Daily Poem and Quotations

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
Patrick Jake O'Rourke was born at Toledo, Ohio on Nov. 14th in 1947. After graduating from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) he earned an M.A. at Johns Hopkins, during which time he was a left-leaning hippie (his characterization) but in the '70s his politics took a rather severe change. He joined National Lampoon in 1973, serving as managing editor, not a job normally associated with humor, but also writing some of the Lampoon's more memorable projects. O'Rourke went freelance in 1981 and in addition to writing 16 books has contributed to Playboy, Vanity Fair, Atlantic, Car and Driver, Rolling Stone, and the Weekly Standard. Although I tend to agree with him philosophically while disagreeing with him on most details, I can't resist reading him, nor can I stop laughing. It was hard to narrow this selection down.
QUOTES:
"There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause."

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."

"You can't shame or humiliate modern celebrities. What used to be called shame and humiliation is now called publicity."

"Never refuse wine. It is an odd but universally held opinion that anyone who doesn't drink must be an alcoholic."

"Never steal anything so small that you'll have to go to an unpleasant city jail for it instead of a minimum security federal tennis prison."

"Worrying is less work than doing something to fix the worry. Everyone wants to save the earth, nobody wants to help mom with the dishes."

"Sloths move at the speed of congressional debate but with greater deliberation and less noise."
All from P. J. O'Rourke

Thought of the Day:
"I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons taught us we were entitled to, no matter what the sacrifice."
--Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (1913-2005)

Quote of the Day:
"Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf."
--Lewis Mumford, historian & critic (1895-1990)

Quote of the Moment:
"I never did give the hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."
--Harry S. Truman. 33rd Pres. of the US (1884-1972)


Poem of the Day
"Third Charm" from Masque of Queens by Ben Jonson.

The owl is abroad, the bat, and the toad,
And so is the cat-a-mountain,
The ant and the mole sit both in a hole,
And the frog peeps out o' the fountain;
The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play,
The spindle is now a turning;
The moon it is red, and the stars are fled,
But all the sky is a-burning:

The ditch is made, and our nails the spade,
With pictures full, of wax and of wool;
Their livers I stick, with needles quick;
There lacks but the blood, to make up the flood.
Quickly, Dame, then bring your part in,
Spur, spur upon little Martin,
Merrily, merrily, make him fail,
A worm in his mouth, and a thorn in his tail,
Fire above, and fire below,
With a whip in your hand, to make him go.

Bonus Poem:
"Epigrams: On my First Son" by Ben Jonson.

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.
Seven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father now! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,
And if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, "Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
Felix Frankfurter was born at Vienna, Austria on Nov. 15th in 1882. Twelve years later, his family moved to New York's lower east side. Felix spoke no English when he arrived, but three years later he was a student at City College of New York, graduating with honors in 1902. In 1906 he graduated first in his class at Harvard Law School. After brief private practice, he because assistant US Attorney in New York, then served as legal counsel at the War Department. In 1914 he joined the faculty of Harvard Law School where he taught until Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1939.
QUOTES:
"Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late."

"Judicial judgment must take deep account ... of the day before yesterday in order that yesterday may not paralyze today."

"All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them."

"It is anomalous to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach."

"Government is itself an art, one of the subtlest of arts."

"No court can make time stand still."
All from Felix Frankfurter (1882 - 1965)

Thought of the Day:
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."
--Isaac Asimov, mathematician & sci-fi author (1920-1992)

Quote of the Day:
"I had plastic surgery last week. I cut up my credit cards."
--Henny Youngman, comedian (1906-1998)

Quote of the Moment:
"Once you can laugh at your own weaknesses, you can move forward. Comedy breaks down walls. It opens up people. If you're good, you can fill up those openings with something positive. Maybe you can combat some of the ugliness in the world."
--Goldie Hawn, actress (b. 1945)


Poem of the Day
"Matters About Which Unfortunately I have No Brilliant Opinion to Offer Readers" by Sandra Santana / trans. by Forrest Gander.

With the arrival of the night
some of his words, like the intermittent
flare [Here, I detected a point
of inflection provoked by the peculiar
nature of desire.

Which came to me
even faster than imagination
since it needs not move at all,
waiting hidden always
everywhere] of a cigarette,
called my attention to a luminous
moment before it faded away.

