Postcards from the Imagination

Here in New Hampshire. It's 47 degrees this morning, and the forecast high for today is only 65 degrees. Sweater weather. I love it!

Posted by Ginger at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm writing an essay for one my classes on the sonic effects in Edward Thomas's "The Owl" (ca. 1917) and thought I'd post the poem here. Notice Thomas's inclusion of the poor in his last line. Perhaps it's a product of the times in which we live, but the equation of soldiers and poor people struck me as noteworthy.

The Owl

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;
Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof
Against the North winds; tired, yet so that rest
Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof. 

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,
Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.
All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry 

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
But one telling me plain what I escaped
And others could not, that night, as in I went. 

And salted was my food, and my repose,
Salted and sobered, too, by the bird’s voice
Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.

Posted by Ginger at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This morning I was checking my email on a laptop that was in the throes of an extended death rattle. This evening I'm whipping through cyberspace on a brand-new laptop almost faster than I can click. Now who do you suppose is responsible for this dramatic reversal of fortune? I'll give you three clues. He's smart, passionate, and damn sexy. He even made dinner while I played around with my new [work] toy! Of course, he's just as wonderful when not he's not spoiling me, and if I'm lucky, it's not for the gift. I don't know if I can describe what it's like to have a crush that more than two years of familiarity and requital have done little to moderate. Perhaps I shouldn't try. Perhaps I'll just say that it's so.

Posted by Ginger at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are some of you who've not yet given Seth and me the opportunity to consider your work for The New Hampshire Review. And some of you, we have occasion to know, write very good poems. Moreover, some of you have friends whose poems we'd also love to read. If I had more time I'd be writing to several of you personally, but for now this general solicitation will have to suffice. Our contact info is available at http://www.newhampshirereview.com/submission_guidelines.htm.
We can't wait to hear from you!

Posted by Ginger at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...that W.B. Yeats believed in ESP? I don't, but I'm taking on C. Dale's meme nonetheless.

Seven Things I Want to Do Before I Die

1. See my daughter engaged in a fulfilling life's work.
2. Live in Paris for at least a few months.
3. See the rest of Europe.
4. Write one important poem--i.e. a poem which no one else could have written, and which fulfills some widespread emotional, intellectual, spiritual, cultural and/or aesthetic craving.
5. Learn to speak a foreign language fluently.
6. Host a contemporary version of the literary salon.
7. Quit smoking.

Seven Things I Can Do

1. Listen well.
2. Start a literary journal from scratch.
3. Remain calm in an emergency.
4. Cook a fantastic meal.
5. Turn over a new leaf.
6. Fix things.
7. [censored for adult content]

Seven Things I Cannot Do

1. Mental arithmetic.
2. Stand on my hands.
3. Sing.
4. Be on time for anything without great effort.
5. Skimp on sleep.
6. Remember names and dates.
7. Fit into the size I wore when I was 20.

Seven Things That Attract Me to the Same/Opposite Sex

1. A great sense of humor
2. Intelligence
3. Eloquence
4. Warm-heartedness
5. Openness of mind, heart, and spirit
6. Easiness
7. Pheromones

Seven Celebrity Crushes (some current, some long-since expired)

1. Seth Abramson
2. Liam Neeson
3. Richard Gere
4. Asia Carrera
5. Dave Matthews
6. Catherine Zeta Jones
7. Jude Law

Posted by Ginger at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

8:00 am - Filled the coffee pot with fresh water, inserted a clean filter, peeled the plastic lid off the coffee can, and @*!#@$ it was empty!! Stood there staring into the empty can for about ten seconds. Shook it around a bit, trying to decide whether or not I could squeeze one cup out of what was left. No good. Must drag my sorry self to the coffee drive-thru down the road. I've had better mornings.

[Addendum: Is it wrong of me to be annoyed when the woman in front of me orders a small, iced decaf with skim milk and Sweet 'N Low?]

