like nobody else
Vernard Johnson (alto saxophone), live (COGIC International Women’s Convention), 2013
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
[E]verything returns, but what returns is not
what went away——Louise Glück (1943-), from “The Denial of Death” (Winter Recipes from the Collective, 2021)
never enough
Steven Isserlis (cello), with Simon Callow (voice), playing and talking Bach, live, London, 10/24/21
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
And then we are simply falling—
And the world goes by,
all the worlds, each more beautiful than the last;—Louise Glück (1943-), from “Poem” (Winter Recipes from the Collective, 2021)
what’s new
Ani DiFranco (1970-), “Do or Die” (A. DiFranco), 9/30/20
**********
lagniappe
reading table
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.***
I became a criminal when I fell in love.
Before that I was a waitress.***
I’m sick of your world
that lets the outside disguise the inside.***
One of the few good things to say about old age is that you have a new experience. Diminishment is not everybody’s most anticipated joy, but there is news in this situation.
—Louise Glück (1943-, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature yesterday), from “The Red Poppy,” “Siren,” “Circe’s Power,” and an interview
two takes
Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931), Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor (1923)
Maxim Vengerov, live
***
Hilary Hahn, live
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Fragments from the December issue of Poetry:
Mother died last night,
Mother who never dies.—Louise Glück, “Nocturne”
***
The purpose
Life is
To find—May Swenson, “Banyan”
***
Poetry knows we are as close as a feather to disaster.
—Marianne Boruch, “Melodrama”
music clip of the day 