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BLOOMSDAY
The books of James Joyce, Ulysses in particular, were banned and burned by both British and American publishing pundits although several were lauded as literary masterpieces. A child of a rancorous, impoverished family, educated in Dublin by Jesuits, he held himself invulnerable behind a wall of aesthetic and ethical abstractions, rejecting family, nation, and church… Continue reading
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AN INCURIOUS SEEKER
To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. So said Samuel Beckett (1961 interview; dated but relevant). The words have become a ‘famous’ quote, repeated within the small circle of literati who ponder such abstractions. Outside my window, sitting on a limb of the flowering cherry, is… Continue reading
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A Brief Note
A friend has argued that my work deserves a wider audience (Debatable, that.) She suggested that I create a number of small books, condensed versions they would be, samplers, so to speak; she thought an inexpensive print book would be the cat’s meow. I thought a complimentary (insert your favorite diatribe on the Monetization of… Continue reading
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JAPANESE SKELETONS, ENGLISH FLESH
Chōka is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that dates back to the 1st century. The poems can be of any length, and consist of a series of alternating lines of 5 and 7 syllables. They usually conclude with a couplet with 7 syllable lines. Continue reading
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TERN
Individually, they are unremarkable. Two men and a woman who had managed, with modesty and discretion, to become anonymous; they are known by some in the small community of Mulegé, the name a Cochimi word that aptly describes the town’s disposition: the large ravine of the white mouth, a baranca cut by an unlikely river… Continue reading
