Poetry
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The Life You Give: Jorge Luis Borges *VII 24 1899
Jorge Luis Borges, born Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo, August 24, 1899, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the poet, essayist, and short-story writer whose works became classics of 20th-century world literature. Borges was reared in the then-shabby Palermo district of Buenos Aires, the setting of some of his works. His family, which had been…
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Das Leben, das Du gibst / The Life You Give: Kurt Schwitters *1887
Kurt Schwitters, born June 20, 1887, in Hannover, Germany, is the Dada artist and poet, best known for his collages and relief constructions. Soon after World War I Schwitters was attracted by the emerging Dada school, a nihilistic literary and artistic movement dedicated to the destruction of existing aesthetic values. Denied membership in the Berlin…
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Contemplate, Smile, Eat, Digest, Express
— repeat —
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The Life You Give: Allen Ginsberg *1926
Allen Ginsberg, born June 3, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A., is the poet whose epic poem Howl (1956) is considered to be one of the most significant products of the Beat movement. Ginsberg grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where his father, Louis Ginsberg, himself a poet, taught English. Allen Ginsberg’s mother, whom he…
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Apelación al solitario / Appeal to the Solitary One — by Rosario Castellanos
Apelación al solitario Es necesario, a veces, encontrar compañía. Amigo, no es posible ni nacer ni morir sin con otro. Es bueno que la amistad Ie quite al trabajo esa cara de castigo y a la alegría ese aire ilícito de robo. ¿Cómo podrías estar solo a la hora completa, en que las cosas y…
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The Life You Give: Maya Angelou *1928
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., is the poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural…
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When lips to a mind of music speak…
why speak words? Are they speaking due to their own music limits? Do they speak because they are externally asked to convey words, while they have already conveyed music? Are words explanation? Does music need wording? Is music whole through explanation? Why the needy libretto? Who needs who? Is poetry the pursuit of completion?Is the…
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The Life You Give: Victor Hugo *1802
Victor Hugo, born Victor-Marie Hugo, on February 26 1802, in Besançon, France, is the poet, novelist, and dramatist who was the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that country’s greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Misérables…
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The Virtuous Black IX: Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., is the poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural…
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The Life You Give: Patti Smith *1946
Punk rock’s poet laureate Patti Smith ranks among the most ambitious, unconventional, and challenging rock & rollers of all time. When she emerged in the ’70s, Smith’s music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan’s heyday. With her androgynous, visual presentation echoing her unabashedly intellectual and uncompromising songwriting,…
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The Life You Give: Rudyard Kipling *1865
Rudyard Kipling, born Joseph Rudyard Kipling on December 30, 1865, in Bombay [now Mumbai], India, is the short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Life Kipling’s…
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The Life You Give: Heinrich Heine *1797
Heinrich Heine, born Dec. 13, 1797, Düsseldorf, Germany, was a poet whose international literary reputation and influence were established by the Buch der Lieder (1827; The Book of Songs), frequently set to music, though the more sombre poems of his last years are also highly regarded. Heine was born of Jewish parents. His father was…
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I died for beauty but was scarce
I died for beauty but was scarceAdjusted in the tomb,When one who died for truth was lainIn an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed?“For beauty,” I replied.“And I for truth, the two are one;We brethren are,” he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night,We talked between the rooms,Until the moss had reached…
Sila Blume 