The art of age
Leonard Cohen is a songwriter, and a very successful one at that. But he was a poet first. He’s old, too—if 79 can be called “old” these days. Accordingly, the style and content of his songs have changed over the … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Poetry
Whither Las Vegas and Atlantic City?
Will Vegas and Atlantic City go the way of Detroit? With the proliferation of other, more convenient and less-centralized gambling venues, the two cities may be doomed. Already, more than half the homes in Las Vegas are under water—and I’m … Continue reading →
David Horowitz: come back to tell you all
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”— ———–T.S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock David Horowitz has written a new book, although it doesn’t have … Continue reading →
In praise of memorizing poetry
[NOTE: Here’s a post I first wrote in 2005. It’s a favorite of mine.] I think it may be a lost pedagogical device, but when I was in grade school, we were forced by our teachers (mostly elderly women, as … Continue reading →
Poets of the right
British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was a complicated man, like many poets. But unlike most of them these days, he was politically of the right, at least in some respects. Larkin wrote in forms, which is inherently conservative. But his … Continue reading →
So Yeats, what were you bellyaching about?
The poet Yeats often wrote about how dreadful old age was, especially its physical manifestations. In the poem “Among School Children“, he describes himself as having looked pretty nifty in youth and terrible at sixty: And I though never of … Continue reading →
Sound and sense: “but I am now with you”
[NOTE: In one of yesterday’s posts I reproduced some photos of people when young alongside the very same people considerably older. Then I offered—without any commentary—one of my favorite poems, “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” by Gerard Manley … Continue reading →
Photos: before and after
Sometimes I don’t like to confront the fact of aging. Sometimes it’s okay with me (not that anyone’s asking). These before and after photos—a person young, the same person older, in the very same pose and similar clothing—are heartbreaking, heartwarming, … Continue reading →
Want to get a little perspective?
Try this for size (hat tip: Gerard Vanderleun at American Digest). The video includes a lot of new-agey political stuff, but it’s the pictures that are wonderful: OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo. Here’s an early post of mine on … Continue reading →
Obama is heavy bored…and this is heavy scary
[NOTE: I thought this post, first published here in November of 2010, could bear repeating. I had forgotten the Jarrett quote with which it begins. But on looking at it again, it seems even more chilling than ever—and it was … Continue reading →
Gregory Corso: up down and all around
I was introduced to Gregory Corso’s poem “Marriage” by a boyfriend long ago, and it stuck in my mind because it was one of the few poems I’ve ever read that is genuinely funny; more a comedy monologue than a … Continue reading →
Provide, provide
On one of the recent art threads, commenter “Smock Puppet” offered a link to a sculpture by Rodin entitled “She who Used to Be the Beautiful Heaulmiere”: The sculpture ‘Celle qui fut la belle heaulmié¨re’ is also known as ‘The … Continue reading →