Such an important consideration, restraint, in this mawkish world, full of sentimentality and overkill, as if people can't get the point otherwise.

"You can read merely to pass the time, or you can read with an overt urgency, but eventually you will read against the clock" — Harold Bloom, "How to Read and Why" #SundaySentence

So nice to see this lovely shade of green on Submittable for a poem accepted by a fantastic journal.

Honestly, this passage from Madame Bovary is exquisite.

"She said that would be lovely, and her lashes fluttered like a brace of hysterical butterflies" — Robert Penn Warren, "All the King's Men" #SundaySentence

"We should never maltreat our idols: the gilding rubs off on our fingers" — Gustave Flaubert, "Madame Bovary" #SundaySentence

Happy September 1 and the advent of fall. Here's John Updike, capturing the moment.

We've now entered the season (months with an "r" in their name - September through April) when oysters are safe to consume. No longer applicable, though, with refrigeration. Still ... tradition. (The following from Mr. Porter.)

A poem for Bill Belichick after his debut as coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, who were defeated 48-14.

Some lively lines from Frank O'Hara's "Steps":

If only ... .

"Whatever distracting concoction someone has come up with in a fluorescent-light-filled Palo Alto mega-office has absolutely nothing on the joy, wonder, and meaning that creativity can bring" — Amie McNee, "We Need Your Art" #SundaySentence

Last paragraph in a heartwarming editorial in the NYT by Katherine Rundell, author of the fantasy novel "Impossible Creatures" and its sequel, "The Poisoned King."

"The whole aspect of the scene had that depressing effect on Jude that few places can produce like a taproom on a Sunday evening when the setting sun is slanting in, and no liquor is going, and the unfortunate wayfarer finds himself with no other haven of rest." #SundaySentence

Before shelving "Jude the Obscure" after my second time thru, I must dwell on what Thomas Hardy wrote in the introduction about it: "the deadly war waged between flesh and spirit; and to point the tragedy of unfulfilled aims ... ." Not enough has been said about such a tragedy.

I bought this as a used library book and am sad to say that it was never checked out (pristine library card in back). That indicates no one cares enough about H.J. to read about him. And we could use H.J. these days, his thoughts on art's freedom and what experience teaches us.

"The apples are everywhere; you pick them up from under your feet but to bite into them, for fellowship; you catch their young brightness in the blue air where they suggest strings of strange-colored pearls tangled in the knotted boughs, a wasted gaiety.” #SundaySentence

It's always so worthwhile—and joyful—to revisit Dorothea Krook's insightful analysis of James's "'vessels of consciousness' who are exposed to the impact of living experience and fully cognisant [sic] of the operation and effect of that experience."

It's Faulkner's birthday, so I'll post again one of my favorite passages from"Absalom, Absalom!" in which he describes the sound of sparrows as a “loud cloudy flutter.” The use of “cloudy” is pure genius. And that’s why we read the masters (or should).

Poet P.K. Page expressing the inexpressible. From the poem "Autumn."