W.B. Yeats: To a Squirrel at Kyla-na-gno

Come play with me;

Why should you run

Through the shaking tree

As though I’d a gun

To strike you dead?

When all I would do

Is to scratch your head

And let you go.

Be Our Guest

Betty and Bimbo invite you to share your ideas, discoveries, and excitements with our readers! Please contact us if you would like to be a guest poster. Topics are inclusive of, but not limited to, those outlined in our first two posts.

New Poet: Sir John Betjeman

So he's not exactly new, but he's new to us! Enjoy this pretty famous poem while we go hunting for more.

Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

The rest is here. Does anyone know what this poetic form is called?

Bob's Trillin'

Happy Monday, everyone!

Betty and Bimbo agree: Bob Dylan has been shafted as a musician and a singer. People like to talk about his lyrics, but as far as we're concerned he could be singing "I love you I love you I love you" and it would still sound brilliant.

And how is it that he always had a great band behind him, creating unique textures that are as much a part of the album as his voice and vision? It's no accident. For example, the band on "Blonde on Blonde" is nearly EVERYTHING, and it helps make his songs happen. Listen to the drummer on "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for the essence of this argument. Bob knows how to pick 'em, that's for sure. It's a crazy kind of intelligence that knows how to turn on its own talents with the distinct talents of others.

Betty is listening to beautiful "Desolation Row" at work.

Providence Postcard

Betty is in Providence, Rhode Island tonight. The darker it gets, the nicer it gets. Tonight we are going to "Waterfire", a performative sculpture event where they float blazing pieces of wood down the river in the center of town.

A Poem

Betty remembered this wonderful poem today while thinking about Bimbo. :

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it once before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

--Philip Larkin, 1979

[Note: Betty and Bimbo, at the British Library almost two years back, bore witness to Philip Larkin's deadly lawnmower on display.]

The Slog

Betty is a scientist, trying to figure out what makes the office (as opposed to "The Office", see picture) so completely boring and neutral in tone. The frame of fiction is so helpful for bringing meaning to work that, despite a good purpose, is joy-busting to carry out.

What We Are Mainly Up to Today

<----- Bimbo

Betty ------>

My Favorite Mistake

Have you ever made a mistake that turned out to be useful or surprisingly sweet in its unforseen aftermath? Betty thinks that many of the best things in her life -- like her education, her friends, and her job-- were the consequences of quirks and ill-informed choices.

She is happy and grateful for it all!

Babe's Truth?

Bimbo believes that baseball stats before the 1950s could be inaccurate. There was less obsessive statistical documentation and a smaller audience, he argues. Plus, the game was played differently enough as to be a different game. In other words, he doubts the clout of the Babe to be relevant to today's game.

Betty vehemently disagrees, believing in the wonder of life, the essential continuity of baseball, and a messianic Babe who played against great pitching and a rigorous press. What do you think?

Yankee Time!

It's time to kick the Red Sox back to Boston: Bimbo is so happy that Matsui is back.
With a newly complete and healthy Yankee lineup, he sees a new Yankee dynasty in the making.
The baby bombers!

"North" or "Carolina"

Betty is having trouble deciding which word, and which culture -- North or South -- dominates the scene here in Durham.

She has been at hotel-based conference for the past three days, and has no trouble deciding that she's ready to come home to New York, bodacious Bimbo, and "The Office"!

One thing she likes about North Carolina is the independently and leisurely owned and operated gas stations. Such places have powered her bright blueberry of a car. And she's discovered the time to write poems while she spaces out at panels.

The people here (workers, hotel workers, directors, organizers, funders) really are her heroes, and some of the panels have been great!