Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LVII

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This quatrain also touches on the theme of predestination which has appeared in several of the last five quatrains. First Edition: Quatra...
Sunday, May 27, 2012

Some Poems I've recently encountered

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I seldom sit down and read a  book of poetry straight through over a period of days.  I usually pick one up and read a few poems and then pu...
2 comments:
Saturday, May 26, 2012

Theodore Sturgeon: "The World Well Lost"

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Theodore Sturgeon's "The World Well Lost" is an SF short story.  The title is taken from John Dryden's play, All For Love;...
Monday, May 21, 2012

Basho: a haiku or two or maybe . . .

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Some time ago I bought a collection of haiku by poets the editor called Haiku Masters.  When I opened it, I was surprised to find that it ha...
Thursday, May 17, 2012

Recent Viewings

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This is a mixed bag of recent DVDs I've watched in the past few weeks.  Some were disappointments while others surprised me.  One was a ...
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias (California Troika)

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While Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias occupy differing universes, there still are some interesting links drawing them together...
Friday, May 11, 2012

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LVI

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This is another quatrain that seems difficult to interpret with a religious or a spiritual meaning. First Edition:  Quatrain LVI And th...
Thursday, May 10, 2012

Barbara Hurd: Some kind words for swamps

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".  .  .We love high drama in this country, mountain peaks and soap operas.  They offer us something to tilt our lives toward--that tri...
Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Kim Stanley Robinson: Pacific Edge (Three California series)

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I have to resist calling Kim Stanley Robinson's Pacific Edge the third book in the Three California Series because that sounds as thou...
Sunday, April 29, 2012

Robert Frost: "The Vantage Point"

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This is one of Robert Frost's earlier poems.  It appeared in his first collection of poetry,  A Boy's Will , which was published in ...
6 comments:
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LV

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As I have mentioned before, Khayyam's references to wine and the grape has caused considerable controversy among those reading The Rubai...
Sunday, April 22, 2012

Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford: The Inheritors

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Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford: The Inheritors Conrad and Ford: this has to be one of the strangest collaborations in literary history...
5 comments:
Saturday, April 21, 2012

Early Vietnamese Poetry

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These are short poems, perhaps reflecting Japanese influence in Korea around a thousand years ago. They are reminiscent of Japanese haiku a...
34 comments:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Michel de Montaigne: from Chapter XXVIII

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This quotation is from Chapter 28: "All Things Have Their Season." One aspect of Montaigne's writings is that he generally s...
2 comments:
Sunday, April 15, 2012

Several Spring Poems

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I guess it's a truism that poetry is not about something but rather about the poet's perception of something. Glancing at the sever...
Monday, April 9, 2012

Kenko: from Essays in Idleness

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No. 13 The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a...
Thursday, April 5, 2012

Baltasar Gracian: thoughts on campaign tactics

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The following is from Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom . #114 "Never the cheap rival. Every effort to outshine an oppo...
2 comments:
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LIV

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This quatrain relates back to the previous quatrain with its reference to predestination. There's also a hint of astrology here. First ...
Saturday, March 24, 2012

Robert Grudin: An image of change

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I've read a number of attempts to describe the way change happens or at least the way we perceive it, and I think Robert Grudin's is...
Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Eric Hoffer: on mass movements

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Faith is a two-edged sword. It can move people to do virtuous and compassionate acts as well as monstrously evil. However, we tend to foc...
2 comments: