with jónsi in mind, support this performer / poet from providence. brendan has lived in northampton and played with parachutes who went on tour with sigur rós in 2008.
About Me

- welcome to the labcat
- the labcat is the online life of labrys, smith college's art/literary magazine. we collect poems, prose, flash-fiction, letters, diary entries, essays, doodles, paintings, oils, sketches, photography, animation, videos, graphics, chicken-scratches, stippling, charcoal rubbing, pastels, collages, observations, music and whatever else inspires you. send it in bulky bundles to labrys@smith.edu.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Hollywood Heroines
For its third year, The New York Times Magazine has created "Hollywood portfolios" in the form of mini-movies. Every year has a different theme, and this year's is Hollywood heroines. I thought it couldn't be more apt for Smith.
- Kristen '15
If you want to learn more about the inspiration for the video, check out this behind the scenes look: http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/hollywood-heroines-behind-the-scenes/
I thought it was incredible that they didn't use any special FX at all. The video is directed by Tierney Gearon.
- Kristen '15
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Today at work
Today at work, I decided to forgo doing my homework and read Anne Carson. It was so much fun! This poem is long but amazing: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178364 -Jackie '14
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
transparency
I saw a Lucian Freud exhibit this spring at the National Portrait Gallery in Freud's native London. I've been recognizing the faces in his visceral portraits in the pre-finals faces of Smithies around campus (which is covered in a London-esque dreary fog, is it not?)
xx,
b
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Depressing Russian Poem
This poem is so cool! The ending reminds me of Guy Fawkes day and T.S. Eliot's 'Hollow Men.' -Jackie '14
Afanásy Fet (1820-1892)
‘When you read these anguished lines’
When you read these anguished lines
Where from heart’s roaring blaze the flames issue,
And passion’s fatal flood swells and climbs,
Do they speak never a word to you?
How to credit it! In the steppe, that night,
When through midnight ’s fog premature dawn,
Translucent, lovely, in miraculous light,
For you, out of the darkness, was born,
And beauty to unwilling eyes made plain,
Drawn to those glories that the darkness rive,
How can it be that nothing whispered then:
‘There a man was burned alive’?
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
mixed media works
the lens through my cousin jared, an artist based in san francisco, views the world is romantic and old-fashioned. here are some of his mixed media paintings on canvas which incorporate photo transfers.
see: jaredleake.com
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Almost Thanksgiving!
It's almost Thanksgiving (Yay!) so I thought I would post a poem about food. Bon appetit! - Jackie:
BY PAUL BLACKBURN
The Café Filtre
Slowly and with persistence
he eats away at the big steak,
gobbles up the asparagus, its
butter & salt & root taste,
drinks at a glass of red wine, and carefully
taking his time, mops up
the gravy with bread—
The top of the café filtre is
copper, passively shines back, & between
mouthfuls of steak, sips of wine,
he remembers
at intervals to
with the flat of his hand
the top removed,
bang
at the apparatus,
create the suction that
the water will
fall through
more quickly
Across the tiles of the floor, the
cat comes to the table : again.
“I’ve already given you one piece of steak,
what do you want from me now? Love?”
He strokes her head, her
rounded black pregnant head, her greedy
front paws slip from his knee,
the pearl of great price
ignored . She’s bored, he
bangs the filtre again, its top is copper
passively shines back .
Food & wine nearly
finished.
He lifts the whole apparatus off the cup . Merciful
God, will it never be done? Too cold
already
to add cream and sugar, he offers the last
piece of steak with his fingers .
She accepts it with calm
dignity,
even delicacy . The coffee goes down at a gulp, it
is black
& lukewarm .
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Sonnet XVI, Pablo Neruda
Sonnet XVI by Pablo Neruda
I love the handful of the earth you are.
Because of its meadows, vast as a planet,
I have no other star. You are my replica
of the multiplying universe
Your wide eyes, are the only light I know
from extinguished constellations;
your skin throbs like the streak
of a meteor through rain.
Your hips were that much of the moon for me;
your deep mouth and its delights, that much sun;
your heart, fiery with its long red rays,
was that much ardent light, like honey in the shade.
So I pass across your burning form, kissing
you - compact and planetary, my dove, my globe.
