<<< On August 10, 2021, Barbara Lemon said: I was very interested and studied “New Trilling Essay the Talk of the Town” at my leisure. To be honest, I really liked it. In fact it displays a high level of professionalism. I recommend my own blogsite in addition to “The Liberal Imagination,” which is boss, also “The Opposing Self,” although I didn’t get all the references, and “Beyond Culture,” which really points the way forward by looking back over the other’s shoulder and seeing something as grim as what Lot’s wife may have witnessed, although reports of that event disagree. >>>
<<<Martha Ullman West said: This is a wonderful interview with [Suzanne] Farrell, questions and answers, both. Farrell, in describing the specifics of working with Balanchine, says many of the same things Todd Bolender told me and and many others about working with him in the studio (which he did from 1940 to 1960, originating roles in Four Temperaments, Ivesiana, and Agon, to name a few). I interviewed Bolender extensively for my book, Todd Bolender, Janet Reed and the Making of American Ballet; Bolender, who was arguably Balanchine’s first choreographic apprentice, was particularly interesting about analyzing roles, which Balanchine left up to the dancers, never in fact seems to have mentioned. And Emily [Fragos], my copy of the Everyman anthology of dance poetry was given me by Ursula Le Guin. I value your work.>>
<<< Bruno Anthony said:
I totally agree with Ms. [Lilly] King and hate the idea of “going for gold” and “settling for silver” as if the latter were a consolation prize. Another thing the announcers can do to improve their presentation is to shut up — to allow some silence rather than talking all the time. Also, to honor the athletes who finished two seconds slower than the top three. >>>
Howard Bass wrote regarding Gardner McFall’s “First Kiss”, our pick of the week, on July 4, 2012):
<<<This terrific poem brought back a vivid memory from my own elementary school years. In 4th grade (or thereabouts) we were taught to make candles by dipping our wicks (ok, there’s a vulgar image for you) into a big vat of melted wax. We’d file into the school kitchen, dip, and go out, circling in and out of the kitchen as the wax hardened and our candles thickened. So some students were in the kitchen, others outside waiting to go back in. A couple of the boys kissed Lynn Kaiser and they dared me to do it, too. So I did, kissing her on her forehead, just at the moment when the teacher looked out at us from the kitchen (no doubt we caused something of a commotion). So while Larry and Mark got away with it, I had to stay after school and receive a stern lecture from said teacher. I was not, she declared, a gentleman! I took my punishment like a gentleman and did not implicate the other kissers. Poetry can have a powerful effect on memory–this one really worked for me! Many thanks for posting it, T >>>
On June 13, 2021, Dr. Earle Hitchner said, re a “pick of the week” selection by Terence Winch:
<<< Among the questions simmering in Mary Jo Salter’s skillfully constructed poem is this: What gets erased in the formation of character by inculcating and then enforcing acquiescence in adolescents? Salter shakes off the dusty notion of rote compliance and imposed silence as conducive to learning. The noisy boys turn affliction into fun, thus temporarily thwarting their martinet nun’s discipline by speaking and behaving as the boys they are. Brava to Salter for this bravura verse lending voice to these “unrecorded voices,” including her father’s. >>>
On May 7, 2021, Emily Fragos responded to Mindy Aloff’s piece on Jacques D’Amboise: <<< I well remember seeing Jacques d’Amboise partnering the great Suzanne Farrell in Balanchine’s late masterpiece, Davidsbundlertanze, music by Schumann. It was at the end of his glorious career. When he carried Farrell offstage, the audience gasped. It was one of Balanchine’s most breathtakingly beautiful and haunted moments. What genius! What divine dancers! I am so grateful that I got to see it. >>>
On May 6, 2021 in resonse to “On Freud’s Birthday: The Definitive What Do Women Want?”, Jill Newnham wrote:
<<<
Is Peace Corpse [a] typo or error for Peace Corps?
>>>
<<< All true with the possible exception of the Churchill inspired mission to keep Spain out of the war. By June 1943 there was little danger of Spain joining the Axis. Franco was far too savvy for that. Hitler had pressured Franco to join him in October 1940 when nobody could give you a reasonable scenario by which the Nazis could lose. Even then Franco said no, causing Hitler to state that he would rather have three or four teeth yanked out than have to deal with Franco again. Still a great film with no small amount of humor from that “Finest Hour” of British history when they held the line for civilization and all looked bleakest. The author of this post is sooooooo correct about the significance of the time line. May 21, 2021 >>>
<<< And there’s this dialogue from [Dick Wolf’s] Law and Order the Original:
Librarian: Verlaine was the real talent, you know. Rimbaud just latched onto his coattails and wouldn’t let go.
Briscoe: We were just saying that on the way over here.
Librarian: He shot him.
Briscoe: Who shot who?
Librarian: Verlaine popped Rimbaud. Paul loved Arthur. Paul also loved Matilda. It was a whole mess. The French—what do you expect?
Briscoe: So can you tell us if you sold any copies recently?
Librarian: If you really want decadent, I’d stick with Baudelaire.
May 19, 2021 at 09:04 AM >>>
Alan Ziegler writes, re this post on The Asphalt Jungle:
<<< My father told me it was essential that I see The Asphalt Jungle in order to understand his father, a bank robber, jewel thief, and frequent convict. My grandfather always worked with a crew of specialists (he was the one who could crack the safe).>>> April 20, 2021 at 05:22 PM
On “Remembering Bob Hershon” by Terence Winch, Justin Jamail writes on March 24, 2021.
