BIG JOE WILLIAMS ~

 

SVETLANA ALPERS ~

 

ROBERT BLY ~

 

Dec. 23, 1926 ~ Nov. 21, 2021

Snowfall In The November Afternoon

I
The grass is half-covered with snow.
It was the sort of snowfall that starts in late afternoon,
And now the little houses of the grass are growing dark.

II
If I could reach down, near the earth,
I could take handfuls of darkness!
A darkness that was always there, which we never noticed.

III
As the snow grows heavier, the cornstalks fade farther away,
And the barn moves nearer to the house.
The barn moves all alone in the growing storm.

IV
The barn is full of corn, and moving toward us now,
Like a hulk blown toward us in a storm at sea;
All the sailors on deck have been blind for many years. 

"Snowfall In The November Afternoon" by Robert Bly, from Eating the Honey of Words: New and Selected Poems.

 © Harper Flamingo, 1999

WALKER EVANS AGAIN ~

 

R E V I E W

A TENT IN ARCTIC SIBERIA ~

 

Gordon Clarke

LOUISE GLUCK ~

 

Song

Leo Cruz makes the most beautiful white bowls;

I think I must get some to you

but how is the question

in these times

He is teaching me

the names of the desert grasses;

I have a book

since to see the grasses is impossible

Leo thinks the things man makes

are more beautiful

than what exists in nature

and I say no.

And Leo says

wait and see.

We make plans

to walk the trails together.

When, I ask him,

when? Never again:

this is what we never say.

He is teaching me

to live in imagination:

a cold wind

blows as I cross the desert;

I can see his house in the distance;

smoke is coming from the chimney

That is the kiln, I think;

only Leo makes porcelain in the desert

Ah, he says, you are dreaming again

And I say then I’m glad I dream

the fire is still alive

_____________________________

Louise Gluck

Winter Recipes From the Collective

FSG, 2021

FRANCIS BACON ~

 

Francis Bacon

Revelations

by Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan

Knopf 2021

THE JAPAN JOURNALS (DONALD RICHIE) ~

 

R E A D     M E

RUTH BROWN ~

 

ED BULLINS ~

 

ED  BULLINS

1935 ~ 2021

AUDREY MUNSON ~

 

PATRICIA HIGHSMITH ~

 

R E A D     M E

Bloomsbury 2021

 

E T E L     A D N A N

1925 ~ 2021

M O R E

JOSEPH SPENCE ~

 

LOVE, ICEBOX ~

 

R E A D      M E

The John Cage Trust

2019

ADA LIMON ~

 

A Name

When Eve walked among

the animals and named them —

nightingale, red-shouldered hawk,

fiddler crab, fallow deer —

I wonder if she ever wanted

them to speak back, looked into

their wide wonderful eyes and

whispered, Name me, name me.

________________

Ada Limón

The Carrying

Milkweed Editions

2018

Ada Limón - Image: Christopher.Michel on Visual Hunt

GEORGE R. STEWART (NAMES OF THE LAND) ~

 

R E A D     M E

EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHED ~

 

R E A D    M E

Chronicle Books

2020

THE COMPLETE MEMOIRS (NERUDA) ~

 

R E A D     M E

W.G. SEBALD ~

 

R E A D      M E

There have been at least three biographies 

all by women, all about men 

each one outstanding —

Thoreau

Hemingway

now, Sebald

Thoreau, a life by Laura Dassow Walls

Ernest Hemingway, Mary V. Dearborn

Speak, Silence, Carole Angier

No hesitation