Friday
Jun. 28, 2002
Nap
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Poem: "Nap," by Michael McFee from Colander (Carnegie Mellon University Press).
Nap
Little deep word, how we crave
a dip in your healing waters!
Nap was once the ocean where we lived,
surfacing occasionally.
Now it's just a shrunken pool,
part of an oasis in the Desert of Light.
You won't find it on any map:
it requires a long unrouted detour
through Lesser Amnesia,
a hiatus in the mind's greedy itinerary.
But cats know where it is, and dogs,
and old men in the shade catching forty winks
so delicious they will always wake
salivating, born again.
It's the birthday of King
Henry VIII, born in Greenwich, England, in 1491. He became king when
he was 18 years old and married his brother Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon.
When she did not provide him with a male heir, however, he sought to divorce
her. When the Pope refused permission for the divorce, Henry decided that the
English Church should separate from Rome and be ruled by the king. He divorced
Catherine therewith.
It's the birthday of painter Pieter
(sometimes Peter) Paul Rubens, born in Siegen, Germany, in 1577. He
was a successful court painter to the Austrian archduke, Albert, and to the
wealthy of Flanders. He is best known for his paintings of voluptuous women.
It's the birthday of author and philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1712, whose first important
work, Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, was published in 1750.
He wrote in this work that man is good by nature but has been corrupted by society
and civilization. He later coined the phrase: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,"
and wrote: "Man was born free, but he is everywhere in chains."
It's the birthday of the author and playwright Luigi
Pirandello, born in Girgenti, Italy, in 1867. He is the author of Right
You Are if You Think You Are, and Six Characters in Search of an Author.
It's the birthday of historian and novelist Esther
Forbes, born in Westborough, Massachusetts, in 1891. She is best known
for Johnny Tremain: A Novel for Young and Old.
It's the birthday of composer and lyricist Richard
Rodgers, born in New York City in 1902. He collaborated for 20 years
with Lorenz Hart, and later with Oscar Hammerstein II.
On this day in 1919, the
Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I.
It's the birthday of actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright Mel
Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926. While Brooks
was in the Army in World War II, deactivating mines after the Battle of the
Bulge, he was also organizing shows for fellow servicemen. When he returned
to the States, he worked as a drummer and pianist in the Catskills, taking over
for an ailing stand-up comedian one night. In 1949, Brooks' friend Sid Caesar
asked him to write for his comedy program, Your Show of Shows. In 1968,
he wrote his first feature film, The Producers. Although the movie did
poorly at the box office, it has been made into a Broadway musical, winning
15 Tony Awards.
It's the birthday of novelist and short-story writer Maureen
Howard, born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1930, who wrote about her
Catholic school upbringing and her life as a professor's wife in her much-acclaimed
autobiography, Facts of Life. Her latest work is Big as Life: Three
Tales for Spring.
It's the birthday of novelist and short-story writer Mark
Helprin, born in New York in 1947. He is the author of A Soldier
of the Great War, and Winter's Tale.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®
