Walcott’s poem is deceptively complex. It’s about life and gratitude for that life while we have it, but could have been accurately titled “Life After Life.” It’s about summation and invitation. It’s about the strange that is us. And if none of that interests you, how about knowing it’s one of Tom Hiddleston’s favorite poems? Hear him read it with his perfect-for-poetry voice.

WORK

“Love After Love”

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

—Derek Walcott
—from Collected Poems, 1948–1984

WORD

thrawn. adjective. Crooked, misshapen, distorted; the face distorted by anger or distemper; perverse, contrary, crabbed, peevish. Special combination: thrawn-faced, thrawn-gabbit. Any sentence uttered using it must be pronounced with your best Scottish accent, ala “Jeez O, yer a thrawn auld bugger!”

“Ye thrawn-faced, slack-twisted muckle haythen ye!” (S.R. Crockett)

“A toom [empty] purse makes a thrawn face.” (proverbial)

“He cried oot and fell thrawn…” (J.M. Barrie)

WEB

1. The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is a sweet, generous documentary film about the short life of the programmer, political organizer and activist who committed suicide early last year after losing a legal battle over his release of an archive of academic documents. Free at the Internet Archive and on YouTube.

2. William Hundley’s photo series “Entoptic Phenomenon” (and the method he uses to make them) are intriguing. See more in his flickr photo gallery.

3. You can now view nine of Charlotte and Branwell Brontë’s tiny, handmade books online. Written when they were 13 and 12!

4. Naturally, my obsession with typography, paper and books (and lists) makes listicles like “45 Beautifully Designed Book Covers” interesting. What are some of your favorite book covers? One of mine: the cover for A Death in Summer, a mystery by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville, one of the most gifted writers of our time).

5. Today is Kevin Bacon’s birthday. My Bacon Number is 3, through two different connections: Myself → Sven Holmberg (college) → Marisa Tomei → Kevin OR Myself → Chris Offutt (email correspondent many years ago) → Ryan Gosling → Kevin Bacon. KB, as I like to think he’d like me to call him, seems like a cool guy, whether he’s explaining the 80s to Millennials, playing “not my job” on Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me or entreating us to join the Kevin Bacon Movie Club.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader V. asks about the word “salmagundi” in Salmagundi Sunday’s collection of runner-up links. For now I’ll note I also considered calling the Sunday collections a hodge-podge, a gallimaufry, a smörgåsbord, a farrago, or an olla-podrida. But “Salmagundi Sunday” has both delicious alliteration and near-rhymes.

• Reader J. suggests I publish a newsletter like this on the “intersection of education and technology” (my career field). Funny guy. There’s only one of me. And such a thing probably already exists. And the thought heavy bores me, as Berryman put it.

• A few weeks back I shared a link about the unlikely connection between Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot. Even weirder: apparently the child Andre the Giant and Samuel Beckett were friends.

As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com