Peter Johnson said that Max Jacobs’ prose poems have a kind of “dream logic” to them. This seems to be at the heart of the surrealist strand of prose poems à la Russell Edson and Charles Simic…a rationale borne of revery.

WORK

“The Beggar Woman of Naples”

When I lived in Naples, there was a beggar woman at my palace gate I’d toss a coin to before getting into my carriage. One day, surprised that she never thanked me, I looked at her. As I did, I saw that what I’d mistaken for a beggar woman was a green wooden crate containing some red earth and a few half-rotten bananas.

—Max Jacob (trans. by William Kulik)
—from Dreaming the Miracle: Three French Prose Poets

WORD(S)

amarant(h) /AM-uh-rant(h)/. noun. A mythical flower that never fades. A type of ornamental flowers and the purple color that characterizes them. A raspberry-red/magenta hue of dye used for textiles.

“Their Crowns inwove with Amarant and Gold,
Immortal Amarant, a Flour which once
In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life
Began to bloom, but soon for mans offence
To Heav’n remov’d” (Milton)

“The Crested Amaranth…is commonly called Cock’s-comb.” (Thomas Martyn)

“…hence windows opening on to wharfs, a continual pounding of waves against docks, a mad and enraptured retinue like a confusion of opals in which amaranths and terebinths write with lucid insomnias on the dark stone walls of being able to hear…” (Fernando Pessoa)

WEB

1. I noted on Facebook that this story makes me want to slap Ira Glass’s glasses off his face: Ira Glass Tweets ‘Shakespeare Sucks’. I appreciate the clever response, though: “This American Lear”.

2. Last year I found myself captivated by a book of colorized Civil War photos. Coloring photos seems less wrong—and when done well and selectively, perhaps even actually right—than coloring films. See 54 Colorized Photos from the Last Century. And while you’re photo surfing, you might enjoy this random collection of bizarre and beautiful natural phenomenon.

3. Alone is a short documentary about one small niche in America’s ever-growing prison industry: teenagers in solitary. The investigation for the documentary also led to a powerful and painful graphic novel about one teen prisoner’s experience there, The Box.

4. I became aware of Chloe Weil through her Sound of Summer project, which explored her history of music listening—via her iTunes library—in a fascinating way. And I enjoyed her short piece about being a synesthete (one who “tastes” words). A few months ago she did a presentation on synesthesia and her work. In following up on the last I discovered she recently committed suicide. RIP, Chloe.

5. Today in 1875, Jacques Villon (born Emile Méry Frédéric Gaston Duchamp), painter and printmaker—and brother of Marcel Duchamps, of urinal infamy—is born. Villon was central to the Cubist movement as well as fusing Cubism and Impressionism. See some of Villon’s paintings at The Athenaeum, the MOMA and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader C. asks how I select the featured WORD(S) and wonders where I find them. My informal criteria: a word that is new to me, unknown or unexamined, novel in its usage, (regrettably) obsolete or particularly melodic to my ear. A word need not be obscure to be interesting enough to make an appearance. I find the words through my reading and browsing and have notes many hundreds—if not thousands—in notebooks over the years. And some come from readers…if you have a great word to share, send it my way!

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/.