I woke with the thought of a short, formal, rhyming poem in mind but then discovered the following work which, but for brevity, is the opposite. I hold handfuls of such “breakage.”
WORK
“True or False”
Real emeralds are worth more than synthetics
but the only way to tell one from the other
is to heat them to a stated temperature,
then tap. When it’s done properly
the real one shatters.
I have no emeralds.
I was told this about them by a woman
who said someone had told her. True or false,
I have held my own palmful of bright breakage
from a truth too late. I know the principle.
—John Ciardi
—from The Birds of Pompeii
[A meditation: consider this poem alongside a poem featured a few weeks ago: James Wright’s “The Jewel”]
WORD(S)
skice. verb. To frisk, skip or run about; to frolic. Rarely: to cut or slice.
“Up at five o’clock in the morning and out ’til dinner-time, out again at afternoon, and so till supper-time. Skice out this-away and skice out that-a-way. He’s no snail, I assure you.” (Richard Brome)
“Don’t the mice skice round house in the night, you!” (A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect)
“To skice and scrape their bark round about, in manner of scarification.” (Pliny)
WEB
-
Working On My Novel is a book by artist Cory Arcangel featuring 127 tweets from authors who aren’t quite so busy working on their novels that they don’t have time to tweet and tell you about how they are working on their novels.
-
How can you resist reading about “alien viruses from outer space and the great Archaeopteryx forgery”?
-
In Brain Pickings, which it’s possible one or two of you don’t read, Six Beautiful and Rare Recordings of Denise Levertov’s Poems, with illustrations by artist Ohara Hale.
-
Cristina De Middel creates portraits depicting the stories behind spam mail entreaties [no direct link…click Projects – Poly-Spam]
-
Arguably, the modern form of instant coffee was invented today in 1938. Thanks, Nescafé. Instant coffee was a boon for soldiers in combat zones, but I’m not sure why more than 75% of British households still drink it. I’ll admit I’ve had a tasty concoction of instant coffee, boiled milk, cinnamon and cardamom. And I’ll drink instant in a pinch, where “pinch” means: I’ve already recycled grounds and knocked over one too many coffee stands.
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
- Reader S comments: “Well, I can’t stop watching PetitTube. Of course, I can’t stop watching Ed Wood movies either.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
And please feel free to share anything here as far and wide as you want! If you want to give a shout-out, please link to: http://katexic.com/clippings/.
