T.S. ELIOT’s The Waste Land opens with this: “April is the cruelest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire, stirring/Dull roots with spring rain.” Had the great modernist complained of September, National Poetry Month might have been lost amid county fairs and the first weeks of school.
Posts Tagged: Literature
‘Oy Way’ Master Exercises Cultural Pride
When things in life don’t go as planned, Harvey Gotliffe can get rid of bad energy. He simply steps back, closes his eyes, breathes deeply, extends his palms and whispers, “Gay avek,” the Yiddish phrase for “go away.” He even wrote a book that has 35 other tips on coping with everyday life.
A Classic Example
Cooking dinner on a Wednesday night, I tune in to public radio, actual airwaves, imagine that, not my private device with my private songs hermetically piped into my pre-programmed head, but unpredictable, possibly unfamiliar music streaming out of an antique boom box set on the counter, its antenna pulling in a sexy signal, violins guiding the rhythm of my chopping as the greens are prepared for the cast-iron skillet and an improvised omelet takes shape under my watchful hands and listening eyes.
Farewell to Adrienne Rich
I was introduced to Adrienne Rich’s poetry many years ago at Kenneth Rexroth’s home in Santa Barbara. I had been a poetry student of Rexroth’s, and I was visiting him on my way up to The Hoh Rain Forest in Washington. Almost immediately after I walked into his house he picked up a book set aside from his stack of mail and handed it to me, saying, “Doren, here’s a book to keep with you.” It was Rich’s major collection Diving into the Wreck.
Susie Bright on Sex, Politics and Religion
“Revolutionaries don’t look good on actuarial tables,” says Santa Cruz’s Susie Bright, but her own survival is a tribute to her strength, eclecticism and honesty. Maybe a revolutionary defies the insurance companies’ odds if she has enough of a sense of humor.
Santa Cruz In Verse
Poetry Festival Santa Cruz once boasted the biggest names in poetry on its marquee. Bukowski, Burroughs and Ken Kesey all made an appearance. This year festival returns to Santa Cruz after a 31 year hiatus.
Sex For (Non) Dummies
When I go to the mall or the Boardwalk, I like to get a chocolate-dipped banana. It’s a treat that tastes like dessert, but underneath that thin layer of candy coating it’s actually food, with real live food-type benefits like nutrients and enzymes. The sex book that landed on my desk last week, Great In Bed: Thrill the body… blow the mind (DK Publishing, $21.95), is like that chocolate-dipped banana.
Streetsigns: Ten Ways to Tell It Is Too Warm For A Saturday in January
Musings on a sunny Santa Cruz weekend.
Streetsigns: Art Museum
A visit to MAH on the occasion of a Nutzle show, in which the author falls into a reverie.
Midnight in Santa Cruz
Coming out of the Art Deco darkness of the Del Mar after the late show I note it is past midnight and Pacific Avenue looks oddly twisted, the street wiggled down to one lane curling snakelike among dense foliage like the old Garden Mall and, amazingly, it is.
