Sunday, May 24, 2009

Preface

First, plain speech in the mother tongue.
Hearing it, you should be able to see
Apple trees, a river, the bend of a road,
As if in a flash of summer lightning.

And it should contain more than images.
It has been lured by singsong,
A daydream, melody. Defenseless,
It was bypassed by the sharp, dry world.

You often ask yourself why you feel shame
Whenever you look through a book of poetry.
As if the author, for reasons unclear to you,
Addressed the worse side of your nature,
Pushing aside thought, cheating thought.

Seasoned with jokes, clowning, satire,
Poetry still knows how to please.
Then its excellence is much admired.
But the grave combats where life is at stake
Are fought in prose. It was not always so.

And our regret has remained unconfessed.
Novels and essays serve but will not last.
One clear stanza can take more weight
Than a whole wagon of elaborate prose.

--Czeslaw Milosz

Friday, May 1, 2009

Elaborate Bacon


Elaborate Bacon! "Piece in heart, Fragrance in mouth." Yum!

This was taken on our recent trip to China.

Oh, no, wait.

Actually, I've never been to China. What I meant to write was that this was taken from Elyse Sewell's LiveJournal. If that name rings a bell, it's because she was one of the final two left standing on the first cycle of "America's Next Top Model," and the brightest woman ever to have been on that show.

Now she's in China modeling--or LadyPosing, as they call it there--and keeping us entertained with her many posts and pictures.