Bonus Poem:
"Witness" by Forrest Gander

for Jean-Luc Mylayne

Or the vision that holds

at its razorpoint

the feathers of a bird

goes blue. Each sleepless-

ness framed, behind,

by this whine

of insects. So a shutter,

lifted, offers

to looking

the very oracular

interior of that

openness into which bird

inserts itself. Its song

shortening when

there is wind. Comes

the visible and

its remainder, a

blur, what? Tittering

at lower and lower

luminance. That the

accompaniment might be

sufficiently responsive.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
George Simon Kaufman was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Nov. 16th in 1889, the son of a paranoid hypochondriac mother. As a child he was allowed to drink only boiled water, for fear of germs he wasn't allowed to play with others. He never shook hands, and even after great success he cowered back stage in fear of a flop, of which he only had one. Despite his fear of contact, he wrote almost all of his plays with at least one co-author, in tandem he was possibly the most successful dramatist of the twentieth century (Dinner at Eight, Stare Door, Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, You Can't Take It with You, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Band Wagon, Silk Stockings) as well as a director (The Front Page, My Sister Eileen, Guys and Dolls). In his honor, today's theme is Drama.
QUOTES:
"Where life is colorful and varied, religion can be austere or unimportant. Where life is appallingly monotonous, religion must be emotional, dramatic and intense. Without the curry, boiled rice can be very dull."
- C. Northcote Parkinson, 1909 - 1993

"The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression."
- Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900

"It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is."
- Jack Lemmon, 1925 - 2001

"By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings."
- Arthur Miller, 1915 - 2005

"There never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost."
- Harold Pinter, 1930 - 2008

"Once I started taking drama classes, I asked myself why I had ever wasted so much time on a football team."
- Paul Newman, 1925 - 2008

Thought of the Day:
"At dramatic rehearsals, the only author that's better than an absent one is a dead one."
--George S. Kaufman, playwright (1889-1961)

Quote of the Day:
"Epitaph for a dead waiter - God finally caught his eye."
--George S. Kaufman, playwright (1889-1961)

Quote of the Moment:
"I didn't like the play,; but then I saw it under adverse conditions - the curtain was up."
--George S. Kaufman, playwright (1889-1961)


Poem of the Day
"To a Steam Roller" by Marianne Moore in Complete Poems [Penguin Classics]

The illustration
is nothing to you without the application.
You lack half wit. You crush all the particles down
into close conformity, and then walk back and forth
on them.

Sparkling chips of rock
are crushed down to the level of the parent block.
Were not 'impersonal judgment in aesthetic
matters, a metaphysical impossibility,' you

might fairly achieve
It. As for butterflies, I can hardly conceive
of one's attending upon you, but to question
the congruence of the complement is vain, if it exists.

Bonus Poem:
"Baseball and Writing" by Marianne Moore

(Suggested by post-game broadcasts)

Fanaticism? No. Writing is exciting
and baseball is like writing.
You can never tell with either
how it will go
or what you will do;
generating excitement--
a fever in the victim--
pitcher, catcher, fielder, batter.
Victim in what category?
Owlman watching from the press box?
To whom does it apply?
Who is excited? Might it be I?

It's a pitcher's battle all the way--a duel--
a catcher's, as, with cruel
puma paw, Elston Howard lumbers lightly
back to plate. (His spring
de-winged a bat swing.)
They have that killer instinct;
yet Elston--whose catching
arm has hurt them all with the bat--
when questioned, says, unenviously,
"I'm very satisfied. We won."
Shorn of the batting crown, says, "We";
robbed by a technicality.

When three players on a side play three positions
and modify conditions,
the massive run need not be everything.
"Going, going . . . " Is
it? Roger Maris
has it, running fast. You will
never see a finer catch. Well . . .
"Mickey, leaping like the devil"--why
gild it, although deer sounds better--
snares what was speeding towards its treetop nest,
one-handing the souvenir-to-be
meant to be caught by you or me.

Assign Yogi Berra to Cape Canaveral;
he could handle any missile.
He is no feather. "Strike! . . . Strike two!"
Fouled back. A blur.
It's gone. You would infer
that the bat had eyes.
He put the wood to that one.
Praised, Skowron says, "Thanks, Mel.
I think I helped a little bit."
All business, each, and modesty.
Blanchard, Richardson, Kubek, Boyer.
In that galaxy of nine, say which
won the pennant? Each. It was he.

Those two magnificent saves from the knee-throws
by Boyer, finesses in twos--
like Whitey's three kinds of pitch and pre-
diagnosis
with pick-off psychosis.
Pitching is a large subject.
Your arm, too true at first, can learn to
catch your corners--even trouble
Mickey Mantle. ("Grazed a Yankee!
My baby pitcher, Montejo!"
With some pedagogy,
you'll be tough, premature prodigy.)

