Category
writing
-
writing
Recherché.
I resent it terribly, the dismally singular way it feels to read Evelyn Waugh. In the spaces between the narrative he will take these pauses, aching and hypnotic and elegant, and in each one it feels like my body is drawing in this brume of incredulous, weeping gratitude for everything beautiful in the world, and [...]
-
writing
Burton to Liz:
Love letters. I wrote this in my diary (indeed, a diary, on graph paper [un]fittingly,) just above my historical summary of Night of the Long Knives. Brains are so predictable. I have never quite got over the fact that “acting” for a man — and I’m afraid still do you think, that a really, proper [...]
-
writing
Instant Enlightenment
This is my favorite joke of all time. I have tried to articulate its exact beauty dozens of times, but I cannot. If someone were to ask me the point of anything, everything, I’d say it would all just boil down to this. If the art you make is not in this tradition, don’t you [...]
-
writing
I Wish You Were Psychic
Waking At 3am, William Stafford Even in the cave of the night when you wake and are free and lonely, neglected by others, discarded, loved only by what doesn’t matter–even in that big room no one can see, you push with your eyes till forever comes in its twisted figure eight and lies down in [...]
-
writing
Night of the Long Knives
I had to read this three times to understand how I understood it implicitly on my first try. Crush, Ada Limón Maybe my limbs are made mostly for decoration, like the way I feel about persimmons. You can’t really eat them. Or you wouldn’t want to. If you grab the soft skin with your fist [...]
-
writing
“Dear God, please make me stop writing like a woman.”
At least once every day, I’m thinking about Dorothy Parker. This week I’m also thinking about Cheever. Reading a man’s biography will have that affect. Very well crafted biography, by the way. Naturally, I’m also flipping back and forth between his stories on the side and I’m just effervescent with the thrill of all this [...]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version . You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
-
writing
Mon Frères
Today you may call me DeLilah, I’m feeling like the midnight dj. What are your favorite love songs? I think I’m always being swept up by various ones whether en flagrante delicto or not, but there are two that always make me die in their simplicity, the way they feel open and mysterious and to [...]
-
writing
On Those Who Are Islands
This is by far my favorite poem by him. I will read it again every month or so and feel myself come to understand something closer to the heart each time. My Father’s Wedding, Robert Bly 1924Today, lonely for my father, I saw a log, or branch, long, bent, ragged, bark gone. I felt lonely [...]
-
writing
From The Book of Hours
by RilkeI am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough to make every hour holy. I am too small in the world, and yet not tiny enough just to stand before you like a thing, dark and shrewd. I want my will, and I want to be with my will as it [...]
-
writing
Found Poetry
At many times I feel like I cant just be myself because I feel that my real self is just an embarrassment to people and disrespectful. For instance when I am having a great time I usually will show it by being loud and wild. When we go bowling when I am doing really good. [...]
-
writing
…the Rest Is Silence
03.23.09 | Permalink | 2 commentsOne of the most sublime moments in art is silence. It’s rare, to articulate open space while at the same time filling it; how do you push a narrative forward while standing absolutely still? It’s a matter of timing, really. And of restraint. Art that cares for slowness feels like the intake of breath. Sometimes, [...]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version . You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
-
writing
Yours and Mine
I’m taking a class at Brown this semester (unfortunately not two). My professor has good taste. We read this and I looked around and I wondered if the other women in the class, mostly older than me, were shaking their heads out of sympathy or pity. I felt bad that I am a perennial infant [...]
-
writing
A Poem For the Coming Year
One of my favorites. Touch Me, Stanley Kunitz Summer is late, my heart. Words plucked out of the air some forty years ago when I was wild with love and torn almost in two scatter like leaves this night of whistling wind and rain. It is my heart that’s late, it is my song that’s [...]
-
writing
I’m Sorry It’s Slow
11.02.08 | Permalink | 2 commentsIt always sort of bummed me out that I was not a poet. In fact, I resented it so much, I used to hate poetry, and made a deliberate effort to not understand it. Now I think of it as the most direct way of speaking, of communicating; the most beautiful. A good poem pulls [...]
-
writing
Calvino, on Quickness
Among Chuan-tzu’s many skills, he was an expert draftsman. The king asked him to draw a crab. Chuang-tzu replied that he needed five years, a country house, and twelve servants. Five years later the drawing was still not begun. “I need another five years,” said Chuang-tzu. The king granted them. At the end of these [...]
-
writing
Contrasting Depressions
As opposed to Neruda’s sadness, here is sour Phil. Aubade by Larkin I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what’s really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible [...]
-
writing
Youth & Beauty
I wrote this down in an old journal of mine. It’s from an interview with Michael Hurley. I think it’s perfect. I wandered in NYC and hung out in the village. I was interested in Beatniks because they didn’t have to go to school and got to drink wine and they were cool. After awhile, [...]
-
writing
Customer of Size
I read this story, Customer of Size, the other day from the last issue of Carve Magazine. It’s by Mary Jones. It humanizes a moment which most people don’t give much thought to. I always hear so much chatter about fat people like they’re another, lesser species, abstract persons “punished” for abstract crimes. The sort [...]
what's a mattababy?
mattababy.com is a blog living in Providence, RI with a bad attitude and a secretly sentimental side. It covers all cultural detritus, large and small, relevant or not entirely.Polaroids
collected images
1% inspirations →
- No public Twitter messages.
comments
- Jaimi: Holy shit, I don’t even know how I came across your blog but you are so brilliant. I hope you keep...
- Lilah: Cara, you’re bananas and I’m thrilled to hear from you. However, ask any one of the zillion mutual...
- cara: lilah, i read a few pages of your blog today, first time i’ve looked at it in a while. blown away again...
- tyc: also, i don’t mean the whole intellectual left, just the people who work to fit in.
- tyc: i have been thinking about art/intelligence/creativity A lot, genius, the kinds of intelligence that just blow...
search
buddies & pals
→ marge jr. explains it all→ i'd like to know jake's take on the rubber chicken
→ orienteering the heart
→ mary isn't kidding
→ cozzen jean
→ it's over your head
→ holmes follows the scent
→ jbruce knows how to live
→ punk in drublic
→ baby he's a fine artisté
→ free culture, open sourcin'
→ dress your fat ass right
→ crooner, swooner, boozer, tooner
→ wonderland
→ banana splits
/ → the over-soul
→ excellent adventure
→ free, open source video player
→ working for gov't transparency
Categories
- arts & crafts (9)
- audiofiles (25)
- culture & media (37)
- feminisms (29)
- foods (2)
- I'M IN A REALLY BAD MOOD (1)
- linkfarmin (2)
- myopia (26)
- politico (21)
- uncategorized (1)
- writing (20)
Archives
- November 2011 (1)
- September 2011 (1)
- January 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- November 2010 (1)
- October 2010 (3)
- September 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (4)
- June 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (1)
- January 2010 (2)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (3)
- September 2009 (5)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (6)
- June 2009 (5)
- May 2009 (2)
- April 2009 (9)
- March 2009 (4)
- February 2009 (7)
- January 2009 (15)
- December 2008 (8)
- November 2008 (16)
- October 2008 (18)
- September 2008 (13)
- August 2008 (6)
- July 2008 (15)
- June 2008 (10)
- December 2007 (1)
feeds
guts
© 2008 by mattababy.combuilt with