But it is true, they fear it more than death, beauty is feared more than death, more than they fear death -William Carlos Williams (quoted by Cristina Campo in “The Unforgiveables”)

Cristina Campo, from “The Unforgiveables”

I remind you that in Peru are ageless Inca walls so narrowly fitted that the blade of a knife cannot slide between two stones. -Evan S. Connell

During the last days of the Plague a goose girl from Przytullen was seen capering among the bodies, adorned with jewels stolen from the dead. Mindless in the solitude of vacant halls she played, a baroness between indifferent shadows. -Evan S. Connell

At first light a peacock dances, its claws scrape the metal roof.

from Lore & Legends of North Malabar (Elayavoor & Kumar)

Red smoke lifts from the steel mill — a tired arm. -Tota (tr. Lucien Stryk)

David Smith / Don Quixote, 1952

David Smith / Hudson River Landscape, 1951 as a young art student I had a wonderful teacher who introduced me to the sculptures and drawings of Smith

Manuel Álvarez Bravo / Burro Grazing, 1930s

Smelting furnace, under the green mountain of July. . In this wasted field here in my palm — sunset. -Seishi (tr. Lucien Stryk)

Now it is afternoon; the water has become the color of Persian ceramic — that utter blue we find within the tiles of the Grand Mosque of Achmet. -Evan S. Connell, Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel

Gulping June rains, swollen Mogami river. . Early autumn — rice field, ocean, one green. -Bashō (tr. Lucien Stryk)

Manuel Álvarez Bravo / Puesto de cocos, ca. 1940s

Manuel Álvarez Bravo / Parvada en el mar, 1939

Manuel Álvarez Bravo / Driftwood Sculpture, 1924

from Lore & Legends of North Malabar (Elayavoor & Kumar)

Over field and trees an egret flies south, wings spread east-west.

Squalls shake the Basho tree — all night my basin echoes rain. . Kiyotaki river — pine needles wildfire on the crest. -Bashō (tr. Lucien Stryk)

Lucien Stryk known for his translations from Japanese, he was also a wonderful poet

Linda Connor / Balanced Horizon, Hawaii, 1991

Linda Connor / Portal Figures, Chartres Cathedral, France, 1989

Along the trail of touch-me-nots she remembers her childhood.

The making of a shell is something lived, not something calculated … Perhaps what we call perfection … is only a sense of … finding in a human work the sureness of execution, the inner necessity … exhibited to us by the humblest of shells. -Paul Valéry (tr. David Hills)

The bulbuls nest by the road, sweep down to my door at breakfast.

It's that time of year for murmurations at the end of the pier near to where I live. Sometimes these flocks of starlings appear as shifting and fluttering point-clouds. At other moments they coalesce into dense dimensionalities and fully formed mathematical surfaces. ↓

The coucal, its blood-red eyes — snake-eater. -after Bashō

MP Pratheesh

MP Pratheesh

there is this thin fabric, always, visible and invisible. the skin that envelopes both poetry and earth. -MP Pratheesh

1st lines High rise the pole banners In the outskirts of Jun, With white brands braided. Of, fine horses, four abreast! Such great gentlemen, What can we offer them? From the Book of Songs 詩經 Arthur Waley translation about 600 BCE #1stlines #poetry #China #translation

The Lioness returns; burnished wood, gravity and grace.

Shinkichi Takahashi (tr. Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto)

“I asked him which authors his brother most admired. ‘Moby-Dick was Cormac’s favorite book without question, and Faulkner was more of an influence than he liked to admit,’ he said.” www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture... #MelvilleMonday

Grateful to Mary for adding this black square to my working collection. On that note, this essay by Andrew Spira is wonderful. publicdomainreview.org/essay/black-...

(notes) Numbers combine, multiply, divide. Harmony of disparate energies; bow and lyre. . a silent dog accompanied me home . Fleet feelings, eternal; winged soul

October goes, leaving the heaviness of the world in its place. You think you’ve known grief—until you have to pick up a shovel and mend your loved one’s sunken grave.

Feeling no need for preparation — and now safe aboard Wrack after half a night in hospital — I'm sprawled along a narrow bunk, absorbed in The Sea (and relieved by its subject's close proximity).

Graciela Iturbide / Antes de la matanza (Before the slaughter), La Mixteca, Oaxaca, 1992

Graciela Iturbide / Sin título, Japón, 2014

Shinkichi Takahashi (tr. Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto)

Lucien Stryk on Bashō

1776: Redwings. These birds begin to appear at last.