Titanic Summer review

The below is a review from Goodreads which I will eventually post over on Amazon, but since Amazon doesn't seem to take advance reviews, here it is:

First and foremost, I did receive an ARC for an honest review. That said, let's move on to the review, which I will also cross-post to Amazon.

I think the fact that this grabbed my attention and led to a pretty non-stop, except for dinner, reading experience says something beyond what words I can spout.

Jake was initially a bit Holden Caulfield-esque, but that may have just been because of the opening paragraphs, because he certainly didn't continue to be quite so cynical.

I think the author does an admirable job of working with Jake's phobias and insecurities, and also shows how Jake both succumbs to and outgrows them, while not belittling their impact. I did really enjoy the constantly building, what comes next sort of feeling as Jake's teenage life comes apart at the seams. Jake's mom is a lovely surprise, and how Jake vacillates between what is proper and what is comfortable just seems beyond familiar to me. Overall, I think the book is a marvelous slice of life, and I wish I had such a "Grandma."

This was one of those fun books that tossed me a few curveballs, and I would suggest it for those who like LGBTQ coming of age tales.  As an aside, one of the other reasons I liked it is because the main character was honest about not understanding transgender, and while that is one of the plot devices, it is also something that is only a small part of the novel as a whole, so don't be put off if that isn't something automatically expected.

Happy New Year?

I guess tomorrow's meals will be made from the chicken in the crock pot.  Chicken, potatoes, onions, and garlic, with a bit of spices, so it should be tasty.  (If the Heinz Carolina BBQ sauce negatively impacts it, I will let you know.)

The guys I work with have been giving one of my colleagues a difficult time because of his fashion choices.  It seems he wore a onesie/jumpsuit (though more the pajama sort) during the holiday break, as I sit here and watch the "Concert for New York" I notice the John Cougar Mellencamp is wearing a jumpsuit.  Fifteen years later and it is finally making a fashion inroad.

Politically this year has been a mess.  I ordered, then cancelled a week later, the book "Fire and Fury" because while lining Jeff Bezos' pockets for no reason than to irritate Trump seemed like a bit of fun, when there was still no delivery date after the book was released early, I decided that I would just check tomorrow if the local place had it, as I currently have the Amazon Prime thing going, so if they don't I can always place the order again.

Three Months

If you actually follow, sorry for getting your hopes up that this would become regular.

Seen on Amazon:
Bright Dead Things: Poems

I didn't realize Amazon had become a sort of dictionary, though I am holding out that Poems are Bright Things, and not Dead yet.

Sean Spicer, back in the news

It seems Mr. Spicer has made his way back into the news, parodying the press conferences that made him (in)famous.  What I wonder is how much he honestly regrets the lies he foisted upon America?  True, he had a new job, one at the summit of his profession, but in taking it he was expected to play the fool, which is not something I think he expected, and certainly not something that is traditionally associated with the position of White House Press Secretary.  Repeatedly he has said that it was an honor to serve in the Trump administration, but now he is saying he regrets comments (about crowd size) from his first press conference.  Is he saying it was an honor to lie for Trump, but now he regrets it?  Whatever he means, it seems like all good capitalists he is off to the speaking circuit to rake in big bucks, mouthing whatever mea culpas are required along the way.  Let us hope that at some point he actually apologizes to America for the obvious incompetence of his tenure in office.  It is not unreasonable to expect the Press Secretary of the President of the United States to give an honest account of a situation, especially when the White House version is so easily disproven.  There is a difference between spin and lying Mr. Spicer, and it is unfortunate that difference escapes you.

Resounding echoes in other poetry

From Frances Densmore's Chippewa Music:

The Sky Will Resound

it will resound finely
the sky
when I come making a noise


Because I read the Neruda first, this reminds me of something from The Book of Questions, it is here someplace, but let me transcribe it below, though I doubt it will make sense to anyone but me.

XLIX

When I see the sea once more
will the sea have seen ornate seen me?

Why do the waves ask me 
the same questions I ask them?

And why do they strike the rock
with so much wasted passion?

Don't they get tired of repeating
their declaration to the sand?


The sky resounding with the questions of the sea?  I am not sure what brought these two together in my mind, but I did think of the Neruda when I read Densmore piece.  Minds are odd and they forge connections were they will.  Densmore is the earlier work, so what reminding me of which should probably be reversed, but I read one well before I read the other, and that is the timetable I am working through.  I can say one thing with certainty though, the connection has nothing to do with alcohol, as there was no consumption of such.

Not poetry...

