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Open Space
A colleague, now several years retired, recently cleared out the office he had occupied for more than twenty years. It’s lighter now, without the file cabinets, the bookcases lined up two deep against the walls. Just a couple of old computers, an older desk, a fan. I miss seeing him day to day on campus–we…
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Blog shift, format, wine & word
So much at once, right? For a couple of years now, I’ve been blogging at ¿Se enseña aquí? — a blog begun partly in the hopes of encouraging students to study abroad (in particular in the program in Rosario, Argentina, where I was about to teach) and continued as a way to talk about translation, language…
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Still Noticing, Collecting (Detour 13)
We spent the third weekend in January at the coast, an extended family tradition–long walks, seafood, puzzles, wine. Walks remembered and compared; stones retrieved from tide pools, examined, mulled, returned– dropped gently, perhaps, or absentmindedly; or flung full-armed into the further surf, that pitcher’s arc none of us ever truly mastered. Remembered others’ beach traditions…
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Verbicide, the misunderstood crime
The word of the day (happy result of a dictionary detour) is: verbicide 1. the willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word.2. a person who willfully distorts the meaning of a word. Note the deliberation: verbicide is a sin of commission. This isn’t malapropism, mistaken identity, well-meaning thought getting out…
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Detours
So there you are in the middle of nowhere, windows rolled down and the radio starting to drain on the battery. And the wind, cold wind, hot–fast air, really, you can’t tell the temperature, but there you are, in the middle of nowhere. —To read more, check out the chapbook, available from Burnside Review…
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Translation Detours (more signposts)
Treman State Park Earlier this month, I was in Ithaca to give a translation talk in the Latin American Studies Program seminar series and a reading from Detours at the Cornell Store. Naturally, I visited the waterfalls and photographed a few detour signs. Then up to Rochester for the ALTA conference and even more translation…
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Reading at Cornell Store October 1
Please join me at the Cornell Store on Monday, October 1, 4:00-5:00 pm. I’ll be reading from Detours. Copies of the chapbook will be available. I’m looking forward to being back in Ithaca–it’s been a long time! Many thanks to the Cornell Latin American Studies Program and to the Cornell Store for sponsoring the event.
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Some Detours Thanks
Detours has been out for about a month now, and I want to say thank you! to a few people: To Karen McPherson (Sketching Elise), for poem-caching me in her Poetry Box– and how cool is a poetry box, right? Are there poetry boxes in your town? Check out the scheme here: http://www.utteredchaos.org/. To Ruth Horowitz (Giving Up…
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Revision Detours
The beginning Directions were meant to be changed. One definition of a detour, from the OED on line: A turning or deviation from the direct road; a roundabout or circuitous way, course, or proceeding. That’s certainly the kind of trip described in Detours. “Detour” can also describe the revision process. Revision often means reaching…
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Detours (chapbook) now available from Burnside Review Press