read a good poem: "gentle as silence"

day's end. lourdes.
Originally uploaded by ata08

"Need" from The Collected Poems of Babette Deutsch
by Babette Deutsch

What do we need for love—a midnight fire
Flinging itself by fistfuls up the chimney
In soft bright snatches? Do we need the snow,
Gentle as silence, covering the scars
Of weeks of hunger, years of shabby having?
Summer or winter? A heaven of stars? A room?
The smiling mouth, the sadness of desire
Are everywhere the same. If lovers go
Along an unknown road, they find no less
What is familiar. Let them stay at home,
And all will still be strange. This they know
Who with each heartbeat fight the fear of change.

this is the first poem by babette deutsch that i've read. found it, somewhat randomly, tonight. i was immediately drawn in.

did a little googling, and uncovered a few tidbits. i am officially fascinated:

she's a new yorker...attended barnard (like me!)...and she, along with her husband, avrahm yarmolinsky, translated pushkin's eugene onegin, one of the finest, most treasured gifts i've received, from a great love of mine...

i love the reviews of her work (not "genius," but poems show feeling and integrity...ah, genius is overrated!)...

and i rather love this remark of hers: "the poet ... like the lover ... is a person unable to reconcile what he knows with what he feels. his peculiarity is that he is under a certain compulsion to do so."

"love me or leave me alone"

the view from the floor of kgb bar...

i check my email compulsively. it doesn't matter how slow or frenzied my day is, or where in the world i am, if i am near a computer, i will check my (multiple) email addresses for hellos (hint, hint), news (nytimes, washington post, mediabistro), sales (jcrew...adidas...), "green tips" (ideal bite!) and goings on about town. (bully for me if these goings on are inexpensive--or free--since that means i can spend more money on food and wine!) in any case, i wind up attending film screenings, gallery exhibits, food tastings, and many, many book events.

yesterday, in the middle of a maddening tuesday, i read about this six word memoir event, via flavorpill, and i decided to alter my thrilling plans (gym....laundry...) and head downtown to kgb bar. in lo the many years i've lived in ny, i'd never been to kgb bar. i was prepared to be the only non-hipster/intellectual in the room.

the bar was predictably packed with smart-looking folk. i shimmied my way past the bar, found a little bit of breathing room, right near the mic and makeshift dais. i was pleased with my position, until i realized that i (along with a few others) was obstructing the view of the super-smart folks that got there early enough to secure table seating.

they asked us to sit down. on the floor.

as a measure of my enthusiasm for this whole six word memoir idea, i obliged and plopped myself down--in my cute little black jersey dress, and my favorite vintage ivory cashmere coat--on the floor. of the bar. in the east village.

but i was rewarded. the editors, larry smith & rachel fershleiser were disarming as they read from the book's introduction, and offered some backstory on some of the submissions (the contributor of "I still make coffee for two" --zak nelson--has a new girlfriend; the woman behind "many miscarriages. cousin will carry baby" is now the mother of 2...) and i was amazed and inspired. i've been a fan of short short fiction for a while, but the challenge of using a mere six words sent my mind reeling...

my own six word memoir of that evening is banal, but true:

"sat on floor. my hips hurt." hurt so much, in fact, that i left before the "audience participation" portion of the evening.

ah well.

i spent the rest of the evening, at home, stretching my legs, thinking out loud and counting words on my fingers ("boy i want pays no mind," and lots of other lovelorn nonsense not worth writing down or repeating). it was a fun, challenging little exercise, to try to distill an idea or feeling, strip a moment down to its essence...

i think if you take a moment to read a few of the submissions on the site, you won't be able to resist giving it a try.

so register there! send them here! tell me what you think!

i'm going to keep at it. but i'm not sure i'll come up with anything better than this current favorite of mine, which i think rachel and larry said was scrawled in a ladies bathroom somewhere:

"love me or leave me alone."

untitled (bike memory)

© 2007 matias aguilar. all rights reserved.

"untitled" from isle of man series, part 7.

matias has posted some great new photos from his isle of man series. i couldn't decide which one to "feature" here, but i particularly love the mood and light in this shot. and i have a thing for motorcycles.

not that i have ever driven one myself.

but a dear, former boyfriend of mine developed a singular passion for motorcycles shortly after we started dating. he purchased a used suzuki gs850, a modest, but very cool bike. i had never been near a bike, let alone on one, and it didn't hold much appeal ("scary!"). but when this particular opportunity came along--to be escorted around town by this sweet, sweet guy, at the point when he was falling in love with the idea of being on the road, on a bike--i started to imagine what that kind of freedom might mean. i couldn't resist. he was fearless, and my "fear" fell away pretty quickly. which is not to say I didn't hold on pretty damn tight...

there maybe no better way to see new york city. as the passenger, you can literally sit back and enjoy a wonderful, unobstructed view of the sky and the cityscape. and you hear nothing but the constant, gentle whir of the engine, the wind against your helmet.

more than a few times, late at night, we rode across the brooklyn bridge. manhattan shining bright behind us, brooklyn twinkling ahead, everything truly aglow under the full moon light. as if we were watching an amazing silent film. or, creating one.

unforgettable.