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fun instruments (?)
This morning as I walked up to the office, glimpses of ribbons of sound caught my attention. After a moment I figured out they were coming from the freaky house across the way that's surely a thorn in the side of its neighbor, the Support The President house. It was somebody fiddling around with an accordion.
Accordions are happy instruments.
Money was so low when I last paid my bills that, when I happened to be in a bookstore buying a One Fish Two Fish as a gift, I went and bought the Elizabeth Bishop book I have qualms about. She didn't aim to publish its contents. But she's dead. And we want to know more about her, or to know her more, every bit as much as we want to see more of her work, right?
I couldn't help myself. I picked it up just to look & knew that I wanted to spend more time with it. There aren't many books I acquire & aim to have in the house any more, but. It's a mainstream sort of book of poetry, as poetry for sale goes these days, but. I'm not sure I like voting with my dollars for this resurrection and the project's/editor's way of possessing her, but.
But I'll probably post a snippet or two here, from some of what kept me from putting the book back, in the end. Though I do wonder whether money having been so low wasn't the biggest reason I walked off with the volume.
I wonder if money will be so low next month that I'll end up with a new tea kettle.
I've kept myself from buying a tea kettle (to replace the sad-shape thrifted Revereware one I've had for years) cuz I love tea kettles so much. If I let myself get started, see, I might look up and find I have 8 tea kettles, each lovely in its own way.
But lately I feel a desire to abandon this fear of abandon. It's a miserly strategy, after all, when it comes right down to it. Miserly with one's self. So what if I were to look up and have 12 lovely tea kettles, and some amount of additional debt? I've got debt from quite a lot that's given me less pleasure than they surely would be providing, were I going nuts for them that way---and we'll all be dead soon enough anyway. Besides, it doesn't necessarily follow that surrendering to such a desire leads to excess, wantonness, dangerous profligate slippery slopes.
What I've got in mind for the off-the-cliff, w-t-f first: a two-tone harmonica whistler, alerting me pleasantly that the water molecules are really movin' now.
Accordions are happy instruments.
Money was so low when I last paid my bills that, when I happened to be in a bookstore buying a One Fish Two Fish as a gift, I went and bought the Elizabeth Bishop book I have qualms about. She didn't aim to publish its contents. But she's dead. And we want to know more about her, or to know her more, every bit as much as we want to see more of her work, right?
I couldn't help myself. I picked it up just to look & knew that I wanted to spend more time with it. There aren't many books I acquire & aim to have in the house any more, but. It's a mainstream sort of book of poetry, as poetry for sale goes these days, but. I'm not sure I like voting with my dollars for this resurrection and the project's/editor's way of possessing her, but.
But I'll probably post a snippet or two here, from some of what kept me from putting the book back, in the end. Though I do wonder whether money having been so low wasn't the biggest reason I walked off with the volume.
I wonder if money will be so low next month that I'll end up with a new tea kettle.
I've kept myself from buying a tea kettle (to replace the sad-shape thrifted Revereware one I've had for years) cuz I love tea kettles so much. If I let myself get started, see, I might look up and find I have 8 tea kettles, each lovely in its own way.
But lately I feel a desire to abandon this fear of abandon. It's a miserly strategy, after all, when it comes right down to it. Miserly with one's self. So what if I were to look up and have 12 lovely tea kettles, and some amount of additional debt? I've got debt from quite a lot that's given me less pleasure than they surely would be providing, were I going nuts for them that way---and we'll all be dead soon enough anyway. Besides, it doesn't necessarily follow that surrendering to such a desire leads to excess, wantonness, dangerous profligate slippery slopes.
What I've got in mind for the off-the-cliff, w-t-f first: a two-tone harmonica whistler, alerting me pleasantly that the water molecules are really movin' now.
no subject
Funny you mention accordions. I was thinking that other day that the old "Lawrence Welk" shows must be available on DVD and that maybe I'd look for those. Then I reminded myself that I'm not quite that old, although that show does hold a certain nostalgic appeal for me. Mostly by reinding me of Aunt Helena, who absolutely loved that show. when she got older and hard-of-hearing, we'd go up to her porch on a Sunday afternoon and hear PBS re-runs of "Lawrence Welk" blasting through the closed door. Then the challenge would be to get her attention--she couldn't hear the door bell over the TV.
Back when that show still aired, you can guess what the Maddox family did on Saturday nights. I think it came on before "Gunsmoke." We were so corny--but it was fun, as I recall. Back before mom had decided that her life was over.
Ment to change my userpic
Re: Ment to change my userpic
That Book is Worth It
Mostly, though, I was struck with the inclusion of those nineteen drafts of "One Art." There is something to be said, obviously, for seeing the angel in the marble, and carving until you set it free. But if you had written that first draft, would you have kept carving? And if she hadn't, if she would have just given up or felt like, "this just is not coming out the way I want it to," and moved on to something else, the world would have lost something so terrific. It says a lot to me about poetry, not just as art, but as work. And then there's the draft where she's playing with the line breaks and ending words - as if trying to make it into a sestina. It makes her so much more human. I'm excited to hear about which snippets were the poetic equivalent of the two-tone harmonica whistler.
Your qualms on Bishop's behalf are understandable, but I'm glad these poems didn't die with her. Have you read "Open Me Carefully?" Talk about qualms.
Re: That Book is Worth It
Feels good to know you caved & bought it, too.
Re: That Book is Worth It
no subject
I didn't know they made harmonica tea kettles! Makes me wish I liked tea. I also like the kettles they sell at Target with little spiral doodads atop the spout that spin in the steam.
no subject
Support the Pres guy doesn't have any signs up, but I'm sure he's still in there. Calling the parking police on people and stuff like that.
Hey, some journal Andy had the other day had published a piece on busting Marcu---on how not only weren't they going to print his submission, but . . . ---we all thought of you.
no subject
Hey- if you Google him, the second hit that comes up is my Math Refuse article! Ha! I wonder if he's seen it...
no subject
Hey, here's a link to what may be that article Andy had (thanks to Google Scholar with "Danut Marcu" in title and 2006 in the year fields) --- it's a .pdf:
http://www.lamsade.dauphine.fr/~bouyssou/Marcu.pdf
It has Googling Marcu in it as a research method! Good chance that article's writers read your piece then, you know? Curiously, though, their paper says that links to Marcu seem to have been removed from MSN --- that's not true. Even if they mean links to his works in reviews of other work, there are some, according to the new MR Citation thing.
Don't miss the reference to his charater/personality at the end.
no subject
That made me really happy. Thanks!
no subject
such a dilemma with the finances - in debt? will a little more hurt?
the price for being happy. eegads.
don't laugh, but i know that accordian player. he actually
was a wandering musician at the EcoRide!
no subject
How cool is that? (Answer: way cool!)