Because of its meadows, vast as a planet,
I have no other star. You are my replica
of the multiplying universe
Your wide eyes, are the only light I know
from extinguished constellations;
your skin throbs like the streak
of a meteor through rain.
Your hips were that much of the moon for me;
your deep mouth and its delights, that much sun;
your heart, fiery with its long red rays,
was that much ardent light, like honey in the shade.
So I pass across your burning form, kissing
you - compact and planetary, my dove, my globe.
- Emily, '15
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Anna Schuleit
Anna Schuleit does a lot of installation artwork; she even did a site-specific installation at abandoned Northampton State Hospital in 2000. She's always doing tons of innovating new projects. One she's about to begin in really interesting; her website indicates a "new collaboration is now underway with neuroscientists at Columbia Medical School, that will allow Anna to explore a new drawing method based on recording the movements of the pupils with vision research tools = requiring no intermediary between seeing and drawing. Seeing becomes drawing in that way, opening up an entirely new way of visual record-taking, mapping, and art-making. Anna will test this new drawing method via a prototype portable eye-tracking device during an expedition to the North Pole next Summer, as a fellow of the Arctic Circle program."
Just above is Anna Schuleit in her Harrisville, New Hampshire studio. Check out more of her work and new project ideas at her website: http://www.anna-schuleit.com/
-Hannah '14
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
A Blessing
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
-Hope you enjoyed this one! - Jackie
i'm knee deep
for the week of november 12, this is my official walking song. if you see my brooding around the corners of hillyer, fact is i'm taking a break from reading plato and i'm listening to the line, "you're the shit & i'm knee deep in it" over and over and over again.
can someone tell me what literary device is used in that lyric? it beats me, but i think it might be one of my favorite double entendres. if only i had a list of "favorite double entendres"....
--b
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Winston Chmielinski
this artist is definitely worth checking out. here are just a couple that i particularly liked.
you can find a lot more on his website: http://www.wi-ch.com/
-hannah '14
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Zachary Wollard
I found this artist the other day. So cool! I'm pretty sure this last painting is of Narnia...
-Jackie
Monday, November 5, 2012
a short history of the apple
the crunch is the thing, a certain joy in crashing through
living tissue, a memory of Neanderthal days.
-edward bunyard, the anatomy of dessert, 1929
teeth at the skin. anticipation.
then flesh. grain on the tongue.
eve's knees ground in the dirt
of paradise. newton watching
gravity happen. the history
of apples in each starry core,
every papery chamber's bright
bitter seed. woody stem
an infant tree. william tell
and his lucky arrow. orchards
of the fertile crescent. bushels.
fire blight. scab and powdery mildew.
cedar apple rust. the apple endures.
born of the wild rose, of crab ancestors.
the first pip raised in kazakhstan.
snow white with poison on her lips.
the buried blades of halloween.
budding and grafting. john chapman
in his tin pot hat. oh westward
expansion. apple pie. american
as. hard cider. winter banana.
melt-in-the-mouth made sweet
by hives of britain's honeybees:
white man's flies. o eat. o eat.
-dorianne laux, the book of men, 2011
living tissue, a memory of Neanderthal days.
-edward bunyard, the anatomy of dessert, 1929
teeth at the skin. anticipation.
then flesh. grain on the tongue.
eve's knees ground in the dirt
of paradise. newton watching
gravity happen. the history
of apples in each starry core,
every papery chamber's bright
bitter seed. woody stem
an infant tree. william tell
and his lucky arrow. orchards
of the fertile crescent. bushels.
fire blight. scab and powdery mildew.
cedar apple rust. the apple endures.
born of the wild rose, of crab ancestors.
the first pip raised in kazakhstan.
snow white with poison on her lips.
the buried blades of halloween.
budding and grafting. john chapman
in his tin pot hat. oh westward
expansion. apple pie. american
as. hard cider. winter banana.
melt-in-the-mouth made sweet
by hives of britain's honeybees:
white man's flies. o eat. o eat.
-dorianne laux, the book of men, 2011
Friday, November 2, 2012
Visitor!
Dear Labrys blog,
Today I saw Allison, a Labrys grad, at lunch. It was wild and amazing and made me feel like I had stepped into a magical time vortex which lead to countless weird philosophical musings, poems and reflections on science fiction television. So, I have decided to post a poem on time, and to spare you from Milton, have decided on Auden, which, while still depressing, I just like far better - it's more readable. But anyways...
