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What was she thinking, being swallowed by the water whole?
1. Late yesterday brought my contributor's copy of Niteblade #19, containing a reprint of my poem "The Coast Guard." The full content becomes available online once the magazine reaches its hard-costs goal, so I shall point you in the direction of the PDF and simply tell you this is one of the poems I am proudest of. It was written in the late fall of 2008 after ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fleurdelis28 and I drove out to Cape Cod to look for the wreck of a nineteenth-century schooner in the sand of Newcomb Hollow Beach. If you would also like to pick up the poem in its original setting of Sirenia Digest #41 or the shell-bound Chanteys for the Fisherangels, I will not protest.
2. This is my public service announcement of the day: Bryher's poetry. Read it. She is even less well known as a writer nowadays than H.D., who is one of my favorite poets and unwarranted secret history; I have decent luck with H.D. in used book stores, but in the fall of 2010 I ran into a copy of Bryher's Visa for Avalon (1965) and I still count myself blessed, because I have never seen anything by her in stores before or since. I discovered the Emory cache yesterday. "Horses of Tros" is one of the poems I want everyone to read on principle of language; I think "From Helix" and "Amazon" are not far behind. Her two semi-auto-romans à clef Development (1920) and Two Selves (1923) are also amazing and I will be tracking them down in print as soon as I can. She could write the sea. None of these people should be obscure.
(And then I found that H.D.'s daughter Perdita worked for Bletchley Park and the OSS and her son wrote that book about the cat at the Algonquin Hotel and everything became synchronous.)
3. Do not read this article if you do not like very large insects. If you don't mind twelve-centimeter tree lobsters, however, it is a lovely story of the rediscovery of the Lord Howe stick insect (Dryocelus australis) and how it did not go extinct in 1920 after all, no thanks to us.
4. Caitlín R. Kiernan's Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart is now taking preorders. I wrote the afterword. You want to read the stories.
5.derspatchel's recipe for hot buttered rum is really good, especially with Kraken. (I am not drinking it right now. I am not the person with the bottle in their kitchen. I kind of wish I were.)
I should go shovel the front steps again.
fleurdelis28 and I drove out to Cape Cod to look for the wreck of a nineteenth-century schooner in the sand of Newcomb Hollow Beach. If you would also like to pick up the poem in its original setting of Sirenia Digest #41 or the shell-bound Chanteys for the Fisherangels, I will not protest.2. This is my public service announcement of the day: Bryher's poetry. Read it. She is even less well known as a writer nowadays than H.D., who is one of my favorite poets and unwarranted secret history; I have decent luck with H.D. in used book stores, but in the fall of 2010 I ran into a copy of Bryher's Visa for Avalon (1965) and I still count myself blessed, because I have never seen anything by her in stores before or since. I discovered the Emory cache yesterday. "Horses of Tros" is one of the poems I want everyone to read on principle of language; I think "From Helix" and "Amazon" are not far behind. Her two semi-auto-romans à clef Development (1920) and Two Selves (1923) are also amazing and I will be tracking them down in print as soon as I can. She could write the sea. None of these people should be obscure.
(And then I found that H.D.'s daughter Perdita worked for Bletchley Park and the OSS and her son wrote that book about the cat at the Algonquin Hotel and everything became synchronous.)
3. Do not read this article if you do not like very large insects. If you don't mind twelve-centimeter tree lobsters, however, it is a lovely story of the rediscovery of the Lord Howe stick insect (Dryocelus australis) and how it did not go extinct in 1920 after all, no thanks to us.
4. Caitlín R. Kiernan's Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart is now taking preorders. I wrote the afterword. You want to read the stories.
5.
derspatchel's recipe for hot buttered rum is really good, especially with Kraken. (I am not drinking it right now. I am not the person with the bottle in their kitchen. I kind of wish I were.)I should go shovel the front steps again.
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I do mind twelve-centimeter HARDSHELL DEATH CRUSTACEANS, but you get a pass.
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I promise to read the poems. Once I actually get some work done.
(Music: Rock Lobster)
...which actually they should really use in the PR campaign.
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I used to be married to her biographer, and read a lot of her work in consequence, and I think you'd appreciate it. She's poetic and classical in the same way as Bryher and HD, but there are many other fascinating ingredients there as well: an early passion for Jane Harrison, a sojourn with Crowley at Thelema, publishing Eliot and Pound on a small press, a Parisian '20s, a Cornish '30s.
There's a handful of novels, of which I'd particularly recommend Armed with Madness (1928) and Death of Felicity Taverner (1932), although her novels about Alexander and Cleopatra are well worth reading; and there are poems too, but I think her short stories show her to best advantage.
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The Guardian just excerpted The Walls Do Not Fall (1944) for their Poem of the Week, which I approve of, but they're still talking about H.D. in terms of Imagism. Also, I wish people would stop crediting Bryher by her birth name. There's a reason she ditched it. That said:
HD knew the power of ancient languages: she had studied classical Greek, and she must have been enthralled by the hieroglyphics at Karnak. Perhaps it's also worth remembering that she was writing in a golden age of radio.
. . . I can't write a script to save my life and I want to write classical Greek for radio now. Please send help.
I do mind twelve-centimeter HARDSHELL DEATH CRUSTACEANS, but you get a pass.
Here, quick, have Wittgenstein and his boyfriend!
(That's Francis Skinner. This is Ben Richards again. What I love about that profile shot is that it's the other half of the famous photograph of Wittgenstein against the blackboard, the one that the script book for Jarman's Wittgenstein replicates. I don't know if there are others from the set, but I love the idea of Wittgenstein and Richards trading the camera off. It gives me some strange hope that there's a terribly goofy photo of him somewhere.)