They crowd him and curve him and aim for the knees. Trying
indeed! The secret implying:
"I can stand here, bat held steady."
One may suit him;
none has hit him.
Imponderables smite him.
Muscle kinks, infections, spike wounds
require food, rest, respite from ruffians. (Drat it!
Celebrity costs privacy!)
Cow's milk, "tiger's milk," soy milk, carrot juice,
brewer's yeast (high-potency--
concentrates presage victory

sped by Luis Arroyo, Hector Lopez--
deadly in a pinch. And "Yes,
it's work; I want you to bear down,
but enjoy it
while you're doing it."
Mr. Houk and Mr. Sain,
if you have a rummage sale,
don't sell Roland Sheldon or Tom Tresh.
Studded with stars in belt and crown,
the Stadium is an adastrium.
O flashing Orion,
your stars are muscled like the lion.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today,
Indira Priyadarshini Nehru was born at Allahabad in the British Indian Empire on Nov. 19th in 1917, the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru. After finishing school in India she sat for the entrance exams at Oxford, failed, spent several months studying at an English school, and entered Somerville College, Oxford in 1937. She married Feroz Gandhi, no relation to Mohandas Gandhi, in 1941. After Indian independence her father was the first prime minister of India and Indira was his personal assistant. She became PM in 1966 and won reelection twice during a period of change and turmoil, including East Pakistan's war for independence, but was charged with corruption and electoral malpractice and ended up declaring a state of emergency and ruling by decree. After being removed from office she returned four years later, but when a military unit captured armed insurgents in a Sikh temple, five months later her Sikh bodyguards retaliated and riddled her body with bullets.
QUOTES:
"All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake."

"Anger is never without an argument, but seldom with a good one."

"India wants to avoid a war at all costs but it is not a one-sided affair, you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."

"There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten."

"We have believed — and we do believe now — that freedom is indivisible, that peace is indivisible, that economic prosperity is indivisible."

"My father was a statesman, I'm a political woman. My father was a saint. I'm not."
All from Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984)


Thought of the Day:
"It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning around."
--Henry David Thoreau, writer & philosopher (1817-1862)

Quote of the Day:
"To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal."
--Peter Ustinov, English actor (1921-2004)

Quote of the Moment:
"In order to be irreplacable one must always be different."
--Coco Chanel, French fashion designer (1883-1971)


Poem of the Day
"I Ssit and Sew" by Alice Dunbar-Nelson in The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson [Oxford University Press]

I sit and sew—a useless task it seems,
My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams—
The panoply of war, the martial tred of men,
Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken
Of lesser souls, whose eyes have not seen Death
Nor learned to hold their lives but as a breath—
But—I must sit and sew.

I sit and sew—my heart aches with desire—
That pageant terrible, that fiercely pouring fire
On wasted fields, and writhing grotesque things
Once men. My soul in pity flings
Appealing cries, yearning only to go
There in that holocaust of hell, those fields of woe—
But—I must sit and sew.

The little useless seam, the idle patch;
Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch,
When there they lie in sodden mud and rain,
Pitifully calling me, the quick ones and the slain?
You need, me, Christ! It is no roseate seam
That beckons me—this pretty futile seam,
It stifles me—God, must I sit and sew?

Bonus Poem:
"Sonnet" by Alice Dunbar-Nelson

I had no thought of violets of late,
The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet
In wistful April days, when lovers mate
And wander through the fields in raptures sweet.
The thought of violets meant florists' shops,
And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine;
And garish lights, and mincing little fops
And cabarets and songs, and deadening wine.
So far from sweet real things my thoughts had strayed,
I had forgot wide fields, and clear brown streams;
The perfect loveliness that God has made, -
Wild violets shy and Heaven-mounting dreams.
And now—unwittingly, you’ve made me dream
Of violets, and my soul's forgotten gleam.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
One of the things I am thankful for this week is Courage. There is the clear heroism on the field of battle, in fire fighters rescuing those trapped in a burning building, those acts that make the news. But more important is the constant courage of every man and woman facing life. In the face of opposition and ridicule, they decide that good enough is not good enough for them, for their children, for their community, for their own futures. The way it was done yesterday isn't the best way it can be done today, nor the way it should be done tomorrow, and it is for this constant stream of courageous acts, making the world a better place, for which I give thanks today.
QUOTES ON COURAGE:
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."
- Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955

"It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security."
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1906 - 2001

"Take the obvious, add a cupful of brains, a generous pinch of imagination, a bucketful of courage and daring, stir well and bring to a boil."
- Bernard Baruch, 1870 - 1965

"Many of our fears are tissue paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them."
- Brendan Behan, 1923 - 1964

"True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher."
- John Petit-Senn, 1792 - 1870

"The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less than a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy."
- John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963

Thought of the Day:
"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."
--G. K. Chesterton, author (1874-1936)

Quote of the Day:
"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon."
--Groucho Marx, comedian (1890-1977)

Quote of the Moment:
"When I was a boy, I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it."
--Clarence Darrow, lawyer (1857-1938)


Poem of the Day
"Prayer" by Jorie Graham.

