ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

Yeats

  • On the Art of Rereading

    “Rereading, not reading, is what counts,” ~ Jorge Luis Borges.  “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before,” ~ Cliff Fadiman.  ““If a book isn’t worth reading over and over again, it isn’t worth reading at all.” ~ Read more

  • THROWBACK THURSDAY: Poetry Review: “Yeats Died in France” by Delmore Schwartz

    Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on January 29, 2011 There is a peculiar irony that this poem about a famous poet’s death was written by a poet who died so anonymously that his body was not found for several days Read more

  • On Re-writing Poems

    Years ago I remember reading that Yeats would constantly re-write and re-work even his most famous published poems. At the time I read that, it sounded like the most insane thing I had ever heard. Why go to all the work to make a poem, to get it right, have it set into type and Read more

  • Poetry Review: “The Folly of Being Comforted” by W.B. Yeats

    William Butler Yeats as a poet is unique. He grew greater as he aged. He was world famous as a poet in his early 20s, but wrote many of his best poems when he was in his 70s. For this reason, he has more great poems about middle age and old age than any other Read more

  • The Ones That Get Away

    As book collectors know all too well, we only regret our economies, never our extravagances. ~  Michael Dirda In 1986, I had just moved to St. Paul, was sleeping on a friend’s floor, and looking for work. One day after a job interview in downtown Minneapolis, I wandered into a used bookstore that has been Read more