Kenneth Koch from _Thank You and Other Poems_ (Grove Press, 1962)

Photo by Timo Ketonen

Blue hepatica, one of the first spring flowers in Finland. Used to be called blue anemone (and I still do)

“What is it to be back
Beside the bed? There is nothing to do 
For our liberation, except wait in the horror of it. 

And I am lost without you.”
(2/2)

Yes indeed. And that reminds me of these lines from Ashbery’s “They Dream Only of America”:

I would not have broken my leg if I had not fallen 
Against the living room table.
(1/2)

“snore-powered naps” !!!

Exactly!!

“groupuscules”!!! Gawd yes

I’m with you, always have been. My aesthetic ideal is an Automat with infinite windows. But the cool people have to be U and not non-U. I meant to mock them. Gently.

I know Doctorow isn’t “our crowd,” our aesthetic kith and kin. But this book “about” a version of the Rosenberg children captures the weird ambivalence of the red diaper baby better than anything else I’ve read.

The coming of socialism would sanctify those who had suffered. You went out and took your stand, did what had to be done—not because you expected anything, but because someday there would be retribution, and you wanted just a little of it to bear your name. (3/3) —E. L. Doctorow, The Book of Daniel

That was my mother’s communism: something whose promise was so strong you endured much for it. Like a woman suffering pregnancy and childbirth to get the child. The child would make it worthwhile. (2/3)

Grandma lit candles on Friday night, a shawl over her head, her hands covering her face while she prayed. When she lowered her hands, her eyes—her blue eyes—were filled with tears, and devastation was in her face. (1/3)

Not the quote I’m looking for but it does seem apropos (2/2)

If justice cannot be made to operate under the worst possible conditions of social hysteria, what does it matter how it operates at other times?
—E.L. Doctorow, The Book of Daniel (1/2)

No I haven’t but it sounds terrific. Will seek it out. Also unexpectedly good is The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow. A particular passage in it took off the top of my head

has yet to even be published. That tome currently lies in the rectum of HarperCollins, ready to be excreted in June –“ (2/2) —Marina Hyde

Is the pope Catholic? JD Vance thinks he has an answer | Marina Hyde When it comes to theology, Donald Trump’s vice-president clearly knows best. Are we about to see an American break with Rome, asks Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

“For the next South Park season, I hope the creators give their brilliantly ghastly little vice-president avatar a papal mitre to wear. After all, here we have a man whose pick-me book on his journey to Catholicism 1/2)

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

From the OED.

Oh, delicious—thank you

Tell that to Ratner’s in 1965!

Which lines did you quote?

I’ve always wondered whether the Ashbery poem (circa 1962) was written as a parody/homage to Wieners (circa 1961).

#273 – Summer 2023 > Destined to tear this building down: an interview with Alice Notley, Nick Sturm Conducted over email from June 5 to June 10, 2023

“We are condemned to form.”—Alice Notley

www.poetryproject.org/publications...

Taken from Chrissie's debut solo record, 'Dark Sunglasses', released on this day in 2014! YouTube video by Chrissie Hynde

youtube.com/shorts/oI9w3...

A kind of glamour
You can lend yourself
Like dark sunglasses
And you'll remember
How good it tasted
Inside the ruling classes
Wasted, behind your dark sunglasses
Wasted, behind your dark sunglasses

“chills, Muff, & buffalo”!

Exactly! “You walk into the room with a pencil in your hand. . .”

And charades.

Jeepers