Over a dock railing, I watch the minnows, thousands, swirl
themselves, each a minuscule muscle, but also, without the
way to create current, making of their unison (turning, re-
infolding,
entering and exiting their own unison in unison) making of themselves a
visual current, one that cannot freight or sway by
minutest fractions the water's downdrafts and upswirls, the
dockside cycles of finally-arriving boat-wakes, there where
they hit deeper resistance, water that seems to burst into
itself (it has those layers) a real current though mostly
invisible sending into the visible (minnows) arrowing
motion that forces change--
this is freedom. This is the force of faith. Nobody gets
what they want. Never again are you the same. The longing
is to be pure. What you get is to be changed. More and more by
each glistening minute, through which infinity threads itself,
also oblivion, of course, the aftershocks of something
at sea. Here, hands full of sand, letting it sift through
in the wind, I look in and say take this, this is
what I have saved, take this, hurry. And if I listen
now? Listen, I was not saying anything. It was only
something I did. I could not choose words. I am free to go.
I cannot of course come back. Not to this. Never.
It is a ghost posed on my lips. Here: never.

Bonus Poem:
"San Sepolcro" by Jorie Graham

In this blue light
I can take you there,
snow having made me
a world of bone
seen through to. This
is my house,

my section of Etruscan
wall, my neighbor's
lemontrees, and, just below
the lower church,
the airplane factory.
A rooster

crows all day from mist
outside the walls.
There's milk on the air,
ice on the oily
lemonskins. How clean
the mind is,

holy grave. It is this girl
by Piero
della Francesca, unbuttoning
her blue dress,
her mantle of weather,
to go into

labor. Come, we can go in.
It is before
the birth of god. No one
has risen yet
to the museums, to the assembly
line--bodies

and wings--to the open air
market. This is
what the living do: go in.
It's a long way.
And the dress keeps opening
from eternity

to privacy, quickening.
Inside, at the heart,
is tragedy, the present moment
forever stillborn,
but going in, each breath
is a button

coming undone, something terribly
nimble-fingered
finding all of the stops.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
As I work through the things for which I give thanks, there's no particular reason to think of Family on Wednesday, other than the fact that I'll be breaking bread with several members of mine tomorrow and they might be miffed if it looked like I was skipping over them. The family can be constricting, irritating, frustrating, but clearly formative, somehow nourishing, and filled with love. Considering that most families are formed by rank amateurs with neither experience nor training, it's rather a miracle.
QUOTES ON FAMILY:
"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future. We make discoveries about ourselves."
- Gail Lumet Buckley

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces."
- George Santayana, 1863 - 1952

"Happy the man who, like Ulysses, has made a fine voyage, or has won the Golden Fleece, and then returns, experienced and knowledgeable, to spend the rest of his life among his family!"
- Joachim du Bellay, 1522 - 1560

"Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice."
- Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892 - 1971

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
- Jane Temple Howard, 1935 - 1996

Thought of the Day:
"We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."
--Martin Luther King Jr., minister & civil rights activist (1929-1968)

Quote of the Day:
"I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers."
--Mohandas Gandhi, Indian leader for independence (1869-1948)

Quote of the Moment:
"It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean."
--John Locke, English philosopher (1632-1704)


Poem of the Day
"Memento" by Eamon Grennan.

Scattered through the ragtaggle underbrush starting
to show green shoots
lie the dark remains of rail sleepers napping now
beside the rusted-out wreck

of a Chevy that was once sky-blue and now is nothing
but shattered panels and
anonymous bits of engine in the ditch by a path that
was once a railway line

cut between small hills whose silence hasn't been
broken by the rattle and
lonesome-blown whistle of a train for fifty years and
whose air hasn't filled

for ages with my childhood's smell (set by Seapoint on
the coastal line) of coal
smoke and hot steam puffed up in great cloud-breaths
out of a black-sooted chimney.

Bonus Poem:
"Cold Morning" by Eamon Grennan

Through an accidental crack in the curtain
I can see the eight o'clock light change from
charcoal to a faint gassy blue, inventing things

in the morning that has a thick skin of ice on it
as the water tank has, so nothing flows, all is bone,
telling its tale of how hard the night had to be

for any heart caught out in it, just flesh and blood
no match for the mindless chill that's settled in,
a great stone bird, its wings stretched stiff

from the tip of Letter Hill to the cobbled bay, its gaze
glacial, its hook-and-scrabble claws fast clamped
on every window, its petrifying breath a cage

in which all the warmth we were is shivering.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
QUOTES ON READING & WRITING:
"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish."
- Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 - 1894

"If ... I can by any lucky chance, in these days of evil, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sorrow; if I can now and then penetrate through the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a benevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humor with his fellow beings and himself, surely, surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain."
- Washington Irving, 1783 - 1859

"Tis the reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 - 1882

"There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader. If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned money (energy) for your book, you owe that person some entertainment and as much more as you can give."
- Frank Herbert, 1920 - 1986

"A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers."
- John Steinbeck, 1902 - 1968

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."
- Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

"Not all readers become leaders. But all leaders must be readers."
- Harry S. Truman, 1884 - 1972

Thought of the Day:
"You can never learn less, you can only learn more."
--R. Buckminster Fuller, futurist & inventor (1895-1983)

Quote of the Day:
"Now they're calling drugs an epidemic - that's 'cos white folks are doing it."
--Richard Pryor, comedian (1940-2005)

Quote of the Moment:
"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
--Donald H. Rumsfeld, politician (b. 1932)


Poem of the Day
"Fire Dreams" by Carl Sandburg in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandberg [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]

(Written to be read aloud, if so be, Thanksgiving Day)

I remember here by the fire,
In the flickering reds and saffrons,
They came in a ramshackle tub,
Pilgrims in tall hats,
Pilgrims of iron jaws,
Drifting by weeks on beaten seas,
And the random chapters say
They were glad and sang to God.

