Robert White Creeley (5/21/1926-03/30/2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. Wikipedia
The Hollow Men Mistah Kurtz-he dead A penny for the Old Guy I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us-if at all-not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men. II Eyes I dare not meet in dreams In death's dream kingdom These do not appear: There, the eyes are Sunlight on a broken column There, is a tree swinging And voices are In the wind's singing More distant and more solemn Than a fading star. Let me be no nearer In death's dream kingdom Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves In a field Behaving as the wind behaves No nearer- Not that final meeting In the twilight kingdom III This is the dead land This is cactus land Here the stone images Are raised, here they receive The supplication of a dead man's hand Under the twinkle of a fading star. Is it like this In death's other kingdom Waking alone At the hour when we are Trembling with tenderness Lips that would kiss Form prayers to broken stone. IV The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms In this last of meeting places We grope together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river Sightless, unless The eyes reappear As the perpetual star Multifoliate rose Of death's twilight kingdom The hope only Of empty men. V Here we go round the prickly pear Prickly pear prickly pear Here we go round the prickly pear At five o'clock in the morning. Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow Life is very long Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom For Thine is Life is For Thine is the This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. His other works include The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I'm going to try something new. Each week I hope to post a poem for your consideration. One that has moved me. I have taken a deep dive into reading the poetry of poets I have not previously read. I hope I can share at least one (or two) that move you. Life's Tragedy It may be misery not to sing at all, And to go silent through the brimming day; It may be misery never to be loved, But deeper griefs than these beset the way. To sing the perfect song, And by a half-tone lost the key, There the potent sorrow, there the grief, The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy. To have come near to the perfect love, Not the hot passion of untempered youth, But that which lies aside its vanity, And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth. This, this indeed is to be accursed, For if we mortals love, or if we sing, We count our joys not by what we have, But by what kept us from that perfect thing. --Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper, and served as president of his high school's literary society. Dunbar's popularity increased rapidly after his work was praised by William Dean Howells, a leading editor associated with Harper's Weekly. Dunbar became one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. In addition to his poems, short stories, and novels, he also wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway in New York. The musical later toured in the United States and the United Kingdom. Suffering from tuberculosis, which then had no cure, Dunbar died in Dayton, Ohio, at the age of 33. Much of Dunbar's more popular work in his lifetime was written in the "Negro dialect" associated with the antebellum South, though he also used the Midwestern regional dialect of James Whitcomb Riley.[1] Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels. Since the late 20th century, scholars have become more interested in these other works. from Wikipedia from openculture.com
