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

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

John wrote: "Here are some on life in the book business that I can strongly recommend...

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"


That book is wonderful.

Not exactly haiku ... or is it an extended series of haiku ... but it is an homage to one of the great masters of the form.

Homage to Bashō
DAVID LEHMAN

The butterfly dips

its wings in aroma of

violet wild orchid.



Red plums of summer,

first green figs, so many ears

of corn eaten raw.



Leaves that left the trees

are litter now on the ground

in orange and yellow.



No one on this road

but me: It must be autumn

in the dark country.



Comes the freeze, and rain

falls all through the night and soaks

the morning paper.



Winter blows its white

storms across the hills: Even

monkeys need raincoats.



The spring night vanished

while we talked among cherry

blossoms and petals.

SOURCE: ATLANTIC MONTHLY,
NOVEMBER 2020

Such beautiful and thoughtful rambling, Carol. I could never burn any letters or notes from friends either.

POETRY FOR THE DAY

Burning the Old Year
BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.

SOURCE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I've looked at probably hundreds of these kinds of lists: 100 Tips for a Better Life ... but this one is good ... and even the comments that follow it are good instead of being just argumentative:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7hFeM...

John wrote: "Sadly, I noted today that Barry Lopez passed away.

I thoroughly enjoyed Artic Dreams, and it was thirty years ago when I first read it and encountered Lopez. I have it to read, which..."

John, he was a very special person.

Cynda wrote: "Ask and you shall receive. This year I ask for more doctors in Texas, multiple stimulus checks, stronger parents, more time with the cat, focus enough to read 200+ books, health of my friends and f..."

Cynda, very thoughtful requests from this new year!

ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S POEM

These lines especially ... "This is the feast of our mortality,
The most mundane and human holiday."

New Year’s
by Dana Gioia

Let other mornings honor the miraculous.
Eternity has festivals enough.
This is the feast of our mortality,
The most mundane and human holiday.

On other days we misinterpret time,
Pretending that we live the present moment.
But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,
This tiny fissure where the future drips

Into the past, this flyspeck we call now
Be our true habitat? The present is
The leaky palm of water that we skim
From the swift, silent river slipping by.

The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.

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

Other than a pandemic with a more transmissible variant threatening to make things worse and vaccines promising to make things better, it's been a year that ends with some hope. And I do hope that the new year will be a much better year for all of us ... certainly for all of you good people.

John wrote: "A haiku I read yesterday by the poet Langston Hughes and enjoyed. I imagined the taking of a drink from the waters.

The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss."

So good, John.

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "POEM FOR THE DAY:

The Things
by Donald Hall

When I walk in my house I see pictures,
bought long ago, framed and hanging
— de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore —
that I’ve cherish..."

For me, Donald Hall is such a poet of the later parts of our life. I'm sure that's because I didn't read much poetry until the later part of my own life.

Carol wrote: "One of my favourite poets is Robbie Burns. Here is Auld Lang Syne, a poem which has travelled the world since the 18th century and is perhaps known by more people than any other:

AULD LANG SYNE

S..."

Carol, it is so worth just reading the poem ... of course, I still hear the music in my mind as I read it ...

POEM FOR THE DAY:

The Things
by Donald Hall

When I walk in my house I see pictures,
bought long ago, framed and hanging
— de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore —
that I’ve cherished and stared at for years,
yet my eyes keep returning to the masters
of the trivial — a white stone perfectly round,
tiny lead models of baseball players, a cowbell,
a broken great-grandmother’s rocker,
a dead dog’s toy — valueless, unforgettable
detritus that my children will throw away
as I did my mother’s souvenirs of trips
with my dead father. Kodaks of kittens,
and bundles of cards from her mother Kate.

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

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "Sher wrote: "And, here is another poet I am curious about Robert Haas-- have you read his works? Both Berrigan and Haas are modern poets..."


Sher, I wonder if you, John, or others h..."''

John, I do have that book of haiku also, and it's just great.

Sher wrote: "And, here is another poet I am curious about Robert Haas-- have you read his works? Both Berrigan and Haas are modern poets..."


Sher, I wonder if you, John, or others have read any poetry by James Tate. I buy so few volumes of poetry by modern poets, but I bought one of his a few years back. It was The Eternal Ones of the Dream: Selected Poems, 1990-2010. In truth, I bought it because it was marked down a lot ... but after I read most of it, I would have paid full price for it.

Sher,

is it Robert Hass perhaps? I haven't read any of his own poetry, but I do have this book that he edited: The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa

Larry

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "Definitely a different Christmas for us. My wife Cina has been dealing with cancer, which was diagnosed as Stage 3c or Stage 4, initially. There were three cycles of chemotherapy and ..."

John, thank you.

Carol wrote: "My heart goes out to you and Cina, Larry. A very difficult time for you both. However, science and medical technology is wonderful. Have faith and hope and optimism. A virtual hug to Cina from acro..."

Carol, thank you!

Sher wrote: "Larry-- your news is very hopeful. A joy-filled way to begin 2021! Routing for you and China and the your days ahead.

Can you tell me about your wife's name? I have never heard of the name Cina be..."

The Sicilian nickname for Francesca is Cicina ... which is sometimes shortened to Cina (the c is an Italian c and pronounced CH) ... hence it sounds like Cheena. Her grandmother was also a Francesca and was called "Cina Mommy" when she lived with my wife's household for extended periods of time. Our younger granddaughter is also a Francesca, but her parents call her Cessy ... with that CH sound at the beginning of her name.

I had a woman friend at work whose nickname was also Cina ... it was derived from Francine in her case ... and she was of Spanish heritage. And she pronounced it "Seena."

Jerome, thank you.