Today clippings turns 100 (issues)! Toddlery milestones to look forward to over the next 100 include little katexic taking its first wobbly steps, picking up new words, obeying two-step directions, increased defiance and interest in using the toilet.

Below: a WORK I haven’t stopped thinking about for months, a REPLY that humbled me and alone makes this whole weird thing worthwhile, a request for your HELP and some fun(-ish) stats.

WORK

[I Saw Myself]

I saw myself
a ring of bone
in the clear stream
of all of it

and vowed,
always to be open to it
that all of it
might flow through

and then heard
“ring of bone” where
ring is what a

bell does

—Lew Welch
—from Ring of Bone: Collected Poems of Lew Welch

REPLY

From Reader F.:

I want you to know that my partner/spouse of 54 years (finally legally married during the California window of 2008), is under hospice care. She is at home, peaceful, knowing it is a matter of time, and not a lot of that. But I do check in to Katexic and always find something that I need to read, reread, or, occasionally, not. I loved responding to the Stevens comment and thank you for your words. I read my response to her because she was such a part of my first reading of his poems and has been there with me and Stevens all the way. (The Idea of Order at Key West….). And now Blake. And the Tyger. It was wonderful to read the entire poem just now. I just want to say thanks. You are helping me through this journey.

HELP

I have some surprises in store for the next 100 issues, but I need your help. If you are so inclined, you could:

• Share the love. If you have a blog, belong to an email list, use Facebook, Tweet or whatever…share a link to http://katexic.com/clippings/.

• Like the Katexic Facebook page and/or follow the Twitter stream. Links there don’t overlap with the newsletter.

• Keep the comments and suggestions coming, be they for WORKs and WORDs or complaints and kudos.

In the First 100

Quick Stats

Shared: 90 WORDs, 989 WEB links and 93 WORKs comprised of just over 50% poetry, 20% fiction, 15% nonfiction and 15% other, including lyrics, letters, lists and dialogue…or 61,599 words.

Consumed: ~130 quad-shot AMERICANOS, ~200 HOURS and a lot of SPOTIFY

Top 5 Links in the Newsletter

1. “What’s Up With That: Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos”

2. X-Ray GIFs

3. “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

4. “Food Porn for Lovers of Great Literature”

5. Stephen Fry on Language (Kinetic Typography edition)

Top 5 Links on Facebook/Twitter

1. Photo: lightning striking and passing through a plane

2. “Welcome to Utopia”

3. The bizarrely sexualized cover for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

4. 31 Adorable Slang Terms for Intercourse from the Last 600 Years

5. “Every French Novel Ever”

Thanks for reading!

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/.