Saturday

Jun. 9, 2001

1398 I have no Life but this --

by Emily Dickinson

Hard Road Blues

by Anonymous

SATURDAY, 9 JUNE 2001
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Poems: "I have no Life but this," by Emily Dickinson and "Hard Road Blues," by Anonymous.

'I have no Life but this'

I have no Life but this—
To lead it here—
Nor any Death—but lest
Dispelled from there—

Nor tie to Earths to come—
Nor Action new—
Except through this extent—
The Realm of you—

 

Hard Road Blues

Keep on walkin and walkin   talkin to mysel
yes keep on walkin and walkin   talkin to mysel
gal I loves wid somebody else

I got the hard road blues   walkin down the
    line
oh yes got the hard road blues   walkin on down
    the line
maybe someday my gal will change her mind

its a hard hard road when your baby done
    throwed you down
a hard hard road when your baby done throwed
    you down
gonna keep on walkin from town to town

I'm gonna find my baby   don't think she can't
    be found
gonna find my baby   don't think she can't be
    found
gonna walk this hard road till my mustache
    touch the ground

It's the birthday of mystery writer Patricia Cornwell, born in Miami, Florida, in 1956. She wrote three novels featuring male detectives, which were rejected, and then she created a female character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner who tracks down deranged killers based on their manner of mangling their victims. Her first Kay Scarpetta book was Postmortem in 1990, followed by Cruel and Unusual and Cause of Death.

It's the birthday of Les Paul, guitarist and inventor, born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1915. He took a phonograph needle and used it to amplify his acoustic guitar; he wired it up to a radio speaker. He later devised the first solid-body electric guitar, and engineered such innovations as overdubbing, the close-mike technique, the record delay echo, and many other tricks now taken for granted in recording studios.

It's the birthday of cartoonist George Price, born in Coytesville, New Jersey, in 1901. Price drew over 1,200 cartoons for The New Yorker magazine. His scenes frequently featured dangling bare light bulbs and scrawny pets, scratching away at themselves in the corner.

It's the birthday of playwright and biographer S.N. Behrman, Samuel Nathaniel Behrman, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1893. He wrote plays, comedies, about a particular strain of upper-class Americans. His were comedies of manners, including The Second Man, Brief Moment, Lord Pengo, and No Time for Comedy.

It's the birthday of Cole Porter, born in Peru, Indiana, in 1891. He learned to play the piano at the age of eight, went off to Yale University where he composed football songs, and then wrote musicals where he wrote both the words and the music. His 1934 show Anything Goes, considered by many to be his finest, included the songs "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Anything Goes," "All Through the Night," and "You're the Top."

It's the birthday of Austrian novelist and pacifist Baroness Bertha von Suttner, born in Prague in 1843. Her 1889 novel Die Waffen nieder! ("Lay Down Your Arms!"), was hugely popular in Europe, and had an impact there similar to what Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin had in America.

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

 

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