hope

permeable membranes

In the culturally stunned, dystopic states of North America a poet needs a different (though no greater) kind of faith and commitment from that of poets under other cruel and t/ruthless political regimes. Faith in poetry itself, more perhaps than has been required in other, older societies. Commitment to a poetics not defined by the market, not complacent courtier verse or prose cut by template. A poetics of longing, of organic necessity...

adrienne rich in the spring VQR

dear reader, I apologize if I'm wasting your time

Saw I'm Your Man at Film Forum tonight.

A great music documentary. Antony was moving. Rufus Wainwright didn't always do it for me. Mostly though, you could just hold a camera up to Leonard Cohen and you'd have a compelling movie. My favorite part was when he read the introduction to the Chinese translation of Beautiful Losers, thanking the readers for their "reckless generousity" and apologizing in advance, (hence the title of this post).

An interesting slip: When Nick Cave sings "Suzanne" he accidentally sings "...and you know that she will trust you" at the end of the song, like the lyrics in the first stanza (is that what you call it in a song?) The line is supposed to transform at the end to "...and you know that you can trust her, for she's touched your perfect body with her mind." Seems like an important difference to me...

I love Garrison Keillor.

His voice could soothe any mania, and Meryl Streep made him seem almost sexy.

Here
he is on San Franciscophobia...