Body of Book This is one way to talk about a book: I woke into the locus of my body. In sleep’s thick envelope, what poems fit? Dream-card sealed with a kiss and then sent out. What we meant was musing, nothing else. Did the dream not spring from memory? Remembering who said what or […]
Month: July 2008
- Art Making
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Enough With the Words!
This short piece by Jonathan Jones (in The Guardian) captures rather succinctly many of the frustrations I have written about here in earlier posts. We are currently living through a period of inappropriate dependence on language to extol and explain what is often beyond language in the visual arts. Enough words! My voice joins others […]
Slow Drip, and an Absence of Edges
A new poet laureate was announced today. Kay Ryan’s story is humble, unpretentious and heartwarming. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement in the New York Times: When Kay Ryan was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, the poetry club rejected her application; she was perhaps too much of a loner, she recalls… […]
Travelling, Or Being Travelled?
Whatever you may be, you are being ‘lived’. You are not travelling, as you think: you are being ‘travelled’. Remember: you are in a train. Stop trying to carry your baggage yourself! It will come along with you anyhow. – Wei Wu Wei, from Open Secret One of the best things about being online IMHO […]
Not a Roof, Love
Rent If you want my apartment, sleep in it but let’s have a clear understanding: the books are still free agents. If the rocking chair’s arms surround you they can also let you go, they can shape the air like a body. I don’t want your rent, I want a radiance of attention like the […]
Nietzsche and “Herd Values”
Here is another set of responses to a question about Nietzsche’s influence, taken from an article in Eurozine (Previous excerpts were posted here on July 12.) The question asked of experts this time is in reference to Nietzsche’s concept of “herd values.” Jan Sokol and Leslie Paul Thiele have different takes on this oft-discussed aspect […]
Stevens, Now and Forever
One of my blogging heros and friends is G at Writer Not Reading. She has invited her readers to post their favorite poems so of course I will post mine here since I am always eager to share it. Stevens has been my favorite poet since I was 17, the same year I memorized this […]
Meaning and Presence
I found an article in The Independent yesterday that I posted on my filter blog Slow Painting. It has dominated my thinking all day. In a singularly succinct manner, it captures a core set of issues that are at the center of my disaffection with a number of trends in contemporary art. These are some […]
- Creativity
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Seven Metaphors
Wise man and friend D, author of the Joe Felso: Ruminations blog, had a posting this weekend that is so good it can’t be paraphrased. Rather than sending you there (although it would be time well spent since this is just one of many thought-provoking posts), I’ll make it easy and include the full text […]
Glorious Impersonality
For several years now my Sunday mornings have begun with the anticipation of reading the weekly email from Andrew that arrives in my inbox around 7am. I have saved every one he has sent to me, and for good reason. Both he and his wife Kathryn, in addition to being two of the wisest and […]