Hey Cats and Kittens!
I have a new, simpler version of my traciemorris.com website up and running! I'm very glad to have it and I hope you like it. You'll be able to connect to this blog/spot via my "Fun Links & Stuff" webpage.
I'm also on Twitter and Facebook (mstraciemorris on twitter and Tracie Morris' "fan page" on Facebook). This blog will remain a forum for me to post longer notes, pictures and poems that I like.
For those of you who check in here, thanks so much for your persistence as I try to improve my online presence. I really appreciate your support!
See you around the internet,
Tracie
www.traciemorris.com
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
working on the site -- Happy Summer 2011!
As I work on the site, here's an update via my little blog. BTW, you can reach me via Facebook on my Tracie Morris "fan page" or via Twitter @mstraciemorris. Hope to catch you on the 'net. xo, Tracie
This is the trailer for the documentary film I'm in. A very sweet little piece by the renown director Bert Shapiro. Enjoy and check out the film via www.newfilmmakersonline.com
This is the trailer for the documentary film I'm in. A very sweet little piece by the renown director Bert Shapiro. Enjoy and check out the film via www.newfilmmakersonline.com
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Happy Spring! 2011
Hi. I'm renovating this site and blog. Thanks for your patience. If you get re-routed or something weird happens, please bear with me as this is getting sorted.
Hope the weather is nice where you are.
Tracie
Hope the weather is nice where you are.
Tracie
Friday, June 11, 2010
Playing a bit of ketchup (and hot sauce)!
Spring has sprung and it's my season. It came in like a lion! (Lots of pix here that I took (unless credited). I know they're kinda sucky but I used a phone and I'm not a photographer so lower your expectations!
Ketchup: I guess I'll have to work backward with updates on doings. Right now I'm lamenting not being at the exciting Rethinking Poetics conference at Columbia in collaboration with Penn.I especially feel guilty because I was just in Philly for a hot second taping another installment of Poem talk organized and hosted by the adorable Al Filreis. No uptown hanging out for me: I'm on a deadline for a big project and my birthday's coming up (w/ festivities) and have other obligations this weekend. Ah, well.The conference is right in the city, too. Have fun for me everybody!
http://rethinkingpoetics.wordpress.com/panels/
But... I did get to see one of the luminaries, Charles Bernstein earlier this week in a reading w/ Kenny Goldsmith at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue. It was a nice reading! I haven't heard Kenny read that much and I really enjoyed the double poetry bill with Charles and he. They were also joined by a musician, Jamie Saft. There was a friendly discussion w/ an editor of the Forward, as well as the curator of the event, after the show. There was also a lovely tour of the synagogue and it's progressive history. Very nice! The Lower East Side hasn't always been the supergentrified spot it is being presented as nowadays. This is a photo of a hilarious traffic light I saw as I walked from the train.
Charles read a poem on Walter Benjamin that I haven't heard since we performed together in Paris years ago (ooh la la) and it was great to hear it again as well as some of his libretti. Jamie Saft has worked w/ lots of folks including John Zorn. (John seems to have worked with everyone I know, I swear, and I recently checked out another friend of his, visual artist David Chaim Smith who's illustrations/interpretations of Kabbalah at the Cavin Morris gallery were beautiful and intricate. I wish I could afford to buy one...ah well. I feel that way everytime I walk into a gallery. But DCS's work really was quite gorgeous.)
Speaking of galleries, I don't know if I even want to get into the vortex that was my experience w/ Marina Abramovic! It was intense! Here's the thumbnail: I went at the suggestion of a few people, including one of my colleagues at Pratt and it was like living in another world for a week. Now that the dust has settled and I'm reived from my reverie, I can think on it a bit. Don't want to be too long winded on this post (too late!) but it was very moving and special. I went to MoMa several times: once to check out the retrospective upstairs, once to check out the crowd, once to sit w/ Marina and I had to go to the closing day, for goodness sake. It was star-studded and, in some ways, anti-star b/c the stars, especially at the end, couldn't sit w/ her. The line and all who waited overnight were too formidable to jump just because the person is famous. New Yorkers have been known to be violent when someone cuts the line! I didn't sit w/ her long myself (I think it was a couple minutes). Personally I didn't feel it was necessary to stay that long in order to understand the implications of what she was doing, especially w/ so many people waiting to sit w/ her and I also think I could have stayed sitting w/ her for weeks and weeks and still discovered new things. So what was the point of hogging the time?
