well... it's the biggest smile of the day... i needed it... after hours and hours of paper processing... and stuff

just found in my inbox...
Hello my teacher just gave us your questions [from the Grendel index... i 'm guessing] in order to read along with the book. i was wondering if you had the answers to the questions that are posted on your website and if so could you please send them to me? Thank you. Sincerely (his name)...
o... they are just so cute... aren't they?

washington times: a review of berry's That Distant Land...
On one level, it's about the American dream - not the solo rags-to-riches version, but the communal one upon which much of our country was built. It's about how the poor and uneducated cultivated the land, fed the nation, and managed to achieve a decent living beyond mere subsistence. They did so not simply through their own back-breaking efforts, but through the collaborative efforts of all in the community.

wherein Paula pushes on a "quote"... and finds...

"Once when I was a child, I ate..."

this has been homecoming week... and now weekend... here at carmel h.s. ... a very odd but not a difficult week... that began with two days in ohio for the funeral... three days back here with ap and amlit... invisible man and the crucible... and the kids dressed all funny every day... and me in the regular shirt & tie... just because... even though teachers could dress down too... tonight's the dance i've got to attend... and monday are due progress reports to be posted online... and a big pile of papers to process before that can happen... and another significan interruption all next week... but somehow it will all happen... satisfactorily... if not well... i know

sure some part of my brain wants to make pomes that ordinary folks will ooh and... even ah... over... email to their pals because they're just so damn touching and true... what are these volumes of kinnell, oliver, levine, berry, carruth, stafford, doty... even collins... on my shelves... but...

some other part knows that while there's something in them for my reading purposes... my spirit purposes... there's nothing or little for my writing... there... and so i make these tiny monsters that ordinary folk don't get because... we fear there's nothing there... to get... and the occasional practicing poet who might look in finds... who knows what...

so i find me writing these things into a vaccum... unseriously... but with a perverse commitment to... accept whatever comes... to the making... of the moment... and happy enough to find them there...

interesting that fitzgerald's birthday is followed immediately by faulkner's... and that the latter is one year younger than the former... never considered that... probably because we have many photos of an older faulkner, but fitzgerald never got there...

ALA: The First Amendment: Resources...
"Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime . . . ." - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, dissenting Ginzberg v. United States, 383 U.S. 463 (1966)

Chris Crutcher

The Big Lowitzki's random ravings... just found this lefty blog... via the refereral links at my berry page... kinda handy...

some really nice botanicals going on over at Anita Rust...

The Outsider Pages: Folk and Outsider Art

this first leonard cohen album fell into my hands sometime in 68 or 69... maybe 70 but i don't think it was that late... picked up on a rare trip to chicago's old town... some exotic head shop cluttered with blacklight posters and beads... i don't know what drew me to it... maybe i recognized "suzanne" from my senior retreat (though that was the judy collins cover)...

right now here's The Best of... on my school computer... Sisters of Mercy now... sounds good.. but LC's voice is younger, thinner even... not yet gravelled... precise pretty tunes... and the background ooo-wah girl singers that drive some of my acquaintances to distraction... well... lcohen was there pretty close the start of my musical life... as if these songs had just always been... there... here with me...

back... & beat... & just in time to celebrate Leonard Cohen's 70th birthday... happy birthday, old man... here's a favorite... a well-worn refrain from "anthem"...

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

driving off to ohio in the morning... for services for dom's dad... see you wednesday...

out my window i don't get no mountains no ocean view... but from time to time i get this kind of stuff... and am happy enough to have it... somehow the orangey quality of the shot isn't quite right... but... it is... there's a tiny speck in the sky that's a plane...

James Blood Ulmer... woah... woe... w... oh... the blues!

an annotated gay teen book list

listening again to gyorgi ligeti... complete piano music vol 1... performed by Fredrik Ullen... music that makes me happy to be alive... modern, wild, astringent, quiet, loud, fast, slow... somehow... somewhat... melodic... but i may just be imagining that... what do i know? music that makes me want to live...

ArkivMusic | Ligeti: Complete Piano Music Vol 2 / Fredrik Ullen