Stingy Kids

Noted

I'm wiping old files from my computer and trying not to be too sentimental.  But I'm struggling with "Notes," a file that I created a few years ago and in which I stored numerous text clippings.  Half of them don't open any more.  The rest belong to some train of thought that I can no longer reconstruct:

"It has become apparent to me that my son will not be walking out of the river. It is now time to make plans to celebrate a life that was golden." No such memorial details have yet been announced.

but how many roles are out

A small jewel

This lovely little thing is like a perfect shell you find on the beach. It had been advertised as a "modern musical." I tried to think of a musical it owed anything to. No luck. It took a couple of days but then it came to me. It's a reach, and for some of you, a reach too far, but to find the same simple, fragile story, a story touches your heart, you have to go all the way back to City Lights. Amazing. Now I have not only the simple little tune from Once in my head, but it seems to be mixed in with "Who'll buy my violets."

I pray you, recommend me unto my good lady of Salisbury, and pray her to have a good heart, for we never come to the kingdom of Heaven but by troubles.

Daughter, whatsoever you come, take no pain to send unto me, for if I may, I will send to you.

Your loving mother,

Katharine the Queen.

I think I was 8 or 9 when I had a f*cking mad thing for Marilyn Monroe. I used to leave Smarties, the Irish equivalent of M&M's, under my pillow with a little note saying, "I know you're dead, but these are very f*cking tasty, and you should come have a few. I won't tell anyone."

He Fortells His Passing

Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.

Katharine the Quene.

Once you get it, you don't want to be without it again

The fact that "it worked before and doesn't now" of course suggests that "something new has happened" since you upgraded. But the thing that has happened could be any of a vast array of issues, 

The Man at the Wheel. The Fisherman was sculpted by Leonard Crask and dedicated in 1923 and states: "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters: These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like drunken men and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the lord in their trouble, and he bringeth out of their distress. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves there of are still. Then are they glad because they be {quiet;} so he bringeth unto their desired haven. Oh that man would praise the lord, for his goodness and for his wonderful work to the children of men."

Take a deep breath and persevere - you'll get it working. 

Poetry @ YouTube

YouTube user joshuamarie77 is the poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson, whose poemfilm journal, Rabbit Light Movies, was mentioned in a much earlier post. Snippets of these episodes are available for viewing on YouTube but haven't been updated for several months.  That's probably because he has switched over to Vimeo.  I love the scruffiness of YouTube but, I admit, the Vimeo videos look more professional.  What a difference context makes.  Compare and contrast with this video of Joyelle McSweeney reading "Piaf":

Joyelle McSweeney from joshuamarie on Vimeo.

Amy King has a more active YouTube channel, amyhappens.  She curated and moderated a panel on Race and Poetry for the 2008 Boog City Festival.  I missed the festival entirely so I'm grateful that she has posted videos of this event.  I'm slowly making my way through her videos of the panel. 

President-Elect

I've amassed a large folder of links to election-related articles that I've enjoyed over the past few months.  Some of these articles have challenged my understanding of certain issues.  Others, like the Siglo 21 endorsement, struck me for their depth of feeling.  I wanted to share a few of these with you.  I think it's clear from my selections that I endorsed Barack Obama but I also want to call attention to Senator John McCain's concession speech.  I thought it was incredible--gracious, kind, respectful.   

The Poetry of Barack Obama (via NYT)
Obama, Poet by Rebecca Mead

Harold Bloom, who in fifty-three years of teaching literature at Yale University has had many undergraduate poems pressed hopefully upon him said, when reached by telephone in New Haven last week, that he was not familiar with Obama’s oeuvre. But after studying the poems he said that he was not unimpressed with the young man’s efforts—at least, by the standards established by other would-be bards within the political sphere.

The Candidate by William Finnegan

People in Illinois seem largely unaware of Obama’s long, annealing trip into their midst, although they often remark on his unusual calm. Now forty-two and a state senator, Obama emerged, in March, from a raucous primary as the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate. In a seven-person field, he received a remarkable fifty-three per cent of the vote—he even won the “collar” counties around Chicago, communities that supposedly would never support a black candidate. And everyone recalls that, as the votes were being tallied at his headquarters on Election Night, he seemed to be the least agitated person in the place.