Posted by Ginger at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a lot of reading to do tonight, and since Seth's down in Cambridge for the evening, I just wanted to order a pizza and get busy. JUST--ha!!

Pizza Joint Employee:  Thank you for calling the Pizza Joint, pick-up or delivery?

Me: Delivery.

PJE: And your phone number?

Me: 555-5555

PJE: OK.........that's ___________ Plaza?...oh, wait, no, I mean Place?

Me: Yes. Apartment XXX.

PJE: (dismissively) Right, right, right. What can I get for you?

Me: Just a medium pizza with extra cheese.

PJE: OK......(long pause)

Me: Can I order a medium, or do you only have large and small?

PJE: Oh no, we have medium, but I can't find it. We have a new computer system.

Me: Oh, okay.

PJE: Found it. OK.......(another long pause).  Sorry, I can't find the extra-cheese button, but I'll make sure I tell them.

Me: Okay.

PJE: Ok, that'll be $11.50 and it'll be ready in 35-40 minutes.

Me: And that's for delivery, right?

PJE: R-i-g-h-t.

Me: I just wanted to check, because you said it would be ready in 35-40 minutes, not delivered.

PJE: Y-e-a-h......(long pause).

Me: Do you need anything else from me?

PJE: You're total will be $12.25. I forgot to put in the delivery. $12.25 and it'll be there in 35-40 minutes.

Me: Thanks.

I'll bet it has mushrooms and anchovies when it arrives. 

Posted by Ginger at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Anyone still entertaining a desire to appear in Best American Poetry might want to check out this 'poem' from the newly-released 2005 edition. Kind of makes the whole project seem laughable, no? I think most serious poets can safely wipe this one off their ambitions list. And by the way, would it surprise anyone to learn that David Lehman blurbed James Cummins book?  I thought not.

Maybe next year they can collaborate with the editors of Fence to put barely-legal boobies on the cover. I mean, what have they got to lose?

Posted by Ginger at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For those of you who visit daily and are wondering what's going on, I'll be blogging again soon (tomorrow or Sunday I hope), and when I do I'll have the run-down of back-to-school week.

Posted by Ginger at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality...And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this -- this is working very well for them." Former First Lady, Barbara Bush on NPR (via Editor & Publisher)

In the coming days, weeks, and months people will be reluctant to admit that race or economic class had anything to do with the government's failures vis-a-vis Katrina. I'd like people to read this quote, and remember that this is the sort of family in which our current President was raised. This is what was running through the minds of Washington's elite as they watched the same news reports we all watched earlier in the week.

I don't think they saw working people who lost their homes, and jobs, and loved ones. I think they saw people who, to their minds at least, were accustomed to public assistance and sub-standard living conditions. And because they thought of them as not having fallen terribly far, they were not shocked into action as they should have been.

Moreover, the director of FEMA, Michael Brown told CNN on Thursday night, "Unfortunately, [the death toll]'s going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings,...I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans..."  Had he been watching CNN on Sunday morning he would have seen the interviews with those underprivileged residents of New Orleans who wanted to evacuate but had no money and/or no transportation to do so. One young woman held her infant son in her lap and told the reporter she'd do ANYTHING to protect him, but since she didn't have anywhere to go, or any money to get there, they were going to have to ride it out.

Katrina's victims need as much emergency assistance as they can get RIGHT NOW, but they will need more than mere subsistence in the weeks and months to come. They will need real homes, real jobs, and real counseling going forward. Unfortunately, I do not believe this government will tend to those needs unless forced to do so by sustained public pressure. That means us, the American public, keeping one eye on Washington, one on the Gulf Coast, and demanding our fellow citizens be treated with as much dignity as would we would expect to be treated with ourselves.

