To prefer or not to prefer

Mind over body or body over mind? An age-old question, revisited through a discussion of some photos of readers and bicyclists in Central Park, Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, and the Coen brother's dark comedy, "Barton Fink." Read and see more about it at today's blogpost, blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Bartleby at noon

Seeing them angle past --
the trim, corpuscular forms
of women, men
lean with vim en bicyclette --
they are leaning far too close.
And the bend of the spine
in this book will not accommodate
their passage any nearer.
How can this be any more than clear?
Can a person be let alone
to enjoy a simple read,
a glance along a page or two
before the world intrudes?
That's all we ask, you know --
the microcosm
in which brain and text
voluminate
and beat like rapid hearts
flora and fauna
inviolate.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1935, 1918, 1920 and 1934 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

No bed of roses?

Ever zig when you should have zagged? Yeah, we all have. Maybe you were led down the primrose path? Discover the origins of these phrases in today's blogpost, along with some interesting photos taken in Central Park and a personal salute to a great couple. Read and see it at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

If you mean

If you mean
for me to follow you
indefinitely, I am unsure
as to the zigzag sign
that governs my only will
and sets astride your
flowerpath dream of leaving
everything I know behind --
does greenness make the world
so easy? so carefree?
does summer make us
ransom our last hope
of self-sufficiency?
I see no primrose,
yet I'll follow.
If I am betrayed, none
is to blame but lonely ones
like me who tread this path,
and worse for wear,
allow.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1909, 1911, and 1910 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Line dancing

There are actually pictures of people in today's blogpost, so be sure not to miss it! Discussing the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater and the politics of waiting in line during hot summer days. Meet you at the blogsite: blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Waiting for Shakespeare, Central Park

As the mists of Olmsted's visions
swirl around your feet
you wear them bare
in summer gladness --
oh, that heat!
This is not the kind of line
that move or breathes;
not even the most book-mavened
and socially -- you wouldn't say
elite but maybe thoughtful
at the least, considerate of lines
that you could ever meet,
despite intolerable degrees.
The prayers of city fathers,
the balms of the great Bard
embrace some aspect of your wait,
and you are peaceable,
find some shade, and
before any trouble,
hesitate.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1906, 1916, and 1937 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Freaks

Astounding! In today's blogpost find topics from Tod Browning's 1932 film "Freaks" to Djuna Barnes' Nightwood to the biblical story of Zacchaeus. What do they all have in common? Read about it at blog.amynelsonhahn.com and see some photos of an interesting tree in Central Park.

Crooked tree

Bent earthward
like a kneeling devil,
all your proud top
is like to come undone
and scatter to the crowd --
who made you humble?
who forced you to bow down?
Such ungainly displays
are fit for circus tricks
and uncomfortable angels
writhing on the ground.
Hapless and untoward,
why can't one raise you
to respectful height
unless, shirking here, you prefer
the wizened level?

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1907 and 1908 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Feline intuition

On the blog today are some remarks about a neighbor's cat, Mojo, and a famous poem by Christopher Smart -- as well as the rhetorical strategy of anaphora, Winston Churchill, and the legacy to the Beat poets. All that, and photos of the cat! Look for it at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
Today's poem is:

Idle feline, momentarily

Ever eager toes
now stretch wide in a yawn
as comfort smiles on you;
no snickering prey slips by
to mar your fine repose.
The whiteness fair licked clean
of daily troubles, the vigilant
eyes half-shaded, recondite
and only lifting partial ears
to laud my lowest footstep --
you remain the warrant foe
of erstwhile voles
who lose their bearings on this lawn.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1903, 1904, and 1905 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Whole lotta Monet

To see some gorgeous photos of waterlilies on the lake at Kinderhook, and to read some commentary about the work that Impressionist painter Claude Monet rendered to his famous triptych between 1915 and 1926, look at my blogsite: blog.amynelsonhahn.info -- you can also find information about the Nelson-Atkins Museum's exhibit which runs until August 7th, 2011 featuring the Monet Waterlilies. I hope you enjoy today's poem.

Solemn passage

Liquid lotus,
dare we pass
with least resistance
from your meshy tendrils --
how to disturb this glaze,
this blue tranquility,
this green reform
shaped like hearts
because they mean to do us good?
We stare, impossible
to lift the oar, to ply
another inch that would unearth
or faze in the least
these jade and jasper
lily leaves.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1887, 1886, and 1888 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Captive audience

Based on a reading of "The Tale of Genji" by Lady Murasaki, the rather "courtly" tone of today's poem has everything to do with the power of flowers to captivate and seduce our imaginations -- in this case, the humble but no less than magnificent water lily. You can also find on today's blog information about water lily conservancy and how water lilies grow. Check all this out -- along with more great photos -- at blog.amynelsonhahn.info. Thanks for viewing this page!



