Modern Art got me in e.e. cummings "who knows if the moon's a balloon" and Marc Chagall's "The Village and I"

-






In 2017, a friend based in Paris wanted to gift me some books, and she asked me for my preference. I asked for poetry books and she got me e.e. cummings and Maria Rainer Rilke from Shakespeare and Company bookstore. 


The copy of the ee cummings I got is his 100 selected poems and it has the thrift-book style cover above which I liked. It is hard to love Cummings but you can love him in a specific poem that conveys special feelings to you just as he did for me. Don't worry, I have far and wide favorite from him because honestly, I could not dig some of his poems. 


For me, his poems are abstraction rendered in words, and I specifically love him in this one because this defies reality, logic, organization, reason but celebrates color, childhood, dreams, ideals, abstraction. When I read this poem the first time, I instantly thought of Chagall's The Village and I, the painting I personally wished to see in person the first time I saw it in a book. I don't know what my logical reason is for associating both of them, or if there is really a need to know if there is some underlying reason for doing so, but one common denominator I think here is that they both touch something about home and ideals.  


“who knows if the moon's

a balloon,coming out of a keen city

in the sky--filled with pretty people?

( and if you and I should


get into it,if they

should take me and take you into their balloon,

why then

we'd go up higher with all the pretty people


than houses and steeples and clouds:

go sailing

away and away sailing into a keen

city which nobody's ever visited,where


always

it's

Spring)and everyone's

in love and flowers pick themselves”

― e.e. cummings, Collected Poems


You can check out my earlier blog on this particular museum find, Marc Chagall's The Village and I, at the MoMA or the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do you still remember how Sarali or Sirali taste?

-
Image
This "Sarali" is a childhood fruit for everyone who grew up in the Visayan area of the Philippines. Also known as  Flacourtia jangomas or Indian Plum or coffee plum, Sarali is best enjoyed by pressing one fruit between one's palm, move it in circular motion until tender, and pop the soft flesh quickly in one's mouth save the seeds. Just like apple, this fruit oxidizes quickly and thus, gets dark brown easily. It can give one's teeth a nasty brown shade. Sour with a hint of sweet, this is a must-try fruit. I believe, the fruit has an economic value just like sarguellas and lanzones. *** *** *** ***  Related readings:  Possible Treatment of Diabetes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2959214/ Anti bacterial property:  http://www.ijplsjournal.com/issues%20PDF%20files/july2011/1.pdf
Read more

TIKUM KADLUM (The Enchanted Dog, The First of the Ten Epics of Panay Bukidnon)

-
Image
At the house. One day, Bulawanon engaged the help of Tikum Kadlum, a hunting dog with the gift of sensing the spirits, in cooking rice for his husband Paiburong and his brother Dumaraog who will be going hunting. When the rice was cooked, the brothers ate fast. Then, while Bulawanon packed the betel nut for her husband, Paiburong and Dumaraog dressed themselves, with Dumaraog suggesting they match their sashes and belts, since he is his brother's loyal protector. To complete their hunting preparations, the two brought out their long-bladed sharp knives, shields, spears, and lances from their gold chest and wall hanger. When everything is set, Paiburong bade goodbye to his wife, Bulawanon, who reminded her husband to be careful as he might meet in the forest one named Makabagting, who is accompanied by a man-eating woman called Muwa. Makabagting is a nobleman and a warrior who is widely known as having tasted human flesh. Paiburong went out of his house, and he heard a sound. It
Read more

Linabog nga Bisaya nga Manok

-
Image
When I searched for Linabog in th web, I can see entries on Linabog but using a different souring agent and usually the fish called "pagi" is used. Also, they attribute Linabog to the Cebuanos and there is one video which explained that the word means "throw away" because the parts used in the dish are parts which are usually to be thrown away, like the bony "pagi." Meanwhile, there is also a "kinunot" way of cooking which means "hinimay" or flaked for the Luzon. The name was also coined for leftover parts of fish or chicken. In Hiligaynon, the word "labog" means forcefully thrown away.  This surprised me because when I was small, I heard from my father and his friends about this linabog and they used the leaves of labog plant. So I grew up having some idea of what linabog cooking means and definitely, the Cebuanos' definition of Linabog dish is far from my Ilonggo definition. And yes, Ilonggos
Read more