Library Walk: Julia Alvarez

Of the more than 40 plaques laid out on Library Way in 1998 honoring famous writers and literary quotes, less than 10 were of living authors. Julia Alvarez is one of three that still thrives and writes today. Curiously, the quote of hers on Library Way is from her 1984 collection of poetry, Homecoming.

In particular, the quote is from one of 33 sonnets that make up the bulk of her book entitled 33. The age she was when she confronted her own mortality and her next steps in life. On Library Walk it is the last five lines of one of these sonnets that have been immortalized in bronze.

Charles Bane Jr.'s The Chapbook — Robert Frost

The Robert Frost Stone House Museum in South Shaftsbury, Vermont.

What does it mean, in the end?
Am I the wood I dreamed,
a handsomeness of gold and shadow
girls reach to with a hand?

Sunless Morning

On a sunless morning in Mexico
with leaves falling in winter
and budding again
the next day
while raucous birds with
rainbow plumes
cluck and coo,
screech and crow,

Solo a Sayulita

El lugar donde los sueños se realizan.

25 pesos a Sayulita,
vaya con el Jesusito rojo.
La noche de crickets y el mar crashing
duerme, duerme, dormir
y me senté en la playa
sin hacer nada con nadie.

Poets on 2015 PEN Literary Awards Longlists

The longlists for the 2015 PEN Literary Awards include titles by poets Claudia Rankine, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke and Venus Thrash. The poets were longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award that recognizes, "an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color published in 2014." A new translation of the revered Mexican poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Edith Grossman is one of four titles translated from the original Spanish vying for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2014.

First Lines Second Thoughts — Tristram Shandy

Just another cock and bull story?

First Lines Second Thoughts is a look at the first lines of well known literary works. On second thought, do these opening words stand alone as poetry? In keeping with the day's green theme we look at the work of a son of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland — Laurence Sterne.

Tristram Shandy, properly titled, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is purported to be the autobiography of the titular character though by the end of the book the reader still knows little of Tristram himself as his thoughts tend not to stay focused on the job at hand — narrating the accounts of his life. Tristram's propensity for digression is such that the recounting of his birth does not occur until volume IV!

Charles Bane Jr.'s The Chapbook — Cycle

The sun is cracked
and spills itself,
and stains the border
of the western sky;

It's Pi Day! Write Pi-ku for Fun!

Most people know that Pi Day is celebrated/honored/recognized on March 14 (3/14). But did you know that there is a Pie Day as well? National Pie Day is January 23rd, but most pizza places offer $3.14 specials on Pi Day and not Pie Day.

Did you also know that there is such a thing as Pi-ku? A form of haiku, Pi-ku consists of three lines with the first line consisting of three syllables, the second line has one syllable, and the third and final line is comprised of four syllables. Three. One. Four. Did you know that the headline to this piece is a Pi-ku? In Pi-ku it reads as follows...

One and then Two

A one and a two
One and then two
Building blocks
Baby steps
Crawl before you walk
Walk before you run

Fire in the Barra Manure Pile

Tall tales and more from Hector's Bar in Barra de Navidad, Mexico.

Fact checker
Lie detector
Trying to keep the size
of the manure pile
Down!

Howling Into Evening

My grandmothers were coming to me in signs.
Images of brown sunned skin
and rose colored grins
Strong black tassels of braids
The whites of the eyes obsolete
Speaking through minds
Barefoot feet
They whirled in
My TRIBE circled around me

Men Wanted: The Legend of Shackleton's Famous Want Ad

Legend has it that the world's most famous want ad was penned by the explorer Ernest Shackleton. The ad is reported to have run in December of 1913 in The Times of London as Shackleton was seeking men to work the Endurance expedition to the Antarctic. It has been replicated, quoted from and is regarded as one of the greatest moments in advertising history.

Bien Día

I awake this morning
from a dream,
as I often do,
and in the bewilderment
of that emergence,
I struggle
to contain it,

The Chapbook — Modo de Dire

Michelangelo
cannot catch his breath.
He says nothing
to his companions.