Wednesday, September 24, 2008
I dreamed I was at a concert hall where a pianist was scheduled to perform Sorabji’s complete Opus Clavicembalisticum. I was unaware of the pianist’s name or identity, but I assumed it was going to be Jonathan Powell, whose performance of the O.C. I attended on June 20, 2004, at Merkin Hall. The dream was [...]
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A repeat dream I’ve had for years, but which I never wrote down until this morning, is simple: I receive a Christmas/holiday greeting card from a couple of old friends. The nature of their relationship is unclear, but the card bears a picture of both of them. In the picture they are standing and waving [...]
Friday, September 19, 2008
PIP: I first remember this word from the final episode of All in the Family. The sentimental closing scene has Archie and Edith talking, crying, all that weepy stuff. The last words spoken on the last episode of All in the Family were "You’re a real pip!" That final word confused me at the time. [...]
Thursday, September 18, 2008
big tears, each one the size of your bastard hearts,
flowing down
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Of course the point of Passages is that I copied them for a reason. Sometimes it is safe to do so but why let them lie there, dumb museum pieces, listless zoo creatures, captured. I am guilty of that since youth: Laying ideas out and assuming they will spread on their own. It is a [...]
Thursday, September 18, 2008
I would like a simple lifeYet all night I am layingPoems away in a long box. It is my immortality box,My lay-away plan,my coffin. THE AMBITION BIRD Birds turn into plumber’s tools,A sonnet turns into a dirty joke,A wind turns into a tracheotomy,A boat turns into a corpse,A ribbon turns into a noose. [...]
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A man you once knew is in the sewer watching fingers and toes curl.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
I am listening to a cassette I’ve had since 1990 or 1991: Opera Arias sung by Victoria de los Angeles. It sounds as I expected an 18 year old cassette to sound. Faint, wobbly, with an over-arching hiss that keeps the music subdued. The sound has faded, like a radio station coming through on a weak signal, or staying behind as you drive you car away from it.
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Queens 2008-2009 Queens County edition of the Yellow Book recently arrived at my front door. Whatever its relevance in the information age I find that the Yellow Book is still a great read, though if I still prefer the Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages editors list at the top of each page the category [...]
