Shelley recently
pointed to 3 Quarks
Daily, which aims to:

. . . present interesting items from around the web on a daily
basis, in the areas of science, design, literature, current affairs, art, and
anything else we deem inherently fascinating. We want to provide you with a
one-stop intellectual surfing experience by culling good stuff from all over and
putting it in one place.

And it succeeds. It’s a truly compelling website. I found this item about
Poetry
there:

The sum’s vastness enticed some poets into imaginative flight. The
poet Rafael Campo rhapsodized in an opinion piece in the Globe that a ”Poetry
Palace" built with the gift might come to house ”factory workers and
firefighters, immigrants, and descendents of slaves," and that ”such a rich
community of poetry-lovers could truly repair this broken planet." In the London
Independent, Campbell McGrath had a more modest but (as it turns out) no less
fanciful wish: ”I hope that, as much as possible, Poetry will find a way to
call up individual poets and say, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but we’re
going to give you money."’

Ah, yes. I had a similar fantasy. But:

Nonetheless, the stewards of that large sum believe they can use it
to bring poetry ”back into the mainstream of American culture," . . . The
foundation won’t be handing out grants to poets or institutions. Instead, the
foundation’s strategy emphasizes rebuilding a general, nonspecialist, and,
crucially, nonacademic audience for poetry.

Hmm, I think that’s what I have: a nonacademic audience. Maybe I’m ahead of my time.

Also at 3 Quarks: Cells That Read Minds:

"It took us several years to believe what we were seeing," Dr.
Rizzolatti said in a recent interview. The monkey brain contains a special class
of cells, called mirror neurons, that fire when the animal sees or hears an
action and when the animal carries out the same action on its own. "We are
exquisitely social creatures," Dr. Rizzolatti said. "Our survival depends on
understanding the actions, intentions and emotions of others." He continued,
"Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual
reasoning but through direct simulation. By feeling, not by thinking."

I’m thinking about that. Not that any of us need something else wonderful to
read and think about. The internet seems to be an infinite cornucopia of talent
and skill and imagination. An unending gallery. How does one choose? Once we
visited the galleries and museums in our own towns, or traveled far to see them.
Now, a click away.

I, you may have noticed, am feeling overwhelmed. It’s the old lesson — yes, you
are missing something. So look at what’s in front of you. Look at what’s inside
you. Look here.

it’s just — this little machine puts so much in front of me.

Like this toy, found at
The
Dream Life:

LibraryThing
is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. Because
everyone catalogs together, you can also use LibraryThing to find
people with similar libraries, get suggestions from people with your
tastes and so forth.

It does occur to me, in today’s political climate, that all these social toys can make watching us much easier.

Speaking of politics, I know that yesterday’s snapshot poem is a bit odd. But
it’s supposed to be a snapshot, of one’s
day, or place, or state of mind — and that is what I was paying attention to.

Speaking of toys, Dave Bonta has posted a series of Penis Poems. If you think they might offend you, just don’t go there.

On my weekend TO-DO List: update the sidebar !! even if it means adding a blogroll snippet instead of the preferred, more interesting, images!

Finally, I’m realizing that some of the Blogging The Artist’s Way stuff may be
boring to my usual readers, so I’ve made an icon (a cut-down version of Kat’s logo) to warn you; I’ll put it at the
beginning of those, probably excessively introspective, posts. So you can avoid them. Or not, as you please.

I did consider starting a separate blog for those posts, but decided against it. It is suitable, after all, for a poet’s notebook.