Whoever said Lord Nelson's dead?

[sovay]

All in all, this was a good weekend. Saturday contained brunch with gaudior and the usual suspects; Sunday involved schreibergasse, Grace, a five-person game of Elixir, and cooking multiple very tasty dishes; and I am throwing Monday in with the weekend because it included lunch with straussmonster ("epic LOLs"), chai with a beloved professor, and unexpected awesome conversation with duckhalladay on the train back from New Haven. I needed this weekend badly. I now have a recipe for eggplant that I not only tolerate, but love. And my time spent changing lightbulbs leaves me feeling oddly useful.

Leaving the station at Old Saybrook, we passed an abandoned building in a small lot: block concrete walls, the metal door shuttered down, weeds and dead ivies around the lintel and the blind windows. Probably it was a garage or a repair shop, something very mechanical and prosaic. There were trees growing in all around, dustily and dry-leaved in the westering glare. But high on the facing wall were metal letters in a round lowercase font that read apollo, and of course my thoughts jumped to a derelict shrine: not Olympian Apollo, the far-shooter with the silver bow, the lyre-player and the master of the chorus, but Apollo Loxias, the god aslant, whispering out of the dark fates and futures that only in hindsight align themselves into sense. The last few days have been given to experimentation with sonnets. Perhaps the next one should be the hymn-god's. (And if I get it wrong, he will send back the mouse . . .)

Speaking of sonnets, if anyone has favorites to recommend, please feel free to do so. I have been reading primarily Seamus Heaney and Gerard Manley Hopkins and wondering why it took me until now to discover Geoffrey Hill. He's like A Canterbury Tale in iambics. I need a more prolifically-paying job.

Comments

[chriscrick.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good trip to our neck of the woods. I'm sorry I wasn't there -- I'm in the Uttermost West at the moment, eating paella and drinking Calvados. Good things, but it still would have been nice to see you.

Chris

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

EPIC LULZ!

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Marilyn Hacker's done some damn fine sonnets and other formal verse.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

a five-person game of Elixir

Elixir? Is that the game where everyone's poisoned and the winner is the person who finds the bottle with the antidote?

There were trees growing in all around, dustily and dry-leaved in the westering glare. But high on the facing wall were metal letters in a round lowercase font that read apollo, and of course my thoughts jumped to a derelict shrine: not Olympian Apollo, the far-shooter with the silver bow, the lyre-player and the master of the chorus, but Apollo Loxias, the god aslant, whispering out of the dark fates and futures that only in hindsight align themselves into sense.

Interesting. I love how much character is invested in your description. And it sounds like a good place to sell Marvin Acme's Disappearing/Reappearing Ink.

fixed

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

Geoffrey Hill rocks. I taught bits of Mercian Hymns once, and regretted it as too ambitious for English comp.

(I know little of modern poetry; Hill crossed my radar because of a Nicholas Howe essay; Howe was an Anglo-Saxonist.)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Well, there's the sonnet in Gaudy Night, of course...

And a double sonnet, Valerie Laws' Ann More: Mrs John Donne.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Does Old Saybrook still exist? I thought it had renamed itself at some point. I need to go there one of these days...

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

There's always John Updike's Midquest. One formal-verse mag, though I can't remember which, used to use its title poem as the outer limits of what they'd accept as a sonnet in submissions. I bought the book for that reason alone. (It's quite good, actually.)

Apollinaire did some lovely formal work. For the life of me, though, I can't remember whether any of it was in sonnet form.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

And if I get it wrong, he will send back the mouse

Oh dear.

Apollo Loxias, the god aslant, whispering out of the dark fates and futures that only in hindsight align themselves into sense.

First chill of the day. Okay, second. The water heater was being a bit dodgy this morning.

[mer-moon.livejournal.com]

Geoffrey Hill looks very intriguing ... (steeples fingers)

As for sonnets, I will get back to you on that one. Have you ever heard of a (very small) publication called Sonnetto Poesia? It's a mixed bag -- with some truly awful stuff, not to mention an apparently obnoxious editor -- but he also publishes some fabulously beautiful sonnets.

:)

[duckhalladay.livejournal.com]

That was SUCH an awesome conversation! So how has your day been today? Up to anything intriguing? I talked with my cousin and her boyfriend when I got home last night, so that was nice. Are you online now? What are you up to at the moment?

I will not be able to be online past 8:45 P.M. this evening. If you feel inclined, my cell number is 603-738-9014. If you aren't otherwise occupied, feel free ring me up tonight. I'm normally up late so don't worry about that. :)