What I've read

 I used to read every novel by Philip Roth, John Updike, and Saul Bellow as they appeared. I would read entire books of poetry, not just poetry anthologies, in English when that was the only language I knew. I would read the collected poems, not the selected poems. When I was interested in a poet, or a particular author, I would read everything. 

I have read most of Galdós, something nobody does unless they are an expert on this author. I never finished the last series of the Episodios nacionales.  The summer before grad school, I read all the boom authors, GGM, Cortázar, Donoso... 

I would never just read what was assigned in classes. I would read all the novels of Henry Green, for example, though Henry Green was never assigned in any course where I went to school.  

At some point I lost my love of novels. I read them now to practice reading in foreign languages. I have read Elena Ferrante in Italian... I like to read Murakami in Catalan, etc... I can read in most romance languages.  

A lot of my "reading" is a practice of memorization. So it is a little different from reading prose fiction where you make linear progress but don't remember the words in your brain. I have read Basho in multiple translations and compared them. 

The sheer quantity and intensity of my reading practice explains a lot about me.  Of course, this is to be expected in a literature prof, but I still think I am not wholly typical. For example, I don't know anyone personally who has as much memorized as I do, or who reads as much in multiple languages.  

Library

 One's personal library is a significant scholarly resource. 

Accumulated over the course of six separate decades, in my case, from the 70s through the 20s. It consists of primary sources (books of Spanish poetry, mostly).  A significant collection of poetry of the New York School. I simply bought every book by Ashbery, Koch, O'Hara, Schuyler, and Guest as they came out, and actively searched for rarities. I also collect books by Creeley and Coolidge, and by William Bronk.   

Books of literary theory. A set of Diacritics. A shelf on which are my own books, journals with articles or poems by me, or contributions to edited collections. I have several editions of Frost and Yeats, Williams. 

Not much of my collection has any value or meaning to anyone other than myself, not even to friends and family.  I am donating some books to the public library, which resells them to raise money. Others I am leaving out for others in my department to pick through. One colleague wants one of my bookshelves, not the books themselves. 

What remains will be my New York School collection, my basic Spanish poetry and Lorca books (though I'm giving away some cheap or duplicate editions of Lorca as well.) And some other books that have some personal meaning to me in some way. 

A library will be in excess of what is actually used in scholarship, but also insufficient. One also needs access to a good university library and its electronic resources as well as its physical books.  

Retirement

 

What Arrangements?

 There was a review of one of Keith Jarrett's live trio albums of standards that said the arrangements were nice. In an interview, he said something like "What arrangements?" It was him improvising and the bass and drums playing along. 

On t.v. I saw a video of Chet Baker, playing trumpet and singing with a bass and a guitar, in a nightclub in Belgium. They play things like "Love for sale," standards like that. And at several junctures he gives credit to the arranger (Don Sebesky).  Yet this music does not seem any more "arranged" than Jarret's standard albums. Maybe even less so. 

So the lesson is?  

10 ranks of poet (7) (8)

 7) # 7 is the good poet in a particular style, like a Philip Levine or James Tate. Here we are getting to poets who are actually good, with no apologies. There will be some sense of musicality here, not like the novelist poets who aren't really giving us something to sing to. Of course, these two poets wrote a lot that was not up to the level of their best work.  But you can see why they are famous poets.  Maybe Barbara Guest falls here? I can like some of these more than others. 

8) The poet with a distinctive personality and voice, that makes you think differently about poetry itself. Here I am thinking of Koch, William Bronk, or Ammons. These poets are whole worlds unto themselves. Maybe Notley is in this category, though she might be better than most of these. This category is somewhat similar to 6, but you can easily see why Ammons is better than Brautigan.  

Levels 5 and 6 (out of 10)

 5) The local hero, the respectable mediocrity, the professional academic poet with some claim to fame, like a Celeste Turner Wright. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=100&issue=1&page=41. Maybe a poet working in an old, unoriginal style. Someone who never had an honest critique of their work, or who has very limited range, like a Billy Collins.  

6) The poet without any particular pretension to being great, but who manages to make a good poem or two out of very little (apparent) artifice. A Richard Brautigan, or Charles Bukowski.  You might wonder why it is a poem at all, yet it actually beats out the more respectable and earnest modes we have discussed so far. Sometimes a prose writer writing poems will achieve this level, like a Raymond Carver or like the two I've already mentioned. John Updike writing a poem can achieve a 5 level, maybe a 6. On the same level as a 6 might be a poet like Gilbert Sorrentino, who is brilliant in prose but only so-so in verse, despite his extreme degree of poetic culture. For this level, a poet would have to be have a distinctive personality as a writer, even if the poem itself doesn't come off.  I'm not sure why all the names I'm thinking of are also writers of prose? 

5 levels of poets (3) (4)

3)  Here is the person with some talent, who has not read a lot.  A naturally verbal person who can turn a phrase, but without a deep poetic formation. Or it could be an earnest beginner.  Or a person without too much talent but who has learned some formulas that work out ok for a decent poem. They are trying hard, but probably getting rejected a lot. I think I might need more than 5 levels, here, maybe ten. 

***

4) Here is the professional poet who simply isn't very good. They may have a teaching position and published books, but they just don't have the ability to write poems, despite their extensive education. There was one guy in creative writing here at KU who was like this. Just the dullest possible poet imaginable. It's a step below the respectable mediocrity.  

5 levels of poet (1) (2)

 I saw a YouTube video about 5 levels of singer. From tone deaf to singing god. 

