January 27, 2012

Now see? This is what a father should say, although free association will also get you pretty far…

John Steinbeck to Son, Tom
Read by Xe Sands

Xe writes…

We’re back with Letters of Note this week, with a letter from author John Steinbeck to his son Tom, in response to what we can only assume was Tom’s profession of first love for “Susan.”

Simply beautiful.

Source: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/nothing-good-gets-away.html

Tender Buttons, by Gertrude Stein
Read by Diane Havens

Diane writes…

Gertrude Stein’s prose poem “Tender Buttons” is an abstract painting in words. It is delightful to read aloud, and the challenge of it is to give the “meaningless” meaning, going with free-association as the words take you places you didn’t realize you were going — until you get there.

January 20, 2012

Time for some more beautiful, personal letters…

Letter from Ansel Adams to Cedric Wright
Read by Xe Sands

Xe writes…

From Letters of Note comes this beautiful letter, composed by Ansel Adams to his dear friend, Cedric Wright. Adams had recently returned to Yosemite after a hospital stay (for a nervous breakdown), and while there, had an epiphany of sorts on the nature of love, friendship and art – and the intertwining of the three.

Image courtesy of the National Archives (from negatives in the public domain).

Source: Letters of Note (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/i-know-what-love-is.html)

January 13, 2012

So it’s a new year with a new set of resolutions…heck with those – let’s talk about your wants…

No. 26  So you can sell me anything I want? by X-Himy & 6’MinuteStory
Read by Xe Sands

Xe writes…

Indulging in my obsession with the mysterious flash fiction virtuoso, X-Himy for one more week, this time with another of those snippets that makes you hungry for more – completely in line with the intent of this short SHORT tale.

Content by X-Himy, and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.
Image by h.koppdelaney, and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

http://sixminutestory.com/stories/26-so-you-can-sell-me-anything-i-want

 

January 6, 2012

Welcome to 2012! Now let’s talk about that pesky curse…

Adam’s Curse, by W. B. Yeats
Read by Diane Havens

Diane writes…

Written in heroic couplets, iambic pentameter, this poem yet sounds so natural, so conversational. A poem about poetry (and indeed all art) itself, how much work it is to write, how undervalued that labor is by many — then speaks to the art of love. My favorite of Yeats poems — a masterpiece of totally seamless form.

 

No. 37. I Have Come to Dread The Raven’s Caw that Signals Moonrise, by X-Himy and 6’minutestory
Read by Xe Sands

Xe writes…

After the sensuality of Lawrence and the randiness of Stuart’s Finn MacGowan to kick off 2012, I thought it best to bring in just a touch of darkness to balance us out. So we return to the wonderful X-Himy and 6’minutestory for another story snippet, a la “Mary Ruth.”

(with a nod to the lovely and talented Robin Sachs who simply IS Jake Marlowe)

Image by Luz Adriana Villa A., shared via Creative Commons 2.0 License

Story site: http://bit.ly/xUgFhz