Marly Youmans's Blog, page 98
February 9, 2013
Snowy morning with books
Nemo
Mike and I rolled from bed at five to shovel snow and send your youngest off to Syracuse for a wrestling tournament, as he wanted to see the seniors wrestle in sectionals. My brain is full of light, fluffy stars this morning . . .
Reading Yeats's Ghosts: a few quotes from Yeats I did not recall
I began to wonder whether I have and always have had some nervous weakness inherited from my
Mike and I rolled from bed at five to shovel snow and send your youngest off to Syracuse for a wrestling tournament, as he wanted to see the seniors wrestle in sectionals. My brain is full of light, fluffy stars this morning . . .
Reading Yeats's Ghosts: a few quotes from Yeats I did not recall
I began to wonder whether I have and always have had some nervous weakness inherited from my
February 8, 2013
Snow. Birds. Thaliad.
ONE SOUTHERNER, ONE BROODY SKY
It has snowed in the night. It will snow more. The sky sags, weighty and entirely serious with snow. Assorted corvids have appeared, making punctuation marks in all the whiteness. The positively multitudinous sparrows and one chickadee are in the rugosa ravel again, darting back and forth from rose canes to feeder. They know the kestrel is coming, and the snow as
It has snowed in the night. It will snow more. The sky sags, weighty and entirely serious with snow. Assorted corvids have appeared, making punctuation marks in all the whiteness. The positively multitudinous sparrows and one chickadee are in the rugosa ravel again, darting back and forth from rose canes to feeder. They know the kestrel is coming, and the snow as
February 7, 2013
The teeth of Richard III
The owl shriek'd at thy birth,—an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees;
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies in dismal discords sung.
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And, yet brought forth less than a mother's hope,
To wit, an indigested and deformed lump,
Not like the fruit of such a goodly
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees;
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies in dismal discords sung.
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And, yet brought forth less than a mother's hope,
To wit, an indigested and deformed lump,
Not like the fruit of such a goodly
February 5, 2013
Marly goes Lightspeed
The story is illustrated by Galen Dara.
Read at Lightspeed
"Prologomenon to the Adventures of Childe Phoenix" (short story) is up at Lightspeed. Many thanks to writers and publishers Gavin Grant and Kelly Link for its original print publication in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (2007), and to Lightspeed editor John Joseph Adams for asking to reprint the story. (John Crowley also has a
Read at Lightspeed
"Prologomenon to the Adventures of Childe Phoenix" (short story) is up at Lightspeed. Many thanks to writers and publishers Gavin Grant and Kelly Link for its original print publication in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (2007), and to Lightspeed editor John Joseph Adams for asking to reprint the story. (John Crowley also has a
February 4, 2013
The nun and the public self
He must practice; he must work hard; he must sacrifice mere pleasure to the demands of art; he must be, in a sense, both single-minded and monastic. Unless he is a polymath of the most formidable proportions, he cannot afford or support a second career as a public figure.
Sissman adds:
In a word, the serious writer must take serious vows if he is to concentrate on his chief aim. A vow of silence
Sissman adds:
In a word, the serious writer must take serious vows if he is to concentrate on his chief aim. A vow of silence
February 3, 2013
Spam wars
Instead of watching the Ravens, first national team to be named for a poem, I am trying out comment moderation as a way of getting rid of both spam and the need for word verification. Let me know if you hate it (just as you let me know that you hated word verification!) Hello to moderation, good-by to the old warnings:
Here you will find no pesky word verification, no wait for moderation. If
Here you will find no pesky word verification, no wait for moderation. If
February 2, 2013
Groundhog Day / Candlemas
Punxsutawney Phil says spring is coming, the demented little hog!
You may celebrate Candlemas or Groundhog Day with a free ebook of Jennifer Reeser's poetry here.
You may celebrate Candlemas or Groundhog Day with a free ebook of Jennifer Reeser's poetry here.
Unworldliness
Fra Angelico (1395-1455) Annunciatory angel
Here's an account of the "sublime exhibition"
where I encountered this angel in 2005.
Rose at five to roust a boy for a faraway wrestling tournament and dry the singlet (ah! forgot.) The world is still deep-blue-and-night-on-snow. I've had a number of reasons of late to remember how strange it is to be an artist of any kind--how odd my concerns look
Here's an account of the "sublime exhibition"
where I encountered this angel in 2005.
Rose at five to roust a boy for a faraway wrestling tournament and dry the singlet (ah! forgot.) The world is still deep-blue-and-night-on-snow. I've had a number of reasons of late to remember how strange it is to be an artist of any kind--how odd my concerns look
February 1, 2013
The Dormouse Round-up
Why is a raven like a writing-desk?
People have come up with a lot of ingenious answers over the years to the Mad Hatter's nonsense question--as a child, I thought it must be "quills." I had forgotten Lewis Carroll's own, much later answer in an introduction: “Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!” Evidently the first
People have come up with a lot of ingenious answers over the years to the Mad Hatter's nonsense question--as a child, I thought it must be "quills." I had forgotten Lewis Carroll's own, much later answer in an introduction: “Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!” Evidently the first
January 31, 2013
Scribd, again
Selections from all three of my 2012 books are now up at Scribd. If you desire to commune (and sometimes frolic) with me, you can read a novel (/A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage), a collection of poems(The Foliate Head), or an epic adventure in verse (Thaliad.) It's a bit boggling, my 2012, between bringing out those books and serving on the judging panel for the NBA-YPL.
