Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things

Gilbert Sorrentino I was told at AWP that he is recovering from some major surgery. I hope he is well I have found Sorrentino's work so moving and timely. His insights and lit essays poetry and fiction has just enough bite and just enough snap for me.

I picked up a biography of Joseph Cornell at Seminary Coop. Since I was a kid I have loved his boxes and I can remember getting lost in them at the Art Institute. His insights are something Collage is is such a hard thing and it requires as sense of composure that most artists dont have.

Recently on the Buffalo list their has been talk about Sor Juana and other Spanish language poets. I find Spanish Language poetry interesting because of the tension between conservative and radical. A writer like Neruda or Vallejo can be radical but somehow the traditional Spanish norms are always there. the loss of the lyric which is so evident in English never arrived in Spanish language poetry. I have spent so much time recently with Brazilian poetry and seeing how much American and Brazilian have in common in comparison to our American brethern who speak Spanish.

Studs Terkel has been on the TV allot. He is 92 years old, the same age as my Grandmother. Listening to him is so satiating. When he talks about being an agiator. The US has lost this we have become so proper and so banal. Most Chicago people don't even know what happened at Haymarket Square. We have become a nation of suburbanites.

The Chinese president was here this week; he was heckled welcome to America Mr Hu.

The Cubs First Baseman Derrek Lee Broke a wrist, normally I would not care what happens to the Cubs as I am a white sox fan but the Cubs and their fans seem so sad to me. At one time the Cubs/Sox rivalry was fun but not so anymore. We won the World Series and they are still talking about curses. I hurt for my Cub fan friends but not for the Lincoln Park Trixies. By the way we are first place and how about Thome?