The title of Elizabeth Alexander’s now-famous Inaugural poem, the one read in January’s cold and hopeful, gray light, suggests, among other things, that all writing grounds itself in the “now.” This point-of-view is documented by thousands of years of poetry and prose on the subject; “There is only Now. Followed by Now.” We will explore this irrefutable and self-contradictory statement as we read poems, essays, fiction, and examine visual texts which report on the “Being-ness” of the world around and within us. We’ll write and share our own praise songs for mid-August for Menucha, for the arts, for the day.
daily prompts:
“The Soul, Like the Moon” Lalla (c.1320-1392)
“Poem” Thomas McGrath
“Ars Poetica” Dana Levin
“Cathedral” Joseph Stroud
“A Great Need” Hafiz, trans. Coleman Barks
essays:
Sunday night: “A Desperate Clarity” Bill McKibben
Monday night: “Winter Creek” Kathleen Dean Moore
Tuesday night: “The world is blue…” Rebecca Solnit
Wednesday night: “What Matters” Brian Doyle
“Woe Is Me” Ian Frazier, “City Employment” Lydia Davis
“How to Cook Rice” Kathleen Tyau, “Food Diary” M. Cassandra Cossitt
poems:
“Dailiness” Robin Chapman
“What the Living Do” Marie Howe
“Talk About Walking” Philip Booth
“The Mad Farmer’s Liberation Manifesto” Wendell Berry
“Manifesto” Joe Wilkins
“Partial Acts” Jessica Lamb
“Fletcher Oak” Mary Oliver
“All This Night Needs” Nancy Walker
“Feel the sharp bite…”
“Deep Bay Swallows” Gary Hawk
“According to the Big Bopper” More stores being built…”Hoarding Your Joys and Dispairs” Gregory Orr