Our Support to Barack Obama (Periódico Siglo 21)

For Siglo21, the candidacy of Barack Obama means the freedom and equality made flesh and blood in a political leader.

That only has the meaning of a beautiful season to live, and we want to be here to live it, including, being able to narrate it.

John McCain's Concession Speech

I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

President-Elect Barack Obama, Victory Speech

Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House (note: referring to Civil War president Abe Lincoln) ­ a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies, but friends ... though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.' And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn ­ I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

Mike Brant

Mike Brant was an Israeli singer who became a pop sensation in France.  He sang in French for the most part but apparently learned the language along the way.  In a French documentary that I came across on YouTube (and can no longer locate), I learned that Brant used to have French songs transliterated into Hebrew to aid his pronunciation.  Here are two screen shots that illustrate how this was done:

To connect

Literary Schadenfreude (via Gothamist)

Poet Clive James wrote a poem in which he gloated over finding a competitor's book in a remainder bin.  Honestly, though, the best place to find contemporary poetry books is the 50% off stacks at The Strand.  The last time I was there I found a number of fantastic and current books of poetry but I'll resist naming names just in case being remaindered or discounted hurts anyone's feelings.  One book was dedicated by a young author to a Major Poet.  Even more devastating was the discovery of a personal letter penned by the author (in blue-tinted calligraphy) nestled within the pages of this book.

 

Nobel to Salinger?  Nah, He's American.  (via Gothamist)

Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which administers the Nobel Prize in Literature, got a lot of flack for stating that U.S. Literature was "too isolated, too insular."  He then went on to say that "[t]hey don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature."  That much is true.  Translated literature makes up a pathetically small percentage of book sales in the United States.  U.S. literature, on the other hand, is widely translated into other languages.  I think that next year's prize should go to a translator.   

A Conversation with Shirley Kaufman by Eve Grubin

"I began to know Hebrew poets through my work in translation. A small group of English speakers—writers, translators, and teachers at the Hebrew University—met together twice a month to read the work of John Ashbery.

There was also an Israeli poet who was translating Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror into Hebrew, and he needed some help. We all wanted to keep up with what was happening in English and in translation, as well. That group went on meeting and reading for years."

First OSU Ph.D. in Yiddish studies a trailblazer in field by Jennifer Hambrick

I came across a very interesting profile on Colleen McCallum-Bonar, a scholar of Yiddish literature and possibly the only African-American working in this field.  In the article, she discusses her research interests and also addresses the issues of race that pervade this field of study.

Her doctoral dissertation, “Black Ashkenaz and the Almost Promised Land: Yiddish Literature and the Harlem Renaissance,” compares the Yiddish-language poetry of Jewish immigrants to America and the poetry of African-American writers between 1915 and 1935....

Some of the themes that recur in the Yiddish-language writings of authors of the period, such as Jacob Glatstein and Leivick Halpern, include the idea that African-Americans and Jews in America have a mutual understanding of their histories of oppression at the hands of a white majority.

“Authors say that blacks are our brothers in arms essentially, that we have this kind of shared experience in terms of being in the U.S., being poor in the U.S., being minorities in the U.S. and being mistreated in the U.S.,” McCallum-Bonar said.

Silent Story: One Process for the narrative arc in chapbooks

Poet Justin Evans on narrative arcs in poetry collections:

[A] narrative arc is more than a hook upon which to hang your poems. Poetry at its very center must remain, as my friend and mentor Dave Lee has said, a participation sport. It is not, as the Moderns would suggest, art for art’s sake. The audience is not superfluous. Poetry must be shared, and in that sharing, a story is the poet’s best bet. As each poem tells a story, it only makes sense that a chapbook consisting of a small suite of poems be more than a gathering of good poems. There must be a reason all of these poems are in one place.