WH Auden
P.S. Allison it was great to see you! Have a lovely weekend back home. : )
Today I saw Allison, a Labrys grad, at lunch. It was wild and amazing and made me feel like I had stepped into a magical time vortex which lead to countless weird philosophical musings, poems and reflections on science fiction television. So, I have decided to post a poem on time, and to spare you from Milton, have decided on Auden, which, while still depressing, I just like far better - it's more readable. But anyways...
Villanelle
Time can say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
There are no fortunes to be told, although
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away?
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
There are no fortunes to be told, although
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away?
Time can say nothing but I told you so.
If I could tell you, I would let you know.
P.S. Allison it was great to see you! Have a lovely weekend back home. : )
Thursday, November 1, 2012
In honor of the first day of November, which was a very typical kind of November day: blustery, cold, and dreary.
"This is the year's despair: some wind last night
Utter'd too soon the irrevocable word,
And the leaves heard it, and the low clouds heard;
So a wan morning dawn'd of sterile light;
Flowers droop'd, or show'd a startled face and white;
The cattle cower'd, and one disconsolate bird
Chirp'd a weak note; last came this mist and blurr'd
The hills, and fed upon the fields like blight.
Ah, why so swift despair! There yet will be
Warm noons, the honey'd leavings of the year,
Hours of rich musing, ripest autumn's core,
And late-heap'd fruit, and falling hedge-berry,
Blossoms in cottage-crofts, and yet, once more,
A song, not less than June's, fervent and clear."
- Edward Dowden, Later Autumn Song
"This is the year's despair: some wind last night
Utter'd too soon the irrevocable word,
And the leaves heard it, and the low clouds heard;
So a wan morning dawn'd of sterile light;
Flowers droop'd, or show'd a startled face and white;
The cattle cower'd, and one disconsolate bird
Chirp'd a weak note; last came this mist and blurr'd
The hills, and fed upon the fields like blight.
Ah, why so swift despair! There yet will be
Warm noons, the honey'd leavings of the year,
Hours of rich musing, ripest autumn's core,
And late-heap'd fruit, and falling hedge-berry,
Blossoms in cottage-crofts, and yet, once more,
A song, not less than June's, fervent and clear."
- Edward Dowden, Later Autumn Song
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
tiny desk concerts
something about their voices hit me hard in the gut. and make me feel like i'm at home.
also, i'm so old fashioned and can't navigate music blogs, and always find these tiny desk concerts almost as exhilarating as the real thing. i love hearing bob boilen's voice (the host of all songs considered) in the background--he's so fly.
maybe our girl margie can reunite with these kids? she was killin it with her banjo on thursday night. thank you to everyone who made our event!
also, don't forget to share your art and poetry and writing and anything with us by october 31st (that date should ring some spooky bells). send us your work at labrys@smith.edu
xx
b
also, i'm so old fashioned and can't navigate music blogs, and always find these tiny desk concerts almost as exhilarating as the real thing. i love hearing bob boilen's voice (the host of all songs considered) in the background--he's so fly.
maybe our girl margie can reunite with these kids? she was killin it with her banjo on thursday night. thank you to everyone who made our event!
also, don't forget to share your art and poetry and writing and anything with us by october 31st (that date should ring some spooky bells). send us your work at labrys@smith.edu
xx
b
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Street Scene by Sejal Shah
I went to see the poet Sejal Shah at the Smith Poetry Center a few weeks ago and I especially enjoyed this work of her's, "Street Scene." She is a very talented South Asian American poet and writer!
Best.
Esra
Street Scene by Sejal Shah
Best.
Esra
Street Scene by Sejal Shah
Parisians call this neighborhood mixed. Mixed is code; it means immigrants. Think Brooklyn, Caitlin says. We are in the 20th Arrondissement, near Père Lachaise. I am here to see the Louvre and the Turkish Baths; I am here to visit my friend, Caitlin. I have a map and some time for wandering. To travel by yourself and enjoy it is a skill; I don’t practice enough.