(h/t slp: calarts/redcat events)
One of the great added benefits of "meeting" Marina was that I bumped into the affable Suzan Lori-Parks that day and she went old school in appreciation for "not hogging the mic" as it were. It was a fun conversation and I find her work really interesting. Lovely use of language.
(h/t Jacket magazine)
(h/t squaw valley writers.org)
I am tempted to name drop other folks that I saw there but that's kinda boring. However, I did run into a couple poets and we got to hang out the last day: Evie Shockley and Lee Ann Brown. I love seeing poets in places! Especially my friends. More poets in places! Fan out poets!
Lifestyle changes: well, I've decided to get healthier (a never-ending quest) and am becoming more strict w/ the old diet. Less junk, crap, garbage. More weight-training whole, live foods and water. Since Gemini season has arrived and that means my birthday (yay!) it's time to re-evaluate and move forward. I have some ridiculous precedents for long life in my family (I had an uncle who died at 108), and if I get w/ the program I might be around and healthy for a while. If not, well, there are, unfortunately other precedents for ill health in my family too. I'm at the point now where I'm deciding to tap into the long-living genetic disposition and not to undermine it with bad habits. Weirdly, I'm eating more these days but am not as "fluffy" as before. Consuming better food actually gives me more leeway with how much I can eat. I know this is like "duh, no kidding" but I had to find out w/ trial and error. Whatever. Wish me luck!
Projects: Writing and re-evaluating my writing. It's quite the meditation going over past words. I can almost feel the context of why I needed to write them at the time, coming back. Not exactly a trip down memory lane more like some Star Trek space-time continuum collapse! Disconcerting, unnerving. But good! Doing some recording soon too and that is always lovely.
My trip to Uganda was life-changing. I love going to Africa and have always enjoyed my experiences there. Every place is, of course, very different. In Uganda I got to hang out at schools. I met quite a few students and they are smart, smart, smart. The scholastic resources are terrible though. I saw the vestiges of colonialism (even now) in the depleated libraries and dated books. One thing I did note however, was how much more well-read the students are regarding African literature. I got exposed to many of the books they read as schoolchildren in grad school. That's a sad commentary on the US education system in relation to the second-largest continent on earth. And the students are well-read about very different African authors from throughout the continent.
On a goofy tip, I criss-crossed the equator and that was super fun! I've been south of the equator quite a few times but stopping and taking pictures was cool! Also went to the source of the Nile. That was supercool because I've visited Egypt and went to the end of the Nile so it's like: yay! End to end! The falls around Uganda are gorgeous.
Politcally, because of the controvery anti-gay/queer legislation in the country, the place is flooded w/ southern White evangelicals. Whatever floats your boat on the religious tip, but these folks bring their bad habits, intolerance and awkwardness whereever they go. It seemed to me (after run-in with a couple of these yahoos) that racism and prejudice trumps religion. Just tacky behavior (and aesthetically, just straight up tacky!) I can't agree w/ the intolerance of queer people there (or here for that matter) and I find it interesting that some Africans are very critical of European/Euro-American imperialism when it comes to some things but not other things. If the news reports coming out of the States about who's funding the anti-Gay measures in Uganda (conservative White Christian fundamentalists here in the States) are correct, then this intolerance is just as much an aspect of imperialism as the bad textbooks in the schools that privileges Europe and America over Africa, even for Africans.
LIke I said, it was a deep trip! I look forward to visiting Uganda again. I met some beautiful, smart people there.
Hot Sauce on the table: I've got a few projects heating up (as I've mentioned) and will hopefully be revamping this website over the summer. So if you tune in and things are different, it's on purpose! I'm glad for this nuts-and-bolts website version but hope to step up my game a teeny bit now that I've got other irons in the fire. Stay tuned and enjoy the decent weather!
xo,
Tracie
PS: An early Happy Pops day for you Pops!
My Father's Geography
by Afaa M. Weaver
I was parading the Côte d'Azur,
hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes,
following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo
to the hill that overlooks the ville.
A woman fed me pâté in the afternoon,
calling from her stall to offer me more.
