SINGING WITH EXPERIENCE

Started today a three week immersion in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience with scholar Donald John....who amused by beginning class with a reminiscence of what he did with his summer vacation -- among other things, a lecture on Dante and Blake at the Italian Cultural Institute in London. Regaled with how much he loves chardonnays, including the inexpensive Aquinas chardonnay (haven't tried it yet but he recommends it) imbibed during that same trip. Assuming my notes are correct, he said that the Aquinas' back label mentions how St. Thomas Aquinas indeed used his scientific knowledge to defends his views on God....which surely, he notes, befits how he was described in The Guardian's coverage of his event as "an American academic from Napa Valley." All very amusing...

Donald John's lectures on Dante's Purgatorio had been instrumental in helping form the arc to The Light...

And here's my latest list of Whines and Wines:

PUBLICATIONS:
BELOVED INTEGER, poems by Michelle Naka Pierce

[ONE LOVE AFFAIR]*, poems by Jenny Boully

SHADOWED TRUTH, visual poetry collaboration by Andrew Topel & Jim Leftwich

GOING GOING, poems by Jen Hofer

SOLOLUMINESCENSE, poems by Simone Muench and William Allegrezza

908-1078, poems by Brandon Brown

ODE TO PUMPSIE GREEN & STRETCH PHILLIPS, poems by Adam Tobin

SILENT PICTURES RECOGNIZE THE WORLD, poems by Wanda Phipps

FINALMENTE: BRAZILIAN POEMS by Hugh Fox, translations by Glenna Luschei

from SOMEDAY I'LL BE SITTING IN A DINGY BAR, poems by Hwang Jiwoo, translated by Scott Warner and Young-Jun Lee

CaGeD, poems by Jared Hayes

RecollecTed, poems by Jared Hayes

ORGY IN THE BEEF CLOSET, poems by Michael Koshkin

LETTERS TOWARD JIM, poems by Matthew Langley

JOHANNA POEMS by Ben Mazer

SPECIMEN, poems by Marci Nelligan

COME KANAB, A LITTLE RED SONGBOOK, poems by Lance Newman

COR-RE-SPON-DENCE, poetry text by Jessica Bozek and typography by Eli Queen

KINE(STA)SIS, poems by Carrie Hunter

AND SO FOR YOU THERE IS NO HEARTBREAK, poems by K. Lorraine Graham

AFIELD, poems by Anthony Hawley

NORWICH UNVEILED, poems by Bill Shute

THE HEART AROUSED: POETRY AND THE PRESERVATION OF SOUL IN CORPORATE AMERICA, treatise by David Whyte

WILLIAM BECKMAN, Exhibition Catalogue with Essay by Donald Kuspit, Oct. 11-November 24, 2007 at Forum Gallery

SANDINO'S DAUGHTERS: TESTIMONIES OF NICARAGUAN WOMEN IN STRUGGLE by Margaret Randall, Edited by Lynda Yanz

I BOUGHT ANDY WARHOL, memoir by Richard Polsky

WE KEEP A LIGHT, memoir by E.M. Richardson

QUIT MONKS OR DIE, novel by Maxine Kumin

THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS, novel by Ian Sansom

TEXAS DREAMS, novel by Linda Herring

THE EARTH AND I, children's book by Frank Asch

CAN YOU SLEEP LIKE BEAR, children's book by Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth

BABAR AND HIS CHILDREN, children's book by Jean De Brunhoff

A HOUSE OF LEAVES, children's book by Kiyoshi Soya and Akiko Hayada

WHEN I CARE ABOUT OTHERS, children's book by Cornelia Maude Spelman and Kathy Parkinson

SUN SONG, children's book by Jean Marzollo and Laura Regan

SOMETHING SPECIAL, children's book by Nicola Moon and Alex Ayliffe

DO YOU HAVE A SECRET, children's book by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos and Marta Fabrega

JONAH AND THE WHALE (AND THE WORM), children's book by Jean Marzollo


WINES:
1992 Ravenswood Pickberry Sonoma Valley
2005 Argentinian malbec (can't recall grower, but good to nota bene for keeping Argentinian wine in mind)