The 20th Arrondissement. Storefronts with fuchsia and blue signs; Senegalese behind tables of patterned scarves, watch caps, and leather bags; music, a low flare around which we warm ourselves at the park, at pool tables, at long wooden bars. LeeAnne isn’t here to tell me where she stayed in Paris. When I think of her, I see us talking in my backyard, splashing in the pool, upstate New York summers. It surprises me. She was never there, but I can see it: the blue pool, our hideaway; beach towels; instant iced tea. I imagine we lay ourselves out on the uneven flagstones, waiting to be hot enough to peel ourselves off and fling ourselves into the water. If I close my eyes hard enough, if I squint, I can almost see it, this scene—that we grew up together. She was that kind of friend. As I walk through Paris, I keep expecting to catch a glimpse of her, vanishing into some narrow street.
Paris is a walking city; even my softest black shoes will produce blisters. We are on the Champs Élysées, on the way to a make-up store to have our eyes made up. Caitlin and her roommate are going to a birthday party tonight. I am back to seventh grade conjugating verbs, acting out a skit in which we say:Where is the party? I’ll meet you there. We will see you there. I will see you there. See you there?
Caitlin and I were neighbors toward the end of our twenties. I am staying with her in Paris for a week. We are neighbor-friends—neighbors who became friends—friends who once lived close by. She moved into our apartment complex, two doors away from me. She wore pencil skirts, perfectly tailored, unusual to see in a graduate student in our hippie college town. I admired her. Then her new boyfriend showed up, playing guitar, sitting out on the back porch, and I felt shy. And I was embarrassed. He was someone I had known from the university years before. We had once, twice had two beers too many and had kissed awkwardly in the apartment he shared with two other musicians. The years passed; he and Caitlin broke up. Now neither of us are in touch with him and I fly across an ocean to visit her.
The word for neighbor is la voisine. The word for sister is ma soeur. Friends are les amies.
Each day, I walk across the street to the Internet café. There is something comforting in something you do everyday. Repetition, even across one week, is key. This is what I say to the African who works there: Un café au lait et au pain chocolat, s’il vous plait. He answers in French rather than in the English we both know he knows. I take this as a kindness.
I take the Métro to the Musée d’Orsay. I look at paintings everyone recognizes. I dig my camera out from between pens and street map and take pictures: a long-faced woman; a flock of ballerinas in blue tulle and chiffon; a rooster; a bride and groom, suspended.
We sang songs in seventh grade. Alouette, gentille alouette. Skylark, nice skylark, I will pluck the feathers off of you. I will pluck the feathers off your head, off your back; I will break your beak. I will remove your heart. I am going to dismember you. This is what runs through my head: French class. Even though I am in France.
I came to Paris to make up for seven years of French in grade school. What do you do with a language you never use? I didn’t know when I booked my flight, what I was looking for. I had a friend in France. I thought, why not?
We had a concrete pool in the backyard of my parents’ house, but it no longer exists. They filled it in five years ago. My parents hired someone to break down the raised rim; they must have rented a crane to fill the hole with earth. We saw pictures, but we—my brother and I—were not there to see the pool in which we spent our summers lifted away and filled. We were not there to see the yellow bulldozers or the torn wooden fence. We did not see the truck full of earth brought to reclaim the kidney bean shape: curved, fetal. We saw the earth there, without grass, sinking. More dirt needed to be brought to cover the indentation of what was gone, what had left.
Once, LeeAnne spent two weeks by herself in Paris at museums. I could barely do two days. We met when I was twenty-four, close to too late for meeting a friend you could love as if you were young. I rushed in, late to an orientation for a new job; she put her hand on the chair next to her. Here, she said. I sat down, embarrassed, out of breath. She leaned over and whispered: You didn’t miss anything. You’re fine! Her face opened up whenever she saw me, as though I were the most precious and wonderful present in her life—a rare flower, a perfect day. She was like that with all of her friends. She made you feel—by the quality of her attention, her warm hazel eyes, her rapt, joyful smile—loved.
I was looking at a painting. I stood shaking in front of flowers: dull flowers, heads bent. I knew she had been happy. I knew nothing. She is gone. What do we really know about anyone else? Or their sorrow? The flowers were alive and painful to gaze at: brown, fading; green and purple, thick paint, too thick, streaks nearly grotesque, almost lovely, nearly gorgeous. I cried in front of the other tourists. I wanted to find her. She was gone. I closed my eyes. I wanted to see her once more. I want to see her again.