At breakfast I talked in French with an old man
about what he loved about America--the Kennedys.
On the beaches I walked and watched
topless women sunbathe and swim,
loving both home and being so far from it.
At a phone looking to Africa over the Mediterranean,
I called my father, and, missing me, he said,
"You almost home boy. Go on cross that sea!"
(h/t poets.org)
Ketchup: I guess I'll have to work backward with updates on doings. Right now I'm lamenting not being at the exciting Rethinking Poetics conference at Columbia in collaboration with Penn.I especially feel guilty because I was just in Philly for a hot second taping another installment of Poem talk organized and hosted by the adorable Al Filreis. No uptown hanging out for me: I'm on a deadline for a big project and my birthday's coming up (w/ festivities) and have other obligations this weekend. Ah, well.The conference is right in the city, too. Have fun for me everybody!
http://rethinkingpoetics.wordpress.com/panels/
But... I did get to see one of the luminaries, Charles Bernstein earlier this week in a reading w/ Kenny Goldsmith at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue. It was a nice reading! I haven't heard Kenny read that much and I really enjoyed the double poetry bill with Charles and he. They were also joined by a musician, Jamie Saft. There was a friendly discussion w/ an editor of the Forward, as well as the curator of the event, after the show. There was also a lovely tour of the synagogue and it's progressive history. Very nice! The Lower East Side hasn't always been the supergentrified spot it is being presented as nowadays. This is a photo of a hilarious traffic light I saw as I walked from the train.
Charles read a poem on Walter Benjamin that I haven't heard since we performed together in Paris years ago (ooh la la) and it was great to hear it again as well as some of his libretti. Jamie Saft has worked w/ lots of folks including John Zorn. (John seems to have worked with everyone I know, I swear, and I recently checked out another friend of his, visual artist David Chaim Smith who's illustrations/interpretations of Kabbalah at the Cavin Morris gallery were beautiful and intricate. I wish I could afford to buy one...ah well. I feel that way everytime I walk into a gallery. But DCS's work really was quite gorgeous.)
Speaking of galleries, I don't know if I even want to get into the vortex that was my experience w/ Marina Abramovic! It was intense! Here's the thumbnail: I went at the suggestion of a few people, including one of my colleagues at Pratt and it was like living in another world for a week. Now that the dust has settled and I'm reived from my reverie, I can think on it a bit. Don't want to be too long winded on this post (too late!) but it was very moving and special. I went to MoMa several times: once to check out the retrospective upstairs, once to check out the crowd, once to sit w/ Marina and I had to go to the closing day, for goodness sake. It was star-studded and, in some ways, anti-star b/c the stars, especially at the end, couldn't sit w/ her. The line and all who waited overnight were too formidable to jump just because the person is famous. New Yorkers have been known to be violent when someone cuts the line! I didn't sit w/ her long myself (I think it was a couple minutes). Personally I didn't feel it was necessary to stay that long in order to understand the implications of what she was doing, especially w/ so many people waiting to sit w/ her and I also think I could have stayed sitting w/ her for weeks and weeks and still discovered new things. So what was the point of hogging the time?
(h/t slp: calarts/redcat events)
One of the great added benefits of "meeting" Marina was that I bumped into the affable Suzan Lori-Parks that day and she went old school in appreciation for "not hogging the mic" as it were. It was a fun conversation and I find her work really interesting. Lovely use of language.
(h/t Jacket magazine)
(h/t squaw valley writers.org)
I am tempted to name drop other folks that I saw there but that's kinda boring. However, I did run into a couple poets and we got to hang out the last day: Evie Shockley and Lee Ann Brown. I love seeing poets in places! Especially my friends. More poets in places! Fan out poets!
Lifestyle changes: well, I've decided to get healthier (a never-ending quest) and am becoming more strict w/ the old diet. Less junk, crap, garbage. More weight-training whole, live foods and water. Since Gemini season has arrived and that means my birthday (yay!) it's time to re-evaluate and move forward. I have some ridiculous precedents for long life in my family (I had an uncle who died at 108), and if I get w/ the program I might be around and healthy for a while. If not, well, there are, unfortunately other precedents for ill health in my family too. I'm at the point now where I'm deciding to tap into the long-living genetic disposition and not to undermine it with bad habits. Weirdly, I'm eating more these days but am not as "fluffy" as before. Consuming better food actually gives me more leeway with how much I can eat. I know this is like "duh, no kidding" but I had to find out w/ trial and error. Whatever. Wish me luck!
