Another disjeweling.

WORK

“Lobster”

At hospice, a statue of a heron perched
among cattails, looking fragile in black water,

remaining firm—my mother’s body
the anthithesis, how it bruised

where my brother gripped her
while she talked about lobster all week:

the ceremony, the satisfaction of parting
meat from shell, the decadent drip-down

of butter finding cracks, pooling in claw tips.
I sat living with that pond—bulldozed body

filled and stocked with smallmouths—and
the wretched metal bird refusing to unfold.

—Luke Johnson
—from 32 Poems

WORD(S)

epergne /i-PERN/. noun. An ornamental centerpiece for a table, usually featuring a large center bowl with branches, each branch holding a small dish or vase.

“An epergne or centre-piece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth.” (Charles Dickens)

“…in another part of Buckingham Palace a small storm in a silver-gilt epergne was brewing.” (Julian Barnes)

“I took the green glass epergne that belonged to Aunt Mildred off the sideboard and smashed it with a hammer.” (John Cheever)

“Mamas were shaking heads at daughters who had ventured upon a tenth sip of a glass of sherry. Papas were getting extremely jocular about the probability of becoming grand-dittos. Everybody else was doing exactly what everybody pleased, when Mrs. Applebite’s uncle John emerged from behind an epergne, and vociferously commanded everybody to charge their glasses…” (Punch, 10/23/1841)

WEB

1. A great article on “letterlocking” in early modern letters and a series of accompanying videos demonstrating the same using pleated folds, vertical stabs and seals, wrapped floss and more.

2. A listen to brighten your day: ▶ Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine (isolated vocals).

3. “Necessity obliges us to neologize.” The American Scholar on coining words, language purists and flinging word over the pond.

4. The Beloit University 2018 Mindset list is out. Purporting to help us get in the mind of an average 18-year old, with each successive release I find it as irritating (dismissive, wrong and wrong-minded, &c.) as I do amusing. The list, not the kids. I must be getting old.

5. Today in 1666, the Great Fire of London starts in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane. It would ultimately burn Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the homes of close to 90% of the city’s inhabitants. Samuel Pepys’ diary entries for September 1666 tell the story, as does the diary of John Evelyn. And here’s the recipe for the cakes that Farriner might have been making at the time.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader C. reflects after reading Walcott’s “Love After Love”: “Every day I give thanks to the 29 year old man who built my house in hand made rustic carpentry without borrowing any money from a bank. What a gift. And how much more clearly he knew me at 65 than I know him at 29.”

• Reader K. notes that “quire” (yesterday’s WORD) is also an old word for choir, as in Thomas Hardy’s novel The Mellstock Quire.

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