Saturday
Early morning walk to Shriner lake with Duke. We had a bit of an adventure. As we walked up the hill a kitten walked down. It shocked Duke enough that he didn't even lunge--his usual reaction to any living creature other than human.
It was a beautiful kitten; long haired, and darker grey than the usual tiger. It stepped into the bushes and sat watching. I had the camera, told Duke to stay, stood on the leash and tried to get everything in focus. That's when Duke lunged. The cat ran off and I gave Duke a boot in the butt. He looked at me like I was crazy. He thinks he's supposed to terrorize critters.
Kitten on the road
meeting a boxer on a leash--
rustling bushes
Racing out the door
the dog flies to the water--
Flapping and quacking
O red-winged blackbird
It's not safe in this yard--
The dog. Fly!
The rest of the walk went better. No cat pictures, but some others.
There is a house showing scheduled tomorrow. Mike brought the lawn mower over and cut the grass. It had shot up after the rain. He and Duke are good buddies and we all enjoy his visits. He wondered when the neighbors will finish clearing the downed tree. Me too.
Caught up on email and then checked the web for news. On the Christian Science Monitor site there was a link to a quiz: Are you as well read as a third grader? I'm a sucker for quizzes so I took it. One of the books the site claimed third graders read was the book I finished yesterday, Things Fall Apart. A third grader won't understand that book. No way a third grader pronounces the names. They can only be reading it to stroke some teacher's/Principal's/board member's ego. There were other questionable claims: Ovid's Metamorphoses, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Macbeth and more. I first read Macbeth in high school and had a difficult time with it. I'd never give it to a third grader to read.
There are many wonderful books for young people. They should be reading The Wind in the Willows, The Chronicles of Narnia, Tarzan, Heidi, The Hobbit or dozens of others . . . Why won't we let a child be a child? I don't know who makes these decisions. Give them forty strokes with a cat-o-nine-tails.
A fellow I worked with at GM called to ask about Lake Chapala. I hope he doesn't move there. He is a nice guy but he won't like not knowing anyone. That means he'll be on my doorstep. I'm moving to get away from Indiana--not to see old friends except as visitors. Is it selfish of me? Yes. Do I feel badly? No. I need to be selfish for a time.
I read two short books: In Praise of Shadows, by Jun'ichiro Tanizake, and a book of Robert Pinsky poetry, Gulf Music.
I am reading Japanese books, and haiku. I'm also reading other poetry. I would like this to be more than just a diary. That will take work. My haiku isn't very good, I know. My understanding of Japanese heritage and custom is sketchy at best. The only way to improve is to continue to read and write.
Tanizake's book was a revelation. It is short--not much more than a pamphlet--but I learned as much about Japanese tradition (pre-WW2) from it as in anything else I have read. Pinsky, a four or five time poet laureate, was interesting reading but not so helpful to me. I'll read it again. There may be more there the next time.
I have found that in the oeuvre of any poet there are only relatively few poems that grab me. The Library of America has a complete collection of Ezra Pound's writings. I'd read a number of his works in anthologies and liked what I saw. I bought the LOA book, read it, and made very few additions to my favorites list.
With the exception of Emily Dickinson that has been true with most collections I have read. Maybe because I'm not a "real" poet I don't see the beauty that is there in many poems. For me, a poem must elicit a strong reaction/emotion to matter. For example, Pound's Ballad of the Goodly Fere, Ancient Music, and Meditatio do that. Likewise, e e cummings' What if a Much of a Which of a Wind and I Sing of Olaf knock me out. But not all, or even an overwhelming number of their poems produce that same effect in me. (Although I do like more than the few cited here.) It is the same with Keats, or Donne, or Stevens or Thomas. Some poems grab me. Some don't.
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