#stephen spender

[carloskaplan]

W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender e Christopher Isherwood de vacacións no Mar do Norte (1931)

[geopsych]

In one section of the canal path you walk with trees on both sides and with sunlight pouring between and through the leaves it made me think of the beginning of a favorite poem by Stephen Spender:

“I think continually of those who were truly great, / Who from the womb remembered the soul’s history / Through corridors of light where the hours are suns / Endless and singing.”

I felt like I was walking through a corridor of light, in time away from the world. I wish you could walk there.

[davidhudson]

T. S. Eliot, September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965.

Mark Gerson, The Faber Poets, 1960: Louis MacNeice, Ted Hughes, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and Stephen Spender.

[llovelymoonn]

favourite poems of october

alfred starr a dark dreambox of another kind: the poems of alfred starr: "didn't you ever search for another star?

stephen spender new collected poems: "auden's funeral"

marianne boruch keats is coughing

noa micaela fields zoeglossia: poem of the week, may 17, 2021: "echolalia"

kevin young diptych

richard siken real estate

crisosto apache kúghą/home

mikko harvey for m

nathan hoks nests in air: "the barbed wire nest"

john a. holmes noon waking

crisosto apache 37 common characterisi(x)s of a displaced indian with a learning disability

oliver de la paz requiem for the orchard: "at the time of my birth"

zhang xun jiangnan song (tr. bijaan noormohamed)

paul violi fracas: "extenuating circumstances"

tianru wang after "yellow crane tower"

lloyd schwartz cairo traffic: "nostalgia (the lake at night)"

kamiko han the narrow road to the interior: "the orient"

rigoberto gonzalez unpeopled eden: "unpeopled eden"

adelaide crapsey verse: "to the dead in the graveyard underneath my window"

chester kallman night music

alan shapiro covenant: "covenant"

tom clark light and shade: new and selected poems: "radio"

tc tolbert my melissa,

charlie smith in praise of regret

carolyn kizer cool, calm, and collected: poems 1960-2000: "fanny"

julie sheehan orient point: "hate poem"

arthur sze the redshifting web: poems 1970-1998: "streamers"

joumana altallal everything here...in the voice of tara fares

abid b al-abras last simile

w.s. merwin to lingering regrets

george scarbrough music

shout me a coffee

[eyeoftheheart]

Remember that you are born of the Sun and feel the fire in your heart’s centre.

The Truly Great BY STEPHEN SPENDER

I think continually of those who were truly great. Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns, Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition Was that their lips, still touched with fire, Should tell of the Spirit, clothed from head to foot in song. And who hoarded from the Spring branches The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious, is never to forget The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth. Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light Nor its grave evening demand for love. Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother With noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields, See how these names are fêted by the waving grass And by the streamers of white cloud And whispers of wind in the listening sky. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre. Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

Stephen Spender, “The Truly Great” from Collected Poems 1928-1953

[beguines]

Stephen Spender

[crosstheveil]

I think continually of those who were truly great - The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.

'Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun, And left the vivid air signed with their honor.

― Stephen Spender

[saltwaterandstars]

JOMP BPC - 12th November - Want to re-read

I recently came across ten or so volumes of poetry in a bookcase that has mostly old work books in it. I'd forgotten all about them and haven't looked at any of them for at least a decade. This selection of Stephen Spender's work dates from 1965, though this edition is from 1970. I must have bought it secondhand in my early twenties when I had a phase of buying poetry books pretty much indiscriminately. It'll be interesting to revisit some of them.

[ancienttragedies]

Stephen Spender - XXIV

[nerds-yearbook]

In 1989, a group of High School seniors went to celebrate their graduation in Column National Forest in Northwest Oregon. Some believed they had an alien visitation. What was known for sure was they were deeply affected, especially Billy Miles who went into a coma, Ray Soams who was admitted to a mental hospital for schizophrenia and claimed to kill some of his classmates, and Peggy O’Dell who became paralyzed. Over the next several years, it was noticed that there were strange marks on their bodies and one by one they died mysteriously until by 1992 only Billy Miles was left, who mysteriously came out of his coma and no longer had the strange marks on his body. ("Pilot", X-Files, TV)

[martyncrucefix]

Two Poems by the late Jürgen Becker

The sad news that Jürgen Becker (1932-2024) died recently at the age of 92 was particularly poignant as I have been translating his work for the past 3 years. I first read about his poetry in an essay I was translating by Lutz Seiler (published in In Case of Loss (And Other Stories, 2024)). There, Seiler characterises Becker’s work as ‘a process that integrate[s] both immediate and more distant…

[geopsych]

I Think Continually

I think continually of those who were truly great.

