Poetry Friday

Real poetry can use any material. The important thing is that it be judiciously, infallibly, inevitably selected and arranged so that the perfect form is found, and so that the poet express the truth as it is.

~ Joan Giroux from The Haiku Form ~

And a Teacher Is a Sculptor

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

~ Joseph Addison ~

Road Maps

We're all pilgrims on the same journey--but some pilgrims have better road maps.

~ Nelson DeMille ~

I Do!

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.

~ Emily Dickinson ~







Print courtesy Library of Congress.

Intellectual Freedom

Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate, and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of work, and the viewpoints of both the author and the receiver of information.

~ American Library Association from the Intellectual Freedom Manual ~

Natural Resource

Intelligence is the only unlimited natural resource.

~ Robert Theobald ~

Poetry Friday

The Sixth Night: Waking

That first green night of their dreaming, asleep beneath the Tree,
God said, "Let meanings move," and there was poetry.

~ Muriel Rukeyser ~

Photo by Muffet.

The Fluffernutter

This trusty sandwich is almost more dessert than meal, which is why kids like it, and it is so simple to slap together, it hardly requires directions...

~ Michael McLaughlin ~

What's Up, Chuck?

Photo courtesy ChuckJones.com.

Ambition

I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.

~ Donald Hall from "Poetry and Ambition" ~

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate, after all.

~ Johnny Depp ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Politeness pleases even a cat.

~ Czech proverb ~

Drawing by Alice Barber Stephens courtesy Library of Congress.

Art

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt ~

Mural photo by Carol M. Highsmith courtesy Library of Congress.

Poetry Friday

Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.

~ Pablo Picasso ~





This is especially true of poetry, don't you think? --KK

Image courtesy the State Hermitage Museum

Standing in Libraries!

Books are standing counselors and preachers, always at hand, and always disinterested...

~ Louis Nizer ~

Photo by Ellen Forsyth.

A Sad Commentary...

All kids, when they go to school, are pretty good artists and dancers and singers and poets. All that gets buried, basically through being educated, or brainwashed.

~ William Wiley ~

Photo by Russell Lee courtesy Library of Congress.

Happy Birthday, Roald Dahl!

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.

~ Roald Dahl ~

Breast Cancer

12.2 percent of women born in the United States today will develop breast cancer at some time in their lives. This estimate is based on breast cancer statistics for the years 2005 through 2007.

~ National Cancer Institute ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

the cat waits
hour upon hour
...September 11

~ Diane Mayr ~

Photo by bonnyweb.

Embrace It

In a post-9/11 world, diversity has become even more important.

~ Jane Harman ~

Photo courtesy Oregon DOT.

Poetry Friday

The mythic nature of this attack, this disaster--echoing everything from the tower of Babel to the fall of Icarus--is undeniable, and the acts of heroism and the brute loss of so many makes it difficult to find adequate words, even for our most accomplished poets.

~ Philip Metres from "Beyond Grief and Grievance" ~

Film

A film is--or should be--more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings.

~ Stanley Kubrick ~





Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library.

Advice

We hate those who will not take our advice, and despise them who do.

~ David Sarnoff ~

Improvement

Improvement begins with I.

~ Arnold H. Glasow ~

Happy Labor Day!

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

~ Booker T. Washington ~

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The real measure of a day's heat is the length of a sleeping cat.

~ Charles J. Brady ~

Photo by Stephen and Claire Farnsworth.

Singing Words!

I'm not against e-books in principle – I'm tempted by the Kindle – but the more they become interactive and linked, the more they multitask and offer a hundred different functions, the less they will be able to preserve the aspects of the book that we actually need. An e-book reader that does a lot will not, in the end, be a book. The object needs to remain dull so the words – offering you the most electric sensation of all: insight into another person's internal life – can sing.

~ Johann Hari ~

Poetry Friday

Poetry--
but what is poetry anyway?
More than one rickety answer
has tumbled since that question first was raised.
But I just keep on not knowing, and I cling to that
like a redemptive handrail.

~ Wislawa Szymborska from "Some People Like Poetry" translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh ~

You Go, Melvil!

The librarian must be the librarian militant before he can be the librarian triumphant.

~ Melvil Dewey ~

Image courtesy Instant Attitudes.