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If they asked me, I could write a book...

A whale of a tale or a sheaf of poems

Here in this spring, stars float along the void;
Here in this ornamental winter
Down pelts the naked weather;
This summer buries a spring bird.

Symbols are selected from the years'
Slow rounding of four seasons' coasts,
In autumn teach three seasons' fires
And four birds' notes.

I should tell summer from the trees, the worms
Tell, if at all, the winter's storms
Or the funeral of the sun;
I should learn spring by the cuckooing,
And the slug should teach me destruction.

A worm tells summer better than the clock,
The slug's a living calendar of days;
What shall it tell me if a timeless insect
Says the world wears away?
 
Dylan Thomas, Here in This Spring
 

In the many shaggy emails we send you, we find little time to mention about the books that fill our shelves 24 hours a day year round. We're far too busy promoting the mere hundreds of concerts we put on.

    Countless books are published each year, folks constantly bring us the books that threaten to overwhelm their homes. And so, we add dozens of new, familiar and scarcely imagined titles to the stock every week. We love the books. They're why we're in business. But the performances come and then are gone, and we want to fill the seats so they're not just the glimmer of a rumor in your memories, but memories fixed immemorial.

   That said, there are some literary events coming up we want to hip you to this time out, if you'll undulge us...


But we'll cheat just a little, out of habit... the first one, this Sunday (today, 9/22) at 2pm, is music about poetry: Dylan Thomas' poetry, to be specific. Clarinetist Dave Tidball, born in Cardiff, brings his co-conspirator, the percussionist Galen Grant to improvise around a half-dozen poems by the Welsh writer whose flame burned bright until his premature death at barely 39 years of age. Slug Teacher, is what Dave calls the duo and the program, c.f. the poem above, "Here in This Spring." The poems themselves will be embedded in the music, not to worry!
   Want a quick primer on DT to remind you of what you think you know? You could do worse than this one...
The Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive

And next Sunday, September 29th, also at 2pm, we'll celebrate the 200th anniversary of Herman Melville's life with performances of the text by actors associated with the upcoming 24-Hour Moby Dick Marathon Reading at the Maritime Museum at Aquatic Park (Beach & Polk Streets) October 19th-20th. Also on the program, a short talk by Walker Brents III on Melville's budding intellect and his maturation as one of the most brilliant writers in American literature. Surely, Moby Dick, a whale of a tale if ever there was one, has much to teach us of our hubris and its consequences and of our puniness in the vast scheme of life. What seems of particular note, though, is what spark it was in a ten-year-old that led Melville to immerse himself in books and then take himself to sea and thence into a literary life that fascinates to this day. Treat a youngster to a mind-opening experience at Bird & Beckett they'll long remember!

There's more, of course... scan our calendar. Call us if you're uncertain... but today and Sunday a week, those shouldn't be missed! Hope to see you... Sorry if we do go on a bit!

Part two coming soon...
     Meanwhile...

Bird & Beckett Books & Records
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131

(415) 586-3733     birdbeckett@yahoo.com
www.birdbeckett.com
 
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