Stalwart the Conjunction of Rivers

Welcome back to my weblog, friends. Did I do a lot of reading this summer? I did not. I would usually wake up around 11, drink coffee that was dark as a night in winter, turn on soccer, watch the soccer, go out for one large meal, come home, watch more soccer, text people, occasionally go out with those people, occasionally teach guitar lessons, or drink more coffee or tea, go to sleep.

But I did read a few really amazing books and felt like blogging.

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Lyn Hejinian - My Life (again), The Fatalist, and The Book of a Thousand Eyes

I wrote a couple times on here that Mark Strand, or Rilke, or Louis Zukofsky were my favorite poets, but I think Hejinian has taken over my poetry reading life. My Life remains my favorite book of hers, but these latter two are incredible as well. Hejinian is known as a L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writer, but perhaps is better known for writing moving philosophically-oriented poems, that somehow use everyday imagery in a way that renders it huge and affecting on the level one would associate with epics or, metaphysical poetry. I just started the Book of a Thousand Eyes, so I don't have much to say about it, but it's first few pages are already incredible. She also handles different subjects/content for each book- My Life is a semi-memoir using variations on the new sentence and is replete with that imagery I mentioned. The Fatalist is a sort of self-referential book about thinking, reading, and writing, full of subtle, sometimes only hinted-at philosophy. The Book of a Thousand Eyes is a type of dream-vision/book of prose and poetry reflecting night and elision, in the way of Scheherazade. I just started this latter, but here are two excerpts from The Fatalist (pages 28-29 and pages 49-50)

Shakespeare - King Lear (again)

I'm kind of amazed I'm able to read this now without consulting the footnotes every two seconds. Either this apprenticeship is actually working, or [something else]. The interaction between Kent and Oswald is the funniest thing I've read in a long while. I got the Pelican Shakespeare new edition, the one with the good covers.

Amiri Baraka - Dutchman (again)

I like to reread a lot. This is an amazing one-act play. The movement/progression of the dialogue seems to stretch over time, or is unstuck in time. I wrote an essay on this, so I may or may not post it soon.

James Joyce - Ulysses

It took me four dang years, but I finally read this dang book. It's pretty incredible- I don't need to say anything about or recommend this one I guess. Here's some found poetry pulled from each chapter that was published in 2014 for the Bloomsday Centenary why not La Bloom.

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Forthcoming Essays

Essays on Amiri Baraka aka LeRoi Jones, and one on Mulholland Drive and Vertigo

Play

The damn thing is at 40 pages/11k words. I don't know how to end it

More Hejinian

Reading from The Beginner, The Fatalist, and others

Reading from The Book of a Thousand Eyes

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What have y'all been enjoying?

Cheers to the last days of summer.