Patti Niehoff

Posts

May 25, 09:40 PM
The Will Self Book Club: How the Writer Became A God – The Daily Beast

The Will Self Book Club: How the Writer Became A God – The Daily Beast.

There are a lot of sad people in this world. And I’m not referring to Will Self.


Filed under: books, Link Tagged: Reading Groups, Will Self
May 24, 10:08 AM
Sigur Rós: Ekki múkk (moving art)

Sigur Rós: Ekki múkk (moving art)

Current favorite band, Sigur Rós. Album Valtari being released in a few days.

By the way, don’t worry if you don’t understand the lyrics. They’re in Icelandic.

Related articles

Filed under: music, video Tagged: arts, Icelandic language, Jón Þór Birgisson, moving art, music, Sigur Rós, Valtari
May 17, 09:43 PM
British TV and another poem by somebody else entirely

Watched an episode of the seemingly endless British TV mysteries that I seem to be well able to ferret out on Netflix: Kavanagh QC. This series stars John Thaw, who is famous in America for the Inspector Morse series that he starred in.

But I digress.

I note that fact because it explains the latest addition to my almost-never-updated anthology section here on the blog, wherein I reprint shamelessly poems by other people that I love. And what has this got to do with anything? you ask. I’m getting there, I reply.

The last time I added a poem — The Death Bed by Siegfried Sassoon — it was because I heard it recited at the very end of an episode of NUMB3RS. Five seconds’ worth of Googling got me to the poem, and it is one of the two most popular poems in the anthology section.

And now, this: South Country by Hillaire Belloc. The last ten lines were recited at the very end of this episode of Kavanagh QC.

Nobody writes poems in these striding dactylic meters any more, more’s the pity.


Filed under: Poetry, Literature, and Writing, Television Tagged: John Thaw, Kavanagh QC, Netflix, poetry, Siegfried Sassoon, Television in the United Kingdom
May 17, 09:37 PM
South Country: Hilaire Belloc
WHEN I am living in the Midlands
  That are sodden and unkind,
I light my lamp in the evening:
  My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country          5
  Come back into my mind.
The great hills of the South Country
  They stand along the sea;
And it’s there walking in the high woods
  That I could wish to be,   10
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
  Walking along with me.
The men that live in North England
  I saw them for a day:
Their hearts are set upon the waste fells,   15
  Their skies are fast and grey;
From their castle-walls a man may see
  The mountains far away.
The men that live in West England
  They see the Severn strong,   20
A-rolling on rough water brown
  Light aspen leaves along.
They have the secret of the Rocks,
  And the oldest kind of song.
But the men that live in the South Country   25
  Are the kindest and most wise,
They get their laughter from the loud surf,
  And the faith in their happy eyes
Comes surely from our Sister the Spring
  When over the sea she flies;   30
The violets suddenly bloom at her feet,
  She blesses us with surprise.
I never get between the pines
  But I smell the Sussex air;
Nor I never come on a belt of sand   35
  But my home is there.
And along the sky the line of the Downs
  So noble and so bare.
A lost thing could I never find,
  Nor a broken thing mend:   40
And I fear I shall be all alone
  When I get towards the end.
Who will there be to comfort me
  Or who will be my friend?
I will gather and carefully make my friends   45
  Of the men of the Sussex Weald;
They watch the stars from silent folds,
  They stiffly plough the field.
By them and the God of the South Country
  My poor soul shall be healed.   50
If I ever become a rich man,
  Or if ever I grow to be old,
I will build a house with deep thatch
  To shelter me from the cold,
And there shall the Sussex songs be sung   55
  And the story of Sussex told.
I will hold my house in the high wood
  Within a walk of the sea,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
  Shall sit and drink with me.   60

— Hilaire Belloc


Filed under: anthology Tagged: Downs, Hilaire Belloc, South West England, Sussex, Weald
May 17, 09:47 AM
BBC News – Mexican author Carlos Fuentes dead at 83
white pebble

Posts

March 03, 12:07 PM
[ink]

handful of ink —
if I had such a thing —
dripping through my fingers


Filed under: poems
March 03, 09:54 AM
[spring cleaning]

Spring cleaning:
throwing away handfuls of pens.


Filed under: poems
March 02, 12:02 PM
poetry qotd

Poets are not born in a country.
Poets are born in childhood.