Projects: Writing and re-evaluating my writing. It's quite the meditation going over past words. I can almost feel the context of why I needed to write them at the time, coming back. Not exactly a trip down memory lane more like some Star Trek space-time continuum collapse! Disconcerting, unnerving. But good! Doing some recording soon too and that is always lovely.
My trip to Uganda was life-changing. I love going to Africa and have always enjoyed my experiences there. Every place is, of course, very different. In Uganda I got to hang out at schools. I met quite a few students and they are smart, smart, smart. The scholastic resources are terrible though. I saw the vestiges of colonialism (even now) in the depleated libraries and dated books. One thing I did note however, was how much more well-read the students are regarding African literature. I got exposed to many of the books they read as schoolchildren in grad school. That's a sad commentary on the US education system in relation to the second-largest continent on earth. And the students are well-read about very different African authors from throughout the continent.
On a goofy tip, I criss-crossed the equator and that was super fun! I've been south of the equator quite a few times but stopping and taking pictures was cool! Also went to the source of the Nile. That was supercool because I've visited Egypt and went to the end of the Nile so it's like: yay! End to end! The falls around Uganda are gorgeous.
Politcally, because of the controvery anti-gay/queer legislation in the country, the place is flooded w/ southern White evangelicals. Whatever floats your boat on the religious tip, but these folks bring their bad habits, intolerance and awkwardness whereever they go. It seemed to me (after run-in with a couple of these yahoos) that racism and prejudice trumps religion. Just tacky behavior (and aesthetically, just straight up tacky!) I can't agree w/ the intolerance of queer people there (or here for that matter) and I find it interesting that some Africans are very critical of European/Euro-American imperialism when it comes to some things but not other things. If the news reports coming out of the States about who's funding the anti-Gay measures in Uganda (conservative White Christian fundamentalists here in the States) are correct, then this intolerance is just as much an aspect of imperialism as the bad textbooks in the schools that privileges Europe and America over Africa, even for Africans.
LIke I said, it was a deep trip! I look forward to visiting Uganda again. I met some beautiful, smart people there.
Hot Sauce on the table: I've got a few projects heating up (as I've mentioned) and will hopefully be revamping this website over the summer. So if you tune in and things are different, it's on purpose! I'm glad for this nuts-and-bolts website version but hope to step up my game a teeny bit now that I've got other irons in the fire. Stay tuned and enjoy the decent weather!
xo,
Tracie
PS: An early Happy Pops day for you Pops!
My Father's Geography
by Afaa M. Weaver
I was parading the Côte d'Azur,
hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes,
following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo
to the hill that overlooks the ville.
A woman fed me pâté in the afternoon,
calling from her stall to offer me more.
At breakfast I talked in French with an old man
about what he loved about America--the Kennedys.
On the beaches I walked and watched
topless women sunbathe and swim,
loving both home and being so far from it.
At a phone looking to Africa over the Mediterranean,
I called my father, and, missing me, he said,
"You almost home boy. Go on cross that sea!"
(h/t poets.org)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
It's been a long time....
to quote Rakim!
Lissen, I have been b-u-s-y! I'll fill you in w/ more details soon.
What do I have to tell you about? Latest musings, my trip to Uganda, sitting w/ Marina Abramovic, new projects, lifestyle changes, summer coming, the Gemini season starting, revamping ye olde website.
My next post is probably gonna be loooong! Maybe even in two parts!
So look out this week and I'll catch y'all up. This is what *professional* blogger and entertainment types call "a teaser".
Thanks for checking in,
Tracie
Lissen, I have been b-u-s-y! I'll fill you in w/ more details soon.
What do I have to tell you about? Latest musings, my trip to Uganda, sitting w/ Marina Abramovic, new projects, lifestyle changes, summer coming, the Gemini season starting, revamping ye olde website.
My next post is probably gonna be loooong! Maybe even in two parts!
So look out this week and I'll catch y'all up. This is what *professional* blogger and entertainment types call "a teaser".
Thanks for checking in,
Tracie
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Oops! Almost forgot...
