Overheard: Why it is a good idea to go out to lunch

 

 

From the department of things you simply cannot make up:  we were having lunch in a very conventional restaurant in our town. Delicate stomachs, long story, not relevant. Anyhow, I truly could not help but overhear the story one middle-aged woman was telling her companion, an older woman. I couldn't help overhearing because the speaker was LOUD. This is what she said, verbatim, no interpolations or omissions I promise:

"This cleaning product is all natural. It kills bacteria, but you can drink it. I do. This is the company that Richard was looking into. A pharma company went into his computer and deleted the file--so unscrupulous. She [no idea] is disgusting, despicable. Richard's business partner killed him. It was a mess. The FBI got involved. He was embezzling our money and everything. Organized crime. Richard lost it all--all his hair too. He started early.

"Richard's sister's husband's brother was murdered. He got into it with a homeless woman. She came back with five friends and they stoned him to death. They were on meth, pinned down his legs with a boulder. Richard gave him a beautiful service. [vigorously and with gestures, imitating Richard, I suppose] 'As he was dying, Sataaan went to pull him down, but Jesus flew in and snatched him up--and I know your brother sits in Heaven this day.'"

Finally photos again!

My sweet old cat asserting her rights to supervise me as I write. So glad to be able to upload photos again.

The Translator is a Traitor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieplate/5391787797/in/set-72157625915342290

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieplate/2581308511/in/set-72157625121163140

(Still can't upload photos, so here are links.)

Lately I've been wanting to translate Heine. Not the poems that anyone is interested in, which is to say, that someone might like to publish. Just ones that suggest translating to me, like "Ich rief den Teufel, und er kam". I used to have a knack for finding the convincing equivalent phrase, but I am finding that I have less room to maneuver. Shoot, I used to try to match roots so that the subliminal imagery would carry over.

This is the image that comes to me:  say that a poem is a footbridge across a chasm carved by a river. When you walk out to the center, you can look upstream and downstream and enjoy the views. A translation is another footbridge, set close to the first one. You'll start out and end up close to where the first bridge does. Your views up- and downstream will be similar, but they won't be identical, and one of them will include the other bridge.

I love science!

I would have loved this even more if Blogger had permitted me to upload some of my many photos of cups of hot chocolate. I'll have to be satisfied with posting some flickr URLs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86806049@N00/3726185721/in/photolist-6FgFcp-78MJ2n-88ym4E

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86806049@N00/181901294/in/photolist-h5hVd-PCcGV-5iQMA7-5iQNhG-5iQNNW-5sf75p-6FgFcp-78MJ2n-88ym4E

...and, finally:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86806049@N00/538938721/in/photolist-PCcGV-5iQMA7-5iQNhG-5iQNNW-5sf75p-6FgFcp-78MJ2n-88ym4E

"Researchers at Harvard have conducted another study endorsing the benefits of chocolate. In a study of people over 65 with impaired blood flow, it was found that drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day for 30 days increased their scores on memory and thinking skills tests." Whatever it takes!

This one isn't hot, but who cares?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86806049@N00/4026277487/in/photolist-78MJ2n-88ym4E

Adventures on the road: another sestina challenge

I was supposed to meet last Thursday with my poetry buddy, Judith Terzi. She got caught up in a terrible freeway embouteillage:  a bus carrying seniors to a casino turned over, and inevitably all traffic stopped. (Wondering hard about a day in a casino being so many older folks' idea of a good time, but never mind.) She used the time, though, and noted words to be used as teluons for a follow-up to my Freeway Sestina from a few years back. (See links <---). She suggested brewery, bus, lane, jam, curb, bingo, and, gambling. I offered  beer, helicopter, accident, trap, bowl, and odds. We'll see whether either one of us can contrive a sestina on any subject at all from any six of these.  Right now, I am inclining towards jam, bingo, trap, odds, bus, and either beer of brewery.

another reading tomorrow, Saturday August 17

Many thanks to poetry mid-wife Don Kingfisher Campbell for inviting me to read at the Catalina branch of the Pasadena public library, at 999 E. Washington. There is an open mic, and the reading will go from 3-5pm. I promise not to read anything I have read there before.

Another reading this Sunday, 8/11/13

A bit dark, an unexpected take on something you see every day, somewhat whimsical. Yep, that describes my poems.

I'll be reading again this coming Sunday, 8/11/13, in Second Sundays, the fine poetry series hosted by Alex Frankel. For location, directions, and details, see http://www.secondsundaypoetry.com/ With me will read the amazing Daniel Romo, as well as Martina Newberry. Martina and I knew each other 30 years ago, when we both had different names and different careers. She had a fine voice then, and I'm looking forward to discovering what she is saying now.