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Tag Archives: poetry
Disordered Stick Bombs
“… A steady state hysteresis caused by reversible slippage”: There are passages in this article about the study of bird nests that read for me like poetry written in the language of physics. One effort to disentangle the structural dynamics … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Quotations
Tagged art, language, ornithology, physics, poetry, science
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Advancing Retrogression
http://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/opinion/brexit-uk.html “Put your flags away, you’re leaving, and take them with you.” [Mairead McGuinness, vice-president of the Parliament, to Nigel Farage, who waved a miniature Union Jack in the European Parliament as he bade farewell (2020).] “We must build a … Continue reading
Elderly Rubbish
Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; … (W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”) Do dictators skew elderly? In 1939: Stalin 61; Mussolini … Continue reading
What Huge Imago
On this Veterans’ Day I salute military persons past and present who have honored their country, including my son, a Navy man currently serving on a far shore. I’ve undertaken my periodic re-memorization of W.H. Auden’s epoch-spanning poem “September 1, … Continue reading
The Poetry Mandate
The Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio declared himself ruler of the city of the Hapsburg city of Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) on Sept. 12, 1919. His “rule” lasted 15 months. “He mandated daily poetry readings, regular concerts and constant fireworks.” … Continue reading
“Sagacious Show in a Handsome Shack”
Brice Marden’s artistic and cultural crossing of boundaries is exciting. In the mid-1980s, the abstract painter Brice Marden veered from his early monochromes and grids to calligraphic circuits, inspired by his reading of the… poet Hanshan, or Cold Mountain… Black … Continue reading
Knotty, Naughty “Not”
Americans need leaders who rise to the occasion, not [my bolding] worry about their own pocketbooks. (The Editorial Board, “Did Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler Profit From the Pandemic?” NYTimes, 3-20-20) I haven’t read this particular article, but my reflexive … Continue reading →