Nightmare Catcher #2

The second in the series that is finished.

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I just noticed that my blog now appears among the links on Silliman's site. This seems to have happened automatically. At any rate, now I better be sure to keep blogging on since Silliman gets a million hits a minute or something.

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Two recent 5 gallon bucket occurences.

 

In Wallace Stevens' poem, "Reply to Papini"

he writes: " . . . The way through the world
is more difficult to find than the way beyond it."

This sounds like Euclidean lucidity, to me.

We inhabit the labyrinth of everyday life. It would be nice
to view the maze from above, put it into a cosmological context,
actually understand "What it all means."

Etc.

But to come to a cogent understanding of the aurora borealis . . .

God; good and evil; these seem like simple problems compared to understanding the complex systems at play in the interactions between the earth and the sun.

Stevens continues:

" . . . The poet does not speak in ruins

Nor stand there making orotund consolations.
He shares the confusions of intelligence."

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Papini was also central to Mina Loy's great poem, "Songs to Joannes."

Nightmare Catcher #3/(and #1)

The Nightmare Catcher series continues.



 

Helena Festival of the Book Slam Winner!

Raina J. Leon of Carrboro, North Carolina won this year's slam.

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The Helena Festival of the book is officially over.

I went to William Kittredge's reading, from his new novel, THE WILLOW FIELDS, this afternoon at the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts.

Sounded pretty good. I might even try to read it.

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Went to SELECTED SHORTS at the Helena Middle School with Karen and David Fisher.

It was better than I expected. Keir Dullea read a story by Sherman Alexie, and his wife read a story by local hero Maile Meloy. Good, quirky, impertinent stories.

Afterwords at the reception I was forced to ask Keir Dullea to utter, "Open the pod bay doors please, HAL." I didn't really want to, but since I had made a big deal about it at Nkd Wrds the week before--someone forced me to make good on my stated intentions.

Keir was very gracious and did a quick rendition. He added that he had recently been asked to recite a different line of dialogue--he gets invited to a lot of sci-fi conferences--something about HAL singing "Daisy." I immediately regretted my mundane request and wished I'd requested a more interesting line from the movie script.

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None of this makes any sense unless you know Stanley Kubrick's movie. I wonder how many people in the rather large audience actually knew who the hell Keir Dullea is?

Poetry Slam Tonight!

Rathskellar in the Montana Club.

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Who will win?

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Tune in tomorrow for results.
 

Lyric Night @ Nkd Wrds!

Scott Mainwaring, co-founder of Bedrock Books (.com) reads at the last Lyric Night.

This is the night we treat lyrics as poetry. Not just Dylan and Waits but the likes of the Vapors, Guns & Roses and Duran Duran.

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This coming Thursday: The Third Annual Poetry Slam! in conjunction with the Helena Festival of the Book. 

Another paint tray update.

Someday we're going to have a show of these "paintings."

We'll call it Fake Art.