2011 01 21

Almanac — John Donne b.1572; Eliza R. Snow b.1804; Ludwig Achim von Arnim d.1831; Olav Aukrust b.1883; R. P. Blackmur b.1904; Laurence Whistler b.1912; Carolyn Zonailo b.1947; Blaise Cendrars d.1961; Randall Mann b.1972; Sandro Penna d.1977; Paul Haines d.2003

Reading, each both silently and aloud —

1. Breakfast — John Paul O’Connor [Rattle^♥] Breakfast . . . at the inflection where “appears the rare moment when we look between us / to see how thin the string is and how delicately / we must hold our connection.” If I come back around to lining up a set for post-aubade contemplations, this would serve well as model.
2. Middle-Aged — Ezra Pound [E-Verse Radio] “And so now love / Rains down and so enriches some stiff case, / And strews a mind with precious metaphors”
3. The Bitter End ♫ — Daniel Anderson [The Writer’s Almanac^♠] “The snowman started life in middle age, / Bald and running to fat.” That’s two back to back picking on me on that.
4. On a Drop of Rain — Robert Cording [Poetry Daily^♠] “My raindrops—tense, trembling— / really do seem to cling for dear life, / a story, I’m sad to say, of my all too earthly / wish to hang around forever in my body.” Almost as if to carry the mood of the previous two a step further into the fog.
5. Well, I Still Have My Teeth, And That’s Not Nothing — Charles Wright [Verse Daily^♠] “In these late years, I’m only drawn to the stillness.” Still aging today.
6. Two poems: (1) At Queen’s Bakery, Los Angeles; and (2) On Jogging in Hong Kong with My Daughter ♫ — Floyd Cheung [qarrtsiluni^♥]
7. Siegfried and Roy — Alan King [No Tell Motel^♠] “in the breath of something wild, / what meteorologists can’t quite command.”
8. Rime Riche — Monica Ferrell [Poets.org^♠]
9. Surfaces — Kay Ryan [Poetry Out Loud^♠]
10. Tomato Pies, 25 Cents — Grace Cavalieri [Poem of the Day] I read this a few weeks ago at ALIP, will index this separate reading.
11. The Time When I First Fell in Love — [Anonymous] [Representative Poetry Online] “There is no time, year, day, nor hour, / Nor minute, good to love.” But everything in between . . .
12. Seduction Poem — Alison Croggon [Poetry Archive]
13. Thoughts — Marjorie Pickthall [Canadian Poetry Online]
14. Ophelia — Arthur Rimbaud [Black Cat Poems]
15. This Little Game ♫ — Matthew Zapruder [From the Fishouse]
16. ◄ Sonnet XXI ► — William Shakespeare [EServer Poetry Collection] “Let them say more that like of hearsay well, / I will not praise that purpose not to sell.”
17. ◄ Robin and Makyne ► — Robert Henryson [The Oxford Book of English Verse]
18. The Prophet: ◄ Pain ► — Khalil Gibran. “Much of your pain is self-chosen.”
19. Tamerlane and Other Poems: ◄ Dreams ► — Edgar Allan Poe. [Wikisource] “Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!” Or, had been.
20. The Black Tower — William Butler Yeats [The collected poems of W. B. Yeats]
21. Poem About Morning — William Meredith [The Writer’s Almanac^♠] Re-encountered this in the course of my offline reading (pg.392 of The Poets Laureate Anthology) and it struck me as having most if not all of the elements we find in the best of aubades, so I’ve located this online version to add to this blog’s aubade listing.
22. And another aubade, this on a birthday: Aubade — Randall Mann (b.1/21/1972) [University of Chicago Press]
23. And another birthday aubade, this classic: Break of Day — John Donne (b.1/21/1572) [Poetry Foundation^♠]
24. Warm Front — Karen Schubert [The Apple Valley Review^♥] “A tree falls // and all I hear is you asking / When will you come back?“
25. Somewhere — Billy Collins [alehouse^♥] “Everyone does have to be somewhere…”
26. The Leader: A Study in Steadiness — Richard Moore [London Poetry Review^♥]
27. Vital Signs — Virginia Slachman [Mudlark^♥]
28. Beheading Bacchus — Chad Davidson [Smartish Pace^♥]
29. Beirut — Katie Ford [Blackbird^♥]
30. His Own ♫ — Peter Austin [Able Muse Review^♥]
31. Farm Houses — Robert Sward [Ambit^♥] “I walk out of the house into a ringing / Like the ringing in my ears.” My neighborhood!
32. Unfinished Business — Julie Sampson [Great Works] And left so.
33. Workroom — M. F. McAuliffe [Jacket^♥]
34. Lines in Memphis, Tennessee ♫ — Joel Brouwer [Slate]
35. Nowhere — Herbert Engelhardt [The Best American Poetry] And bought the mug.
36. And refreshing a reading from a month ago, Snake Story — Albert Abonado [Guernica]
37. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) — Bob Dylan [Bob Dylan] “I just can’t do what I done before / I just can’t beg you anymore”