Who, from the womb remembered the soul's history

Through corridors of light where the hours are suns

Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition

Was that their lips, still touched with fire,

Should tell of the Spirit clothed from head to foot in song.

And who hoarded from the Spring branches

The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget

The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs

Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.

Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light

Nor its grave evening demand for love.

Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother

With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields

See how these names are feted by the waving grass

And by the streamers of white cloud

And whispers of wind in the listening sky.

The names of those who in their lives fought for life

Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.

Born of the sun they travelled a short while towards the sun,

And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

—Stephen Spender

[davidhudson]

Stephen Spender, February 28, 1909 – July 16, 1995.

1955 photo by Herbert List.

[farawayeyes4]

Modern Writers in the World of Necessity by Stephen Spender (Annotated)

Spender speaks about the fall out of World War II and the effects of fascism in the post-war world and how they linger. He speaks about how authors have prior to the war benefited from fascism and supported it because it “supported them.” Necessity will drive the post-war world, and Spender is afraid that will mean a lean towards commodification and a turn away from remembering our humanity as governments and political parties exert more control to prevent a future rise of fascism in the immediate post-war period. He comments that even those authors who claim to be “anti-political” or apolitical are indeed choosing a political stance rather they recognize this or not. “Art for art’s sake” is critiqued. Socialism is critiqued as being self-destructive when implemented in its absolute form. Spender concludes his essay by remarking that it is the place of the creative writer to remind us of our human condition and humanity. In that sense, it is a bulwark against fascism. While this is written in 1945 in the immediate aftermath of World War II and all of its horrors of Nazism/fascism, in 2023, this piece reads fresh and current. It is a testament to the ever present threat that we face in the current world as we see rises of book challenging, attacks on intellectuals, othering of groups (LGBTQ, disabled, BIPOC, etc), and the restriction of rights (abortion, LGBTQ rights, etc) that fascism hasn’t been utterly defeated in that War but is rather a tide that ebbs and flows. It may not answer much of the question about authorship, death of the author, or how that applies to fandom, but it is a piece that may help to explore or explain why the politics of some writers may be off putting to their audiences as some notables such as W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound are cited in their time as showing “a certain enthusiasm for fascism, because they saw in it a violent assertion of the aristocratic principle, which although decaying, kept them in their position of detachment from society.” This, in turn, may be applied to modern authors such as Rowling, Whedon, and others who may have taken political stances or actions that have turned their fanbases sour on them. Why support a distasteful and harmful far-right stance on LGBTQ (and trans in particular) the way Rowling does unless it is to support some principle that supports her? Why be disparaging of those who step forward to expose the abuses and toxicity of sets directed by Whedon unless it is to protect his prominence within an economic and societal framework that allows him to do so? Spender’s article may not address these notions due to when it was written, but it is easy to see how politics and writing are never far apart and can be one way to address authorship by examining an author’s stances whether they explicitly show in their texts or are shared by other means (news stories, interviews, Tweets, etc).

Spender, Stephen. “Modern Writers in the World of Necessity.” Partisan Review, vol. 12, no. 3, 1945.

[petaltexturedskies]

She was at once so resolute and so dreamy, so sensual and so intelligent. She also was intensely private. What she knew best was how it felt to be alone, unique, isolated. She was lacking in the sense of a solid communal life; What bound people together escaped her. What separated them was an object of wonder, delight and despair. She seemed as detached from herself as from everyone else.

