Spending time with my mother and continuing to deal with the responsibilities of my own two sons has brought to mind this poem by Leonard Cohen: My Mother Asleep By Leonard Cohen remembering my mother at a theatre in Athens thirty thirty-five years ago a revue by Theodorakis those great songs she fell asleep in the [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Poetry'
Leonard Cohen And Billy Collins On Comparisons
June 25th, 2010 · Comments Off · Leonard Cohen, Poetry
The Cohen – Collins Comparisons Comparison Posting “Lanyard” by Billy Collins last week1 led me to realize that both Collins and Leonard Cohen had composed works, a poem and a song, respectively, effectively employing the same device: the comparison by the narrator of himself and his lover to a number of items, personages, and conceits. [...]
Tags: Billy Collins·Leonard Cohen·Poetry
Billy Collins On The Incongruent Expressions Of Love Between Parent And Child
June 13th, 2010 · Comments Off · Poetry
The parent-child relationship has proved particularly hazardous in my family lately. Consequently, Billy Collins’s wry, inspired exposition on the the asymmetrically reciprocated love between parent and progeny is especially poignant and sustentative. Billy Collins – The Lanyard Credit Due Department: I was alerted to this Billy Collins video by MindSpin.
Tags: Billy Collins·Poetry
Two Charles Bukowski Poems On Losing Jane
May 6th, 2010 · Comments Off · Poetry
I’ve spent far too long in an attempt to explain why these Bukowski poems written about the anguish, anger, and sadness he suffered because of the death of his lover are the only possible content I can post today. The reason isn’t that complicated. I simply awoke this morning alone in a bed that I [...]
Tags: Julie Showalter·lady lawanda
Easter 2010 – Emily Dickinson Reports On The Workings Of Personal Grief
April 4th, 2010 · Comments Off · Poetry
I measure every Grief I meet by Emily Dickinson I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, Eyes – I wonder if It weighs like Mine – Or has an Easier size. I wonder if They bore it long – Or did it just begin – I could not tell the Date of Mine [...]
Tags: Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson On Faith & Microscopes
January 20th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Poetry
“Faith” is a fine invention By Emily Dickinson “Faith” is a fine invention When Gentlemen can see— But Microscopes are prudent In an Emergency.
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Julie, 11th Century Chinese Poetry, And "Build Me Up, Buttercup"
September 29th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Julie Showalter, Poetry
Ten Years Living And Dead Have Drawn Apart About this time of year in 1999 Julie’s1 cancer, which no longer responded to any of the treatments available, exacerbated, beginning an irreversible deterioration that would end December 3, 1999 with her death. Because we managed her dialysis2 ourselves and because, in any case, there was nothing [...]
Tags: Julie Showalter
Best Bootlegs Bonus: Pre-Fame Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen Recordings
April 24th, 2009 · Comments Off · Leonard Cohen, Music, Poetry
Because I may not know music, but I know what you should like … and where to find it1 Best Bootleg Lagniappes – Dylan Banters, Cohen Reads, And They Also Sing Croz.fm, source of yesterday’s Best Bootleg, Dire Straits – Secrets In The Closet, is so user friendly and has so many wonderful selections, I [...]
Tags: bob dylan·Bootlegs·Leonard Cohen·Poetry
Reading Letters From A. E. Housman For Fun
April 5th, 2009 · Comments Off · Poetry
Made giddy by the half-dozen positive emails I received about last week’s post, A. E. Housman’s “1887″ Laments The Deaths Of Those Who Actually Save The Queen, today I am pushing the envelope – and inside that envelope are letters from A. E. Housman. 1 Yes, I am proposing that A. E. Housman’s correspondence is a [...]
Tags: a.e. housman
Dizzily Resonating With Two John Updike Poems About Death
April 2nd, 2009 · Comments Off · Poetry, Self-Referential
John Updike And Me After Julie1 died in 1999, I found poetry2 and, to a lesser extent, music more meaningful than the spiritual guides, self-help books, philosophical meditations, and the other aids well meaning folks recommended as a means of assuaging my grief and loss. Consequently, I have, if not sought out, at least been [...]
Tags: Poetry