I will never say that I could possibly finish this list before it's my time to go. And yet, it seems a worthy goal. Miller was a voracious reader and that in itself is something to aspire to. There have been so many books written and published in the 40 plus years since Henry Miller's passing, many of which are already on my ever growing "to be read" list. I'm sure that the more I read, the more books will be added to my list. Following is a list of books that Miller stated influenced him. Several of these books, not all, are readily available. I have been looking for the unexpurgated edition of Spengler's Decline of the West for at least twenty years. 1 Ancient Greek Dramatists 2 Arabian Nights (for children) 3 Elizabethan Playwrights (excepting Shakespeare) 4 European Playwrights of 19th Century 5 Greek Myths and Legends 6 Knights of King Arthur’s Court 7 Abèlard, Pierre, The Story of My Misfortunes 8 Alain-Fournier, The Wanderer 9 Andersen, Hans Christian, Fairy Tales 10 Anonymous, Diary of a Lost One 11 Balzac, Honoré de, Seraphita 12 Balzac, Honoré de, Louis Lambert 13 Bellamy, Edward, Looking Backward 14 Belloc, Hilaire, The Path to Rome 15 Blavatsky, Mme. H. P., The Secret Doctrine 16 Boccaccio, Giovanni, The Decameron 17 Breton, André, Nadja 18 Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights 19 Bulwyer-Lytton, Edward, Last Days of Pompeii 20 Carroll, Lewis, Alice in Wonderland 21 Céline, Louis-Ferdinand, Journey to the End of the Night 22 Cellini, Benvenuto, Autobiography 23 Cendrars, Blaise, Virtually the complete works 24 Chesterton, G.K., Saint Francis of Assisi 25 Conrad, Joseph, His works in general 26 Cooper James Fenimore, Leatherstocking Tales 27 Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe 28 De Nerval, Gérard, His works in general 29 Dostoievsky, Feodor, His works in general 30 Dreiser, Theodore, His works in general 31 Duhamel, Geoges, Salavin Series 32 Du Maurier, George, Trilby 33 Dumas, Alexander, The Three Musketeers 34 Eckermann, Johann, Conversations with Goethe 35 Eltzbacher, Paul, Anarchism 36 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Representative Men 37 Fabre, Henri, His works in general 38 Faure, Elie, The History of Art 39 Fenollosa, Ernest, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry 40 Gide, André, Dostoievski 41 Giono, Jean, Refus d’Obéissance 42 Giono, Jean, Que ma joie domeure 43 Giono, Jean, Jean le Bleu 44 Grimm Brothers, Fairy Tales 45 Gutkind, Erich, The Absolute Collective 46 Haggard, Rider, She 47 Hamsun, Knut, His works in general 48 Henty, G. A., His works in general 49 Hesse, Hermann, Siddhartha 50 Hudson, W. H., His works in general 51 Hugo, Victor, Les Misérables 52 Huysmans, Joris Karl, Against the Grain 53 Joyce, James, Ulysses 54 Keyserling, Hermann, South American Meditations 55 Kropotkin, Peter, Mutual Aid 56 Lao-tse, Tao Teh Ch’ing 57 Latzko, Andreas, Men in War 58 Long, Haniel, Interlinear to Cabeza de Vaca 59 M, Gospel of Ramakrishna 60 Machen, Arthur, The Hill of Dreams 61 Maeterlinck, Maurice, His works in general 62 Mann, Thomas, The Magic Mountain 63 Mencken, H. L., Prejudices 64 Nietzsche, His works in general 65 Nijinsky, Diary 66 Nordhoff & Hall, Pitcairn Island 67 Nostradamus, The Centuries 68 Peck, George Wilbur, Peck’s Bad Boy 69 Percival, W. O., William Blake’s Circle of Destiny 70 Petronius, The Satyricon 71 Plutarch, Lives 72 Powys, John Cowper, Visions and Revisions 73 Prescott, William H., Conquest of Mexico 74 Prescott, William H., Conquest of Peru 75 Proust, Marcel, Remembrance of Things Past 76 Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel 77 Rimbaud, Jean-Arthur, His works in general 78 Rolland, Romain, Jean-Christophe 79 Rolland, Romain, Prophets of the New India 80 Rudhyar, Dane, Astrology of Personality 81 Saltus, Edgar, The Imperial Purple 82 Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe 83 Sienkiewicz, Henry, Quo Vadis 84 Sikelianos, Anghelos, Proanakrousma 85 Sinnett, A. P., Esoteric Buddhism 86 Spencer, Herbert, Autobiography 87 Spengler, Oswald, The Decline of the West 88 Strindberg, August, The Inferno 89 Suarès, Carlo, Krishnamurti 90 Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, Zen Buddhism 91 Swift, Jonathan, Guilliver’s Travels 92 Tennyson, Alfred, Idylls of the King 93 Thoreau, Henry David, Civil Disobedience & Other Essays 94 Twain, Mark, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 95 Van Gogh, Vincent, Letters to Theo 96 Wassermann, Jacob, The Maurizius Case (Trilogy) 97 Weigall, Arthur, Akhnaton 98 Welch, Galbraith, The Unveiling of Timbuctoo 99 Werfel, Franz, Star of the Unborn 100 Whitman, Walt, Leaves of Grass "It's very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems."
