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I've always thought this was a powerful poem, but today it really hit me. Guess I've been thinking about my mother lately (she's been gone nearly 16 years ) The Race by Sharon Olds When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk, bought a ticket, ten minutes later they told me the flight was cancelled, the doctors had said my father would not live through the night and the flight was cancelled. A young man with a dark brown moustache told me another airline had a nonstop leaving in seven minutes. See that elevator over there, well go down to the first floor, make a right, you'll see a yellow bus, get off at the second Pan Am terminal, I ran, I who have no sense of direction raced exactly where he'd told me, a fish slipping upstream deftly against the flow of the river. I jumped off that bus with those bags I had thrown everything into in five minutes, and ran, the bags wagged me from side to side as if to prove I was under the claims of the material, I ran up to a man with a flower on his breast, I who always go to the end of the line, I said Help me. He looked at my ticket, he said Make a left and then a right, go up the moving stairs and then run. I lumbered up the moving stairs, at the top I saw the corridor, and then I took a deep breath, I said goodbye to my body, goodbye to comfort, I used my legs and heart as if I would gladly use them up for this, to touch him again in this life. I ran, and the bags banged against me, wheeled and coursed in skewed orbits, I have seen pictures of women running, their belongings tied in scarves grasped in their fists, I blessed my long legs he gave me, my strong heart I abandoned to its own purpose, I ran to Gate 17 and they were just lifting the thick white lozenge of the door to fit it into the socket of the plane. Like the one who is not too rich, I turned sideways and slipped through the needle's eye, and then I walked down the aisle toward my father. The jet was full, and people's hair was shining, they were smiling, the interior of the plane was filled with a mist of gold endorphin light, I wept as people weep when they enter heaven, in massive relief. We lifted up gently from one tip of the continent and did not stop until we set down lightly on the other edge, I walked into his room and watched his chest rise slowly and sink again, all night I watched him breathe. Sharon Olds from The Father (Knopf, 1992) On-line source

Story here RIP. I admit that I haven't read his work in quite some time, but I enjoyed it a lot in my late teens and early 20s. I wonder if he ever stopped pushing Esperanto. At least a couple of his books had instructions in the introductions on how to contact some group to get your free Esperanto dictionary. Well, at least that's how I remember it...

Yes, the listed price will include VAT. Nearly all the time if you buy direct from Amazon.co.uk, VAT is removed at the checkout stage, so you can always cancel the transaction if something seems off. (There are some items this isn't adjusted but fairly rare.) As mentioned elsewhere, if you have to order from Marketplace seller, they will not remove VAT.

You only get the combined shipping if you order directly from Amazon.co.uk, not the marketplace sellers.

I probably am missing some of your points. Basically if you are not in the UK or Europe, there is no point trying to get to the magic number (about 25 GBP). However, Amazon.co.uk does combine shipping costs, so unless the Marketplace seller's price is well below the Amazon.co.uk price, you are much better off going with Amazon. Also, I've noticed that it is somewhat rare for the Marketplace sellers to even offer to ship outside of Europe. Finally, if your mailing address is US or Canada, Amazon.co.uk will knock off the VAT, so the the total is a bit lower. So I almost always buy direct from Amazon.co.uk (assuming it can't be found at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca).

RIP. I had really wanted to get to see him at the Green Mill this past Dec/Jan. but in the end didn't go (for some lame reason I can no longer remember). Well, I did manage to see him on a few occasions (as well as Fred Anderson). Thanks for the music...

So I have been going through some other poets' work. I had high hopes for Alice Notley, but virtually all of the poems that she chose for her New and Selected Poems are truly epic length. While I can sort of see the ideological appeal of staking a claim that near book-length poetry is just as important as novel writing (following in the footsteps of H.D. I guess), I just think it is close to career suicide to do it. You can't get your poems in magazines or anthologies, and you need to carve out excerpts anyway if you go out and give readings. I think the only one whole really gets away with it anymore is John Ashberry. Anyway, I found one of the office poems by Alan Dugan. I guess the other one I found amusing is in his newest collection, so I'll post that later when the book turns up here. ON TRADING TIME FOR LIFE BY WORK The recepionist has shiny fingernails since she has buffed them up for hours, not for profit but for art, while they, the partners, have been arguing themselves the further into ruthless paranoia, the accountant said. The sales representatives came out against the mustard yellow: “It looks like baby-shit,” and won, as ever. In the studio, the artist, art director, and the copy chief were wondering out loud: Whether a “Peace On Earth” or a “Love And Peace On Earth” should go around the trumpeting angel on the Christmas card. In this way the greeting card company worked back and forth across a first spring afternoon like a ferryboat on the river: time was passing, it itself was staying the same, and workers rode it on the running depths while going nowhere back and forth across the surface of the river. Profits flow away in this game, and thank god there is none of the transcendence printed on the product. From Poems 2 (1963)

