Hepburn And Hopper Reunited
after J.A.

Katharine in her study
Propped up his rose. "He does not want to stand."
She murmurs into the microphone.
The fuzzy dark microphone!
She wears the lyotard yoga Saturday.
She builds a tree out of Edward--
The result is a lither Edward.
In the music is a reprise.

"To be the tree--how would you like to be
The tree, green with farandolae, inside
Mitochondria?" Katharine shivered.
The lotus speeds toward a waterfall.
"Something, Edward, in your little finger--
Next week we'll learn the derring-do."

*

This Is Just To Say
or
Hopper's House at Dusk
for Phil & Claire

Thank you for the hamburgers and popcorn
Of last Sunday. I thought you would enjoy
This picture that reminds me so much of me
Last night at dusk, listening to Billie Holiday.
You will appreciate the bent golden head
Gazing out in a pale blue dress, pining.

I thought about the seaside this afternoon
And a smile played about my lips
As I shooed away a bee. Is it not truly
A delight when you think of some place special?
O my goodness! How late the hour is!
May hamburgers and popcorn be with you always! (Love, Renee)

Some Music
for J.A.

Again, I am as a listening child
When another plays his instrument
Wild, being a composition, or verse.
Picking out tossed down letters

Because it is our want at night
To keep the world from sleep
Alone, he and I
Light effigies upon the sky

To make a lovely show
That great peasant tradition, or
One merely human bent on magic
To touch, love, logic.

We sigh in the presence of so much
Elegance, poise, precision of touch:
A music already filled with pauses,
A carpet on which blossoms

A lotus of smiles, a spring feast.
Selected from a cheerful dish, the best
Cherry from the cherry orchard
Rejuvenates the weak in spirit.

Notes on Jhumpa Lahiri's
Pulitzer Prizewinning
Interpreter of Maladies

Published by Houghton Mifflin, 1999
short stories previously published by
The New Yorker, Agni Review, Epoch

Michiko Kakutani:
"Her prose is so eloquent
and assured that the reader forgets
this is her first book."

"Her tactile precision, poise--
objectivity, compassion--a
precocious debut."

Dedication:
For my parents and for my sister

First sentence of title story (Interpreter of Maladies:)

"At the Tea Stall Mr. and Mrs. Das bickered
about who should take Tina to the toilet."

Smooth, fast, officious--
she seems to know her characters well.

Mr. Das has a new digital camera
(Dad would like that).

"Bobby make sure that your brother doesn't do anything stupid."

Tina is the name of the little girl.
Mina is the name of the mother.
The father teaches middle school.

("lotus
oil
balm"
similar to Sappho's
"gold
anklebone
cups")

Museum of Natural History mentioned
(reminds me of Catcher in the Rye).

Ms. Das is snooty.
She chews the kind of gum with liquid inside.

The American show Dallas is still on tv
in India.

"He had dreamed of being an interpreter for diplomats
and dignitaries."

Mr. Kapasi worked for a docter who paid him twice as much
as he made working as a teacher.

Ms. Das' interest in him intoxicates him.

"bottled
mango
juice, two
omelette
sandwiches."

"The temple at Konarek was dedicated to
the master of life--the sun--
Surya."

"The wheels are supposed to symbolize
the wheel of life. They depict the cycle
of creation, preservation, achievement of realization...
the medalions in center of spokes are
carved with women in luxurious poses."

"Honesty is the best policy."

"When she whipped out her hairbrush
the slip of paper w/ Mr. Kapasi's address on it
fluttered away in the wind."

"Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das,
or is it guilt?"

I read The New York Times today.

I read Susan Sontag's article called The Photographs Are US.
Then I glanced at the article about Michael Moore's Best Film Award for Fahrenheit 9/11 at Cannes.

I just returned from 2 hours of swimming so my eyes are dry and there's water in my ears. There is supposed to be a thunderstorm warning tonight so the barbecue is cancelled. So now I get to write to Joe in St. Vincent. He sent me pictures of the children he's been teaching computers for the Peace Corps. They struck me as so innocent looking and a remarkable contrast to the deluge of slick advertising that I am bombarded with everyday on the internet and tv. Joe said it's disconcerting how many children in St. Vincent are fatherless. He has been like a surrogate father to them.