Posted by Ginger at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Because we've been busy with other things, and a little strapped for cash, Seth and I didn't make any plans for Labor Day weekend. But by Saturday night we both felt like we wanted to get out. There's a new pub in town, and they were promising live Irish music, so we walked over there. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up and the band never showed. Undaunted, we decided we were going to have fun anyway--drinking. Only we're not drinkers, and we really should have known better. I finished up my Guinness, Seth his Magner's, and then we walked over to the Mexican place for a couple of strong margaritas. I had one strawberry and one sour apple made with citrus-flavored Tarantula tequila. They were delicious. We got drunk, and happy, and chatty, and called a friend who wanted to meet us back at the pub. On our way over there we saw a man walk by with a cockatoo on his arm and decided we were having the best time ever. Our friend ordered us a round of Guinness before we arrived, and after we sat down suggested shots. BIG MISTAKE. Seth begged off, but I ordered a vanilla vodka. As soon as it hit my stomach I knew I was in trouble. Had I been ten years younger I probably would have forced it right back up, but the fact is I'm not twenty anymore. And I wasn't in some dive in NYC, I was in a nice little pub here in town. I made it home on my own two legs, but it was all downhill from there.

Yesterday we slept late, woke up hungover, and vowed never to do that again.

For some milder entertainment last night, we decided to go see a movie. Because I don't care for the kind of big Hollywood films showing in town, we drove down to Waltham to see Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray. It was possibly the worst movie I've ever sat through. The director was going for some kind of artsy minimalism, but the result lacked anything one might expect from art. The acting was so heavily acted that there was no possibility of suspending one's disbelief. The silences were all pose and no humanity. The plot was ridiculous. The attempted symbolism was trite. It was Lost in Translation minus beauty, feeling, mystery, and character. And I didn't even get a student discount.

Fortunately today is a new day, and I'm on my way to the office supply mega-store to pick up notebooks and an academic-year organizer. (I will have to resist multiple temptations, as I don't really need more than that right now.) My fall schedule calls for a great deal of discipline and organization. I'm going to be working in the morning, going to classes in the afternoon, running the review, trying to write, AND reading for a new book club. I'll have eight hour days on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; eleven hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And then there's homework. But I LOVE what I do, and I can't wait to get back into the classroom. My book list for this semester includes:

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Plato, Five Great Dialogues
St. Augustine, Confessions
Yeats, Collected Poems
The Norton Anthology of Poetry
Stephen Adams, Poetic Designs
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady
The Ambassadors
The Wings of the Dove
Daisy Miller
The Spoils of Poynton
The Figures in the Carpet & Other Stories
and more...

So, I'm off to it. Happy Labor Day everyone!

Posted by Ginger at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Less than twenty-four hours after the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Bush Says He'll Fill Vacancies Promptly.

Compare this with the President's response to Hurricane Katrina. "Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history," wrote The New Hampshire Union Leader, one of the nation's most conservative newspapers, on Wednesday. "And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage."

Surely no one is going to lose their life over a temporary Supreme Court vacancy. But people did die in shelters in New Orleans waiting for help that was too late to save them. Thousands of people died in their homes because for all the money being spent to protect Americans from threats either real or imagined, not one dollar was set aside for evacuating people who did not have the resources to evacuate themselves.

We have an enormous military, and yet not one Airforce plane was used to fly people out of the area prior to the storm. Why not?

President Bush is the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces and he utterly failed to deploy those Forces when and where they were most needed.

Nonetheless it was politics-as-usual from the Roosevelt Room this Sunday morning. "It will serve the best interest of the nation to fill those [Supreme Court] vacancies promptly," said Bush.

Bullshit, Mr. President. The nation can wait as long as it takes to find two new Supreme Court Justices. For many of Katrina's victims, it's already too late.

Posted by Ginger at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

C. Dale Young's "Stone and Fire, Fire and Stone" (The New Hampshire Review, Summer 2005) has been selected by Verse Daily for their August Web Monthly Feature. Congratulations, C. Dale!

Posted by Ginger at 08:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been watching with horror as the crisis in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast worsens. Anything else I might blog about seems irrelevant, thus the silence.

Posted by Ginger at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)