Spoken Love Poem: Girls Who Read

Mark Grist, poet, tells us why he prefers girls who read. Funny, clever, a little raunchy — and a delight.

Letters of Note

Who writes letters?

Smart people.
Happy people.
Compassionate people.
Funny people.
Famous people.
Angry people.

Like: Conan O'Brien, George Harrison, John Steinbeck, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Alleta Sullivan, Wil Wheaton — and many more, all available on Letters of Note.

This website shows the original letter and offers a transcript. They are lovely to read, and they make me want to write more letters — or maybe even mail a dream.

Check out a few of these letters, and be inspired.

Celebrating the Dickens Out of Today

I will celebrate Charles Dickens' 200th birthday tonight by reading the second chapter of Oliver Twist. (I read the first chapter a few days ago.)

I look forward to discovering the terrible nature of one of literature's vilest villains, Bill Sikes.

Interesting tidbit: the author was accused of anti-Semitism when the book was first published. At first, he defended himself.  Then, according to Wikipedia, he "then halted the printing of Oliver Twist, and changed the text for the parts of the book that had not been set, which is why Fagin is called 'the Jew' 257 times in the first 38 chapters, but barely at all in the next 179 references to him."

If you want something Dickens-ish — but not by Dickens — consider Drood, a fabulous mystery novel by Dan Simmons that speculates if there wasn't more truth to Dickens' final, unfinished novel.

The Passing of Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska

Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska died February 1, and I was thrilled and saddened when I stumbled across this poem of hers. It took my breath away when I first read it  in the Washington Post years ago — and still does today.

I wish her peace.

The End and the Beginning

After every war
someone has to tidy up.
Things won't pick
themselves up, after all.

Someone has to shove
the rubble to the roadsides
so the carts loaded with corpses
can get by.

Someone has to trudge
through sludge and ashes,
through the sofa springs,
the shards of glass,
the bloody rags.

Someone has to lug the post
to prop the wall,
someone has to glaze the window,
set the door in its frame.

No sound bites, no photo opportunities,
and it takes years.
All the cameras have gone
to other wars.

The bridges need to be rebuilt,
the railroad stations, too.
Shirtsleeves will be rolled
to shreds.

Someone, broom in hand,
still remembers how it was.
Someone else listens, nodding
his unshattered head.

But others are bound to be bustling nearby
who'll find all that
a little boring.

From time to time someone still must
dig up a rusted argument
from underneath a bush
and haul it off to the dump.

Those who knew
what this was all about
must make way for those
who know little.
And less than that.
And at last nothing less than nothing.

Someone has to lie there
in the grass that covers up
the causes and effects
with a cornstalk in his teeth,
gawking at clouds.

(courtesy Web Archive)

 

The Commercial We Should See During the Super Bowl

Dear Budweiser, think again — and let us see this quality of commercial during the Super Bowl. You usually have nice commercials, but this one... well, let's just watch.

Keep up the good work, and please share this quality of commercials with those of us south of the border. We will appreciate it, really — and I promise I'll cry again. (It's an easy promise to make.)

Thank you.

Fun Friday: Books and Yarn Bombs

Put them together and what have you got?

With thanks to Book Crossing, Yarn Bombing and Twitter.

The Month of Letters: Postage

Happy Month of Letters!

Before you drop that letter in the mailbox, make sure you've used the proper amount of postage. The U.S. Postal Service recently changed postal rates, so check before you mail.

How much does it cost to mail a letter? What about a postcard?  Find out here.

Be sure to use proper postage so missives get to their destinations.