And so
Since the iron-jawed men sat down
And said, "Thanks, O God,"
For life and soup and a little less
Than a hobo handout to-day,
Since gray winds blew gray patterns of sleet on Plymouth Rock,
Since the iron-jawed men sang "Thanks, O God,"
You and I, O Child of the West,
Remember more than ever
November and the hunter's moon,
November and the yellow-spotted hills.

And so
In the name of the iron-jawed men
I will stand up and say yes till the finish is come and gone.
God of all broken hearts, empty hands, sleeping soldiers,
God of all star-flung beaches of night sky,
I and my love-child stand up together to-day and sing: "Thanks, O God."

Bonus Poem:
"Autumn Movement" by Carl Sandburg

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things
come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go,
not one lasts.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
One of the special blessings I'm mindful of this week is, alas, one that I haven't had nearly enough experience with: Serenity. Many great ideas grow out of conflict and disorder, but there are others that can only come from a mind able to be still. As a perfect example, note that this issue is actually a full day late arriving.
QUOTES ON SERENITY:
"Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity."
- Joseph Addison, 1672 - 1719

"Let a man strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinketh, that is he; this is the eternal mystery. Dwelling within himself with thoughts serene, he will obtain imperishable happiness."
- Maitri Upanishad.

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."
- Henry Miller, 1891 - 1980

"The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy and Serenity."
- Emily Post, 1872 - 1960

"Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, everyone should be serene, slow-pulsed and calm."
- Robert Green Ingersoll, 1833 - 1899

"Whatever may happen the sun will rise tomorrow as it rose to-day, beneficent and serene."
- Paul Gauguin, 1848 - 1904

Thought of the Day:
"A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship."
--John D. Rockefeller, oil magnate & philanthropist (1839-1937)

Quote of the Day:
"The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it.
--Warren Buffett, financier (b. 1930)

Quote of the Moment:
"Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other."
--Ann Landers, advice columnist (1918-2002)


Poem of the Day
"Grace for a Child" by Robert Herrick in The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick[Cornell University Library]

Here, a little child I stand,
Heaving up my either hand:
Cold as paddocks though they be,
Here I lift them up to Thee,
For a benison to fall
On our meat, and on us all. Amen.

Bonus Poem:
"Delight in Disorder" by Robert Herrick

A sweet disorder in the dresse
Kindles in cloathes a wantonnesse:
A Lawne about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction:
An erring Lace, which here and there
Enthralls the Crimson Stomacher:
A Cuffe neglectfull, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly:
A winning wave (deserving Note)
In the tempestuous petticote:
A careless shooe-string, in whose tye
I see a wilde civility:
Doe more bewitch me, then when Art
Is too precise in every part.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
Anders Celsius was born at Uppsala, Sweden on Nov. 27th in 1701. His major work was as an astronomer, but along the way he created the sensible centigrade (100 degrees between ice and steam) scale for measuring temperature. What was called the centigrade degree was finally named after Celsius in 1948, but it took a while for everybody to catch on - my science teachers in the 'sixties still called it centigrade. Despite the appalling reluctance of most Americans to switch, most of the world, including yours truly, use the Celsius scale when talking about Hot or Cold.
QUOTES ON HOT AND COLD:
"I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean."
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1874 - 1936

"To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can."
- Sydney Smith, 1771 - 1845

"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself."
- William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

"It was cold out there, bitter, biting, cutting, piercing, hyperborean, marmoreal cold, and there were all these Minnesotans running around outdoors, happy as lambs in the spring."
- Charles Kuralt, 1934 - 1997

"They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all."
- D. H. Lawrence, 1885 - 1930

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?"
- John Steinbeck, 1902 - 1968

"Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary."
- Henry David Thoreau, 1817 - 1862

Thought of the Day:
"Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?"
- James L. Brooks, movie director-screenwriter (b. 1940)

Quote of the Day:
"I came from a real tough neighborhood. I put my hand in some cement and felt another hand."
--Rodney Dangerfield, comedian (1921-2004)

Quote of the Moment:
"A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor."
--Victor Hugo, French author (1802-1885)


Poem of the Day
"We Are Seven" by William Wordsworth in Selected Poems [Penguin Classics]

—A simple child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?

