Table of Contents
• Third cycle of posts for Paris Review Daily
• Eight more posts for Paris Review Daily
• Eight posts for Paris Review Daily
• “26 Items from Special Collections”
• 10 items for Harriet
• “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”
• Miscellaneous
Third cycle of posts for Paris Review Daily
May June July August 2017
1
H.D. Notebook, Part 1
Teaser quote: “I don’t like biographies wherein the subject has no stupid ideas, is never self-deceived, and is never a source of legitimate grievance to anyone. To watch a biographer protect her subject from all negative interpretations, and even from the other characters in the story—this is a most unedifying spectacle…"
[originally posted Wednesday 3 May 2017]
2
Five limericks with pictures by Mark Fletcher
Teaser quote: “Some days I made four or five limericks, or four or five versions of the same limerick, texting every one of ’em to the people in my life who, in my judgment, did not then and do not now deserve God’s mercy.”
[originally posted Wednesday 17 May 2017]
3
Five Complaints, Containing sundrie small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie
Teaser quote: “In 1948, T. S. Eliot got up there at the Library of Congress and gave an address so witheringly condescending to Edgar Allan Poe that I felt angry reading it. What do I care about Edgar Allan Poe? Yet I felt angry.”
[originally posted Wednesday 31 May 2017]
4
Interview with the Neanderthal
Teaser quote:
INTERVIEWER
But let’s not get distracted. You’re essentially saying you can access memories from past lives. Is that correct?
THE NEANDERTHAL
Yes. I mean, that’s misleading to put it that way, because these “past lives” were not me. It’s not like my personality existed forty thousand years ago. But I can access, I’m convinced, personalities and events that occurred at the time when the Neanderthal species—as a distinct thing—ceased to exist.
[originally posted Wednesday 14 une 2017]
5
Carrying Away His Last Sheep
Teaser quote: “Why would a goddess steal a hunchback’s sheep? and naked?”
[originally posted Wednesday 28 June 2017]
6
’Tis Pity Such a Pretty Maid as I Should Go to Hell
Teaser quote: “Any English-speaker could recite every one of these twenty-eight poems backward, under any conditions, including hanging upside-down, drunk, on two hits of acid.”
[originally posted Wednesday 12 July 2017]
7
“Would You Like to Write Something for My Magazine?”
Teaser quote: “The people of France have made it no secret that those of England, as a general thing, are, to their perception, an inexpressive and speechless race, perpendicular and unsociable, unaddicted to enriching any bareness of contact with verbal or other embroidery.”
[originally posted Wednesday 26 July 2017]
8
H.D. Notebook, Part 2
Teaser quote: “Semi-unintelligible melodramas, thoroughly interesting and impossible to care about, where the point of view is suppressed to the threshold of nonexistence—there are many, many small presses who would be happy to put these works into circulation in 2017. Their mission statements literally say this.”
[originally posted Wednesday 9 August 2017]
Eight more posts for Paris Review Daily
November December January February March 2016–'17
1
On Swift
Teaser quote: “As a poet, he was the cat who walked by himself, and all places were alike to him…”
[posted 30 November 2016]
2
On the Mrs Thrale bit in Frank O’Hara’s “Meditations in an Emergency”
Teaser quote: “I do love that little Minx, & hope She may be happy, tho’ She has vexed me by this Exploit a little too…”
[posted 14 December 2016]
3
Pavese’s English
Teaser quote: “I’m now seeing the world only through a veil of pink sheets, all bristling with slang-phrases which are meddling together...”
[posted 4 January 2017]
4
A volume of essays on Edward Lear’s lala
Teaser quote: “Sufficient to the day is the weevil thereof…”
[posted 19 January 2017]
5
Whitman, Stevens, & Co.
Teaser quote: “It seems to me that a twig might sup with the president of the United States, and become president in its turn.”
[posted 1 February 2017]
6
“I Must Enter Again the Round Zion of the Water Bead”
Teaser quote: “Our little Joan ignores the cats, / Ignites a satisfying match. / It sputters, flickers, pops and jets: / It’s fun as good as ever gets.”
[posted 15 February 2017]
7
Rumi, Machado & Co.
Teaser quote: “Would he really use a construction like I caught the happy virus.”
[posted 1 March 2017]
8
“Five Public Cases on Intelligence”
Teaser quote: “We took it as axiomatic that nerds are incapable of drawing conclusions that would tend to banish the concept of genius….”
[posted 1 March 2017] [originally posted, Wednesday 15 March 2017]
○
Eight posts for Paris Review Daily
June July August September 2016
1
On a certain epigram by Anna Akhmatova
Teaser quote: “I taught these women how to speak; now somebody show me how to make ’em shut up!”
[posted 21 June 2016]
2
Rigmarole
Teaser quote: “That Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging.”
[posted 30 June 2016]
3
Five public cases
Teaser quote: “Our new teacher, attractive, humorous, perpetually in the wrong, said…”
[posted 19 July 2016]
4
On transcribing the lyrics to pop songs
Teaser quote: "You doice y’nop billy zeekee hollomun dohl es baby-de-lak s’lak blikme ohl"
[posted 2 August 2016]
5
Porn poetry
Teaser quote: “One of the cantos simply describes, at immense length, the goddess’s body as she is sitting in meditation, very still, trying to prove something, I forget what…”
[posted 16 August 2016]
6
Godspeed, sweet intent
Teaser quote: “He gets everything wrong, yet he is right.”
