In trying to find the Carl Sandburg quote in the last post, I found a poem which must be the earliest free verse I liked. It came from a now defunct newspaper called Junior Statesman but I don't know when this had appeared - the original cutting, if I had that has long since disappeared, but I had copied it in my notebooks. For years I have wanted to know more about the poet, about the paper, and whether it was possible to access their archives at all. And it just occurred to me that I can, of course, google. But all the same, I want to share it with you, in the hope that something else entirely wonderful may wash up on my shores...
And of course it is a lovely poem. Haven't you felt this way sometime?
As if a heart needed reason
There is a time
When the heart
Seems to sing without reason
(As if a heart needed reason to sing.)
Just because
The tide is coming in,
Or because
Little pebbles
Whisper to each other
When the salt of the sea
Washes them clean...
...Because...
It is morning
Or evening
Or night;
Or a flight of green parakeets
Decorates the festive air,
Backed by a round ball
Of fire.
Because
There is
A rare moment of fulfilment
Against a bottomless ocean
Of desire.
---Anita Mudgal
And, to keep it short and sweet, just a little tidbit, (with hopes of featuring the entire site later, someday). String spin is a 'toy' produced by zefrank.com Its a site I am still exploring and will feature shortly, so more about it later. For now -
Just scribble something - anything, and watch the widget rotate it like a potter's wheel,
making shapes you hadn't dreamt of...
The url - http://www.zefrank.com/string_spinv2/menu.html
P.S. In case you have had the misfortune of already having seen this post, and wondering about why I would have Scribbler as the post topic, and as links, and then post pics of string spin, a thousand apologies! For once I picked up images and links I had stored instead of opening a site afresh and then carrying on, and of course I had to make such a big jumble of it. I have corrected all of it now, and here is the advanced version of it too, in which you can control the colours and the spin variables!
Have fun, till next time!
P.P.S. While talking of lost magazines and papers, wouldn't I love to get my hands on an editorial by Dharamveer Bharati from the hindi magazine Dharmayug, which began (I don't recall the true words now but this is close enough) - Diya kya hai? Ek mutthi bhar dhool! Thode paani se mil kar, thodi aag se guzar kar ghor andhakar to lalkarta hai...
(What is a diya after all? Just a handful of dirt! Mixed with a bit of water, put through a bit of fire, and it is ready to take on deep darkness...)
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