“Words are the waters which power the hydro-electricity of nations. Words are the chemicals that H20 human intercourse. Words are the rain of votes which made the harvest possible. Words are the thunderstorm when a nation is divided. Words are the water in a shattering glass when friends break into argument. Words are the acronym … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: On Words
In one of my classes I have just spent two weeks on some Afro-Cuban poetry and it is not because we are studying Blackness but because we are studying the ring of words and these poems contain some very good examples. As it turns out the class has a fairly large Black contingent. These students … More Motivos de son
This week I have been rereading Paul Dresman’s The Silver Dazzle of the Sun, well worth poring over for the ring of the words and in my case for the way in which it transports one to the West, that Asian painting. I have been looking at this book with its photographs of beautiful and … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Paul Dresman, Ceramics
The film The Great Debaters exceeds expectations. I want to go again. Here is some excellent commentary on the film by the Anxious Black Woman, and here is some information on the real life Melvin B. Tolson, a poet. We should all be so brave. It was I who taught Black Diamond his first lesson … More Melvin B. Tolson
Machiavelli, via Porch Dog: When evening arrives, I return home, and enter my study, and at the door I take off my daytime clothes, full of mud and filth, and I put on royal and curial robes. Having gotten dressed again appropriately, I enter the ancient courts of ancient men, where received lovingly by them, … More N. Machiavelli
I have my grandmother’s copy of Land of Little Rain, but I see that it is now a Google Book, a Virginia e-text, a part of the Berkeley SunSITE, and a Gutenberg e-book. This book describes things as they were in the nineteenth century when my various relatives arrived. At random: I like that name … More Mary Austin
From Kai Chang I had learned that there was Chinese writing on the walls on Angel Island but I have now discovered that this building is closed for renovation until at least 2009. It is an excellent island, however, with unique and arguably the best views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate. … More Angel Island
I am closing in on final grades for my very last class. The music for this is by Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other stars. For it we thank the Azgoddess. You should really click on the link. Being nearly finished with grades is so inspiring, I can almost recite a Christmas poem: A … More Trilce XIX
Dear Student: Your average is B+ but I have found a way to inflate it to A-. It is entirely clear to me that had you not been having post-Iraq nightmares you would have made a clean A. It is inverisimil to me that the Dean of Students will order me to excuse the absences … More Finals
Having been in Lafayette I took U.S. 90 home this weekend, sharing the green road with trucks loaded with sugar cane. Driving leisurely through the sun in Lafourche Parish I saw a turtle, an armadillo, and an alligator, and a rat. The feeling of proximity to New Orleans begins on the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge, … More Paroisse de Lafourche
