Another Commonplace Book

“I wanted the past to go away, I wanted to leave it, like another country; I wanted my life to...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:21:41 -0400

“I wanted

the past to go away, I wanted

to leave it, like another country; I wanted

my life to close, and open

like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song where it falls

down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery; I wanted

to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,

whoever I was, I was

alive

for a little while.”

Mary Oliver, from her poem “Dogfish.”

I mistyped “alive” as “alove.” That too.

“I think that night for the first time I held you with whole hands that night you said ...

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:03:21 -0400

“I think that night for the first time

I held you with whole hands that night

you said My body will answer yours

that it was like a prayer why

did I laugh then when you had let me see

through the idea of you to you”

Craig Arnold, from “Asunder,” in his collection Made Flesh

“The stars will come out over and over the hyacinths rise like flames from the windswept turf...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:28:46 -0400

“The stars will come out over and over

the hyacinths rise like flames

from the windswept turf down the middle of upper Broadway

where the desolate take the sun

the days will run together and stream into years

as the rivers freeze and burn

and I ask myself and you, which of our visions will claim us

which will we claim

how will we go on living

how will we touch, what will we know

what will we say to each other.”

Adrienne Rich, from “Nights and Days,” in her collection, The Dream of a Common Language

Which of our visions will claim us?

“I would stop my wings in midair. If only I could take my place in the dances where once as a...

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:20:04 -0400

“I would stop

my wings in midair.

If only I could take my place in the dances

where once as a girl at fancy weddings

I made my feet whirl

alongside my girlfriends -

we were rivals in grace”

Euripides, from “Iphigenia Among the Taurians,” translated by Anne Carson

“Come, grace of sound and breath, fortify this mouth, even when its weakness frightens and...

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:09:28 -0400

“Come, grace of sound and breath,

fortify this mouth,

even when its weakness

frightens and stifles us.

Come, and do not falter,

for we battle so much evil.

Before dragon’s blood protects an enemy,

this hand will fall into the fire.

Deliver me, my word!”

Ingeborg Bachmann, from her poem, “Spoken and Rumored,” translated by Peter Filkins

colchrishadfield: With deference to the genius of David Bowie,...

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:56:01 -0400

colchrishadfield:

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.

Huge thanks in the making of the video to the talented trio of Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran and Andrew Tidby, plus Evan Hadfield and all at the CSA.

Pace, Mr. Bowie, but this is my new favorite version of this song.

Amazing. And thank you, Commander Hadfield.

“And all the spaces of the midnight town Ring with appeal and sorrowful abuse. There some most...

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:45:04 -0400

“And all the spaces of the midnight town

Ring with appeal and sorrowful abuse.

There some most lonely are: some try to crown

Mad lovers with sad boughs of formal yews,

And Titan women wandering up and down

Lead on the pale fanatics of the muse.”

J. E. Flecker, from “The First Sonnet of Bathrolaire”

“The old god, too, writes aureate poetry In tarnished modes, maundering among the wastes, Fair...

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:20:46 -0400

“The old god, too, writes aureate poetry

In tarnished modes, maundering among the wastes,

Fair chronicler of every foul declension.

Age, and ages of prose, have uncoiled

His talking whirlwind, abated his excessive temper

When words, like locusts, drummed the darkening air

And left the cobs to rattle, bitten clean.

Skies once wearing a blue, divine hauteur

Ravel above us, mistily descend,

Thickening with motes, to a marriage with the mire.”

Sylvia Plath, from “Ouija”

“And in the best of all possible lives, that beginning and that end are the same: in poem...

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:13:27 -0400

“And in the best of all possible lives, that beginning and that end are the same: in poem after poem I encountered words that mark the first something made out of language that we hear as children repeated night after night, like a refrain: I love you. I am here with you. Don’t be afraid. Go to sleep now. And I encountered words that mark the last something made out of language that we hope to hear on earth: I love you. You are not alone. Don’t be afraid. Go to sleep now.”

Poet Mary Ruefle, from her lecture “On Beginnings,” in Madness, Rack, and Honey

“Love forgive me all I’ve given has been a form of taking talking over a table of...

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:30:00 -0400

“Love forgive me all I’ve given

has been a form of taking

talking over a table of scarred wood

talking always about the table

I’ve held out my hand and drawn it back

in case you took it always afraid

to take the table away forever.”

