Wednesday

Aug. 9, 2000

Four Poems in One

by Anne Porter

Broadcast date: WEDNESDAY, 9 August 2000

Poem: "Four Poems in One," from An Altogether Different Language: Poems 1934-1994 (Zoland Books).

It's the birthday in Washington, D.C., 1950, of Jeanne Larsen, author of the novels Silk Road (1989) set in 8th-century China, and Bronze Mirror (1991), in 12th-century China.

It's the birthday of the creator of the Dr. Alex Delaware Mysteries, Jonathan Kellerman, born in New York City, 1949. He, like his main character, is a child psychologist.

The second atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. on this day in 1945, on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The intended target was the city of Kokura, but poor visibility there forced the B-29 bomber on to Nagasaki. The bomb detonated at 11:02 a.m., local time, and destroyed about half the city, killing 70,000 people.

It's the birthday of Philip Larkin, the poet and novelist, born 1922 in Coventry. He worked as a librarian for most of his life, and mostly in the town of Hull. Two of his novels came out after World War II, Jill and A Girl in Winter, but he is best known for his stoic and melancholy poetry.

It is the birthday of Leonide Massine, born in Moscow, 1896. He was the principal dancer who replaced Nijinsky in Diaghilevs's Ballets Russes. A choreographer, he created the dances for such important works as La Boutique Fantasque and Parade. At age fifty-two he danced in the film The Red Shoes.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show