Found this poem in a box. Wrote it for Denise Dankert one long time ago.

[fflo]

 
I have been finding notes from you

Tonight a postcard in a book of poems,
Norman Rockwell painted Huckleberry Finn,
January '84:  "Our phone is being installed
on the 11th"       "Hello to the Boys"

The other day in the Shakespeare
a coffee-stained legal sheet---
Bob Melvin finally hit a home run
as all day of a Sunday with Chet
you were waiting for me

And in a box for special things
a Social Security card I was after
and the red card poem, 8-13-88, Carroll County


Surprise:  not the us they recall
that is other, but the places,
pictures of the gone    or not yet    world

You'd think I'd planned it,
like scraps hidden in Laura's room,
perfect plants for moments like these
poignant comings-across in a future
with or without you still around
---or, as it turns out, both


Yeah, this entry is about finding an old piece of paper with a poem on it that's about finding old pieces of paper (one of which has a poem on it). And that ain't the only way it's regressive.


P.S.  I just saw a clip from the upcoming Gwynneth Paltrow movie in which her character quibbles with the notion of "healthy" hair (at which I've bristled for many moons) and then chides the woman she's talking to (as I might well feel the urge to do in the same circumstances) for contrasting "organic" with "chemical". The only other thing I know about the film is that it's called Proof, but that's enough to suggest it could be a little close for comfort. And thus potentially utterly compelling.

I always think that Hal Hartley film Trust was called Proof, even though I've memorized that it wasn't.

"Proof" is quite a word. And it's in the pudding, too.

Pudding. Mmmmm. How long since you've had pudding?

[Poll #566470]

Comments

Memory market hedge fund.

[altamont.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this entry is about finding an old piece of paper with a poem on it that's about finding old pieces of paper (one of which has a poem on it). And that ain't the only way it's regressive.

Nice poem, for all that. Like most (I guess) used bookshops we've got a large collection of odd notes and snapshots and bookmarks from defunct bookshops that came to us as stowaways. The most interesting make it to the collage in the wayback. The others usually stay snug in their beds. Me, I think such bits of memory create more memory as they circulate away from home, sort of the way credit increases the money supply along with the freshly-minted stuff. Recursions/regressions represent the inevitable market corrections.

Oy, check me, I'm David effin' Brancacchio. Sorry. Nice poem, like I said.

I always think that Hal Hartley film Trust was called Proof, even though I've memorized that it wasn't.

"Proof" is also a pretty good aussie film with Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe, worth NetFlixing. Darkly comic, etc.

"Proof" is quite a word. And it's in the pudding, too.

Mind you don't crack a crown on the hidden ha'penny.

Mmmmm pudding. My last fond memory of Bill Cosby before he got tedious. Think I'll go nag Brian at the Cajun place to do his bread pudding with whiskey sauce again. Numm-eh.

Does semi-liquified Nutella (the jar in the car on a sunny day) count?

Re: Memory market hedge fund.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I saw that Proof! I wonder if I've even seen Trust. At least they both came out about the same time.

I had a piece to copyedit that might interest you, Mr. Brancacchio---our review of "Money is Privacy" [C. M. Kahn, J. McAndrews\ and\ W. Roberds, Internat. Econom. Rev. {\bf 46} (2005), no.~2, 377--404], according to whose abstract ``An extensive literature in monetary theory has emphasized the role of money as a record-keeping device. Money assumes this role in situations where using credit would be too costly, and some might argue that this role will diminish as the cost of information and thus the cost of credit-based transactions continues to fall. In this article we investigate another use for money, the provision of privacy. That is, a money purchase does not identify the purchaser, whereas a credit purchase does. In a simple trading economy with moral hazard, we compare the efficiency of money and credit, and find that money may be useful even when information is free.''

Re: Memory market hedge fund.

[altamont.livejournal.com]

Got me back: I had to go look up 'moral hazard'.

Intriguing. Una-Momma say: off the grid is best.

Trust tends to get mixed up with all the other Hal Hartley movies I've seen, but it does have the second-best last five minutes of all his work. IMHO he's never topped the last few minutes of Simple Men. "Don't. Move."