Sugar here

I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed and was interested when this book came out. I read around a little and concluded that I didnt like the questions being asked. With the book in my hands, I see that the answers are not short. Long enough to essay. When should you proclaim love? When 'You think you love her' in Like an iron bell. Love is such a complex thing, as Johnny notes with all its 'promises and commitments'. Can love be divested of its citation from past?
The answers come with a title to. My favourite title so far Seeing someone in a new more fractured light. 

In Go! Go! Go!, the question itself makes it all clear of all those times when we hear of bands break up and feel bad, why they need to for their personal growth. In What Happened to Sophie Wilder, the characters set off a story on things they see, so they dont have to live that life if they can imagine it. In the same way, reading these questions we go down the lives of others without being them.

With There was no code, the author shares an anecdote and the universal ineptitude we feel in condoling others.
The truth isnt in the confession but in the lesson learned. Every truth contains a lie
What happened in the story and what is the story about. You dont get points for living.
Prestige also means conjurer;'s tricks (movie)

Bargaining with faith?

On Twitter, this book has been so talked about. I wanted to know what the deal was. Given, the prose is ground inside the book itself not referring to things outside. The book has chapters from the narrator Charles point of view and some by an omniscient. Charles character is passive like the narrator in Wuthering Heights. The search is for Sophie and the incidents are about her relationships. the narrator's relationship with her is another layer over her life. Disappointed in love but defined by Sophie.I wonder how the book have worked from Sophie's point of view.

I thought I will give the book 50 pages before finding no hook. I had the mystery of its fame. I liked to read about the intensity of the characters. It is in a way scary to find Sophie given to a faith in a non-negotiable way.

The issues in this movie reminded me of Minsara Kanavu movie.

NYT review
Another review

Ted talks on writing
A list

Parishioner in MBA class

Bob Massie
Factor VIII
Life in Paris. I cannot imagine living in a 400yr old apartment. A microwave from 30 yr old apartment seems like a compromise.

Yesterday I read about how France built discrimation in its cities. A reversal of situation.
The author relates how various incidents in his life have prepared him for the future. By running the first school paper, he saw how change can be brought only if both the authorities and the subjects are willing to call out the mistakes. Encountering people facing difficult nations, he learnt that crime doesnt need a political label.
Last grave at Dimbaza
Vladimir Bukovsky
When the author finds that Yale in 1974 wasnt built with access to all in mind, I looked up the Yale Disability services. Having worked at Disability services as a student, I didnt know that the facilities werent available all the time until Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The book has a powerful voice when the author narrates his experiences as a parishioner. He builds the scene with his dilemmas of making people see the problem with how the church money is being handled by divesting the moral connection and its obligations having laid the responsibility of its welfare in a ruthless third party hand. Sound familar?
It was excitng to read the coverage of South Africa relations and Mandela release. It made me imagine how my country leaders would have felt fighting for freedom.

Crazy about books

Persistent reader

Avid book readers are people who are at some level dissatisfied with reality

By checking out books that hadnt been read in years, the author gave them shelf life.

With my hands on

I didnt want to go crazy reading another one on books

Travel collection

If there is one genre that does not make one guilty of reading it, its being in another place without all the expense.

Slowing down but not all the way to smell roses 

Blair Braverman perfume hunting in Namibia.

Taxi Gourmet asks a cabbie in a country to drive her to their favourite eatery.
Kirsten Koza
Take your big trip
Abbie kozolchyk
Laura Fraser

The health of poetry

A while ago, I tried to write towards “The Power of Poetry in the Modern World,” South Atlantic Review (SAMLA). For some reason I took the way of modern poetry. I hoped Norton's anthology would get me going. Then I thought the Coursera Modern poetry will lead me to something. A new look at it makes me think of writing(prose/poetry) and its role in the old and modern world.
Indiana review was looking for work for Dana Gioia issue. I came across his Can poetry matter? which points to two other essays Is Verse a dying technique? and  Who killed poetry?

Hothouse tomatoes

WD-40

One-legged squats. Wow never heard of that. Anna Quindlen who thinks is not the exercise type of person, sets out to tell herself a different story and do a headstand. By the time she learnt how to, she found extra change and a pair of earrings. On the other end in Farmers insurance ad, a cat and what not is found on the roof.

In Bartholomew and the Oobleck, 'Having never made Oobleck before, the magicians do not know what Oobleck does or even what Oobleck looks like.'

Such was the case when I made 'Spiced honey Biscuits' from A feast of Ice and Fire. havng never made biscuits, I did not know how it should look when done. The cookies in the picture make me wonder if I should have added more honey. I overbaked them when I found them gooey. It was fun mixing the cold butter into the flour. I didnt believe that it needs 1 tbsp baking powder. 

The Sneetches story reminded me of Dunya Mikhail's poem.

The tail of a mouse

Cast Iron Mouse Decorative Door Stop | Door Wedge | Unique, Antique Design (Rustic Blue)

Li Young Lee writes that 'The real subject (of poetry) is silence. Looking him up I found The Childrens Hour. HWL says there is such a thing as The Childrens hour and refers to Bishop of Bingen and Mouse Tower. The Bishop is claimed to have said 'Hear the mice squeak' referring to the cries of the hungry he locked in the barn and set fire to'.
In Baby mouse series mentioned in

Baby mouse asks her brother 'want to play squeak?'

The world will have its full harvest of poems - Jane Hirshfield.

Oryoki - Zen and Jane
Zen is not about belief. It’s more about what happens when belief is unfastened - Jane Hirshfield

Doubt and seeking - Rachel Corrie, Layla Al Attar.

Jean Valentine and silence. She quotes Emily Dickinson's The difference between despair
While Li young lee with his attachment to silence quotes EDs they worship an eclipse.
Burning bush

A writing as well as thought exercise - Filling in the gaps in myths.
If you have thought a flower could have more metaphors, try this an up-ended skirt.

In Alicia Ostriker's essay 'god the Mother' the last lines are a saying in Talmud: "It is not incumbent on you to finish the task. neither are you free to give it up". I am reminded of quote on karma from bhagavad gita.

With poetry, I feel I am in love. With prose, I feel I am in a marriage - Dunya Mikhail
So I discover poetry is am amoeba

When I wrote the blessing, I began, as any memoirist must, to move from anecdote to an unfolding narrative in time. - Gregory Orr in 'The Given' essay.

Open your mouth. ha ha ha
Food and packaging

All things metaphor

Have you seen Fountain Hills, fountain? A friend's dad compared the canvas of the foam caused by the fountain, wind to a boat. Its the sail that triggered this comparision. Do you look at our impulse to run and compare what we see with what we already know.
Treasure trove of metaphor articles
Recently I meant to read an article about metaphor and poetry. Have to find that.
In December an essay on Modern poetry is due.

Walking the amazon

Writing

Roll a boulder up a hill everyday
First of all, being creative is not summoning stuff ex nihilo. It's work, plain and simple -- adding something to some other thing or transforming something.