A Poem for Thursday: "Late Fragment" - Raymond Carver

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself 

beloved on the earth.

Music for your Midweek: Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield

Here's a heartbreak: 

The fastest way to my heart is through Elliott Smith.

A Poem for Thursday: XXVII from In Memorium A.H.H. - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I envy not in any moods
     The captive void of noble rage,
     the linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes
     His license in the field of time,
     Unfetter'd by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,
     The heart that never plighted troth
     But stagnates in the weeds of sloth,
Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
     I feel it when I sorrow most;
     'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Music For Your Midweek: Journey and George Michael

Bet you didn't expect Journey and George Michael, did ya?!?!

Well this Journey cover is a beauty. Clem Snide elevates it to a new level: 

and here's a bonus cause I've been negligent lately, and I love you. 

Again, Iron and Wine totally transform this song: 

Check out all the AV club covers. There are some hidden gems. 

Some post-valentines day lovin'

All my Valentine's are fictional, but that doesn't mean our love isn't real. 

My dad sent me a Valentine as a text this morning:

The following aren't technically Valentines, they're b-day wishes sent via Katie. 

But they're so great, I just had to include them:

I might be a total plonker on tv, but in real life, I just want you to have a  happy birthday.

I wish I could serve you up a steaming platter of happy birthday.

Parabens, meu bem.

They say I'm more than just a man, but I'm nothing without you.

My heart is lost without you.

You're the black to my white stripes.

A Poem for Thursday: "Having a Coke with You..."

"Having a Coke with You"

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irun, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I'm with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o'clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it's in the Frick

which thank heavens you haven't gone to yet so we can go together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase

   or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

and what does all the research of the Impressionists do them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn't pick the rider as carefully

as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I'm telling you about it

love

happy valentines day, loves.