Friday, June 30, 2017

Helplessly all thumbs





She has certainly the finest Hand
of any Woman in the World. I can
assure you, Sir, were you to be-
hold her, you would be in the 
same Condition; for as her 
speech is Musick, her form is Angelick. But I find I grow ir-
regular while I am talking of
her; but indeed it would be Stu-
pidity to be unconcerned at such
Perfection. Oh the excellent Cre-
ature, she is as inimitable to
all Women, as she is inaccessible
to all Men!

I found my friend begin to rave,
and insensibly led him towards
the House, that we might be join-
ed by some other Company ..
























Sir Richard Steele
1672 - 1729
The Spectator
  Nr. 113
July 10, 1711

Robert J. Allen
  editor
Addison and Steele
  Selections from The Tatler
  and The Spectator
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970©


ii  Eddie Redmayne
     2015






Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Origins of Wednesday liii: Pendant days






















ii   Ezra Stoller
        New York Athletic Club
        from the lobby of the

iii  Ourense Cathedral
        Galicia, 12th C 
        fresco detail

iv  Marlon Brando
        book and matchbook
        undated, uncredited












Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Stealing a march






     The plan, we remember, was that
     Lupa and Remus were to be "out-
     door dogs"; that, at least, was
     had it in mind that they should
     be outdoor dogs only until Ed
     relented and let them move into
     the house ..































George Pitcher
The Dogs who 
  came to Stay
Dutton, 1995©








Monday, June 26, 2017

Bright ideas of health care






    With the wind gusting so wildly,
    So unpredictably,
    I'm willing to bet one or two ants
    May have tumbled on their backs
    As we sit here on the porch.

    Their feet are pedaling
    Imaginary bicycles.
    It's a battle of wits against
    Various physical laws,
    Plus Fate, plus -
    So-what-else-is-new?

    Wondering if anyone's coming to their aid
    Bringing cake crumbs,
    Miniature editions of the Bible,
    A lost thread or two
    Cleverly tied end to end.






















Charles Simic
New and Selected Poems
  1962 - 2012
  On the Meadow
  2000
Houghton Mifflin 
  Harcourt, 2013©




Sunday, June 25, 2017

One on the rocks


If I listened long enough to you,
I'd find a way to believe that it's
all true.






                Your paintings aren't weapons, some-
                one wrote for him to say, you would
                never do that to them, never reduce
                them like that. Maybe you started
                the commission thinking that way but
                then art happened. You couldn't help
                it, that's what you do ..


Of all the arguments to present,
to a man who knows what he's do-
ing, I think the effort to dis-
miss a moral crisis he confronts
is the symptom of a script which
has to end, one way or another.
Expression always has something
to do for others, if it is art.






                If you can't find your courage in a
                war, you have to keep looking for it
                anyway, and not in another war ei-
                ther; in where it's old and jammed 
                until the rocks start moving around,
                a little light and air, long time no
                see .. The war ended, and then it 
                really ended .. I watched the chop-
                pers I'd loved dropping into the sea
                as their pilots jumped clear, and one
                last chopper revved it up, lifted off
                and flew out of my chest. 




















Tim Hardin
Reason to Believe
1965

John Logan
  playwright
Red
  Scene iv
Oberon Books, 2009©

Michael Herr
Dispatches
  Breathing Out
Alfred A. Knopf, 1977©

Eddie Redmayne
i   Out
ii  Esquire UK
2015