The Victims

Poem

On the Persistence of the Letter as a Form


Dear murderous world, dear gawking heart,
I never wrote back to you, not one word

wrenched itself free of my fog-draped mind
to dab in ink the day's dull catalog

of ruin. Take back the ten-speed bike
which bent like a child's cheap toy

beneath me. Accept as your own
the guitar that was smashed over my brother,

who writes now from jail in Savannah,
who I cannot begin to answer. Here

is the beloved pet who died at my feet
and there, outside my window,

is where my mother buried it in a coffin
meant for a newborn. Upon

my family, raw and vigilant, visit numbness.
Of numbness I know enough.

And to you I've now written too much,
dear cloud of thalidomide,

dear spoon trembling at the mouth,
dear marble-eyed doll never answering back.

--Paul Guest

Meta-Free-Phor-All

tagged

from Sam of the Ten Thousand Things

Five poetry collections you may not have read but certainly must:

Galway Kinnell / The Book of Nightmares
Robert Penn Warren / Audubon: A Vision
Evan S. Connell / Notes From A Bottle Found On The Beach At Carmel
Robert Wrigley / Lives of the Animals
Larry Levis / The Widening Spell of the Leaves


The collections, for whatever reason, should be a bit off the beaten path. And need not have caused the earth to open and swallow you whole.

The Man Among Wolves

Check out the Wolf Man.

Go To Farmers Markets!

"According to latest data from US Department of Agriculture, home food production hit an all time low last year and was down a full 20% from the previous year. Meanwhile, despite recent trends, foods in the US have never traveled farther than they do now, over 1500 miles on average from field to fork, using up to 17 more fossil fuels than foods sourced locally."

This comes from Common Dreams.org . Check it out.

Music

I've been messing around with this music player from project playlist. It helps you find music on the internet and allows you to play it on your blog. I couldn't make it look any good, but it seems to be working for me. It should be down the page on the right. If anybody is reading this and has problems like slow loading or something could you tell me?

If it is working check out the song Together by The Raconteurs. I can't get enough of it!

Pay Dirt!

So, I thought I had been relegated to the Evanston Community Gardens' waiting list, but yesterday I got an email saying I could get a 400 sq. ft. plot in James Park. Finally!! a place to grow some vegetables! It really doesn't have anything to do with saving money, or even eating home-grown vegetables (well, that's a big part of it) it's more just getting to get out there and grow our own food. To plant and weed and watch. I love looking at a garden I've planted. I can just sit there staring for hours. So anyway, happy day!

The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.
- Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart

Falcon Cam

Check out the Evanston Library's Falcon Cam. This is the fourth year in a row Peregrine Falcons have nested at the library.

Ireland looks nice