FOR I WILL CONSIDER MY DOG PERCY from A THOUSAND MORNINGS by MARY OLIVER

Penguin Press 2012  Copyright by poet Mary Oliver

FOR I WILL CONSIDER MY DOG PERCY

For I will consider my dog Percy.

For he was made small but brave of heart.

For if he met another dog he would kiss her in kindness.

For when he slept he snored only a little.

For he could be silly and noble in the same moment.

For when he spoke he remembered the trumpet and when
  he scratched he struck the floor like a drum.

For he hate only the finest food and drank only the
  purest of water, yet would nibble of dead fish also.

For he came to me impaired and therefore certain of
  short life, yet thourooughly rejoiced in each day.

For he took his medicines without arguement.

For he played easily with the neighborhood's Bull Mastiff.

For when he came upon mud he splashed through it.

For he was an instrument for the children to learn
  benevolence upon.

For he listened to poems as well as love talk.

For when he sniffed it was as if he were being
  pleased by every part of the world.

For when he sickened he rallied as many times as
  he could.

For he was a mixture of gravity and waggery.

For we humans can seek self - destruction in ways
  he never dreamed of.

For he took actions both cunning and reckless, yet
  refused always to offer himself to be admonished.

For his sadness through without words was
  understandable.

For there was nothing sweeter than his peace
  when at rest.

For there was nothing brisker than his life when
in motion.

For he was of the tribe of Wolf.
For when I went away he would watch for me at
  the window.

For he loved me.

For he suffered before I found him, and never
  forgot it.

For he loved Anne.

For when he lay down to enter sleep he did not argue
  about whether or not God made him.

For he could fling himself upside down and laugh
  a true laugh.

For he loved his friend Ricky.

For he would dig holes in the sand and then let
  Ricky lie in them.

For often I see his shape in the clouds and this is
  a continual blessing.

ALLMAN BROTHERS : INTO THE MYSTIC

READING POETS ADRIENNE RICH and MARY OLIVER : DO YOU ONLY READ POETRY BECAUSE OF NATIONAL POETRY MONTH?

At the library I noticed a prominent display of poetry books for NATIONAL POETRY MONTH.  

You would think there were a gazillion months instead of just twelve on the calender since we seem to have so very many months dedicated to subject matter.

Even though I think there should be more holidays that require people to stay home from work and/or have three day weekends - which would decrease traffic, increase tourism, and prevent more burnout and heart attacks from crummy jobs, Monday morning being the big "I can't take another day of that ass at work so I'll have a heart attack day", I still feel kind of negative about the Hallmarkisation of the yearly calender.

To the point, do we need months dedicated to Poetry, or African American History, or whatever?  Is this all between Dollar Tree Stores (and the like) and school teachers who use their salaries to supplement student's art supplies and decorations for bulletin boards in the classroom?  You know, suddenly Saint Patricks Day, which is for the Irish, which I'm not, is the cause for buying green crap from China.

Are the same people who brought you Mother's Day and Secretary Day and Doggie Day behind everything for girls being PINK and everthing for boys being BLUE?  Good thing I don't have a child, because I would have to choose YELLOW  or GREEN.

DO YOU ONLY READ POETRY BECAUSE IT'S NATIONAL POETRY MONTH?

If so, then I feel sorry for you.

POETRY SHOULD BE READ when you are in a MOOD.  In particular it is very good for indulging the emotions.  If you don't get torn up or twisted around by an ah ha moment reading poetry, maybe you never will.

I've picked up copies of MARY OLIVER'S A THOUSAND MORNINGS and LATER POEMS (1971-2012) by ADRIENNE RICH since these are poets I read in college.  Hmm... a favorite poem?

C 2013 All Rights Reserved  Christine Trzyna / Christine Trzyna Writerly Life

WILL I SEE YOU AT THE LA TIMES BOOK FAIR AT USC?

Seems I make it to the LA TIMES Book Fair every other year and at this very moment I am either at the book fair or staying home.  If I don't go it'll probably be because it was an ordeal the last time.  Too much travel and not getting the tickets for the little discussions that are staged about various important subjects to readers and writers.  If I do go, I may or may not write another review.

I DO APPRECIATE THE BOOK FAIR, the literary aspect for the common person.  I especially appreciate it because the poor LA TIMES is one more NEWSPAPER THAT IS SUFFERING FOR IT'S EXISTANCE! 

I LOAD UP ON MICHAEL CONNELLY BOOKS : READING FOR HIS WRITING

I recently got two Michael Connelly books, The Fifth Witness - a Lincoln Lawyer Novel, 

which manages to involve the sell of a criminal murder case for movie making, and The Drop - a Harry Bosch Novel, about the hunt for and arrest of a child molester. 

