kamiel79

Reading: This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams

Something light and exhilarating today. William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was a New York poet important voice of modernism and symbolism, who was celebrated by Ginsberg and the Beats for his accessibility. For our growing anthology, I read what is probably the most famous post-it note of American culture: This is just to say I have ...

Tableau I

, in which we are all gummy bears competing with each other on the birthday table of a child who has yet to be diagnosed colorblind

Reading: Winged And Acid Dark by Robert Hass

Robert Hass (b. 1941) is another famous American poet who served as Poet Laureate of that immense country and won a Pulitzer prize. I read one of his poems today that I think is representative. In other words: vintage Hass: Winged and acid dark A sentence with "dappled shadow" in it. Something not sayable spurting ...

Een nuttige eigenschap

Ik heb de nuttige, en nutty, eigenschap aangeleerd dat ik al mijn verleden produceerde voor nihil kan verklaren, zonder er depressief van te worden. Ik heb geen Herzblut-roman of Lebensgedicht dat ik met me meedraag in de hoop het ooit te kunnen slijten. Ik rommel wat aan, vrolijk als een labrador die kwispelend rond het ...

Icecream

in my country, everybody can eat icecream with wholeness in it world leaders rub nuclear shoulders for it, spiders feel secure in their web with some fly carcasses but it is warming everywhere and I am afraid of the others who restrict everything what if I want to dance on harvest day? what if I ...

Math

Dear Miru, Your calculating is improving and you actually like it. We play with numbers together. Two times ten is twenty. Six plus five is eleven. Ten minus 2 equals eight. It is all very playful. You learn how to figure out calculations by making drawings of dots, lines, squares on the whiteboard. You don't ...

Reading: Anthem for doomed youth by Wilfred Owen

English war poetry from the trenches. After Sassoon I read a poem from the pen of remarkable Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), one great poor soul from the culled generation of World War I: Anthem for doomed youth What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? ____Only the monstrous anger of the guns. ____Only the stuttering rifles' ...

Reading: Résumé by Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) has lead a tempestuous life with several marriages, some suicides attempt and employment by Vanity Fair. One of her collections is called 'enough rope' and I can't supress a sinister feeling. However, she stayed alive and became a productive screenwriter and poet. I sample a very short piece here, because short verse ...

Reading: Taking off Emily Dickinson’s clothes by Billy Collins

Billy Collins (b. 1941) is 'the most popular poet of America' according to some. He was poet laureate of the US several times and won a prize or something for the America's funniest home poetry - he manages to tell a good joke without destroying the poetic wager. I fell in love with this poet, ...