Wallace Stevens : Lecture 19 Yale

in , ,

Wallace Stevens is considered as an unapologetically Romantic poet of imagination. His search for meaning in a universe without religion in "Sunday Morning" is likened to Crane's energetic quest for meaning and symbol. In "The Poems of Our Climate," Stevens's desire to reduce poetry to essential terms, and then his countering resistance to this impulse, are explored.

Boston Strong

in , , ,

One Fund Boston - This is the general fund that was set up by Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino to help those most affected by the bombings.

Jeff Bauman is the young man who was waiting to see his girlfriend complete the Boston Marathon. He was near the finish line ​when one of the bombers dropped a bag at Bauman's feet. Two minutes later the bomb went off and Bauman lost both of his legs. I looked at the photo taken of Jeff being wheeled to the ambulance, after having had tourniquets applied by Carlos Arredondo, who saved Jeff's life. That photo is horrific, and iconic. Here is a modified photo, along with the story. The full photo is available at The Atlantic. I will provide a link, but you must know that it is graphic and difficult to view. 

​

Reading in an Age of Abundance

in , ,

I was thinking about how much has changed with the disruption of the publishing industry and how much my reading habits have changed ​because of it. Much of it I quite like: the ability to have a book arrive on my Kindle Fire with a tap of the screen is truly amazing; the fact that I can receive a book from the library on my Kindle is equally amazing; I listen to more books on my iPod because of Audible.com. The change in delivery systems for books was overdue. 

What has been more difficult to corral is my attention. I'm a reader. I've spent days lost in books; given up sleep to story. With a Kindle Fire I get waylaid. Like a bee in a field of flowers, I flit. In the flitting the immersion is fleeting. It is that, specifically, that I miss the most and have had the greatest difficulty recapturing. There is the urgency of now in the air, along with the never ending flow of desirable goods...reading material. Seems I've been in constant acquisition mode.   ​

I've decided to stop for a time; then to consciously slow it down; to bring the flow to a trickle. I think of how many bookstores I've walked into, how many library hours I've clocked. It was never about gathering as many books as possible, it was always about finding the one, two, or three books that I was deeply interested in reading and thinking about, something worthy of my time. I'm easing back into time off-line and untethered, where I deliberately watch the stream flow by me instead of being drawn into the skimming light of it all. I need to bring a desired balance back into my life. I want to really read again.

How do you handle reading in an age of abundance?​

​

​

​

​

​

What I'm Reading: An Animal of the Sixth Day by Laura Fargas

in , , ,

​April is poetry month. I read poetry year round and can't imagine a month without it, but I'm happy to celebrate it publicly every April. Some poems wind up becoming talismans -- something you carry and something that carries you. The poem becomes something you breathe; something you are. That is how I feel about Laura Fargas' poem, Kuan Yin, ​​which can be found in her book of poems: An Animal of the Sixth Day. 

Thank you, Laura Fargas.​

​