Tuesday, January 1, 2019

But the Firetrucks Had Their Hands Full

Egoslavian New Year's Day tradition:











JAMES TATE

1 comment:

  1. 0)with regard to heaven and hell, as a teenager i thought dante's divine comedy could be harmonized with the concept of reincarnation if one saw this world in which we live in [to the extent we do live in it - 'people don't die or live, people just float' - and also 'THIS is the future - you got to LIVE it or live WITH IT'] as purgatory

    0.2)i was intruigued to read one buddhist teacher's perspective on recollections of past lives - yes, he supposes, people do sometimes recall past lives, maybe even recall them instead of just imagining them [reading the akashic record, one might say] - but these are not their past lives, as there is no "self" that reincarnates - it's a past life, not your past life


    1)with regard to poems by james tate, here's one i read to missus charley yesterday -

    The Memories of Fish

    Stanley took a day off from the office
    and spent the whole day talking to fish in
    his aquarium. To the little catfish scuttling
    along the bottom he said, “Vacuum that scum,
    boy. Suck it up. That’s your job.” The skinny
    pencil fish swam by and he said, “Scribble,
    scribble, scribble. Write me a novel, needle-
    nose.” The angel executed a particularly
    masterful left turn and Stanley said, “You’re
    no angel, but you sure can drive.” Then he broke
    for lunch and made himself a tuna fish sandwich,
    the irony of which did not escape him. Oh no,
    he wallowed in it, savoring every bite. Then
    he returned to his chair in front of the aquarium.
    A swarm of tiny neons amused him. “What do you
    think this is, Times Square!” he shouted. And
    so it went long into the night. The next morning
    Stanley was horribly embarrassed by his behavior
    and he apologized to the fish several times,
    but they never really forgave him. He had mocked
    their very fishiness, and for this there can be
    no forgiveness.

    – from Return to the City of White Donkeys by James Tate, published by Ecco Press, 2005.

    1.5)joshua cooper writes of this poem


    it demonstrates a wonderful blend of tragedy and comedy so often evident in his poems. I also enjoy the poem’s enjambment and hidden technical aspects, such as its use of sonic elements (alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme, etc.). They’re subtle; they don’t jolt you out of the poem, yet they’re still doing a great deal of work to pace the poem and its reader.



    1.6)i looked up enjambment


    (in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

    1.7 this morning as i watched the talking heads discuss mitt romney's op-ed about trump's character, i heard more than one person suppose that mitt is now getting even for the humiliation he was put through as he attempted to become trump's secretary of state - like stanley's fish, he has not forgiven

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