I met a little cottage girl:
She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl
That clustered round her head.

She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad:
Her eyes were fair, and very fair;
—Her beauty made me glad.

"Sisters and brothers, little maid,
How many may you be?"
"How many? Seven in all," she said,
And wondering looked at me.

"And where are they? I pray you tell."
She answered, "Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.

"Two of us in the churchyard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And, in the churchyard cottage, I
Dwell near them with my mother."

"You say that two at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea,
Yet ye are seven! I pray you tell,
Sweet maid, how this may be."

Then did the little maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the churchyard lie,
Beneath the churchyard tree."

"You run about, my little maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the churchyard laid,
Then ye are only five."

"Their graves are green, they may be seen,"
The little maid replied,
"Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,
And they are side by side.

"My stockings there I often knit,
My kerchief there I hem;
And there upon the ground I sit,
And sing a song to them.

"And often after sunset, sir,
When it is light and fair,
I take my little porringer,
And eat my supper there.

"The first that died was sister Jane;
In bed she moaning lay,
Till God released her of her pain;
And then she went away.

"So in the churchyard she was laid;
And, when the grass was dry,
Together round her grave we played,
My brother John and I.

"And when the ground was white with snow
And I could run and slide,
My brother John was forced to go,
And he lies by her side."

"How many are you, then," said I,
"If they two are in heaven?"
Quick was the little maid's reply,
"O master! we are seven."

"But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!"
'Twas throwing words away; for still
The little maid would have her will,
And said, "Nay, we are seven!"

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
William Blake was born at London on Nov. 28th in 1757. His parents recognized his headstrong character and didn't send him to school, although he was given art classes. His first of many visions, a tree full of angels, came at the age of ten. He trained as an engraver, and later developed a process of plate making that allowed a mix of text and illustration on the same page from a single plate, which was not particularly profitable in his business but he did use it for several books of his own poetry. His poetry and painting did not meet with much success during his lifetime, but not only has his poetry been set to music in recent decades (both classical and rock) we have these quotes.
QUOTES:
"I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow."

"You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough."

"You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them."

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy."

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

"Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night."

"A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation."
All from William Blake, 1757 - 1827

Thought of the Day:
"It is memory that provides the heart with impetus, fuels the brain, and propels the corn plant from seed to fruit."
--Joy Harjo, Native American poet (b. 1951)

Quote of the Day:
"There must be more to life than having everything."
--Maurice Sendak, children's author (b. 1928)

Quote of the Moment:
"When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it."
--Anatole France, French author (1844-1924)


Poem of the Day
"Swell" by Hoa Nguyen

Swell you can dream more the earth
swells seeds pop
I glance at the prize
eyes closed in the glancing

It's not a time to run
I wear soft shoes
and it took a long time
to walk here

Insects nudge me in my dreams
like the 5 honey bees plus
the strange one
Intelligent bee glances buzzing

to say Let me out The fake
lights confuse us
confuses the source

Worker bee buzzed my neck
directly me not turning off
lamps fast enough

Please
just open the door
to the sun

Bonus Poem:
"Garden of Bees" by Matthew Rohrer

The narcissus grows past

the towers. Eight gypsy

sisters spread their wings

in the garden. Their gold teeth

are unnerving. Every single

baby is asleep. They want

a little money and I give

them less. I'm charming and

handsome. They take my pen.

I buy the poem from the garden

of bees for one euro. A touch

on the arm. A mystery word.

The sky has two faces.

For reasons unaccountable

my hand trembles.

In Roman times if they were

horrified of bees they kept it secret

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace near Oxford, England on this day in 1874. His father was a duke, his mother an American heiress (Jenny Jerome). He graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, served in India and Sudan, and then resigned his commission to cover the Boer War as a journalist. As first lord of the admiralty he modernized the Royal Navy in preparation for World War I. He was in and out of politics, where his forceful opinions didn't always make him welcome on either side of the aisle. Those opinions did make him a good fit during World War II when he served as Prime Minister. Throughout his life he was an ardent student of history, and wrote several volumes for which he won a Nobel Prize in literature. His quick wit and clear language make him a favorite of any quotation collector.
QUOTES:
"Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!"

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."

"The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."

"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes."

"Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a sheperd. Without innovation, it is a corpse."

"I'm always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."

"Smoking cigars is like falling in love; first you are attracted to its shape; you stay with it for its flavor; and you must always remember never, never let the flame go out."
All from Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965

Thought of the Day:
"A fine quotations is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool."
--[Philbert] Joseph Roux, French surgeion (1780-1854)

Quote of the Day:
"Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can."
--Danny Kaye, comedian & actor (1913-1987)

Quote of the Moment:
"We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people."
--Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 - 1860)


Poem of the Day
"Goldfish Are Ordinary" by Stacie Cassarino.