For whatever reason, no poetry in this entry.  I have been enjoying the poetry, and I find that placing those poems I like here does a nice job of collating them for future reference, as my books have all sorts of little post-it tags sticking out the sides of them, but I don't know what any of them are for, except to mark something I like.

Since our news cycle is impossibly fast these days, I don't even know how to keep this update on any but the most outrageous stories.  Twitter gets most of my attention for that these days, at least for the sharing part.  I still think this blog will be a bit of this and that, as long as I am doing a bit of this and that.  I have been reading poetry, mm romance novels, playing ESO, and tweeting out the news, which doesn't really make it sound like I am doing anything with my life, and that is probably true.

Poor Dreamspinner Press, they had a webpage malfunction that automatically added free shipping (to a trade show in Paris) and had to cancel orders.  Either inputting correct ship to addresses and billing was going to be to much of a burden, or they thought it would just be cleaning, so they did the cancel with a request to the buyer to place a new order.  I did, but I ordered less, such is the way things go when I am not browsing the internet for books at 3am.

I will probably move back into putting poems that grab my attention in here, at least for the time being, but I wanted to touch base, with however many readers I actually do have.

Poem on words...

This short one is called Horses, by Witter Bynner:

Horses

Words are hoops
Through which to leap upon meanings,
Which are horses' backs,
Bare, moving.

Like a reason to enjoy poetry... that sort of describes this one for me.  

Surprise translated from the Spanish

Here is a poem by Mario Melendez, translated from the Spanish by Eloisa Amezcua:

Future Memories

My sister woke me very early
that morning and told me
"Get up, you have to come see this
the ocean's filled with stars"
Delighted by the revelation
I dressed quickly and thought
if the ocean's filled with stars
I must take the first flight
and collect all the fish from the sky

I was caught off guard by the brilliant logic at the end, which it is, and reminded of how wonderful other cultural perspectives can be.  

This poem is from the September 2017 issue of Poetry.

Poetry, just because

I really didn't intend this to become a poetry blog or a place where I just posted poems that I liked, but that seems to be the direction it is inhabiting, at least temporarily.  This evening I came across a fun one by William Carlos Williams in which the words for me dance just like the title, "The Dance":

The Dance

In Breughel's great picture, The Kermess, 
the dancers go round, they go round and 
around, the squeal and the blare and the 
tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles
tipping their bellies (round as the thick-
sided glasses whose wash they impound)
their hips and their bellies off balance
to turn them.  Kicking and rolling about
the Fair Grounds, swinging their butts, those
shanks must be sound to bear up under such
rollicking measures, prance as they dance
in Breughel's great picture, The Kermess.

Hopefully it brings a smile to you, as it did for me, my eyes flittering with all the repetitions, and enjoying the humor that I saw.

It's Labor Day, so let's post some Rumi

From "The Great Wagon":

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
...

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.

Excerpt From: Coleman Barks. “The Essential Rumi - reissue.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-essential-rumi-reissue/id381183707?mt=11

Both are from the same poem, and initially I was only going to post the longer section, but I changed my mind and added the earlier bit.

Neglectful me

I have been using Twitter far too much, and not sharing any of what I read.  I did come across this one this past weekend:

The Poem

It discovers by night
what the day hid from it.
Sometimes it turns itself
into an animal.
In summer it takes long walks
by itself where meadows
fold back from ditches.
Once it stood still
in a quiet row of machines.
Who knows
what it is thinking?

Excerpt From: Donald Hall. “The Selected Poems of Donald Hall.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-selected-poems-of-donald-hall/id949386905?mt=11

The word for today is amorphous, which is one way to describe things, and which is one way this poem made me feel about poetry.

A Very Short Song, by Dorothy Parker

A Very Short Song
                  by Dorothy Parker

Once, when I was young and true,
     Someone left me sad --
Broke my brittle heart in two;
     And that was very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
     Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
     And that, I think, is worse.

I had told myself that I was done with my computer tonight, but then I ran across this gem from Dorothy Parker, so I had to share it.  There is something to be said about breaking someone's heart being worse than having your heart broken.

More selections

A snippet from Tommy Pico's "Nature Poem" that I liked:

I look too much into the mirror of my worst self
so life feels like always breakin in a new pair of shoes

This is from a longer work, but I do like these lines.  For me, it describes those days when I don't feel put together right, and nothing seems to be going quite as I might hope.

