February 28, 2008
Spare Parts
American Life in Poetry: Column 153
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
In this endearing short poem by Californian Trish Dugger, we can imagine "what if?" What if we had been given "a baker's dozen of hearts?" I imagine many more and various love poems would be written. Here Ms. Dugger, Poet Laureate of the City of Encinitas, makes fine use of the one patched but good heart she has.
Spare Parts
We barge out of the womb
with two of them: eyes, ears,
arms, hands, legs, feet.
Only one heart. Not a good
plan. God should know we
need at least a dozen,
a baker's dozen of hearts.
They break like Easter eggs
hidden in the grass,
stepped on and smashed.
My own heart is patched,
bandaged, taped, barely
the same shape it once was
when it beat fast for you.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2006 by Trish Dugger. Reprinted from "Magee Park Poets: Anthology 2007," No. 18, Friends of the Carlsbad City Library, 2006, by permission of Trish Dugger. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:49 AM
February 25, 2008
Happy Birthday...
But more important than that, happy birthday to my nephew, Jake!
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:03 PM | Comments (1)
February 24, 2008
Medical History
American Life in Poetry: Column 152
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
A child with a sense of the dramatic, well, many of us have been that child. Here's Carrie Shipers of Missouri reminiscing about how she once wished for a dramatic rescue by screaming ambulance, only to find she was really longing for the comfort of her mother's hands.
Medical History
I wanted it: arc of red and blue
strobing my skin, sirens singing
my praises, the cinching embrace
of the cot as the ambulance
slammed shut and steered away.
More than needle-pierce
or dragging blade, I wanted the swab
of alcohol and cotton, the promise
of gauze-covered cure.
My mother saved anyone
who asked, but never me,
never the way I wanted:
her palms skimming my limbs
for injury, her fingers finding
what hurt, her lips whispering,
I got here just in time.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Carrie Shipers. Reprinted from Mid-American Review, Vol. 27, no. 2, 2007, by permission of the author. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:26 PM
Penne Puttanesca
I don't cook much, but I went out for dinner with my older son the other night and discovered the restaurant had dropped my favorite dish from there, Penne Puttanesca, from the menu. I had to go with something else, but that left me thinking of the dish since. So this morning I woke up with the idea to make it myself. Those of you who cook a lot know the Internet is a treasure trove for recipes, so I searched and found a bewildering array of choices. But I read a bunch, and found one I liked, at a sight whose name, MassRecipes.com, seems to indicated it is built for volume and not necessarily for quality.
But it worked out great. I fretted some in choosing the ingredients at the market, but then the cooking was fun. I made some pasta with a simpler sauce too in case my boys didn't like the spicy sauce. Turns out my older son and I liked the Puttanesca, and my wife and younger son tried some and went with the simpler sauce. My older son ended up eating even more than I did, so I count it as a success!
Posted by Bill Trippe at 8:04 PM
February 23, 2008
Today's Spring Training Weather
Meanwhile, back in Boston, I wake up to about 9 inches of snow on the ground and 27 degrees.
And people wonder why we get so excited about "Truck Day."
UPDATE: I was getting my hair cut this morning and a friend walked in. Knocking the snow off his boots, he announces to no one in particular, "83 degrees and sunny in Fort Myers this morning!"
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:57 AM
Frank O'Connor
One of the great things about the Internet is that, very often, if you just happen to think of something, you can then go out and find it. The other day I was thinking about the great Irish short story writer Frank O'Connor, and, sure and begorrah, there was one of my favorite stories of his, "First Confession", and a Paris Review interview (PDF file). (Note that the typesetting on the short story is a little off, but it still reads well.)
Somehow, I didn't discover O'Connor until graduate school. By then I considered myself a pretty serious student of the short story, and I soon realized that O'Connor had created many of the best ones, including "First Confession," but also including "My Oedipus Complex." Then my advisor recommended O'Connor's book on the craft of short stories, The Lonely Voice, and I was hooked. By that point in graduate school I was overwhelmed with books on the craft of writing. Along with maybe two or three others, I still pick up and read The Lonely Voice when I need a little wisdom.
Wikipedia has an article about O'Connor, but it is pretty thin. There's a reprint of a book chapter here--a nice introduction to the 1998 book, Frank O'Connor: New Perspectives. If you like these stories, I recommend his Collected Stories.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:12 AM
February 16, 2008
Is Valentine's Day for Poets?
Ted Kooser thinks so.
Around this time of year, for more than 20 years, women around the country have checked their mail and found a postcard bearing a red heart in the corner and a poem: a valentine from Ted Kooser, who was U.S. poet laureate from 2004 to 2006.
Now, he has collected those poems in a book called Valentines.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:51 AM
February 14, 2008
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Pitchers and catchers report today!
With apologies to Lewis Carroll.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:13 AM
February 13, 2008
We're Moving!
Well, sort of.
What I am actually doing is launching a new blog and practice as part of the Gilbane Group (press release here and the new blog, XML Technologies and Content Strategies, here). The new blog and practice are collaborations with my long-time Gilbane colleagues Mary Laplante and Leonor Ciarlone.
As we launch the new blog at Gilbane, I am transitioning this one to a personal blog, much like the one I had before, A Thousand Furnished Rooms. I will be discussing writing, literature, baseball, and life, not necessarily in that order.
I have been at this blog thing for more than four years, and it has always been an evolution. I started with a technology blog, Ideas in Technology and Publishing, then started A Thousand Furnished Rooms. Somewhere in there I briefly had a politics blog (an ugly undertaking in a nasty little world). Also somewhere in there, I began blogging at Gilbane's primary blog, folded the politics blog (oh, happy day!) and combined Ideas in Technology and Publishing and A Thousand Furnished Rooms into this blog.
So now I evolve again. If you want to read about content management, XML, and publishing technologies and strategies, check out the new Gilbane blog (Atom feed here). If you want to hear about more nebulous topics, stick around here. You are more than welcome.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 12:37 PM
Currently Reading
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. The book is even better than the title, and it will soon be on the big screen. A nice review of the book is here. The author has a terrific website with a lot of original material, though it's a little heavy on the pop-ups.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 9:32 AM
