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Monday 18 December 2017

Thoughtful Buster / Poor Clarence / one more saturday night (As seen from afar) / Hardy: Three Poems

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Thoughtful Buster | by MichaelRyerson

Thoughtful Buster. Buster Keaton in momentary repose. Appears to be post-war.: photo by Michael Ryerson, 16 December 2017

Hong-Kong | by jeansebd

Hong-Kong: photo by Jean-Sebastien David, 2 September 2015

Untitled | by sasistudios

Untitled [Chennai]: photo by Sasikumar Ramachandran, 12 November 2017

The pleasures of the flesh | by efo

The pleasures of the flesh: photo by efo, 9 December 2015

86th Street Crosstown Bus, New York, NY  1976 | by M. Chaussettes

86th Street Crosstown Bus, New York, NY 1976: photo by M. Chaussettes, 13 December 2017

86th Street Crosstown Bus, New York, NY  1976 | by M. Chaussettes

86th Street Crosstown Bus, New York, NY 1976: photo by M. Chaussettes, 13 December 2017

86th Street Crosstown Bus, New York, NY  1976 | by M. Chaussettes

86th Street Crosstown Bus, New York, NY 1976: photo by M. Chaussettes, 13 December 2017

Father Time | by DonStevie

Father Time | London, England: photo by DonStevie, August 2016

;] | by www.bawgaj.eu /Brighton now/

; Istanbul | “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”― Confucius: photo by Przemek Strzelecki, 5 December 2017

WAITING DOG | by LitterART

WAITING DOG | Neuberg, Styria, Austria: photo by LitterART, 11 December 2015

;] | by www.bawgaj.eu /Brighton now/

; Morocco 2017 | “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”― Garrison Keillor: photo by Przemek Strzelecki, 12 December 2017

Untitled | by sasistudios

Untitled [Chennai]: photo by Sasikumar Ramachandran, 9 December 2015

Untitled | by adrian_t

Untitled [Kiev]: photo by Adrian Tsim, 7 December 2015

Frosty Fog Alders | by Nicholas Lyle

Frosty Fog Alders: photo by Nick Lyle, 11 December 2017

Frosty Fog Alders | by Nicholas Lyle

Frosty Fog Alders: photo by Nick Lyle, 11 December 2017

Frosty Fog Alders | by Nicholas Lyle

Frosty Fog Alders: photo by Nick Lyle, 11 December 2017

Crescent Street, Montreal, 1983 | by Avard Woolaver

Crescent Street, Montreal, 1983. No filters, no phone | There was no direction home | Only the moment: photo by Avard Woolaver, sometime in 1983

Untitled | by sasistudios

Untitled [Chennai]: photo by Sasikumar Ramachandran, 13 December 2017

Meanwhile at home: February 2017 | by Roccantica

Meanwhile at home: February 2017: photo by Roccantica, 28 February 2017
 
Sixth Graders from Giannini Middle School, Outer Sunset District - San Francisco, CA | by Rex Mandel
  
Sixth Graders from Giannini Middle School, Outer Sunset District - San Francisco, CA. These kids were looking for something to photograph with their iPads. Yeah, a little ironic. Fuck you Donald Trump. You don't have the guts to call out hate groups. You're the biggest coward in the world.: photo by Rex Mandel, 3 May 2016

Sixth Graders from Giannini Middle School, Outer Sunset District - San Francisco, CA | by Rex Mandel
  
Sixth Graders from Giannini Middle School, Outer Sunset District - San Francisco, CA. These kids were looking for something to photograph with their iPads. Yeah, a little ironic. Fuck you Donald Trump. You don't have the guts to call out hate groups. You're the biggest coward in the world.: photo by Rex Mandel, 3 May 2016

Sixth Graders from Giannini Middle School, Outer Sunset District - San Francisco, CA | by Rex Mandel

Sixth Graders from Giannini Middle School, Outer Sunset District - San Francisco, CA. These kids were looking for something to photograph with their iPads. Yeah, a little ironic. Fuck you Donald Trump. You don't have the guts to call out hate groups. You're the biggest coward in the world.: photo by Rex Mandel, 3 May 2016

You get what you pay for | by michaelj1998

You get what you pay for | Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 14 December 2017

You get what you pay for | by michaelj1998

You get what you pay for | Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 14 December 2017

You get what you pay for | by michaelj1998

Imagined 53 | by Desperate John

Imagined 53: photo by Desperate John, 14 December 2017

Imagined 53 | by Desperate John

Imagined 53: photo by Desperate John, 14 December 2017

Imagined 53 | by Desperate John

Imagined 53: photo by Desperate John, 14 December 2017

CARNIVAL WOMAN - 1953 | by johnmike1959

CARNIVAL WOMAN - 1953| photo by Jack Welpott: image by johnmike1969, 2 December 2017

IMG_4041 | by alberto.velardi

IMG_4041: photo by ALBERTO VELARDI, 9 December 2017

IMG_4041 | by alberto.velardi

IMG_4041: photo by ALBERTO VELARDI, 9 December 2017

IMG_4041 | by alberto.velardi

 IMG_4041: photo by ALBERTO VELARDI, 9 December 2017

Untitled | by l'autre hidalgo

Untitled: photo by lautrehidalgo, 11 December 2017

Ni par l'aveugle poignard des roches,
ni par la plus creusante tempête
tournant des paquets de feuilles à la fois,
ni par l'œil attentif de l'homme employé avec peine
et d'ailleurs sans contrôle
dans un milieu interdit aux orifices débouchés des autres sens
et qu'un bras plongé pour saisir trouble plus encore,
ce livre au fond n'a été lu.
  
