Going 'round in

Source: flickr.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Circles from Chris Perry on Vimeo.

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You've got me all wrong

Mad Men

Rhapsody

LETTER FROM POETRY MAGAZINE

Letter to the Editor
BY MARK YAKICH

Dear Editor,

I much appreciated Christina Pugh’s essay, not only because it was the first mention of my name in Poetry magazine, but also because she got at exactly what I was making fun of when I wrote in the bio on my website, “He divides his time between the bedroom and the kitchen.” I have never liked flapjacket blurbs, and what I like even less are those mini poet bios that say so-and-so divides his time between “San Francisco and Paris” or “New York and Mobile.” What’s the implication? That the poet has two families or two lovers (one for the warm seasons, one for the cold); that he is an itinerant bohemian (crashing on the couches of other poet-friends); that he is rich and deserves the NEA grant in the next line of his bio; or, that since he regularly travels across great stretches of land, sea, and air, he has important things to say in his poems?

Experience is a wonderful thing. But the experience of a poem and the experience of “lived life” are not the same wonderful thing. Writing poems should not be thought of as a process of translation, if only because that idea leads too many readers to wonder, “Those were some pretty words about [love, mother, porcupines, etc.], but what really was the experience [antecedent, story] behind the poem?” The experience of a poem is to make the reader experience both language and life, but mostly language!

Mount Pleasant, Michigan

(via Poetry Magazine)

(Photos: Emerson Made Caftan & Free People Jumper)

The Buddy System

"IT SOCKS TO BE LONELY.

IN MEMORY OF SOCKS THAT HAVE LOST A 'BUDDY' "

Le Penseur

"The Thinker",Columbia University/"The Thinker",Paris, France/"The Thinker", The Cleveland Museum of Art

Originally, the 'Thinker' - also named 'The Poet' - was to represent Dante Alighieri, the author of the Divina Commedia, symbolizing the intellectual power that created the dramatic world depicted in the 'Gates':

"In front of this Porte [Rodin explained to a journalist at the turn of the century], but on a rock, Dante was to be seated in profound meditation, conceiving the plan of his poem. Behind him, there was Ugolino, Francesca, Paolo, all the characters of the Divine Comedy. But something came of this idea. Gaunt, ascetic in his straight robe, my Dante, seperated from the ensemble, would have had no meaning. Still inspired by my original idea, I conceived of another Thinker, a naked man crouched on a rock against which his feet are contracted. Fist pressed against his teeth, he sits lost in contemplation. His fertile thoughts slowly unfalled in his imagination. He is not a dreamer; he is a creator."

[Marcelle Adam, Le Penseur, in: Gil Blas, Paris, 7 July 1904, quoted by Grunfeld, chapter 8, p. 191]

This way, the 'Thinker' was detached from his personal connection with Dante and now is seen to represent the power of thought and mental creativity more generally.

(via here)

A medium among many

Patanjali, the patron saint of Yoga, said that mastery combines a balance of science and art. Knowledge of science is like the colors on an artist's palette - the greater the knowledge, the more colors available. The body is the canvas and the Asanas are the art we create.

Quote taken from The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume I

Image found here