I have been wondering what to do about the blog. Should I keep writing as frequently as I have ... or should I take some time off... or should I take a break and review what I've written ... or should I do some other writing ... or just focus on me.
Then Threepenny Review is here. The first thing I read was a poem by Louise Gluck [don't know how to put the umlaut over her 'u'].
The poem is called 'Faithful and Virtuous Night'.
some bits:
My story begins very simply: I could speak and I was happy.
Or: I could speak, thus I was happy.
Or: I was happy thus speaking.
I was like a bright light passing through a dark room.
If it is so difficult to begin, imagine what it will be like to end-
....
Spring and the curtains flutter.
Breezes enter the room, bringing the first insects.
A sound of buzzing like the sound of prayers.
Constituent
memories of a large memory.
Points of clarity in a mist, intermittently visible,
like a lighthouse whose one task
is to emit a signal.
...
I think here I will leave you. It has come to seem
there is no perfect ending.
Indeed, there are infinite endings.
Or perhaps, once one begins,
there are only endings."
Well, yes. But then I turned the page and it's 'History's Attentive Scribe'. A book review by John Rockwell of "Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler." ... "our finest, most vivid first hand accounts of Germany, and Europe, from the collapse of the Kaiser's empire in 1918 through the rise of Hitler."
The last paragraph struck me.
"What is a good memoir. Like blogging, it requires the discipline to write steadily and constantly, which Kessler managed to do pretty well for over half a century, as well as a faith in an unknown audience, distant in space or time."
Well then, I am still beginning.
OWS Occupy Wall Street is in Union Square and there was some controversial police action.
But it was quiet when I was there.
Spring came at about 1AM according to the weatherman on channel 7. [I'm getting so suspicious of the media I'm beginning to question the weatherman.]
At 4 AM in Jamaica, Queens, an off-duty policeman was shot to death by a woman who witnesses say appeared to be friendly just moments before. At 5 AM after an altercation a man was stabbed to death outside a bodega on 116th and Lexington Ave. I want some more good news like Spring arriving.
Why am I suspicious of the media?
Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich, say whatever they want to reporters and no one verifies the information. It is promulgated unchecked. The news is supposed to report the facts, the who, the where, the when. Rick Santorum gave a speech on the campaign trail excerpted on CNN. In his speech he said the liberal elites in the big cities were keeping jobs away from the average guy. Within seconds of that remark he accused President Obama of waging class warfare. Gingrich in a speech on the campaign trail said Obama [he didn't say President Obama] is against domestic oil production and pro Arab oil production. He called the president un-american. These two speeches were excerpted within 30 minutes of each other.
The NY Times that day showed a report from the oil industry that US production of oil is up under the President and dependence on foreign oil is down. That was not reported on CNN. Frighteningly, more people watch CNN then read.
I want to correct what I said. I'm suspicious of TV.
P.S. I'm only on page 10 of Threepenny Review.
