A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters (for Wade Jennings) 1 There is a kind of sweet distress In children dancing out of time; Attendant on that awkwardness A mute unsureness, a duress Whose only succor is finesse; It is as though They know, Sensing the aisles’ restlessness, Though it stand only for a [...]

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A reminder Writers are reminded of the opportunity for open reading this Tuesday, June 3, 2008, at the Narciso Martínez Cultural Arts Center Writers Forum at 7 pm. The meeting begins . Writers are allowed ten minutes each to read whatever they would like–their own work, that of major influences, a piece they have run [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters Crosswalked in winter where your dream was riven Into red fragments on a city street, We pause today as curbed and unforgiven, As jayed and ticketed and incomplete. Clio had wooed and won you long before us, Whose dress is draggled in such ancient blood That, had [...]

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A recompilation Edmund Clerihew Bentley Eschewed writing verses stately Instead his preferred art Was something like a verbal fart. It’s Friday and, as promised I’m bringing our many many entries up to the front page for a brief dash in the sun. I’m also categorizing them several different ways, but mainly by the subject matter. [...]

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A notice Dancing on the head of a pin, As passé as drinking gin, Who you nailin’ down again? The elite, they’s not like me, the elite, why we let them be? Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, has a thing or two to say about the denigration and the most common [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters Who has not read of mankilling Achilles? Him of the mighty thews, myrmidon mannered one In whose red such ichor ran the ships where he dallied Sail in our sayings, the heads that he hammered; As hilted as language is, the bloodsayings backing us, Screwing our courage, [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook …continuing those never-ending moments, and they come faster and faster as my end nears …. The man has a Marine cap. I say, “Former Marine?” He leaps at me and growls, stopping short of hitting me, and says, “Never former, never ex, always a Marine!” Shoppers jump back at his growl. “What [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters 1 SWEET Lesbia, would you know the half of all my pleasure when your husband laughs delighted at your flyting and the flashing spite that lights your countenance when we two fight? watch out, my girl, your fat fool’s treasure, I may absent myself and rob the [...]

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Announcements One of McAllen’s newest art venues is an ice cream parlor. Fun loving Jim Kryzak notified me that he will be hosting live music from 7 – 9 pm on Tuesdays at the new Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Shop at Palms Crossing, next to Barnes & Noble at McAllen Convention Center. And he [...]

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A performance Here’s a performance of Donnie Hathaway’s “Valdez in the Country” by the Mid-Night Combo at the benefit concert for Dulce Rodriguez last Sunday. Thomas Raines, the keyboard player, is my son. Other players are Noé García, Jorge Mujica on drums, and special guest Ted Lucio, The Dude, on bass. Enjoy.

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A lyric by Stan Raines (with a twenty-times-revised explanatory essay appended) I write him letters When I cannot sleep When the I-Pod dreams Won’t come. I draw him pictures When I have the time Of my cat dancing Across the lawn. He doesn’t come From my home town, But I know he loves The homeland. [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters The day was blithe as she swung by, Dimple-shouldered, hair awry, Soft kirtled in a downy gown To do her washing by the town; She rilling, whistled tirra, lira, Knelt beside the lilting water. Arlotta, the tanner’s daughter. When she awoke, the wadded tunic Beneath her hip [...]

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An announcement from Virginia Gause The City of McAllen, McAllen Chamber of Commerce and the McAllen Arts Council announce a request for qualifications for permanent art projects to be placed in public settings.   The deadline for application is Friday, May 30, 2008.      

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An announcement  SUMMER SIZZLER 2008 3409 N. Ware Rd. McAllen        ~~~~~~        956-683-STAR  Singing Stars is pleased to announce our summer music camps!  Each week will have a different theme. Tuition includes all materials. Students must bring a snack & a drink. We hope you can join us for one if not all of this summer’s [...]

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A reminder It’s been a while since I’ve stopped by, but Gene Novogrodsky has reminded me that there’s good live music to be had Wednesday evenings at Joe’s on the Boulevard. Usually, the music starts up somewhere around nine o’clock and continues until midnight or so. It’s volunteer work and the musicians are doing it [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook …and the cat made its way along a wall near the Gateway Bridge fence, white cat, going west …. And I made my way east in today’s pre-dawn, though even before 6 a.m., pink and blue played with the eastern clouds – true dawn …. I was pedaling to the airport to [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters (1987)   After the last trick had been turned in the game, The bumpers drunk, the galley fallen apart; The lying maid having drunk to a different name A cup for the journey, so to speak, at the start; One wonders whether that harried dame ever thought [...]

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A journal entry in the old style Ah.. rested at last. Not well-rested, mind you, but some-rested, and better than the last few nights. Friday night, trying to sleep, and the nose would not stop dripping, so every ten minutes or so I had to blow it out. Then it dried up suddenly and swelled [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg     One wonders whom the next elected Criminal for these troubled times Will the feckless public, suspect, Lever in the long direction (Between the last war and the next) We take in our quotidian crimes; How long our matrons skirt the leering Lawless on main ways to market; How [...]

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A suggestion from Stan Add your clerihews as comments! Raucus up the town! We’ll front page ‘em at the end of the week. As of 8:45 pm, THURSDAY, May 29, THIRTY-SIX carefully counted new clerihew plus SIX other quatrains of high merit have appeared! Keep ‘em coming! Thomas Thornburg introduced himself here with “Ten Clerihew [...]

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A nostalgic comment by Stan Raines Hillary Clinton’s recent comment that her husband’s clinching his first nomination in June of 1992 and of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination in June, 1968 was peculiar not only because it was in poor taste in the second part, but because no one has noted that, in former times, it was usual for [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook Steamy and humid out there on another Bob Dylan birthday weekend, Dylan and the Nunnayerbizness writers, nice, inspiring … supreme beings, moons …. …and he’d been wanting to sell the seven red cattle, finally, and stick to pigs and chickens, much easier, and cheaper to feed …but the cattle are still around [...]

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A poem by Stan Raines (revised) I Last week, from the left, at dark Beams of blue farm light Clearly danced in my eye; I turned to the right, And they died. II Two days ago, at sunset A dove made of smoke Gathered itself before me, Rose, and dove straight down, Through my eye. [...]

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An announcement “Past, Present & Future” Deadline: July 1st Is photography your hobby or forte? Would you like to share your work with the rest of world? If so, Hidalgo County invites you to participate in its first ever photography contest, celebrating the past, present and future of Hidalgo County.

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A poem by Jack King The very same moon that I saw as a boy I see again tonight. It looks the same as it did back then, A sphere of mottled white That lit the world for night-owl youth And filled young eyes with wonder And spiked our dreams with lightning bolts And charged [...]

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