Friday, July 1, 2016

The Pen Cannot Imagine Life without Ink












  • That ▲ is one of the dozen most-posted songs in this shitty blog's history.
  • This guy got tenure, you probably won't (though he urges you to try).
  • Not so weirdly, some of the same by someone who says abolish tenure. 
  • The world's most efficient languages.
  • Weirdly, sort of the same by a different person in a different publication.
  • Old age isn't what it used to be (and wasn't).
  • This weekend is the third slowest of the year, and posting will be extremely futile, so of course there will be stuff here, though maybe not everyday, and only some of what I want to write but only write on extremely Dead Blegsylvanian holiday three-day weekends.
  • The song beneath the poem is one of a half-dozen most-posted songs.
  • Vaughan Williams' gloomy home.
  • Marianne Moore.
  • RIP Geoffrey Hill. He never sang to me, but his death needs noting.
  • Another
  • To be a dancing bear.
  • A new shade of blue, as in a new color.








TOOLS

Campbell McGrath

Wheels sigh with longing for the horizon.
Hunger moans in teh spoon's hollow belly.
Tools recount the needs from which they arose
and so comprise a history of human desire.

The match recalls fear in the fireless night,
the saw's oiled teeth plead for perfect order,
the pen cannot imagine life without ink.

Even that technology employed by the soul
in its perilous escape from the prison of the body
is exhibited here, in these letters, in words.




2 comments:

  1. Thanks for letting me know about Geoffrey Hill. He lived a long life. His powerful, condensed lyricism from the earlier part of his career really connected to me. The exuberance of his later work captivated me, even if it didn't hit me as deeply. His criticism is definitely worth digging into, with a wicked and wry insight with a tinge of irascibility accompanying his curiosity. I am certainly enthralled with a number of "H" poets: Herbert, Heany, Hill, Hopkins, etc . . . .

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, we've talked about him a bunch, I thought of you when I saw it.

      I admire the craftsmanship, but he's way too deeply allusive towards works I don't know for me to get what he's getting at much of the time.

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