Reznikoff is quite high on my list of pithy urban poets. It looks like the current collected poems has maybe a handful of additional poems not included in my earlier edition from Black Sparrow, but I couldn't justify ordering it for that. I'll just borrow from the library. Here's a subway poem from Reznikoff: In steel clouds to the sound of thunder like the ancient gods: our sky, cement; the earth, cement; our trees, steel; instead of sunshine, a light that has no twilight, neither morning nor evening, only noon. Coming up the subway stairs, I thought the moon only another street-light — a little crooked. From Jerusalem the Golden (1934)

Winding up the anthology. Still a bit short on driving poems. In part this is because many of the best were already included in Drive, They Said (which not coincidentally was put out by the same publishing company I am talking with). Anyway, it has been an interesting process, diving back in and rereading a lot of poetry. Most of my old favorite poets still hold my interest, though I wasn't as grabbed by L.E. Sissman as I used to be. In general I found that I was not very interested in long poems or poetry series. Certainly in part this is because they cannot be anthologized (or anthologized easily) but just in general I don't have the attention span to read a really long poem -- and at root I think that poetry should be shorter and to the point. Thus, I found I was not nearly as interested in Adrienne Rich's later work. I struggled a bit with Basil Bunting's Briggflats, though I liked his Odes a fair bit. He was a bit of a new discovery for me (I think he is mentioned way upthread). Two pleasant discoveries were that Alan Dugan and Harvey Shapiro had continued to write (past the books I knew them by) and indeed had quite recent collected volumes out (Poems Seven and The Sights Along the Harbor respectively). Even better, I found used copies of these books super cheap (even with shipping to Canada), so I ordered them. Both of them have a bit of wry perspective on urban life. Dugan in particular seems to have written quite a bit about mid-1950s/1960s business life. If I were his publisher, I would definitely try to get some kind of Mad Men tie-in. I'll add a Dugan poem later on. Right now I'll just attach a short poem from A Day's Portion (Harvey Shapiro). This poem doesn't have quite the gravitas to go into the anthology, but it is still fun: Harvey Shapiro New York Note Caught on a side street in heavy traffic, I said to the cabbie, I should have walked. He replied, I should have been a doctor.

I find that Garcia-Marquez screams that with every literary breath he takes. It's an attitude that turns me off to a number of very different authors, but who have this flaw in common: Thomas Mann, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow (maybe the most overrated American novelist?), Milan Kundera, and others. Nabokov has enough humor and verbal brilliance to counteract this tendency. I'm with you on most of those authors, but personally, I think Bellow had some verbal brilliance at times (at other times he could be a bit annoying and pretentious.) I think Augie March is quite good, and I also enjoyed The Dean's December. My problem with Bellow is that he truly seemed to be writing the same story over and over (conniving family members, particularly the uncles), the narrator is almost always a not-very-settled family man with a roving eye or a man in the midst/recovering from a painful divorce. Women always seem to be the root of the problem in a Bellow novel. I don't always care for where Philip Roth goes in his writing, but I think he ended up expanding well beyond his original template or imaginative world.

Not even Quilty? I'm stuck halfway through Lolita. I don't think I've made it to the introduction of Quilty, unless he started off as a very minor, incidental character. I actually wished I enjoyed these books more, since I know Nabokov is an important writer, but I don't connect with them.

I find that Garcia-Marquez screams that with every literary breath he takes. It's an attitude that turns me off to a number of very different authors, but who have this flaw in common: Thomas Mann, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow (maybe the most overrated American novelist?), Milan Kundera, and others. Nabokov has enough humor and verbal brilliance to counteract this tendency. So I like a few of the authors on your list but can't bear Nabokov. I cannot find a way to take any interest in anything any of his characters get up to. I didn't realize this before I actually got into his earlier works --- and I ordered the Library of America set of his novels written in English. I'm still trying to make my way through a few more of his later novels, but can tell that before too much longer, I'll give up and donate the set to the library.

I have a cd of this as part of a box bought from the Dankworth's place directly http://www.quarternotes.com/ Not sure if they are still trading but its worth asking? Thanks - I'll check it out. Peter Re: The Dankworth box set - yes I have this too, and it should still be available from the Dankworth company. This is one of the great mysteries. All four of his 'concept' albums $1m collection, Zodiac Variations , What the Dickens and Lifeline in this excellent box and not expensive either. But only available from the Dankworth co directly. Never reissued on CD by Polygram or Universal or anyone else on CD. Weird because they are not only excellent but in terms of British jazz, important recordings too. Guess this is kind of late to the party, but I recall that DG was selling a $1m Collection/Zodiac Variations 2-fer reissued by Dutton Vocalion. This still seems to be in print in the UK, and there may have been an additional Dankworth 2-fer. I was kind of stretched thin at the time when I was visiting DG, so I passed.

