DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Gül Baba’s Tomb
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Author Archives: B Gourley
The End [Free Verse]
My death days --
Strange and wondrous --
Will come soon enough.
I can feel their thrum
At the edge of my mind,
A slow and rumbling pulsation
That signals
The END is nigh.
I don't fear them.
Like a rumbling freight train,
I assume they won't plow
Through my front door --
But, rather, will wait for me
To become freight.
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“The Human Seasons” by John Keats [w/ Audio]
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honied cud of youthful thought
he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness -- to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forego his mortal nature.
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Bud Struggle [Haiku]
tight bud opens:
imperceptible struggle
to unpack beauty.
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Snail [Lyric Poem]
Oh my! I am so very awed
by this mighty l’il gastropod.
Its moves make taiji masters seem rushed,
but it lugs a house without being crushed.
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DAILY PHOTO: Ship Displays from Melaka Museums
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BOOKS: “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall” by Ying Chang Compestine
Buddha Jumps over the Wall, and Other Curiously Named Classic Chinese Dishes: A Graphic Cookbook—26 Recipes & Stories by Ying Chang CompestineMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Site – Chronicle Books
Cookbooks don’t get more interesting than this. As the title suggests, the author selected dishes that have colorful names (and often histories or folklore to match) and presents lessons in culinary history as well as teaching the reader how to make each dish. The graphic novel format conveys these stories compactly and with a bit of added liveliness. The graphic novel approach is also used to “demonstrate” the preparation process — in lieu of photographs.
In addition to the twenty-six recipes (5 appetizers, 16 main course, and 5 desserts,) the book has five appendices and some front matter to both help readers who are entirely new to Chinese cooking as well as those who’d like a bit more depth of culinary cultural insight. (I should point out that the book looks at Chinese food broadly, including items like Chop Suey and Fortune Cookies that developed outside of China, and either don’t exist within China or have subsequently been introduced from foreign lands.)
If you are interested in learning to cook Chinese food, or are interested in Chinese culinary history and culture, I’d highly recommend this book.
View all my reviews
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“The Magi” by William Butler Yeats
Now as at all times I can see in the mind's
eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale
unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of
the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten
stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side
by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find
once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial
floor.
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Wetlands Sunset [Haiku]
Goose [Lyric Poem]
There's a goose, a goose on the loose!
They scare me, though we have a truce.
The meanest bird you'll find in the park,
I bet they started shit on that Ark.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 