Weekly Edition #22
Art by Stacy Moore
Schema by Michael Salinger
We are strongest where broken then mended
a weld will resist tearing surviving even the metal
that has been repaired
a stitched sail
the patch of bicycle tire tube
new soles on favorite shoes
a fractured bone
once set will knit
more resolute than before the injury
Of course
some sort of scar
a cicatrix of new connecting tissue
a slight misalignment
a stitch or a gouge
will document the lesson
The remnants of an arrowhead
in the shoulder blade
of a 5,300 year old body
of a shepherd found frozen
in the Italian Alps
the tiny white cuticle half moon divot
beneath the right eye
of the woman with whom you are having lunch
the sealed exit of your grandfather’s appendix
a mother’s broken heart
All recounting the story
of pain outlasted
Other poems I read this week: (full poems attached in link)
"You can't order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, "I'll take two"
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, "Here's my address,
write me a poem," deserves something in reply.
So I'll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide."
-Valentine for Ernest Mann by Naomi Shihab Nye
"Loud music does this, it wipes out the ego,
leaving turbulent water and winding road,
a landscape stripped of people and language-
how clear the air becomes, how sharp the colors."
"Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer's retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell." -After Years by Ted Kooser "At the essential landscape stare, stare
Till your eyes foist a vision dazzling on the wind:
Whatever lost ghosts flare,
Damned, howling in their shrouds across the moor
Rave on the leash of the starving mind
Which peoples the bare room, the blank, untenanted air." -November Graveyard by Sylvia Plath
"The tree frog chorus
Wakes me with the rising sun.
Those noisy bastards!"
-Basher
Recommended Listening:
Deep One Perfect Morning - The Jesus & Mary Chain
Secret Garden - Bruce Springsteen + the version with dialogues from Jeremy MaGuire A Rum Summer - Ibo
Links of the Week:
Minimals: Children’s Blocks Take the Form of Simplified Animals in Animations by Lucas Zanotto
The Winnie-the-Pooh Exhibition
Classic Radiohead Songs Re-Imagined as Sci-Fi Book / Pulp Fiction Magazine Illustrations
Weird Hangover Cures Through the Ages
The Joys and Heartache of Family Life, in Photos
Also, it's that time of the year when I organize The Alipore Post Secret Santa.
If you'd like to be a part of this year's gift exchange and celebrations, fill the form here.
And finally, this strip from Cat's Cafe Comics, one of my new favorite animal humour comics.