I was thinking of five levels of poet. 

1) The person who writes a poem but has no concept at all. They just fill a page with their intimate thoughts.  This is not necessarily bad, if you don't consider this page in relation to any other concept of poetry. 

2) The second level: they fill their pages with their thoughts, but they mistakenly relate this to some concept of poetry in the more exalted sense. This can actually be worse, because the gain in pretentiousness makes the poem worse, rather than better. Yet if there is some concept of a poem as something more, then the poet can develop this later on. A subcategory of this is the versifier, the person who writes with rhyme, but no meter. The doggerel poet.  Once again, trying to be poetic will make the poem worse at the lower level. 

5 levels

 I like those videos that explain a musical concept on 5 levels.  Here are my 5 levels of salad.

1. Buy a pre-washed lettuce container and top the lettuce with a salad dressing out of a bottle. Eat. 

2. Add other toppings out of a jar or package. Croutons, capers, artichoke hearts, olives. place on top of greens. Top with dressing. Eat. 

3. Elevate at least one dimension of the salad. A more interesting mix of greens. Or some vegetables not out of a jar (cucumbers, red onions). Some proteins, if the salad is going to be the main meal. Hard boiled eggs or yesterday's salmon work fine, or rotisserie chicken.  A simple homemade dressing. Eat, but also serve to guests. 

4. Make a salad that has a particular purpose in mind: a chef's salad, a Salade Niçoise, A Greek salad. Follow a recipe and give your salad a particular identity. Eat it with your guests. 

5. Create your own recipe. Everything must be balanced and coordinated now. You can still use olives or capers from a jar, or even bottled dressing. This more elevated salad may have fewer ingredients that your everyday salad, which for me is more or #3.  

I don't really like salad when it is a chore to eat, with mostly lettuce and other raw veggies. Remember a salad needs salt, that's what the name means. I don't add literal salt, but derive it from savory toppings instead. Also, don't add every ingredient you have to every salad. Then it becomes cluttered and a chore to eat. 

***

It strikes me that we can do the same with the sandwich, the soup, and the stew. Elevate sandwich by using better bread, by grilling it, by better ingredients and condiments. None of this requires any cooking skill per se. The soup, stew, or chili can be cooked in the crock pot, with no the most basic culinary skills if that. Once again, I don't really like sandwiches per se, with mediocre bread and/or cold.  

Now, find one or two recipes that are more or less foolproof for each of the following;  pasta, casseroles, fish, chicken and pork. I cook either following a recipe deliberately from the New York Times, or else making a staple dish that I can just reinvent every time (Greek salad, chili, stew, grilled cheese sandwich, pasta sauce.)   

Dinner salad

 

This will be my evening meal for later evenings after choir practice or seminar. 

Greens on the bottom:

Three of the following items on top or on the side of the platte:

    white beans

    hard boiled eggs

    tuna 

    olives 

    cheeses (one or two) 

balsamic and olive oil as dressing, with one herb (basil or thyme) 

Serve with bread or crackers 

Insight

 I got from Claudio Rodríguez this idea of the poetic insight--he didn't call it that, but he had some things he would say, like being able to tell someone's profession from the the way they walked and carried their body, or seeing a farmer sit for hours without moving the hands or body at all.  The way a dog or cat expresses their age through their movements. ... Maybe the contrast between free and chaotic movements of a dog and the way a dog's movements will be precise when trained. 

Miles Davis said he could tell if someone was going to be a good drummer by looking at the way he moved his wrists even not holding sticks. 

I had a whole chapter about this in a book I never wrote. I'm sure I am the only person who understands the poetic insight in this way.  But that's fine. 

Andadura

 I had my students observe someone's gait, looking at all the possible factors. Shoes, backpack, hands in pockets or holding phone or drink or swaying at ease; length of steps, etc... They did well at this, so I had them do the same with the body language of an interaction between two people, observed from a discrete distance.  The third assignment was to observe... anything at all. The fourth is chosen by the students. They came up with 3 ideas: observing traffic patterns, nature, or their own emotions. 

For some reason, my group likes this particular thing.  They have to speak aloud but they can prepare to say something meaningful.  It's a way of preparing them to read literature, in which concrete objects gain significance because of the way in which they are observed. 

Dream of Mustard

 I asked for mustard and was told there was none. I accepted this, but later was in the back room and saw a whole baggie full of mustard. There was a silly argument. I was angry, not because the mustard was so important, but because they had lied to me and tried to say that it was impractical to use the mustard.

The motel where we were staying was robbed. But I couldn't identity what was missing from our room. Then I woke up. 

In this same dream my brother was sick with a strange condition. 

9

 I have a course with people from 9 geographical origins, including myself: US, PR, Lithuania, Catalonia, Galicia, Honduras, Venezuela, Iran, Brazil.  Two are Spain, and two are US, but still, it is highly diverse.   

Dream of a dog

 I wasn't even thinking I was asleep but I had a waking dream of following a dog who was showing me where to find his dog relatives, or human relatives of his owners.  It wasn't very clear.  

Two parties

 There were two gatherings. One, me and some old high school friends. The other, in an adjoining room, my current friends, grouped together in larger numbers to protest the current administration.  I went in a for a few moments to the protest party, had a few beers, before going back. My high school friends were all but unrecognizable, and paid me little heed.  When I woke up I only remembered one of them, but she appeared differently in the dream, as another ethnicity.  I felt alienated from both group, but in different ways.