Monday, March 28, 2011

Rest in Peace: Virginia Woolf - Jan. 25, 1882 - March 28, 1941


When opinions are expressed as to which novelist of the twentieth century had the greatest achievement, the names Marcel Proust and James Joyce are invariably mentioned. Virginia Woolf's name should always be mentioned as well. At times when I was reading The Waves I actually felt -- because of the extended extreme concentration required, I guess --  that my own consciousness had been subsumed by that of Virginia Woolf (the assumed narrator of the novel); this sensation was so real as to be frightening; it seemed vaguely related to the mind-altering experience of mescaline ... far out, man.

It's unimaginable to me that anyone has delved deeper into consciousness with words than Virginia Woolf; her literary achievements must, in my humble opinion, be considered as great as those of anyone.

For decades upon decades I've copied words of various authors which I loved into various journals or daybooks; I'm not certain but I think the very first quote I copied was from Virginia Woolf: My mind runs hither and thither with its veil of words for everything.

Seventy years ago today she left a note for her husband:

Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. 

Adding weight to her thin frame by filling her pockets with stones, she then walked into a river close by the Woolf's country home. Twenty-one days later, downriver, her body was discovered. She was cremated; her ashes were spread on the lawn of the that home she'd loved; it was near Rodmell, England. 

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Seeking Spiritual Guidance: Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder is poet whom I love to read even though often feeling that I'm not really understanding what he is saying; yet, the not-understood poems somehow elevate me spiritually.  Because of this elevation, I've often felt like writing a poem right after laying down a book of his poems.  Of the twenty, thirty, or forty poems I've written (or if I could find and gather them all would there be fifty?), three of them mention Gary Snyder.


I've also liked things Gary Snyder says in one interview or another. Lately I've been feeling that I waste time, don't reach my aims (one of which may be to simply post a blog), have too little energy ... malaise, perhaps. Today, looking through old notebooks, I find something from the mid-seventies I called 'Anecdote from Gary Snyder Interview':


          During the first year or two that I was at Daitoku-ji 
          Sodo [a Japanese zen monastery], out back work-
          ing in the garden, helping put in a little firewood,
          or firing up the bath, I noticed a number of times
          little improvements could be made.  Ultimately I
          ventured to suggest to the head monks some labor-
          or time-saving techniques.  They were tolerant of
          me for a while.  Finally, one day one of them took
          me aside and said, "We don't want to do things any
          better or any faster, because that's not the point --
          the point is that you live the whole life.  If we speed
          up the work in the garden, you'll just have to spend 
          that much more time sitting in the zendo and your
          legs will hurt more."  It's all one meditation.  The
          importance is in the right balance, and not to 
          save time in one place or another.


Is there, in sitting in the same chair from noon until ten p.m. watching highly-defined basketball on a large flat-screened television, as I did yesterday and expect to do today, any possible connection with meditation?


I don't think so.  I think I would be asked to leave the monastery.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

In Memoriam - Nicholas Hughes 1962 - 2009

Nicholas Hughes, son of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, on the occasion of his father's 1998 funeral.

In a poem written in 1962, "Nick and the Candlestick", his mother wrote:


          The pain
          You wake to is not yours.


In "Life after Death" -- a poem addressed to the mother of his children --  Ted Hughes wrote:


          Your son's eyes ...
          So perfectly your eyes,
          Became wet jewels,
          The hardest substance of the purest pain
          As I fed him in his high white chair.


Two years ago today, at his home near Fairbanks, Alaska, Nicholas Hughes opted out.


May all departed souls, both the faithful and the unfaithful, rest in peace.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

March Madness

It's NCAA College Basketball Tournament time.  I will watch several games this weekend and then twenty five-or-so games between the dates of March 17th and April 4th.
In 2008 a relatively small Stephen Curry led  small Davidson College to within one shot of going to The Final Four. 

J.J. Redick, 2003-06, is the all-time leading scorer of a consistently great basketball program at Duke University.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

No Empty Promises

Hail healthy longevity!  The grandson of James O. Ellis still does welding at this location; his wife gave me a copy of this early 20th century advertisement.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

When Life was Exciting



Top Ten week of April 4, 1964:

 1. Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles
 2. Twist and Shout - The Beatles
 3. She Loves You - The Beatles
 4. I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
 5. Please Please Me - The Beatles
 6. Suspicion - Terry Stafford
 7. Hello Dolly - Louis Armstrong
 8. Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) - Betty Everett
 9. My Heart Belongs To You - Bobby Vinton
10. Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five