Quote of the Day/Week- Yukio Mishima

Today, we conclude our quotes in honor of National Poetry Month, with a quip from the Japanese poet Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) who died at age 45 after committing ritual suicide in a political protest.

Mishima was unique in that he was a right-wing nationalist who was also a homosexual; he was also a playwright, novelist and actor. Mishima was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in literature.

Here is his quote:

"Is there not a sort of remorse that precedes sin? Was it remorse at the very fact that I existed?" (taken from his 1949 work "Confessions of a Mask."

SIDEBAR: The answer to our April 17th edition of "The Rabbit Ears Quiz" is A) Missouri.

Quotes of the Day/Week-Gwendolyn Brooks

Today, we continue quoting famous poets from around the world with a quip from the great African-American poet Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) whose poem "We Real Cool" (1963) is one of my personal favorites.

Brooks was born in Topeka, Kan. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1950.

The poet was known for ballads, sonnets and free verse poets.

Here is her quote:

"Art hurts. Art urges voyages_ and it is easier to stay at home."

As a lark, we are telling Blogger that we are blogging from the Wild Zone Saloon in Nashville, Tenn., we are not even in that time zone!http://www.poemhunter.org
www.wildhorsesaloon.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Leonard Cohen

Today, we are thinking 'outside the box' for our quote in honor of National Poetry Month. We are taking a broader definition of the word poet. Though Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, 77, is best known for penning and singing brilliant songs like "Hallejuah" (1984), which was immortalized by the late Jeff Buckley in 1994, he has also written extensive poetry.

His most recent record "Old Ideas" has become a smash-selling work in many country, including here in America where it reached #3 on the Billboard chart, it actually went to number one in Finland.

Cohen has inspired the likes of U2 and Lou Reed, and his songs first appeared in films in the early 1970s when several were included in Robert Altman's western "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" (1971).

Here is Cohen's quote:

"I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin."

Quote of the Day/Week-Maya Angelou

First of all, thanks to our blog-readers in Bulgaria and Honduras. I've been to one of those countries-Bulgaria, though it was when I was a child 35 years ago. And, I've been close to Honduras with visits to Belize and Guatemala.

Today, we are quoting the great poet Maya Angelou who turned 84 yesterday. This is also National Poetry Month in America.

Angelou spent several years in Ghana during the 1960s. The poet, who is also known for being a Civil Rights activist, has in recent years been a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and she recited her poem "On the Rushes of Morning" during Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.

Here is her quote:

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

Quote of the Day- Rita Dove

Originally, we were going to quip the late playwright/poet August Wilson ("Fences") with Maya Angelou (see our sister entry in the blog "The Daily Vampire"), but we are going with a living poet Rita Dove who lives in Charlottesville, Va.

Since Virginia is my home state, and I still spend quit a bit of time there, I thought Dove would be a good choice, and her poetry_ especially regarding Civil Rights issues_ is quite exemplarary. Nikki Giovanni, another highly regarded African-American female poet, resides just down the proverbial road from Dove in Blacksburg, Va.

Here is the quote from Dove:

"Being true to yourself means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit."

Quote of the Week- e.e. cummings

While researching this piece, we were surprised that e.e. cummings (also known as E.E. Cummings, though he never capitalized the letters of his name for his poems)
(1894-1962) went from being a bohemian liberal to a Republican.

But, we like his poetry anyway, especially "Buffalo Bill's" and "Little Tree." So, we decided to quote him today in honor of National Poetry Month:

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand others how to dance."

SIDEBAR: Is anyone else besides me iritated with the Barracuda Networks, an entity that many public instutions, such as libraries, use to 'filter' inappropriate sites, here in the United States and perhaps other parts of the world?

We certainly understand why such institutions would not want patrons looking up pornographic sites as web site dedicated to serial killers and Adolf Hitler as well ones which tell you the best ways to commit suicide.

But, it is ironic that Barracuda will actually block most social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook and E-Harmony (and, hey we wonder why fewer people are in relationships than ever!), but they will allow access to terrorist organizations, such as the web site for the PKK. This is a Kurdish separatist group, formed in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, which has killed thousands of innocent people in Turkey. We presume that even in post-9/11 America that the PKK is apparently not a concern for this network that some may view as a censoring body which happens to share its name with a Portland, Ore., nightclub as well as a famous song by Heart.

How's that for irony?!

Quotes of the Week- Langston Hughes

We are always looking for new people to quote from all the time. But, ultimately, there are always some people we come back to time and time again which means risking the possibility that we have posted the same quote at some juncture before (this particular blog has been around for almost four years now).

One of those people is the great poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967). Today, we found out that he was born just two weeks after another one of my favorite poets Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) of Turkey who lived much of his later life in exile for political reasons. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, and he died in New York. February 1st is his birthday.

We learned this week that he originally went to Columbia University to study engineering, but outraged his family by pursuing writing poetry instead.

Hughes was a political figure himself as he often wrote about the many injustices that African-Americans dealt with during his lifetime. His work also inspired other literary figures, and he deservedly had his image on a postage stamp several years ago.

Here is our quote from this poetic genius:

"Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."

Quote of the Week-Yukio Mishima

Today in honor of National Poetry Month we will quip the ever-fascinating figure of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) the Japanese poet/novelist who died by committing some kind of ritualistic suicide where he struck a sword in his stomach to make some grand political gesture. Mishima is the subject of a mid-80s film directed by Paul Schrader of "American Gigolo" fame (he also wrote the screenplay for "Taxi Driver").

Here is the quote from Mishima. By the way, not to make a political statement, but we opposed to anyone participating in ritualistic suicide!:

"True beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys."

I would write more, but it's time for me to head out of Trenton, NJ (not really where I am at the moment!).

Quote of the Week- Yusef Komunyakaa

Today's quote if from the great African-American poet Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947) and it is in honor of National Poetry Month:

"I am this space my body believes in."

Quote of the Week-Nikki Giovanni

The great poet Nikki Giovanni who is an English professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., is the subject of our Quote of the Week in honor of National Poetry Month and the upcoming third anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Giovanni gave one of the key speeches at the memorial services for the students and faculty who were killed on that fateful Monday morning.

Giovanni was our choice for Person of the Year for this blog in 2007:

"We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be tamed."

Quote of the Week- Robert Frost

This month we will be posting quotes from great poets, living or dead, in honor of National Poetry Month. Alas, Frost who penned one of my favorite poems "Fire and Ice" is not among the living.

This quote from Frost reminds me of my late uncle Ilhan Gokbudak, who was a Turkish diplomat to mostly South American countries including Chile and Brazil. My mom that Uncle Ilhan, who remained a bachelor until he died at the age of 76 in the year 2000, was just like James Bond!:

"A diplomat is man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age."

Quote of the Week_ Pablo Neruda

This week's quote of the month comes from the late poet Pablo Neruda. It is in honor of National Poetry Month.

Neruda is a favorite of my friend, modern dancer Nejla Yatkin who is currently performing a show in Istanbul, Turkey.

Her web site is http://ny2dance.com

Here is the quote:

"Love is so short, forgetting is so long."