Albatross

"On Friday, July 17, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., Cornelius Eady, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, and Evie Shockley will read their poetry in The Nave at Grace Cathedral (1100 California Street). This benefit reading will raise money for the Poetry Scholarship Fund at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers."

(some great poets and a great cause!)


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Have you entered the Caption Contest yet? Jacob hopes to have a decision later today, so if you think you have a caption, no would be the time to enter.


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"Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), the famous French poet, wrote a poem called “The Albatross”. It describes the capture of that majestic and greatest of all creatures of the skies. (Their average wingspan is 10 to 12 feet. The longest on record is 17 feet.)

The poem is a metaphorical or symbolic profile of the poet, or, for that matter, any great or atypical artist. In flight, the giant bird is unique in grandeur and beauty. Earthbound, awkward, clumsy, weighted and encumbered by its great wings. We even see the sailors mock or abuse the feckless creature."

(Michael Jackson compared to other albatross artists like Tchaikovsky!)


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"Our Internet driven techno-culture has given us Twitter and texting, Facebook and MySpace, Google and YouTube. Now, it's added "flarf" to the literary landscape."

(from the Marin Independent Journal)


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Clue: Rebel's Rest


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