Sunday, November 28, 2004

Poem for Sunday


The Banner Bearer
By William Carlos Williams


In the rain, the lonesome
dog, idiosyn-
cratically, with each
quadribeat, throws

out the left fore-
foot beyond
the right intent, in
his stride,

on some obscure
insistence -- from bridge-
ward going
into new territory.

--------

From Poet's Choice by Edward Hirsch in today's Washington Post Book World. "I've always liked [this] deceptively modest little poem by William Carlos Williams," he writes. "One sentence long, 12 lines and 32 words in its entirety...part of his ongoing, experimental search for a new American measure. Rhythmically speaking, this poem has an eccentric but sure sense of pacing and motion, a sly timing, an idiosyncratic certainty. I like the way the rhythm of each individual line builds into the rhythm of each quatrain, the way the rhythm of the stanzas enlarges into the fresh, offbeat music of the poem itself. In a way, Williams uses enjambment to enact both doubt and certainty...until the lineation itself mirrors the dog's motion, its jerky and insistent momentum." To Hirsch the dog seems emblematic of Williams himself: "eccentric, lonesome, determined."

Hirsch also writes of Williams' creation of an American idiom and vernacular for poetry; my British friends may be pleased to hear that Williams said "we've got to begin by stating that we speak (here) a distinct, separate language in a present (new era) and that it is NOT English."


I need a favor. Is there anyone reading this who is a Mel Brooks fan with the capability for doing screen caps? Any chance you could snag me the "more bondage, less discipline" moment between Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman from High Anxiety?

Had lunch again with the extended family, as my sister was taking a late afternoon flight back to New York with hers. The older kids played Monopoly, the younger kids ran around the basement yowling like maniacs, my brother-in-law and my father claimed they had to run out to a bookstore, I flipped through the parts of the Sunday paper that get delivered on Saturday and tried to keep up with my kids' demands for food while my sister and mother tried to keep up with the other three.

When we came home, we watched Dragonheart, which I had on my list because of David Thewlis and Jason Isaacs despite an aversion to dragon movies in general and to Sean Connery in particular. I enjoyed it a lot, partly because Dennis Quaid is charming, partly because Pete Postlethwaite (whom I didn't even know was in the film) was hilarious and mostly because it is so much fun to see Thewlis as a bad guy and Isaacs as his lackey! I must get a screen cap of the one giving the other a noogie. I also realized that I have loved the score of this movie in other movie previews without ever knowing where it was from -- one place I looked said Two Brothers, the tiger film with Guy Pearce, had used it, but I know it was played in something I saw recently involving horses, not Hidalgo, not Seabiscuit -- anyone here know what I might be talking about?

Otherwise we had a quiet evening with two very overtired boys from all the excitement of seeing cousins and the going-away party yesterday, and I started the dreaded task of my holiday fic challenge. My recipient seems to want fluff, and this is a pairing with whom I have a terrible time writing fluff...happy ending, maybe, but some of the requested ingredients are pretty much impossible to work into fic that isn't party-related. I am afraid of this. To distract myself, a yarn quiz gacked from so I can be a sheep, though "easygoing" and "sweet" are both gross exaggerations:

You are Merino Wool.
You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes.
What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla



This spider decided to spin a web between the railings on either side of our front porch.


Not the most convenient place for people trying to walk in and out...


but we went around it so I could take pictures.


Incidentally, arachnophobes, you may blame for this!


Tomorrow we are going to the zoo if the weather is clear, so will provide all sorts of adorable animals in lieu of things with multiple legs!

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