"the vapor rising"
Ryuchi, Ellison, Popa, Bass, Armstrong
Tamura Ryuchi (tr. from Japanese by Naoshi Koriyama and Edward Lueders):
Ralph Ellison:
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Vasko Popa (tr. from Serbo-Croat by Charles Simic):
Ellen Bass:
Louis Armstrong, “(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue,” rec. July 22, 1929:
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I enjoy the theme of invisibility because it gets me thinking of what in writing it means to reveal and conceal.
“Little tracks in snow” delights me because I’ve lived in Edmonton where there are lots of rabbit tracks. Large rabbits.
Ellison addresses concepts of time I love--how music can transport into daydream, a kind of absorption that loses track of time. (Ennui would be on the other end, more aware of time, & time feels long).
For Simic, the bawdy context and proper grammar of form (“in your dick”--prepositions don’t end sentences) makes me laugh. “In” is where it ought to be.
Beautiful to include Armstrong.
Vasko Popa: what the F did I just read 😂