffed koala. Fast as a leopard. Sharks. Ping-pong balls. Inevitably he conjures Adelaide and Bert rises from the paper as flesh. Don’t assume everyone in London is British and don’t fault an actor for thinking outside the page.

I think about that a lot.

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POETS Day! Comparing Apples and Rossettis

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Lady Lilith by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (cropped)

[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

This is no time to be outdoors. It’s only 91° here in Alabama. I say “only” because we’ll settle into the mid to high nineties and see a hundred a few times before the summer’s gone, but this is the first time we’ve hit the nineties this year. I need acclimation time. This is regularly timed heat. It happens every year and we all know it’s coming, until it suddenly does.

There’s no easing into it. It’s not like a soothing warm shower where you can start at tolerable and slowly increase towards shipwreck-fog-thick steam (although it’s arguably as humid.) It’s not like a cold pool where you wade slowly in, brief tiptoe, and then settle. This is immediate and all the worse knowing how wonderfully air conditioning cools if only you were in it. It’s Tartarus.

Just a few days ago I wore a now unthinkable blazer. If you work outside, you don’t need convincing. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. Get to shade. Save yourself. Whatever they’re paying you will be enough in a few days when you’ve had time to adjust, but right now, it ain’t.

Conversely, if you work inside you may wanna sit this week out. There will be other POETS Days and some people swear by deferred pleasure. You’re not sweltering. Stick around a while and make sure you’re seen. Maybe read a little verse.

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POETS Day! The Transcendent Shades Cahaba

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The Transcendent Shades Cahaba

[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

We spent the last two weekends clearing bramble and mischievous growth. After a miserable bout of mimosa stump clearing, I asked a horticulturalist neighbor about tilling to make way for a flower bed. He warned me off it. There are some seeds—monkey grass was the pertinent one—that lay dormant for years or decades just waiting for an earnest attempt at rose bed preparation and once awakened are up for a drawn-out fight. He recommended we forgo the tilling workout and lay down cardboard, cover it with landscaping fabric, and then toss on mulch in lieu of laboring with a hand tool for untold hours in Alabama heat and humidity.

It’s as if he told me he had a failsafe, side effect free, weight loss miracle and handed me a box of Chips Ahoy. We did what he said.

Gardening turns out to be fun. In addition to our new rose plants (two Chicago, a Tropicana, and one with a missing label but we think it was De la Soul or something), an assortment of bright things inhabiting a broken Big Green Egg that’s now a planter, and some promissory edible flowers from Idaho, we have Lane, my Fresno Chili plant. If you’ve had children you know what it’s like welcoming a Fresno Chili plant into your life. Suddenly there are Epsom salts, 5-10-10 NPK orders, spray bottles, and sitters. It’s intensive, but there are only so many daylight hours.

Do the right thing. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. Give your chili plant (or lesser garden thing) proper care. Slip out of work and start the weekend off a few hours before The Man’s scheduled time. Permission? You don’t need that. Not when there are crops to plant. Here’s a little verse to kick start things for you.

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POETS Day! Liking Robert Browning

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Not a monk.

[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

I’m feeling older this week. My son is now a rising high school senior, though I don’t suppose the “rising” does anything as a modifier. I doubt many recent graduates are still calling themselves seniors so there’s no danger confusing rising college freshmen, graduates entering the job market, or enlisted men and women with disgorged prep school juniors.

He’s considering his future and colleges. Labs loom there. He fancies a career in research; biochemistry. That’s the current plan. He’s not old like I am and gets to change his mind. Is it too early to point out that some chemical reactions require babysitting? I don’t want to helicopter the kid, but he needs to at least consider the advantages of a career where a premature Friday afternoon exit has less chance of resulting in an explosion. But what do I know, right? I’m just the dad. “Ooh la-la.”

That’s kids, though. One track minds, blinders on, whatever the metaphor. You know what I’m talking about. This POETS Day, when you do the right thing – Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday – keep in mind that there are impressionable young kids on summer break, milling about town. They’re usually in school that time of day and might not know the importance of a wasted afternoon. Be seen. Mentor a kid by hitting a bar in view of a ballroom dance classroom window. If there’s a kid working a summer job at the market, be loud about why you need sunscreen when you’re supposed to be at work. Show him that shirking doesn’t hide in the shadows. Be a role model.

But first, a little verse to kick start your weekend.

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POETS Day! Philip Larkin and Narrative

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[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

Last Saturday, 21 year-old Paul Skenes made his major league pitching debut for the Pittsburg Pirates against the Chicago Cubs. The top overall pick of the 2023 draft reached 100mph on seventeen pitches and struck out seven. He let Nico Hoerner get a homer off him and there was a runner on base in each of his four and some innings pitched, but it’s a pretty impressive first outing for a guy people have heaped lofty expectations on.

