"I wish I weren't reeling at all"

"... the only thing to do is simply continue
is that simple
yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do
can you do it
yes, you can because it is the only thing to do
blue light over the Bois de Boulogne it continues
the Seine continues ...
... but we shall continue to be ourselves everything continues to be possible
René Char, Pierre Revery, Samuel Beckett it is possible isn't it
I love Reverdy for saying yes, though I don't believe it"

-Frank O'Hara from his poem "ADIEU TO NORMAN, BON JOUR TO JOAN AND JEAN-PAUL"

the ancient camera casts its old eye on everything it sees

Lower East Side, yesterday

all this and water on the moon

No-no

"Is there enough time left?"

"...Does it matter that I do not specify for what? Was there ever enough time? Was there once too much? Does the notion of "enough time" actually make any sense? Does it suggest we had things to do and could not do them for reasons other than that we were incompetents? Did we have other things to do? Things better done than not? Thus, important things? Are there important things?"

- Padgett Powell from The Interrogative Mood: a novel?

do you see what I see?

So, according to Susan Sontag, at the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle when the first retouched image was shown next to its original the crowds were astonished. She asserts, "The news that the camera could lie made getting photographed much more popular."

I love this. What is it with humans and deception? What makes for the thrill? Was viewing that retouched image the moment at which we all realised the camera's possible ability to reveal to us newer and (some might hope) better versions of ourselves, our lives, the world?

She goes on to say that photographs contain not only evidence of what was there when it was photographed, but how we saw it, "not just a record, but an evaluation of the world."

Apple bread's a big hit at our house...

Oven to 350˚

1/2 c butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla

4 Granny Smith or MacIntosh apples, peeled & grated

3 c flour
1 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 t nutmeg
1 t ginger
1 t baking soda

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. In another bowl sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and spices. Add dry ingredients gradually.

Butter, then line two loaf pans with parchment. Divide batter between the two.

Bake at 350˚ for 50-60 minutes (time will vary depending on moisture/size of apples, etc.). Cool in pan 10 minutes then turn out on rack.

Thanks to Stephanie Colgan for orchard photo - link to her work on right.

poems & talk

The fine people at Linebreak published my poem "unnamable force in reserve" this week. It's especially wonderful because they ask a previously published poet to read the current poet's work aloud. My poem is read by Steven D Schroeder. I enjoyed hearing it outside my own head.

I was also lucky enough to have been asked to guest-edit their blog, Unstressed. Links to both at right.

Friday, Sept 25, 7 PM

Readings by: Susan Bruce, Christina Davis, Miranda Field, Patricia Hampl, Matthea Harvey, Amy McNamara, Debra Weinstein and others. Possible guest Ellen Bryant Voigt Info: davis2 at fas dot harvard dot edu www dot twc dot org

fulfillment!

iPhone diary installment

Robert Creeley's "I Know a Man"

I Know a Man

As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking,—John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.

"cameras are clocks for seeing" - r. barthes

Each day I pass this little message board on my run. Here's an iphoto of this morning's news.

the absolute Particular

been baking and thinking about lera auerbach's idea that "Music is the art of sound in time...one could say that music is the architecture of time and it only exists in time."

the smallest wee-ling in the family had his first field trip today to the transit museum. he'll come home to heart-shaped shortbread cookies.

peering into that little delicious, cracked, hand-held mirror of vintage ephemera -- did they know more then? less?

tight times

Hey Recessionistas/istos...

skipping!

she is thinking about her Valentine

May Swensen Poetry Award Finalist

Doug thinks I should change the name of my manuscript to "The Finalist"... Click on the letter if you want to read it. It's hard not to feel discouraged.

There's nothing quite as beautiful as your life

the sick girl draws

Girlie's home sick. Reading.

Such great happiness and promise of renewal in our country right now. And at the same time, life goes on; in our lives, two women both in their nineties, stepped out this week. Joy and Grief. Beginnings and Endings. And all the work we do in between.

I do feel we liked being born.
--e e cummings from i six nonlectures

hello thursday

a tall fellow in the grass

Spied this 2-story gent while passing through Pennsylvania. Also saw a sign that read, "Trailer full of sparkles just ahead." Now what could that be?

Thanks to Tod Lippy at Esopus we have great scans of Doug's work. Here's one to inspire some year-end resolution thinking...

(click image for a better look)

new marxwriter

A small obsession...

Making meringues today

Listening to Caithlin de Marrais' My Magic City and some of Sufjan Stevens' Christmas songs.

Also made this girl in a frame. She's listening.

If the meringues are lovely, I'll post a photo.

art refreshes

Lewis Hyde writes, "The passage into mystery always refreshes," and, "Anything contained within a boundary must contain as well its own exhaustion."

These prints ("We'll Keep Watch," and "The Space In Between") are by Kelly Bowman. she sells them online at Cinders Gallery.

the goose is getting fat

we gave thanks

dance, dance, little lady,

leave tomorrow behind.

-noel coward

Defeat!

Tune your discord-

ant cymbals

that they

no longer shiver

the inner canals

of my (now latched) ears.

Yes. My ears locked

against your wood spoon

on a tin pan. I

called the birds

to lift my hair

& they came

(they understand

the holy

& are ready

always to help

a girl in trouble. I

am my flying body. You,

an idea.

Barren,

no less.

pre-k thanksgiving feast

lend an ear

thanks to stephanie, i can't stop listening to lucy michelle and the velvet lapelles.  nothing like a girl and a ukulele...

your fortune as told by the stars

Today's Times reports a surge in fretful visitors to fortune tellers since the Dow bust.
Perhaps it's time to twist my locks up in a scarf, rouge my lips, & dangle hoops from my ears...

You are fearless & courageous.

You are continually borrowing trouble.

You are kind & generous.

You are cunning & tricky.

Your happiness & prosperity depends solely upon yourself.

John Waddell. He's still dead.

After riding the tumultuous waves of Wall St again this week, I poked around graveyard at Trinity Church for a little perspective.

Conferences

on my block

Obama

hope change progress

What lies beneath the city streets...

I heart NY

he held this pose for me

Wind Lets Loose the Leaves

Seltzer Man

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA! ! !