While clicking about on my laptop, looking for something other than news to read, I discovered that I happened to have "Macbeth" and reading just a bit found:

Malcolm:

My liege,

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke

With one that saw him die: who did report

That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,

Implored your highness' pardon and set forth

A deep repentance: nothing in his life

Became him like the leaving it; he died

As one that had been studied in his death

To throw away the dearest thing he owed,

As 'twere a careless trifle.

I really liked the highlighted section of Malcolm's comment, as there is definitely the implication that someone was a total waste of breath.  

Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and current events, part 1

I am hoping that this selection of comments on my various readings actually makes a bit of sense.  [All of the emphasis in the quotes is from the source text rather than my own.]

“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher.”

Excerpt From: Thomas Paine. “Common Sense.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/wp2Kx.l

I do feel the Republicans, for whatever reason, are no longer trying to govern the wickedness, rather they are trying to legislate their wants on the general population.  Discussing healthcare, if the Healthcare Industry and Insurance industries weren’t so focused on maximizing profit, but instead focused on reasonable profit, then the whole rigamarole of the healthcare debate would be gone.  What would be a positive step in the current debate would be that in places where insurance companies have pulled out because costs did not allow enough profits (or lead to potential losses), then the government allows people to buy into Medicare at a reasonable price.  If the insurance industry truly has no interest in those markets, then there are no market forces that are impacted, but the citizens in such locations have access to at least one insurance option, even if it is just basic government coverage.

“Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that IT IS WHOLLY OWING TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE, AND NOT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT, that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.”

Excerpt From: Thomas Paine. “Common Sense.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/wp2Kx.l

This quote struck me as so very timely, considering the current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is working hard to become an autocrat.  While I find that particular power grab distasteful, I am more concerned about a potential power grab here, considering President Trump has such limited understanding of how our government has traditionally worked.  It really seemed to be a surprise to him that Executive Orders wouldn’t allow him to do everything he wanted.  I am most disheartened though by the number of folks who seem to think everything is fine (he has over a 35% approval rating, while not good, it indicates a large number who have no qualms with how he is running things) and that Trump is doing a stellar job, and they don’t realize his constant attacks on the press and judiciary are actually doing harm to our republic, because there are people who believe him whole-heartedly, even after all of his lies.

Both of those excerpts were from the first section of “Common Sense” on the general origins and design of government.  While I have finished the second section, on hereditary monarchy, as well, I did not find any quotes that I wanted to carry over to this effort.

I think as I work my way through Paine’s “Common Sense” there will be additional posts as appropriate.

Google, Blogger, and Thomas Paine

First things first, I was trying to compose this on my iPad, because I had it out and convenient, but after the app crashed three times, I gave up.  Is Google actually going to update the Blogger app, or are they trying to push everyone who doesn't use Android off the platform?  Anyway, rather than continue to get frustrated, I decided to boot up my laptop and see if I could finish what I attempted to start using the rather useless app.

Tonight I had decided to reread or at least review Thomas Paine's "Common Sense."  Of course, I can't get past the first paragraph before I find something pertinent to our current situation:

"...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.  But the tumult soon subsides.  Time makes more converts than reason."

If the powers that be continually carp about "Fake News," eventually people begin to believe it is true, because it becomes "custom."  All I can say is that I hope it doesn't take too long for Time to makes its converts, before our country progresses too much further down this road of single (dysfunctional) party rule.

The above quote can actually be interpreted quite a few ways and can be used to argue that the compromise our country has frequently used to govern effectively is wrong, and if you listen to many of those who support the far right Republicans, they do believe that compromise is wrong.  I honestly believe compromise is pretty much baked into the Constitution, but then again I am sure there are some who would accuse me of "a long habit of not thinking."

Letters of Note: Volume 1 tidbits

How could any volume of significant letters be complete without something from Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet."  The first of these letters is featured in this volume:

“Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write.”

Excerpt From: Shaun Usher. “Letters of Note: Volume 1.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/gAzIX.l

That was an idea I liked when I originally read it in "Letters to a Young Poet" and as I came across it again, I decided to share.  While this blog isn't developing like a diary or even developing anything as coherent as a unifying theme (unless that theme is what currently has caught my attention), I do sort of like the idea of placing all these random bits that I enjoyed from other writers in one place, where I can share, and where maybe someone else will discover the quote, then explore any given author more fully on their own.

Next, we have Dorothy Parker, from a letter written while in the hospital.

“I am practically bursting with health, and the medical world, hitherto white with suspense, is entertaining high hopes—I love that locution—you can just see the high hopes, all dressed up, being taken to the Hippodrome and then to Maillard’s for tea. Or maybe you can’t—the hell with it.”