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!
Special Yay if you're a cat person!
(Year of the Tiger)
:-)
TM
(h/t to news.bbc.co.uk for the pic)
Special Yay if you're a cat person!
(Year of the Tiger)
:-)
TM
(h/t to news.bbc.co.uk for the pic)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
another day in the cities
Well today was one of those good days. The kind I like -- full of different things intersecting and a little surprise. As a preface to the cities/spaces I experienced today was a talk I attended on Thursday presented by the British architect David Adjaye. It was an interesting talk and he raised some provocative points about cultural intersections during a Q and A with Thelma Golden and the other presenters of the "Blacks in Architecture" conference.
(h/t guardian.co.uk)
Cityscapes upon cities...
London: I started off reading a bit about my beloved philosopher J.L. Austin after doing some creative writing yesterday. I came across this wonderful little miniseries from 1990 out of London. I'm probably one of the last literary-type people to have actually seen it: the fabulous 4 part "trilogy" House of Cards starring the great Ian Richardson.
(J.L. Austin above. h/t philweb.net)
(Ian Richardson via britishcinemagreats.com)
It was fun going down memory lane (the early 1990s) and seeing such lovely subtle "face work" from Mr. Richardson. Everyone in the series was really great -- and intense! -- in their work. Totally in the moment. I was impressed. Like the other Ian I always mention, it was a fourth-wall breaking performance based on Richard III.
Lagos: I ran off to see the Broadway show Fela! as part a family outing and was blown away. It was magnificent! I saw Kevin Mambo as Fela and he turned it out! I had a chance to see the original great many, many years ago and I have to say, although there were many people on stage in the play, it was a fraction of the amout of people I rememeber seeing in Fela's actual show! The actors (at the Eugene O'Neil Theatre) took it to the hoop! Bill T and his collaborators wore it out! Dealt with the politics, Afrocentricity, the astounding music and dance, the spirituality, everything. I refused to read any reviews before seeing it -- and don't rely on them anyway. I recently saw a play with my good friend Sarah and we really didn't care for it. The mainstream reviews gave it a *rave*. Different strokes.
(Fela to the left. h/t africantheaterusa.com)
(Kevin Mambo h/t wemakemoves.com)
I recently told a poetry colleague of mine that I like stuff that's really old and I like stuff that's really new, not as much stuff that's in the middle. (Early onset of curmudgeon, I suspect). I guess I like Mr. Richardson and Fela because they are *re* - newels of something(s) old. Of course, we're talking apples and oranges here in other respects...but one could argue that both presentations are critiques about corruptive residues of the British Empire, so there's that.
New York: When we were leaving the theater and getting into the train station, we ran into the great actor Tony Shalhoub (confirmed dork, I have seen *all* the eoisodes of "Monk" just to watch him work out as an actor) and his lovely wife, the wonderful actor Brooke Adams. Truth be told, I did not recognize her because she looks so much younger than she does on film. Tony Shalhoub looks better in real life, too. (I'm not saying they looked the opposite, of course, it's just that with all the lighting and makeup you'd think film would do them justice but it doesn't). I love New York: you just never know who you'll run into -- and to a large extent nobody cares. That's why famous people like to live here, too.
(via imdb/golden globes)
I hope seeeing Mr. Shalhoub in the streets of the city means he's going to be staying back on stage where he belongs. I mean, I like TV and film but if you've got the chops for the stage, whole other level.
Hmmm. I guess it's worthwhile going to Manhattan occassionally. Nice place to visit...
(h/t wired.com)
Tracie
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (excerpt)
by Walt Whitman
1
Flood-tide below me! I watch you face to face;
Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you
are to me!
On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home,
are more curious to me than you suppose;
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me,
and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
2
The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day;
The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme—myself disintegrated,
every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme:
The similitudes of the past, and those of the future;
The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings—
on the walk in the street, and the passage over the river;
The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away;
The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them;
The certainty of others—the life, love, sight, hearing of others.
Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore;
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide;
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights
of Brooklyn to the south and east;
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an
hour high;
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will
see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back
to the sea of the ebb-tide.
3
It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not;
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so
many generations hence;
I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how
it is.
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow,
I was refresh'd;
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current,
I stood, yet was hurried;
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem'd
pipes of steamboats, I look'd.