He was pulled after allowing two hits with no outs in the fifth and credited with a total of three runs allowed because those runners eventually scored, but that’s not a fair picture. What followed his exit was an inning of incompetence made all the more torturous because of a two-and-a-half-hour misery extending rain delay in the middle of it. The bullpen took the 6-1 lead with two runners on left them by Skenes, loaded the bases and walked six runs. Walked six runs. That hasn’t been done since the White Sox walked in eight in 1959. The inning ended 7-6.

The Pirates took back the lead and won the game; Skenes was awarded a no-decision. Bygones. But there are a few lessons here for the POETS Day reader. First, no one pitches a complete game anymore. Second, the people you work with are just going to screw everything up anyway, so you might as well get out as soon as the getting’s good. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. Seize opportunities and save the workplace effort for when you’re not eager for the promise of a weekend.

But try a little verse first.

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POETS Day! GK Chesterton Was a Merry Old Soul

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Photo by Adam Jones – Interior of Old King Cole Bar – St. Regis Hotel – Midtown – Manhattan – New York City – USA

[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

Andrew J. Offutt was a science fiction and fantasy writer, respected in his field, very prolific, and who served as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1976 – 1978. He also wrote more than four hundred erotic novels under the names Farrah Fawkes, Opal Andrews, Turk Winter, and fourteen pseudonyms.

Some years ago I read, “My Dad the Pornographer,” an article his son, Chris Offutt, wrote for the New York Times Magazine in 2015. It’s behind a paywall now but the gist of the article is that the author’s dad died and left him a house full of binders filled pre-written sex acts. Apparently, Andrew Offutt would jot down any mechanics that came to him and when he needed to move a plot along (I know, but…) he’d reach for a readymade lewdness.

If I remember correctly, Chris wrote that his dad crossed out the ones he used with magic marker so they wouldn’t make a second appearance. Can’t have Farrah plagiarizing Turk. In some cases, there were sections of paper gone where naughty bits were literally cut out to be pasted into a working manuscript.

Andrew turned his down-low side hustle into an assembly line. If a scene occurred to him, he wrote it and found a use for it later. I think that’s brilliant and wish I’d been doing the same with POETS Day opening commentary so when I’m done with the main part about the week’s poet or poem I could reach for a binder filled with the joys of skipping away from the office or worksite for mid-afternoon weekend-style tomfoolery and presto, done. But I haven’t and I’m pressed for time.

Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday, get out of work and all that.

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POETS Day! A Bit of Light Verse

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[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

The school year is coming to a close and that means rough duty for POETS Day. The last couple weeks of students’ time is usually cordoned off for exam review and preparation, final essays, and such projects. That creates a bottleneck of extracurricular events now. Playoffs, tournaments, recitals, and plays need completion before testing. Such things require an audience and if you’re a parent or relative of a student in any end of term activity, you’re an expected attendee.

I’m joining the theater set for the foreseeable future. I’ve got a nephew in Legally Blonde tonight and then my son’s on stage for a three night run of Mamma Mia! I love this sort of thing even though they frown on leaving after your kid’s scenes are done (America, explain!), but I know others see these as slogs to suffer through. They’re a drain on weekend free time no matter which way you look at it, so do the right thing and Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. A perfect day is the name of the game, and that starts with ducking out of work and indulging your wants and needs – after a little verse.

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POETS Day! Kingsley Amis with a Touch of Philip Larkin

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[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]

I’m writing this on a Thursday and I just checked my son out of school early. In the office there’s a sign in/out sheet by an extremely oversized digital clock and I filled in the names. The time was two after two. You couldn’t miss it. I put it down. Above our line were six sign outs all listing two o’clock. There were only eight kids out all day. Six at the same time seems like a lot. Different last names and handwriting.

It’s POETS Day, so do all the regular stuff. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday and bars, ballgames, swimming, and parks. Enjoy the weekend a few hours ahead of schedule. All that. But is there something I should know about Thursday? You wouldn’t call it POETF Day, but is there something like that? It’s just a lot of kids leaving at once. Is it a secret?

Read some verse. I’m going to look into this. If anyone wants to clue me in I can keep everything confidential.

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I was planning on writing about Kingsley Amis without mentioning Philip Larkin. The two met at St. John’s College, Oxford, became roommates and formed a bond still strong when Amis said things at Larkin’s funeral. The little bits of their correspondence that I’ve read cracked me up. They shared a love of jazz, a distrust of posturing, and a wicked sense of humor. Often, when one is mentioned, the other pops up like a mischievous penny.

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