To accomplish a successful narrative arc, I advocate the hidden narrative--- the story only the poet knows....use it during the writing of poems for a chapbook and then destroy it, revealing only that information you the poet deems absolutely necessary. So construct a narrative just for you. Don’t draft the narrative because that is prose, but always have the entire story in your conscious thought while writing the poems.

And saving the best for last---

Diagramming Sarah Palin (via Slate)

Stokes

My favorite Mets player has a name that most fans and even Shea staff don't recognize right away.  "Stokes, is he new?" asked a hot dog vendor two weeks ago.  "I thought Stokes was your maiden name" remarked a fan seated behind me.  On any given night Shea Stadium is awash in Wright, Beltran, Delgado jerseys.  Even Piazza still gets some love.  But I'm "probably the only person in New York wearing a Stokes jersey," to quote Joe, who sits in our section.

I grew up thinking that baseball was the most tedious, uneventful sport.  At one point, I think my younger brother played Little League.  That's how little attention I paid to the sport.  My husband, on the other hand, has been a Mets fan since birth and some of David's earliest memories are attending Mets games.  As a kid, he made a papier-mâché Mr. Met.  A sculpture that I think will stay in the family forever, no matter how moldy it gets.  It was David who took me to my first professional baseball game and taught me how to keep score.  But I still didn't get the game.

That is, until Robb Nen.

In 2002, the Giants were in the World Series and playing against the Anaheim Angels.  During these games, David would eventually fall asleep but I would keep  the TV on for company.  I remember that I was working on a paper and by the eighth inning, I was usually ready to go to bed.  So I would sit on the floor and, if any remained, I would  watch the final moments of the game.  The game I most remember must have been Game 4 because the series was far along and the Giants won that night.  And I remember that Nen played. 

When Nen stepped up to the pitcher's mound that night and leaned forward, I knew that something special was happening.  It was in his poise, the way he just dominated that space and looked ahead with complete confidence.  I used to complain to David that Mets games were frustrating to watch because they lacked energy in the last few innings (a comment that comes back to haunt me these days).  I had never seen energy pick up the way it did when Nen walked onto the field.  I felt my heart race and for the first time, I not only watched a game to the end but also didn't want it to end.  David woke up to me cheering and jumping up and down. 

That was Nen's last season as a closing pitcher.  In his efforts to move the Giants ahead in the series, he aggravated a rotator cuff injury, underwent surgery and retired.  Recently, the owner of a card shop asked me why I was so interested in Nen.  I told him that when I first saw Nen pitch, "it all made sense."  I don't even know what I meant by that.  I guess it was just the moment when I started to pay attention.  When I started to care about the mechanics of a pitch and the different roles that ball players occupy during a game.  After that night, every baseball game felt like a unique dramatic narrative--and with me, once a literary analogy reveals itself, I'm pretty much hooked.

But for some of the sports fans I know, my interest in Nen was strange.  I wasn't a Giants fan and had no interest in the Mets.  I liked baseball-- a lot-- but lacked a team.  And for the next six years, I went to games at Shea and kept asking questions.  But I wasn't invested in the victories and losses of any team or any player.

This summer I wasn't able to attend many Mets games but I finally had the time and opportunity to go to Shea on August 9.  John Maine, one of the Mets starting pitchers, was injured and a new pitcher would be starting in his place.  It was a big deal because this guy would be making his starting debut with the Mets and if he did well, he could be good for our slagging bullpen.  It's hard not to be caught up in the excitement of a player's first outing with a team.  It's a make or break moment.  If things go very badly, you may never see that player again.  So that's why I was paying a little more attention than usual when Brian Stokes came onto the field.

He traced the dirt in front of him with his foot and threw his first pitch.  A closer's pitch.  I was hooked.

On that night, Stokes pitched about five innings and gave up some runs.  David was convinced that we would never see him again.  But I knew that Manuel wasn't going to let Stokes's 96 mph fastball out of his sights.  I was right. 

