Dorianne Laux + Cornelius Eady + Joseph Millar
…is canceled 10/29/2012 due to Hurricane Sandy.
Be safe everyone!
*****
The Man Watching
I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can’t bear without a friend,
I can’t love without a sister.
The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.
What we choose to fight is so tiny.
What fights with us is so great!
If only we were to let ourselves be dominated,
as things do, by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
When we win it’s with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament;
when the wrestlers’ sinews
grew long like metal strings
the Angel felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.
Whomever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively
by constantly greater beings.
Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. Robert Bly)
*****
Upcoming, Fall 2012
November 5 Wayne Miller + Jerry Williams
November 12 NBA Judges! Laura Kasischke + Maurice Manning + Dana Levin + Patrick Rosal
November 19 Henri Cole + John Koethe
November 26 Ana Bozicevic + Fanny Howe
December 3 David Lehman + Mark Doty
December 10 Mark Strand + Malachi Black + Season Finale Party!!!!