A conversation with Seattle
“Peter’s bloody ear restored askew,” is the last line of a Roger Fanning poem in his collection The Middle Ages, and that is a salient detail because, through metonymy, poets are mostly ears and tongues. This is Fanning’s first collection in almost a decade, and what a decade it turned out to be for the Whiting Award-winner. Continue reading A Poet Reports on Heaven, Hell, and Haystacks
There’s no question that Cavafy is a major poet, but his reputation had to wait until society caught up to him. Though he worked as a nondescript ministry clerk for years, Cavafy made of his poetry a treasure house of the erotic, sensual, visceral–every fleeting thing that shot through the body, he trapped not in amber but in ink, refusing (as Auden later wrote of him) “to pretend that his memories of moments of sensual pleasure are unhappy or spoiled by feelings of guilt.” Continue reading Approaching ecstasy Pours Cavafy’s Poetry into Liquid Bones in Suits
Poet Louise Glück speaks at Seattle Arts and Lectures this Thursday (7:30 p.m., Benaroya Hall), followed by a SAL visit from Alain de Boton on Friday (7:30 p.m., University of Washington’s Meany Hall), thus giving rise to this post’s headline, and a sense that I have accomplished, there, all I can in this life. Après cela, j’expire. (Obviously, I mean, one has to breathe.) Continue reading In Seattle This Week, Glück Passes de Boton
Now that you’ve all purchased your City Arts Fest wristbands (you did get yours, correct?), you surely need some help choosing what acts/presentations/events to attend during Seattle’s Last Best Festival of the Year. Enter your trusty SunBreak staff to offer their picks for Fest must-sees. Wonder if Mad Rad’s hushed acoustic set of fragile folk ballads will go over with a rowdy City Arts Fest crowd… Continue reading The SunBreak’s Picks for City Arts Fest Thursday