Poetry Friday

I am not at all clear what free verse is anymore. That's one of the things you learn not to know.

~ Howard Nemerov ~
Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

No Matter How Small...

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.

~ Tennessee Williams ~
Photo by brewbooks, some rights reserved.

75 Years Old This Year!

The Preeminent Ballet

What War and Peace is to the novel and Hamlet is to the theater, Swan Lake is to ballet--that is, the name which to many people stands for and sums up an art form.

~ Robert Gottlieb ~
© The New York Public Library.

Who Doesn't Love Barbecue?

Revolutionaries eat too!

~ Bobby Seale ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

I have felt cats rubbing their faces against mine and touching my cheek with claws carefully sheathed. These things, to me, are expressions of love.

~ James Herriot ~
Photo by Luke-of-Kondor.

The Discussion

The entire discussion of race in America centers around the protection of White feelings.~ John Metta ~




Has anyone read Go Set a Watchman? The above statement is clearly supported by that book. Although I thought the book could have used a lot of editing, its discussion possibilities are endless. --KK

Poetry Friday

A commonplace book is what a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that "great wits have short memories:" and whereas, on the other hand, poets, being liars by profession, ought to have good memories; to reconcile these, a book of this sort, is in the nature of a supplemental memory, or a record of what occurs remarkable in every day’s reading or conversation. There you enter not only your own original thoughts, (which, a hundred to one, are few and insignificant) but such of other men as you think fit to make your own, by entering them there.

~ Jonathan Swift from "A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet" ~

Love This!

He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.

~ P. G. Wodehouse ~

Sharks

Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you're lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you're in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don't see sharks.

~ Sylvia Earle ~
Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy Library of Congress.

Read!

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.

~ Oprah Winfrey ~

A Little Sun Ditty

Postcard courtesy NY Public Library Digital Collection.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction.

~ Mark Twain ~




Illustration by Mark Twain, courtesy Internet Archive.

Strong Enough

So maybe all the questions can boil down to this: Looking at a so-called Strong Female Character, would you—the writer, the director, the actor, the viewer—want to be her? Not want to prove you’re better than her, or to have her praise you or acknowledge your superiority. Action movies are all about wish-fulfillment. Does she fulfill any wishes for herself, rather than for other characters? When female characters are routinely "strong" enough to manage that, maybe they’ll make the "Strong Female Characters" term meaningful enough that it isn’t so often said sarcastically.

~ Tasha Robinson ~

Poetry Friday

Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

~ Thomas Aquinas ~





Painting courtesy WikimediaCommons.

Art Is Crafts and Crafts is Art

But the very definition of art has been biased in that "art" was what men did in a European tradition and 'crafts' were what women and natives did. But it's actually all the same.

~ Gloria Steinem ~

It's Hoopla Day!

hoop·la
noun

1.
a: excited commotion









[The hoopla creates expectations that generally can't be met. We'll see... --KK]

Happy Birthday, Patrick Stewart!

I am not the archetypal leading man. This is mainly for one reason: as you may have noticed, I have no hair.

~ Patrick Stewart ~





Photo courtesy Patrick Stewart Network.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Clipping courtesy Wellcome Images.

Outrageous, But Happening Nonetheless

I find it incredible and outrageous that public and school libraries are being forced to close--we'll all pay the price in the long term.

~ Anthony Browne ~

Poetry Friday

Simplicity is the glory of expression.

~ Walt Whitman ~







Walt Whitman cottage photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Happy Birthday, Tom Hanks!

A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown.

~ Tom Hanks ~
Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Oops! And Ice Cream

Oops, because I forgot to post a quote yesterday. In my case creeping senility has picked up the pace.

Today's quote:

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

~ Thornton Wilder ~
Photo courtesy NY Public Library Digital Collections.

It's Time We Started

We must learn to see the world anew.

~ Albert Einstein ~
This applies to almost everything creative and/or requiring thought! --KK

Photo, ISS043E256340 (05/26/2015) --- The crew of Expedition 43 on board the International Space Station took this Earth observation image of Australia that captures the imagination with its brilliant blues and rugged cliffs along the waters edge. The view is of northern Australia, along the eastern Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland, courtesy NASA.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language.

~ Martin Buber ~

Happy 4th of July!

...at the end of the day, we’re part of a long-running story. We just try to get our paragraph right.

~ Barack Obama ~



Illustration courtesy openclipart.org
.

Poetry Friday

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.

~ Amy Lowell ~
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Ya Think?

I shouldn't be saying this--high treason, really--but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting brilliance that may not really be there.

~ Stephen Fry ~

We, Too, Are Headed Toward Extinction

Just as fossil fuels from conventional sources are finite and are becoming depleted, those from difficult sources will also run out. If we put all our energy and resources into continued fossil fuel extraction, we will have lost an opportunity to have invested in renewable energy.

~ David Suzuki ~

Issues? Always!

With any tween, you have issues, from what they are going to wear to school, to how do you get them to speak politely, to how regularly they lose their contact lenses.

~ Marcia Gay Harden ~

Yes!

Our society spends a lot of money on prison bars. For the sake of our kids, let's invest in monkey bars.

~ Darell Hammond ~
Photo by Marjory Collins (1942), courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The 10-pound, 6-ounce cat would become the nighttime warden at the Original L.A. Flower Market, making sure rodents and other vermin didn't get out of hand. He's part of a group of tough cats recruited by an animal rights nonprofit to find homes in places that could use their hard-scrabble qualities. Along with another cat named DeNiro, Pacino would prowl the Italian side of the flower market.

