“O what can love’s intentions do when Prospero can turn the men to pigs or back again?”
“But Professor, its not Prospero, its Shakespeare.”
“Ah Skeezix, its what we say about love, not the love itself that matters.”
“Professor, you’ve confused me.”
“Yes, the morphon of the humanities is drained now.” (He shakes a flask.)
**
I like the accidental virtues. I’m with Auden.
**
A rat loves music in a ratty way.
A wasp is drawn by vibration.
I play jazz in the summer in my mountain cottage.
**
“Love symmetry, just love it!” (Marsilio Ficcino)
“Honk if you like my fence!” (Robert Frost)
**
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” arrived in Britain disguised as a dog. Stoker knew how to scare the English.
**
What’s the diff between salvation and success? Love. Salvation still understands mutual need. Success is always about next year’s crop. And next year’s crop may or may not require love.
They don’t talk much about this in “sustainability studies” I’m afraid.
**
Ding Dong!
“Why look, its Skeezix! Hello Skeezix!”
“Hi Professor! I’ve written a poem!”
“Excellent, let’s hear it.”
Skeezix produces a torn page, glances at it, then says: “Hello rock!”
**
Helsinki, 1982, in Kappeli Pub.
Me: “Who does Reagan’s hair?”
Finnish Poet: “The crowd, which sees only one thing.”
**
Have you seen all those “love souvenirs” in American offices? The posed family photos; or carved elephants from vacations. They are garlic necklaces, deployed to drive off malicious strangers. Capitalism. Vampires. Trinkets. Most American horror movies are about this.
**
“I’ll take the impoverishing sky for five hundred,” says the game show contestant.
**
Our subject hasn’t changed. We look up from the well at the circle of love.
Planet of the Blind 