Since this is a daily newsletter, not the daily news, I won’t add (much) to the ongoing Robin Williams deluge other than to unrepentantly note how much Dead Poet’s Society meant to me (mostly because of Williams’ performance as John Keating) at a time when I was vulnerable and had almost no one around me who understood—much less supported—my love of art, writing and literature…and plenty of people who, inadvertently or not, demeaned or degraded it. In the form of Keating, Robin Williams gave me something I desperately needed: the belief that, as he said, “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

WORK

“The Mower”

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

—Philip Larkin
—from Collected Poems

WORD(S)

floruit /FLOOR-you-it/. noun. Period during which a person flourished, during which a historical person’s work was done; the time in which a school, movement or species was active. Usually seen in abbreviation as fl. or flor., particularly in art history works. In genealogy, it indicates the known span a person was alive when death and/or birth dates are unclear. From the Latin, literally, “flourished.”

“Apelles, the greatest of Greek painters, floruit circa 332 B.C.” (Lucius Apuleius)

“The floruit of Cuculain, therefore, falls completely within the historical penumbra” (Standish O’Grady)

“Once at least he seems to have confused the date of an author’s floruit and that of his death, making Plautus die in B.C. 200 instead of B.C. 184” (George Middleton)

WEB

1. Archilocus famously said, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Perhaps too famously…Troy Patterson digs into the saying to see if there’s any “there” there.

2. If you like poems—short, powerful poems—subscribe to the Pome newsletter, which will drop an impeccable selection in your mailbox every day. Seriously.

3. The Public Art Archive is a constantly growing database of public art around the world. Browse/search by artist, location, year, etc.

4. Lou Reed vs Web 2.0. A story within a story, one dead, one dying, both still unfolding.

5. Today in 1958, Art Kane takes his iconic photograph “A Great Day in Harlem”, featuring 57 famous jazz musicians. I highly recommend the Academy Award nominated documentary of the same name.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader H. remarks on Christian Bobin, featured yesterday: “A new name to me, and, it seems, one worth seeking more of. He’s a prolific young fellow too.” — You’ll see more of Bobin’s work here in time…my copy of A Little Party Dress now has more text underlined and bracketed than not.

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

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