*** Click on names to go to the pages to purchase/view/consider, and click on any ‘Lyric’ to see full transcriptions. ***
Two books I think you should check out:
Poetry: Selected Poems by William Bronk
Small Excerpt:
Unsatisfied Desire
However beautiful I think you are,
I am not content to let it end there.
And, oh, you are beautiful even to the extent
that your imperfections insist that beautiful
is not in being perfect but in such faults
- shall we call them faults? – as your imperfection has.
And I could agree: those faults are beautiful …
Book: Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield
Small-ish Excerpt:
We met up at a dive called the Garrett on Monday, the night before her birthday. It was not a romantic bar — the carpet was so pot-soaked you got a buzz walking to the bathroom — but it offered privacy, cheap liquor, a cigarette machine that was easy to tilt, and pool tables to distract pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders. I’d spent the day writing a sonnet sequence for her. I’m not sure what I was thinking–I mean, I used the word “catachresis” in the first line. But I was certain my prosodic ingenuity would melt her heart for good. I used one of my favorite rhyme schemes, stolen from the James Merrill poem “The Octopus,” though he stole it himself, from W. H. Auden’s The Sea and the Mirror, rhyming the first syllable of a trochee with the final syllable in the next line. How could she resist?
At midnight, I gave her the poems.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Well, the last word in the first line is a trochee, and it rhymes with the end of the next line. So ‘catachresis’ rhymes with ‘fleece.’ “
“No, what’s going on?”
“In a catachresis?”
“No. What are you talking about?”
“Uh…I have a big crush on you.”
“Oooooh,” she said. She smiled and let the pages drop on the table. She relaxed in front of my eyes. “So how did it start?”
“Well, I think you’re really beautiful.”
She relaxed a lot more — in fact, her face changed shape a little, got a little more round, as if her jaw unclenched. I didn’t know whether that was a good sign or not, but I couldn’t shut up yet.
“I always thought so. Right away, when I saw you.”
“The amazing black dress,” she nodded. “I was wearing that when I met you. There’s, uh, a lot of *me* in that dress. My Fuck the Hostess dress. It’s a real ‘drop to your knees and say amen’ dress.”
“I noticed. It’s gotten worse since then.”
“I know.” She lit one of my Dunhills. I had never seen her so comfortable. “I was on the phone with my friend Merit tonight, and she was like, Does Rob like you? And I said, I don’t know, he made me a tape and he didn’t call and then we danced together and then he left and called and left a message but didn’t call after that. Merit was like, So do you like Rob?”
I couldn’t believe she was making me do this. “So do you?”
She smiled. “I don’t know. He’s not my type, but I really like him.” She told me her type was farm boys with broad shoulders, football players. She took her time smoking that cigarette. She still had most of her beer left and she was in no hurry at all. I was too scared to talk but I was more scared to not talk.
“I don’t know what your type is. I don’t know what your deal is. I don’t even know if you have a boyfriend. I know I like you and I want to be in your life, that’s it, and if you have any room for a boyfriend, I would like to be your boyfriend, and if you don’t have any room, I would like to be your friend. Any room you have for me in your life is great. If you would like me to start out in one room and move to another, I could do that.”
“But you’d rather be a boyfriend than a friend?”
“Given the choice. No, not given the choice. That’s what I want.”
“Where are you parked?”
“I walked.”
“What’s a catachresis?”
“A rhetorical inversion of tense, kind of like a transumption. Let’s go.”
… … …
And a lot of music I think you should check out:
(Sorry I’ve been slacking with this stuff. I have put every, single one of these artists up on my MySpace page in the last couple of months … but … still … I love a good list!)
Music:
Undiscovered – James Morrison
Song of the Moment: You Give Me Something
Lyric of the Moment: ’cause you give me something that makes me scared, alright … this could be nothing, but I’m willing to give it a try …
Costello Music – The Fratellis
Song of the Moment: Flathead
Lyric of the Moment: hey, Flathead, don’t you get mean … she’s the second best killler that I ever have seen …
Girls And Boys - Ingrid Michaelson
Song of the Moment: Breakable
Lyric of the Moment: and we are so fragile, and our cracking bones make noise … and we are just breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys …
Goodnight – William Fitzsimmons
Song of the Moment: It’s Not True
Lyric of the Moment: the room still looks like you … it’s a mess, and all the pictures on the shelf are dusted off by someone else …
These Streets – Paolo Nutini
Song of the Moment: Rewind
Lyric of the Moment: remember at 16 … oh, the crazy drunk night we had … when I kissed you in the hallway, then I took you straight to bed …
Yours To Keep – Albert Hammond, Jr.
Song of the Moment: Call An Ambulance
Lyric of the Moment: and you will only ever hold me, if I tell you it would end …
The Story – Brandi Carlile
Song of the Moment: My Song
Lyric of the Moment: I live every day like there’ll never be a last one …
Cassadaga - Bright Eyes
Song of the Moment: Make A Plan To Love Me
Lyric of the Moment: some things you lose, you don’t get back … so just know what you have …
Corinne Bailey Rae – Corinne Bailey Rae
Song of the Moment: ‘Til It Happens To You
Lyric of the Moment: oh, Love, I’m a fool to believe in you …
Memory Man – Aqualung
Song of the Moment: Rolls So Deep
Lyric of the Moment: it’s like thunder when I look in your eyes … and it rolls, it rolls … it rolls so deep …
Wincing the Night Away – The Shins
Song of the Moment: Phantom Limb
Lyric of the Moment: a latent power I’m known to hide, to keep some hope alive …
Oh yes … and … Tori Amos, who I absolutely adore in an almost insane kind of way, has a new CD coming out on May 1st. It’s called American Doll Posse, and I haven’t heard anything from it … but I’m still tickled pink with anticipation.
Hope everyone has a great weekend! Be safe, be kind, and … for Pete’s sake (and your own) … have fun!
Debs Z Said:
on May 12, 2007 at 8:54 am
I love this exerpt Love is a mix tape.
I was looking for a copy of my heart is not a poodle to mail to a friend for her birthday. I found you, and the poem and the Mix tape. What a great start to my day. From London via Pennsylvania, with a one-stop in Austin TX; I wish you abundant joy…… and good luck with your writing, you have good taste, and a pleasing sense of style – Im sure you’ll be a success……
Debs