Fun_People Archive
30 Oct
LIT BITS V3 #295

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 100 16:11:27 -0800
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Subject: LIT BITS V3 #295

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Excerpted-from: LITERARY CALENDAR V3 #295
Sender: owner-litcal@pent.yasuda-u.ac.jp

Today is Sunday, 22 October 2000; on this day,

118 years ago (1882),

     N. C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth--noted for his illustrations for
     Stevenson's _Treasure Island_ and _Kidnapped_, and for _Robin Hood_--is
     born in Needham, Massachusetts.

115 years ago (1885),

     Arthur Rimbaud decides that he is going to become a gun runner for
     King Menelik of Shoa.

113 years ago (1887),

     John Reed, American poet-adventurer whose life as a revolutionary
     writer and activist will make him the hero of a generation of radical
     intellectuals, is born in Portland, Oregon.

81 years ago (1919),

     Doris Lessing, novelist (_The Golden Notebook_), is born in Persia to
     British parents. Many critics will consider her series of novels about
     Martha Quest--who grows up in southern Africa and settles in
     England--her most substantial work.

36 years ago (1964),

     The Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to Jean-Paul Sartre, who
     promptly declines it, saying "A writer must refuse to allow himself
     to be transformed into an institution."

Today's poem:

         A Letter to Louise

     Rainy rush of bird-song
     Apple-blossom smoke
     Thin bells water-falling sound
     Wind-rust on the silver pond
     Furry starring willow wand
     Wan new grasses waking round
     Blue bird in the oak...
     Woven in my word-song

     White and slim my lover
     Birch-tree in the shade
     Mountain pools her fearless eyes
     Innocent all-answering
     Were I blinded to the Spring
     Happy thrill would in me rise
     Smiling half afraid
     At the nearness of her

     All my weak endeavor
     Lay I at her feet
     Like a moth from oversea
     Let me longing lightly rest
     On her flower petal breast
     Till the red dawn set me free
     To be with my sweet
     Ever and forever...

	- John Reed

© 2000 Peter Langston