Intellectual Curiosities and Provocations

December 2002

Han Shan

Eastern,
Nature,
Poetry,
Religion
Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the world's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds?

-Han Shan (Cold Mountain)

LitKicks BongoBeat Wintertime Poetry Happening

Poetry Readings
Percussive raindrops beat like anticipation on the sidewalk outside the Bowery Poetry Club. People came in from the streets dripping with water and generally looking like they had been swimming in their clothes. There was energy popping in the air as musicians set up their instruments, and poets passed their poems to each other for last-minute critical review. On any other night, the cold winter rain might've put a chill on the spirit of things. But not on Wednesday, December 11th.

Torrential downpours be damned, there was a show to do.

Tennessee Williams

Biography,
Drama,
Southern
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. His father was a traveling shoe salesman. Williams and the rest of his family lived in the rectory with their grandfather, who was the town's Episcopal minister. At the age of twelve his family moved to St. Louis, where his father was offered a job at a factory.