I can’t stop thinking about the line: “we still live in an italicized world.”

WORK

“Sparrows”

(during Mao’s “Four Pests” campaign against four evils—rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows)

I want to pull one down, look into its eye—
     there would be a village,

thatch, megaphone, and the tops of fists.
     Stub of sun.

Villagers with pots and pans that banged.
     We still live in an italicized world.

Those trees by the ocean, the slanted ones,
     imply hands and knees.

—Victoria Chang
—from Salvinia Molesta

WORD(S)

gowpen /GOW-pin/. noun. The bowl formed by cupping one’s hands together; the amount that can be contained by such a shape, a double handful (originally “gowpen” was a single handful and “gowpens” a double). The children’s song “He Holds the Whole World in His Hands” could be said to refer to God’s gowpen.

“…those who were carrying home a melder of meal, seldom failed to add a gowpen to the alms-bag of the deformed cripple.” (Sir Walter Scott)

“…having, by the time I was in my fourteen, seen that, one year with another, I could not expect to make gold in gowpens at the erranding in Glasgow, I began to cast about for a new line.” (Archibald Flack)

“A nieveu’ o’ meal, or a gowpen o’ aits,
A dad o’ a bannock, or fadge to prie;
Cald kail, or porritch, or lickins o’ plates,
Wad hae made him as blythe as a beggar could be.” (unknown, from a Scots ballad)

WEB

1. A very clever idea simultaneously addressing two needs in Istanbul: in exchange for inserting a plastic bottle for recycling, this machine dispenses food for the large population of stray dogs.

2. The New York Times recently dedicated its book review section to the oft-asked question: does poetry matter? . Interesting enough reads given the unanswerable nature of the question. But the link to Gregory Orr’s review of James Franco’s book of poems made it all worth it.

3. The USC Digital Library has shared a collection of Japanese posters from 1915–1935. You can also browse via the collection’s Pinterest board

4. Cassandra Fernández has posted a series of photos showing how she made her artist book Among Humans, from carving and stamping to assembly. A beautiful piece.

5. Today in 1914, World War I began. Enough of that. Also today, in 1866, Beatrix Potter is born. Pleasing views of a variety of Potter’s work and how it influenced—and was influenced by—other artists in “Beatrix Potter: The Art of Illustration”.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader F. says “I love Katexic!” Thank you! Even better, she shares “another ‘Beauty’ item” following the small collection in yesterday’s edition:

“A Navajo Prayer”

In beauty may I walk
All day long may I walk
Through the returning seasons may I walk
Beautifully will I possess again
Beautifully birds,
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk
With dew about my feet may I walk
With beauty may I walk
With beauty before me may I walk
With beauty behind me may I walk
With beauty above me may I walk
With beauty all around me may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk
It is finished in beauty. It is finished in beauty.

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