Saturday, October 8, 2016

Poetry Magazine

I subscribed to Poetry shortly before I retired.  At first, I was really excited and enjoyed each issue very much.  It was well worth the $2.00 per issue (annual subscription $24.00).


Lately, though, the excitement was wearing off.  Often when I brought in the magazine and read it eagerly, I found few or no poems I liked.  And the commentary was too abstruse.  Then there was the modern art.  I'm still unclear on how graphic art = poetry.


Anyway, last month I got a bill for another year.  The price had gone up to $26.00.  I put the notice aside, to think about whether it was worth it.


Then the latest issue arrived.  And the first poem really appealed to me.  It was a rather long poem, which I usually don't care for, or only care for selected portions.  This one was good all the way through.


So now I'm going to resubscribe.  I like supporting The Poetry Foundation, and even an occasional gem is probably worth a bit more than $2.00 per issue.


I also subscribe to Poetry Northwest, with a similar annual fee, but they publish only twice a year.  I'm still waiting for the second issue.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Amo linguam latinam

This post was inspired by a little book from B&N, called Cave Canem: Beware of the dog, with little items about Latin phrases and life in Rome back in the day.


When I was in high school, my first year Latin teacher would often go around the room to see how much time everyone had spent on the homework.  I was kind of embarrassed, and usually gave some vague reply.  The fact is that most of the other students had spent 3 hours or so, and at that had only translated the first ten lines.  I often was done in less than an hour, having translated the full 25 or so lines.  It wasn't really my doing - Latin just came easily for me.  I enjoyed the way the word endings told me where each word fit into the sentence, and (back in those days) I had a pretty good memory, so I didn't have to look up many vocabulary words.


I wanted to study classical Greek, but my school didn't offer it.  As I recall, the only high school in the city that taught Greek was Gonzaga Prep - a boy's school.  If I had been able to study Greek, I might not have met my future husband in French class (which he took because there was no class in German).  Anyway,  I got interested in Math because of the fine Math teacher/department head who gave a class called "Special Geometry."  (These days it would be termed Honors Geometry, but that term had not yet arrived.)  That's when I found out that Math could be even more fun than Latin.


So, in an alternate universe where I was not absorbed by Math, I might have gone to college to study classical languages, and probably become an old maid teacher of the subject.


I'm not sorry that it ended up as it did.  My degree in Math got me into very interesting employment over the years.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Battle scenes

Whenever I come to a battle scene, whether history, fiction or historical fiction, my reaction is the same.  My eyes glaze over, I have no idea what is actually happening.  In movies, with the quick cuts and various perspectives, I suppose I feel rather like an actual participant in the battle - at the grunt level.  I don't know who is winning, nor what (if anything) will help.  I have the added disadvantage that I somehow cannot even tell friend from foe.  Hopefully, real soldiers can tell.


Anyway, I just finished a 60 page section in Les Miserables, which is about Waterloo.  Most of it is, in fact, description of the elements of the battle.  I stuck with it, because I have this wonderful feeling when I read Victor Hugo's writing, whether or not I "get" what he's talking about. 
There was one scene where a road cut, invisible to the charging army, went right across there path of attack.  The men and horses fell right into it.  They filled it up, and those who were left ran over the dead bodies.  If this had been a fictitious battle, I would have considered it too unbelievable for words. 
So eventually the battle is done and he gets to the part where he talks about the meaning of the defeat of Napoleon.  Which was, in his view, a prelude to the French revolution.  Only after destroying the power of the emperor could the hope for liberty be realized.


It was worth all those pages of people I don't know doing warlike things, just to reach the way he expressed this hopeful conclusion.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Poetry Links 1

Some poems that caught my attention over the past month or so.


a very short poem about cake

https://www.poets.org/print/node/433711




time is like cracking the lock on a safe

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=17019




thoughts on heritage

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=17020




about death - his wife and his mother

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=17023




 


Funeral for a Sioux Elder

http://www.versedaily.org/2016/funeralforasiouxelder.shtml




Writer's Almanac Aug 16, 2016


"about competition" by Charles Bukowski


(the secret of success)

http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/




Think about writing my own artist's statement after reading this:

https://www.poets.org/print/node/434701




Also on Aug 17:


Writer's Almanac - Joyce Sutphen watches her mom can tomatoes

http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/




Poetry Daily describes a very old and decrepit married couple

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=17031




A poem that asks what does God want.