That's interesting. This is still being offered as a CD-R at Amazon -- and as individual downloads (though with our luck they would have upgraded this track to the Schaap version). I might pick up one of the used ones, though honestly I need to check tonight if I have SST on LP. I suspect I might. I recall there was a similar issue with one of the tracks on Indigoes being different between the CD (at least the original release) and LP. Given that I have this material on CD or LP (and in the case of Indigoes -- and perhaps SST -- both CD and LP), I just can't see going for this set, even if there is decent remastering.

This project continues and I have most of the poems I need on subways, trains, biking. I could use a few more good poems about airplane rides, walking (primarily in the country but also in the city) and driving. Do let me know if you have any leads. I'll put a few of the more interesting ones up later. This poem is on a completely different topic, but I really liked it, so here it is. Thomas McGrath Nuclear Winter After the first terror people Were more helpful to each other As in a blizzard Much comradeliness, help, even laughter: The pride of getting through tough times. Even, months later, When the snow fell in June, We felt a kind of pride in our Unusual weather And joked about the wild geese Migrating south, Quacking over the 4th of July presidential honkings. It was, people said, The way it had been in the Old Days... Until the hunger of the next year. Then we came to our senses And began to kill each other. (The spacing is a bit off. Someone showed me how to add in extra spaces but I forgot the details. I'll have to fix later.)

I believe they can be purchased through iTunes, but am not 100% sure of that. Obviously they will be online in the shady parts of the internet within a day of the first airing. They will come out on DVD in 6 to 12 months after the season ends. While there have been a few real stinkers here and there, for the most part these new shows are living up to the classic first run of the show.

I'd say this is actually my favorite of all of Greene's books. At any rate, it is the only one that I have kept on my shelves. I'm planning in a couple of years to read Steinbeck's Travels with Charley and then pair it with the more overtly comic Travels with my Aunt.

I am glad that Serena won the gold, and perhaps even more excited that Serena and Venus won gold in doubles. That truly does put them in a very elite group. But not too interested beyond that, particularly in the unending Phelps coverage. Was watching some commercial in the elevator about how elite athletes give until there's nothing left and then they give some more. Ok, fine. It is impressive. But shit, I'm in the office working hard on the weekend, giving 120% (and not getting paid overtime) because I want this project to come together. (For some other project almost 10 years back, I came in 7 days a week for 3 months straight.) No one's going to do a commercial about that. I'd just like to keep things in a bit of perspective here.

If they started disallowing that, then they might as well cut basketball as an Olympic sport. Frankly, they probably ought to anyway. And for that matter tennis. My feeling is that for major sports and/or sports where there are already plenty of international competitions, like tennis, golf or cricket have no business being in the Olympics. (Yes, I realize not all of them are Olympic sports.) It's basically double-dipping, esp. when the tennis stars are all pros and no "amateur" would stand a chance.

Doesn't change the story too much, but actually the intern was a DJ playing various recordings, including some organ music. He was fined $25, BTW.

Trying very hard not to get caught up in the Olympics hype (and not turning on the TV at all helps ). Still, it sounds like the U.S. women's gymnastics team winning the gold was a pretty special moment. Might try to figure out a way to watch some of the highlights of that.

Just a quick update -- am really disliking Northanger Abbey. The main character is such a stupid drip. I realize this is the point of the novel (she is overly influenced by romance novels), but it is so tedious to read. If this was the first Austen I had ever read, I can't imagine going on to the others. Curiously, I have won a great big box of books by Canadian authors (from reviewing Canadian books on another blog). Most I'll pass on to others or donate to the library, but I'll try to make my way through Michael Crummey's Galore and The Sea Captain's Wife by Beth Powning.

Not everyone wants to sign up with these sites. I can't get Spotify even if I wanted to, but I guess I could get Mog. I figure people all have different approaches to this, and I am definitely not happy to be losing sounds samples at Amazon.

For me it was not 9/11 (saw it live, through our midtown office windows, not on TV ) Probably the Challenger disaster. And some of the celebrations after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Working my way through lots of books that I have collected and should have read but haven't. Currently on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. I gather it picks up steam after the first half when Catherine finally makes it to the titular Abbey. Up to that point, the comedy of manners is a bit strained. I realize this was a very early work for Austen, but I am just not engaged. With Pride and Prejudice, it takes a while to get into the spirit of the story, but not 100 pages! Decided to give up on the newest Blais books for the time being. They just strike me as too slavishly imitative of V. Woolf. Have a long trip coming up in a couple of weeks, and I plan on bringing Skorvecky's The Engineers of Human Souls (finally).