Francis Ponge

Harmony | by michaelj1998

2017-163 | by biosfear

 2017-163| Los Angeles, CA.: photo by biosfear, December 2017

As seen from afar | by michaelj1998

As seen from afar| Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 16 December 2017

As seen from afar | by michaelj1998

As seen from afar| Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 16 December 2017

As seen from afar | by michaelj1998

As seen from afar| Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 16 December 2017

Harrison Street, San Francisco | by Postcards from San Francisco

Harrison Street, San Francisco: photo by Patrick Vennari, 11 December 2017

Harrison Street, San Francisco | by Postcards from San Francisco

Harrison Street, San Francisco: photo by Patrick Vennari, 11 December 2017

Harrison Street, San Francisco | by Postcards from San Francisco

Harrison Street, San Francisco: photo by Patrick Vennari, 11 December 2017

Vác, Hungary, 2017 | by tamas bernath

Vác Hungary, 2017: photo by tamas bernath, 21 November 2017

Poor Clarence | by richham14 - (Mr Cubs}

Poor Clarence [Lone Pine, CA}: photo by Richard Hammond, 9 December 2017

On the roof | by efo

On the roof | Djupavik [Iceland]: photo by efo, 2 December 2017

On the roof | by efo

On the roof | Djupavik [Iceland]: photo by efo, 2 December 2017

On the roof | by efo

On the roof | Djupavik [Iceland]: photo by efo, 2 December 2017

Bangkok, Thailand | by Dave Glass . foto
  
 Bangkok, Thailand |Near the Grand Palace in the Phra Nakhon district, Bangkok, Thailand 1986: photo by Dave Glass, December 1986
Bangkok, Thailand | by Dave Glass . foto

Bangkok, Thailand | by Dave Glass . foto

9 comments:

Hilton said...

Hardy is stunning, fresh, alive

TC said...

Thanks, Hilton - agreed on all counts.

I get two things from posting a bit of Hardy these past few days:

1. No one reads Hardy any more, because no one has ever told them to bother.

2. Those who however belatedly and grudgingly do bother to look, despite implicit proscriptions, are nicely surprised to learn that he is the very truest among the modern poets, and just keeps getting truer with the awful piling up of the false and lying years (which, of course, his poems unhappily anticipate - one of the major reasons no one reads him any more).

But poetry is dead and lazy attitudes live on, flourishing with peculiar vigour in the hothouse environment ("safe space") of the schools, where of course Hardy is not taught or even mentioned... with the backwards positive effect that anything not mentioned in today's curricula remains relatively uncontaminated... for at least a few minutes longer.

On Hardy:

Ezra Pound (1938):

"No man can read Hardy's poems collected but that his own life, and forgotten moments of it, will come back to him, a flash here and an hour there. Have you a better test of true poetry?...

"There is a flood of life caught in this crystal."
___

Some notes & remarks on poetry & life by TH:

"What made poetry 2000 years ago makes poetry now."

"The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it."
___

W. H. Hudson (1840-1922): from Nature in Downland (1900), on the Mistle Thrush:

"Mid-winter is the season of the missel-thrush... when there is no gleam of light anywhere and no change in that darkness of immense ever-moving cloud above; and the south-west raves all day and all night, and day after day, then the storm-cock sings his loudest from a tree-top and has no rival. A glorious bird!... You must believe that this dark aspect of things delights him; that his pleasure in life, expressed with such sounds and in such circumstances, must greatly exceed in degree the contentment and bliss that is ours, even when we are most free from pain and care, and our whole beings most perfectly in tune with nature... The sound is beautiful in quality, but the singer has no art, and flings his notes out anyhow; the song is an outburst, a cry of happiness."

TC said...

OK, I guess this would be the damning admission:

"What made poetry 2000 years ago makes poetry now."

Of course one can't reasonably agree (or disagree) with that if one hasn't read anything writ more than 20 minutes ago.

("Reasonably" -- um, did he really dare to say that?)

TC said...



"Uh, wait, I'm a snail, and I only want to read about a world in which snails matter."

"But maybe... 2000 years ago... snails mattered."

"So why aren't there more poems about them then?"

"How do you know there aren't?"

"OK, but I'm a Mistle Thrush, then, and I know what I like."

19 December 2017 at 06:02 Delete

TC said...

(You can tell by his expression that Buster understands all this and will go on trying to get along - bad as it is, he's still in the game - but Poor Clarence - well not so much with the joy of the rain-puddled red wheel barrow, any more, for him.)

Sandra said...

me encantó este post....feliz Navidad Tom y los mejores deseos para ti y familia!

TC said...

¡Y los más cálidos deseos de nosotros para ti, Sandra!

Stuart Ross said...

Buster Keaton. Tom Raworth.

Saved me at 3:48 a.m.

Thanks!

TC said...

Thanks Stuart. At about that hour, same always works for me too.

Happy new year to you.