Poets, like journalists, historians, are after the truth. But what kind of truth, exactly, do we find in poetry?
We don’t look to poems for factual truths. Poetry is truest when it attends to something beyond facts: the education of our emotions... Stealing Memories from Cold River
THE JOURNEY OF COLD RIVER
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again
the geese turn into
the light again
Painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.
black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
the one line
already written
inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
a great sky
to find that
first, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.
Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.
something new
in the ashes of your life.
You are not leaving.
Even as the light fades quickly now,
Even as the light fades quickly now,
you are arriving
Freedom from all constraints is no freedom at all. True liberty lies in responsibility. We are defined by the commitments we keep... Culture and the Death of God
The Naipaul Question. How does a writer become so protean – sympathetic and vile, attractive and repulsive, wounder and wounded?... Naipaul and Margaret began an affair that set free all of his desires and fantasies
A common yet potent word can seriously undermine you; it also antagonize others No should
Attacks on synagogues, shootings, hate speech: The merger of deep-rooted anti-Semitism with a powerful strain of radical Islamism poses a new existential threat to European Jewry—and a crisis across the continent. Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?
Unbooked studio slots, be gone: Studiotime pairs musicians with
recording studios
The Metamorphosis (public library) by Franz Kafka
I never again slept with my former serenity. [The book] determined a new direction for my life from its first line, which today is one of the great devices in world literature: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” [I realized that] it was not necessary to demonstrate facts: it was enough for the author to have written something for it to be true, with no proof other than the power of his talent and the authority of his voice. It was Scheherazade all over again, not in her millenary world where everything was possible but in another irreparable world where everything had already been lost. When I finished reading The Metamorphosis I felt an irresistible longing to live in that alien paradise.
I hadn't heard of Juan Pujol nor any of this 28 other names but Webster, who has been writing fiction and non-fiction about Spain for over a decade, claims that he was a double agent who played a crucial role in the success of D-Day. I'd need to read on to see if I agree with him but I am tempted to do so because he spins a decent yarn so far. - 29 Names