"Sometimes all we do is cope / somewhere on the steepest slope / is an endless rope"

Some weeks, just getting a sonnet out feels like a victory.

As when a goldsmith draws a pliers pinch
of reddish metal through an iron plate,
but his gold's gone too cold for pulling straight
and so he strains for every wire inch;

and as a rower a length behind the leader
pulls hard with all she has, arms legs lungs head
burning with every stroke that doesn't speed her
because she hasn't enough to pull ahead;

so do I stare at this white screen, this row
of black letters as meaningless as the dead,
and for all I try to make this story go,
each word is drawn from under fingernails
as if by pincers, till I drop my head
onto the keyboard where my writing fails.

Why, yes, I have been watching Olympics coverage, why do you ask?

---L.

"Sometimes all we do is cope / somewhere on the steepest slope / is an endless rope"

Some weeks, just getting a sonnet out feels like a victory.

As when a goldsmith draws a pliers pinch
of reddish metal through an iron plate,
but his gold's gone too cold for pulling straight
and so he strains for every wire inch;

and as a rower a length behind the leader
pulls hard with all she has, arms legs lungs head
burning with every stroke that doesn't speed her
because she hasn't enough to pull ahead;

so do I stare at this white screen, this row
of black letters as meaningless as the dead,
and for all I try to make this story go,
each word is drawn from under fingernails
as if by pincers, till I drop my head
onto the keyboard where my writing fails.

Why, yes, I have been watching Olympics coverage, why do you ask?

---L.

"Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls / runs his hands through his thinning brown hair"

Sonny's yearbook from high school is down from the shelf / and he idly thumbs through the pages / some have died, some have fled from themselves / or struggled from here to get there

• The post title says it all: Lady Murasaki Bot Recites Tale of Genji. Especially weird to come across while reading Shonagon's Pillow Book.
  
• This collection of early movie reviews from the 1890s is fascinating. Not only were movie-makers struggling to come up with a visual language for the new medium, so were critics struggling for ways to talk about it.
  
• Sometimes, a fake film of Edgar Allen Poe reading "The Raven" is close enough to the real thing to be worth watching. (via)
  
• While "Lulz and the /b/tards" might sound like a good band name, it'd certainly put me off. (via)
  
• Here's a wonderful (and yet simple) visualization of Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which is especially useful for tracking all the fugual voices. (via)
  
• "Who needs girls gone wild, when you can have girls gone Wilde?" (via)
  
• Lightning looks way cool filmed at 5000 frames a second. (via) (ETA: replacement link via coyoty)
  
• Sometimes, you just want to smash a cream egg in the best way possible. (via)

Well I'm accustomed to a smoother ride / maybe I'm a dog that's lost his bite / I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more / I don't expect to sleep the night

---L.

"Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls / runs his hands through his thinning brown hair"

Sonny's yearbook from high school is down from the shelf / and he idly thumbs through the pages / some have died, some have fled from themselves / or struggled from here to get there

• The post title says it all: Lady Murasaki Bot Recites Tale of Genji. Especially weird to come across while reading Shonagon's Pillow Book.
  
• This collection of early movie reviews from the 1890s is fascinating. Not only were movie-makers struggling to come up with a visual language for the new medium, so were critics struggling for ways to talk about it.
  
• Sometimes, a fake film of Edgar Allen Poe reading "The Raven" is close enough to the real thing to be worth watching. (via)
  
• While "Lulz and the /b/tards" might sound like a good band name, it'd certainly put me off. (via)
  
• Here's a wonderful (and yet simple) visualization of Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which is especially useful for tracking all the fugual voices. (via)
  
• "Who needs girls gone wild, when you can have girls gone Wilde?" (via)
  
• Lightning looks way cool filmed at 5000 frames a second. (via) (ETA: replacement link via coyoty)
  
• Sometimes, you just want to smash a cream egg in the best way possible. (via)

Well I'm accustomed to a smoother ride / maybe I'm a dog that's lost his bite / I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more / I don't expect to sleep the night

---L.