{"id":2883,"date":"2023-06-03T08:59:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-03T15:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2883"},"modified":"2023-06-03T09:45:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T16:45:37","slug":"news-from-my-world-amended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2883","title":{"rendered":"NEWS FROM MY WORLD, amended"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\u00a0 UPDATE AND REWRITE…\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 This post is later than late because WordPress changed itself, so I sent it out on email to my 4 faithful readers, but Charlie fixed this latest catastrophe, as he always can and does, and I am, finally, sufficiently remorseful and peppier, too, and some noteworthy thoughts don’t die.\u00a0 So this is a rewrite.\u00a0 And I am looking into Substack.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Poetry Club met today, always a good time.\u00a0 Intrepid Convener Gary\u2019s assigned task was to \u201c<\/span>choose and bring to read your 3 favorite poems.\u201d\u00a0 Today, for me, that would be poems appreciating libraries, as written by the poets, or as understood, and, sometimes,\u201d amended\u201d by me. I figured that, with just a few poetic fiddlings, I could recognize the librarians in my life, especially those of my\u00a0 early\u00a0 freedom-to-read good times in\u00a0 Wahpeton’s Leach Public Library.\u00a0 And I could subtly expose Gov. DeSantis as a ding dong. But is fiddling\u00a0 legal?\u00a0 My fellow early breakfast eater and lawyer, Gil, said, \u201cGo for it.\u201d So I have.\u00a0 [I like Gil.] These 3 poems are my current favs.\u00a0 <\/span>My \u201camendments\u201d are in boldface<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

…………………………………………………………………………………<\/p>\r\n

As my dad used to say of my writing assignments, \u201cThis is good.\u00a0 Let\u2019s make it even better.”\u00a0 \u00a0I tried to do that here by amending the poem to end on a more promising note.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

To David, About His Education <\/strong>by Howard Nemerov
[ from The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov. \u00a9 University of Chicago Press, 1972.]
<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The world is full of mostly invisible things,
<\/span> And there is no way but putting the mind\u2019s eye,
<\/span> Or its nose, in a book, to find them out,
<\/span> Things like the square root of Everest
<\/span> Or how many times Byron goes into Texas,
<\/span> Or whether the law of the excluded middle
<\/span> Applies west of the Rockies. For these
<\/span> And the like reasons, you have to go to school
<\/span> And study books and listen to what you are told,
<\/span> And sometimes try to remember. Though I don\u2019t know
<\/span> What you will do with the mean annual rainfall
<\/span> On Plato\u2019s Republic, or the calorie content
<\/span> Of the Diet of Worms, such things are said to be
<\/span> Good for you, and you will have to learn them
<\/span> In order to become one of the grown-ups
<\/span> Who sees invisible things neither steadily nor whole,
<\/span> But keeps gravely the grand confusion of the world
<\/span> Under his hat, which is where it belongs,
<\/span> And teaches small children to do this in their tum.
<\/span> Always knowing that you or yours can go to the library to sort things out.<\/b><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

I voted. Library’s Ballot Box is City’s busiest, of course.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

I love this next poem, because thinking IS most of my doing these days [plus the \u201cactions\u201d chronicled\u00a0 in my photos e.g. see below], so I know how much \u201cdoing the library\u201d informs this poem.\u00a0 I just made it more explicit.\u00a0 And I love thinking about all the ways “being elastic”<\/em> matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

THINK AND DO<\/strong> by Ron Padgett<\/span>\u00a0
[ from Collected Poems. \u00a9 Coffee House Press, 2013]
<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I always have to be doing something, accomplishing some-
<\/span>thing, fixing something, going somewhere, feeling purposeful,
<\/span>useful, competent\u2014even coughing, as I just did, gives me the
<\/span>satisfaction of having \u201cjust cleared something up.\u201d The phone
<\/span>bill arrives and minutes later I\u2019ve written the check. The world
<\/span>starts to go to war and I shout, \u201cHey, wait a second, let\u2019s think
<\/span>about this!\u201d and they lay down their arms, <\/span>go to the library,<\/b> and ruminate.
Now <\/span>they are frozen in postures of thought, like Rodin\u2019s statue, the
<\/span>one outside Philosophy Hall at Columbia. His accomplish-
<\/span>ments are muscular. How could a guy with such big muscles be
<\/span>thinking so much? It gives you the idea that he\u2019s worked all his
<\/span>life to get those muscles, and now he has no use for them. It
<\/span>makes him pensive, sober, even depressed sometimes, and
<\/span>because his range of motion is nil, he cannot leap down from
<\/span>the pedestal,<\/span> find questions in the stacks,<\/b> and attend classes in Philosophy Hall.
I am so <\/span>lucky to be elastic! I am so happy to<\/span> have found the OED<\/b>,
be able to think of the <\/span>word <\/span>elastic<\/span><\/i>, and have it snap me back to underwear,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 which\u00a0<\/span>reminds me: I have to do the laundry soon, <\/span>and the library sooner.<\/b><\/p>\r\n