-Thich Nhat Hanh Has it really been over a month since I last posted anything? I guess I've been on a bit of a hiatus from almost everything. I woke up early, as usual, this morning. I struggle on work days to get out of bed, but on my days off I am wide awake at 6:30 a.m., if not earlier. I have, however, already been productive. I started bread and am in the process of making curtido, one of many things I plan on fermenting in the kitchen. I have spent the last few months in a state of burnout. The job I have been working at for the last seven years was finally getting to be too much. Without going into too much detail, the workload-staffing ratio was too much. Working in any health care environment during this pandemic is stressful. I can only imagine how much stress a front line worker is experiencing But I just transferred to a different job and it's just what I needed. I feel the effects of burnout fatigue fading little by little. My writing has suffered, the several typewriters I had hoped to restore and sell are neglected. My recent focus has been in the kitchen, mostly to avoid eating takeout. I also realize the benefits of cooking at home. Valerie and I both feel better having home cooked meals. And the typewriters.? Yes, they are calling to me. It's time to get busy, The writing and reading I keep saying I will do also beckons. But first, I have a lot of straightening to do. Since it's really too cold to go outside, I think today is the day. Peace. I know, I do it every New Year's Day. We all do it. We make a list of things we want to change to make the coming year better than the last. It's sometime a trap for failure, as we all know. By March most of us are just "fuck it!" and move on. No judgement from me.
And yet, here I am. Ready for change. Is it merely a coincidence that my craving for change lands of the first day of the year? Perhaps, but probably not. Let's just admit, 2021 and 2020 pretty much sucked. There were bright spots, of course. I just want to hope that 2022 at least shows some positive inroads. When I opened up the blog, I realize that I needed to write more often. There's my first resolution. Write more. Write poetry, stories, journal, letters to friends! That was easy. Which comes to my second resolution: read more. Read more everything. More fiction, more philosophy, more history! MORE! I have been seriously slacking in this area. I have so MANY BOOKS to read! It's ridiculous. Which brings me to my third resolution. This is the hardest one. It's certainly an addiction. It's not a chemical addicton...or well...it is in a way. Dopamine and Seratonin. And it allays the "fear of missing out." You can probably guess to what I am referring. Yep. Social Fucking Media. Facebook. Twitter. Even Instagram to a smaller degree. Facebook is the biggest one. And it's the first step. Third non-binding resolution: suspend the Facebook account. I will keep posting on Instagram because it helps me with my typewriter business. Twitter, well, is a connection to an old childhood friend (who also ditched Facebook long ago). We have also started writing letters back and forth, something I miss doing. So yes, I am suspending my Facebook account. For now. If nothing else, I just need a break. Facebook invades my hermit time. That should be the biggest reason of all.
Jack Kerouac opened a lot of doors for me. I read On the Road as a senior in high school, most likely inspired by my obsession with Bob Dylan at the time. I tried to read as much Kerouac as I could get my hands on, which was actually very little. I grew up in a small town full of narrow minds.
There is never just one door to one destination. I can't chart a specific course that led me to Dylan, then to Kerouac, to the Beat Generation and all the "angel-headed hipsters." I brought away a lot of things from learning about the Beats, some of it good (reading and writing) and some not so great (excessive drinking and a 4 pack a day cigarette habit). Most of the bad things have fallen by the wayside, thankfully. Most of the favorable things remain; the voracious reading, the aspiration to write, the interest in Zen and other forms of Buddhism. And then there's jazz, specifically Bop. John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker. They all inspire the Word inside me, striving to get out. Kerouac and the Beat Generation influenced the literary world in so many ways. Many of them, Kerouac included, never lived to realize how much of an influence they were and still are. Kerouac, despite all his flaws and misdirections, was The Word Made Flesh. So I present to you a playlist. I did not curate this list. I think I will make that an endeavor for later. I think it fairly represents much of the jazz music that Kerouac and his contemporaries listened to. Thanks to Ariana Lara for compiling this playlist. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, turn up the volume! Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
Presented without comment, because the album speaks for itself.
Personnel on Kind of Blue include:
With personnel like this, the only thing you can do is, well, turn up the volume! I have fallen in love with TedEd videos. They are short videos that cover a variety of subjects: Math, History, Literature for starters. Most of them are available on YouTube. In fact, it was the Literature videos that inspired me to make the Onerous Reading List. They have sparked my interest in reading quite a few books that I probably would never read (or have never read). Today I present this video, Why You Should Read Kurt Vonnegut. I have read several Vonnegut books since high school. This video makes me want to re-read them. I am not one of those "life is too short to re-read books" people. I have read Bram Stoker's Dracula countless (at least ten) times since I was in elementary school. Each time I get something I didn't catch on previous readings. So Vonnegut, yes, by all means. Read him. You might like it. And so it goes...
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