Stokes's future with the Mets may not be carved in stone but for the past two months he's been pitching solidly as a reliever.  He's even closed some games which gives me hope that one day he'll become a full-fledged closer.  But I'll be happy to see him in a solid set-up role as well.  I just wish the Mets had a little more rope to give him.  It's hard to grow into a role when every game is do or die.  But that's why Stokes's confidence and tenacity impress me all the more.  Even if the inning is not going well for him, he fights through until every player is out or until Manuel pulls him out.  And then he walks out tall.   

Being a fan of Stokes means that my favorite part of a Mets game is frustratingly short.  Once, for instance, he was brought out for just one out.  One pitch, one out.  Lightning Stokes.

Being a fan of Stokes means that I sit through Mets games with great anticipation.  It means that over the past two months I started to care not only about one player but also an entire team (which is inevitable when your favorite player sometimes doesn't even appear).  It means that yesterday when Ryan Church made that absurd run in the eighth inning, I was jumping and screaming like those crazy fans I used to observe from a distance. 

It means that when Stokes came out to deliver the last two outs of the seventh inning, I was cheering him on.  I was cheering for my team.

Mad Men and Death Poems

WARNING:  This post contains a major Mad Men spoiler, so if you if you have not seen Episode 2 of Season 2, visit this site after you have.

The most recent episode of Mad Men, a show about advertising executives set in 1960s NYC, opens with the news that American Airlines Flight 1 crashed on its way to Los Angeles.  After cracking some tasteless jokes, the character Pete Campbell learns that his father was on that flight.  His family's loss turns into a professional advantage for Campbell when the new Director of Account Services Herman "Duck" Phillips brings him in to land a deal with American Airlines, now desperate to salvage its public image.  Don Draper, a partner at the advertising firm, resists this move, knowing that it means that they will have to break a contract with Mohawk Airlines, a small but loyal client.  He meets Mohawk's president in a Japanese-style bar and gives the news.  After the meeting, Draper sits alone for some minutes with his drink.  Kyu Sakamoto's "Ue o muite arukō" (Looking up while walking) plays in the background.  The choice of this song is hardly a coincidence: in 1985 Sakamoto died in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123, one of the worst single aircraft disasters in history.  Of 524 passengers and crew members, only four survived to give a partial account of what the passengers went through before and after the crash.  It was the eve of Obon, a three-day festival during which many Japanese return to their hometowns to commemorate their dead.

Admittedly, I was quite pleased with myself for identifying both the song and its relevance to this scene.  It's a minor vindication of a life long affection for oldies music.  Although some posters on the AMC boards disagree, the use of this song in this scene is not anachronistic.  The song was recorded in 1961 and released by Toshiba-EMI.  A disc jockey in DC had gotten a hold of the Toshiba LP and played the song on the air.  It proved to be a hit and was released as "Sukiyaki" in 1963 by Capitol in the US, even though "sukiyaki" refers to a Japanese dish and has nothing to do with the song.  But those responsible for releasing Sakamoto's album in the US/UK decided that the title "sukiyaki" sounded "more" Japanese and would be easier for English speakers to pronounce.  Here's a video of the song featuring Sakamoto:

Some years ago I picked up a copy of Japanese Death Poems edited by the Israeli writer Yoel Hoffman, who lived in Japan for many years.  The book offers a historical introduction to the Japanese tradition of writing jisei ("death poem").  Although, Hoffman concerns himself with death poems composed by monks and poets, anyone can choose to write jisei.  He writes:

Where did the ancient Japanese, a largely maritime people, send their dead?  The "birds of death" sailed sometimes from the eastern shore, sometimes from the western one, out toward the horizon where sea and sky meet.  Did the prehistoric Japanese, who were sun-worshipers, believe that the huge fiery ball which rose from the sea every morning or sank beneath it at night (depending on the position of the region, either on the Pacific Ocean or on the Sea of Japan) was the destination of their dead?  Traces of a belief that the land of the dead lies over the sea can still be found in the ceremonies of the Bon [Obon] festival, during which...the dead who have come to visit their relatives return in small paper boats that the living set sail upon bodies of water.

