Short Rilke poem translated by Edward Snow, from the Uncollected Poems of Rilke's.
Reading/video:
Friday, October 9, 2020
Unfinished Reading
Books you don't finish reading
are like mountains you don't
finish climbing or comparisons
like this that don't seem quite right.
They are like acquaintances who
don't become friends. (This seems
better.) You have been told or
think you see what's up ahead,
but a weariness sets in. Let
the book be great for others,
you think. Just leave me out of it.
I've resigned from the reading of
The Fairie Queen, Clarissa, The
Castle of Crossed Destinies,
The Charterhouse at Parma,
countless portly mystery novels.
I pretended to finish Paradise
Lost but, as with the film,
The Titanic, I had guessed the ending.
I forced myself to climb Mann's
Magic Mountain. It took
decades, and it wasn't worth it.
When Sam Johnson (who
said of Paradise Lost, "No one
wished it longer") got tired
of a book, he threw it across
the room. Bolder than I,
he didn't resign from reading.
He fired the book.
hans ostrom 2017
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Women, Books, Making a Living
Apparently one of my major
aims in life was to get a lot of
books, bring them home,
and read them more or less
at the same time. Also, I
developed an interest in
women--individually
and as a form, a genre,
of human being. Soon
I began to receive messages
about "making a living,"
which (I get it) is important
but which is immeasurably
tedious when contrasted
with books, women, and
women-and-books. Is the
way I look at it, apparently.
hans ostrom 2020
"Tears Fall In My Heart," by Paul Verlaine
Reading/video of a poem by French Symbolist and so-called Decadent, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)--translated by Richard Greene:
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
"On the Nature of Love," by Rabindranath Tagore
One of the better known poems by Tagore (1861-1941), poet, composer, philosopher, fiction writer, artist--astoundingly talented. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.
Reading/video:
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
"Musical Instrument," by Luis Cernuda
Reading/video of a short poem that, in a flash, presents a theory of creativity. Luis Cernuda was a Spanish poet who spent much of his life in exile from Franco's regime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lsiw5zTWf8
"Sonnet XIII: The Light That Rises from Your Feet to Your Hair," by Pablo Neruda
Reading/video of a poem by Neruda, translated by W.S. Merwin:
Monday, October 5, 2020
Emily Dickinson writes of hauntings: "One Need not be a Chamber to Be Haunted"
Video/reading of a poem by Emily Dickinson--number 407 or 670, depending upon the numbering system.
Duty
After a life, or most of one,
of doing his duty, meeting
his responsibilities and obeying
their orders, he found he couldn't
relax as others did. He made
too much even of small tasks,
compelled himself to follow
through, stay strong, be there.
Voices of authorities past
gabbed in his head. He vowed
that one day he would not do
what he was supposed to do.
But would he follow through?
hans ostrom 2020
A Thin Smile in the Rain
When you wait a long time
for something that will never arrive,
you're not waiting. You're
hoping. You're pretending.
Or: something about you
likes that feeling of disappointment,
the sense in which the world
is unforgivably hard
but you're not giving in.
You find it's a bit like walking
in rain without hat, coat, or
umbrella and not minding--
your hair, face, clothes,
and shoes soaked. People
look at you and look away.
They act like you don't know
you're wet. You set your
thin smile. And keep walking.
hans ostrom 2020
"Ghosts," by Elizabeth Jennings
Just in time for Halloween, a poem by British poet Elizabeth Jennings, "Ghosts," video/reading:
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
"I Loved You," by Alexander Pushkin
Reading/video of a short poem by the great Russian writer. The poem was translated by Babette Deutsch, American writer, critic, poet, and translator.
Monday, September 28, 2020
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