new website

Hey folks,

I neglected to note last month that I have a new website. I've started using iWeb on my Mac because it gives me the freedom to be a little more creative with my format, photos, etc, without having to actually know much about web design ;) The new address is: web.me.com/meghanpauline. check it out!

Book review published!

Check out my featured article here: www.confessio.org

poem-a-day

I really enjoyed this morning's poem-a-day email, so I thought I'd share it for those who haven't followed my suggestion and subscribed yourselves:

Ludwig Van Beethoven's Return to Vienna
by Rita Dove


Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn,
or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me....
The Heiligenstadt Testament

Three miles from my adopted city
lies a village where I came to peace.
The world there was a calm place,
even the great Danube no more
than a pale ribbon tossed onto the landscape
by a girl's careless hand. Into this stillness

I had been ordered to recover.
The hills were gold with late summer;
my rooms were two, plus a small kitchen,
situated upstairs in the back of a cottage
at the end of the Herrengasse.
From my window I could see onto the courtyard
where a linden tree twined skyward —
leafy umbilicus canted toward light,
warped in the very act of yearning —
and I would feed on the sun as if that alone
would dismantle the silence around me.

At first I raged. Then music raged in me,
rising so swiftly I could not write quickly enough
to ease the roiling. I would stop
to light a lamp, and whatever I'd missed —
larks flying to nest, church bells, the shepherd's
home-toward-evening song — rushed in, and I
would rage again.

I am by nature a conflagration;
I would rather leap
than sit and be looked at.
So when my proud city spread
her gypsy skirts, I reentered,
burning towards her greater, constant light.

Call me rough, ill-tempered, slovenly— I tell you,
every tenderness I have ever known
has been nothing
but thwarted violence, an ache
so permanent and deep, the lightest touch
awakens it. . . . It is impossible

to care enough. I have returned
with a second Symphony
and 15 Piano Variations
which I've named Prometheus,
after the rogue Titan, the half-a-god
who knew the worst sin is to take
what cannot be given back.

I smile and bow, and the world is loud.
And though I dare not lean in to shout
Can't you see that I'm deaf? —
I also cannot stop listening.

(from Sonata Mulattica, published by W.W. Norton)

Thesis Madness

Clearly I have no time to write actual posts here, hence the random photos and tidbits of information. The photo of the day exhibits some of the many facial expressions which flit across my face while trying to make sense of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms.

I am writing away at Caribou Coffee in Chapel Hill. I recently started taking advantage of the Robertson Bus, which runs between Duke and UNC every day, for a change of scenery. As far as chains go, Caribou is my favorite, though the canoe hanging on the ceiling is a bit much.

National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month begins Wednesday! Go to poets.org for info on what's going on, new poetry to check out, and to subscribe to the poem-a-day email list for the month of April.

new macbook

I got a new MacBook in January, and I am only just now discovering the fun of having a camera in my computer with fun effects. Enjoy some of my silliness!

pandora

I'm a little slow on new technology, and was recently made aware of www.pandora.com, where you can create your own "radio stations" that play music by artists similar to those you enter in. I am now addicted. I recommend that you check it out.

Ps...It's spring in Durham!