There is no one on the street in this street scene. The scene is the angle at which the road curves and so it seems to open up, to hold some possibility. The paintings are the signs for l’hotel and pâtisserie. The color is the color of fall leaves. The only figure is a church steeple, slate gray. I remember walking alone though I was in a city, a much-walked city, and I must never have seen a corner that empty. In Paris, I felt as if I were walking, again and again, across a stage set. The entire city stood still, posed, as if a museum or a photograph.
We could see the cemetery from Caitlin’s apartment. Important people were buried there, I’d been told. I pressed myself against Caitlin’s window and took pictures of the gravestones. Who was there? Van Gogh, Degas, Giacometti, Modigliani? LeeAnne would have chosen more time with the art, not bothering with the cemetery. I thought of the flower heads bowing at the museum, irises unfurling. I thought of the mint tea from the hammam, the sharp-scented blue soap, the hands of women I didn’t know on my back. I thought of LeeAnne gazing up at the Chagall; she would have been transfixed by the violet sky, clasped arms, bound by the colors, turning to someone in delight. She would have been breathless. Nine years later, one fall day, she was no longer picking up the phone. I called that morning, was it near noon? I hope she heard my voice on the machine before she left the house. (She was in Kentucky, I was in Massachusetts; two months had passed since we last talked.) I’ll be driving all afternoon. Call me anytime.
I want to believe she paused, that she brightened, just one moment. But how could she have brightened when she was no longer picking up the phone, when she had written out a note, when she had tucked a bottle of pills into her pocket? She didn’t change her mind. She took their dog for a walk to a wooded area. She didn’t want her husband to have to find her. She wrote our names in black ballpoint on Post-its to affix to cardboard boxes she left for all of us: in mine, books; a key chain; a clutch of pomegranate-colored beads strung together like flowers; a clay plaque, which says create in raised letters. Her husband handed me my box after the service. I keep the Post-it near me; I keep the plaque on a wall in my apartment—in every apartment I have lived in for the past nine years; I misplace the beaded flowers and find them again every few months. I called on a Friday morning. Her husband called me on Sunday. It had taken a day to find her.
I want to believe she heard my voice before she left the house. It is selfish, but I want to believe she knew I was thinking of her. Still, I will never know what she thought or if she heard or what she felt, at the end.
Once, crossing the street, we saw children. They crossed the street with their teacher. They were a line of ducks in the rain. In my head, I was taking notes: I passed children, walking like ducklings. They wore blue slickers and yellow boots. Notes to myself, notes to LeeAnne. It has been nearly ten years now. My French dictionary is no help. I would like to find a word for this besides suicide, but in French the word is the same. I would like to find a word for a friend who was better than a friend, who was as close as a sister, but I do not have a sister (une sœur) and something in these words won’t translate: to be like something is not the same as to be something. I would like a better word. Something to stay past this passing of time, something that will last.
Paris is for writers—for everyone who wants something from their wanting. What do you do in a city? You walk. I walked. Repetition is key. In my head, I sang. Je te plumerai la tête. I walked around the city for one week. (In my head, I spoke French.) I looked at the river. It rained. I must have looked at the river.Alouette. I walked and I walked. I took pictures. Skylark, lovely skylark. I thought of a pool, which once existed—rough concrete, paint chipping, the sharp comfort of chlorine. I thought of LeeAnne. We were markers, marking what? There was earth and it was sinking. Et la tête. Of how she just wanted to rest. Et la tête. Of what use is the head. There is ringing. Of what use is a ghost blue pool. I was in my head. Din din don. And then ringing. Din din don. There is the outline of what was once a pool—now an indentation, now an impression, now fresh, now earth.
We should have been two girls, swimming. (I cannot say it in French.) We should have been two girls lying on the flagstones in the sun, talking, and lemon juice in our hair and iced tea in tall flowered glasses by a light blue pool; we would have had time. So this is the Seine. I know I should let her go. So this is time. I’m not ready yet. We are flowers alive by the side of the pool, bowing and bowing toward each other, heads bent, as girls always do.
Source: http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2011-fall/selections/sejal-shah/
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Because I could not stop for death
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
- Emily Dickinson
Happy Halloweekend!
