12.06.2009

Top 10 Things More Pretentious...

...than blogging (to no one) about a long-dead poet's marginalia:

1-10: nothing.

oops. guess i miscalculated on that one. I've probably been called pretentious before though, so what the fuck. if you can't laugh at yourself....still, i'm doing a lot of research right now and i re-stumbled upon an old favorite of one of William Blake's odd poems. In Songs of Innocence and of Experience, there are a lot of companion poems (for those not familiar), meant to be read in reference to each other. One in the Innocence section is called "The Divine Image" and is (from what I've read today) very typically Swedenborgian. But basically it's not that interesting, generally saying that these four qualities, Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love are God manifest in humanity, which is pretty typical Blake, at least in Innocence.


Here's where we get to my bit for today. A deleted poem from experience, "A Divine Image" references that poem and tears it a new asshole, very succinctly (in 2 stanzas compared to five).


A Divine Image
Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face;
Terror, the Human Form Dvine
And Secrecy, the Human Dress.

The Human Dress, is forged Iron
The Human Form, a fiery Forge.
The Human Face, a Furnace seal'd
The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge.


It ended up getting deleted for something a little more subtle, but I think this is a really interesting poem, especially in the context of his Songs, where extremes are everywhere. Time to get back to writing, though. Hope you enjoyed the semi-insane Romantic sidetrack (if you made it this far).

12.05.2009

DWS (aftermath)

I've been ignoring one of Lehigh's gems all semester on this blog! oops. Drown Writers Series wrapped up yesterday with a magnum opus reading that really packed the humanities center full with some really great poetry, fiction, and multimedia readings/presentations. Among the readers were me, Devin Donovan, and a whole bunch of (awesome!) undergrads presenting readings culled from visits to people living with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Really powerful stuff. Plus, there were bitchin' bourbon balls, cookies of all sorts and tasty hot cider. Damn, i love wintertime.




For a while this whole thing has been run by Wes Atkinson who, unfortunately, is now handing it over to Devin. I'm sad that it's done for the semester, but it'll be back in January with the new leadership and i'll be out front of it this time, so that i can hassle all y'all in the Bethlehem area to go see it when it rolls around in January or early February. B-hem can be a little light on the poetry scene sometimes, at least as far as i can tell in my short tenure here, but DWS is a gem because it doesn't do any of that frightening poetry reading stuff. It is and will continue to be an unpretentious, food-based gathering that wouldn't feel weird to someone who's never been to (or liked going to) poetry readings before. In short: there are no turtlenecks, no wine & cheese, and nobody (shudder) snaps after people finish reading. And with a strict time limit, you don't have to worry about that douche kid that always shows up with an epic poem wanting to read all 4 books of 400 lines each. He can fuck off.




Also, there should eventually be youtube videos of the halloween meeting featuring a goat, me playing the Misfits on ukulele and Wes in a labcoat. I'll be previewing and recapping DWS on A Lighter of Fires all next semester so stay tuned and drop by in January.