December 2008
8 posts
“A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small—
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn’t
be so hard.” —Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard by Kay Ryan
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small—
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn’t
be so hard.” —Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard by Kay Ryan
“I’m in my element when I am a little bit out of this world: then I’m in the real world — I’m on the beam. Because when I’m falling, I’m doing all right; when I’m slipping, I say, hey, this is interesting! It’s when I’m standing upright that bothers me: I’m not doing so good: I’m stiff. As a matter of fact, I’m really slipping, most of the time, into that glimpse. I’m like a slipping glimpser.”
—Willem de Kooning
The Polaroid: Imperfect, Yet Magical →
nytimes.com
From the New York Times Critic’s Notebook by By Michael Kimmelman
Highlight of Art:21 Season 4 →
pbs.org
Excerpt from Robert Adams’ interview.
I Heart Novels →
newyorker.com
The saddest thing I’ve read in awhile…
