Today, your pick of poisons: for those of you so inclined (or disinclined) a WORK and a WORD suitable for Valentine’s day, whatever your disposition.
WORK
“Opal”
You are ice and fire,
The touch of you burns my hands like snow.
You are cold and flame.
You are the crimson of amaryllis,
The silver of moon-touched magnolias.
When I am with you,
My heart is a frozen pond
Gleaming with agitated torches.
—Amy Lowell
—from Selected Poems of Amy Lowell
WORD(S)
mordacious. adjective. Sarcastic, scathing, acidulous, Juvenalian. Prone to biting. See also, of course, mordant. From Latin mordere (to bite).
He’d thunder and grumble
At high and at humble
Until he became, in a while,
Mordacious, pugnacious,
Rapacious. Good gracious!
They called him the Yankee Carlyle!
(Guy Wetmore Carryl)
“It has been well remarked that compared to the athletic march of the writings of Burke, the best letters of Junius remind us irresistibly of the strut of the petit-maître. It is the ramp of the lion by the side of the mordacious snarl of the cur.” (E. J. Payne)
“Hard, mordacious, no man’s friend … that was the David Drennen who at Pere Marquette’s fete sought any quarrel to which he might lay his hands.” (Jackson Gregory)
WEB
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I’ve never made mail art, but I sure do love receiving it! → ►“Making Mail is a documentary exploring the beauty and community surrounding mail-art.”
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Mike Tanis’s Kirigami and Origami paper forms.
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I can’t say I’ve read any book more than 40 times and only a few poems more than 100 times! How about you? Also, I suspect this should be “hectoreading” but point taken. → “Centireading force: why reading a book 100 times is a great idea” A tip o’ the cap to Reader B.
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“A forest in Norway is growing. In 100 years it will become an anthology of books.” → Future Library
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Today in 1971, Spiro Agnew beans not one, not two…but three spectators while attempting to get off the first tee of the Bob Hope Desert Golf Classic. Bob Hope would later quip that Agnew did “play the last 15 holes in great shape and on the back nine he got a birdie, an eagle, an elk, a moose and a mason.”
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
- Reader P. writes: “My folded cards arrived this morning and I already have one stamped and ready for the post. I love Bob Grumman’s image poem!” — As do I. Perhaps more of Bob’s Mathemaku or other visual poetry will appear here in the future…
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