I wrote about discovering Michael Connelly as a writer of local (Los Angeles) crime fiction a while back and am only sorry that I didn't hear about his work sooner because I love to read about events - fiction or nonfiction - that take place in a topography and cityscape I'm familiar with.  Now, I think that some day, far in the future I'm going to have to read one or both series from the first book forward.  Of course each book stands alone but still, there are the subtle nuances of character building from the start, and I feel maybe I've missed out. 

SO I DON'T KNOW IF PERHAPS Connelly has revealed this bit of information before or if I caught it, on page 132 of the hardback of The Fifth Witness, as the first of the revelation but it turns out that The Lincoln Lawyer has a half brother who is...  Harry Bosch.   Interestingly both men have teenage daughters and are divorced.  And Connelly has set it up that at least one of these daughters may follow her father into police work so... does that mean that in a few years there will be crime fiction based in LA from a FEMALE POINT OF VIEW!  I kind of hope so and I can't wait to see what he does, if so, with the sex scenes!

As I was reading I felt my self with the literary training turn on.  This is not the self that usually reads for enjoyment nor the self that writes in long deep sessions of uninterruptable concentration.  It's the self that says "Now exactly how did he pull this story off?"  How much is in flow and how much is calculation?  Does he have the plot charted before hand?

FREE SPEECH AND CENSORSHIP : EXHIBIT AT THE SKIRBALL

SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER

 

Hello Mudda, Hello Fudda...  The Skirball presents songwriter Allen Sherman in two days... and for some reason right now I want to eat a massive amount of jelly beans! 

 

Seems I head out for an afternoon to Skirball almost as often as I head out for the Getty for an afternoon.  Seriously though, a couple months ago I went to an exhibit there, the title of which I'm ashamed to not remember, and they had copies of books that had been banned including Little House on the Prarie, as well as a row of T-shirts hanging on wire hangers.

Each T-Shirt had gotten a kid who wore it to school thrown out of school, or at least sent home to change.

It really got me thinking about the Ist Amendment and Free Speech and whatever it was that our Founding Fathers intended.  (At the same time there was a Founding Fathers exhibit with original documents, some which had never been let out of the National Archives.)

I once, as a teenage, got thrown out of a candy store because I was wearing a T shirt that was for a Democratic candidate.  The owners were Republicans.  Not only did they refuse me a sale, but they wanted to know WHO MY PARENTS WERE!

What a load of shit!

Dates me, doesn't it!

 

 

THINKING OF JOHN

A decade ago -give or take a few years - a friend from my writing program, John , left central California for Oregon. He moved a few times and once left a message that was so badly recorded that I couldn't make out his new phone number. Letters I send were not forwarded. So we lost touch. John kept moving further into the mountains. I have no hope of making contact with him again. Thinking of John today.

ANAIS NIN Quotation

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." - Anaïs Nin

YOU'VE GOT A LOVER : SHAKE RUSSELL with MICHAEL HEARNE (OR VISA VERSA)

  I heard a live performance of Shake Russell years ago in Houston at a place called Steamboat Springs. All the songs he played that night stayed with me.  Years later I finally met someone else who knew his music at a coffee house in Studio City.  (Shake is the guy on the right.)

HENRY DARGER : IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL :CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW

This is a peculiar film because the subject, Henry Darger, was a peculiar person and a complete unknown in his lifetime.  He died in 1977 as an old man and then his landlady (who must have really known how to mind her own business) find his art - a treasure!

If Henry had been a child in our times rather than his (he died in 1977 as an old man), he would probably have never been a child slave as an orphan on a farm where he was institutionalized.  He probably would have been diagnosed with some disorder or psychological problem, which there is far too much of going on these days, and medicated, maybe out of his creativity.

Fortunately none of these things happened.  Instead he lead a simple and isolated life and became a secret writer and artist.

Henry Darger worked as a hospital janitor but when he was at home he was writing and painting.  When he died in Chicago his landlady discovered 300 paintings, some over 10 feet long, and 15,000 page illustrated novel called THE REALMS of the UNREAL. 

Clearly his childhood experience of being in an asylum for the "feeble - minded" had deeply effected him, as the story is about slave children.  Seven angelic sisters lead a rebellion against child-enslaving godless men. 

Henry went to church every Sunday of his life, though he struggled with religion.  Interestingly his paintings illustrate this world which we could argue, he lived in, and invented.

Linking to more information from PBS  DARGER - FILM - PBS

C 2013  Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved