April is Poetry Moth

Kimon Friar edited and translated the "Greek" chapter in Bantam's useful Modern European Poetry (1966). Of particular note are his introductions to individual poets like Eléni Vakaló (1921-2001).

Friar has Vakaló in agreement with Archibald MacLeish (see the last two lines of his "Ars Poetica") and, in Friar's words, "the thing seen [after Marianne Moore], for she feels that the rhythms of life resides within objects, as in herself, until her rhythms become refined beyond harmony and become the tendons of the thing described, lean and muscular." (258)

Here are the last two lines of Vakaló's "Age of the Polyp":

The appropriation of spaces between joints

Is heard in poems quietly like a creaking

For those interested in reading more of Vakaló's poetry, I recommend the translations of Karen Emmerich.

April is Poetry Month

Oh, say, can you see

By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail'd
At the twilight's last gleaming?

 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd
Were so gallantly streaming?

 

And the rocket's red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there

 

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?

 

The lyrics to “Star Spangled Banner” (1814) were written as a poem by American lawyer and hostage negotiator Frances Scott Key, its music "borrowed" from the British drinking song “To Anacreon in Heaven” (1778-1780). Key’s poem is four cantos long, though only the first canto is used in the American national anthem.

 

There are four light sources in “The Star Spangled Banner”. The first two -- “dawn” and “twilight” -- are God given, as in the morning sun and the evening sun. The second two  -- “rockets” and “bombs” -- were produced in laboratories and armaments factories. 

 

There is no mention of the moon in this song, which is a shame. The moon is not a direct light source but a reflector, an intermediary. Rockets don’t illuminate so much as provide “glare,” colouring that which is near it, creating a kind of monochromatic wrap.

 

“Star Spangled Banner” is the only national anthem with bombs in it.

The Philosophies of Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim

"At the time [1963] I didn't realize that Jane already showed certain symptoms of a progressive form of America Puritanism. She had a deep need to justify her right to exist by influencing or deciding what was best for others for their own good. 'A life without a cause is a lost existence' could be her motto. It is a very noble philosophical attitude which I understand to a certain extent. But I can't reconcile myself to the idea of centring life on a 'cause.' I give the word 'life' a broader meaning, which excludes neither pleasure nor time spent (lost, Jane would say) enjoying the amusements that the Inventor of this beautiful planet called Earth placed at the disposition of intelligent creatures." (245)

Jane and Vadim Go To Moscow

After finishing Glenny's examination of the 1990-92 dissolution of Yugoslavia, I returned to Roger Vadim's Bardot, Deneuve, Fonda (1987). I left the book in the last pages of the Deneuve section, after it became apparent the two were drifting apart. Kinda like me and the book. 

Pictured up top is an Ilyusian IL-18V Turboprop, the plane Vadim and Jane Fonda took from Paris to Moscow in 1961.

"The Russians had just built a giant turboprop Ilyusian, able to fly from Moscow to Havana without stopping. We boarded this strange plane at Le Bourget Airport. First we walked through a sort of steamship cabin where twelve perfectly silent men were sitting, all dressed in the same blue suits. Then we walked through a long corridor where there was one compartment after another with sliding doors, rather like the Orient Express. After passing a bar and a kind of restaurant-canteen, we came to an area that reminded me we were actually on a plane: the passengers were crammed into narrow, uncomfortable seats. Finally, there was a section that resembled a luxurious Pullman car, with individual tables and large, very roomy and comfortable armchairs.

"'Don't tell me that this thing is going to fly,' said Jane in a rather worried tone.'" (234)

Time and Tide

Looking west, not quite up the gut of the Georgia Strait, the Salish Sea, but close.

The beach before the dyke is protected; there are signs saying something "natural" is happening. I like it that no one is telling us to keep off; we know better.

The "king" tide is the stylus behind this driftwood composition, the dyke its period or stopping line. It was humankind who named this highest of tides a king tide, just as it was humankind who made the dyke. 

I get why the artist Michael Drebert was drawn all those years ago to the West Dyke lands and Garry Point. I wonder what he was subtracting from when he took some of its driftwood to Hardscrabble Gallery for a campfire.

Carole Itter documented the removal, packaging and shipping of her west coast log to the east coast in the log's log (1972-73). I don't think Michael shares his documentation.

Visiting Gods

Richmond's West Dyke a few moments before sunset. Visiting gods, hauling their ship from the sea.

Craig

Craig Paterson passed away in January, aged 76, which is a good run for someone who lived life hard and rarely took "Yes" for answer. I was asked to speak at his Celebration of Life and I talked about a friend and neighbour whom I helped transition from law practice to artist practice. Below is the result of my attempt to help Craig write an Artist Statement, when all he wanted to do was make art of it.

Art

Bricolage

Collage

Decoupage

Expression 

Frame

Gallery