RACHEL CARSON ~

Rachel Carson

http://www.rachelcarson.org/

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/24/insecticides-world-food-supplies-risk

BACK TO THE MAN CAVE (POSTCARD 44 ~)

Ireland, 1976

Men taking care of things

photograph by Josef Koudelka

JUNE BUG ~

compiled by Bob Arnold June 2014

WHERE CID AND ORIGIN BEGAN ~

"Corman’s old house, 51 Jones Avenue, remains. It’s a duplex now, located at the end of the street, one side only retains the number 51 address, that place from where Corman sent out the copy of those early printings of Origin, the pages filled with writing by Creeley, Olson, Levertov and others."

— Kevin Bowen

photo: Keven Bowen

http://jacket2.org/article/reclaiming-corman

BUCKET OF RAIN ~

After many gorgeous days in a row, good old June, we had almost five inches of rain overnight.

Oh how the wind blew, the dark clouds mounted, almost covering

hidden valley, and the rain came. We left a bucket out overnight

and a wheelbarrow

and the wheelbarrow nearly filled —

saved for the flowers

newly planted

drawing 2014  © bob arnold

FREEDOM ~

Reader Stephen Collins has even painted a nice bench for you to sit on.

 Be patient let it dry, read a book while you wait.

________________

Sorry, 9 year old free-giving-spirit Stephen Collins from Kansas, you live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and you are not allowed to give away free books from the tax-paid front yard of your family's home. Uh-uh. No go. Can't do. If we let him get away with this, everyone will want to do it Etc. Besides, it's books. Why doesn't the kid stay wrapped up in video games, or at least learn how to use a Kindle or The Nook? Books, geez, the next thing he'll want to do is think for himself! Cut them down to size when you can. 9 years old. It's never too early to start.
Let's hope the town fathers feel proud of themselves.

_________________

9-Year-Old's 'Little Free Library' Shut Down By City



The Huffington Post  | By Lydia O'Connor


A 9-year-old Kansas boy is fighting for his right to operate a tiny library from his front yard after city officials deemed it an illegal structure.

Spencer Collins built his "Little Free Library" -- one of 15,000 “take a book, leave a book” structures that have popped up around the world -- both as a Mother's Day gift and as an attempt to engage with his Leawood, Kansas, community through one of his favorite pastimes. It's a way to “get into reading, get to know your neighbors, and … make friends,” he told Fox 4 News.

But a month after setting up the birdhouse-sized structure, the Collins family received a letter from the city telling it to take down the library by June 19 or face a fine for violating a code banning freestanding structures, his mother, Sarah Collins, told ABC affiliate KMBC.

The Leawood City Council said it received complaints about the library and could not presently make an exception for it.

“This is different than a one-day Kool-Aid stand; it’s a permanent structure,” Councilman Jim Rawlings told The Kansas City Star. “This question is -- where do you draw the line on front yard structures?”

But supporters on the little library’s Facebook page, which now has more than 20,000 likes, have pointed out what they believe are inconsistencies in the city’s enforcement, saying the library should be treated the same as birdbaths, birdhouses, lawn furniture or holiday decorations.

Leawood Mayor Peggy Dunn told the Star that the council plans to discuss Collins’ library at a July 7 meeting and could make an exception for the structure if a majority of the council supports it.

Spencer and his family said they have been invited to attend the meeting and are eager to work with the city.

"I would tell them why it's good for the community and why they should drop the law," he told KMBC. "I just want to talk to them about how good it is."

DONALD FAGEN ~

Steely Dan — from Burroughs, Naked Lunch — I never played their music. Read the book plenty.

 I certainly heard their music, grew up all around it, actually was drawn to snippets and slices of the songs, still am; we're about the same age, but I never bought a single or an album and won't. Over.

 But I love Donald Fagen's Eminent Hipsters.

 It's a cool book, just the right size (short) and he gets down to all things you would never expect — like Jean Shepherd, a tiny interview with Ennio Morricone, a match struck on Ike Turner, Sci-fi, sixties stuff, as student at Bard College, and a hilarious road journal touring with Boz Scaggs and others, all as old geezers. You'll love it.