Last night I listened to Bryan Ferry's latest album. I saw him on David Letterman last week, so I appreciated the song about already being dead. My friend Eric really emulated Brian Ferry. He is in San Diego now.

My housemates are watching a spy movie with Russian characters and I'm drinking cherry coke. My room needs to be cleaned for inspection tomorrow and I need to do some recycling but... This morning I cogitated on philosophy for about 2 hours.

Here are some names I came up with:
C.L.R James
John Rawls (Justice as Fairness)
Simone de Beauvoir (Hard Times, The Second Sex, The Mandarins) Socrates, Aristotle, Thucydides
Muriel Rukeyser ("Look at your own body/ you are the city, the ghetto/ you are the garden")
Rita Dove (On the Bus with Rosa Parks--"how she sat there/her sensible coat")
Buddha (gesture of Abhayamudra--fear not)
Orwell (1984)
Madeline L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time, A Circle of Quiet--the Greek term ousia: the essence of a being)
Michael Ondaatje ("We are full on anarchy. We take off our clothes because we should not take off our clothes"--Anil's Ghost)
Georgia O'Keeffe (who bought her ranch in Abiquiu for $10 from the Catholic Church)
Thich Nhat Han (Peace is Every Step, Zen Keys)
Michel Foucault ("Dies ist kein Pfeife"--linguistic philosophy, words as metaphor, and how the world wants to be named in order to perpetuate itself)
Anne Carson ("the fact of the matter for humans is imperfection"--Men In the Off Hours)
Derrick May (Innovator)
the I Ching
Jane Roberts
Grace Lee Boggs ("Be the change you would like to see in society")
J.F.K ("Ask not what your country can do for you, but
what you can do for your country").

*****

While my fellow generation x-ers were getting smashed tonight, I was reading Simone de Beauvoir. She was in Venice, drinking Grappa and admiring Tintorettos, having interesting, stimulating conversation about literature and art, eating well and feeling relaxed. Why wasn't I doing something a bit more entertaining? One might wonder. Too grouchy to entertain. Sorry Charlies.

Notes on Annie Hall Starring Diane Keaton

--Where are you from?
--Wisconsin
--You look very American--Healthy. You must never get sick.

(Annie's father reminds me of Garrison Keilor.)

She has chicken arms, wears smoking jackets
and white button down shirts, flowing pants
long, long, long hair
skin, teeth, nails

(Red Begonia's really make the Frank Sinatra Dream Scene)

There is a cartoon scene that reminds me of Sleeping Beauty.

Annie takes photographs in black and white
wears grey t-shirt, green cargo pants, hair upswept
her bedroom walls are bare

"Honey there's a spider in the bathroom the size of a Buick."

Furniture from IKEA
She drives an ecru VW bug
She wears couture cowboy boots and rose-colored glasses
He bought her a watch for her birthday and lingerie

"She washes her face 800 times a day with black soap."

In the singing scenes she wears lipgloss and eye liner
"Seems like Old Times" is a hit in bar
("A Hard Way to Go" is listed in credits)

He sneezes in the coke.
In California: "It's so clean out here."
"They must turn their garbage into TV shows."
He becomes nauseous.

The "10" lady is tall, not more than 120 lbs
wears all white because of heat
"a tad on the androgenous side."

"California has a lot of beautful women."

"Whose Catcher in the Rye is this?"

"Denial of Death... I feel like there's a great weight
off my back."

"I'm working on a play."

"So long, fellows. Keep in touch."

"You should be doing Shakespeare in the park."

"You're always trying to get things to come out perfect in art
because it's very difficult in life."

"We keep going through [relationships]
because we need the eggs."

Annie ate pastrami w/ lettuce & tomato on white bread
at the greasy spoon diner
also white wine, chocolate milk, & Lobsters!

