Poetry Rules

Long-distance relationships require a lot of patience and love. This is what I tell myself every time John flies back to the States. It is hard and I feel pretty much like Demeter who has to let Persephone head back to Hades. Well California is not exactly Hades, but I hope to have conveyed the message. I am ready to keep myself as busy as I can till next summer. It won't be hard this year. I am currently managing Pandemonium (aka as my translation agency) all by myself since the month of September. It is hard and engaging, but a beautiful endeavor as always. I am also resuming my work on the WIPs. And, getting ready for more reading too. I have a pile of TBR books and two brand new additions I bought in the past few days that I simply cannot wait to read: Toni Morrison' s latest novel, God Help the Child , and Patti Smith 's M-Train . And so, John has just left Rome. Jack is in Italy, but not heading to Rome this year. Alas, fall does not tread lightly. Let the winter...

Two gems. Patti Smith reading Federico García Lorca's " Little Viennese Waltz " at the Bowery Ballroom in NY last June 5th, on Lorca's very birthday. Follows Leonard Cohen's splendid rendition of Lorca's poem, "Take This Waltz."

Patti is not just a wonderful rocker, an engaged artist, an activist and a rebel, but she is also a talented wordsmith. These are just a few reasons for which I admire her. At her last concert here in Rome, in the Summer of 2010, it was a pleasant surprise to discover how much she loved Pasolini's works and how she had felt compelled to visit the place where he had been murdered. Her autobiographical book "Just Kids" is a great ride. But, her poems--permeated with her love for William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud--blow me away every time I read them. Her words have the power to scratch my soul. I welcome the bleeding. THE WRITER'S SONG I did not wish to work I did not wish to earn but to curl with my jar in the sweet sorghum I laid my mat among the reeds I could hear the freeman call oh my life what does it matter will the reed cease bending with the leper turn I had a horn I did not blow I had a sake and another I could hear the freeman drunk with sky w...