Library Walk: Quoting Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee

Happy Birthday Mark Twain! Born November 30, 1835.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is arguably Mark Twain's most famous work after those two boys named Tom and Huck. First conceived within a dream in 1884 and published in 1889, Twain's novel is a time travel romp from 19th century New England to the 5th century court of King Arthur.

Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

Greetings to the Natural World

The People
Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have
been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living
things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and
thanks to each other as people.

Now our minds are one.

Charles Bane Jr.'s The Chapbook — Untitled #2

A cloth of rain
hangs before a
single, yellow lamp
and seated in a
cafe I stare into
your eyes that
search in sleep
for me.

Last Call gets Mexican Book Launch

The third volume of the Bar None Group anthologies — Last Call — will be unveiled at a book launch at Chynna's Backstage Bar in Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico on December 18, 2015.

Street Poetry of Chicago: The Void by Marwan Fateen

Trying to find what we once had
it's lost
felt good but it didn't last
it's gone
but you don't give up

It hurts
it's long gone
she moved on
she has a new man now
so carry on

La Marseillaise

The Wall for Peace on the Champs de Mars in Paris.

Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'etendard sanglant est levé, (bis)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes!

Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons! Marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!

Marianne Moore and her Poetry Fixation

One of Marianne Moore's most famous poems is appropriately titled, Poetry. It is also the poem that has vexed scholars and readers alike as she repeatedly edited the piece throughout her life. Her definitive version of Poetry — as she saw it — was reduced to three lines in the 1981 re-issue of The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore. It reads as follows:

David Williams War Sonnet 1914-1918

luminescent eyes stared back and revived
secrets held deep in a mind that’s askew
he whispered the names of those that survived
a smile that belied the things he went through