double blues

"...the entire catastrophe of being a poet..."

jenny boully. 

a fragment of Sophokles

[...]
Ice-crystal in the hands is
at first a pleasure quite novel.
But there comes a point--
you can't put the melting mass down,
you can't keep holding it.
Desire is like that.
Pulling the lover to act and not to act,
again and again, pulling.


reading Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson.

Vlog #3 - Seven Minutes in Heaven // On Reading.

I've still got some kinks to work out in the vlog department... namely how to keep 'em shorter. Turns out, when you read an entire poem on camera the video gets a bit long. I promise episode 4 will be under 5 minutes!!!!

You're gonna wanna watch this though... I blather on about the three kinds of reading (I totally made them up), and put them each to good use on a poem by Anne Sexton. Is there a better way to spend seven minutes? I can't think of one. (& by seven minutes, I mean eight).

  VLOG #3 - Seven Minutes in Heaven // On Reading. from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

[Under the cut, read the complete poem by Anne Sexton]

***

"I hate and I love. Why? you might ask.
I don't know. But I feel it happening and I hurt."

-Catullus 85, trans. Anne Carson

merry yule to all!

Happy Winter Solstice to everyone! Let's hope this day marks the dawn of a new age for us all.

I'm celebrating with (vegan) dirty rice, some tasty apples, & my trusty maple candle (smells sooooo good). Stormy & I got our hands on some evergreens to dress up the apartment a bit.

Because miss Stormy is an incredibly spoiled cat, she received lots of presents... a new collar (with roses on it!), some treats, a special red snapper cat food feast, & a catnip filled chili pepper. 

The chili pepper was the clear favourite. 

(I have several dozen photos of her going crazy with this thing. I love my cat.)

Merry Midwinter!

retrospective

I got this LemeCamera app the other day, & I've fast become obsessed with it. What follows is a brief collection of some of my fave snaps... (some duplicates from my twitter, some not). The double exposure is my clear favourite.

excerpt from a letter

"[...] I must disagree with you that one does not turn to modern poets and/or poetry for theory. That the merits of poetry are in its craft rather than in its philosophy, and that a poet can “fail” at being a poet while succeeding at being a philosopher. A poet and a philosopher are two sides of the same coin, one cannot fail to be one and succeed at being the other. A poem approached merely by its “rules and traditions and the like” is dead. It is a flat surface, a mathematical equation with no lifeblood. This approach is born of the “fear of poetry” which Muriel Rukeyser talks about. We feel that if we can approach poetry in a cold, detached, and scientific manner it won’t threaten us quite so much. Perhaps this is true, but it does a major disservice to poetry and to ourselves. We are capable of being “amateur philosophers” and it is that capability which poetry seeks to bring out in each of us. The ability to question on a philosophical level is desperately needed in times like ours… and poetry is the mechanism though which we can begin to do this… if we will allow it."

n

blessed be, virgin of guadalupe

The Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531 for three days, culminating in today, The Blessed Day of The Virgin of Guadalupe. Pope John Paul II named her the "Patroness of The Americas" in 1999.

Today is a day to celebrate life, the coming light of the spring, and the blessings of the sacred mother.

Blessed be.

POETRY VLOG EPISODE 2: or how poems are like bombs & emily dickinson is the shit.

Not JUST Emily Dickinson... Wallace Stevens, & Muriel Rukeyser also rank as the shit. Enjoy episode two of my poetry vlog, in which I rant a bit about education, the importance of poetry, & how to use a poem as a weapon.

  POETRY VLOG #2: poetry as weapon & some ranting. from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.
POETRY VLOG EPISODE 2: A rant about poetry as a force of power, Wallace Stevens, Emily Dickinson, Muriel Rukeyser, & F*ckin' shit up.

p.s.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY DICKINSON!!! Born 10 December 1830 in Amherst. LOVE YOU A WHOLE HELLA LOT.

something I made in illustrator for the occasion. 

babylon

babylon from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

an older poem written when I was experimenting with longer, Whitman-esque lines. I've since given up on the long lines, but I still like this piece enough to put some energy into it.

art

"a work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them. there is no such thing as bad art."

-Muriel Rukeyser

experimental

learning adobe illustrator.

why not see my design portfolio?

floods/fathers

special sneak peak audio of a piece I'm working on for my graduate thesis, missoula.

floods/fathers from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

loves: reverend horton heat & X

One of my favourite bands on earth is X. Each time they end up in NYC I always put on my concert shoes & head out. Last night was such a night.

Punk music is catharsis. Completely exhilarating, & enabling you to get out of yourself for a while. A much needed break in a city like this.

rev. horton heat

billy zoom, exene, & john doe

exene & john doe do an acoustic piece

This was actually the first time I've seen The Reverend Horton Heat... they were incredible! I absolutely loved the Johnny Cash cover they did. It inspired me to change my ringtone back to Folsom Prison Blues. 

I'm a little deaf now... & my arms are sore from trying to hold my own along the outside of the mosh pit.... I tell you one thing- you do not want to mess with me in a mosh pit. 

xoxox

n