At the pet store on Court Street,
I search for the perfect fish.
The black moor, the blue damsel,
cichlids and neons. Something
to distract your sadness, something
you don't need to love you back.
Maybe a goldfish, the flaring tail,
orange, red-capped, pearled body,
the darting translucence? Goldfish
are ordinary, the boy selling fish
says to me. I turn back to the tank,
all of this grace and brilliance,
such simplicity the self could fail
to see. In three months I'll leave
this city. Today, a chill in the air,
you're reading Beckett fifty blocks
away, I'm looking at the orphaned
bodies of fish, undulant and gold fervor.
Do you want to see aggression?
the boy asks, holding a purple beta fish
to the light while dropping handfuls
of minnows into the bowl. He says,
I know you're a girl and all
but sometimes it's good to see.
Outside, in the rain, we love
with our hands tied,
while things tear away at us.

Bonus Poem:
"Ode on the death of a favorite cat" by Thomas Gray

Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dyed
The azure flowers that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declared;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw; and purred applause.

Still had she gazed; but 'midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,
The genii of the stream:
Their scaly armor's Tyrian hue
Through richest purple to the view
Betrayed a golden gleam.

The hapless nymph with wonder saw:
A whisker first and then a claw,
With many an ardent wish,
She stretched in vain to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous maid! with looks intent
Again she stretched, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between.
(Malignant Fate sat by and smiled)
The slippery verge her feet beguiled,
She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood
She mewed to every watery god,
Some speedy aid to send.
No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard;
A favorite has no friend!

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived,
Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved,
And be with caution bold.
Not all that tempts your wandering eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;
Nor all that glisters, gold.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
Amos Bronson Alcox was born at Wolcott, Conn. on Nov. 29th in 1799. He attended school only until he was ten but secured a teaching certificate at seventeen, although he couldn't find work. Instead, he became a traveling salesman for a while but didn't do well and thought that life on the road was a threat to his spiritual life. He returned to Connecticut and started teaching, but his style was not to the liking of the public of the time; he put backs on benches, improved lighting, and eschewed corporal punishment. He also had dropped his first name and changed the last name to Alcott by the time he married in 1830. His teaching methods attracted the attention of some but prevented him from ever making much money, fortunately his eldest daughter Louisa May (born on his thirty-third birthday) became a best-selling author (Little Women) and supported him in his later years.
QUOTES:
"That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed with profit."

"Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength, not my weakness."

"Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats."

"Every noble life becomes a revelation of the spirit which the love and joy of mankind cannot let perish from remembrance."

"Memory marks the horizon of our consciousness, imagination its zenith."

"The less of routine, the more of life."

"Time ripens the substance of a life as the seasons mellow and perfect its fruits. The best apples fall latest and keep longest."
All from Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)

Thought of the Day:
"Silence is the virtue of fools."
--Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher & statesman (1561-1626)

Quote of the Day:
"I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world."
--Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright & poet (1854-1900)

Quote of the Moment:
"If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see."
--Henry David Thoreau, philosopher (18171862)


Poem of the Day
"Albatross in Co. Antrim" by Robin Robertson in The Wrecking Light [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]

The men would sometimes try to catch one,
throwing a looped wire at the great white cross
that tracked their every turn, gliding over their deep
gulfs and bitter waves: the bright pacific albatross.

Now, with a cardboard sign around his neck, the king
of the winds stands there, hobbled: head shorn,
ashamed; his broken limbs hang down by his side,
those huge white wings like dragging oars.

Once beautiful and brave, now tarred, unfeathered,
this lost traveller is a bad joke; a lord cut down to size.
One pokes a muzzle in his mouth; another limps past,
mimicking the skliff, sclaff of a bird that cannot fly.

The poet is like this prince of the clouds
who rides the storm of war and scorns the archer;
exiled on the ground, in all this derision,
his giant wings prevent his marching.

Bonus Poem:
"Littlefoot, 19, [This is the bird hour]" by Charles Wright

19

This is the bird hour, peony blossoms falling bigger than wren hearts
On the cutting border's railroad ties,
Sparrows and other feathery things
Homing from one hedge to the next,
late May, gnat-floating evening.

Is love stronger than unlove?
Only the unloved know.
And the mockingbird, whose heart is cloned and colorless.

And who's this tiny chirper,
lost in the loose leaves of the weeping cherry tree?
His song is not more than three feet off the ground, and singular,
And going nowhere.
Listen. It sounds a lot like you, hermane.
It sounds like me.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
It was on Dec, 3rd in 1967 that Dr Christiaan Barnard and a team of thirty transplanted a human heart for the first time. The operation at Capetown, South Africa's Groote Schuur Hospital took nine hours, and the patient lived only eighteen days, but overnight the world was talking about heart transplants. What was then miraculous, or derided as a vain and risky stunt, is now almost routine, certainly not news. But authors and poets will always treat the human Heart as a wonder.
QUOTES ON THE HEART:
"It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has."
- Henry Ward Beecher, 1813 - 1887

"What is uttered from the heart alone will win the hearts of others to your own."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 - 1832

"What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 - 1882

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the human heart can hold."
- Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, 1900 - 1948

"Even though it runs counter to popular belief, Life's critical decisions are usually made in the heart and only later ratified by the brain."
- Mardy Grothe.

