goodreads -- December 4

a wonderfully wacky week-end with Ta -- but I'm not so sure for Tira. What are these humans up to, with crazy bike rides in oak leaves, mini-golf, bi-athalon with 3 types of balls, ski-o, lugging equipment through 4 controls, the "crutches" and ax throwing for extra points, and an indoors warm up of a puzzle. Interlude of bowling before dinner.
I left at 8:15 to rescue Tira, fed, and back in by now the cozy quarters of Ta's room on Mill street, not terrified of the two large retrievers. But, it's been some time -- two pee's and now Tira is wondering where Ta is.

It gives me time to post stuff on Goodreads:
CK Williams : Wait
Hearing a reading of these poems, and being told by the publisher that the long lines don't really care about linebreaks, I am glad I had a chance to hear Charlie read them aloud in person just before Thanksgiving, in Rochester, NY. The intricacy of a poem like "The Gaffe" which travels from a childhood memory to present where it still chafes, alongside just what it is to live with all these people in oneself, especially the critical one, is delightful and reassuring. I enjoy the sense of humor, which allows yet deep probings such as "Apes" -- so that despair is allowed its place, and yet somehow, the poems give a sense of balance, of having gone somewhere deep, but without losing it completely. I look forward to reading these poems again and again.




November:
Todd Davis :
These poems grow on you and ask to be read and re-read, each time giving back a rich layer that confirms that the time spent with them is time well spent indeed. I love the references to art, and how a 14th century Eve combines with Stem cells; the way tree branches aspire to the sacred yet reinforce their roots;
how the "now" is not in the realm of desire, but simply details that have caught our attention, demand it.

Geography of Imagination:
" I wish every English teacher read this book and shared the insights with their students -- hopefully with shades of enthusiasm and passion like Guy Davenport.
This is the sort of book that celebrates humanism and leaves the reader breathless, as if having attended a reception where everybody who was anybody from Homer and all his characters to Wittgenstein and beyond has been present and asked you some probing question. I love the chapters that deal with translation, and appreciate all the insights to so many of my favorite authors, which heretofore, were simply favorites without too much knowledge of anecdotes about them, or the tongue of Davenport to bring them alive.