Excerpt From: Shaun Usher. “Letters of Note: Volume 1.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/gAzIX.l

And that is all I have right now, though in this day "high hopes" would look a bit different.

Trump and LGBTQ stuff

I guess it is touching that Caitlyn Jenner is still naive enough to believe Republicans when it comes to civil rights issues, but I doubt that was the only reason she sided with them.  Any amongst the the GLBTQ spectrum who voted for Trump, I hope you are enjoying what he has done with your trust.  Personally, I think his campaign and presidency has been an embarrassment to this country.  A large percentage of people decided they would really like to forgo the difficulties of compromise and working under the rules laid out by the Constitution and years of precedent, and the treasure the country was received is basically someone upset he can't rule by fiat like he does in his family business.  Kellyanne Conway complained about the ethics requirements for working in the government.  Seriously, if there are people turned off by the ethics requirements of serving in the government, perhaps they shouldn't be in the government.  The administration has surrounded itself with those willing to be abused by Trump (see Jeff Sessions and Sean Spicer) who for some reason believe that abuse is good for the country.  Now Trump is abusing those transgender who serve in the military, because while he never served, he doesn't think they should.  It is acceptable for the military to spend $84 million on Viagra and erectile disfunction, but the $8.4 million for transgender medical care is too much money, at least that is Trump's argument.  I honestly wonder if Trump didn't tweet that transgender and the military crap as a diversionary tactic from the ongoing healthcare debate in the Senate.

Lots of excerpts.

These are bits and pieces I read over the weekend that I liked.  They are from a variety of readings.

The uses of not

Thirty spokes

meet in the hub.

Where the wheel isn’t

is where it’s useful.

Hollowed out,

clay makes a pot.

Where the pot’s not

is where it’s useful.

Cut doors and windows

to make a room.

Where the room isn’t,

there’s room for you.

So the profit in what is

is in the use of what isn’t.

Excerpt From: Ursula K. Le Guin. “Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching.” Shambhala Publications. iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

I think why I like the Lao Tzu is probably pretty evident.  It has been a long time since I have read the Tao Te Ching, and this is a translation with commentary that I have not read before, so it is nice, and very much like poetry.

On to the next one.  I liked this bit from Rumi too:

Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God,

God is in the look of your eyes,

in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,

or things that have happened to you

There’s no need to go outside.

Excerpt From: Barks, Coleman. “The Essential Rumi - reissue.” HarperCollinsPublishers. iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

Moving towards more modern philosophers, I do like Camus, and this snippet is from his essay "State Terrorism and Irrational Terror": 

“Fascism is an act of contempt, in fact. Inversely, every form of contempt, if it intervenes in politics, prepares the way for, or establishes, Fascism.”

Excerpt From: Camus, Albert. “Albert Camus Collection.” iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

I think the Camus is highly relevant currently because while Trump obviously has contempt for everyone not him, his opponents need to remember not to hold him in contempt.  Those who ran against him in the elections seem to have held him in contempt, and see where it landed us.

This last bit describes just about anyone who reads.  In the text, it was mystery novels, but for certain readers it really could be anything.

“Whereas his taste in other books was rigorous, demanding to the point of narrow-mindedness, with these works he showed almost no discrimination whatsoever. When he was in the right mood, he had little trouble reading ten or twelve of them in a row. It was a kind of hunger that took hold of him, a craving for a special food, and he would not stop until he had eaten his fill.”

Excerpt From: Auster, Paul. “The New York Trilogy.” Penguin, 2017-04-14T17:03:10Z. iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

Youthful Frost

First, I am making the assumption that the Library of America edition of Robert Frost is in chronological order, or reasonably so.  Most of their collections at least make that effort, so I am taking it as a safe guess.  "Into My Own" is the first poem in A Boy's Will, and the last stanza caught my attention.  After leaving home, very few folks would encourage friends and family to find them later, with a bit of braggadocio regarding how little he has changed.

The last stanza a Robert Frost's "Into My Own":

They would not find me changed from him they knew--
Only more sure of all I thought was true.

If the above stanza did turn out to be true for him, and that after leaving home he truly only became more sure of what he already knew, then I don't know whether to be happy for him or sad.

Something from Rilke

This comes from Rainier Maria Rilke's "Duino Elegies" and is specifically from the ninth elegy, lines 36-38:

                          ...Is not the secret purpose
of this sly earth, in urging a pair of lovers,
just to make everything leap with ecstasy in them?

Nothing great in my own personal revelation interpretation, but it made me smile, and sometimes smiles are nice.

[This is from the JB Leishman and Stephen Spender translation.]