<<<<
Bob published my first book. He and Charles North invited me to read with them at Zinc Bar. Just two of countless generosities large and small. I used to bring beers and my children to his house for talks. When we would leave, he would say “goodbye sweetheart” to my then two year old daughter in his gruff voice and she would shout in a tiny voice “goodbye sweetheart!” in return, and Donna would wonder what was going on downstairs. He was a good hugger and a good neighbor.
I think I never left a conversation with Bob without learning the names of writers or other interesting people who had been part of his life in one way or another. >>>
[Pictured left to right: David Lehman, Bob Hershon, Bill Zavatsky, Michael Lally]
<< One of my greatest joys has been hanging out with Bob and Donna [Brook] in their kitchen, talking poetry and perfect avocados. Whenever I visited NY, after I moved to Denver, Bob and Donna would insist I stay with them and even set up museum visits and readings we must go to. In the evenings we would walk over to one of their favorite Brooklyn restaurants, having invited others to join us, and have amazing delicious rollicking dinners. Pure fun to be in the presence of Donna, who could tell all wonderful stories about Hanging Loose authors, and Bob, a rigorous, generous, co-editor of one of the most important small presses ever and all his incredible, passionate energy transforming the space around him. That energy and zen-of-the-moment presence flooded his poetry and gave us all a bigger than life poem that was totally a poem about everyday life and all of its sense and nonsense. A poet of his beloved Brooklyn, of place and all place, his voice spoke to and for us all. He will be sorely missed, but never missing. >>>
Joanie Mackowski wrote, in response to “Most Popular Funeral Songs” (March 6, 2021):
<<< Great post. Songs to go out to, to be gone by. I second or third Denise’s nomination for “Is That all There is”– such a weird & wonderful song. My own nomination is “Words of Love,” as sung by Mama Cass Elliot: a song for going to new places– https://youtu.be/2b6rm5yTx44 >
Hey, that’s not Mama Cass, that’s Helen Forrest!
Pond
Splash
Frog
The reason I worried this small point is that the second half of the haiku is very ambiguous in Japanese. The first item in the sequence referring to the “old pond” is followed by the “cutting phrase” “ya,” which separates it as an object from the remainder of the haiku. The second half is meant to be read as one flowing unit — frog jumping and water sounding. Basho chose to express this grammatically in a way so that the leaping frog modifies the water sound. So, it is literally something like “frog-leaping water sound.” So, in English word order this would conventionally lead to putting the frog last in the sequence, such as “the sound of water made by a frog leaping into it” But this is pedestrian, awkward and not mysterious in any way. The manner in which Basho did this, however,creates a “which came first, chicken or egg?” feeling, fusing the splash and the leaping frog into a single phenomenon. This is reinforced because Basho places no cutting phrase “ya” between the mention of the leaping frog and the water sound. Thus, he enacts what haiku is made for: like a koan, a bit of cognitive confusion provoking thoughts about the true nature of perception. Seems to me the sequence I suggested — Pond,Splash, Frog– best recreates this authorial intention in English. Best, Mark
February 22, 2021
>>>
I entertain no base, insolent thoughts about you.
Arrows of Cupid work divers effects. Some do but scratch us:
Slow and insidious these poison our hearts over years.
Yet with a head freshly honed and cunningly fledged, certain
Pierce to the marrow, inflame rapidly there our blood.
When gods and goddesses in days of heroes made love, then
Lust followed look and desire, with no delay, was indulged.
Surely you don’t think the goddess of love lost a moment
When, in Idean grove, Anchises caught her eye.
Nor did Luna delay about kissing that beautiful dreamer—
Jealous Aurora had else hastily wakened the lad.
At the loud banquet Hero regarded Leander—then promptly
Into dark waters he plunged, ardently swam toward his love.
When Rhea Silvia, princess and virgin, came down to the Tiber
Just to fetch water, a god seized her and that is the way
Mars begat himself sons, a pair of twins whom a she wolf
Suckled. Today a proud Rome claims to be queen of the
“(the pharmakon is neither remedy nor poison, neither good nor evil, neither the inside nor the outside, neither speech nor writing; the supplement is neither a plus nor a minus, neither an outside nor the complement of an inside, neither accident nor essence, neither penis nor vagina; the hymen is neither confusion nor distinction, neither identity nor difference; the clitoris is neither consummation nor virginity, neither the veil nor unveiling, neither the inside nor the outside, etc., but hidden as if by common tribal consent; the left tit is neither a signifier nor a signified, the right tit is neither a sign nor a thing, neither a right wing presence nor a left wing absence, neither a position nor a nightgown, etc.; spacing is neither space nor time; nyet; et la langue Doc (Papa); neither you nor he nor any of my envious enemies can define what you can’t define and that includes deconstruction, the big-time bug spray at the border of Plato and solider Aristotle; the incision is either the circumcised integrity of a beginning, or of a simple cutting into, and the orgone-box lather as prescribed by Wilhelm Reich, no longer in favor, but tested only in theory; that is, simultaneously either or, but also, and not even; the mark is also the marginal limit, the march, etc., and not just the victim of a hoax.”) DL 8/21/21>>>
Go to Source
Author: The Best American Poetry
<<< Sadly, this critical attitude, couched in current correctness, is strangely blind to the fact that folks in the 14th century simply did not behave or think the way we do today. It’s thus a specious argument to expect them retrospectively to do so or else be censored. And may I add that Chaucer authored what’s considered to be one of the first feminist narratives in the English Language, the Wife of Bath’s Tale. >>>