Serenade

Bashful,
hide behind a vain fan
suggesting you never seek
and never hunt,
I have seen you in the night --
gleaming, framed with beams
of paleness and indiscreet.
Unsay your shy damask,
since I have seen the moonsilk
slivers of your best disguise
undone.
But only say you'll turn
and kindly phrase my own demise;
I'll stay awhile.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1881 and 1884 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Awareness

A brave new world -- of water lilies, japanese philosophy, mono no aware, and photography. Please visit the blogsite blog.amynelsonhahn.info, to find out more.

Tempted

We are so close
now, ever so near --
your silent skin
laid bare like the snow
of birchwood flesh.
You can't decline
to let me reach this once
and have what's mine.
Shallow, shallow creature,
bathing your ivory glow
outside my perpendicular --
I fear, as we drift away,
that none of us
will ever be the same,
or underestimate
the remonstrance
of our parting.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1861 and 1877 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Lunar landscape

For some musings about the moon (mostly mooning over some beautiful photographs Andrew took of the moon over Kinderhook Lake very late one recent evening), see my blogpost at blog.amynelsonhahn.info. There is also a link to a great song, "You Cage," by the Throwing Muses. Here's today's poem:

Old Moon

Who else knows you're there,
like a hubcap
like a kneecap
like a nightcap
swirling circles incessant
indiscriminate, overwhelming?
And I can't abide
your chiding eye --
my heel cracks down
on the dull kitchen floor,
heel toe heel toe --
it seems to thunder down below
yet no one wakes or disturbs.
Overwhelming still and though
only you and I can hear it
we are nothing now,
wilted fragments
of our former selves,
sieved through clouds,
debilitated by increasing day.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1862, 1863, 1868 and 1871 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

First Impressions

To read about things like Impressionism, Imagism, and, oh, I don't know, my sister-in-law -- go to blog.amynelsonhahn.info for the complete blog and photos that go with today's poem, "Lila." Thanks for reading! And for following up...

Lila

Strength betokens promises
and all are made aware --
nothing is left uneventful.
Crimson velvet curling,
all the fall unfurls
like peels of apples
cradled in your hand,
too sweet to release.
Gold in the western sun
and burning in the noonday wind --
fire at heart determined,
fast unburdened,
lifting your head, regretful
but not without
disdain.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1851, 1846 and 1848 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Inner workings

Read this post in tandem with the blogpost and photos at blog.amynelsonhahn.info, for more details about the beautiful sunset it refers to and the origins of the word "inscape", attributed to poet and philosopher Gerard Manley Hopkins. Inscape was also the name of my high school art and literary journal, which, by no small coincidence, was supervised by my great mentor, John Ianacone. His photographs, in part, inspired me to write this piece, even though it is based on some of Andrew's fine photographs of sunsets in Valatie.

Skyscape

The burnt-out etching
of the base, base landscape
cannot draw my mind
from the eloquent estate,
the silk-sewn sky that floats
and catches every instant color,
every sampled possibility
the eye can imagine
in its most drifting thoughts
and haphazard dreams.
It hardly seems appropriate
that here, amid this almost-vision,
I should capture days of praise
at half-night, far beyond its random
center in my line of finding,
far beyond the fluid, loose, prismatic
haunts inundated once
behind a plaint facade of light.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1838, 1837 and 1836 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

The great provider

This post, in its entirety with commentary and photos, exists at blog.amynelsonhahn.info -- please look for the full magilla there. It is, in case you have not figured it out, about corn plants, waving in the summer breeze...

The golden kingdom

Germ of the rain's
deep prospects, folding
just one gentle bend
over their treasures
like cranes, stooping
to tend green and
unsteady nestlings --
these sheaves unearth
the hopes of hopeful
planters and drive
the desires of animal and man;
though silently and steadily
they merely arch their backs
nearer to the sun
to regain their kingdom,
regarding no one.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1831, 1833 and 1832 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Missing persons

Look for this new post regarding images of the cornfields near Valatie where Andrew and I live, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
In it I discuss music from Jack Logan's massive compilation album, "Bulk" including "Chloroform" and "15 Years in Indiana" and Pico Iyer's concepts of weirdos vs. eccentrics.

Sixteen years

You say it so often --
I almost think you know
it's true:
how bodies end up discovered
in cornfields
after the corn is due.
This is the price we pay
for knowledge of unseemly things --
suspicion.
The sky is an endless
chemical slate of variables,
colors slung along a spectrum,
bearing greater analysis.
None of us,
none are above suspicion,
so take it lightly
that this is the price we pay,
when the corn grows higher
and you say it so very often.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1822, 1824, 1826 and 1827 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Toute la rage

Find details about the statue I am writing about in this poem -- along with thoughts on the Victorian obsession with fern collecting -- on today's blog, located with photos at blog.amynelsonhahn.info
I really hate to keep directing you all to the other site, but I know you can use your thumbs and toggle between pages if necessary and if you happen to like this one better as a homepage.
Also, if you visit this page you get to find out exciting newsflashes such as this: our book is out and available on the net! Yep, you too can be the proud owner of "What Time and Tempest Hold is True." Just visit amazon.com or one of many other fine internet book dealers, and look for my name and the title. Andrew and I hope you will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed producing it; we're really happy with the way it turned out, and are busy thinking up plans for another one.
Now, back to today's program, "Toute la rage."

