Speaking of

Earlier last week after I began this blog I noticed a peculiar convergence of ideas in my reading and recent experience. I decided to go with it and attempt to describe some of the apparent intersections here. I mean, I thought I'd be writing about the film Donnie Darko and the giant rabbit Frank, but instead it's been flying buckets, Vespas, and magic--Yesterday I opened the new issue of the American Poetry Review to the back cover where a long poem is typically featured. This time, it contained a passage from Stanley Kunitz taken from a commencement speech he'd given entitled, "Speaking of Poetry." Besides pursuing a Donnie Darko discussion, I'd also been creating a mental list of recommended reading to pass along from time to time. I'm suggesting this short essay now and hope you'll have the opportunity to read it for yourself. But I couldn't fail to take note of one of Kunitz's comments, even as I type realizing I enact an even deeper level of synchronicity. "The moment is dear to us," he writes, "precisely because it is so fugitive, and it is somewhat of a paradox that poets should spend a lifetime hunting for magic that will make the moment stay."