Shadows under the pier.
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Fountain of Youth
I propose a euphemism for “anti-aging” products: “youth enhancing.” A gorgeous 21-year-old at Origins was trying to huckster her old lady serums, but I told her they don’t work and that I’m proof thereof.
She said I was entitled to my personal opinion. I should have told her the tanning bed she seems to frequent would one day turn her skin to beef jerky no matter what lotions she applies.
But that would have been mean. I know she was just trying to make a sale. I bought the nighttime cold cream and a cleanser, and spent more that the total of my gift card, but I refused to give in to her pitch about wrinkles. Didn’t George Orwell say “At fifty, everyone gets the face he [or she] deserves?
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Zoot Suit
I’m in the kitchen with a bunch of secret service men and children. Barack and Michelle Obama enter, dressed for a state dinner.
Michelle wears a red gown, and Barack is in a longish blood-red coat and a matching fedora. Somehow his hair has grown to his shoulders.
Barack: Should I wear this coat to the party?
Me: yes.
But I think I’m hurting his feelings, so I change my mind and say why not?
Secretly I think the press will pillory him, just like Seth Myers ridiculed Trump’s fox pelt hair.
Barack to his daughter: What do you think? Should I wear this outfit?
Daughter whispers: no, and shakes her head.
Barack: I knew you’d tell me the truth! There’s no way I’m wearing this ridiculous get up.
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Art in the Family
We had both our sons home for dinner tonight! Philosopher and Freeboarder debated the role of art in society with their father. I sipped some pinot grigio and listened. With three males asserting their intellect, it’s better to stay quiet. Easter baskets will appear tomorrow.
The Easter Reindeer.
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Review of Clamor by Elyse Fenton
All winter and into spring I’ve been reading and writing about poetry in the courses I’m taking. One of my assignments was to write a review of a prize-winning first book, and I chose to review Clamor.
As the University of Wales web site states, the Dylan Thomas Prize “is awarded to the best eligible published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author under 30.” Fenton is the first American to win this prestigious, international award, which comes with a prize close to $50,000.00 dollars.
Clamor also won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize in 2009, selected by poet D.A. Powell.
Subject Matter
Part of what intrigues me about Fenton’s work is the subject matter–she has written about her experience of living far away from her young husband while he was deployed in Iraq following the 911 terrorist attack. The theme of young love and the Iraq War gives her project a heightened sense of relevance that one does not always expect from an emerging artist. The collection, which revolves around a central, narrative theme, places the project squarely within current trends of poetry books that also tell a longer story, such as Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard or Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno’s Slamming Open the Door.
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Retro Classroom
This photo is of a classroom down the hall from the room where I teach freshman composition. The glass beakers and vials caught my attention, along with the walnut cabinets and brass handles.
My room has a black laboratory table in front of a chalkboard. The table acts as a barricade between the students and me, which in my high school teaching days would have provided a modicum of relief. Their wooden desks rest on metal bases that are bolted to the floor. One boy, who is quite thin, complained that his seat was too small.
The laboratory table has a sink with running water. After class one day, a girl turned on the water to see if the faucet worked, and it did. An instructor who used to teach English in this room told me the first thing he would do upon entering the classroom was to turn the water on and wash his hands.
There’s a smell of damp air ducts and old linoleum. The building used to be a parking deck. The inner ramp where the cars would drive is now a walkway.
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Art Matters.
Here’s what I wrote to my representatives about the controversy surrounding the puny 50 million dollar budget devoted to the arts that some conservatives would like to ax.
February 12, 2011
[recipient address was inserted here]
Dear [recipient name was inserted here],
As your constituent, I hope you will vote against cuts to funding for the
National Endowment for the Arts during consideration of the FY 2011
appropriations package.A society without the arts would be a world where true feelings are
ignored or repressed. The people need the arts in order to be whole.The same creativity that sent the first humans to the moon serves as the
bedrock for the arts-patchwork quilts, ballads, landscape paintings and
stand-up comedy mean as much to people as solar energy.What about film, documentaries, storytelling, music, dance? Aren’t these
endeavors part of what makes a society thrive?My son is an artist. As a high school senior he has spent four to five
hours a day outside of his regular school day to prepare a portfolio for
a professional art program. Taking away grants and fellowships would send
a very negative message to hardworking, talented young students like my
son.Sincerely,
Christine Swint
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Wind and Poetry
The howling wind tonight reminds me of Tess Durbeyfield when she wanders across the moors dressed in rags. I read Tess of the D’Urbervilles around the same time that Nastassja Kinski appeared in Tess, a 1979 film adaptation of the novel, but I haven’t yet seen the 2009 Masterpiece Theater version. Good times await!
Thinking of Tess brings to mind the nineteenth century and persona poems, both of which I love, and although The Suitable Girl (Pindrop Press, 2011) contains much more than period piece poems, there are some delightful ones to savor among the rich variety of poesy in Michelle McGrane’s latest collection.
The photo of the wine and my gorgeous copy of The Suitable Girl was taken at Kavarna, a coffee bar in Decatur, GA, near midtown Atlanta. The book is the first project from Jo Hemmant’s Pindrop Press. What a lovely debut collection! The Suitable Girl, in addition to Michelle McGrane’s wonderful imagination and gift for words, reflects Jo’s attention to detail and her excellent taste in poetry. Jo, a fine poet in her own right, has a keen eye for the printed word and a well-tuned ear for verse.
Balanced On the Edge 