Kristen '15
| |
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Cloud City
Last weekend I was in New York City with a few friends. We did a lot of the stereotypical tourist-y things like visiting Central Park and Times Square, but we also spent most of the morning and afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We visited the exhibit on the rooftop, Cloud City by Tomas Saraceno. It was really cool - you could walk on it and it was very disconcerting at first. You are walking on glass and can see the people below you, but you also got an amazing view of the city. Here are a couple of pictures and I have a link to pictures of the installation of it. Enjoy!
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/tomas-saraceno/installation-photos
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/tomas-saraceno/installation-photos
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Sampaguita
Egads! In the same, mad Wednesday rush that led to me to attempt to use nail polish remover as face moisturizer (mercifully, an unsuccessful attempt) I neglected to post. Now, in a misguided effort to remain punctual, I present you with a poem about the national flower of the Phillipines, where it's either yesterday or tomorrow. -Jackie
Sampaguita by Noel Horlanda
Perfumes starry night
wafts the air, florid scent
wraps round svelte neck
of a Lady’s knight
Moonless, moonlight tale
yet reflects its shadow lake
redolent smell spreads ov’r
bites evening mighty spell
Twilight shower bakes
early mornin’ dew atop
tiny white petals
looks like icing on cakes
Sweet scented floras
its caramel fragrance
sticks one’s sallow skin,
creates bright auroras
Teeny weenie fingers
sews mini whites together
soon digital strings on sight
hangs like bell ringers!
Early dawn comes
elate childish smiles,
vie to sell round churchyards
A few, a plenty welcomes
Lovely sampaguita, delightful
Adorable you may be
A lady in laces waiting
Gentlemen swarm undoubtful
Its freshness makes nostril flares
relieves stress for surely,
arrogant minds pacified
then tranquility bares
Infants, old timers, adolescents
round the elliptic bush, plucks
metal petal gathers copiously,
threaded together like fluorescents
Carved in various forms
bracelets, necklaces, lei
worn by a lovely dame
lookin’ out window’s dorm
Sampaguitas, flourish ev’r
immaculate white, eternal
A jewel in her own way,
as nite’s tempest, nev’r!
She’s pure and innocent,
Brilliant, incandescent
Sampaguita by Noel Horlanda
Perfumes starry night
wafts the air, florid scent
wraps round svelte neck
of a Lady’s knight
Moonless, moonlight tale
yet reflects its shadow lake
redolent smell spreads ov’r
bites evening mighty spell
Twilight shower bakes
early mornin’ dew atop
tiny white petals
looks like icing on cakes
Sweet scented floras
its caramel fragrance
sticks one’s sallow skin,
creates bright auroras
Teeny weenie fingers
sews mini whites together
soon digital strings on sight
hangs like bell ringers!
Early dawn comes
elate childish smiles,
vie to sell round churchyards
A few, a plenty welcomes
Lovely sampaguita, delightful
Adorable you may be
A lady in laces waiting
Gentlemen swarm undoubtful
Its freshness makes nostril flares
relieves stress for surely,
arrogant minds pacified
then tranquility bares
Infants, old timers, adolescents
round the elliptic bush, plucks
metal petal gathers copiously,
threaded together like fluorescents
Carved in various forms
bracelets, necklaces, lei
worn by a lovely dame
lookin’ out window’s dorm
Sampaguitas, flourish ev’r
immaculate white, eternal
A jewel in her own way,
as nite’s tempest, nev’r!
She’s pure and innocent,
Brilliant, incandescent
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Anoanimal - Andrew Bird
This is an older song, but I like it. Hope you enjoy it too! Also, the music video is really strange.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT3_jTmL2i0
-Kelsey '13
-Kelsey '13
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
If you came
by Ruth Pitter
If you came to my secret glade,
Weary with heat,
I would set you down in the shade,
I would wash your feet.
Weary with heat,
I would set you down in the shade,
I would wash your feet.
If you came in the winter sad,
Wanting for bread,
I would give you the last that I had,
I would give you my bed.
Wanting for bread,
I would give you the last that I had,
I would give you my bed.
But the place is hidden apart
Like a nest by a brook
And I will not show you my heart
By a word, by a look.
Like a nest by a brook
And I will not show you my heart
By a word, by a look.
The place is hidden apart
Like a nest of a bird
And I will not show you my heart
By a look, by a word.
Like a nest of a bird
And I will not show you my heart
By a look, by a word.
