Picnic in the shade

[alee_grrl]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

[alee_grrl]

This week I came across this article on Robert Frost, who is one of my favorites. The article unpacks Frost's style and serves as a review of The Art of Robert by Tim Kendall.

[lynnoconnacht]

Oh, wow. ^-^ That was a neat read! And reminds me what else to poke at in the meme items you gave me on your journal. ^-~

[alee_grrl]

:D

[lynnoconnacht]

Totally unrelated, but I heart that icon. It's really beautiful. ^-^

[alee_grrl]

Thank you! A graphic artist designed the logo for Vermont Law School's Alliance (our QUILTBAG group at the school) and it's been on our t-shirts the last two years. I had the graphic still in my computer and realized it would be a lovely icon.

[lynnoconnacht]

Awesome! (And it does. It makes a marvellous icon. XD)

[lnhammer]

Excellent "review" there.

---L.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting article, and it's made me understand and appreciate his poems a bit more. Thanks for sharing :)

[ashestosnow]

Ah, picnic, I've missed you. :)

I Was Reading A Scientific Article by Margaret Atwood (a rather confusing title and attribution if you say it out loud) is the poem that's caught my attention this week. I love how she describes the inner landscapes inside people in a way that's purely scientific yet also magical: it's something I struggle to capture in my own work, the myriad amazing ways in which we connect when we're interacting with others and with the world, on not just macro-physical and emotional, but ethereal, atomic, subatomic levels.

And things like-- the ways in which the touch of a person's hand, or their head on your shoulder, or their breathing, can recall waves or wind or rolling sand dunes, and it's not just a romantic metaphor (though it is that, too), but a fascinating echo of this fractal universe in which everything has a degree of likeness with everything else, and-- I think she captures that so well, in ways that I can't quite, and that I envy.

[bookblather]

That is a lovely poem, and thank you so much for sharing it.

[lynnoconnacht]

Oh, that is lovely. Thank you for sharing that. ^-^

[alee_grrl]

What a gorgeous poem! I also quite enjoyed the blog post surrounding it. Thanks for sharing.

caption this photo

[jjhunter]

I took this yesterday driving up to Maine -- the first motorcyclist, the one driving, is a leather-tanned whip-thin older man, while the blonde woman riding behind has her nose very deep into a paperback book. They were going about 75 miles an hour on the highway. I can only salute her powers of concentration - I never saw her look up from her book once while the pair passed me.

Re: caption this photo

[alee_grrl]

That is some amazing concentration!

Re: caption this photo

[lynnoconnacht]

:o That is some serious concentration skill. (Do you think she bottles it and offers it for sale? ^-~) I am awed.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Separation

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.

-- W S Merwin

-------------

Today I thought how beautiful the last line would look written in that pastel rainbow gel pen, in a journal. Unforunately, I have neither of those things, but I'm thinking of starting a quote journal (perhaps with photos?).

[alee_grrl]

That would be beautiful. It is a gorgeous little poem. Thank you for sharing.

[lynnoconnacht]

Oh, that is so... I can't decide whether it's just sad or whether it's bittersweet. It is, in any case, absolutely gorgeous. ^-^

A quote journal sounds like a good idea if you want to keep one. ^-^ If you're thinking of keeping one online then you might be able to mimic the effect you're discussing here (and I agree it would be absolutely beautiful) with HTML. It wouldn't be the same, of course, but still. I hope it's a thought worth considering for you. ^-^

[raze]

Oh, this is fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

I come bearing links!

[lynnoconnacht]

I'm shamelessly stealing these from one of my latest posts. I realised (rather belatedly) that they'd make a perfect offering for the poetree picnic. ^-^

A selection of articles/excerpts of articles on Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay, a study guide on Byron's She Walks in Beauty, and The Poetry Project, which is a project that encourages people to talk about poetry at least once every month. I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about it. ^-^

[lnhammer]

Discovery of the week: The Columbiad by Joel Barlow, the 1805 expanded version of his 1787 The Vision of Columbus. It's a dual epic of the life of Columbus and the War of the American Revolution, with the latter being depicted via a dream-vision of the navigator. I won't call it good, not based on the small bits I've read so far, but it is certainly glorious in its badness.

---L.