Also, be warned — and I hesitate to bring it up to create any false drama because Fagen does not, and I much respect his even temper as a writer, even as he is falling it seems to pieces — that his forty year old stepson takes his life mid-passage in his journal entries "With the Dukes of September," while on tour, writing, playing concerts, sharing with us, and he soldiers on.

Before he became one of the two (with Walter Becker) of Steely Dan, Fagen wanted to be a writer. Well he is.



[ BA] 











~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald Fagen
Eminent Hipsters
Viking, 2013

Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi
(Verve October 1957)


"I finally manage to get sleep by listening to an old Verve album I have on my computer, "Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi." These two white jazz virtuosos, both acolytes of Lester Young, both ex-junkies and heavy drinkers, and both, according to musicians' lore, megalomaniacal dicks, played like angels, and never more so than on this album. I've been listening to it for a half century, and it always seems fresh and beautiful." 

DF

Edmond Jabès ~

In Touch With the Book

 

1

 

Sitting on a rock, Yukel watched the sea leaf through the world's book of water.

 

We are constantly in touch with the work, as salt is in touch with the sand, as air with water, secretly in touch as scales are with the echo, as silence is with signs.

 

Lived moments, faithfully recorded. The patient work of death.

 

There are no trees for the dead earth.

 

There are no stars for dead skies.

 

Light from beyond the crests, the grooves.

 

It engulfs heaven and earth.

 

2

 

"Impossible to save. Every day escapes the day."

                                                 — Reb Lieto

 

3

"Conscious and unconscious of the possible.

"The impossible is beyond the no-longer-possible. But the no-longer-possible depends as much on what we know of ourselves and the world as on the general scope of human knowledge in the given instant.

"Earth impregnated by the river, the impossible — a fruitful text."

                                                        — Red Tilche

( "We are at the heart of what is added.

We are at the heart of what is subtracted.

We are at the heart of what is multiplied.

We are at the heart of what is divided.

We are at the heart of what is subdivided.

Wea are at the heart of what is silent.

Open my heart.

You will see silence

in the shape of a cloud or lake.

Open, open my heart.

You will speak

for silence."

— Red Libra

"Enter into my speech, my dark home.

On one side of silence or the other, 

we will be the same voice."

— Reb Sieris )

 

 

Edmond Jabès

translated by Rosmarie Waldrop

The Book of Questions: II & III

The Book of Yukel

Return of the Book 

Wesleyan University Press 1977

 

 

 

NANCY P. DAVENPORT

Chance Meeting

I choose to sit out the day

take a break from life

sit out

          in silence

by climbing the tallest

tree in my yard

and escaping

into

the greenest part of

the lush spring

growth.

. . .

I knew I'd find

quiet. I didn't realize

I'd find You here.

_____________________

"Good to see this slim and quite satisfying book in hand as a gift
from you, many thanks. I've read through the book a few times now and
there remains a bounce to these poems. Poems that have a high degree
of self consciousness and devil may  care to balance it all out with some
sort of gentle enough ease. Nancy may not even know what she is doing,
which is often the best method with poetry. Let the song take over.
The book design and size and feel of the stock all go together nicely.
Your publications also have a consistency of simply appearing.
Which strengthens existence."


— Bob Arnold 
                                                      to Scott Watson, publisher

Bookgirl Press

3-13-16 Tsurugaya-higashi

Miyagino-ku, Sendai

Japan 983-0826

distributed in the USA by Mountains & Rivers Press

http://mountainsandriverspress.org/Home.aspx

POSTCARD 43 ~ HIDDEN VALLEY ~

A hidden valley in Vermont

photograph by Alois Mayer


we were married in this church 40 years ago

GERALD HAUSMAN AND BETH ~

Look what has happened during 40 years to my little copy of Gerald Hausman's children's book Beth. She's been through the war — the war of love. 

The book first came to me via a book salesman who was moving through the countryside one November evening in 1974 and Gerry happened to hand him this copy to give to me, signed and all, thoughtful, and the salesman did. He came to our cabin in the woods. If it sounds romantic, it was.

