Happy International Poetry Day

Every language has its poetry and every human being holds the key to their own poetics. Whether it takes on a simple or embellished form, poetry captures what is most difficult to interpret in human experience. Poetry expresses the inexpressible, the common ground of the human mystery.


On this World Poetry Day 2010, let us recall that poetry is a universal country in which peoples may meet through words of all colours, rhythms and musicality. Words that, regardless of the language from which they blossomed, reach out far for a light that captures the very essence of the human being, the dignity of each person.

-- Message from Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2010, 21 March

In observance of the day, and in an attempt to bring my own poetic talents out of remission, I invite you to stop over at WORD ART, where I've started dusting off some old verses and hope to plunk down some new.

That is, when I have nothing more pressing to do....

Funky Friday, Celtic Edition

Because Funky is a global concept, I give you "Derek MacLennan and his version of Rody Gorman's Gaelic translation of Bob Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower'."



(I know I'm early...but it's Friday somewhere, ya know?)

(And thanks -- or blame goes -- to Doug for the find!)

OH

I'm back from Columbus, OH. Intellikid is back in Boston, MA. My blog, however, is still in limbo-ish.

Enjoy the slideshow from my travels while I recover. The opening image is the view from my hotel window, the Columbus Convention Center. Then a bunch of images of the Chihuly exhibit at the Franklin Park Conservatory (apologies for the poor image quality, but the "wow" factor is hopefully in evidence). The last two are of the ladies' room at Betty's Fine Food & Spirits. Ok, so I had a little too much of the spirits....

Intermission

For anybody still hanging around here, be forewarned that posting will be even more intermittent for the next week. Intellikid is home for Spring break, and I'm planning to spend as much quality time with her as possible before I have to schlep off to Columbus, OH on Wednesday for a conference.

Meanwhile, the countdown to "50" goes on. Impending birthdays - and "milestone" birthdays in particular - seem to be natural occasions for reflection and remembering. Some of my earliest memories are surely the product of being told a certain story over & over again and not a true recollection, but I think that sensory memories must be the real deal. One of my earliest visual memories dates to when I was about 2 years old, watching the opening of a drive-in movie from the backseat of the old green Plymouth sedan my dad had (presumably acquired when he became a family man, and his sporty Alfa Romeo didn't comfortably or safely transport a wife and two kids). I can recall the title of the movie, "Fanny," which I thought was hilarious. Who would name a girl after a heiney? I don't remember anything else about the film, unfortunately -- dressed in our pajamas and bundled into a makeshift bed in the car, my younger sister and I slept through the rest of the movie.

But back to the "50" theme: I decided to avoid doing some productive work the other day and instead attempted to list 50 of my favorite movies. They are not by any means what I would claim to be the greatest of all time, but are instead films that touched, amused, distracted, disturbed, or otherwise entertained me enough that I would watch them more than once (if I haven't already).

The list is nothing if not eclectic:

This is the best . . .

. . . 3 minutes and 18 seconds you'll waste all day:



(and arguably the best use of partial nudity in a music video!)

Happy Wednesday.