A collection of writings about place space writing and art …
Le soleil s’essaime en diamants
de gouttes d’eau
sur l’herbe souple
Je reste docile
à l’inclination de l’univers serein
Les montagnes se dilatent
en gorgées d’ombre lilas
et vaguent avec le ciel
Là-haut à la voûte légère
l’enchantement s’est brisé
Et je tombe en moi
Et je m’enténèbre dans mon coin
Versa, 27 avril 1916
*** Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) – Sentimento del tempo (1933) – Vie d’un homme. Poésie, 1914-1970 (Poésie/Gallimard, 1981) – Traduit de l’italien par Jean Lescure.
The Brooklyn Bridge literally loomed large in my Brooklyn family’s history for a century, so I was intrigued when I stumbled upon this impressive limited edition volume. The accordion-fold book Brooklyn Bridge with a poem by the 20th century Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and original woodcuts by Canadian printer and book designer Glenn Goluska . The award-winning […]
Here Stood Mayakovsky — Travel Between The Pages
Parfois, en certains jours de lumière parfaite et exacte,où les choses ont toute la réalité dont elles portent le pouvoir,je me demande à moi-même tout doucementpourquoi j’ai moi aussi la faiblesse d’attribueraux choses de la beauté. De la beauté, une fleur par hasard en aurait-elle ?Un fruit, aurait-il par hasard de la beauté ?Non : […]
Fernando Pessoa – Parfois, en certains jours de lumière… — BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD
When a poet digs himself into a hole, he doesn’t climb out. He digs deeper, enjoys the scenery, and comes out the other side enlightened.
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform January 23, 2012)
Criss Jami — The Vale of Soul-Making
if you like my poems let them walk in the evening, a little behind you then people will say “Along this road i saw a princess pass on her way to meet her lover (it was toward nightfall) with tall and ignorant servants.
— E.E. Cummings, “if you like my poems let them,” Etcetera: The Unpublished Poems of E.E. Cummings. […]
E.E. Cummings — The Vale of Soul-Making
But don’t leave me, delicate mind!
Don’t let me go crazy.
Sweet wounded reason, don’t
leave me now.
Don’t leave me. Let me die, without fear,
a clean lovely death, like Empedocles, who smiled as he fell
into the crater.”
— Miklós Radnóti, “Maybe …,” Clouded Sky. ( Sheep Meadow; Revised edition August 1, 2003)
Miklós Radnóti — The Vale of Soul-Making
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Edgar Lee Masters (born in Kansas on 23 August 1868), the author of the “Spoon River Anthology”. This is collection of short poems condemning the hypocrisies and cruelty of society. The accusations come from the mouth of the dead buried in their graves. Here is one of […]
Regrets — words and music and stories
My mysticism is not to try to know. It is to live and not think about it.
— Alberto Caeiro, (Fernando Pessoa), from The Keeper of Sheep, Selected Poems: Fernando Pessoa, trans. Jonathan Griffin (Penguin, 1982)
Fernando Pessoa — The Vale of Soul-Making
The idea most of us have about poetry is so hazy that we take this impression of haziness for our definition of poetry. La plupart des hommes ont de la poésie une idée si vague que ce vague même de leur idée est pour eux la définition de la poésie.
Poetry (a text of Paul Valéry translated by Vadim Bystritski) — Before and After Francis Ponge
Writing down your thoughts is both necessary and harmful. It leads to eccentricity, narcissism, preserves what should be let go. On the other hand, these notes intensify the inner life, which, left unexpressed, slips through your fingers. If only I could find a better kind of journal, humbler, one that would preserve the same thoughts, the same flesh of life, which is worth saving.
— Anna Kamieńska, from “In That Great River: A Notebook,” Poetry. Originally Published: June 1, 2010
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