The editor of the movie was a woman
Ralph Lauren designed some of the clothes
The casting director was a woman
As was the wardrobe supervisor
but not the publicist

Other cast members included
Marshall McCluhan
Carol Kane
Shelley Duvall
Colleen Dewhurst
Chris Walken
Paul Simon
Jeff Goldblum
Sigourney Weaver

Notes on Two Versions of Midsummer Night's Dream
(One in Ann Arbor, The Other in Stratford)
Written on workbook for the Glyptothek's Tempel von Aegina

1. The Arboretum was more comfortable.
2. Stratford had Diet Coke at intermission.
3. Lysander of Canada was Hot.
4. Oberon of Ann Arbor was Nimble.
5. The Arboretum was prettier than indoor stage.
6. The Canadian people were happier.
7. A little girl in Ann Arbor got lost.
8. Canadian version dragged a bit.
9. Acrobats dangled from Stratford Festival Theater ceiling ala Cirque de Soleil.
10. Puck Triplets cooler in A2.
11. Canadian costumes rocked.
12. Titania was lovely in Canada.
14. I want to remember both versions when I am 65.

Portrait of Frank O'Hara by Alice Neel

by Renee Zepeda

white linen pants
sea-blue sweater
blue linen shirt
w/collar tucked underneath
no earring
jagged boxer's nose (from a break)
blue eyes, Onyx fine trimmed hair
receeding hairline, large forehead
pronounced Adam's Apple
thin bluish tinted skin
emaciated look-- 140 lbs?
(how old is Frank here, circa 1960?)
pinkish, purple lilacs, fresh w/
waxy green leaves
for a crown around Frank's head
and what appears to be
the white trunk of an Elephant wearing palest
blue sock
the back of chair
is the Elephant's eye &
a rust color for contrast swabbed
beneath (Ganesha's) trunk
where we see NEEL's (stylized) signature
in Black--
how Frank sits on the yellow-orange
cushioned chair appears
lightly, ease-ily, perhaps slouching a bit
yet he looks determined, birdlike
not hawkish, but rather like a songbird
perhaps a Crane, not a stork, but
maybe a Bluebird, though not comical &
(not powerful enough for a Swan),
he would be the kind of bird that hangs out
with sheep for their lanolin
and soft doves for their cooing.
I think of Lady Day and Ella Fitzgerald
and I remember the poet Joan Murray
who said (heroically)
"All things are cool in themselves
and complete,"
when I look at this portrait of Frank &
the grey shadow around
the front of his face
and the white strip
like an ice sculpture or abstract
stalactite diamond cylinder
balancing on his left arm
reminds me of music by Mancini.

We cannot see his hands--

only his right
perfect
Rosebud
ear
and
lovely
high
cheekbones.

"Grace to be born,"
Frank O'Hara once said,
"and live as variously as possible."

"Senator let's be Sincere as much as We Can."--T. Amos

*****

Today I read the article about the Colombian Botero's war paintings
in the New York Times. It was odd to see Botero's
usually fat&happy people in poses of anguish.
Riddled with bullets, on bent knees, holding crosses above their heads.
Picasso's Guernica was mentioned in the article.
Guernica failed to stop the Spanish Civil War.

Yet, in yesterday's Women in Love, Glenda the Good Witch managed to
entrance the snorting bulls with her dancing, as if she were
charming snakes or subduing lions. They were ready to charge
and she mesmerized them--she put them under her spell.
They were hypnotized. Confused. Then she scared them away.
Nasty bulls with sharp, piercing horns that gore men in bull-rings.
And she scared them away wearing only a white see-thru nightgown.
She was very determined and she never said a word.

Is that the power of art or the power of Woman?

Georgia O'Keeffe believed that she had tapped into the same
spiritual/transformative/therapeutic energy that
Kandinsky, Van Gogh, and Gauguin discovered.

Whether O'Keeffe found the energy due to the place
or because she was terribly observant
of her own mind, I don't know.
It seems she had the ability to remember
a state of being that fostered healing
and return to that state through painting.
Or through art.

I also saw today Thom Yorke in the Arts section of the Times
and a guy from the Pixies. They described the show in California as
baleful.

I don't feel bad about not making a bold statement about the war.
I believe in the gentleness and non-aggression of my art.
I don't think Mary Cassatt ever did pictures of war and we still talk about her.
We put her paintings on our stamps.

*****

Yesterday I Saw a Tree


Yesterday I saw a tree and gave him
angel wings, a trunk (straight as an arrow...)
I saw an overcast sky, sun peeking out
(like a turtle;) I never lie...