Japan Airlines Flight 123 began to experience problems with its vertical stabilizer and hydraulic systems 12 minutes after take off.  The pilots were unable to stabilize the aircraft and problems with the controls meant that for most of the short flight, they had no idea where they were.  The plane weaved and circled over Osutaka Ridge for about half an hour before crashing.  In that time, many passengers, including Kyu Sakamoto, wrote farewell letters and poems to their family and friends.  Many of these documents were recovered at the crash site and some are featured in an exhibit at the Safety Promotion Center in Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

Poetry Foundation

Cleaning up my office, getting it ready for a new academic year, I came across a CD compilation of the Poetry Foundation's podcasts.  It must have been something I picked up at the AWP this year.  I generally don't listen to poetry or poetry-related podcasts while I'm working because of the concentration they require but stacking and filing papers didn't demand a lot of my attention.  The podcasts often complement the latest issue of Poetry magazine--for instance, a Kay Ryan interview on Robert Frost followed her essay in the September 2007 issue ("I Demand to Speak with God"). 

Readings by Marie Ponsot and Terrance Hayes were the highlights (for me) of the CD.  The March 2008 issue marked Hayes's first appearance in Poetry.  Go listen to his poem "The Blue Terrance."  The poet G. C. Waldrep observed at a reading that when he reads a poem out loud, he feels that he has created another, a second, poem.  I was thinking about that while listening to Hayes.  On the page, you notice the careful prosody, the word arrangement, the space the poem occupies on the page.  But listen to how Hayes reads "The Blue Terrance," how he lingers over certain words, how his breath spaces the poem in a different way.  To hear more of Hayes's work, visit his profile on the PBS website.

The Poetry Foundation has a lot of good material on their website.  I especially enjoy their "Poem of the Day" feature.  They run for a few minutes at the most, an amuse bouche of poetry.  But if you have more time to spare, browse their essay archive.  Ange Mlinko's essay on Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, "Craft Vs. Conscience," is excellent and only appears online.

Mix

Putting Your Poetry in Order: The Mix-Tape Strategy by Katrina Vandenberg

"Record" by Katerina Vandenberg (via Touched by a Monkey)

An Interview With Poet and Fiction Writer Grace Paley by Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler:

I’ll tell you an interesting thing, at least interesting to me. The poetry before I began to write stories, some of it, was very literary. I was a big reader. I was a big imitator, too. I sounded like I was a little bit British in my poetry. The fact that I came from the Bronx was irrelevant. When I began to write stories, I had the luck of having written poetry so that I had the language in my mouth. On the other hand, it was much looser since it was prose. That had a great effect on me when I continued to write poetry. The poetry improved my prose, but the prose was equally good for my poetry. It loosened it up and made me more relevant to myself.

Featured Poet: Laura Sims @ Seven Corners

Parting Words: The Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish:

I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a

   single word: Home.  (from "I Belong There")

Eva Zeisel

Todd Oldham's video essay on Eva Zeisel is terrific.  You'll find a transcription of my favorite part (most of the video) further below:

"Eva could have been called the den mother of what's known as biomorphic design, as her work's forms always suggested living creatures.  There is a constantly changing quality to her pieces.  If you take your eyes off of them for one minute it feels like they will have evolved into something new the next time you see them. Like her incredible belly button wall divider that undulates in a voluptuous, feminine way.  It gives the impression of constant motion and change, like a shapeshifting cartoon character.  Or her salt and pepper shakers, which look as if they're telling secrets to each other.  And who only hold still when they know that the other ones aren't being watched."

You can view more episodes from Oldham's HGTV series Handmade Modern on YouTube.

I became an Eva Zeisel fan the day a friend of mine was unwrapping her wedding gifts and pulled out a curvaceous sauce boat from Zeisel's Classic Century line.  The following links provide more background on  Zeisel and her work.

* Homeware Visionary Eva Zeisel (NY Mag)
* The Eva Zeisel Forum (a meeting place for collectors and admirers)
* Meeting Eva Zeisel (Creative Times)
* Eva Zeisel in her living room (New York Social Diary)
* The Playful Search for Beauty (Metropolis Mag)