This last poem is perfect as is. Love of libraries fuels more than \u2153 of the lines.\u00a0 And they are great lines.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

FIELD GUIDE<\/strong> by Tony Hoagland
[From Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty. \u00a9 Graywolf Press, 2010.]
<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Once, in the cool blue middle of a lake,
<\/span>up to my neck in that most precious element of all,
<\/span>I found a pale-gray, curled-upwards pigeon feather
<\/span>floating on the tension of the water
<\/span>at the very instant when a dragonfly,
<\/span>like a blue-green iridescent bobby pin,
<\/span>hovered over it, then lit, and rested.
<\/span>That\u2019s all.
<\/span>I mention this in the same way
<\/span>that I fold the corner of a page
<\/span>in certain library books,
<\/span>so that the next reader will know
<\/span>where to look for the good parts.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

…………………………………………………<\/p>\r\n

My challenge to the Poetry Clubbers was, after hearing the poems read aloud, to decide which poem had no amendments. Surely, my clever wordsmithing would be so smooth, someone would guess poem 1 or 2.\u00a0 But, no. Steve, the only guesser, chose, correctly, poem 3, \u201cField Guide\u201d by Tony Hoagland, and made it worse by noting it had no library stuff \u201cmuckng it up\u201d\u00a0 Well, ouch!\u00a0 [I may be mis-remembering his exact words, but not his clear intent, especially as the original poem had 5 of 13 lines about the library.]\u00a0 Sigh.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

I point and puzzle. Library has a saran-wrapped hole in it. Why?<\/p><\/div>\r\n

I had a great good time thinking about amendable poems.\u00a0 I have found that many, maybe most, of the poems I like are potential library-lover-poems, especially if they are read by a knowing person with sufficient, perfect \u201cother\u201d words and opinions, which, ahem, I am.\u00a0 Oh, the exciting possibilities for future blog posts!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The other news and part of the reason for this delayed post is that I was less peppy [\u201cNot always a bad thing,\u201d says Charlie.], but now I\u00a0 am peppier, thanks to antibiotics I took for an infection\u00a0 This is good, because it means my peppiness, apparently, is not related to the pill I have started taking in order to quell the papillary carcinoma [cancerous lump] in my left booby.\u00a0 A papillary carcinoma is uncommon or rare [.5 of 1% of breast cancers], so it should not quell my pursuits, just as my Arnold-Chiari, Type IIB diagnosis of 40 years ago did not quell them then.\u00a0 According to the biopsy report, my cauliflower-like tumor should respond mightily to the hormone therapy [Aromasin] my oncologists have prescribed, along with a year of their watching and imaging.\u00a0 Here\u2019s to slow or no growth or spread!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I have some experience with dire news, and I say of this latest dose, \u201cbring it on\u201d, as I devour Dr. Google, do what Millie says, drive Charlie nuts and adapt, adapt, adapt..\u00a0 I like to think of all of this as the \u201chopefulness coupled with curiosity\u201d<\/a> espoused by neuroscientist, David J. Linden in his just-in- time essay in the NYT, 3\/18\/23.\u00a0 Gloria Gaynor and a little \u201cI Will Survive\u201d<\/a> is always good, too.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Time to quit fussing and post this news.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on book bits and will post that fussed over melange soon.\u00a0 And I wrote two killer responses to my least favorite Poetry Club charge.\u00a0 \u00a0 Are they killer responses if only I think it?\u00a0 Is the thought as bad as the deed?\u00a0 Oh, the fun of a being a philosophy major.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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\u00a0 UPDATE AND REWRITE…\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 This post is later than late because WordPress changed itself, so I sent it out on email to my 4 faithful readers, but Charlie fixed this latest catastrophe, as he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}