Tag Archives: Poetry

The Dead Writers Round-Up: February 17th-21st

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  • Jean-Baptiste Molière died on 2/17/1673. “Things are only worth what one makes them worth.” (The School for Wives; Tartuffe; The Misanthrope; Amphitryon)
  • Heinrich Heine died on 2/17/1856. “Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.” (The North Sea: Cycle I and II; The Town of Lucca; The Salon I)
  • Dorothy Canfield Fisher was born on 2/17/1879. “Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.” (The Bent Twig; Her Son’s Wife; Seasoned Timber)
  • Audre Lord was born on 2/18/1934. “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” (The First Cities; Coal; The Cancer Journals)
  • André Breton was born on 2/19/1896. “Words make love with one another.” (Surrealist Manifesto; A Corpse; Nadja; The Automatic Message)
  • Carson McCullers was born on 2/19/1917. “I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen.” (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Reflections in a Golden Eye; The Member of the Wedding)
  • André Gide died on 2/19/1951. “To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.” (The Fruits of the Earth; The Immoralist; Strait is the Gait; Corydon)
  • Knut Hamsun died on 2/19/1952. “I can’t even make up a rhyme about an umbrella, let alone death and life and eternal peace.” (Hunger; Mysteries; Pan; In Wonderland; On Overgrown Paths) Continue reading →

Sylvia Plath’s Death: Five Decades Have Gone By in a Mad, Mad Whirl

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“Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.”-Sylvia Plath

She died on 11 February 1963.

Sylvia Plath's Grave

Sylvia Plath’s Grave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Reading her poetry is like picking up shards of glass with a bare hand. It is unnerving to discover that something so deceptively small can cause so much bleeding.”-Alicia Austen

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 8th-9th February

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  • Jules Verne was born on 2/8/1828. “Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” (A Journey to the Center of the Earth; From the Earth to the Moon; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Around the World in Eighty Days)
  • Kate Chopin was born on 2/8/1850. “A person can’t have everything in this world; and it was a little unreasonable of her to expect it.” (Bayou Folk; A Night in Acadie; The Awakening)
  • Elizabeth Bishop was born on 2/8/1911. “If after I read a poem the world looks like that poem for 24 hours or so I’m sure it’s a good one-and the same goes for paintings.” (North & South; Poems: North & South. A Cold Spring; The Complete Poems)
  • Iris Murdoch died on 2/8/1999. “We can only learn to love by loving.” (Under the Net; The Bell; The Sea, The Sea; The Green Knight)
  • Amy Lowell was born on 2/9/1874. “Happiness, to some, elation; Is, to others, mere stagnation.” (A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass; Sword Blades and Poppy Seed; Legends; A Critical Fable) Continue reading →

Here’s a Synopsis of Our Burns Night Supper and the Recipe for My Vanilla-Blueberry-Bacon Cupcakes, with Mouthwatering Photos

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Our 2013 Burns Night Supper was a rousing success. It was a great reminder of what a wonderful, loyal, hilarious group of friends we have. The Chef and I spent months assembling every piece of the puzzle: the menu, music, guest list, drinks, poetry, toasts. Finally, on 25th January, everything locked into place: we had an amazing time. Once our friends started arriving, I more or less put my camera down for the night. Good photos are in short supply, but I plan on posting a video of the winning toast soon. To make up for lack of photographic evidence that the party, indeed, took place, I have decided to share my famous cupcake recipe. These cupcakes are, to be honest if a bit immodest, scrumptious. After concocting this dessert, I spent 2+ years refining the method and ingredients. Now you, dear readers, can benefit from my diligence. A few words of warning, however: one taste, and your friends and family will pounce on your cupcakes like a pack of wild beasties, leaving behind nothing but shreds of cupcake liners, pools of drool, and their dignity. The Burns Night revelers would tell you as much

VANILLA-BLUEBERRY-BACON CUPCAKES WITH CARAMEL ICING AND BLUEBERRY COMPOTE* (Makes 24 cupcakes)

Fear not: although this recipe is comprised of three components, with each one made entirely from scratch, it is easy. Trust me. Because of setting time, we’re going to cook backwards and assemble forwards. Continue reading →