Archives

The PhiLLer
That's Just Insipid!
The Cocktail Sermons

 
Flynn's Poem: VI: Waltz

I promised comments. I have been so lack lately, so here we go... What I like so much about this poem is the voice of the prose - it starts out with a very Steinbeckian tone (a la the beginning of The Grapes of Wrath, with the descriptions of the red earth and the gray earth, and then the rains came...and the red earth turned pink, and the gray earth turned white, etc and so on), what with the "...and the trees went wide; and thence the raspberries and thawed lakes.." and so on. And then Steinbeck combines with something / someone much older, with words like "thence," and "heretofore" -- so it is a strange combination of Steinbeck meets modernity - with the cars deiced and such and the archaisms like thence. A nice juxtaposition of past and present. (Side note: I want to bring back more old school words that don't get much play anymore - like knave, thence, whilst, and so on, and use them in everday speech and remake the vernacular.) The use of the midline anaphora is beautiful - the "And then..." - it all just has great rhythm within the lines. Also, the use of lots of place names that I know / you know personally is great. THe last bit: "O, a skip through splash and watch seawater rain from Branford east; our feet are crabs and tides—and how Point Judith winks." is gold, especially the "our feet are crabs and tides" as well as " -- and how Point Judith winks." There also seems to be a bit of Whitman in there somewhere...but even as I name out these poetic greats, it is completely original - not derivative. I just feel the pulse of these other poets through you. So, sorry for the delay in the commentary. I have been bad about this. I printed out the poem, and it hangs on my wall next to Marty's "The Song that Brought Tears in Real Life" (sorry if I messed up the title).

On another note -
Today is cloudy and 56. It has been so sunny, and yes, my shoulders are sunburt still. But SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS MAKES ME HAPPY! (had to, thank you Marty : o ) the good ol days). Speaking of good old days...my nostalgia for Colgate grows by the hour. I am really glad that I didn't transfer away from that place because being away, and being at a different school clarifies so much for me in terms of what I loved about / and what was great about Colgate. I was happy there. I know that when I went to St. Andrews, I had a blast and loved the terrain and North Sea being a hop and skip from my door. But in terms of certain things about the school, I knew that Colgate had it goin on. Still, being at Vanderbilt amplifies what I liked about Colgate. Not in its similarities, but in its differences. I was talking with J. Crites, aka Joshcrites (pronounced to rhyme with Socrates) and he went to Colgate for a while...we just bullshitted about Hamilton and what it was like when he / I was there, etc...he was an ATO! It is so funny to me, but makes sense in certain ways. We talked about dorms and campus culture and just shit. Man, Gate House was one of the best things that could have happened to me at Colgate. Props to PhiLL, Flynn, and Larry. It's so strange. I think the Reunion Office has started to short circuit my brain as well, but regardless, I know now what was so great about Colgate. Yea, every now and then we all got bogged down with shit, but shit is everywhere. It's the other stuff that counts and where you find it and with whom. Ok, the nostalgia break is over, but I really mean it....

I need to end on a different note other than nostalgia. Papers. Lots of them to be written. I am about to go and do that. Wish me luck. Hope everyone has a good weekend -

 
For Kevin

Yes, things I am sure are different in EXP land. Things were getting very different even by the time I graduated back in old Spring '02. Christ how time flies past my dumb ass and a year has almost elapsed since I was at Colgate. Damn. It's really difficult to believe. The old days of EXP were the best, particularly, in my opinion, the fall of '00 (my junior fall, your sophomore fall). That was when things seemed simpler and clearer and, to be plain, just much more laid back and fun. I know the tensions rose high by the time I graduated, and a bunch of us were on the brink of quitting or exploding or lots of things...So why precisely did you leave the group? I can and can't imagine the reasons, but somehow would just rather hear them directly. This all seems strange in a post to the internet rather than a letter or email to you, so I will probably email you just in case you don't get bored or whatnot soon, and don't happen across this in a while. You will be missed in the group, to be sure. I always thought you were a good addition. ANyway, I won't ramble on about this, but all the same...yea.

I'm not going to write about the war. Sure, I've got opinions, but nothing I feel would translate well to an online blog forum. So take my silence not as disinterest or anything like that. Take it as extreme interest, but a conflicted soul. The world is really fucked up. I will leave it at that.

Today was a beauteous day. I got outta work early for doing manual labor to move my boss to an office down the hall. I did this on Tues / Thurs, and I really didn't mind it. It broke up my day nicely and gave me some viva variety from filing. But manual labor is manual labor, and when you pack 50 boxes of files, it may get a little tiring. But, to show me appreciation, the best boss in the world, my boss MARTHA, let me go home early!!! ANd it was so beautiful today that I got a sunburn by sitting in the sunshine today. I left work at 10.30 instead of 1pm, and will get paid for my campus photography, buying 50 cent Spanish and French books, and going to a grad school student meeting, as well as talking to one of the specs - Matt. He's from Virginia, and goes to William and Mary. He seems pretty cool, and I was just completely straightup with him about the dept and what I thought and all that. Classes were good after all this wonderousness...and then the dept took me, CJ, David W., and the specs out to Indian food. Sometimes life is good. I'm going to go find some aloe lotion for this burn...hope all is well, and sorry for my stint of silence.

 
On the Sublime...

some much needed music making occurred and it made me work out a lot of shit that was going on with me. i just fucking played it out of my system...busting out a little Nick Drake and crazed ass cello beats. we had a pick up game and department members joined in for a song or two or more and requests for Neil Diamond were had, as Caleb and CJ sang in Axl style to "Patience" in the "I was walking the streets at night" part. Girls with bunny ears. A boy in a cowboy hat, asking me if I was in Blair, and me explaining that, nah, I just have played for a long time. A kid who strolled by and stopped to listen, and then ran to get his violin. Tunes that brought me back to places and faces. It did what it needed to do, I'll tell you that much. Music is my radar. Word.