[posted 30 August 2016]
7
Strophic prose
Teaser quote: “You may ignore the smoke. Best wishes. Thank you so much.”
[posted 13 September 2016]
8
Six more public cases
Teaser quote: “What am I doing today. How am I feeling. What’s my philosophy. What can I see from where I’m sitting. What just happened. I am kind of a loser. What are my favorite quotes.”
[posted 27 September 2016]
○
“26 Items from Special Collections,”
a curated “Commentary” series for Jacket2
January, February, March 2016
1
Exhibit ‘A’: Swahili. (Ahmad Nassir bin Juma Bhalo, “A bone is not cookable,” and “Though you toast the popcorn”)
Teaser quote: “Though you toast the popcorn, we are here under the potsherd.”
[posted Monday 4 January 2016]
2
Exhibit ‘B’: Finnish. (“Elk and Snake” [“Hirvi ja Käärme”], sung by Oute, collected by A.A. Borenius, 1877; and “The Great Pig” [“Iso Sika”], singer unknown, collected by A. Ahlqvist, 1854)
Teaser quote: “Margaret’s mother was such. She would be the snake’s milker.”
[posted Thursday 7 January 2016]
3
Exhibit ‘C’: medieval Italian. (Guido Cavalcanti, Ballad [“Era in penser d'amor quand' i' trovai...”], late 13th century)
Teaser quote: “A little spirit born of tears had come out through the wound.”
[posted Monday 11 January 2016]
4
Exhibit ‘D’: Mahārāṣṭri Prākṛt. (Specimens from the Gāthāsaptaśatī of Sātavāhana Hāla)
Teaser quote: “Love dies if you can't get to see her or if you see her too much, also from the gossip of vile men. Or from no cause at all.”
[posted Thursday 14 January 2016]
5
Exhibit ‘E’: Teleuts. (“Praise song of the buck-hare,” anonymous Siberian folksong)
Teaser quote: “I got buck teeth.”
[posted Monday 18 January 2016]
6
Exhibit ‘F’: medieval Welsh. (“Eiry mynydd,” anonymous, 12th century, two versions and the original)
Teaser quote: “I hope I shall not live to a hundred.”
[posted Thursday 21 January 2016]
7
Exhibit ‘G’: Polish. (Zbigniew Herbert, five prose poems, 1950s and 60s)
Teaser quote: “The hen brings to mind certain poets.”
[posted Monday 25 January 2016]
8
Exhibit ‘H’: Kiriwina (Papua New Guinea). (Linda Thomas, “Fetching it back,” circa 1970)
Teaser quote: “May my bulubwalata be blunt.”
[posted Thursday 28 January 2016]
9
Exhibit ‘I’: Japanese. (Masaoka Shiki, thirty-seven haiku, 1892–1902)
Teaser quote: “A stray cat is shitting in my winter garden.”
[posted Monday 1 February 2016]
10
Exhibit ‘J’: medieval Icelandic. (Anonymous, excerpt from “Hávamál” [“The Sayings of the High One”], from The Poetic Edda, manuscript circa 1270 CE, stanzas 111–137)
Teaser quote: “Those who hang around with the hides and skulk among the skins and hover among the cheese bags.”
[posted Thursday 4 February 2016]
11
Exhibit ‘K’: Somali. (Anonymous, [“Like a she-camel with a large bell…”])
Teaser quote: “My heat is great.”
[posted Monday 8 February 2016]
12
Exhibit ‘L’: Sumerian. (Anonymous, [“In those days, in those far-off days…”], circa 1800 BCE)
Teaser quote: She said, "How long until I sit on a pure throne?” She said, "How long until I lie on a pure bed?”
[posted Thursday 11 February 2016]
13
Exhibit ‘M’: Urdu. (Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, eighteen poems, 19th century)
Teaser quote: “These high, religious longings, Ghalib! These vaporings!”
[posted Monday 15 February 2016]
14
Exhibit ‘N’: Serbian. (Vasko Popa, “Homage to the Lame Wolf,” 1975)
Teaser quote: “Raise the stone from your heart and lay it on mine, lame wolf.”
[posted Thursday 18 February 2016]
15
Exhibit ‘O’: medieval Irish. (Anonymous, “The Deer's Cry,” eighth century)
Teaser quote: “Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me.”
[posted Monday 22 February 2016]
16
Exhibit ‘P’: Occitan. (William VII, Count of Poitiers, IX Duke of Aquitaine, [“Farai un vers de dreyt nien”], circa 1105 CE)
Teaser quote: “It came to me while I was sleeping on my horse.”
[posted Thursday 25 February 2016]
17
Exhibit ‘Q’: Chinese. (Su Dongpo, [“He is like white clouds …”], circa 1095 CE)
Teaser quote: “He has gone to the empty cliffs to worship the hundred thousand forms of the Buddha.”