Enjoy! -Jackie
this weather is getting to me
the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.
there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.
nobody ever finds
the one.
the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill
nothing else
fills.
--charles bukowski, "alone with everyone"
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.
there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.
nobody ever finds
the one.
the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill
nothing else
fills.
--charles bukowski, "alone with everyone"
Saturday, October 6, 2012
don't gotta work it out
Here's a fun song in honor of the first real day of fall break-- I can't listen to it without dancing.
Kristen DeLancey '15
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger is a postmodern feminist conceptual artist who reinvents old photographs by equipping them with unexpected, often truthful headlines. Here's some of her work:
-Jackie
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
pause
Orange in the middle of a table:
It isn’t enough
to walk around it
at a distance, saying
it’s an orange:
nothing to do
with us, nothing
else: leave it alone
I want to pick it up
in my hand
I want to peel the
skin off; I want
more to be said to me
than just Orange:
want to be told
everything it has to say
And you, sitting across
the table, at a distance, with
your smile contained, and like the orange
in the sun: silent:
Your silence
isn’t enough for me
now, no matter with what
contentment you fold
your hands together; I want
anything you can say
in the sunlight:
stories of your various
childhoods, aimless journeyings,
your loves; your articulate
skeleton; your posturings; your lies.
These orange silences
(sunlight and hidden smile)
make me want to
wrench you into saying;
now I’d crack your skull
like a walnut, split it like a pumpkin
to make you talk, or get
a look inside
But quietly:
if I take the orange
with care enough and hold it
gently
I may find
an egg
a sun
an orange moon
perhaps a skull; center
of all energy
resting in my hand
can change it to
whatever I desire
it to be
and you, man, orange afternoon
lover, wherever
you sit across from me
(tables, trains, buses)
if I watch
quietly enough
and long enough
at last, you will say
(maybe without speaking)
(there are mountains
inside your skull
garden and chaos, ocean
and hurricane; certain
corners of rooms, portraits
of great grandmothers, curtains
of a particular shade;
your deserts; your private
dinosaurs; the first
woman)
all I need to know
tell me
everything
just as it was
from the beginning.
Margaret Atwood, "Against Still Life"
This last stanza runs over and over in my head as I sit, silent and bleary, in the periodicals room.
--Becca
It isn’t enough
to walk around it
at a distance, saying
it’s an orange:
nothing to do
with us, nothing
else: leave it alone
I want to pick it up
in my hand
I want to peel the
skin off; I want
more to be said to me
than just Orange:
want to be told
everything it has to say
And you, sitting across
the table, at a distance, with
your smile contained, and like the orange
in the sun: silent:
Your silence
isn’t enough for me
now, no matter with what
contentment you fold
your hands together; I want
anything you can say
in the sunlight:
stories of your various
childhoods, aimless journeyings,
your loves; your articulate
skeleton; your posturings; your lies.
These orange silences
(sunlight and hidden smile)
make me want to
wrench you into saying;
now I’d crack your skull
like a walnut, split it like a pumpkin
to make you talk, or get
a look inside
But quietly:
if I take the orange
with care enough and hold it
gently
I may find
an egg
a sun
an orange moon
perhaps a skull; center
of all energy
resting in my hand
can change it to
whatever I desire
it to be
and you, man, orange afternoon
lover, wherever
you sit across from me
(tables, trains, buses)
if I watch
quietly enough
and long enough
at last, you will say
(maybe without speaking)
(there are mountains
inside your skull
garden and chaos, ocean
and hurricane; certain
corners of rooms, portraits
of great grandmothers, curtains
of a particular shade;
your deserts; your private
dinosaurs; the first
woman)
all I need to know
tell me
everything
just as it was
from the beginning.
Margaret Atwood, "Against Still Life"
This last stanza runs over and over in my head as I sit, silent and bleary, in the periodicals room.
--Becca
Sunday, September 30, 2012
the arrival of lucifer
initially penned in ovid's amore, the pathos of marlowe's faustus is keenly felt as he bewails his final moments: o lente, lente, currite noctis equi! --> o, run slowly, slowly, horses of the night! i can't get this out of my head.
photographs create stellar dichotomies.
margaret draft '13
photographs create stellar dichotomies.
margaret draft '13
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)