I mentioned before that my first introduction to Berryman was Dream Song #14. It remains one of my favorite poems ever written, and knocks around in my brain the way “You do not do, you do not do / Anymore black shoe” and I grow old…I grow old…/ I shall wear the bottoms of my […]

Originally posted by Rachel   There’s a real post in progress, really, but first, I promised some more interview excerpts with Berryman. From “An Interview with John Berryman,” John Plotz, originally published in The Harvard Advocate 103,  no. 1, reprinted in Berryman’s Understanding: Reflections of the Poetry of John Berryman, edited by Harry Thomas, Northeastern […]

Kiri, in Elann Baby Cashmere, Tapestry Blue.  Knit on US size 7 needles Pony Rosewoods, Addi Naturas, and Susan Bates Quicksilver needles in that order.  More or less.  The Quicksilvers kept driving me nuts because I hate the metal-on-metal sound, and the Naturas kept driving me nuts because that little divot at the join was […]

I haven’t fallen off the planet or anything, but the Knitting Olympics and trading offices with my husband have been monopolizing (biopolizing?) my time.  Done and done. I am normally the Queen of Class Participation.  I’ll try to be a better student from here on out. I finally got comfortable enough with my own version […]

Kiri is knitted, washed, and pinned out on a sheet in a pet-less room.  Tomorrow morning, I expect some good palatal double Ls and some fine clear diphthongs from all of you after I weave in the ends.  Halla-fricking-Lleu-Llaw-Gyffes-yeah. And, as if that weren’t good enough, I have reached near-completion in my new studio.  I […]

Can’t talk: watching curling! I am writing during commercial breaks.  Running up and down the steps over and over again so you, Gentle Reader, don’t think I’ve fallen off the planet.  Really, I’ve fallen into a long-awaited winter.  An Olympic Winter, no less.  I’m absolutely chuffed.  It snowed!  It finally snowed! Kayo needs snow.  And […]

So far, Berryman is all about rhythm for me.  And what’s weird is that the rhythm I find in the poems isn’t matching the rhythm Berryman uses in his readings.  So I’m going to ignore the poet’s literal voice for now, until I get more comfortable.  I’ve run across a number of poets whose readings […]