Disiecta Membra

In Flanders Fields
–Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Avenue A
–Frank O’Hara

We hardly ever see the moon any more
so no wonder
it’s so beautiful when we look up suddenly
and there it is gliding broken-faced over the bridges
brilliantly coursing, soft, and a cool wind fans
your hair over your forehead and your memories
of Red Grooms’ locomotive landscape
I want some bourbon/you want some oranges/I love the leather
jacket Norman gave me
and the corduroy coat David
gave you, it is more mysterious than spring, the El Greco
heavens breaking open and then reassembling like lions
in a vast tragic veldt
that is far from our small selves and our temporally united
passions in the cathedral of Januaries

everything is too comprehensible
these are my delicate and caressing poems
I suppose there will be more of those others to come, as in the past
so many!
but for now the moon is revealing itself like a pearl
to my equally naked heart

Roasted Vegetable-Cheese Pie

2 cups cooked jasmine or basmati rice
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
1 1/2 cups sliced yellow squash
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb (about 1 small bulb)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 cup (2 ounces) fontina cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first three ingredients. Press evenly into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Increase oven temperature to 450°.

Combine zucchini and next 8 ingredients (zucchini through garlic) in a medium bowl; stir to coat. Place vegetable mixture on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove vegetable mixture from oven. Add olives and tomato; toss gently.

Reduce oven temperature to 375°.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup fontina cheese over rice crust. Top with vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup fontina cheese. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings

CALORIES 174 (34% from fat); FAT 6.6g (sat 2.4g,mono 3.3g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 6g; CHOLESTEROL 10mg; CALCIUM 73mg; SODIUM 175mg; FIBER 1.5g; IRON 1.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 16.1g

Cooking Light, JANUARY 1998

Awesome–I want a stripy dinosaur quite badly now:

WASHINGTON (AP) – One of the most complete dinosaur mummies ever found is revealing secrets locked away for millions of years, bringing researchers as close as they will ever get to touching a live dino…

…The study is not yet complete, but scientists have concluded that hadrosaurs were bigger — 3.5 tons and up to 40 feet long — and stronger than had been known, were quick and flexible and had skin with scales that may have been striped.

“Oh, the skin is wonderful,” paleontologist Phillip Manning of Manchester University in England rhapsodized, admitting to a “glazed look in my eye.”

“It’s unbelievable when you look at it for the first time,” he said in a telephone interview. “There is depth and structure to the skin. The level of detail expressed in the skin is just breathtaking.”…

Read more: Dino Mummy on CNN

The most awesome first wedding dance, ever. Just stick with it for a few seconds and trust me.

My husband found this for me.

I want an arbor to shade part of the deck, double planted with wisteria, which will bloom in spring and scent the air with heaven, and with Campsis, which blooms in the summer, and will attract hummingbirds for hundreds of miles and is gorgeous. It would be awesome to sit under that with some rose-hip tea and just read a fun book.

As always, much of my work shows up on Needcoffee.com:

Notice about a fascinating film that looks at a Viking landscape. From the Mosfell Archaeological Project and the Archaeological Legacy Institute.

Interesting editorial on violent methods in the animal rights movement. Is there ever a reason for terrorism? Say, in founding a new country and throwing off the oppression of an old one, called, say, Great Britain? Or does this sort of thing really do more harm than good to the Green movement? Can you be right to do what you’re doing AND also wrong at the same time, because your cause is just, but poorly (even immorally) executed?

Also, to all government agencies monitoring these airwaves, I want it clear (if it isn’t already) that I am not in any way justifying terrorism of any sort committed on American soil, especially those that endanger lives, not merely property. Just furthering the conversation and trying to get Americans thinking, which is well within my First Amendment rights. We do still have that, right?

No, maybe these aren’t all “art,” but they’re fun:
“Weird” mailboxes

What would your ideal mailbox look like? Design one that says something about you, your artwork, and your aesthetic! (though of course in my area, I have to worry about rednecks with baseball bats either ruining my work or breaking their arm on my sturdy mailbox, and then suing me…) I’m thinking about a faux old Underhill typewriter, maybe, out of wood and PVC.

Go over to Needcoffee.com where I’ve posted a link to the gallery of a fascinating young Japanese artist. She’s redoing the definition of “Yamato Nadeshiko,” which is long overdue. I explain more about it over there.

An anime-like aesthetic with political import, and just plain cool, to boot.