[posted Monday 29 February 2016]
18
Exhibit ‘R’: Russian. (Anton Chekhov, 58 items from his notebooks)
Teaser quote:
—Do you want to eat?
—No, on the contrary.
[posted Thursday 3 March 2016]
19
Exhibit ‘S’: Koryak. (Two folktales, both told by Pa’qa, a girl of Kamenskoye Village on the Penzhinskaya Bay, collected 1901)
Teaser quote:
—“It tastes of excrement, it tastes of excrement!”
—“Mouse-Women have defiled us.”
—“I will not forgive this. I will stun them with blows. Bring me my big club!”
[posted Monday 7 March 2016]
20
Exhibit ‘T’: USA children. (20th and 21st centuries)
Teaser quote: “What shall I chartreuse today?”
[posted Thursday 10 March 2016]
21
Exhibit ‘U’: Scots Gaelic. (Sorley Maclean, “Hallaig,” 1954)
Teaser quote: “She is a birch, a hazel, a straight slender young rowan.”
[posted Monday 14 March 2016]
22
Exhibit ‘V’: Yoruba. (Anonymous, six animal poems)
Teaser quote: “Little he cares about your hunting medicines: he carries two knives on his head.”
[posted Thursday 17 March 2016]
23
Exhibit ‘W’: Russian. (Anna Akhmatova, [“The twenty-first. Night. Monday.”], 1917)
Teaser quote: “And whether from boredom or from stupidity, everyone believed it, and here's how they live.”
[posted Monday 21 March 2016]
24
Exhibit ‘X’: ancient Greek. (Theocritus, Idylls 2, 3rd century BCE)
Teaser quote: “There are poisons—strong ones—ready for him in my box; I brewed them as an Assyrian woman taught me.”
[posted Thursday 24 March 2016]
25
Exhibit ‘Y’: Hausa (Nigeria). (Anonymous, dan tauri performance, 20th century)
Teaser quote: “Whoever drinks me vanishes!”
[posted Monday 28 March 2016]
26
Exhibit ‘Z’: Sanskrit. (Five poems, two anonymous, one by Vacaspati, one by Vidya, one by Varahamihira; unknown dates)
Teaser quote: “Let us go cheerfully among them with poised minds”
[posted Thursday 31 March 2016]
○
10 items for Harriet, April 2013
1
Voice Recorder
[2 April 2013]
2
Yeats On YouTube
[3 April 2013]
3
Feckless Line Breaks
[5 April 2013]
4
Socrates
[11 April 2013]
5
Recite
[16 April 2013]
6
Miscellany
[18 April 2013]
7
Basho and His Interpreters
[23 April 2013]
8
Miscellany (II)
[24 April 2013]
9
Rhyme
[25 April 2013]
10
The Discriminating Reeve
[29 April 2013]
○
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers:
seven-day stint for Best American Poetry blog
May 2012
1
NOTEBOOK: INNUENDI :: May 13, 2012
http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2012/05/notebook-innuendi-.html
2
INNUENDI :: 2 :: May 14, 2012
3
58 BITS FROM ROBERT FERNANDEZ’S WE ARE PHARAOH :: May 14, 2012
http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2012/05/58-bits-from-robert-fernandezs-we-are-pharaoh.html
4
QUESTIONNAIRE :: May 16, 2012
5
ONE LITTLE IDEA ABOUT TRANSLATION :: May 17, 2012
6
59 BITS FROM TANYA LARKIN’S MY SCARLET WAYS :: May 18, 2012
http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2012/05/59-bits-from-tanya-larkins-my-scarlet-ways-selected-by-anthony-madrid-.html
7
FRIDAY EDITION (b) :: INNUENDI :: 3 :: May 18, 2012
8
INNUENDI :: 4 :: May 19, 2012
○
Miscellaneous
1
Ashbery Review :: January 2010
https://jacket2.org/reviews/ongoing-planisphere-notebook
2
Scroobious Pip :: February 2014
http://cargocollective.com/THEWEEKLY/2-8-14-ANTHONY-MADRID
3
Innuendi for Like Starlings with Pethybridge: pronouns, strophes, childhood, jing, etc.
http://www.likestarlings.com/poems/jeffrey-pethybridge-anthony-madrid/#6
5
Louisville talk :: February 2015
https://preludemag.com/issues/2/wallace-stevenss-place-in-the-history-of-english-rhyming/
6
In the Sixth Month, Wu Year of the Horse, Fire Broke Out
https://poorclaudia.org/digital/anthony-madrid-in-the-sixth-month/
7
Bly Review :: October 2011
http://www.rattle.com/poetry/talking-into-the-ear-of-a-donkey-by-robert-bly/
8
Chiasson Review :: September 2014
http://philareview.com/2014/09/23/chiasson-notebook-june-august-2014/
9
March Casebook for The Point :: July 2016
https://thepointmag.com/2016/examined-life/casebook
10
Edward Lear Notebook (with special reference to the limericks) :: October 2, 2012
11
Post Wherein I Propose the Annexation of Canada by the United States by Means of Daoism :: April 24, 2013
○