Craig Arnold, from “A Place of First Permission” in his collection, Made Flesh

I like to imagine that forgiveness is being asked not of a specific lover, but of Love

“And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices And the...

Sat, 04 May 2013 20:55:09 -0400

“And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices

In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices

And the weak spirit quickens to rebel

For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell

Quickens to recover

The cry of quail and the whirling plover

And the blind eye creates

The empty forms between the ivory gates

And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth”

T. S. Eliot, from part VI of “Ash-Wednesday”

“Where have they gone, the lordly makers, Torchlight and fire-folk of our skies, Those grand...

Fri, 03 May 2013 21:42:40 -0400

“Where have they gone, the lordly makers,

Torchlight and fire-folk of our skies,

Those grand authorial earthshakers

Who brought such gladness to the eyes

Of the knowing and unworldly-wise

In damasked language long ago?

Call them and nobody replies.

Et nunc in pulvere dormio.”

Anthony Hecht, from “Death the Poet: A Ballade-Lament For the Makers”

“And still the poetry of ancient Sumeria will be understood with ease...

Thu, 02 May 2013 19:36:02 -0400

“And still the poetry of ancient Sumeria

will be understood with ease -

humiliation,

ambition,

slaughter,

the cutting down of the tallest cedar -

and Beowulf’s verdict yet hold:

Technologies alter.

Heaven swallows the smoke.”

Jane Hirshfield, from her poem, “Haofon Rece Swealg,” in her collection, Come, Thief

One of my favorite lines in Beowulf

“Sometimes when girls get together, they vow to just put their dreams away forever because...

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:05:09 -0400

“Sometimes when girls get together, they vow

to just put their dreams away forever

because boys are creeps, sleazes, troglodytes

and toads. They’re poisoned apples, and spikes

in the heart. Bulldozers with bad breath,

gangplanks to walk off of, horny, grabby,

promise-breaking bastards.”

Ron Koertge, from “The Frog Prince,” in his collection Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses

“Go beyond what’s reliable in all that keeps pleading and pleading, these eyes and...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:29:41 -0400

“Go beyond what’s reliable

in all that keeps pleading and pleading,

these eyes and puddles and stones,

and recollect how bold you were

when I visited you first

with departures you cannot go back on.”

Seamus Heaney, from “Making Strange”

“Such meetings never occur in märchen Where love-met groundhogs love one in return, Where...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:04:17 -0400

“Such meetings never occur in märchen

Where love-met groundhogs love one in return,

Where straight talk is the the rule, whether warm or hostile,

Which no gruff animal misinterprets.

From what grace am I fallen. Tongues are strange,

Signs say nothing. The falcon who spoke clear

To Canacee cries gibberish to coarsened ears.”

Sylvia Plath, from “Incommunicado.”

From what grace am I fallen.

“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:39:00 -0400

“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

Selves - goes its self; myself is speaks and spells,

Crying What I do is me: for that I came.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins, from “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”

Hopkins is a poet best read aloud. No one else takes such obvious joy in the play of language.

Chorus: “Will I throw my bared throat back, to the cool night back, the way, oh, in the green...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:54:22 -0400

Chorus: “Will I

throw my bared

throat

back, to the cool

night back, the

way,

oh, in the green joys

of the meadow, the

way

a fawn

frisks, leaps,

throws itself”

Euripides, The Bacchae, as translated by C. K. Williams

It’s in the trees. It’s coming.

“”What will happen next?” - the question hinged in your knees, your ankles, in the...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:04:00 -0400

“”What will happen next?” -

the question hinged in your knees, your ankles,

in the in-breaths even of weeping.

Strongest of magnets, the future impartial drew you in.

Whatever direction you turned was face to face.

No back of the world existed,

no unseen corner, no test. No other earth to prepare for.”

Jane Hirshfield, from “When Your Life Looks Back,” in her collection Come, Thief

neil-gaiman: One of the things on my list of things to do...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:06:13 -0400

neil-gaiman:

One of the things on my list of things to do before I die, is to record the whole of this book. But if I die suddenly tomorrow of an unexpected rhinoceros attack, I am happy that I recorded the first 5 minutes…

James Thurber’s The 13 Clocks is one of my most favorite books. It lives in the bookcase nearest to my desk, so that it is always close at hand, in case of need. So I, too, am happy that Neil recorded the first five minutes, and I am crossing my fingers against his sudden death by unexpected rhinoceros attack.