what the goddess of funerals has hallowed

"...he is baffled...who looks back upon the annals, and values worth by years, and admires nothing but what the goddess of funerals has hallowed."

I find it tragically amusing or amusingly tragic or neither or both that we've been having this conversation for a couple thousand years. Who started it?

Horace in the above quote from an epistle dated about 14 B.C., begins his argument against basing the value of art on its age alone. An ancient poem is not wholly perfect; just like contemporary poetry it contains only a few shining lines. New poetry will eventually grow old, unless we kill it now, but then what art will we have to console us in our old age? However...

I will continue my Dante studies later. Right now, I am chipping away at the mountain which is Andrew Motion's biography of Keats. And I am working on my death and the life-after series, or at least some sort of map of study and limitations for these I-promise-they-won't-be-morbid poems. I don't know if it makes sense to anyone else, but I prize thinking over just about everything even while I struggle to be conscious, aware, most hours of the day. That is why I love complicated poetry: the level of consciousness is so evident, maybe enough so that I can copy it.

la bella scola

I am beginning a study of the poets that Dante lauded/condemned in Inferno as Limbo's la bella scola. I am not as familiar with Lucan or Horace as I am with Homer, Ovid, and, of course, Virgil. So, tomorrow, Kingsley and I will walk to the library (we will pass the leaning barn that I need to photograph before it falls), pay our fine for "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" (if you needed any proof that I am the most unpoetic of poets...), and hopefully find some Lucan or Horace.

On a slightly connected note, my lover is teaching me how to properly participate in conversation.
I am eager to practice.


"Loose the bow of speech, which you have drawn back to the very iron." Purgatorio 25.17-18.

More Publications

Basilica Review 1--"Pietà"

The Maynard 2.4 (forthcoming)--"Where Flowers Grow" and the remaining three sections of "Where the River Bends to Meet Itself": "The Homes on Eastview and Forrest," "Not Bethesda" and the intro.

Publications

Whistling Shade 8.3-- "North Wind and South"

Ruminate 10-- "Vessel" (from the long poem "Where the River Bends to Meet Itself"), "Sleep in Stone"

Relief 3.1 (forthcoming)-- "Of All the Mysteries," "Eagle Creek" (also from "Where the River..."), "The Cathedrals are Empty"

Introduction

I'm sitting at my husband's computer (my desk is covered in books, half-started letters, i-pod accessories and the floor surrounding and beneath the desk is littered with much of the same) holding my nine month old son Kingsley, and I'm wondering still, after all the time I spent figuring out how to add the widgets into my snazzy new template, do I need to blog?

I'm terrible at it. My first blog was actually started by a couple of friends, and I tried to update it often with wonderful stories that revealed my genius for writing and ability to find an ephiphany in anything. This did not go as planned. That blog was eventually deleted (for many reasons not excluding the "I'm terrible at it" bit).

However, I'm a poet which means I need to work not only at getting my poetry published but also toward making my name recognizeable. And, I'm a libra which means I crave an admiring audience. So, I'm going to try blogging just about poetry, mainly my poetry and where to find it. I'll link to the sites of journals I like or those in which I have been published. I might even critique some poems (not mine) or describe what I'm currently working on. We'll see, but first I need to clean up around here.

Thanks for reading.