I have been feeling pressure from church stuff and family stuff. Somehow, after my first ballet class, I felt the cloud lifting. After three more classes I was walking home thinking it was exceptionally good to be alive!
Not sure what to ascribe this to. Some of it is the release of simply sitting and improvising. The visiting young teacher was fun to work with. He has a droll sense of humor and no detectable arrogance even though he seem to scare the shit out of the students, probably with his reputation and career.
Some of it had to be the weather which has been exceptionally lovely. It’s a bit warmer (not warm) and the wind has been blowing like a crazed frantic dog in the air.
Also I was looking forward to martinis and conversation with lovely wife after she got off work.
All of it seemed to combine and lift my cloud which seems to be still absent this morning.
Having finished off Ginsberg’s little book of poetry, I thought it might be nice to turn instead to reading Anne Sexton’s poetry.
I continue to read ten or so Dream Songs by Berryman a day. I do find him a bit dated in his misogyny and outright licentious sexism.
Still this is his sitz im leben. I find it tiresome when people try and convict historical figures with only the contemporary understanding of issues. The founding fathers were slave owners. Yes it was wrong, but we cannot self-righteously imagine ourselves into their situation any more than we can into the heads of their slaves.
I began reading the introduction to The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton. I have long admired her work and am thinking it might be interesting to read her like I did William Carlos Williams, that is: straight through her opus.
I found it interesting if she was alive she would be two years young than my mother. She committed suicide in 1974.
I’m about half way through the introduction to the Complete Poems.
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Dire Poverty Falls Despite Global Slump, Report Finds – NYTimes.com
Good news, if it’s true.
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Poking holes in the Republican candidates. Shooting fish in a barrel.
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I enjoy reading Anne Sexton’s poetry-I recommend this biography on the life of Sexton “Anne Sexton” a biography by Dianne Wood Middlebrook-peace
I’m only getting started on slogging through her poetry. But thanks for the recommendation of a bio. Have you read this and the Ginsberg bio you recommended?