Stephen Spender, on Virginia Woolf

[boanddonatetoblacktranspeople]

Rough Outline List of People(ish) inside the Paranatural ‘Masquerade’:

Richard Spender’s father, mayor of Mayview, snack for Davy Jones

Richard Spender, Mayview middle school teacher, Consortium member

Penny Spender, Spender’s sister, apprentice to Mr. Garcia, secret swiper of Dr. Zarei’s lantern

Maxwell Puckett, protag, spectral, son of June Puckett, has a spirit that may be the lost piece of an ancient powerful fractured spirit in Mr. Spender, also possessed

June Puckett, Max’s mother, former Consortium Agent

Dr. Zarei, old friend of Spender, previous member of Consortium

Mr. Garcia, partner to Spender, werewolf, apprentice of Cody’s mom

Mrs. Jones, former Cousinhood member, Cody’s mom, Davy Jones’ wife, werewolf

Davy Jones, vampire overlord, father to Cody, resident business mogul, owner of Mayview Academy, President of Razor Rex’s cult, PTA (Phantom Threat Authority), doctor of local hospital, and police chief

PJ (P__ Jones?)- Ghost, friend of Max, theorized old son of Davy

‘Lefty’, ghost hand, theorized left hand of Davy Jones, severed by his own sword???

Cody Jones, half-vampire, son of Davy Jones

Isabel Guerra, spectral, Paranatural Activity Club member, daughter of Angel Guerra, granddaughter to Master Guerra

Master Guerra, ghost, mentor spectral-teacher of own ‘faction’

Angel Guerra, father of Isabel, mentor to Penny Spender, has own spirit ‘faction’

Valeria Day, Consortium agent, former apprentice of June Puckett

Agent Walker, Consortium Agent

Boss Leader, actually a still-intelligent Wight

Ms. Rose Baxter, Phantom Threat Authority member

Ed Burger, spectral, child of the Burger parents who disappeared into a dream realm (??), Paranatural Activity Club member

The Doctors Burgers

Isaac, spectral, Paranatural Activity Club member

Coach Oop, Phantom Threat Authority member

Dimitri, former Paranatural Activity Club member, possessed

Fauxbia , the Fear Witch, Vice Principal of Mayview Middle School

Gage, local vampire thralled under Davy Jones

Paige, local vampire thralled under Davy Jones

Youth Culture, local vampire thralled under Davy Jones

Police department members under Davy Jones’ thrall (chief of police as well)

Ritz Price-Lee, local rich academy student, vampire-thralled by Gage and crew

Sophie Sibyl, local mystic shop owner, double agent in Phantom Threat Authority

Isabel’s grandfather’s dojo

Agent Savage, Consortium double-crosser for allyship with the Phantom Threat Authority (for money), member of band Max and R.J. saw

Agent Scabs

Agent Popova

Agent Pasha

Agent Stix

Agent Stucks

Other Consortium members

Lisa(???), friend of Isabel, secret school ‘bar’ owner and information barterer - Definitely has powers and inside knowledge but we dont know WHO she’s connected to here

Amy Chen, Isabel’s mother, daughter of Master Guerra

Captain Hattie Henchman, mother of Stephen, part of Davy's police force, and acts as security at the Phantom Threat Authority meetings

People on Edge of the Masquerade:

Alex, about to be possessed by an alien-looking spirit OR actual alien(???)

Johnny Jhonny, possessed by Forge, see below

Ollie Oop, resident bully and friend of Johnny, son of cult member Coach Oop, saw the Paranatural Activity Club members flying in Ghost Train

Stephen Henchman, Johnny's bully friend, son of police officer Captain Henchman, part of Davy's police force, also saw the Activity Club float

People Outside the Masquerade (???):

Mr. & Mrs. Starchman (??)

Violet, friend of Lisa and Cody

Peter Puckett (??), Max’s dad

Zoey Puckett, Max’s sister

Isaac’s anime-looking parents????

R.J., resident bully and friend of Johnny

Suzy, Journalism Club lead, friend of Dimitri, has confused crush on Isabel

Collin, Suzy’s friend

Jeff, despite being piloted by artificial spirit Hijack, friend of Cody

Shred Eagle (???)

Damian & Sam, younger siblings of Agent Day

Principal Pleezedoo

Student Council (?)

DJ Mothman

Professor Bigfoot (?)

Lavish Price-Lee, ex-wife of DJ Mothman

Nicole Spender (??)

yes, rick. indeed. fucking. why?