Memoirs of Hadrian - Marguerite Yourcena

Do not mistake me; I am not yet weak enough to yield to fearful imaginings, which are almost as absurd as illusions of hope, and are certainly harder to bear. If I must deceive myself, I should prefer to stay on the side of confidence, for I shall lose no more there and shall suffer less. This approaching end is not necessarily immediate; I still retire each night with hope to see the morning. Within those absolute limits of which I was just now speaking I can defend my position step by step, and even regain a few inches of lost ground. I have nevertheless reached the age where life, for every man, is accepted defeat. To say that my days are numbered signifies nothing; they always were, and are so for us all. But uncertainty as the place, the time, and the manner, which keeps us from distinguishing the goal toward which we continually advance, diminishes for me with the progress of my fatal malady....Already portions of my life are like dismantled rooms of a palace too vast for an impoverished owner to occupy in its entirety.

This book amazed me. Wonderful, imaginative writing that caused me to pause and think on almost every page. This is a book to put on my "read again" list. Written as a letter from a dying Hadrian to his successor, it is filled both with history, sage wisdom, and deep reflections on life. Yourcenar recreates ancient Rome in a novel that accurately recreates a most interesting time in ancient Rome. Beautifully written, almost like an epic poem.

Swan - Mary Oliver

April

I wanted to speak at length about

the happiness of my body and the

delight of my mind for it was

April, night, a

full moon and--

but something in myself or maybe

from somewhere other said: not too

many words, please, in the

muddy shallows the

frogs are singing.

.

Mary Oliver's poems about nature are beautiful--soothing, soulful reading. The poems in this book are as natural as the subjects. Gentle and meditative, Oliver is a very gifted writer. The perfect book to read under a tree.

Periodic Table - Primo Levi

He had a slow, foot-slogging imagination: he lived in dreams like all of us, but his dreams were sensible; they were obtuse, possible, contiguous to reality, not romantic, not cosmic. He did not experience my tormented oscillation between the heaven (of a scholastic or sports success, a new friendship, a rudimentary and fleeting love) and the hell (of a failing grade, a remorse, a brutal revelation of an inferiority which each time seemed eternal, definitive). His goals were always attainable. He dreamed of promotion and studied with patience things that did not interest him....

We had no doubts: we would be chemists, but our expectations and hopes were quite different. Enrico asked chemistry, quite reasonably, for the tools to earn his living and have a secure life. I asked for something entirely different; for me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai.

A charming and intelligent book by the great Italian writer and Nobel prize winner. The book is a biography, primarily of the writer's early life. Becoming a chemist, he is intrigued by elements of the periodic table, using them to create chapters for this book. The book has a little bit of everything from unusual facts to fascinating tales. Beautifully written, it is a pleasure to read.

King Lear - William Shakespeare

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: and we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses, and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon 's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out,
In a walled prison, packs and sets of great ones
That ebb and flow by the moon. (5.3.9)

Danger on Peaks - Gary Snyder

This present moment

that lives on

to become

long ago

This new collection of poems by Gary Snyder is fabulous. He is as enjoyable to read as the first time I read Turtle Island forty years ago. Lots of insights and smiles here. It is simply comforting having him be a part of my journey through life.

hundreds of white-fronted geese

from nowhere

spill the wind from their wings

wobbling and sideslipping down