The Lion, the Lion, he dwells in the Waste,
He has a big head and a very small waist;
But his shoulders are stark, and his jaws they are grim,
And a good little child will not play with him.
“The Lion” by Hilaire Belloc [w/ Audio]
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Tag Archives: literature
“Wonder—is not precisely Knowing” (1331) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]
Wonder—is not precisely Knowing
And not precisely Knowing not—
A beautiful but bleak condition
He has not lived who has not felt—
Suspense—is his maturer Sister—
Whether Adult Delight is Pain
Or of itself a new misgiving—
This is the Gnat that mangles men—
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BOOKS: “Startlement” by Ada Limón
Startlement: New and Selected Poems by Ada LimonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Milkweed Editions
Release: September 30, 2025
This is a Greatest Hits from six of author’s previous collections, plus twenty-one new poems. The poems are clever, personal, and often whimsical. They range from short to intermediate length and employ varied approaches to free verse poetry (with a few prose poems.)
This was my first time reading Limón’s work, and I enjoyed her poems tremendously. I’d highly recommend this book for poetry readers.
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“Death” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone -
Man has created death.
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BOOK: “The Life of an Amorous Man” by Ihara Saikaku [Trans. by Chris Drake]
The Life of an Amorous Man: A Novel of Love and Desire in Old Japan by Ihara SaikakuMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Tuttle
On sale October 14, 2025
Original Title: 好色一代男
As the title suggests, this novel is presented as the biography of a man who is — shall we say — a horndog. Actually, it would be more correct to say that it is the story of the man’s sex life, as it begins with his sexual awakening as a boy of seven and tells stories of his relationships and dalliances throughout his life until he reaches the age of sixty and is no longer physically capable of the act. Of course, the novel does describe non-amorous life events such as the protagonist’s (i.e. Yonosuke’s) brief time as a monk and as (what in modern terms would be called) a “trust-fund kid.” Yonosuke is from a wealthy merchant family, though his inability to keep his mind on task sees him disowned for many years. So, he leads lives both rich and poor, but never without lust in his heart.
Given that the book focuses on Yonosuke’s interactions with geisha and varied sex workers, one might expect that it is a work of erotica (or even pornography.) It is neither. There is no graphic description of sexual activities and often those events are glossed over altogether. This book will be of much more interest to those interested in what life in Edo Period Japan was like, and particularly how sex work operated as a regulated industry with licit and illicit domains, than to anyone wishing to read erotica for sensual or prurient purposes.
The book has a series of illustrations (one per chapter) that were drawn by the author and appeared in the original (1682) edition. There are also poems (tanka and haiku) sprinkled in here and there, many of which were invocative in their own right.
If you are interested in historical Japan and / or its “floating world,” you’ll find this book to be an interesting read. It’s highly readable and entertaining.
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“Gubbinal” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]
That strange flower, the sun,
Is just what you say.
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
That tuft of jungle feathers,
That animal eye,
Is just what you say.
That savage of fire,
That seed,
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
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“Little Echoed Hills” [小重山] by Yue Fei [岳飞] [w/ Audio]
Last night chirps resounded in the cold,
Through witching hour no sleep occurred.
I rose and slowly walked, alone.
Moonlight window glow, but no one stirred.
I've grayed in service and search of fame.
On hills, back home, the pines have grown old.
That's the story I'd let my lute tell,
If a string weren't broken &
there was someone to be told.
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“Chemical Analysis” by Stephen Vincent Benet [w/ Audio]
She's slender hands and pretty lips,
And seafoam and rosemary.
Her ears are pointed at the tips,
She stayed so long in Fairy.
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“Impromptu Lines Written on a Spring Day” [春日偶成] by Cheng Hao [程颢]
Towards noon fleecy clouds waft in the gentle breeze;
I cross the stream amid flowers and willow trees.
What do the worldlings know about my hearty pleasure?
They'd only take me for a truant fond of leisure.
Note: This is the joint translation of Xu Yuanchong and Xu Ming found in the edition of Golden Treasury of Quatrains and Octaves on which they collaborated (i.e. China Publishing Group: Beijing (2008.))
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“We should not mind so small a flower” by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]
We should not mind so small a flower
Except it quiet bring
Our little garden that we lost
Back to the Lawn again -
So spicy her Carnations nod -
So drunken, reel her Bees -
So silver, steal a hundred flutes
From out a hundred trees -
That whoso sees this little flower
By faith, may clear behold
The Bobolinks around the throne
And Dandelions gold.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 