PS! Thanks for all the well-wishes re: the Brooklyn Poet Laureate position. I was one of the three finalists. It was super, duper cool to be considered and share a bit of the limelight with Jess Greenbaum and our borough's new poetic representation, Tina Chang!
(h/t guardian.co.uk)
Cityscapes upon cities...
London: I started off reading a bit about my beloved philosopher J.L. Austin after doing some creative writing yesterday. I came across this wonderful little miniseries from 1990 out of London. I'm probably one of the last literary-type people to have actually seen it: the fabulous 4 part "trilogy" House of Cards starring the great Ian Richardson.
(J.L. Austin above. h/t philweb.net)
(Ian Richardson via britishcinemagreats.com)
It was fun going down memory lane (the early 1990s) and seeing such lovely subtle "face work" from Mr. Richardson. Everyone in the series was really great -- and intense! -- in their work. Totally in the moment. I was impressed. Like the other Ian I always mention, it was a fourth-wall breaking performance based on Richard III.
Lagos: I ran off to see the Broadway show Fela! as part a family outing and was blown away. It was magnificent! I saw Kevin Mambo as Fela and he turned it out! I had a chance to see the original great many, many years ago and I have to say, although there were many people on stage in the play, it was a fraction of the amout of people I rememeber seeing in Fela's actual show! The actors (at the Eugene O'Neil Theatre) took it to the hoop! Bill T and his collaborators wore it out! Dealt with the politics, Afrocentricity, the astounding music and dance, the spirituality, everything. I refused to read any reviews before seeing it -- and don't rely on them anyway. I recently saw a play with my good friend Sarah and we really didn't care for it. The mainstream reviews gave it a *rave*. Different strokes.
(Fela to the left. h/t africantheaterusa.com)
(Kevin Mambo h/t wemakemoves.com)
I recently told a poetry colleague of mine that I like stuff that's really old and I like stuff that's really new, not as much stuff that's in the middle. (Early onset of curmudgeon, I suspect). I guess I like Mr. Richardson and Fela because they are *re* - newels of something(s) old. Of course, we're talking apples and oranges here in other respects...but one could argue that both presentations are critiques about corruptive residues of the British Empire, so there's that.
New York: When we were leaving the theater and getting into the train station, we ran into the great actor Tony Shalhoub (confirmed dork, I have seen *all* the eoisodes of "Monk" just to watch him work out as an actor) and his lovely wife, the wonderful actor Brooke Adams. Truth be told, I did not recognize her because she looks so much younger than she does on film. Tony Shalhoub looks better in real life, too. (I'm not saying they looked the opposite, of course, it's just that with all the lighting and makeup you'd think film would do them justice but it doesn't). I love New York: you just never know who you'll run into -- and to a large extent nobody cares. That's why famous people like to live here, too.
(via imdb/golden globes)
I hope seeeing Mr. Shalhoub in the streets of the city means he's going to be staying back on stage where he belongs. I mean, I like TV and film but if you've got the chops for the stage, whole other level.
Hmmm. I guess it's worthwhile going to Manhattan occassionally. Nice place to visit...
(h/t wired.com)
Tracie
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (excerpt)
by Walt Whitman
1
Flood-tide below me! I watch you face to face;
Clouds of the west! sun there half an hour high! I see you also face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes! how curious you
are to me!
On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home,
are more curious to me than you suppose;
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me,
and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
2
The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day;
The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme—myself disintegrated,
every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme:
The similitudes of the past, and those of the future;
The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings—
on the walk in the street, and the passage over the river;
The current rushing so swiftly, and swimming with me far away;
The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them;
The certainty of others—the life, love, sight, hearing of others.
Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore;
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide;
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights
of Brooklyn to the south and east;
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an
hour high;
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will
see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back
to the sea of the ebb-tide.
3
It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not;
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so
many generations hence;
I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how
it is.
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow,
I was refresh'd;
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current,
I stood, yet was hurried;
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem'd
pipes of steamboats, I look'd.
PS! Thanks for all the well-wishes re: the Brooklyn Poet Laureate position. I was one of the three finalists. It was super, duper cool to be considered and share a bit of the limelight with Jess Greenbaum and our borough's new poetic representation, Tina Chang!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
