post 1000

at first i was going to have some sort of graphic about what 1000 miles on the bike looked like but the last couple of months inactivity have made me feel a bit forlorn on that front.

so then i thought i do something about poetry, being that's what the majority of the posts were about. i was thinking about the obama inauguration poem thing. as luck would have it i was watching the tv when the poem came on. i hadn't heard of richard blanco and, maybe it was the cold, but he looked a bit nervous (who wouldn't). and then the poem. again, maybe it's just me, but i really wasn't into it. the bit about the shooting? no thanks. but, it seems i'm way in the minority. i didn't quite get this esp given a long of the negative shenanigans around elizabeth alexander the last time. i wasn't super fussed for that poem either but in comparison with blanco i found i was more into it second time around.

plus the poems are kind of similar... i'm just saying. and then there was a whole thing about the reception of the poem, was it maybe not about the poem, i thought, but about who was speaking it? a can of worms! either way, poems for the election - a good thing. republicans take note. looking at inauguration poems i came across miller williams, who i also didn't know, and am into a collected thing of his at the moment. liking it so far. but my favourite? james dickey. so much better he didn't get to read it! the democrats, they like their arts but only if they're safe! ( i should point out i'm not getting preachy at americans here - if the uk were to have poetry the horror would be total - most likely it'd be some child in some sort of talent format, mentored by and orange person from essex or somesuch)

but what of post 1000? i came across a fabulous alternate cover for dostoevsky's the idiot here (i'm not copying the image so as you have to go and look - it's worth it) along with a whole bunch of other covers for sylvia plath's the bell jar (don't forget to scroll down for mccarthy's the road). naturally, the guardian got a hold of it, seeing a show just recently sylvia plath seems to have become the guardian's house poet. except maybe they don't talk so much about the poetry but just go on and on and on and on about the poet. and maybe not so much about the actual sylvia plath but that that other sylvia plath upon whom it seems there is no limit to the number of ideological donkeys that may be placed around her imaginary neck. indeed for some of the guardianistas it seems the 'sylvia plath' has grown and grown until it seems for some of them she is actually also anne sexton.

this last, being an anne sexton fanboy, is a bit irksome. not just well...because!!! but because the plath that emerges from sexton's writings is very different from the plath in the many strands of the official version. a bit odd, certainly troubled, but human and, reading sexton, got me back to actually reading plath (tho not the bell jar i have to admit). and it's kind of that that has me writing post 1000. sylvia plath's worth reading because she's worth reading. i don't care about richard blanco's back story because he's already giving me what he wants to say. i can't be doing with this numbing concern with the person doing the writing, it's like the safety valve for the celebrity obsessions of the middle classes. it may be they don;t want to admit they've been browsing the side bars of the daily mail but when it comes to talking about a writer's 'private life' it's the same old same old.

there's around five hundred poems dotted about this blog. i know almost nothing about most of them. maybe, in time, through their work i'll get to know them a bit better but most likely not. reading the poetry or reading about the poet? the choice is clear for me. but, horse for course and all that....

so that's post 1000 and i'm not entirely certain there'll be more beyond this. blogging i think has maybe had its day and even if it hasn't i just don;t seem to have the time in the day any more. so maybe there will be sporadic posts and maybe there won't. whatever, have a browse, read the poems. yes, have a browse. kick back. reaad the poems.