"The heart is forever making the head its fool."
- François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, 1613 - 1680

Thought of the Day:
"Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures."
--Plato, Classical Greek philosopher (429–347 B.C.)

Quote of the Day:
"After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done."
--Anonymous.

Quote of the Moment:
"Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim."
--Bertrand Russell, English philosopher (1872-1970)


Poem of the Day
"Enemies" by Dante Micheaux

[for Ishion Hutchinson]

The thing about entertaining them,
about keeping their company,
about fraternizing,
is you must remember
they are bloodless
and have many faces,
though it’s easy enough
to walk in sunlight,
where either you or they
become invisible,
never together seen;
easy to get in bed with them,
to bed them,
to be seduced by them—
listing in their own dominance.
Remember what makes one human,
animal, is not the high road
but the baseness in the heart,
the knowledge that they could,
at any moment, betray you.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
A patent was granted on Dec 5th in 1876 to Daniel C. Stillson of Somerville, Massachusetts for "a new and useful Improvement in Wrenches", the adjustable wrench with teeth we generally refer as a "pipe wrench". I don't do the kind of work that requires a pipe wrench, but I own, and greatly cherish, a staggering array of tools for the work I do. My first rule of tools is to make sure you don't lose them. The second is that with tools that are often lost, you should buy a lot of them so when you go looking for one you're sure to find one in one of the first places you look. Even though I have more Tools than tool quotes, it wasn't hard coming up with these.
QUOTES ON TOOLS:
"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."
- Abraham Maslow, 1908 - 1970

"The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools."
- Confucius, 551 - 479 BC

"Intelligence ... is the faculty of making artificial objects, especially tools to make tools."
- Henri Bergson, 1859 - 1941

"Give us the tools and we will finish the job."
- Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965

"You can cut down a tree with a hammer, but it takes about 30 days. If you trade the hammer for an ax, you can cut it down in about 30 minutes. The difference between 30 days and 30 minutes is skill."
- Jim Rohn, 1930 - 2009

"Why do we think technology is above morality? ... The real question is, 'How should I conduct my life?' rather than 'What tools should I use?'."
- Neil Postman, 1931 - 2003

"Never mind trifles. In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807 - 1882

Thought of the Day:
"Depend not on fortune, but on conduct."
--Publilius Syrus, Latim writer of maxims (fl. 1st century B.C.)

Quote of the Day:
"Martyrdom...is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability."
--George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856-1950)

Quote of the Moment:
"The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you'll never find it."
--C. P. Snow, English author (1905-1980)


Poem of the Day
"Anecdote of the Jar" by Wallace Stevens

I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Bonus Poem:
"Earthy Anecdote" by Wallace Stevens

Every time the bucks went clattering
Over Oklahoma
A firecat bristled in the way.

Wherever they went,
They went clattering,
Until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the right,
Because of the firecat.

Or until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the left,
Because of the firecat.

The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
To the right, to the left,
And
Bristled in the way.

Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes
And slept.

[pegasus]

Quotes for Today
Steven Alexander Wright was born at Cambridge, Mass. on Dec. 6th in 1955, and graduated from Emerson College, Boston in 1978. He started doing stand-up comedy the next year, working in various jobs (retail, parking cars, working in a book warehouse) until a producer from The Tonight Show saw him at a Cambridge club in 1982. He has the analytic wit of George Carlin and a delivery like Pat Paulsen; he makes as many as sixty appearances a year, largely to college audiences.
QUOTES:
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."

"I have a large seashell collection which I keep scattered on the beaches all over the world. Maybe you've seen it."

"If all the nations in the world are in debt, where did all the money go?"

"The older you get, the more you learn to see what you've been taught to see. When you're a kid, you see what's there."

"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."

"If the pen is mightier than the sword, in a duel I'll let you have the pen!"

"I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly."
All from Steven Wright.

Thought of the Day:
"Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers."
--Jimmy Breslin, journalist & author (b. 1930)

Quote of the Day:
"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."
--Bill Vaughan, columnist (1915--1977)

Quote of the Moment:
"Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance."
--William Shakespeare, English playwright (1564-1616)


Poem of the Day
"Approach of Winter" by William Carlos Williams in The Collected Poems, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 [New Directions]

The half-stripped trees
struck by a wind together,
bending all,
the leaves flutter drily
and refuse to let go
or driven like hail
stream bitterly out to one side
and fall
where the salvias, hard carmine,—
like no leaf that ever was—
edge the bare garden.

Bonus Poem:
"Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams

If when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,-
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely,
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,-

Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?