Finished


...A Rough Magic (a biography of Sylvia Plath),
The Fountainhead, and The Sound and The Fury.

The Plath biography was a decent read and fairly
well written (if somewhat repetitive) biography.
It appears that the author relied largely on the letters
Sylvia wrote her mother for information, along with
some interviews with former friends, teachers, and
classmates. I think I read it before, but I can't remember.
My memory is shot to hell right now. I hope this is not
a permanent thing--one related more to my state
of mind and too much vino over too many years.

I didn't care for The Fountainhead and would most
likely not reread it. I guess I'm just not an objectivist.
I thought the characters were rich, pompous ass types,
whom I really could gather no feeling for at all.

It bothers me when these wealthy characters say they
are living by their principals (unlike the working poor
or the poor in general) and when Rand makes
blanket assumptions and statements through these
characters that only the truly creative can understand
what it is to live by these principals, it irks me.
The rest of the population are referred to as "second-handers"
by Rand. Maybe I'm missing some major theme, but it
just didn't reach me.

One would think I would have read The Sound and The Fury
by now, but I've only read As I Lay Dying, Light in August,
The Town, and some of Absalom, Absalom. I've also read
some of his short stories--A Rose For Emily and Barn Burning
come to mind.

The first two sections of the book were a study in frustration
for me as I was very confused with the stream of consciousness
writing. There were times I just simply had to put the book down,
but I was gathering enough info and was hooked enough to stay
with it. It's very classic Faulkner with its themes of decay, ruin,
greed, madness, etc. I would reread it and probably will, but I
think I want to reread As I Lay Dying.

**************************

The first poetry circle meeting went well. 3 people came,
so I was thrilled. I hope those three will invite some others
and we'll have even more folks in December. I am going
to put some flyers up at the college, laundry mats, Senior
Citizen's Center, the Dept. for Community Based Services
(what some folks call the food stamp office), and the grocery
stores. I would love to see folks get excited about reading
poetry, and I hope it will be a learning experience for me
in ways a poetry class or workshop cannot be or have not
been.

**********************

I'm just fooling around on here this morning because
I can't get my ass in gear to do anything else. I slept
poorly last night, the house is a wreck, my mood
swings are worse than ever (surprised the family
hasn't sent me away somewhere), the loneliness
is so all-consuming that I just don't feel like doing
much at all except wallowing. So, I am attempting
to do things. I am attempting to stay involved in life
as best I can.

***********************
Why not close with some Gluck...just chose one
from poets.org because I don't feel like walking
in the other room and finding one of my books
and looking for a dog-eared page.

Vespers

In your extended absence, you permit me
use of earth, anticipating
some return on investment. I must report
failure in my assignment, principally
regarding the tomato plants.
I think I should not be encouraged to grow
tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold
the heavy rains, the cold nights that come
so often here, while other regions get
twelve weeks of summer. All this
belongs to you: on the other hand,
I planted the seeds, I watched the first shoots
like wings tearing the soil, and it was my heart
broken by the blight, the black spot so quickly
multiplying in the rows. I doubt
you have a heart, in our understanding of
that term. You who do not discriminate
between the dead and the living, who are, in consequence,
immune to foreshadowing, you may not know
how much terror we bear, the spotted leaf,
the red leaves of the maple falling
even in August, in early darkness: I am responsible
for these vines.


Louise Gluck