My favourite clothespin ix

     So few days of Fall

     afford the meteoro-

     logical coincidence

     for wearing no more

     and no less than an

     escapade by bicycle

     wants in afternoon.

     It's the acute ang-

     le season, the ear-

     then pleats welcome

     some unbrittleness,

     darts array in play

     upon the aubergine.

     A fleeting pastoral

     ensign, unmistaken. 

     

Dominik Sadoch

Lukas Pukowiec

  photography

Elle Man Poland

October, 2016

Le Grand William 

  bicycle 

Hugo Boss

  vest and shirt

Ermenegildo Zegna

  trousers

Cowgill Forge

Blacksmith's Eye

October, 2016

Who knew such portents of a slight embarrassment?

Like you, I'd have to say we've

 all been steeped in the best ad-

vice, for the last dozen months

or more, from an intelligentsia

insensitive to the tolerance of

anomaly which abounds among our

body politic. Now, they propose

to share their contrarianism at

the least opportune moment, the

election of the next President.

I've argued for empathy but not

for imitation; yet we know rad-

icals only scoff, when we've no

plan to seize our government by

sores to bare, ghosts to blame,

or scourges to invoke upon God.

  

Whatever their reasons ..

despite how many of them 

think Mr. Trump has been 

detrimental to the party, 

more than eight in 10 Re-

publican voters are falling 

in line behind their nominee.

The New York Times

November 3, 2016

Andrew Sullivan

America and the Abyss

New York

November 3, 2016

November 2nd, 2016

  I don't have a problem
  necessarily, in seeing
  things my father never
  saw. He grew up a lake
  boy on Lake Shore, and
  never saw the Cubs win
  a Series.

  But he was at Forbes
  Field when Mazeroski
  homered, while I had
  to be in school. Not
  that I would say, he
  got the better deal.

  At least not anymore.

   

Game 7

  No, I'm not remember-
  ing just last night -

  something here reminds
  me of Neatsfoot oil my
  father gave me to con-
  dition the mitt I must
  have lost somewhere a-
  long the way. It's OK;
  the Cubs are away this
  evening, too, correct?

  An Aeneid, we inhaled.  

ii  Bruce Weber

    Bear Pond

    Bulfinch, 1990©

Origins of Wednesday xlii: To rely

  On a Columnar Self -
  How ample to rely
  In Tumult - or Extremity -
  How good the Certainty

  That Lever cannot pry -
  And Wedge cannot divide
  Conviction - That Granitic Base -
  Though none be on our side -

                   Suffice Us - for a Crowd -

                   Ourself - and Rectitude -

                   And that Assembly - not far off

                   From furthest Spirit - God -

                     

Helen Vendler

Dickinson

  Selected Poems 

  and Commentaries

Emily Dickinson

740

Harvard University Press, 2010©

Akira Gomi

Rena Murakami

gelatin silver print

1989

Being delivered

   The train's stopping wakes me.

   Weeds in the gully are white

   with the year's first snow.

   A lighted train goes

   slowly past absolutely empty.

   Also going to Fukuoka.

   I feel around in myself

   to see if I mind. Maybe

   I am lonely. It is hard

   to know. It could be

   hidden in familiarity.

Jack Gilbert

The Dance Most of All

  Suddenly Adult

op. cit.

Mark Peter Drolet

West Texas

Arm music viii: not a mask, a gauze

  A time to tell you things are well.
  Birds flew south a year ago.
  One returned, a blue-wing teal
  wild with news of his mother's love.

  Mention me to friends. Say
  Wolves are dying at my door,
  the winter drives them from their meat.
  Say this: in my mind
   

                 I saw your spiders weaving threads

                 to bandage up the day. And more,

                 those webs were filled with words

                 that tumbled meaning into wind.

James Welch

Riding the Earthboy 40

  Snow Country Weavers

op. cit.

The fairness part

While everyone was having a ball with his unfitness, who noticed where he was going with the simple fairness part?

Oh, Aristotle. Does it take two to parent irony? Who owns the sound of play?

iii  Paul Fontanier 

      x Eber Figueira 

    

J. Edgar, we hardly knew ye

   I deal in raw data

   that dazzle the eye;

   I hustle in scandal

   your vote to defy.

   You have a republic -

   what good can it do -

   I have a backside

   to cover with you.

Francisco Lachowski

Minor White

silver gelatin print

ca 1973