Fairy, forgotten

A fairy, or angel --
some white overpale
winged thing
casts listlessly
one good eye --
the other lost to time's
infernal polish --
casts such a care-worn eye
you would think the grasping ferns,
the uninvited ferns
beneath her celestial ruined stance,
would cower and lay low.
Instead they tempt
to tease her, rise
to tickle her very alabaster toes,
merciless against
her hard renouncing stare.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1821, 1818, and 1819 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Wish you were here

Find my blogsite at blog.amynelsonhahn.info to see the beautiful photo of hibiscus flowers that Andrew got in Hudson, NY, that goes with this poem! Thanks for reading the blog...

Bower

So far from aloha
but still a greeting
unmistakable from a nearer frond:
scarlet mouths that lisp
almost imperceptibly,
sheltering a verdant word --
about the abundance of rain,
or the plenitude of sun.
Whispering welcome
and pleasantries,
these half-mute trumpets
are gathered about the gate,
declaring the season a success
with gentle gestures,
each one attuned
and infinitely delicate.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1811 and 1815 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Graveyard shift

Today's poem is based on photos you can view at blog.amynelsonhahn.info. Please see this site to fully appreciate the context of the following poem.

Winnowing

If they are lost
let them be lost;
because in this cerulean place
they have become secure.
How are we to ever say
what happens past
the bone and the saw?
How are we to contemplate
the nearness or the possibility
of their stones, their grass, their calculated
motions of the night or of the dawn?
None of this is meant for us
to know or to contrive.
We only bear the semblance
of some characters who, amiable
enough, and kind, regard the sky
and pitiful, remain below.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 1804 and 1806 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Today's poem -- 1st installment

From now on, I'll be bringing you a poem every day or every other day or so, and then offering a little bit of commentary on it. I will try to make the blog background match the image associated with the poem, so that you can readily follow what I am talking about in the poem. I hope this works. I'm going to give it a try today, and we'll see. If not, and everything goes FUBAR on me, please resort to blog.amynelsonhahn.info for each day's blogpost. Thanks.

Brushtale

Blistering
roll back your vines --
none of us can cramp
in this heat beyond shade
of the two arbored hazel trees --
if we could nestle there.
Only stillness and and potential venture
aspire us white and high,
high as flight and dreams;
no one taints our cares
with umbrage or reluctance.
Nothing quits our growth
with half-whispered airs --
severating
in willingness our divide
we stand apart.
We lack forgiveness,
and flaw to fall.

(c) Amy Nelson Hahn 2011

Ok, better hang...

I think I am getting a better hang for blogspot so what I may try to do -- if time permits, and I mean IF -- is to drop a photo onto the main page every day to accompany the gist of what I say in the poem of the day and then add a little bit of extemporaneous commentary. Sound fair enough? It will probably be a lot of extra work, but hell for an extra audience share, it may be worth a little extra so who gives, right? Anyway, it turns out that blogspot is a REALLY unforgiving program when it comes to manipulating text and images. But enough about my problems as a former artisan of magazines -- you want to know where you can find the poems and the photos RIGHT NOW! At least for today, they're at blog.amynelsonhahn.info; perhaps tomorrow I can direct some of it here as well, depending on how ambitious I get (or how rowdy you make me feel -- c'mon, blogspot! pay me over 25 visits!). Well, sight-unseen, I don't know how you regard poetry and images mixed together like peanut butter and chocolate, so we'll just have to wait and see...all my thoughts and praise to those of you who have similar projects, and await similar news of your fate with the masses -- And BTW, my book -- that is, 15 of the 100 copies of it, arrived today by parcel post. Looks gawgeous. I will provide the links ASAP.  -- ANH

First Things First

Here is the first blog on this page at blogger. I am hoping to follow up by writing more, but we will have to see how the link works. For now, I will tell you that the best bet, until I figure out how to upload photography onto this site, would be to follow me on blog.amynelsonhahn.info -- on this site I will try to keep you posted about further insights, and about what I am doing there. Also about what is going on with the book, "What Time and Tempest Hold is True," which is now winging its way to an internet site near you (and to my doorstep -- as in about 100 copies of it!) My dad already laid claim to the author's copy so I had to buy my own -- sad, really. To have to buy a copy of your own first book. But Andrew and I are very proud of our "firstborn." And so here we are -- another day, another new chapter. A brand new blogsite. Hopefully you can all follow the links and visit me at blog.amynelsonhahn.info, or at the websites, amynelsonhahn.com or .info -- for now, I'll say au revoir.