 I still remember the hour he arrived because it was a dark late afternoon with snow on the ground and it felt like already night time. We stood and talked in my two room cabin. Probably me leaning against the old sink, the visitor leaning against a small counter. The kerosene lamp on. I was waiting for Sweetheart to return from town. Instead the salesman showed up.

 He stayed long enough for Sweetheart to meet him. We never saw him again. We wouldn't meet Gerry for three decades. Like I said, it was romantic.

 I read that book aloud to Susan, our son, all children that ever came to the cabin and later our house. The book began to fall apart. The silverfish came to read it, gobble it, they took some of the book away. It was allowed. The book was tough, the book was vital, the book was in love. It has endured.

[ BA ]

Once In Vermont Films 2014  © bob arnold

TICKLE (NOT) ~

Spring Scorecard: 

________________

3 ticks pulled off Bob

and not to be unmatched

3 ticks pulled off Sweetheart

PIANO MAN ~

Pianist Horace Silver performs on stage as part of the Newport Jazz Festival held at Carnegie Hall, New York City in July 1976.
 (Photo by David Redfern/Redferns) 


1928 ~ 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/19/horace-silver

NANAO SAKAKI ~

Nanao Sakaki

Don't even think to hesitate ~ get your copy



edited by Bart De Paepe
Sloow Tapes

http://sloowtapes.blogspot.com/


Bart De Paepe
Kerkstraat 142
9190 Stekene
Belgium

PLANET DRUM ~

Planet Drum

Box 31251

San Francisco, CA 94131

Shasta Bioregion, U.S.A.

A wonderful publication, long in the tradition — and my only quiet complaint is that Peter Berg, founding spirit, should have his name on the masthead. Done right.

JEAN RITCHIE ~

MATT TANNENBAUM'S BERKSHIRE IDYLLIC ~

When next in the Berkshire hills — Lenox, Massachusetts to be exact — stop-in at one of the better small town bookshops and meet a pro at work: kept small, kept shiny.

RONALD BAATZ ~

Winter grass

finds its

own style

After many years

I bump into an old lover

and we look at one another with

the shock of two shrunken heads

in hell









All night long

over and over

the owl asks who

left the oars

in the boat








Putting a

bowl of water

by the river

to allow stillness

to have a say








So extreme —

this hill of

bug bite










A young man

watching blossoms falling

is an old man when

 they reach

the ground









Broken cup

still capable

of holding rain










A dragonfly

more beautiful

than Europe










Crows —

always just

back from a funeral

___________________

Bird Standing

Ronald Baatz

Blind Dog Press

12 Larool Street

Tamworth, NSW, 2340

AUSTRALIA

POSTCARD 42 ~

Lost Arrow Spire

Yosemite National Park, California

Yosemite mountain guide and party on

Lost Arrow Spire. Once "the impossible peak",

the thrilling summit may now be climbed safely

with a skilled guide.

photo by Ed Cooper

PETER LAMBORN WILSON ~

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/06/art/hakim-bey-with-jarrett-earnest

Portrait of Peter Lamborn Wilson/Hakim Bey, 2012.
 Pencil on paper by Phong Bui.

JIMMY THE VOICE ~

JIMMY SCOTT  |  1925-2014 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/arts/music/jimmy-scott-singer-whose-star-rose-late-dies-at-88.html?hp



I just wrote this on the Birdhouse comments to my good friend Mike Luster, and then couldn't live with myself, or go to bed, before putting something up for this sweet singer.


"Mike,

Just heard Jimmy Scott passed away at 88. The stunning singer, interpreter, vocal genius. We're just too busy right now on the road with errands and long travel bouts to get anything correct in place on the Birdhouse for Jimmy Scott the master. I'll make up for this, and him.

all's well, B."

SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS ~

Monthly Review Press

1995

RUBY TERRIFIC ~

RUBY DEE | 1922-2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/arts/ruby-dee-actress-dies-at-91.html?_r=0


http://variety.com/2014/film/news/oscar-nominated-actress-ruby-dee-dies-at-91-1201219148/