Metrical patterns are cool!

These are the final nine lines from a sestina. Who doesn't adore poetry?

No matter what may come
give me this: that all this time I stood here
ignored to death and loved you while you let
every chance go; say your glances at me
suggested almost anything but love;
say I know you cried in bed, poor you.

Believe in love. You know that I am here
to let you loose. Here is my flesh for you
who may abide with me till kingdom come.

— Miller Williams, "Love in the Cathedral"

(In case you don't get it, read the final word of each line for the poem's integral message.)

iTunes' Big Surprise

Although I live in a culture obsessed with size, it would seem that bigness is a limited song-writing concept. Or at least it is in my iTunes library, which features only the following "big" titles:

"Big Bang Baby" (Emm Gryner covering Stone Temple Pilots)
"Big Big Love" (k.d. lang)
"Big Bird in a Small Cage" (Patrick Watson)
"Big Boned Gal" (k.d. lang)
"Big Bottom" (Egg covering Spinal Tap)
"The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" (Simon and Garfunkel)
"Big Fun" (Inner City)
"Big League" (Tom Cochrane and Red Rider)
"Big Log" (Robert Plant)
"Big Love" (Fleetwood Mac)
"Big River" (Rosanne Cash)
"Big Shot" (Billy Joel)
"The Big Sky" (Kate Bush)
"Big Stripey Lie" (Kate Bush)
"Big Time" (Peter Gabriel)
"Big Wheel" (Tori Amos)
"Big Yellow Taxi" (Joni Mitchall)
... and the comparative "Bigger Man" (Tom Cochrane) and superlative "Biggest Part of Me" (Ambrosia).

Interestingly, for the sake of comparison, I own only the following:

"Small Blue Thing" (Suzanne Vega)
"A Small Dose" (Minstrels on Speed)
"Small Illusion" (Jorane)
"Small Town" (John Mellencamp)
"Smalltown Boy" (Bronsky Beat")

and

"Tiny Angels" (Roger Whittaker)
"Tiny Dancer" (Elton John)
"Tiny Grief Song" (Sinead O'Connor)
"Tiny Thing" (Jensen Interceptor).

Unexpected. But now I've discovered more title themes to consider...

Here's to Sunday!
L

204

Have begun 2012 with the aim of continuing to count the books I read. Week one has been fabulous: a book a day.

How does she do it?!?

The secret is volume.

No, no, the secret is variety. I read poetry, drama, young-adult novels, and mysteries in addition to all that serious scholarly stuff.

OK, but 200+ books in a year means an average of four a week.

Yup.

When you're an insomniac, you have a lot of time for reading.

Happy new year, one and all!

L
(204 is the number of books I read in 2011; it does not include most of the graphic novels or any of the children's picture books)