the pass is snowy;
though low country types think it
the cusp of Summer.
Snowy Pass [Haiku]
2
BOOKS: “Harlem Shadows” by Claude McKay
Harlem Shadows by Claude McKayMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Project Gutenberg
This 1922 poetry collection is wide-ranging and beautifully composed. As the title hints, this is a product of that great literary and artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
The seventy-plus poems include sonnets and various other forms of poems, mostly lyric and rarely more than a couple pages in length. Besides being varied in form, they poems are also diverse of tone — from frank invectives on race to sweet love poems. They take New York as their home and tap into the verve of the day. The collection includes many of McKay’s best-known poems including: “If We Must Die,” “America,” and “Harlem Shadows.” Though bucolic beauties such as “Spring in New Hampshire” and “The Snow-Fairy” are not to be skipped over.
I enjoyed these poems and found them powerful and lyrical.
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DAILY PHOTO: Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument
“The Clod and the Pebble” by William Blake [w/ Audio]
"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."
So sung a little Clod of Clay
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:
"Love seeketh only self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."
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PROMPT: Meal Price
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
Probably about $50 USD.
No. Definitely not. I don’t have fancy tastebuds, so all my system can differentiate is how much pride they are taking in putting such scant portions of edible matter on the plate. I do not find pride filling.
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Willows [Haiku]
willows dangle
over flowing waters:
reaching not touching.
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PROMPT: News & Life
Daily writing prompt
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
It is by no means uninteresting, nor did it require “scouring” (though it probably would have if I was in the US,) but Bangladesh is imploding (PM ouster, protests turn violent, all exacerbated by flooding, etc.,) and we were planning to visit later this year. So, much for that trip.
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BOOKS: “Mythos: The Illustrated Edition” by Stephen Fry
Mythos: The Illustrated Edition: The Illustrated Edition by Stephen FryMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site
This book offers a humorous telling of many stories from Greek Mythology. One gets the well-known tales such as Prometheus, Sisyphus, and Pandora, but also the myths involving a number of lesser-known characters: god, demi-god, and mortal. As these myths are being told, there is also a substantial amount of nonfiction information presented by footnotes and such — e.g. how later authors (Shakespeare, for example) presented these myths or tales built upon them, how the myths inform popular culture and language to this day, and how Greek and Roman mythology related.
The art is nice, though I can’t say that it added much to the reading experience for me, personally. The art is done in a consistent style throughout and is colorful and visually interesting, though I couldn’t say much else about it in an intelligent fashion. It somewhat reminded me of William Blake’s art and somewhat of Soviet posters.
I enjoyed this book. It is light-hearted and even humorous without detracting from the tone of the myth and is a highly readable way to learn more about Greek Mythology.
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DAILY PHOTO: Blue Sky Bratislava
“Long, too long America” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
Long, too long America,
Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only,
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,
And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are,
(For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)
Tiger Riding for Beginners 