— Ilya Kaminsky


Filed under: prose Tagged: Ilya Kaminsky, poetry
March 01, 10:41 AM
[woodpecker]

Woodpecker down the street
reminds me
it’s Spring

 


Filed under: poems Tagged: Red-bellied Woodpecker
February 29, 11:33 PM
[bell at midnight]

Do the neighbors know
that the bell ringing at midnight
is mine?


Filed under: poems
February 28, 11:49 AM
Haiku Brew

Okay, this app just has to get made:

Haiku Brew


Filed under: prose Tagged: haiku, Haiku and Related Forms, poetry
February 28, 11:43 AM
[watching the trees]

watching the trees
is the only way I know
the wind is blowing


Filed under: poems
February 04, 01:14 PM
[snow chair]

Snow on a chair makes another chair


Filed under: poems
January 11, 01:30 PM
[enough]

enough snow in the air
can hide a mountain


Filed under: poems
December 31, 11:36 AM
[sensed]

Image via Wikipedia

watching the trees
the wind sensed but not felt


Filed under: poems Tagged: haiku, Literature, poetry, Wind
a night kitchen

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Posts

March 04, 02:15 PM

wordpainting:

J.R.R. Tolkien

3 January 1982 - 2 September 1973

Thank you for Lord of the Rings!

September 30, 07:26 PM

Pumpkins

Watts Lens, BlacKeys SuperGrain Film, No Flash, Taken with Hipstamatic

September 28, 05:57 PM

theimpossiblecool:

The Polished Man: A few tips to make your life a bit more gentlemanly.

Presented by Aramis

September 13, 04:58 PM
In June of 2007, we all got together at Rob [Thomas]‘s house in the Hollywood Hills and shot the first episode of Party Down. Because they were paying for it themselves, the pilot was shot on a shoestring budget. Between shots we all hung out in Rob’s bedroom getting to know each other and laughing a lot. I’ve found that doing something for fun and almost for free (we each got $100 for the day) can bring out the best in people. Plus, there’s nothing like undressing in front of folks you just met to inspire humility and togetherness.
Jane Lynch from her new memoir. (via hardlyart)
September 12, 09:11 PM

Hostas and ivy

Lucifer VI Lens, Pistil Film, No Flash, Taken with Hipstamatic

September 10, 11:50 AM
Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person’s heart and dissolve it.
Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)
August 25, 01:13 PM

Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates by Brevityness on Flickr.

A bit of levity to balance out the sad news.

August 11, 05:39 PM

Smith library

Lucifer VI Lens, Pistil Film, No Flash, Taken with Hipstamatic

August 10, 01:28 PM

The quintessential buddy picture

August 01, 12:54 PM
…because I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer to anybody except my own confusion.
On the Road, Jack Kerouac (via chicadelachina)
July 26, 06:51 AM

danielholter:

(via Photographers Capture Mysterious, Beautiful Patterns in Sand)

Martyn Gorman has found these weird and wonderful formations near his home along Scotland’s east coast on two occasions. What is at work in this magical intersection of sand and physics, no one, it seems, knows.

July 09, 06:55 PM

Libatique 73 Lens, Big Up Film, No Flash, Taken with Hipstamatic

July 09, 06:54 PM

Barking Dog Café, Lyons CO

July 09, 02:46 PM
via Mary Karr on FB
  • Overheard at a party: 'Why do New York women wear black?'
  • Answer: 'They can't find anything darker.'
July 09, 01:41 AM

Buck At Rest

July 08, 04:18 PM
A traditional recipe for Masala Chai
July 07, 06:38 PM

gleemonex:

Peter Orlovsky, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs

July 07, 06:29 PM
Construction costs are lower. Another reason why we need to repair Union Terminal now, not later - Jobs for our community and savings for taxpayers - “You can get a lot more for your money than you could three years ago,” said Mark Reckin, senior medical planner with Minneapolis-based architecture firm Ellerbe Becket , which helped design Mercy Health Partners ’ planned West Side hospital. “Bids often come in 25 percent less than they would have.
Mark Reckin, senior medical planner with Minneapolis-based architecture firm Ellerbe Becket - From article in Cincinnati Business Courier (see link)
July 07, 01:43 PM
When to Freak Out About a Hacker Attack
July 04, 12:06 AM

Bongo drums (Taken with instagram)

Audio

  • Katie Laur’s Sunday evening bluegrass show.
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  • mkhjr: Bob Dylan & Janis Joplin - It ain’t me babe classic
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  • Samuel Beckett speaks
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  • Richard Holbrooke on meeting “evil incarnate” in Serbia
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