~ Jerome Campbell ~
Photo © Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times.

Tickled Pink...and Purple and Blue and Green and...

Poetry Friday

Literature, like magic, has always been about the handling of secrets, about the pain, the destruction, and the marvelous liberation that can result when they are revealed. If a writer doesn't give away secrets, his own or those of the people he loves, if he doesn't court disapproval, reproach and general wrath, whether of friends, family or party apparatchiks...the result is pallid, inanimate, a lump of earth.

~ Michael Chabon ~

Curiosity

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Some Things You Just Gotta Do

Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works.

~ Alma Gluck ~

Butterflies

In popular esteem the butterflies among the insects are what the birds are among the higher animals—the most attractive and beautiful members of the great group to which they belong.

~ Clarence M. Weed ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The airs he assumed! The graces he put on! The arts he practised! The condescension of his smile! The upward tilt of his nose! The twirl of his moustachios! The defiant angle of his tail!

~ Ada M. Marzials from More Tales in the Land of Nursery Rhyme ~
Photo by Romana Klee.

Such a Sad Week...

The hateful killing of nine people praying inside a church is a horrific reminder that, while we have made significant progress in advancing civil rights in this country, we are far from eradicating racism. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and their congregation.

~ Bernie Sanders ~

Poetry Friday

Write what should not be forgotten.

~ Isabel Allende ~





Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Equality of Rights

The principle of equality of rights underlies all human sentiments, and its assertion by any individual or class must rouse antagonism, unless conceded. This has been the battle of the ages, and will be until all forms of slavery are banished from the earth. Philosophers, historians, poets, novelists, alike paint woman the victim ever of man's power and selfishness.

~ from the "Introduction" to History of Woman Suffrage, edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage ~

Be Bold!

The only difference between an experienced knitter and new knitter is that the experienced knitter makes bigger mistakes faster. Be bold; there are no terrible consequences in knitting.

~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ~




Graphic courtesy openclipart.

Always at War

A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. So the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.

~ Umberto Eco ~

To Combat Hunger

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

~ Mother Teresa ~
Image courtesy Internet Archive.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Zu des Müllers Haus,
Aber da war Niemand drinnen
Nur die Katze schaute aus!

The cat looked out from the miller's house,
No one was in, not even a mouse

~ German children's song ~

Photo courtesy Harvard Library.

Slow Down!

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

~ Mahatma Gandhi ~

Poetry Friday

And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.

~ Edgar Lee Masters, "Fiddler Jones" from Spoon River Anthology ~

Dessert

Absolutely eat dessert first. The thing that you want to do the most, do that.

~ Joss Whedon ~
Kate Greenaway illustration courtesy NY Public Library Digital Gallery.

Life Is a Game?

In life, as in chess, forethought wins.

~ Charles Buxton ~






Photo courtesy NY Public Library Digital Collections.

Neither Have I

I've never run into a person who yearns for their middle school days.

~ Jeff Kinney ~

Family History

Knowing more about family history is the single biggest predictor of a child's emotional well-being. Grandparents can play a special role in this process, too.

~ Bruce Feiler ~
1844 daguerreotype courtesy Library of Congress.

Sunday's Kat Kwote

If you want to reassure your cat, stare at your cat, then very deliberately and very slowly blink. Like that. The cat will also deliberately, slowly blink back at you, and I almost guarantee that she will start to purr. That's a feline reassurance.

~ Walter Murch ~

Work

The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic--in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea--known to medical science is work.

~ Thomas Szasz ~
[But, it can also kill you! --KK]

Poetry Friday

A poem need not have a meaning and like most things in nature often does not have.

~ Wallace Stevens ~

The Sooner, the Better

I think what you're seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they've got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

~ Barack Obama ~

Zoo Animals

Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.

~ Jack Hanna ~
Card courtesy NYPL Digital Gallery.

A Fair Question

How can our kids really understand the moral complexities of being alive if they are not allowed to engage in those complexities outdoors?

~ Richard Louv ~

It Must Be Good--She's a Great Writer!

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

~ Jane Smiley ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Of all our sunny world
I wish only for a garden sofa
where a cat is sunning itself.

~ Edith Södergran from "A Wish"~

Photo by mattbuck4950.

Where Are You Heading?

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

~ Lao Tzu ~
Graphic courtesy openclipart.

Interesting Observation

I have no luddite prejudice against new technology; it's just that books look as if they contain knowledge, while e-readers look as if they contain information.

~ Julian Barnes ~

Poetry Friday

I tend to like poems that engage me--that is to say, which do not bore me.

~ Mark Strand ~

We All Need One!

I don't think you'll ever have a perfect world because we humans are prone to error, and so we're always in search of an upgrade.

~ Henry Rollins ~

Good Advice!

If it's flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, be the best hamburger flipper in the world. Whatever it is you do you have to master your craft.

~ Snoop Dogg ~





Photo by Eva Rinaldi.

Doodling Makes Meaning

On Memorial Day

We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible.

~ George Santayana ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

I don't know how I missed this earlier! --KK

Peace Like a River

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."

~ Horatio Gates Spafford ~
In memory of my friend, Jena.

Poetry Friday

No great artist ever sees things as they really are, if he did he would cease to be an artist.

~ Oscar Wilde ~

Which Is Not As Glamorous As Curling

Badminton is not as glamorous as cricket.

~ Saina Nehwal ~