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I've read of her; I've never read her.
She's poetic and classical in the same way as Bryher and HD, but there are many other fascinating ingredients there as well: an early passion for Jane Harrison, a sojourn with Crowley at Thelema, publishing Eliot and Pound on a small press, a Parisian '20s, a Cornish '30s.
Go ahead, twist my arm!
There's a handful of novels, of which I'd particularly recommend Armed with Madness (1928) and Death of Felicity Taverner (1932), although her novels about Alexander and Cleopatra are well worth reading; and there are poems too, but I think her short stories show her to best advantage.
I will check out libraries. Thank you.
(I dreamed a few nights ago I found Naomi Mitchison's The Delicate Fire (1933) at a rummage sale. Oh, wish-fulfillment.)
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I love science.
I promise to read the poems. Once I actually get some work done.
I have to clear the front walk and the driveway. These things happen.
...which actually they should really use in the PR campaign.
They really should . . .
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And you know how I feel about not calling people by the names they want to be called. Rawr. Especially when a person's sexuality must, it seems, be mentioned at every pass in print, accord that person the dignity of the name they chose. Rawr!
Well, he had taste in men even if he didn't believe in himself.
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/threadjack
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Do you realize that thanks to you, I know which is which? That's pretty remarkable.
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I feel very useful!
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I discovered "Brother Judson" about two years ago while searching for Boston post-punk; I remembered you had recommended the band. Is it still possible to see them live?
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Peter Irvine goes to all the shape-note sings that Tim goes to--I think he's equally into it?
Tim released an album of voice-alone songs recently, and then even more recently, an instrumental album. (I haven't got either of them, though, and they're miles away from what he was doing when he and Peter were in Cordelia's Dad. I like the roots Americana stuff a whole lot, but I do like the punk stuff too.)
Oh, and what I really meant to say is that Tim still performs live quite a bit. Usually at least once a summer around here--if he does, I'll let you know.
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I bought that book out of a hotel room in Atlanta after following ghostly music down the hall. Life is oddly synchronous sometimes.
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That's marvelous.
My copy of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler . . . (1979) came from a woman I met on a train one night in February.
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It seems to have produced a live album. Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, April 29, 2007?
(I haven't got either of them, though, and they're miles away from what he was doing when he and Peter were in Cordelia's Dad. I like the roots Americana stuff a whole lot, but I do like the punk stuff too.)
Best version of "Delia's Gone" ever.
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Well, the poetry is right there. Region of Lutany (1914) is juvenilia—it's her only work published under her birth name, even by initial—but Arrow Music (1922) is breathtaking. I don't like reading novels off a screen, but I finished Development and Two Selves. I really want to read her YA historicals now.
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That was right before I got to know you!
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Thank you for sharing the Bryher poetry. I'm just after reading "Horses of Tros", which is stunning. I'll be reading the rest of what's there soon, I reckon.
I'm not especial fond of very large insects, but I'm very glad for the survival of the Lord Howe stick insect, all the same.
Thanks for sharing the hot buttered rum recipe!
I should go shovel the front steps again.
I hope all's gone well. We've not had any more actual snow here, only little drifting flakes.
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It really is, isn't it . . .
or what good are your scribblings?
this – we take them with us
beyond death
I'll show you Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein. In addition to the incomparable Karl Johnson, Jarman cast his partner—Kevin Collins, who still lives with his garden at Dungeness—as, essentially, Ben Richards, and he's as good a ringer for that young man in the mackintosh as Johnson is for Wittgenstein.
(This is a very pleasant pineapple.)
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He was extraordinarily pretty at the time, and his face manages to be strong and winsome at the same time. Grudging approval from this quarter.
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I actually like insects; either I find them aesthetically interesting or they don't bother me. But I understand why other people don't agree.
Thanks for sharing the hot buttered rum recipe!
I didn't write it, but I will enthusiastically endorse it!
We've not had any more actual snow here, only little drifting flakes.
It's still snowing here. And I am still shoveling.
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Historical and present personages would be glad you approve.
This was supposed to be the pineapple link.
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Yes, one must see that film.
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Wouldn't you know, I own a copy!
I shall bring it and A Canterbury Tale the next time I come to visit. And a lot of research on Bletchley Park.
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That's a good thing, I reckon. They don't all bother me--I even find some of them sort of cute*--but some of them disturb me. It's not very rational, I know. I do manage to not lash out at them without thinking, for the most part.**
But I understand why other people don't agree.
Thanks.
I didn't write it, but I will enthusiastically endorse it!
And well you should. If there were any rum in the house, I'd be trying it.
It's still snowing here. And I am still shoveling.
I hope it's not enough to be unpleasant.
*I mind one day in a barn with a friend (It must have been nearly fourteen years ago or more, when I still had a horse.) when she pointed out that a little leafhopper (Or at least I think that's what it was.) was using parallax to judge how far it was from a hay bale to her own face.
**I find it disturbing that so many people do, which is probably a result of my growing up round Buddhists and Hindus.
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I don't know why she's out of print!
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*hugs*
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You're welcome! I think you will like them both.
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(Take all excuses to go to Melbourne. Delightfully many-cultured city.)
The way Bryher writes the sea is heartbreakingly amazing.
And now, all the rum is gone. Sigh, no recipe making...
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Take photographs!
(Take all excuses to go to Melbourne. Delightfully many-cultured city.)
I will if I can . . .
The way Bryher writes the sea is heartbreakingly amazing.
I knew the sea was important for H.D. I had no idea about Bryher.
And now, all the rum is gone.
It's a popular complaint. May there be more.