November 24, 2009

Listening

Parthenia's silences outlasted
her sentences every time,
and carried greater weight.

How will their tongue survive
in a modern world, where the talkers
rush to trample every pause?

— Barbara Kingsolver, "The Lacuna"

November 19, 2009

U.S. poets laureate

Question in high school academic bowl: Robert Penn Warren was the first, and Joseph Brodsky and Rita Dove have also held this position.

Answer given by student: Prime minister of Russia.

November 16, 2009

Frida (my 100th posting)

"I think an artist has to tell the truth,"
she said finally.

"You have to use the craft very well
and have a lot of discipline for it,

but mostly to be a good artist
you have to know something
that's true.

These kids who come to Diego
wanting to learn, I'll tell you.
They can paint a perfect tree,
a perfect face, whatever you ask.

But they don't know enough
about life to fill a thimble.

And that's what has to go in the painting.
Otherwise, why look at it?"

— Barbara Kingsolver, "The Lacuna"

November 1, 2009

Landscaping

The waterway behind the house
is the color of putrid blood.
Dead leaves float in the brown,
stagnant water like debris
from an explosion.
Green and brown coconuts
bob like decapitated heads.

– Patricia Cornwell, "Predator"