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=17034




So lovely. About orcas and knowlege and family


"T end of writing, Johnson said, is to instruct;
the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing
."

http://www.versedaily.org/2016/aculture.shtml




Is a violet violet? A poem about perception and words.

https://www.poets.org/print/node/434801




 


 


 


To the Student Who Asked Why He Earned a "C" on an Essay about Love, by Clint Margrave


"love is a rough draft/in constant need of revision"

http://www.versedaily.org/2016/tothestudentwhoasked.shtml




 


About this Poem:

"To my surprise and (temporary) dismay, this poem I wrote for the wedding of two friends veered off into the pervasive anxiety of climate change. I was bummed out until I discovered I was on my way to making the argument that the beautifully hopeful act of eternally pledging oneself to another is, in some elusive metonymic way, related to our collective salvation."
https://www.poets.org/print/node/434806




Class reading Dante, interrupted by a thunderstorm.

http://www.versedaily.org/2016/forgettingdante.shtml




The missing cookbook and the absent wife.


The Loss of the Joy of Cooking

http://poems.com/poem.php?date=17058




 


Writers Almanac, Sept 15, 2016


A meditation on subject/verb agreement, inspired by a message from Microsoft Windows.

http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/




 

 

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

How to Find Dark Matter







I just came across a report on "A Newly Discovered Galaxy Composed Almost Entirely of Dark Matter" and it reminded me that I wanted to talk about this.


The previous Science News headline said "Scientist still unable to find invisible dark matter."  I loved that they couldn't find it, presumably because it's invisible.  That usually makes things hard to find.  Of course they know that dark matter must exist, because otherwise there wouldn't be enough gravity to hold our galaxy (the Milky Way) together - it would fly off in all directions.


But in the Bible, Hebrews 11:1, it says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  When I saw that, it struck me as being about the same thing as the dark matter theory.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Book Review - The Admiral's Bride

Book review of a book I couldn't discuss at GR.  People at GR liked the book.  So I don't want to offend them.  But I thought the book was terrible.
When I picked up the book at LittleFreeLibrary, I knew I was taking a chance.  I read some (or maybe all) of the prolog, which was set in Viet Nam.  Jake, through luck and ability got his teammates through a bad situation.  I thought the writing was OK, although I didn't see how this related to the blurb about the book. 
I soon found out.  In chapter 1 we find that Jake is now an admiral.  But first we get to meet Zoey.  She's some kind of chemical weapons expert, and she has been told that there's a new assignment for her.  So she dresses in jeans and a shirt with "little blue flowers" on it.  The driver picks her up, and when she arrives at the pentagon, she decides she is underdressed.  She should have put on her femme fatale costume - short and slinky black dress and spike heels. 
At this point I had to wonder if her wardrobe had any business clothes.  A suit that a scientist might wear to work.  Even a pants suit. 
Well, the meeting got underway and the writing turned into utterly stereotypical romance lingo.  Everything was superficial - clothes, complexion, eye-color.  Although the author seemed to think the story was more realistic than Get Smart (which was referenced a time or two) I didn't see any indication that the author knew anything about the military, nor about intelligence work.
The meeting was full of generals and admirals, which made for lots of braid and bright-work.  And Zoey kept thinking about the impression she was making with her little blue flowers.  She was called upon to explain the terrible chemical warfare compound that she just learned had been stolen.  So there are two kinds of harmless powder that could be combined with water to make a horrible poison gas that paralyzes people's lungs and they die.  To emphasize the destructive power of the poison, there was a discussion of how much of it would be needed to wipe out Washington DC.
But not discussion of how long the dangerous gas would linger, nor about it drifting elsewhere on the wind.  I'm not really into mass destruction, but I could certainly have dreamed up a much more horrible way to kill enemies.  Actual WWII stuff was ghastlier than that.




I tried to read some more.  At least two chapters, right, to give the author a chance.  But I couldn't get past that beginning.  In another review, I complained that the action/adventure aspect of the story got in the way of the romance.  Here, the romance was obviously going to overpower the danger/adventure side of the story.  Well, actually the romance was so obvious that I didn't need to read anymore.  That cover blurb had given it away.


The book: The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockman.
I wish nothing but the best to the people who liked this.  I just don't agree.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Intro

I wanted a simple, free blog.  With help from my friends on an actuarial bulletin board, here I am.
Now we will see whether I actually have anything to say.