James Joyce Reads ‘Anna Livia Plurabelle’ from Finnegans Wake

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James Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882, and wrote in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: “Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

This is an August 1929 recording of Joyce reading a melodious passage from the “Anna Livia Plurabelle” chapter of his Work in Progress, which would be published ten years later as Finnegans Wake. The recording was made in Cambridge, England, at the arrangement of Joyce’s friend and publisher Sylvia Beach. “How beautiful the ‘Anna Livia’ recording is,” wrote Beach in her memoir, Shakespeare and Company, “and how amusing Joyce’s rendering of an Irish washerwoman’s brogue!”

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Deich bPunt – The Irish Ten-Pound note, first issued in 1993. Both sides are depicted, the front with Joyce’s portrait, and the back a tribute to Anna Livia Plurabelle. (This note almost did not make it back to the States – by our last day in Ireland, it quickly became, let us say, emergency funds; and was nearly traded for a bottle of duty-free on the way out of the country….) http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/joyce_images.html

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Samarium, “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

Samarium

Janet Kuypers

from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#62, Sm)
(based on the poem “And I’m Wondering”)
10/1/13

I’m wondering if there’s something
chemical that brings us together,
something that brings us to our knees,
something that sucks us in…

Your stare from a distance haunts me;
I know that your look lasts longer
than the Universe itself, so, if we join,
would we stay together forever?

I’m wondering if you’re sensing what I’m
sensing, is it just me, am I making this all up
in my head, or when I glance up and catch your
eyes, do you see how you’ve taken hold of me?

I look at you and think that you’re supposed
to be the one that’s good for everyone else,
that you’re supposed go out of your way to help
everyone else, and the one thing I do know

is that you don’t break down like everyone
else seems to with me, so maybe this attraction
to you might not cause to you leave me.
Maybe you’ll absorb me in, neutron by neutron.

Because really, I’m wondering if it could work out
this time, if we’d have one of those relationships
that no one ever doubts, especially us,
because we know we’ll always be in love…

I’ve been so drawn to you, you have that effect
on me, I can’t help it. This magnetism
is undeniable, the heat you generate can actually
ignite in the air with me. Maybe that’s why

I’ve been wondering why I felt the need
to take your cigarette and inhale, exhale,
while the filter was still warm from
your lips, there just seconds before.

I’ve seen you work well with others. My loved
ones with cancer, you could even help them.
It makes me a little jealous, because I’ve been
so drawn to you that I want you for myself.

Because really, when I catch your eyes from
across the room, when I see your eyes dart away,
when I feel this chemical reaction, well,
what I’m wondering is, do you feel it too.

BEAST LANGUAGE by IMRE LODBROG

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BEAST LANGUAGE

BABY YOU SQUEAL AND YAWN AND BARK AND HOWL
I CAN’T MAKE IT OF A WORD YOU SAY BUT IT SURE IS
GOOD MUSIC TO MY EARS COOLNESS TO MY HEART
AND BABY WHEN YOU WHISTLE YOU’RE ON TOP OF MY CHARTS

THE BEAST LANGUAGE IS THE BEST LANGUAGE
TO TALK ABOUT STUFF LIKE LOVE AND RAGE

BABY I MOO AND CROAK AND ROAR AND GROWL
COS THERE ARE NO WORDS TO TELL AND THERE’S NOTHING TO BE SAID
BLOOD RUNS HOT RIVER RUNS DRY
SOMETIMES YOU WANNA YELL AND YOU DON’T KNOW WHY
SO THE BEST LANGUAGE IS THE BEAST LANGUAGE
SET THE LION FREE AND GET OUT THE CAGE

BABY WE MOAN AND CROW AND SQUEAL AND GROAN
THAT’S THE WAY THE BODY EXPRESSES THE SOUL
GOOD MUSIC FOR THE NIGHT WHEN THE NIGHT GETS DARK
WE CAN HAVE IT NOISY OR SILENT AS A SHARK


THE BEAST LANGUAGE IS THE BEST LANGUAGE
REMEMBER WE ALL ARE CHILDREN OF THE STONE-AGE

STFU Poem by Harvey Blasnic

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Next time ya’ll want to tell me
’bout them people
havin’ all them babies
an’ makin’ all that money
bein’ on the government take
with all them benefits you
laugh about as you
ride in the car
Next time you want to tell me
’bout how you were afraid as
you passed the young men on the sidewalk
Next time you want to tell me about their benefits.
Show me
Drive on their street and tell me
so I can hear you better
and we can see the benefits
for ourselves

Next time you want to tell me
how you have noticed
that certain people
don’t work as hard as you
earn their way like you
love God like you

Tell someone else.
I’ve had it with you.

I’ve had it with you.

I’ve had it with me too.

It’s time I had something to say.

Ruthenium, “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

Ruthenium

Janet Kuypers

from the “Periodic Table of Poetry”” series (#44, Ru)
7/14/13

IÙve looked for something
that would pique my interest,
the palladium bored me,
platinum was too expensive
because it was often so rare,
but then I looked around
and thatÙs when I discovered you.

I mean, there didnÙt seem to be
much of a use for you,
I even heard that a metals company
even offered 100 grams of you
free to aspiring researchers
(hoping that someone
one day may find a use for you)…

Organometallic chemistry experts
were even trying to give you away.

Well, sure, chemists used you —
they mixed you with whatever
they could find, just to see
what you might possibly create.

(Kind of like a bartender,
trying to come up with
the perfect cocktail, they
could mix for decades…)

but IÙve looked into it,
and youÙre a cheap dull grey,
probably something
IÙd find at a Walmart…

I know, I said I was looking
for something to pique my interest,
and though you come around cheaply,
youÙre still harder to find.
IÙll keep looking for something
to pique my interest,
and who knows, maybe
one day
people will find just the right niche,
and youÙll be just what I need.