Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

POETRY FOR THE DAY (3 March 2021)

Wearing straw cloaks,
with spring
saints greet each other.

Bashō, Matsuo. On Love and Barley (Classics). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

John wrote: "I was listening to Spotify today — a podcast discussing Walden. One of the two commentators said Walden was an “angry” book.

I had to call it a day and ended this podcast. Walden is many things, but it is not angry. Once I heard that, it made no sense for me to continue to listen to someone so misinformed and incorrect...."

John, these kinds of things annoy me also. I hear it frequently on news commentary. And my reaction is often the same. I turn to a different channel or just turn it off.

A second poem for the day ... much lighter in tone than the BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC

Whereabouts
by Marcus Jackson

—to Nicole

Finished early at the library,
I strolled Canal Street to fill
empty hours
before we’d meet home for dinner.

Late-winter light sneered,
reluctant to leave
the streets, bargain tables
with t-shirts or imposter purses,
jewelry coves
where gold necklaces refracted
from squares of scarlet felt.

All down Mulberry, arched
garlands of festival bulbs
shined champagne.

From Italian restaurant stoops,
waiters with handsome accents
lured tourists by describing
entrées like landscapes.

At Ferrara’s dessert café,
the wait bent
halfway up the clogged block.
I whittled inside, browsed
glass cabinets of cookies,
yellow-shelled cannolis,
cakes displayed
on paper placemats
that looked like lace.

I arrived 40 minutes late.
You balanced, hand
against bedroom door-jamb,
pulling off your office heels.

Once you noticed the bakery box
under my arm, your face calmed—
my earlier whereabouts
evidenced in sweetness
we would fork from the same plate.

SOURCE: https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio...

Carol wrote: "People tend to forget the large input of foreign soldiers on both sides in the War of Independence. The British army was, I believe, nearly half composed of German soldiers. Their rulers were paid ..."

Carol, you have a better understanding of American history than many Americans.

John and Carol,

Elsewhere I posted this about NOMADLAND's amazing director. (Not mentioned below but there is also a great story on her in the current NEW YORK magazine.)

NOMADLAND is great ... the director, Chloé Zhao, is one badass ... truly amazing. The following is from the current Rolling Stone. She will now be directing the next AVENGERS film ..

"GROWING UP in Beijing, Chloé Zhao was, in her own words, “a troublemaker.” In school, she would rip the covers off her textbooks and place them over her manga. At home, she gorged on Western culture — movies like Terminator and Sister Act, and hours upon hours of MTV. She fantasized endlessly about other worlds and faraway places.

“I wanted to leave home and go explore,” Zhao says. And, at the ripe old age of 14, she got her wish. Indulging her restlessness, her parents sent her to boarding school in London. Three years later, just shy of graduating, she pushed for one more move: “I want to go where the Hollywood sign is,” she told them. She transferred to L.A. High."

Carol wrote: "Chicken Tikka Marsala is always said to be the favourite food of British people. Often eaten after going to the pub. Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding seems to have been abandoned for a spicier dish."

Well, I really like the poem. Thanks for it, John.

And my wife and I love chicken tikka marsala ... unfortunately, every time we find a new favorite Indian restaurant, it seems to go out of business. When this pandemic is over, we'll start trying to find a new favorite Indian restaurant.

You are so right about the geese droppings. That's become a huge problem for some grassy areas with their playing fields around our schools.

Carol wrote: "Canadian geese evoke an image to me of North American forests and lakes and the poem beautifully describes their flight down to settle on the water. They remind me somewhat of the flight of storks ..."

Carol,

I've lived in Northern Virginia since 1957 with a few years elsewhere. We have so many more Canadian geese that we used to. One result of this has been the almost total disappearance o the wild duck population. That's sad. But I still like the geese.

Larry

Sher wrote: "Lovely imagery by Anne Porter. I was struck by her choice of no end stops- no periods until the very end. Excellent. That choice really gave a sense of ongoing movement until "settled."

I'll look ..."

Sher,

punctuation ... capitalization (or not) ... the placement of the words on a age (which includes the use of blank space) ... all these are very important to me.

Larry

John wrote: "I find myself preferring poems that work within the structure of classical forms. There is something to be said for a poet who focuses on rhyme and meter as much as the subject and what to impart to the reader. ..."

Not always, but almost always that is what I like also, John.

