Unconscious Mutterings Week 292

Unconscious Mutterings ~ link

Word & Thought Associations

here's mine:

Groceries :: sacker
Deodorant :: anti-perspirant
Psychic :: healer
Cherries :: picker
Spooky :: ghosts
Yogurt :: Dannon
Kitchen :: sink
Nothing personal :: negative dig
Be nice :: children
Delivery :: baby

Ashbery - One of Four

I've said before that my taste in poetry easily finds John Ashbery's work very palatable. I am well aware that this is not a universal opinion among those who delight in reading contemporary poetry. Ashbery has many detractors. Still, it's a fact that at age 81 Ashbery need not fret about his mark on the American literary culture. It is well cemented. If you doubt this, consider that Ashbery is about to become only the fourth American writer to see their works published during their own lifetime by the Library of America. He joins Philip Roth, Eudora Welty, and Saul Bellow in that distinction.

Observation Skills

Technorati Tags: Sylvia Plath,poetry,writing,life as a poet

  Saturday my wife and I took the dogs and went off to the dog park.  It was while traipsing around that rugged landscape that my knee went from bad to worse.  It was also during this outing that I explored the various trees and branches and sticks and water containers for the dogs.  The sky and the sun bursting through the leaves on the many trees that dot the landscape. Observation is such an important part of the poetry process.  Even when not writing I think there is something to be said for taking in what is around us and looking at it with an eye for detail. Not so much for the ability to recount specifics, though this can be a beneficial exercise, but more importantly looking for the extraordinary in the otherwise ordinary.

From reading biographical material on Sylvia Plath as well as her journals I was long ago struck with how she was constantly seeking the poem in everything she came into contact with. Even odd jobs she took while attending Smith College provided fodder for her writing.

I am not quite as tuned into everyday events in the way she apparently was, but I do make an effort to see the poetry around me. One cannot underestimate the benefits that come from sharpening the observation skills.  Mine are far from perfected. 

Mundane Monday

Klaus always looks before backing out of driveway....

Labor day and I'm trying to find a the silver lining in this knee pain. It's not like I'm off on a sick day or anything. No, I'm using a perfectly good three day holiday to be sick. Grrr!

Report from the Gimp

Yesterday my knee which I had been favoring much of the week took a painful turn for the worse. Early yesterday it felt as though gout had set in. I've once before had a bout with gout several years ago. If you've never experienced gout it would be difficult to adequately describe it but suffice to say it is excruciatingly painful. Staying off it and ibuprofen has been my course of action. Tonight it is less painful and I am moving around with a little more ease. This has however put a bit of a crimp on my three day weekend. Spending much of it in and around bed, staying off my feet is not exactly what I had in mind. My wife did make me a delicious breakfast which I ate in bed.

I have worked on some writing yesterday and today but it gets a bit monotonous and thus becomes a distraction at certain points. Still, it is writing so that is progress.

The news of John McCain's selection for Vice President is interesting if not unsettling given her lack of any foreign policy experience and the fact that she has extremely limited governmental experience period. I believe there is no reason to fear a woman in the White House, I originally supported Hillary, but Sarah Palin would not be the same. This is a woman whose only other experience besides her short tenure as Governor of Alaska was city council and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska; a town that has a total area of about 12.4 square miles and a population estimated at about 6,700.

With hurricane Gustav likely to make landfall on the Louisiana coast by tomorrow morning, I have to think McCain has done the right thing by suspending much of the Republican Convention business in light of the hurricane. Thoughts and prayers go out to all those who find themselves again within the path of this powerful storm.

STLtoday - Missouri's poet laureate highlights area writers

Missouri's poet laureate highlights area writers
By Walter Bargen
SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
08/31/2008

Missouri's first poet laureate, Walter Bargen, begins a new feature for the Post-Dispatch this week. Every other week, he will choose a poem by a Missourian and write a short introduction to it.

This week, Bargen kicks off the feature with one of his own poems. STLtoday - Missouri's poet laureate highlights area writers

Not everyday you run across a quote that embodies vegetarianism

"Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian." -- Shari R. Barr