Serious Poetry Often Eludes Me

   

Tucson Weather Today

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POEMS OF WALT WHITMAN

Preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass

"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school, or church, or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body."

From: The Walt Whitman Archive


The poetry of Walt Whitman, published as Leaves of Grass, has always mystified me. I have read the book several times over the course of my life. Parts of it fill me with wonder at what a poem can evoke in me as I read the words and suddenly feel the vivid mental image revealed (whether or not it was the emotion intended by the poet.) But then other parts leave me cold, compelling me to wrinkle my nose, crinkle my eyes, and shake my head in disinterest, derision, and more than mild distaste.

Is this much lauded parcel of Mr. Whitman's poetry, this Leaves of Grass, a genuine enigma?

Or is it perhaps I... that is the mystery?

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TRIVIA

In ten minutes, a hurricane expends more energy than all of the known nuclear weapons in the world combined. (I found this curious bit of trivia, copied it, and used it here... but I am not at all sure I believe it.)

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt

On this day, July 7 in 1865 Mary Surratt was executed by the government for her role as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Mary Surratt's boarding house, located a few blocks from Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was murdered, served as the place where a group of Confederate supporters, including John Wilkes Booth, conspired to assassinate the president. Many expected President Andrew Johnson to pardon Surratt because the U.S. government had never hanged a woman.

But the pardon never came.


Details here

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WORD FOR TODAY

exigent
adjective
1. Requiring immediate action or remedy.
2. Requiring much effort or expense; demanding.
synonyms
urgent, pressing, imperative

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Ringo Starr

(born July 7, 1940)

Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey) is an English musician, singer and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He sang lead vocals on several of their songs, including "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Yellow Submarine" and a version of "Act Naturally". He is also credited as a co-writer of "What Goes On", "Flying" and "Dig It", and as the sole author of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".

Jorja-An Fox

(born July 7, 1968)

Jorja Fox is an American actress, musician and songwriter. She first came to prominence as a recurring guest star on the television medical drama ER, portraying the recurring role of Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano on The West Wing in 2000. She is arguably best known for her work as Sara Sidle in the hit CBS police procedural drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a role she has portrayed as both a regular (2000-2007) and recurring (2008-2010) cast member.

Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen

(born July 7, 1927)

Doc Severinsen is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Shelley Alexis Duvall

(born July 7, 1949)

Shelley Duvall is an American film and television actress. Duvall began her career starring in a multitude of his films in the 1970s, including Brewster McCloud (1970), Thieves Like Us (1974), Nashville (1975), and 3 Women (1977). Duvall had a supporting role in Annie Hall (1977) before starring in Altman's Popeye (1980), and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), which gained her international recognition.

Later, Duvall had roles in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981), Tim Burton's Frankenweenie (1984), and Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996).

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Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
--Edgar Allan Poe

NASA TV
   

Poetry, Civil War, Whitman, Lincoln, etc.

I read a reference to a Top Ten list of the 10 Greatest Poets, so curiosity compelled me to take a look at it.

List of The 10 Greatest Poets --
(In the opinion of Dean Rader)

Dean Rader is a Professor of English at the University of San Francisco. He has published widely in the fields of poetry, American Indian studies, and popular culture. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days, won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize, judged by Claudia Keelan and was published in September. In addition, he's the recipient of both the Sow's Ear Poetry Prize and the Crab Creek Poetry Prize.

I have, of course, heard of the poets on Mr. Rader's list... many, many times, but I have never before heard of Dean Rader. And I don't agree with his list. Not at all. And I don't think I'm the only one. The first comment following his article was: "God, this list is embarrassing."

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It was Walt Whitman, celebrated poet and ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln, who said:

"I would be much pleased to see some heroic, shrewd, fully-informed, healthy-bodied, middle-aged, beard-faced American blacksmith or boatman come down from the West across the Alleghanies, and walk into the Presidency, dressed in a clean suit of working attire, and with the tan all over his face, breast, and arms; I would certainly vote for that sort of man, possessing the due requirements, before any other candidate."

I'm pretty sure that Abe Lincoln fit that description.

Abraham Lincoln. Gore Vidal wrote a book, a novel, titled: Lincoln. I am reading it now, a chapter or so each night before I turn off the light and fall asleep.

Although I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a scholar or a (an?) historian, nor even a mild Civil War buff... I have been interested in reading about Abraham Lincoln for most of my life.

1861 is a new book written by Adam Goodheart and is scheduled for release by Amazon.com in April.

A Novel by Adam Goodheart

Adam Goodheart is a historian, journalist, and travel writer. His articles have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine, among others, and he is a regular columnist for The New York Times’s acclaimed Civil War blog, Disunion. He lives in Washington, D.C., and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he is the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of Washington College’s C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

Adam Goodheart

Tony Horwitz said, "1861 is the best book I have ever read on the start of the Civil War. Sumter, secession, and Lincoln appear in a wonderfully fresh and illuminating light, supported by a cast of extraordinary players that few Americans know about. Penetrating, eloquent, and deeply moving, this is a classic introduction to the nation’s greatest conflict."

Yes, if all goes well I will be buying (or borrowing) this book in the near future.

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I listened online yesterday to Ben Zimmer when he was a guest on NPR's Patt Morrison Show (KPCC in Southern California) -- Ben Zimmer is the man who took over for the late William Safire at the New York Times Magazine column On Language. Sadly, that column has now been discontinued. I recorded the interview with my little portable Sony recorder, so I can save it for later, for re-listening.

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Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth for the final time on Wednesday, March 9, completing a 13-day mission to outfit the International Space Station. If Discovery lands Wednesday, it will have spent a total of 365 days in space and traveled more than 148 million miles during 39 flights. It launched on its first mission on Aug. 30, 1984.

The future is begun . . .

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto . . .

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cynic
noun:
1. One who believes people are motivated by self-interest only.
2. A person with a negative outlook, one disposed to find fault.

Without a doubt, I am a cynic . . .

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"Let us remember that the automatic machine is the precise economic equivalent of slave labor. Any labor which competes with slave labor must accept the economic consequences of slave labor."
--Norbert Weiner