#76 - on books and writing
Art by Rezso Balint
Secret History by Charles Simic
Of the light in my room:
Its mood swings,
Dark-morning glooms,
Summer ecstasies.
Spider on the wall,
Lamp burning late,
Shoes left by the bed,
I’m your humble scribe.
Dust balls, simple souls
Conferring in the corner.
The pearl earring she lost,
Still to be found.
Silence of falling snow,
Night vanishing without trace,
Only to return.
I’m your humble scribe.
Other poems I loved reading on writing/words:
"A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day." -Emily Dickinson
"She plans to love her apartment where she will keep
Just one flower in a blue vase. She already loves the word apart-
Ment, whose halves please her when she sees them breaking
The line in her journal. She plans to learn the roots
Of French and English words and will search them out
As if she were hunting skulls in the catacombs.
On her walls she’ll hang a timetable of the great events
Of Western History. She will read the same twenty books
As Chaucer. Every morning she will make up stories…." -from Plans by Stuart Dischell "That's how it begins: impenetrable.
The book of two words I happen to see, out of the corner of my eye, on a wall. Such slowness.
These words took years to arrive." -from What are the consequences of silence? by Bhanu Kapil "These poems
they are things that I do
in the dark
reaching for you
whoever you are
and
are you ready?" from These Poems by June Jordan
"What will I have for breakfast?
I wish I had some plums
like the ones in Williams’s poem.
He apologized to his wife
for eating them
but what he did not
do was apologize to those
who would read his poem
and also not be able to eat them.
That is why I like his poem
when I am not hungry.
Right now I do not like him
or his poem. This is just
to say that." -This for That by Ron Padgett
I absolutely love the idea of a Canoe Concert!
Recommended Listening:
Songs of High Altitude - Darren Hayman (a travelogue album written and recorded during and after a visit to India in early summer 2019.) Lonely - Jamila Woods ft Lorina Chia Canoe Concert Venus as a Boy - Vitamin String Quartet Performs Björk (oh my, what a video!)
via Poetry Comics
Links of the Week:
A mental health manual for the modern workforce (Downloadable) The cartoonist who turned the iTunes agreement into a graphic novel The Secret Life of Libraries Chili's Menu, if Cormac McCarthy wrote it
The Curious Case of the Notebook from State Lunatic Asylum No.3
Instagram Loving:
I'm still feeling rather tired and disheartened by the political climate in India, the Australian bushfires, climate change and apathy, and life admin in general. If anybody has tips to stay positive while keeping it real, please write in.
Also, if you like receiving The Alipore Post, forward it to others to subscribe. I've also been updating the website with new poems, so happy reading!
Thanks,
Rohini
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