Thanks, Sher, for steering me away from that. I am so traditional about haiku that I naturally just move towards Bashō and Issa ... if I want to read someone writing about Bashō, I'll pick up the extended essay by Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku.

POETRY FOR THE DAY (20 February 2021)

Most days we see Canadian geese fly over the house ... sometimes three ... sometimes maybe as many as forty. But I always stop and look up when I hear them.

Wild Geese Alighting on a Lake
by Anne Porter

I watched them
As they neared the lake
They wheeled
In a wide arc
With beating wings
And then
They put their wings to sleep
And glided downward in a drift
Of pure abandonment
Until they touched
The surface of the lake
Composed their wings
And settled
On the rippling water
As though it were a nest.

SOURCE: https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio...

So lovely, John. A great way to start my day.

POETRY FOR THE DAY

Even in Kyoto,
hearing a cuckoo,
I long for Kyoto

~Bashō

Hirshfield, Jane. The Heart of Haiku (Kindle Single) . Kindle Edition.

Jane Hirshfield's short book on haiku is easily one of my favorites. Her commentary is brilliant.

Carol wrote: "A group I am in has sent me a link to a virtual Birthday Celebration for George Washington on Monday, February 22, 2021, at 7 p.m. ET.
Evidently the winner of the 2020 George Washington prize, Rick Atkinson will be there, as well as mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and violinist Joshua Bell, and others..."

Carol, have you by any chance read Atkinson's books. His World War 2 trilogy is quite good, and I think that the first book in his new trilogy devoted to the American Revolutionary War, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, is even better. What does turn off some people is the high degree of detail in the book.

John wrote: "I was wondering if we can create a Music section?

I thought it would be fun to set up with threads for music you are enjoying and also books you may be reading about music.

I have been listenin..."

John,

Sure. Let me think about the structure of a music section. Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster ... well, that does fit in with what I wanted here ... "Only the Best."

Larry

John wrote: "John wrote: "John wrote: "I may be quiet for a few days. My smartphone may have been hacked and its network card destroyed. I’m concerned about my WiFi and my iPad and MacBook.I managed to get my o..."

John, is that the book by Nicole Perlroth, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race? I have it also and plan to read it.

Carol wrote: "I have visited Mount Vernon. Is that in Fairfax County, Larry? I was surprised how hot it was, even in October. I only stayed two hours there as we had spent all day driving down from Connecticut, ..."

Carol,

Mount Vernon is indeed in Fairfax County. I have lived in this county since 1957, except for one year in Charlottesville, Virginia, eight years in Raleigh, North Carolina, and one year in Canberra, Australia. When we went to the Fairfax County courthouse to file my mother's will, I asked if we would eventually get the original back, The clerk shook her head and told me, "No ... the county keeps the original ... the county even has George Washington's will still."

John, recycling keeps evolving, doesn't it? We live in Fairfax County, Virginia in a townhome community of exactly 500 townhouses. Fairfax County offers trash service for some areas in the county, but not for all. It's once a week for trash and for recycling. In the areas not served by county trash service, private contractors are hired by individuals. There are probably four or five and nobody seems particularly pleased, especially in those areas where only two contractors offer contracted services. But our townhome community decided--by a rather contentious ballot--that we would contract with only one private trash service. That was about five years ago and it's worked out great, because that one company does not want to lose its annual contract. Like almost all the private companies, we get trash pickup two days a week and recycling pickup once a week.

But for whatever reason, I can't remember the reason given, but the country trash service and the private trash services announced that they would no longer pick up glass (bottles, etc.) as part of recycling services. Instead the county has large bins positioned around the county (ours is about half a mile away next to the police substation) just for glass items. As long as you drive, it's no problem ... we drove by there today and I deposited about a dozen bottles of all sizes.

It's not as easy as putting these glass bottles out that with the paper and plastic recycling, but I think it's for a good reason ... whatever that reason is.

Any good poems on recycling???

Carol wrote: "As we are talking about birds I have been looking for bird poems to post. Ted Hughes is an obvious favourite and I also very much like The Owl by Tennyson. However, to cheer us all up in these rath..."

Carol, I can remember the first few lines from my early childhood but not the whole poem. (I think that some--if not all--of that poem was actually in one of those little Golden Books.) But I can remember reading the whole poem as an adult when I read several of Edward Lear's poems. I think it's great to look back at poetry from our early years.