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Tom Montag: A Re-Alert
I occasionally mention Tom Montag. Well, here he is again, out-Williams-ing Williams, out-Cormaning Corman, leaving Creeley in the dust.Read More
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An Addendum
L’autoritratto di Montale. 1952. My last Friday Notebook post should have included the following—a translation of Montale‘s famous sunflower poem, occasioned by a request from Conrad DiDiodato for versions of it to be published on his blog. Conrad himself and Annie Wyndham (see here and here) have weighed in as well. I highly recommend that you visit Conrad’s post and contribute your own version, just for fun.Read More
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Friday Notebook 07.22.2011
The world is that small spaceyou occupy. The rest is rumor.Be careful where you choose to go.You have freedom, but only thinkyou can live there. Rememberhow you refused that cap and gownget-up to collect your family’s firstcollege degree? How your mother cried?Freedom! And now she’s gone. Somebonds are roots, others—fetters.Freedom can be fetters, too. * After hurricane Rita, this placewas just shredded jungle. Nowit’s Jesús and Lídia’s casa,built by him, by hand, on weekendsand vacations, the way my fatherbuilt our first house.Read More
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On Baker’s Stone Girl E-Pic
I’ve been struggling—let me admit it—to find a way to write about Ed Baker’s Stone Girl E-Pic. It’s a 515-page poetic adventure, the reading of which is like watching sparks thrown off by a fire: the fire’s below the rim of the firepit, so you can’t see it directly, but the climbing sparks, the waves of light and heat under a skyful of stars—this is the sensation Stone Girl produces.Read More